Features of D. L. Klebanov’s orchestral style
Background. The works of D. L. Klebanov (1907–1987) are one of the brightest pages of the glorious history of the Kharkov composer’s school and the national musical culture. The pupil of S. S. Bogatyryov, D. L. Klebanov is the Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, the head of the composition department of Kharkiv National Art University named after I. Kotlyarevskiy in 1970–1973, the teacher, whose classes brought up many talented composers: B. Buievsky, I. Polsky, V. Hubarenko, M. Karminsky, V. Zolotukhin, V. Bibik, B. Yarovinsky, V. Ptushkin and other, a musician practitioner and theorist, the prominent composer-symphonist, the author of nine symphonies, instrumental concerts, orchestral suite, overture, symphonic poems, operas, ballets, operettas, music for movies. The theoretical generalization of the practical experience of the famous master of orchestration is his work “The Art of Instrumentation” (1972). Objectives, methods. The purpose of the article is to identify the features of the orchestral style of D. L. Klebanov on the basis of the analysis of Symphonies Nos. 1, 3, 6, 7. D. L. Klebanov’s orchestral style is studied in correlation with his musical language, which fits in the boundaries of the classical-romantic system. Research results. The composer does not refuse from a theme with a bright melody as of a carrier of an individualized image, a main idea of a work. He bases on tonal thinking and the widely interpreted harmony with complicated chords, but with a clear anchorage on the triads and gravitation toward the central tone. He uses the types of textures formed in the tonal music. Therefore, in the orchestral symphony works of the composer there are all the traditional functions (lines): the melody, the counterpoint, the supporting voice, the bass, the pedal and so on. Often, the composer thinks with more or less closed timbre-facture layers, for example, in the orchestra fabric the layers of string instruments and wooden wind instruments are singled out. In the middle of such layers division of functions is, which results in the absence of duplication between the instruments of various orchestral groups. Another option is also possible when orchestral texture in tutti consists from large timbre-facture layers, for example, the first combines the string and wood groups, and the second represents the group of copper wind instruments. In any case, the thinking of timbre layers is the feature of the orchestration of D. L. Klebanov. The instrumentation is indicative for the composer’s orchestral style. In the said symphonies, D. L. Klebanov demonstrates steady gravitation toward a triple line-up with the inclusion of species instruments and an expanded group of percussions. In the interpretation of orchestral groups, the composer does not stay away from the main tendencies of the development of orchestral thinking in the twentieth century. Widely and diverse he uses the brass instruments, charging them to expound and develop the themes, so expanding their traditional semantic field. The orchestral texture in D. L. Klebanov’s symphonies is characterized by exact premeditation of the timbre changes in the horizontal projection. Accordingly, it is obvious that the using of orchestral resources is economical. The composer mostly uses by continual, not discrete orchestration, thinking of large structural-syntactic sections that are associated with a certain type of orchestral texture and the principle of orchestration; he supports one and the same type of orchestral texture long enough. Thus, orchestration become an indispensable factor in shaping of a musical form. The D. L. Klebanov’s musical scores demonstrate the especially subtle sense of sound color that generates the use of coloring effects, which always subordinate by the composer’s individual artistic conception. Moreover, the strict subordination of orchestration to artistic ideas determines the limited use of coloring means, there where it is inappropriate. The characteristic of the musical scores by D. L. Klebanov is transparency, balance of orchestral texture in vertical, even in tutti. As a rule, the texture is not overloaded with counterpoints, but the regulation of its density is the subject of special care the composer. In addition, D. L. Klebanov does not abuse duplications, although he applies them widely and varied, reaching through their use of tone diversity and new orchestral colors. Conclusions. The said correlation between the musical language of the composer and the functional structure of the orchestral texture found its expression in the main principles of his orchestral thinking. These are the dependence of orchestration by the artistic plan; the tendency to operate in more or less closed timbre-facture layers; the precise deliberate of changes in the timbre in the horizontal projection; the economy of the timbre resources; skillfulness and timbre richness of the orchestral texture; thinking by using of large structural-syntactic sections and long retention of the only type of orchestral facture. These features peculiar to the orchestras and the orchestral groups’ interpretation in Symphonies No. 1, 3, 6, 7. The subtle sense of the timbre in the symphonic works of the composer attracts attention. The specificity of the orchestra handwriting of D. L. Klebanov is the non-overloading and good vertical audibility of the texture. Research prospects. The detected features of the orchestral style of D. L. Klebanov offer the challenge of the study of the complex phenomenon, such as the orchestral style of the renowned representative of the Kharkiv composer school, and more broadly, a creative thinking of any composer.