In Ukrainian musicology, the personality and work of E. Chausson, as well as the legacy of the Master, have not yet become the subject of special research. Due to new trends in musical semiotics, new approaches to understanding the creative work of E. Chausson are discovered, which becomes the basis for the further discovery of the music of the French artist-innovator of the fin de siècle era.
The relevance of the dissertation topic is due to:
- the urgent need to introduce the works of French- and English-speaking scientists dedicated to the figure and work of E. Chausson into the scientific usage of Ukrainian musicology;
- the need for a historical reassessment of the composer's part in the musical life of France at the end of the 19th century;
– the requirement to understand the essence of the symbolism in E. Chausson's vocal cycles as an expression of the consciousness of the French Master for the right performance interpretation of the works.
The purpose is to determine the specificity of the manifestations of the principle of complementarity (double coding) in the symbolism of the musical and poetic text of E. Chausson's vocal cycles as a source of performing interpretations.
Scientific novelty of the obtained results. For the first time in the Ukrainian musicology:
- the reasons for and consequences of the underestimation of E. Chausson's vocal work have been revealed on the basis of the analysis of the French and English Chausson studies of the second half of the 19th - the beginning of the 21st century;
- own periodization of E. Chausson's creative life has been developed;
- the genre priorities in the vocal work of the French artist have been determined;
- the symbolism of E. Chausson's vocal cycles has been studied from the standpoint of the interaction between poetry, music, and performance;
- the structure of the double coding of musical and poetic texts in the vocal cycles of the French composer have been revealed;
- the concept of perfect performance has been introduced and the system of its features have been developed in the context of E. Chausson's vocal cycles;
- a comparative analysis of the performance interpretations of the vocal cycles of the French artist (B. Laplante and B. Smith, V. de Los Angeles and G. Souzay) has been made.
The Chapter 1 "Theoretical and methodological principles of the study of E. Chausson's chamber and vocal work in musicology" considers the life of the composer in the reflection of French criticism and establishes the bipolarity of the scientists' assessments of the artist's unique personality and creative heritage, both during his lifetime and after his death.
The division of E. Chausson’s work into three periods developed in the dissertation (early – late romantic (1877–1886), middle – mixed (1886–1889), and the final one, distinguished by features of an individual creative style, – pre-impressionist (1889–1899)) allows to overcome the contradictions between the existing periodizations of the composer’s creativity.
In the Section 2 "The vocal cycle "Serres chaudes" by E. Chausson and M. Maeterlinck: Semiotic approach", the carried out methodological analysis means the possibility of using a universal algorithm of scientific interpretation of verbal and non-verbal texts.
A comparative analysis of the performance versions by Canadian B. Laplante with accompanist J. Lachance and Norwegian singer B. Smith with pianist E. Rettingen has been also provided.
In the Section 3 "Artistic principles of symbolism in E. Chausson's "Poème de l’amour et de la mer" three artistic principles are presented: the first one is the dichotomy of the real and of the otherworldly; the second one is based on such methods as romanticism and symbolism where romanticism is manifested in the work autobiography, observation of the unity of nature and man, and, at the same time, in the mystical and symbolic delusions of the lyrical hero; the third one is based on the creation of a "double code" that manifests itself on three levels: poetic, musical, performing.
The Conclusions establish that the personality of E. Chausson, as well as his vocal creativity, for a long time were ambiguously assessed in the French and English scientific works. Based on the study of voluminous materials the dissertation provides an objective assessment of the French composer's creativity. A review of the periodization of E. Chausson's work was carried out based on the study of the known works of Chausson scholars, as well as a new version of this periodization was proposed. The dissertation formulates a sample of the perfect interpretation of the vocal cycles under study. A comparative analysis of two versions has been also carried out.
