PERFORMATIVE DIMENSION OF VOCAL ART: HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION OF PERFORMING PRACTICES

Abstract

The article traces the evolution of the performative dimension of vocal art in the context of historical and cultural performing practices. The relevance of the topic is due to the increased attention of modern musicology to the performance process as a complex artistic phenomenon, which combines musical intonation, stage action, bodily expressiveness and communication with the audience. This approach allows to consider vocal performance not only as a sound realization of a musical text, but as a multidimensional artistic event that is formed in the process of direct interaction between the performer, the work of art and the listeners. The research clarifies the relationship between the concepts of “performing”, “interpretation” and “performance”, which are considered as interrelated components of the musical-performing process. Performing is defined as the sound embodiment of a musical work, interpretation is defined as the individual artistic understanding of the author’s idea, while performance encompasses a wider complex of stage, bodily and communicative aspects of performing activity. The historical and cultural origins of performative forms of vocal performance have been analysed. It is shown that their formation is associated with ritual and ceremonial practices of collective singing, in which music, movement and symbolic action formed a single form of cultural communication. The further development of these forms is traced in the theatrical practices of ancient musical and dramatic art, the medieval tradition of singers and the formation of professional vocal and stage culture. The significance of the opera tradition of Baroque and Classicism in the formation of the stage model of vocal performance has been revealed, and the role of Romantic aesthetics in the development of individualized performing expressiveness has been outlined. Special attention is paid to the transformation of vocal-performing practices in the 20th–21st centuries. It is established that modern musical culture is characterized by the expansion of the performative potential of vocal art, which is manifested in the inter-art of stage forms, integration of vocal with theatrical, choreographic and multimedia elements, as well as in the emergence of new formats of concert music presentation. It is concluded that the performative approach opens up new possibilities for understanding vocal art as a dynamic system of musicalperforming practices, in which musical intonation, stage action and cultural communication form a holistic artistic process.