Paul de Maleingreau’s Passion Symphony in the Context of the Interaction of Poetics of the Organ Symphony and the Artistic Traditions of the Northern Renaissance

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify the poetic and intonational specificity of the Passion Symphony by Paul de Maleingreau in the context of the spiritual quests of French musical culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The methodology of the work is complex and is based on interdisciplinary, genre-stylistic, historical and cultural approaches. The scientific novelty of the article is determined by the fact that it is the first in Ukrainian musicology to present analytical generalisations regarding the Passion Symphony by Paul de Maleingreau, the poetics of which was formed at the intersection of the spiritual and ethical quests of the culture of French modernism and the revival of the liturgical and singing traditions of medieval Europe. Conclusions. The passion symphony by Paul de Maleingreau, oriented towards the rhetorical-typological and figurative-semantic indicators of the “Passion of Christ”, is at the same time a program symphony. With a certain external similarity to the traditional 4-part symphonic cycle, this work at the same time demonstrates fundamentally different qualities that bring it closer to the “spiritual” type of symphony, most fully represented in the genre of the French organ symphony of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The preaching pathos of this work is largely determined by the author’s orientation towards the quoted choral melody (“Christus factus est”, “Oblatus est”, “Vexilla regis”), which dominates and affirms the main idea of the work, which appeals to the image of humility as a source of high holiness. The above brings this Passion Symphony closer to the work of the masters of the Northern Renaissance, in particular, Rogier van der Weyden, for whom preaching in colours was one of the indicative qualities. We should also note the syncretism of musical language characteristic of this work, which is based on the union of vocal and instrumental principles through the interpretation of the chorale by means of organ timbre.