FORMATION OF THE MALE VOCAL QUARTET GENRE IN EUROPEAN MUSICAL CULTURE: HISTORICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

All Western European church music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was based exclusively on male singing, and numerous high-tech virtuoso 4-part compositions created by representatives of various European schools in many genres form the fundamental basis for the development of male vocal quartet performance diversification with the specifics of dyscantsopranisten (from the XIII century) and falsetto. Until the XV century, given the complex polyphonic and vocal technique of the works, solo ensemble singing a capella or with instrumental accompaniment prevailed, which remains the basis of the sacred Renaissance ensemble-choral culture, enriched by secular ensemble genres (4-voice motets, madrigals, lied, quadlibet etc.). In the Baroque, the 4-part quartet for boys' and men's voices (SATB) is dominant, working closely between solo ensemble and choral performances in the church's professional tradition of offices, parish choirs and ensembles of adjuvances and fellowship groups of university students Music college. A mixed type of male quartets (with sopranisten and falsetto) is used, ensemble inserts are used in large compositions of the soli-ripieno type, and a minimum composition of 4 performers is practiced: “one voice per part”. The traditions of the male quartet were developed by M. Haydn, stabilizing the male composition of the TTBB in numerous multifunctional compositions (“quartets for male choirs”). L. Van Beethoven entrusts one of his 14 four-part canons to 4 tenors. F. Mendelssohn, F. Schubert, J. Brahms, who worked in the church and secular tradition, made a significant contribution to the development of the genre. The latter was enriched by a purely male ensemble-choir movement leadertafel with a large generation of songwriters.At the dawn of the XX century. The vocal male quartet is tested by A. Bruckner, E. Mandychevsky, G. Holst in new conditions of aesthetic and cultural inquiries, responding to the challenges of modernity, most often military and philosophical themes, thanks to the semantics of the timbre.