R. Dick’s Improvisation “Sliding Life Blues” for Solo Flute (transcriptioned by M. Keeling): Analysis of the Implementation of Modern Performance Techniques

The relevance of the topic and statement of the problem. The modern flute, which during its long evolution has undergone considerable changes in its own design, today has a huge sound and timbre expressive potential, which is largely capable of satisfying the broad artistic requirements of composers and performers. This potential lies, on the one hand, in the constructive and organological properties of the flute as a modern academic musical instrument. On the other hand, in the very system of instrumental and performing means of flute art, which today is constantly expanding and consists of a whole set of playing techniques and techniques, sound extraction methods, sound-acoustic and timbre effects, etc. Thus, over the past decades, a significant array of modern original works for the flute (mostly avant-garde) has emerged, in which this set of expressive means finds its adequate and highly artistic embodiment. Therefore, the problem of analysis, systematization and specifics of the implementation of modern expressive means, in which playing techniques and performing and instrumental techniques play the most important role, arises with regular relevance in modern musicology. The fertile ground in this aspect is the musical creativity of the famous American flutist, composer, teacher, inventor Robert Dick, whose flute compositions demonstrate a bright spectrum of the latest (extended) performing techniques and artistic discoveries. The purpose of the study is to analyze the implementation of modern performing techniques in the play by R. Dick’s Improvisation “Sliding Life Blues” for solo flute (performed on the basis of a transcription of the recording of this composition by M. Keeling) through the prism of the musical dramaturgy of the work. The methodology used in the article is based on the use of methods of theoretical musicology (primarily, analysis of musical form, elements of musical language, means of expression, etc.), as well as methods of structural and systemic analysis, generalization and classification. The results of the work focus on highlighting and systematizing the latest performance techniques and techniques identified in the specified work that characterize modern flute art, as well as on determining the features of the compositional structure of this work. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that for the first time in modern musicology, an analysis of the implementation of modern performance techniques in the play by R. Dick’s Improvisation “Sliding Life Blues” for solo flute (in the transcription of the recording of this composition by M. Keeling) has been carried out against the background of consideration of the dramaturgy of this work and its compositional structure. The practical significance of the work lies in the possibility of its use in theoretical courses on the methodology of teaching flute playing and the history of flute performing art, as well as in the practical work of teachers in the flute class. Conclusions. The compositional structure of the work fully corresponds to the typical patterns inherent in this genre variety and is a form of double variations (A+B+A1+B1+A2+B2), based on the alternation of variational transformations of two contrasting themes. The stylistic system of the composition is based on two main intonation-cadence components: the blues scale, which is characteristic of the African-American tradition, and the scales inherent in the musical folklore of Eastern cultures. The spectrum of modern performing techniques and techniques, which is widely used in this composition, reveals the following types: ordinary glissando, tremolo, trill, singing & playing simultaneously, multiphonics techniques, octave harmonics, key-clicks, etc. But the composer uses the Glissando Headjoint technique most widely in this work in various forms of its application (including in combinations with other techniques, such as bent-multiphonic-tremolo glissando, etc.).