Early music arrangements for viola and piano by Sergei Vasilenko
3.5 Performing issues
3.5.3 Execution of harmonics and pizzicato techniques
The sound specifics and different intensity of the echo effects of natural and
artificial harmonics as well as broken and arpeggiated pizzicato chords - all bring a
special distinction for a particular phrase within a viola part. Thus, Serenade for the
Lady of my Heart, the third piece from the lute cycle, has a number of episodes played pizzicato throughout the text. The longest two are in section D, Scherzando,
and the conclusion, Meno mosso. The title of the first one entails light, playful, but
elegant touch of single pizzicatos and unbroken chords, whereas the final section
concludes the initial theme of a love drama with its plea and affirmation of feelings.
This requires a combination of accuracy and precision in unbroken chords and in
ascending scalic passages. On the contrary, the descending passages of pizzicato
motifs followed by arpeggiated chords necessitate softness and delicacy.
Example 3.5.3a Vasilenko, Serenade for the Lady of my Heart, fragment, Piu mosso. Scherzando, bars 63-67 (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe muzykal’noe izdatel’stvo and Wien, New York: Universal
Edition, 1932), 2. Reproduced by permission of Universal
Edition.
126 Example 3.5.3b Vasilenko, Serenade for the Lady of my Heart, fragment,
Meno mosso, bars 84-88 (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe muzykal’noe izdatel’stvo and Wien, New York: Universal
Edition, 1932), 2. Reproduced by permission of Universal
Edition.
The interaction of pizzicato and arco episodes serve as a special playful and
light sound contrast in the trio of the Menuet, which require certain instrumental
proficiency. Its execution becomes a rather intricate task, because of the quick
changeover from arco to pizzicato and back in Moderato tempi. One should
minimise the bow movement and stay in the lower half of the bow in order to reduce
the physical impact of this technique.201
The combination of artificial and natural harmonics become the means of
musical expression of contemplation and sorrow in the final bars of the Madonna
201 For further reference see bars 2-3, 9-10, 20-21, and 25-26 of the edited score of the suite
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Tenerina, when the main theme gets divided into short motifs. A mute adds an extra delicacy and tenderness to this technique that requires no force. Despite the slow
tempo, whole notes, minims and slurred crochets necessitate a quick bow motion in
this episode, but with a light touch in order to achieve the maximum expressiveness
of diminuendo and crescendo in pianissimo dynamic.
Example 3.5.3c Vasilenko, Madonna Tenerina, fragment, bars 60-67 (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe muzykal’noe izdatel’stvo and
Wien, New York: Universal Edition, 1932), 2. Reproduced by
permission of Universal Edition.
Harmonics turn into a useful technique that gives a variety of instrumental
and musical approaches in the Passacaille and Plainte. The intricacies in their texts
limit performing possibilities and leave the only achievable solution of replacing
certain notes for harmonics that otherwise become impractical. Thus, the first note in
the Passacaille is a minim C6 tied for three bars, which then comes back after the
interval sequence written in the low register, two octaves down. This long leap is
unusual for the Baroque period, which was generally characterized by a conjunct
motion. It also causes problems for the violist. There is no rest or pause to find and
secure this top C in pianissimo dynamic, which becomes a rather unrealistic
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consider playing a harmonic instead as it creates a special timbre effect that also
goes along with the gentleness of the melodic line.202
Similarly, in the Plainte, the first four bars of section E with dotted minims
(bars 65-68) are written in the very high register. It is impossible to secure these
notes, because of a very large leap and absence of rests between this section and the
preceding double stops in the previous section that restrict the fingering option to the
only one. One might consider playing natural and artificial harmonics here, which
would be consistent with the dynamics marked pianissimo.203 It is very likely that
Vasilenko himself would have chosen this technique if he had been advised against
these unnecessary technical impediments produced as a result of these leaps. His
comments about the quality of harmonics on the viola attest to this supposition.
‘Harmonics in a melody add delicacy, poetic expressiveness and distinctive
colour.’204 These were exact characteristics that Vasilenko depicted in these
movements.
3.6 Conclusion
Vasilenko was a renowned master of instrumentation and his stylistic experiment
with different musical genres and forms based on early music material were a
novelty. He also paid special attention to the well-calculated structures of these
suites that guided him in his search for new approaches in instrumental application,
which were innovative for the early music period. Vasilenko enhanced these suites
202 For further reference see bars 9-12 of the edited score of the suite Zodiakus enclosed. 203 For further reference see the edited score of the suite Zodiakus enclosed.
204 Sergei Vasilenko, Instrumentovka dlia simfonicheskogo orkestra (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe muzykal’noe izdatel’stvo, 1952), vol. 1, 211.
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with unconventional, highly demanding string techniques that expanded the timbre
and expressiveness of tone production and the diversity of sound. The peculiarities
of the through-composed and ternary forms and consequent fusion of cyclical and
temporal developments became the means of artistic articulation and musical
expression in these works.
The narrative qualities of these works are evident not only in the titles. Each
movement imparts its own imaginative ‘story’ due to the specifics of its melodic
phrasing and its development, ornamentation, harmonic execution, dynamics and
tempo indications that consequently guide a performer in his/her choice of a timbre
palette and technical application with the intensity or restraint of available resources.
An inventive and considerate approach to these objectives by performers would
bring new artistic qualities to the music and play a significant role in its
interpretation. Undoubtedly, this instrumental approach characteristic of the Russian
national composers of the second half of the nineteenth century and of Russian
Symbolism205 was atypical of any surviving Baroque compositions. Moreover,
Vasilenko showed a true individuality in the Madonna Tenerina as it demonstrated
not only a fine stylization but his knowledge of early Russian liturgical music, of
which more in the fifth chapter.
These questions of performing issues described above become especially
important when one performs these pieces with a harpsichord206 that does not
demonstrate much variety of sound control and, thus, gives the viola a full command
205 Further discussion of the influences of Russian composers and Symbolism is in the fifth chapter. 206 The author of this thesis on the viola and Nicholas Walker on the harpsichord gave the premiere of the suite Zodiakus and the lute pieces at Handel House, London, in 2010. For further reference see Appendixes 1 and 2.
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of the dynamics display. There is no evidence that Vasilenko experimented or
performed these pieces with a harpsichord, an instrument that was unpopular in his
lifetime. However, in the third lute piece the solo section of the piano is marked
quasi clavecin under the piano score, which suggests that Vasilenko was searching for a timbre and sound quality similar to those of a harpsichord. Vasilenko’s
aspiration to produce interesting, unusual and distinctive timbre blends most
certainly would have guided him towards this grouping of instruments if he were to
have had this opportunity during the Soviet period.207
The following words of Vasilenko, which he voiced at the end of his life, in
the early 1950s, stand as a genuine source of creative inspiration for the performers
of his music: ‘One has to call young people not to be afraid of experimentation as it
enriches and broadens prospects immensely.’208 Today, one may say that this
quotation is also a tribute to Vasilenko’s mastery and individuality that he showed in
207 The authentic instruments of the Baroque and pre-Baroque were unpopular in Soviet times as the instruments of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, which were declared extraneous to the proletarian culture. Sovetskii Entsiklopedicheskii Slovar’ [Soviet Encyclopaedic Dictionary], ed. Boris Vvedenskii (Moscow: Bolshaia Sovetskaia Entsiklopediia, 1953), vol. 1, 146. Unfortunately,
contemporary musicologists have not yet dedicated even one article or a chapter to this subject. Thus, an American musicologist Richard Taruskin briefly pointed out that Stravinskii’s interest in Bach and pre-Bach composers was regarded as counterrevolutionary art in Soviet Russia. Richard Taruskin, The Danger of Music and Other Anti-utopian Essays (Berkley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2009), 390. The revival of interest in authentic performances in Russia started to take place only towards the end of the twentieth century with the performances of an ensemble of early music ‘Madrigal’ founded by Andrei Volkonskii (1933-2008) in Moscow in 1965. More on this subject in: 1. Andrei Volkonskii, Partitura zhizni [The Score of Life], ed. Elena Dubinets (Moscow: Ripol klassik, 2010). 2. Iurii Kholopov, “Andrei Volkonsky the Initiator: a Profile of His Life and Work,” in Underground Music from the Former USSR, ed. Valeria Tsenova (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997), 1-20.
208 Quoted in Nikolai Zriakovskii, Moi vospominaniia o S.N. Vasilenko. Housed in GNMCMC, fund 52, ed. khr. 1083, p. 13.
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these arrangements, which undoubtedly enriched the concert viola repertoire with
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