The instrumental concerto: classification ISSUES

Statement of the problem. The question of classification of instrumental concertos is considered in the paper. It is emphasized that the problem still remains one of the most controversial in musicology. It was noted that there were many attempts to classify the concertos but they are incomplete due to some factors. The main obstacle is a particular flexibility of the concerto resulting in many forms, structures, and forms of performance. In case when a researcher focuses on the analysis of certain characteristics of concertos (cadence, musical form, interpretation of the soloist’s part, concertos of one composer, etc.), the question of classification is out of date. Instead, while covering the evolution of a concerto in general, the need to systematize the latest emerges. Thus, the significance of the concerto’s changes in different historical and socio-cultural conditions and the unequal interpretation of the concept of “genre classification” can be the obstacles, which make the classification process difficult. Among methods used, the following can be outlined: comparative, systematic, structural-functional, and historical approaches have been used to reveal the interaction between the soloists and the orchestra in different historical contexts and to follow up changes in different elements’ interactions. The purpose of the research paper is to offer a cross functional concerto’s classification as well as to reveal the role of the orchestra as a unifying criteria in it. The results obtained prove that the proposed classification of concertos is based on their categorization as the formation of hierarchical relationships between the most of structural elements. All criteria for classifying have been divided into two groups: conceptual (genre features, presence of singer parties, type of interaction, stylistic epoch, “purity of the genre”) and constructive (number of soloists and orchestras, choice of solo instrument, instrumental composition of the orchestra, typical or atypical music forms). All these elements are arranged in a hierarchy, the consequence of subordination levels is explained, multilevel connections between separate components are established. The conclusion was drawn that there is an adequate order of all criteria that allows us to offer a cross functional concerto’s classification. The orchestra plays a key role in it. Six periods of particularly intense correlation between the evolution of the instrumental concerto and the transformations of the orchestra have been disclosed