The current thesis is focused on the study of the poetics of selected solo and ensemble violin works by G. Ph. Telemann.
Today, the works of Baroque composers, including G. Ph. Telemann, arouse significant interest among theorists and instrumentalists, which requires a competent and, therefore, historically informed approach to the performance of his music and determines the appeal of musicians to the study of the poetics of Baroque works, an integral part of which is the system of musical rhetoric.
The aim of the study is to reveal the poetics of G. Ph. Telemann’s ensemble violin works through the perspective of the rhetorical canon and the instruments of rhetorical expression, which it provides. The object of the study is baroque rhetoric; the subject is the principles of embodiment of baroque rhetoric in instrumental works by G. Ph. Telemann.
The scientific novelty of the results obtained is to reveal the ways of forming the concept of musical rhetoric in historical sources; to substantiate the analytical concept of the rhetorical canon in music and to develop a general definition of musical rhetoric; to differentiate rhetorical and semiotic systems; to reveal the principles of poetics in the violin fantasies, duo violin sonatas and concertos for four violins without bass by G. Ph. Telemann through the prism of baroque rhetoric; to determine the form and methods of realization of rhetorical inventio in the composer’s violin fantasies, as well as to demonstrate the principles of realization of figurative and onomatopoeic rhetoric on the example of his Concertos for four solo violins. The present thesis has further developed the study of aspects of musical rhetoric and the study of the poetics of G. Ph. Telemann’s solo and ensemble violin music.
In Chapter 1 – “Musical Rhetoric in the Context of Baroque Poetics” – the selected music-theoretical treatises of the 17th–18th centuries were studied in order to discover and study various approaches to the subject of music rhetoric (1.1.). In this thesis, it has been analyzed the concepts of musical rhetoric in the studies of researchers of the 20th–21st centuries (1.2), the analytical concept of the rhetorical canon has been developed and, taking into account its elements in the musical context, a general definition of musical rhetoric has been proposed (1.3). In order to refute the stereotypical understanding of musical rhetoric as a collection of rhetorical figures and passages that are based on deep affective semantics, the current work differentiates between rhetorical and semiotic systems (1.4.).
In Chapter 2 – “Fantasies for Violin Solo by G. Ph. Telemann in the Context of Baroque Rhetoric” – the origins and history of development of the fantasia genre were examined, some of its examples in the works of G. Ph. Telemann’s predecessors and contemporaries were analyzed (2.1.). A comprehensive analysis of the poetics of G. Ph. Telemann’s 12 fantasies for solo violin without bass allowed us to suggest a typology of violin fantasies (2.2.). Taking into account the internal characteristic genre content of each sample, three types of fantasies were distinguished: suite-type fantasies (2.3.), sonata-type fantasies (2.4) and mixed-structure fantasies (2.5). The study of these violin works by G. Ph. Telemann revealed the ways of implementing rhetorical inventio and imitating some elements of stylus fantasticus.
Chapter 3 – “Rhetoric in the Ensemble Music of G. Ph. Telemann” – was focused on the study of the opus of six Sonatas for two flutes or violins without bass and four Concertos for four violins without bass. The context of duo sonatas was reviewed (3.1.). The rhetorical analysis of the six sonatas for two flutes or violins without bass (3.2) demonstrated that in this opus the composer adheres to stability in the organization of the cycle and the appeal to rhetorical principles. The Concertos for Four Violins without Bass not only became an example of the embodiment of the composer’s inventio as inventiveness, but also proved to be a wide area of applying the instruments of figurative and onomatopoeic rhetoric (3.3).
In the Conclusions of the thesis, the versatility and significance of the principles of musical rhetoric were revealed both in the construction of the composition of Baroque works and in the context of the analysis of violin chamber music by G. Ph. Telemann. The rhetorical analysis of violin solo and ensemble works by G. Ph. Telemann revealed the range of rhetorical instruments used by the composer, the ways of their practical implementation in the musical text, which not only helped to comprehend the poetics of these works, which includes aspects of composition, style, structure, form of the work and is realized through the rhetorical system, but also served to reveal the problems of interaction between rhetoric and music.
