The tradition of genre-epic symphonism in the creative works of Russian composers of the XIX century

Abstract

The paper presents a pioneer consideration of peculiarities of folk-based symphonic works created by Russian composers in the XIX century. These compositions reflect the epic world picture, and this is why the symphonic type embodying the musical contents of the works under discussion can be defined as the style of epic genre. The objective nature of the images determined by the themes performed  as  signs  of  “outer  reality”  and  manifestation of variety in unity are the most essential features of the epic world picture expressed in the music of the Russian composers. The paper deals with works of diverse genres with  similar  principles  of  musical  development,  formbuilding  and  musical  dramaturgy.  The  tradition  of  the symphonic  style  of  epic  genre  in  Russian  music  in  the XIX  century  was  evolving  dynamically  and  reached  its climax in 1860-s. Then a noticeable decline in composers’ interest towards this field of symphonic music occurred. At  the  same  time  certain  shift  of  accents  is  observed  in sub-genres  of  one-part  pieces  in  the  field  of  symphonic music described. Thus, overture genre that was apparently originally  dominant  is  gradually  displaced  by  the  genres having  greater  freedom  of  form-building  as  compared to  overture  (primarily  fantasy,  then  capriccio).Having played itself out by 1890-s the tradition of the symphonic style of epic genre is seen as growing into other areas of Russian symphonic music (symphonies, suites and musical pictures).