Compositional, dramaturgical and pianistic means in the descrip-tive pallet of Ballade No. 2 by Franz Liszt
Background.Over the last years, there has been observed a new wave of interest to F. Liszt’s heritage in the musical science. At the same time, by no means all aspects of piano works of the Hungarian romanticist were considered in their entirety. In particular, this concerns the matter of reconciliation of compositional and pianistic foundations principles of his works of different creative periods. In turn, the insufficient degree of complex research of F. Liszt’s piano heritage in such perspective prevents pianists from comprehending the conception of one or the other work as a musical phenomenon. Objectives.In the offered article the experience of analysis of F. Liszt’s Ballade No. 2 as one of the realizations of innovative – compositional and pianistic – impul-sions of the great musician was performed. Also, the article has a goal of calling the attention of performers to the work which does not sound often from the concert stage. The accomplished musicological analysis is aimed at helping pianists imagine this com-position from the point of view of its inner organization, compositional wholeness, all links of which are strictly determined by the author’s thought. In the Ballade No. 2 F. Liszt operates with the complex of thorough musical ideas which ensures stadial-ity in the sequence of dramaturgical occurrences. The following belongs to them: the triplet rhythmical figure, descending conjunct motion, and also more extensive melodic phrases which are subjected to purposeful imaginative mutation. For instance, the triplet figure acts in the capacity of a vehicle of an active, march-like, fatal beginning; is writ-ten in the subject of a dream, encrypted in the cadential resume of the work; as a sign of tranquility; and even appears in the shape of a long grace note. The descending motion in different variants is featured in the conclusive single-voiced phrases, bares its fate-ful essence, appears in a lyrical way in the subject of a dream etc. The initial subject of the Ballade which is delivered in a dark, even portentous arrangement, is transformed into an illuminated and lyrical one, and in the climax attains triumphant and hymnal tone. The second subject is the most stable one, it keeps the character of an enlightened contemplation and is subjected to changes only in some details of its presentment: being moved to a higher register, placed in a context of a different accompaniment and a dif-ferent key but constantly keeps the major color. Tellingly, namely this subject finishes the Ballade, being the author’s afterword. The footing in the genre foretypes is a factor of no small importance in the creation of the Ballade’s dramaturgical plot, which is also subjected to purposeful development: those of march, song (gondola song), of reciting, cantillation, and also of devices of sound and imagery related to the scenes of storm, boom, roll of thunder, horse gallop, victory triumph (procession). If the through modifications of the shown elements, alongside with consistently held genre belonging of the subjects, ensure the processual side of the composition, then its architectonics is organized with the help of patterns of ternary, sonata and poem types of composition. F. Liszt graphically and with the help of pauses separates the Ballade into three parts, where the middle section includes all signs of sonata development, and the third section is endowed with the function of dynamicized recapitulation. Traits of sona-ta form are observed in the first section, which can be nominally designated as a double exposition. Every one of them is formed by two contrasting subjects in different tempos, the keys of which have tonic-dominant linking. In the third part the subject material is moved to the tonal unity, which changes its modal inclination (H-dur). Sonata-like traits, which are understood as an idea of through-composed development, acquire in the Bal-lade the face of Liszt’s monothematism. The efficiency of dramaturgical process in the recapitulation is shown not only with the new tonation, but with the substitution of the into the end of the composition and plays the role of coda. The subject of a dream ap-pears for the first time in the development section where it stands against the new march-like subject and the triplet figure in the fatal guise. Thereby, the development manifests not only in the evolution of the subjects, but in the antithesis of two polar images. The purposefulness of the development is governed by the ballade principle of the climax in the recapitulatory section of the form. In the creation of the musical-presentative and extramusical-associative planes of the Ballade’s content the role of the pianistic means of expression is great. Every new episode switches into the different space of the piano tone, technique and register. The chord technique in the combination with the fine one – the flying passages which “run” through the whole keyboard – are widely represented in the development section. At the same time, the complex of playing formulas gives the performer the ability to show off his mastery, to display the high technical ability and the artistic spirit. The urge of F. Liszt to balance his composing and performing intentions receive a convincing implementation in the Ballade No. 2, just as in other works of the Weimar period. Fur-ther still, the pianistic methods become, alongside with the compositional, dramaturgical and other means of musical language, the essential condition of implementation of those extramusical phenomena which are preprogrammed by the genre name “ballade”. Vari-ous combinations of technical devices, their fast changes serve not only as an image and dramaturgical factor, but that of a subject development as well. Methods.The classical methods of the musical science were used in the article: genre ones, compositional, dramaturgical and intonational. Results.The complex system of intonational and rhythmic transformations, which provides the unity and, at the same time, the diversification of musical content of the Ballade No. 2 by F. Liszt, was discovered. The ways of interaction of different ways of form composition were disclosed. The proportionality of dynamical and architectonical parameters of artistic text was established. The individual interpretation of the genre of piano ballade by F. Liszt, consisting in the insertion in its compositional and dramaturgi-cal profile the qualities of a poem, was disclosed. Conclusions.In the basis of dramaturgy of the Ballade No. 2 by F. Liszt lays the principle of goal-setting, which is specific not only to the composer’s chosen genre but to the sonata logic as well. Combining, in accordance with the nature of a ballade, lyri-cism, drama and narration (epos), the author builds a multi-stage musical story, which consists of a variety of contrasting, prominently separated one from another episodes, and a complex of subjects and motifs, which are subjected to monothematic operations, aimed at the resulting overcoming of their descriptive incompatibility. Taking into the account the characteristic intonational content of the composition with the strong basis of the genre foretypes, it is possible to speak about the programme music, which takes into itself the fairly defined extramusical analogies. In the organization of the composi-tion, in summary, two principles are at work: the centrifugal one, which shows itself in the multi-episode structure, and centripetal one, which is achieved by the work of the method of monothematic transformations. The role of scrutinously thought-out tonal plan, which, with all complexity of harmonic language, groups the musical eventivity around the tonal centers, the main ones of which are tonic-dominant ones, which have the biggest measure of functional attractions, is no less essential. The centripetal tenden-cy also manifests in the graceful and balanced architectonic of the Ballade. Written by F. Liszt during the Weimar period, this composition demonstrates such a characteristic of the mature style of the composer as a transformation of pianistic transcendency into the efficient factor of musical expression, and of the performer’s improvisation into the strictly structured, although not losing its freedom of artistic expression of will, intona-tional and descriptive process.