The Evolution of National Performance Art: Musical Interpretation in the Context of Tradition and Modernity

The subject of this research is the essence of performing interpretation, which is considered an integral part of the functioning of a musical work from its creation to its presentation to the audience. The research methodology is based on a comparative analysis of historical and music-theoretical sources, an analysis of approaches to the definition and classification of different types of interpretation. The research compares the performing interpretation with other types of interpretation of contemporary music – composer’s and sound director’s interpretation. Interpretation is considered in relation to the concept of performance – if performance implies the physical act of playing a musical instrument or singing, the concept of interpretation is the ideal image of a musical work formed by the performer in the process of studying it. A comparative analysis of various definitions of the concept of interpretation allows us to conclude that the basis of interpretation is a thought process, understanding of its intonational features, including the analysis of the musical text, studying the circumstances of the composition of the work, stylistic and genre features. The issue of the correlation between the individual and the traditional in the course of forming an interpretation is important: the performer must take into account all the features of the musical text, the traditions of performing music of the relevant era and the relevant genres, while within the framework of traditions, the performer always has the space to bring his or her own individual understanding and performance characteristics. The issue of objective analysis of interpretations based on sound recordings is raised. Given the complexity of objective auditory analysis, we believe that the development of software that will allow us to identify agogic and dynamic features of performance at the level of individual sounds in musical phrases is a promising direction.