The Organ and the Bayan: Intertextual Interactions (by the Example of Cesar Franck’s Choral No. 3 in A minor)

Abstract

The study of the natural laws of semantic
organization of the musical text is a topical issue
of contemporary musicology. In this connection
a unique opportunity to immerse into
the processes of text-generation is presented
by research of instrumental compositions
which have appeared on the basis of borrowing
and modification of an “alien” musical text.
By means of a comparative analysis of Cesar
Franck’s Choral No. 3 in A minor from
the series “Three chorals for a large organ” with
its transcription for bayan carried
out by Friedrich Lips, the general and specific
principles of semantic organization
of the notated, musical and performance texts
are disclosed. From such an angle the issue
of intertextual interactions is being raised
for the first time. Its complex character
has become the foundation for turning
to the methodology of the theory
of the musical text (Mark Aranovsky, Liudmila
Shaymukhametova) and the theory of musical
content (Liudmila Kazantseva, Valentina
Kholopova). In this article the attitude
is developed towards the musical text
of the organ compositions as an open polysystem
endowed with a special mechanism
of preservation and transformation
of the invariant in the conditions of a new
instrumental context. Study of the intonational lexis and etymology of its meanings has made
it possible to disclose the unique artistic
specificity of the Choral, while examination
of the bayan version in the author’s
performance has allowed us to comprehend
the techniques of adaptation of “someone else’s”
thematicism to a new timbral-instrumental
performance scenario.