Style Theory in Music: From Classical to Cognitive Paradigm

Author

Aleksandrova Oksana

a Doctor of Art Studies, a professor, a head of the Music Theory Department at I. P. Kotliarevskyi Kharkiv National University of Arts (Kharkiv, Ukraine).

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5106-8644

Style Theory in Music: From Classical to Cognitive Paradigm

Abstract

Statement of the problem. In 21st-century musicology, the concept of “style,” which reveals a multidimensional historical retrospective of the self-awareness of European culture, is the subject of a special theory of musical style. This theory, although not yet fully established, continues to evolve and is shaped by contemporary processes in composers’ practice. When analyzing style as a category of musicology, it is necessary to define the appropriate research approach to its study.

Analysis of recent research and publications. Since the late 1990s, the concept of musical style has gradually acquired an interdisciplinary status. It has been interpreted, for instance, as a “unity of the system of musical thinking” (N. Goryukhina) or as the notion of a “human style” (I. Kokhanik), in which style is viewed as a metavimer – a meta-dimension encompassing all levels of creative activity.

Main objective of the study – to investigate the evolution of theoretical ideas about style in musical art.

The scientific novelty. Through a comparative analysis of definitions of style (arranged chronologically according to scholarly publications), the article explores the evolution of theoretical ideas about style in musical art. For the first time, the content component of this concept is identified, taking into account new methods of understanding stylistic phenomena that emerged under the influence of the spiritual revival movement in the musical art of the 20th century. The study confirms that the concept of “musical style” admits multiple interpretations, since within the musicological paradigm various perspectives coexist, each corresponding to different levels in the hierarchy of stylistic diversity in music.

Methodology. The research employs general and specific scientific methods, including systemic, music-historical, cognitive, hermeneutic (interpretive), functional, and comparative (comparative- historical) approaches.

Results. The analysis of authors’ theoretical concepts demonstrates a significant evolution in the interpretation of the category of “musical style.” L. Mazel and V. Zuckerman revealed musical style through the prism of elements of musical language and form, progressing toward an awareness of the artistic integrity of a musical work. From the late 1970s, however, a semiotic approach emerged, associated with scholars such as V. Medushevsky, V. Kholopova, and M. Aranovsky, who regarded the style of musical creativity as a composer’s text. This approach marked a shift in the theory of musical style – from studying the semiotics of the musical text to understanding the artist’s worldview.

Conclusions. In contemporary musicology, the issue of the individual artist’s style has gained renewed relevance. Research now focuses on the categories of semantics and the related concepts of symbol, style, tradition and innovation, genre, poetics, language, form, texture, and interpretation. This opens the way toward establishing a typology of musical semantics, while the study of its components helps to uncover the nature of imagery and metaphor in music. The current stage in the development of the theory of musical style is characterized by an interdisciplinary synthesis of philosophical and theological, musical-semiotic, synergetic, and interpretive approaches to the study of musical creativity.

Keywords

composer’s style, musicological paradigm, musical thinking, musical art, theory of musical style.

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