Stylistic features of Joseph Elgiser’s work: figurative, thematic and genre aspects.
Individual personalities of different regions of Ukraine, who made an important contribution to the development of the national musical culture, gain considerable importance in the contemporary cultural space and in the process of its study. Among such representatives of modern composer circle a significant place belongs to one of the professional composers of Bukovina – Joseph Elgiser (1929–2014). The objective of the study is to identify the stylistic peculiarities of the composer’s works, to characterize the figurative, thematic and genre basis of his works. In the process of research there were applied the methods of historical-cultural, theoretical and genre-style analysis, which made it possible to determine the peculiarities of the works of the multi-genre palette in the context of the study of the composer’s music. The creative work of Joseph Elgiser impresses with a large number of opuses. The results of the research confirm the opinion that his thinking as a composer is characterized by some peculiar abundance of stylistic features, which combine the traditions of classical music, romantic direction, musical impressionism, modern professional musical language, folk song and instrumental culture. Typical features of his work, especially the figurative sphere, richness of genre and style, have found the most vivid embodiment in his works for the piano – the main part of J. Elgiser’s work. Almost all the works of the composer are program music, which reflect the events of his life, impressions from what he saw and communication with people. A special theme of his work was the tragic fate of the Jewish people during the Second World War. The program titles of some individual works, cycles, and their separate parts are associated with J. Elgiser’s impressions of attending art exhibitions and museums dedicated to great composers. These works become peculiar musical portraits, sometimes transformed into works-stylizations, works-dedications. Portrait theme finds its continuation in the plays related to the names of prominent composers and performers of the past. J. Elgiser tries to depict the characteristic features of the musicians’ work and their style. Samples of J. Elgiser’s works are to some extent reminiscent of some stylistic features of F. Couperin, R. Schumann, C. Debussy, M. Mussorgsky, P. Tchaikovsky, J. C. Bach. The theme related to psychological states in music becomes original in the works of J. Elgiser. Thus, he created the piano cycle «Psychological States», consisting of 6 parts, in the title of which there reveals a certain emotional peculiarity of the work, and, accordingly, the state that can cause such kind of music. The pedagogical talent and the ability to combine the profession of a doctor and a musician enabled J. Elgiser to deeply understand the psychology of creativity, musical perception and to find appropriate means for embodiment of different emotions and psychological states in his own music. On the example of this work there revealed some features of musical style of the composer. The key of his works is often not felt immediately, it seems to be formed gradually, and sometimes only at the end; often at the beginning of the construction the composer uses unstable harmony, and in the middle of the forms – chains of continuously variable consonant, chords of different structures, melodic and harmonious modulations. J. Elgiser’s music is rich in vivid character, and in the centre of his work there is a theme that reveals a modern to him man with his emotions, experiences, a complex world of feelings, thoughts about the present and past social life. He deeply felt all the contradictions of his era, painfully endured the sufferings of his native people, tried to brighten up their existence, and to reveal through his music the mental torment, joy, hope, impressions and mood. Such a close connection with reality, constant reflection of the world, events with direct participation of the composer, endowed his creative works with features of modern realism. Compared with other composers of Bukovyna, J. Elgiser considerably enriched the circle of images, ideas and mood that can be represented by music. Therefore, rich content of his work contributed to the frequent change in musical themes, requiring continuous updating of musical images in a musical work. For embodiment of his own ideas, J. Elgiser selects an instrumental miniature – a favourite of the romantics, as the smallest genre unit in music, which, however, is able to reveal the integrity of the spiritual world of man, his psychological life. Frequent change of vividness in the works of the composer led to unification of his miniatures in cycles, in particular, a suite. Despite predominance of solo genres of piano music in the works of J. Elgiser, much of his heritage is devoted to ensemble, chamber-instrumental and concert performing. Among the large forms of J. Elgiser’s works, especially peculiar is the piano genre of instrumental concert, where he adheres to aesthetic foundations of the classical, before all, Russian type of concerts. The composer also created his original genre kind of piano concert – for the piano with a brass band. J. Elgiser contributed to the sphere of chamber and instrumental ensemble, focusing on Western European samples, which combine the classical and romantic features inherent in the chamber art of most composers of the nineteenth century, including R. Schumann, F. Chopin, J. Brahms, E. Grieg, C. Franck, G. Faure, P. Tchaikovsky, O. Borodin, S. Taneyev, O. Glazunov. Special imitation in the chamber art of J. Elgiser, as in other genres, is associated with the name of C. Debussy. The vocal and choral heritage of the composer consists of the works of chamber and vocal genres, including duets accompanied by the piano, several works for the soloist with a choir and the piano, a number of cover versions of Bukovynian folk songs for voice with the piano, several works for the chorus with the piano and a cappella. So, taking traditional genres and forms of classical music for the basis, J. Elgiser becomes a continuer of academic trends and styles. Despite the originality of the plan and the contrast of ideas, the composer solves the problem of form-writing simply, since he predominates in his small forms, which are combined in cycles. The miniature character of his musical paintings is associated with the presence of a large number of images, rapidly changing stories, creating the impression of «kaleidoscopicity» characteristic of his music as a whole.