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The Idea of Beauty in the Piano Cycle “Childhood Birds” by Konstantin Iliev

Received: 28 July 2014     Accepted: 12 August 2014     Published: 26 August 2014
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Abstract

There is beauty everywhere in nature. Sometimes even creatures, that we are used to consider unsightly, burst with it. Looking more closely, ignoring the traditional view, we find colour combinations, proportions, movements that get surprisingly beautiful as soon as we realize it. In art the depiction of beauty could take different forms as well as it could take most unexpected characters for its prototypes. Such kind of beauty reveals to us the small gallery of characters – the piano cycle “Childhood Birds” by the Bulgarian composer Konstantin Iliev. It is comprised of six plays. In this piano cycle I analyze the beauty of the characters – for example the little sweet-voiced nightingale, where the beauty lies in its skilful singing, i.e. in what it can do; unlike the rose, on which the bird is perched, where the beauty lies in its symmetry, proportionality and grace – in being what it is. The swallows are beautiful with the audacity to struggle with the fierce mighty wind. An example of the beauty of the construction is the classical regularity of the built-up musical forms; the slight diversions from which are prompted by the specific representational tasks in each play. The beauty of depiction lies in the outspoken and compelling description of all the images by means of ingeniously found and utmost concise means. The cycle as a whole is an example of yet another type of beauty – the beauty of invention, of creativeness, of discovering a wonderful in its clarity and brevity way of recreating a character so that it can be perfectly recognized, to breath life into it, to give it emotions and meaning, the beauty of an artist to “dare” to materialize through sound the elusive immateriality of a dream, the beauty to challenge the imagination of the performer and make the listener soar, the beauty of the mind.

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 2, Issue 5-1)

This article belongs to the Special Issue Musical Theory, Psychology and Pedagogy

DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.s.2014020501.11
Page(s) 1-7
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Music, Piano Work, Beauty, Musical Analysis, Konstantin Iliev

References
[1] Alexeev, Alexander. Interpratation of Musical Works. Based on the Analysis of the Art of the Greatest Pianists of the 20th Century. Moscow, 1984 (Алексеев, Александр. Интерпретация музыкальных произведений. На основе анализа искусства выдающихся пианистов ХХ века. М, 1984)
[2] Blinova, M. Musical Creativity and the Regularities of Higher Nervous Activity. Leningrad, 1974 (Блинова, М. Музыкальное творчество и закономерности высшей нервной деятельности. Ленинград, 1974)
[3] Fileva, K. G. Methodology of Teaching Piano. Plovdiv, 2011 (Филева, К. Г. Методика на преподаване на пиано. Пловдив, 2011)
[4] Podurovsky, V. M. and N. V. Suslova. Psychological Correction of Music-Pedagogical Activity. Moscow, 2001 (Подуровский, В. М. и Н. В. Суслова. Психологическая коррекция музыкально-педагогической деятельности. Москва, 2001)
[5] Rabinovich, D. A. Performer and Style. Selected Articles. Issue 1. Moscow, 1979 (Рабинович, Д. А. Исполнитель и стиль. Избранны е статьи. Вып. 1. М, 1979)
[6] Rosen, Charles. Performer's Style and Sound Recording. Notes to a Book. N: Musical Horizons 2/2006 p.27 – 33 (Розън, Чарлз. Изпълнителски стил и звукозапис. Бележки към една книга. В: Музикални хоризонти 2/2006 с. 27 – 33)
[7] Shtapov, A. Piano Lesson in Musical Academy and School. Moscow, 2009 (Щапов, А. Фортепианный урок в музыкальной школе и училище. Москва, 2009)
[8] Skrebkova - Filatova, M. S. - Texture in Music. Moscow. 1985 (Скребкова - Филатова, М. С. - Фактура в музыке. М. 1985)
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    Krasimira Georgieva Fileva-Ruseva. (2014). The Idea of Beauty in the Piano Cycle “Childhood Birds” by Konstantin Iliev. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 2(5-1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.s.2014020501.11

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    ACS Style

    Krasimira Georgieva Fileva-Ruseva. The Idea of Beauty in the Piano Cycle “Childhood Birds” by Konstantin Iliev. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2014, 2(5-1), 1-7. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.s.2014020501.11

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    AMA Style

    Krasimira Georgieva Fileva-Ruseva. The Idea of Beauty in the Piano Cycle “Childhood Birds” by Konstantin Iliev. Int J Lit Arts. 2014;2(5-1):1-7. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.s.2014020501.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.s.2014020501.11,
      author = {Krasimira Georgieva Fileva-Ruseva},
      title = {The Idea of Beauty in the Piano Cycle “Childhood Birds” by Konstantin Iliev},
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {2},
      number = {5-1},
      pages = {1-7},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.s.2014020501.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.s.2014020501.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.s.2014020501.11},
      abstract = {There is beauty everywhere in nature. Sometimes even creatures, that we are used to consider unsightly, burst with it. Looking more closely, ignoring the traditional view, we find colour combinations, proportions, movements that get surprisingly beautiful as soon as we realize it. In art the depiction of beauty could take different forms as well as it could take most unexpected characters for its prototypes. Such kind of beauty reveals to us the small gallery of characters – the piano cycle “Childhood Birds” by the Bulgarian composer Konstantin Iliev. It is comprised of six plays. In this piano cycle I analyze the beauty of the characters – for example the little sweet-voiced nightingale, where the beauty lies in its skilful singing, i.e. in what it can do; unlike the rose, on which the bird is perched, where the beauty lies in its symmetry, proportionality and grace – in being what it is. The swallows are beautiful with the audacity to struggle with the fierce mighty wind. An example of the beauty of the construction is the classical regularity of the built-up musical forms; the slight diversions from which are prompted by the specific representational tasks in each play. The beauty of depiction lies in the outspoken and compelling description of all the images by means of ingeniously found and utmost concise means. The cycle as a whole is an example of yet another type of beauty – the beauty of invention, of creativeness, of discovering a wonderful in its clarity and brevity way of recreating a character so that it can be perfectly recognized, to breath life into it, to give it emotions and meaning, the beauty of an artist to “dare” to materialize through sound the elusive immateriality of a dream, the beauty to challenge the imagination of the performer and make the listener soar, the beauty of the mind.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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Author Information
  • Faculty of Music Pedagogy, Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts – Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Europe

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