ALLA KOROBOVA

SIGNIFICATION AND SYSTEMATIZATION IN THE THEORY OF MUSICAL GENRES

ALLA KOROBOVA

Ural State Mussorgsky Conservatoire kor.all@list.ru

The problem of signification is an important part of musicology as a science. This fully applies to the theory of musical genres, starting with its central term “genre” (fr. genre). It appeals (genre ← genus ← genos) to the general scientific category associated with the classification procedure (division genus et species). In ancient science, this category was developed first in logic and rhetoric; it also has entered to the theory of music. Therefore, the etymology of this term itself reflects the notion of genre as a classification category.

In contemporary musicology, there are various concepts regarding what a genre is as well as its nature and essence. About 20 approaches can be counted: genre is seen as a category that is, for example, ontological, morphological, semantic, axiological, sociological, or institutional. Traditionally, the approach in terms of systematization remains an important vector, as often the concept of genre and its theory grew out of various classification constructions in European music science. It was an attempt to cover the genre “repertoire” of musical practice, and the classification itself was an important object in the development of genre problems.

As an example, let’s take three points of this classification trend in the historical period of “reflective traditionalism” (in S. Averintsev’s terminology), comparing the logic of the classifications by Boethius, I. de Groheo, and M. Pretorius.

The logical basis of the classification operation is a proportionate and consistent division of the volume of the notion (the examined object) into sub-volumes according to the general criterion. Regarding the abovementioned classifications, we can see: as a whole, the line associated with the awareness and the designation of the object of genre division runs from the general concept of musica (where theoretical and practical activities were syncretically combined) to a musical work – the opus. This gradually transforms the classification procedure itself, since the “volume of division” is blurred: genres and/or works.

In the contemporary theory of musical genres, attention begins to shift from classification to a more flexible systematics, which considers genre features not as the basis for genre differentiation, but as criteria for genre types attribution, the “volume” of which is not fully known in advance, and

the composition of genre features is objectively variable and it is the subject of discussion.

Thus, the transition in the systematization of genres from classification to typologization should be defined as a new scientific paradigm in the musicology.

Keywords: theory of musical genres, systematization, classification, typologization, the scientific paradigm.

Alla G. Korobova is a dr. habil. (Doctor of Art Studies) and full professor of the Music Theory Department of the Ural State Mussorgsky Conservatoire in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and holds the title of Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation. She graduated from the Music Theory Department of the Ural Conservatory and completed postgraduate studies at the Music Theory Department of Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory. The defense of her PhD thesis took place at the Vilnius Conservatory in 1987. In 2008, she defended her doctoral dissertation at the Moscow Conservatory. She has authored about 150 scientific publications. Her research interests include the theory and history of musical genres, problems of ancient and modern music, and the musical pastoral.