2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
Many long-familiar objects do not have a clear definition of their meaning in our minds. The word “accompaniment” also belongs to such concepts.
In French, it means "accompany, echo, play along." Even just beating the rhythm with your foot or clapping your hands has long been considered a kind of "accompaniment". However, in the twentieth century, a clear formulation of this term arose.
What is the specificity of the accompaniment?
Today, accompaniment is the addition of a melody with musical accompaniment in the form of a harmonic and rhythmic support for the soloist. The soloist can be a singer or an instrumentalist playing the lead part.
Almost all music is based on melody as the main means of expression. She is the queen, running like a red thread through the entire musical texture and dictating to the rest of the voices how they should manifest.
This type of musical texture is called "homophonic-harmonic". Because it has one main voice and its accompaniment in the form of harmony.
Most instruments are not capable of reproducing harmony, they can be played, even very expressively, with just one voice. Whereinsoloing to the accompaniment of an orchestra is quite expensive.
That's why the most common instrument in this role is the piano. It successfully imitates the sound of an orchestra with its rich harmonic possibilities and colorful timbres.
Accompaniment as sounding texture
Accompaniment is not only what we hear in real sound. This word is also called the notes written for the instruments that perform the accompaniment part. The third meaning of the word lies in the action itself. This is the name of the process of accompaniment execution.
The main task of an accompanist, or, in other words, an accompanist, is to complement the soloist, helping him to create an artistic image. This assistance is provided mainly in the following areas:
- adding various registers and timbres that the soloist does not have in his arsenal, that is, a colorful enrichment of the sound;
- addition of a monophonic melody with a chordal harmonic texture, creating the effect of volume and conveying a certain emotional subtext;
- metro-rhythmic support, maintaining the stability of the tempo and musical form.
Moreover, the accompaniment is always a minor part of the texture, so it should sound quieter than the solo part.
The work of an accompanist
If you see an instrumental soloist on stage playing the piano, it does not mean that the pianist is accompanying him.
There are a number of works written for such a duet withan expanded equal part of the piano, where both instruments are soloists and act as a duet. This form of music-making is called a chamber ensemble.
Only when the piano part has a clearly accompanying character, supporting the main instrument, we can say that this is an accompaniment.
Notes for an accompanist, however, can contain many complex and virtuoso episodes in the introduction, conclusion and losses, as if "finishing" what the soloist did not say, logically developing his line.
Outstanding masters of accompaniment
A truly masterful accompaniment is a great art, which has its own noticeable figures. Among the outstanding concertmasters who have gone down in history are:
- Vazha Chachava - professor, head of the concertmaster department of the leading Russian conservatory, performed with E. Obraztsova, Z. Sotkilava, I. Arkhipova (D. Matsuev is one of his students);
- outstanding accompanist, People's Artist of the USSR D. M. Lerner, who worked with S. Lemeshev, M. Maksakova, E. Shumskaya, N. Gedda, went on stage until the last days of his life and gave 50 at the age of 102 -60 one and a half hour free concerts per year;
- Professor M. N. Ber, who has worked as an accompanist in the vocal class of the Russian Academy of Music for 50 years, has trained more than 20 laureates and 30 soloists of opera houses;
- S. T. Richter proved to be a brilliant concertmaster in his work on the songs of F. Schubert with D. F. Diskau andmany more.
Being present at a concert of an outstanding soloist, one should not underestimate the work of an accompanist. His contribution to the successful joint performance is hard to overestimate.
