TEMPO IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE MUSICAL WORK’S CONTENT (ON S. V. RACHMANINOFF’S ROMANCE THE DESTINY)

The article is devoted to the scientific understanding of the content of a musical work. The author suggests a new methodological approach to its analytical comprehension through the differential elicitation of the meaningful potential of the performing means of expression. The aim of the article is to specify the role of tempo in the perception and cognitive interpretation of the musical content of the romance The Destiny. It is considered as an important component of a complex artistic reminiscence on which Rachmaninoff builds communicative intertextual links with the impulse composition — Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The author derives the peculiarities of the tempo dramaturgy of the romance from the mythology of “destiny”. It is based primarily on the immanent meaning of the main tempo in its absolute metronomic value, which can be interpreted as Rachmaninoff’s unambiguous instruction to perform The Destiny in the “Beethoven esprit”, which implies that it coordinates the tempo-rhythmic component with respect to other musical expressive means. Relative correlations with other contrasting tempo-semantic locations also become important in the perception of the narrative and figurative conception of the romance. The research revels the semantic, dramatic and formative functions of tempo, which assign its crucial role in understanding the profound sense of the work. For this reason, it becomes important for performers to strictly observe the tempo markings that the author has carefully provided for an “adequate interpretation” of the romance.