The Saxophone Concerto within the Genre System of European Instrumental Music: A Typological Perspective

Statement of the problem. The genre of instrumental concerto with orchestra is the “flagman” of the repertoire of modern saxophonists of the world. It is not only a self-sufficient way of performing self-affirmation, but also a conceptual form of a composer’s thinking. However, the art of the saxophonist in the context of pan-European instrumentalism is covered fragmentarily, so typological processes (genre, language-style, performance) remain in the focus of attention of researchers and practicing musicians. Objectives, methods and novelty of the research. The purpose of the article is to model the typological processes of the development of the concerto for the saxophone as a part of the European instrumental tradition on the basis of the periodization of the genre in a broad historical and stylistic context. Since the author is a concert performer-saxophonist, the consideration of the selected material takes place in the interaction of historical, genre-style and structural approaches with the advantage of performance analysis of the composer’s text being interpreted. For the first time in Ukrainian musicology, an intra-genre typology of concertos for saxophone in the unity of performance request and composer’s implementation in European practice of the 20th century has been proposed. Results and conclusions. A periodization of the saxophone performance has been provided, which includes three stages, each of which fulfilled its historical mission. The semantic roles of the saxophone are classified into a system (concerto of the classical-romantic tradition, concerto in the jazz style, avant-garde, neo-folklore) and according to the structural principle. The analysis of the typological processes of the development of the solo concerto has determined the priorities of the saxophone performance. From a performing point of view, the soloist’s greatest attention is focused on avant-garde concertos with their timbre and technical principles, the performance of numerous atypical techniques and sound-forming techniques. The compliance with new sound theories and composers’ ideas about the original “sound image of the saxophone” has significantly contributed to its improvement up to the innovative level of European instrumentalism of the 20th century as “thinking with music” (according to V. Moskalenko).