Musicologica Olomucensia

The article "One Small Task and Three Big Theoretical Problems" by M. Aranovsky shows how it is possible to derive, from a single element of a piece of music, such fundamental categories as musical language, musical speech and musical style. The author suggests that all levels of structural organization of a certain piece of music must be reflected in some way in its elements in the same way as the features of an organism are reflected in its cells. Dominant chord with an added sixth (D76) taken from one of the sketches for Tchaikovsky´s Fifth Symphony is used in the course of musicological analysis meant to prove the author´s idea. This musical expression was very popular in the romantic music of the XIXth century starting with Chopin. The author looks at its history from J. S. Bach to D. Shostakovitch together with various ways of using it. Analytical discourse lets the reader discover in the chosen musical expression all three levels - musical language, musical speech and musical style (the latter is an analogue).
By means of analysis of musical structure it is possible to determine whether a balance exists within it between the strata of musical language, musical speech and style. In a sketch of the third movement of the Fifth Symphony by P. I. Tchaikovski, the theme is brought to a close with a cadence, which, from the point of view of style, is unacceptable (D76 - T). The composer was aware of this fact, and that is why he extracted the cadence from the theme. Using this compositional error as an example, it is possible to answer some important questions about the functioning of musical language and musical diction. This type of cadence was formed, through the course of history, on the level of grammatical joining of chords with elements of melodic figuration. The structure of the idiom is basically constant, but it can change, depending on the context. This composer has become, after Chopin, a main representative of certain pathetic, tragic emotions. He is an especially rhetorical figure of the Romantic era. This idiom has a very complicated structure in that it contains three strata. The first layer is formed by a simple D - T connection, which is, in homophonic style, a general rule. The second layer contains a peculiar D76 chord, which is a paradigmatic variant of the dominant. The third layer introduces this idiom into the context of individual works. That is why the basic relationship, D - T, is a law of syntax and composition and depends on textual elements, which are fulfilled by mutual effectiveness between musical texts, representing musical language. The D76 - T connection is an element of musical speech and is an individual implementation of musical language within a concrete text. This musical idiom is a musical language, in which are fulfilled, exactly as applicable, period norms or style, and which is defined as the sum total of all norms of implementation of musical language. The textual element D76 contains, therefore all three layers of music-musical language, speech and style.