The Destroyed masterpiece: features of the late orchestral style of P.I. Tchaikovsky on the example of his symphonic ballad "Voivode"

The subject of this study is a later orchestral work by the greatest Russian composer P.I. Tchaikovsky – a symphonic ballad based on A.S. Pushkin's poem "Voivode". The object of the research is the features of the composer's orchestral style, his artistic transformation in the late period of his work, an irresistible craving for development, self-improvement, and cognition. The score, destroyed by the author and restored by voices, conceals many interesting professional details, discoveries, and intensely echoes the sonorous ideas of the twentieth century. The author examines in detail the compositional structure of the ballad, its tonal and harmonic plan, the dynamic instructions of the author, and its orchestration. Special attention is paid to Tchaikovsky's innovative compositional methods, his skill, his attention to the smallest instrumental details, to everything that should help the performer to reveal the creator's intention, to read the work as it was conceived by the author. The article uses the following methods of scientific research: comparative analytical, structural and functional, as well as cultural method. The author of the article draws literary-textual and musical-textual methods to the study, and also relies on the fundamental provisions of the general historical methodology of scientific research, in particular, socio-cultural, historical-chronological, biographical. The main conclusions of the conducted research are the idea of the inexhaustibility of the symphonic score as an author's text, as an artistic statement requiring careful and comprehensive study, as a book that must be carefully read before starting the rehearsal process. The author's special contribution to the research of the topic is the analysis of Tchaikovsky's symphonic ballad through the prism of modern performance perception. The point of view and professional assessments of a practicing conductor, reliance on the smallest and most subtle signs and symbols of a musical text are extremely important in our time, when the quality of performance of a symphonic work does not always correspond to the author's intention. The novelty of the research lies in a close examination of the previously insufficiently studied part of the creative heritage of the brilliant Russian composer. Tchaikovsky's symphonic ballad "Voivode" was difficult to create, but deserves the attention of musicians and music researchers no less than his other well-known orchestral program compositions.

Tchaikovsky, Symphonic ballad, Russian music, Symphony Orchestra, Instrumentation, Celesta, Dynamic guidance, Harmony by Tchaikovsky, Tonal plan, Articulation palette