The Symphony Concerto for Grand Alto Domra and Symphony Orchestra by Sergei M. Slonimsky: Features of Composition and Dramaturgy

Abstract

The article is devoted to the work of the famous St. Petersburg composer Sergei Mikhailovich Slonimsky — The Symphony Concerto for an Alto Domra and Symphony Orchestra. Written in 2005, the piece belongs to the composer’s later work, is a vivid example of his and has not previously been the subject of consideration in musicology. S. M. Slonimsky’s Symphony Concerto is a vivid example of the implementation of the synthesized genre in the context of music for domra. The article’s author designates the musical material’s genre origin of presented work, examines its harmonic basis, figurative and intonational sphere, and formation peculiarities. Special attention is directed to the study of the composer’s methods of working with material of folklore origin, the identification of interaction principles between the solo alto domra and the symphony orchestra. The article also discusses questions related to performing interpretation by analyzing the domra’s solo part. The author provides musical examples to demonstrate the work’s fragments that are most significant from the dramaturgy’s point of view. The topic of the article is actualized by the fact that the presented work has not previously been the subject of consideration in musicology.