Early concepts of the sonata form in piano sonatas by chinese composers

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the study of musical forms of piano sonatas by Chinese composers of the older generation. The purpose of the work is to study the structure of one musical form (sonata or sonata allegro) in the first piano sonatas of Chinese composers, to identify its various invariants derived from the prototype, to point out the dependence of their appearance on the artistic intention, which reflects the dialectic of musical thinking of Chinese composers at the early stage of the development of the piano sonata genre (1939-1949). To achieve this goal, a systematic research methodology was used, which manifested itself in the application of historical (in the selection of the period of consideration), analytical (in structuring parts, themes, and form constructions), typological (in determining the correspondence to the prototype), and comparative (in comparing the same type of forms by different composers) methods of processing the material. For the first time in Ukrainian musicology, a study of one of the most striking musical forms in its individual manifestations in the first piano sonatas by prominent Chinese artists is carried out. It is proved that, reflecting the reception of its classical prototype, early examples of the sonata form reveal original formative concepts. The analysis of the compositional structures of the sonata form in the piano sonatas of the older generation of Chinese artists (Ma Sikong, Ding Shande and Jiang Wenye) has shown that they used different types of this form in the specified period. The author's invariants represent the ancient two-movement sonata form, the three-phase old sonata form, and the sonata allegro of the Romantic period. In other words, the first Chinese piano sonatas represent examples of form-making influenced by Baroque and Romantic traditions. Those early formative concepts of Chinese artists, along with other factors, created the national face of the sonata genre in the early period of its development.