Artistic specificity of V. Kalinnikov's musical letters

Sixteen musical letters of Vasiliy Kalinnikov (1866-1900) are a very specific phenomenon not only in the composer's creative heritage, but also in the history of musical culture. However, some other Russian composers - M.P. Musorgsky, A.T. Grechaninov, S.V. Rakhmaninov -also have single cases of turning to a similar form of musical expression. The analysis of Kalinnikov's musical epistolary and its artistic uniqueness is based on the synthetic approach that comprises the epistolary and musical sphere of the composer's heritage. The major subject of the research is the distinguishing features of the letter in general and the musical letter in particular. The elements of content and form are singled out according to the classical works in rhetoric (N. Grech), modern researches of the epistolary genre (M. Bakhtin, S. Averintsev, O. Roginskaya, T. Fokina) and are later traced in Kalinnikov's musical letters. Traditionally, the epistolary form is of common type and comprises three major parts (the beginning - the greeting; the main body and the ending) and a number of set expressions (addressing at the beginning and at the end, signature, date etc.). Conceptual features of the letter are determined by its functional realization, personal and situational factors. In the content of any written message the major role belongs to the personal and communicative components, as any message has both informative (choosing the material) and communicative (connecting the material with the addressee's personality) functions. Epistolary in its essence is characterized as an autobiographical genre. In Kalinnikov's musical letters the personal aspect has a particular element of confession due to their stylistic specificity. Their addressness, personal features, professional sphere and the type of relationships between the interlocutors clear out the communicative type of the composer's musical epistolary. The connection of personal and conversational components correlates the aspects of content of Kalinnikov's musical epistolary and their formal elements. It can be seen from the example of vocal framing of such components of the etiquette style as addressing and personal signature. Apart from the components of genre and style, the determination of artistic specificity of Kalinnikov's musical epistolary is analyzed in the context of characteristic features of the author's personal style and major tendencies of epistolary at the end of the 19 - beginning of the 20 centuries.

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