“Tone Painting in the Symphonic Panel “Armenia” by Ghazaros (Lazar) Saryan”

Abstract

The article by composer, PhD in Arts, and Professor of Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, Mikhail Kokzhayev, entitled "Tone Painting in the Symphonic Panel 'Armenia' by Ghazaros Saryan" (based on a presentation delivered at a conference dedicated to the composer's anniversary), is devoted to the phenomenon of ideoplastic interconnection between the four musical images - the movements of the monumental symphonic cycle by Ghazaros Saryan - and specific paintings by his father, artist Martiros Saryan. The author not only establishes a distinct imagery-based correspondence between the paintings of Martiros Saryan and their tone-painting analogues in the movements of Ghazaros Saryan 's symphonic work, but also reveals graphic similarities between fragments of the musical score and their pictorial counterparts. Delving into the constructive features of musical form, the author addresses the paradoxes of spatial proportions between individual local structures and the integrity of the overall composition, and attempts to identify the algorithms that determined the logic of cause-and-effect relationships within the musical process. Particular attention is also given to the intonational originality of Saryan's compositional style. In the concluding part of the article, three instances of graphic coincidence are demonstrated between pages of Ghazaros Saryan's score and the placement of details within the pictorial space of Martiros Saryan's paintings. The publication concludes with a reconstruction of the Temple of Garni in the graphic contours of musical notation, where Ghazaros Saryan, through the means of musical writing, recreated the outlines of the Temple of Garni. Musical symbols, having become "brushstrokes" (or rather points in the technique of pointillism - essentially common to both painters and composers), served as a medium for the embodiment of the artistic idea.