Protopopoff

I forgot to include a recent article that appeared by Anton Rovner on
Protopopoff... who was, indeed, involved in microtonality:

Anton Rovner
The Musical Legacy of Sergei Protopopoff (Sergej Protopopov), a
Continuation of the Tradition of Scriabin and Boleslav Yavorsky
(Javorsky), in the Context of His Epoch
Sergei Protopopoff , whose musical legacy is still not very well
known either to the music specialist or to the average audience
member, has presented himself as a rare if not a unique phenomenon of
a composer, who in his musical output has strictly followed a
theoretical system, devised by a theoretician, namely his teacher,
Boleslav Yavorsky. A rather orthodox adherence to Yavorsky's theory
is organically combined with a personal, original style and a fully
developed musical aesthetical position, very much attuned to certain
trends in early 20th century art, including music, literature and the
visual arts: the bold stylistic innovations of the Futurists, the
Romanticism and search for new mythological semantics of the
Symbolists and the metaphysical cosmogony of the Suprematists.
Protopopoff's musical innovations could be compared to those of
Alexander Scriabin and Igor Stravinsky as well as the lesser-known
early 20th century Russian avant-garde composers, forming
the "forgotten generation of Russian composers" of which Protopopoff
is definitely a part. Among these composers, whose legacy has begun
to be revived in the mid-80's, one could mention such names as
Nicolai Roslavetz, Arthur Lourie and Alexander Mosolov.
Protopopoff, similarly to many other composers of his generation,
has undergone the influence of Scriabin, especially in his late, post-
tonal style, his new harmonic language with its specific structural
system, as well as the spiritual legacy of Scriabin's music and
philosophy. Notwithstanding a very strict adherence to Yavorsky's
theoretical system and the extreme schematic and structuralistic
qualities inherent in it, Protopopoff's music contains a strong
influence of Scriabin in its harmony, instrumental textures and
general musical aesthetical qualities. Yavorsky himself was greatly
influenced by Scriabin's musical legacy and in his theoretical system
one can trace many similarities to the structure of Scriabin's late
musical style. Nevertheless, Yavorsky's theoretical system could not
be reduced to adhering to Scriabin's harmonic discoveries, since
their primary structural elements and concepts were derived from
totally different sources and points of reference. Nevertheless, it
might be worthwhile to bring out a tri-lateral scheme of Scriabin's
influence (most of all, the influence of his harmonic language),
forming a triangle: Scriabin: Protopopoff, Yavorsky:Protopopoff and
Scriabin:Yavorsky:Protopopoff.
Scriabin's harmonic style (speaking exclusively of Scriabin's late
style, starting from his "Prometheus") is very structural and
schematic in its essence, however it was formed by Scriabin
throughout the course of many years of search and musical evolution,
which ultimately led to an "emancipation of dissonant intervals."
Protopopoff's harmonic language, carrying in itself many
correspondences and parallels to Scriabin's harmonic system, is from
its source much more schematic in its origins, it follows more
definite prescribed rules. Those musical "laws," which in Scriabin's
music are created in a more spontaneous manner, which he himself
freely adheres to, modifies and transgresses at will, in
Protopopoff's music are determined much more exactly and
all "transgressing" and "liberalizing" of these laws, are carried out
likewise forming a much more lengthy and clearly perceivable process.
Nevertheless, Protopopoff's music maintains an assortment of
Romantic, highly expressive and spiritually exalted qualities, which
are inherent in Scriabin's music, even going as far as in such cases
Protopopoff's music being less strictly structured and schematic than
Scriabin's. Russian theorist Evgeny Kosiakin (in his
article "Scriabin and Russian Avant-garde Composers) writes about
Scriabin's influence on the succeeding Russian avant-garde composers
(to the category of which Protopopoff belongs): "Despite all the
sharpness of the struggle of the avant-garde composers against
Scriabin's ideology, the depth of spirituality, coming out of
Scriabin's music, exerted a great amount of influence on their
creative output). One could assume that it was this depth which
guarded them from excessive rationalism and dryness, tendencies
towards which could be determined in their theoretical
constructions. " Protopopoff's music successfully carries out such
organic symbiosis of Scriabin's musical and spiritual legacy with
more cerebral, constructivistic aesthetical trends of the 1920's, the
decade during which Protopopoff wrote most of his important
compositions: his three Piano Sonatas as well as numerous songs for
voice and piano to the texts of Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov,
Sergei Lipsky, as well as longer and more elaborately developed songs
on folk poems and folk tales ("The Crow and the Lobster," "The Hermit
Fox" and "The Tale of the Wondrous Whistle").
The structural qualities of Protopopoff's music, as has been
stated earlier, is in many ways similar to Scriabin's constructive
qualities of his late style. The main feature is forming the basis of
musical compositions on a central chord or scale, as well as formed
hierarchies of chords and scales. Nevertheless, whereas Scriabin's
innovative harmonic system served in his case as a means to further
elaboration on and refinement of his already existing means of
expression of his late Romantic style, Protopopoff's structural
language serves him to pursue aims which are extremely different from
Scriabin's - it is utilized to create large-scale, coldly-abstract
constructive musical forms, which is the case mostly in his Piano
Sonatas and, to a slightly lesser degree in his vocal compositions.
While Scriabin creates extremely contrasting changes of moods and
pungently mystical and emotional conditions, Protopopoff for the most
part maintains a steady, persistent statically-exalted mode of
expression, by which he evokes certain similarities with the
Eastern "non-linear" aesthetics, as manifested in Japanese "frozen
landscapes" as well as Indian raga.
The harsh, urbanistically-constructive attitude in Protopopoff's
music, showing itself most notably in Protopopoff's pungent, dry and
at the same time Romantically bravura piano technique, have certain
similarities with the aesthetics of Cubism as demonstrated in the
geometric forms in the art works of Russian Cubist and Suprematist
painters, such as Kazimir Malevich, V. Tatlin, I. Matyushin and I.
Chashnik (especially prominent in Malevich's famous painting "The
Black Square"). It is also similar in part to the constructivistic
musical language of Alexander Mosolov. Nevertheless one can discern a
sharp difference between Mosolov's and Protopopoff's music. The
technically elaborate and urbanistically virtuosic piano textures of
Mosolov, though in many ways similar to those of Protopopoff, in the
case of the former carry a more extravertively-expressive character
of music, a more outwardly flashy and theatrical manner of presenting
the musical material. Among the compositions, which especially
demonstrate these qualities, one can mention his bravura modernistic
arrangements of folk music of peoples of Central Asia (such as, for
instance, "Turkmenian Nights" for piano), as well as his
programmatically descriptive pieces, depicting machines (most notably
the "Iron Factory" for orchestra). Unlike Protopopoff, Mosolov hardly
gives any thought to strict pitch organization - it is present in a
very sporadic and unorganized manner, mostly emphasizing thematic
repetition or development. Mosolov's harmonic language is for the
most part "freely atonal," very improvisatory in its manner and more
focused on searching for new piano textures for their own sake
independent of pitch structure consciousness, as well as more
attention to the directness of audience perception. Protopopoff's
similarly urbanistic textures and aesthetical qualities are more
abstract, cold and introvertive. Similarly to the futurists,
Protopopoff aims at distancing himself from the programatic-
descriptive musical language of the 19th and the early 20th century,
focusing himself on "absolute," an immersion into abstract sounds and
sonorities for their own sake.
In this light it is especially interesting to compare
Protopopoff's music with the music of his contemporary Arthur Lourie,
a composer, who has most fully aligned himself with the Futurist
movement. Most notably in Lourie's atonal compositions of 1913-1917,
such as his "Syntheses" and "Formes dans l'air" both for piano and
the First String Quartet, one can see many points of similarity with
the music of Protopopoff: the qualities of athematicism (in the case
of Protopopoff a varied kind of athematicism in the form of a
hermetically strict monothematicism), complete discarding of
traditional structures in melody, harmony and form, as well as a
centralized function of a leading harmonic structure. Both composers
create new constructivist forms, at the core of which lie a
continuous varied development as well as division into episodes,
which are extremely contrasting from each other texturally.
Nevertheless, in Lourie's compositions, the abstraction and the
athematicism play a much greater role than in Protopopoff's music and
the former composer pays a great deal less attention to the leading
organizing role of scalar and harmonic constructions, in his case
they change freely and sporadically.
The difference between the legacy of Protopopoff and that of the
leading composer of the Russian musical avant-garde, Nicolai
Roslavetz, could be established very clearly. A strict adherence to
classical sonata form, present in Roslavetz's work, adequately
combined with the new harmonic language, which the composer labels
as "the new system of organizing sounds," is for the most part absent
in Protopopoff. An emotionally exuberant Romantic-Expressionistic
manner, along with the spontaneous dramatic climaxes and recessions -
all these features, which make Roslavetz's music so close to
Scriabin's, are apparently as remote from Protopopoff's even-tempered
and distinct juxtaposition of textural units and emotional moods into
lengthy blocks of time. The main difference is in the harmonic
systems of Roslavetz and Protopopoff, though here too there are many
similarities. Roslavetz's system of the "synthetic chord",
notwithstanding its innovative qualities, is based essentially on
slight modifications of the traditional tertial harmony. Often
the "synthetic chords" contain elements of diatonic scales and
consist of combinations of several major or minor trichords piled one
on top of the other. Frequently the combination of trichords in
certain "synthetic chords" could even contain trichords, carrying the
harmonic functions (in the context of traditional, tonal theory) of
tonic, dominant and subdominant chords, though not necessarily
utilized in that manner or with that intent in the new system. For
instance in the song "You have not left" for soprano and piano by
Roslavetz, set to the poem of Alexander Blok, the "synthetic chord"
contains an Ab minor trichord (carrying the presumable "tonic"
function), an Eb minor trichord (with the presumable "dominant"
function) as well as the note Fb (bringing in the "subdominant"
element). Roslavetz never denied the concept and function
of "tonality" in his works, though he preferred to replace it with
the concept of "new tonality", a term which gives the most adequate
definition to not only Roslavetz's system but also those of late
Scriabin and Protopopoff. This is yet another point of similarity
between Roslavetz's harmonic system and those of late Scriabin and
Protopopoff. Scriabin, along with Roslavetz and Protopopoff, utilizes
his harmonic constructions in such a way as to bring in modified
functions of "tonic," "dominant" and "subdominant," along with all
the possible transpositions of them. The similarity is also present
in the usage of non-harmonic "dissonant" tones, which
either "resolve" to the "consonant" notes present in a respective
harmonic construction, or serve as means to "modulate" into a new
harmonic construction. Nevertheless there exists a sharp difference
between the system of Roslavetz on one hand and those of Scriabin and
Protopopoff on the other hand, which has been most successfully
formulated by Kholopov: "...Roslavetz presents himself as a
phenomenon coming later in time than Scriabin. The latter had indeed
worked with chords as the leading element of his harmony. (...)
Roslavetz, though naming the central element of his harmonic series
as a "synthetic chord," realizes it musically in all effect more
serially than harmonically" . Other major points of difference are
that Roslavetz in general, unlike both Scriabin and Protopopoff, does
not make an emphasis on presenting dominant-seventh sounding
qualities in his "tonic" chordal constructions (presenting a greater
amount of allusions to diatonic "minor" harmonies, unlike Scriabin's
and Protopopoff's more insisting allusions to diatonic "major"
harmonies), nor does he emphasize any inner symmetries within the
horizontal, scalar manifestations of his "synthetic chords" nor give
any special functional importance to the interval of the tritone.
Having compared the musical legacy with that of a number of the
most notable representatives of the Russian musical avant-garde of
the 1910's and the 1920's, we can proceed to discerning some of the
basic principles of his compositional techniques, which requires that
we examine an analyze the musical theory of his teacher Boleslav
Yavorsky, which, along with Scriabin's harmonic language, played a
crucial role in the development of Protopopoff's musical thinking.
The theoretical system of Yavorsky is well-known by the few books
published during his life, dedicated to this theory. First of all,
one can name the book of Yavorsky, called "The Construction of the
Language of Music," which was published in 1908. The most detailed
and concise summary of the theory of this theory is in Protopopoff's
own book "Elements of Constructions of the Language of Music" in two
volumes, written under Yavorsky's guidance and published in Moscow in
1930. Other summaries of the theory include smaller scale and less
detailed descriptions in articles by Yavorsky and Protopopoff, most
of them yet unpublished, as well as descriptions in books and
articles by Dernova, Victor Zuckermann and Yuri Kholopov in Russia,
Detlev Gojowy in Germany and Gordon Mcquere in the USA. As is well-
known, the key element of music in Yavorsky's theoretical system is
the interval of the tritone. Being a dissonant interval, the tritone
naturally requires to be resolved: the diminished fifth (B-F) is
resolved into the major third (C-E), the augmented fourth (B-E#)
resolves into the minor sixth (A#-F#). In this manner, the
intervallic distance between these two possible resolutions also
turns out to equal to a tritone. (C-E and F#-A#) (Example 1).
This resolution in Yavorsky's system is given the function of
a "dominant" resolution. A "subdominant" resolution is formed by
moving from the interval of a perfect fifth (D-A), through a
dissonant passing interval of a doubly-diminished fifth (D#-Ab) into
a consonant interval of a minor third (E-G). The equivalent tritone
transposition results in the resolution of the interval G#-D# through
Gx-D into the consonant A#-C# (Example 2). From the combination of
the dominant and subdominant resolutions the various harmonic
systems "scalar-modal units " ("lad" in Russian) are formed. The most
important and stable among the "scalar-modal units" is the
major "scalar-modal unit" (Example 3). In conmbination with the
tritone transposition, a "double-scalar-modal unit" is formed
(Example 4). A complete combination of the dominant and subdominant
progressions in conjunction with their tritonal transpositions is
labeled in Protopopoff's book as a "complete major double-scalar-
modal unit" (Example 5). Different diverse juxtapositions of the
dominant and subdominant progressions result in other "scalar-modal
units:" the minor (Example 6), the augmented (Example 7), the
diminished or the "chain" (Example 8) and many other scalar-modal
units, including much more complex and irregular ones. According to
Yavorsky (as well as to Protopopoff), this theory can be applied to
any kind of music: folk music, tonal, atonal (or rather, "newly-
tonal" in the context to the music examined in the book) and even
microtonal. Protopopoff's book examines all of these different types
of music, successfully applying Yavorsky's theory to each one of
them.
In the section of the book devoted to folk music, when applying
Yavorsky's theory to unaccompanied melodies, Protopopoff still
carries out the analysis, examining the melodic contour of the
melodies by splitting the two-voice dominant and subdominant
progressions into separate one-voice progressions using either the
upper or the lower part of the two-voice progression to carry out the
analysis, i.e. individually examining the resolution of either B to C
or F to E in a melodic line, implying the dominant progression or the
resolution of A (via an assumed Ab) to G or D (via an assumed D#) to
E, implying the subdominant progression. The analysis of tonal music
needs no further explanation as the theoretical system is more
clearly fit to analyze music which is based on the relation between
tonic, dominant and subdominant scale degrees. The musical examples
used in this major section of the book include compositions by Bach,
Chopin, Liszt and early Scriabin. When examining works by late 19th
century composers, the book gives a good example of how well
Yavorsky's theory could be applied to music with extended tonality,
by analyzing it with less regular scalar-modal-units formed from more
irregular combinations of the dominant and subdominant resolutions
and, particularly by frequently utilizing the "chain" scalar-modal-
unit. The final section of the book presents a section devoted to
possible interpretation of microtonal music by means of this theory,
which works generally the same way in an extended manner, utilizing
such intervals as the quarter-tone, third tone and sixth tone. Though
not containing any music examples, due to lack of available musical
repertoire, this section speculates on possible music, which might be
written in the future by means of extending this system to the
microtonal realm and implies a suggestion or even an invitation to
composers of the future to attempt to compose such microtonal music
which, nevertheless, would fit this all-encompassing theory.
When examining examples of post-tonal harmony (we can label it
this way to avoid the totally inadequate term "atonal") when
analyzing the compositions of late Scriabin as well as his own
compositions, Protopopoff applies the theory of Yavorsky. The new
functional basis of the analysis of the compositions become
the "double-scalar-modal units:" the major (Example 5), the "chain"
(Example 9) and the augmented (Example 10). When these "scalar-modal
units" are presented in a purely horizontal linear-scalar form, a
number of symmetrical scales or modes are formed (often similar or
identical to Messiaen's "modes of limited transposition"), though
frequently with the addition of "passing tones," (formed from the
dissonant passing intervals in the dominant and subdominant harmonic
progressions), which are not contained in these scales, but are used
as "dissonant" tones, which are meant to resolve into
the "consonances." The most frequently resulting scale formed from
this horizontal presentation is the octotonic ("whole-step half-step)
scale. The vertical, harmonic manifestation of the scalar-modal unit,
based on the resolving ditones, contains its own independent
functional sound hierarchy, in which the first in importance are the
two "tonic" pitches, in this case the pitches C and F#, the second in
importance are E and A# and third in importance are G and C#, all of
which determine the tonal sources of this system. Next come
the "unstable," "dissonant" scale steps, the most prominent among
which are pitches present in the "dominant" progressions, i.e. B and
F (or B and E# in the tritone transposition) and those present in
the "subdominant" progressions, i.e. D and A (and, consequently, G#
and D#) along with the "passing tones," leading to the resolution,
i.e. D# and Ab (consequently, Gx and D). (Example 11).
In Protopopoff's musical compositions one can discern
two "harmonic styles," resulting from two different ways of applying
Yavorsky's theory to his music. The "strict harmonic style" is formed
in such compositions which for the most part (or sometimes entirely)
adhere to one fixed horizontal scale or mode, most frequently the
octatonic scale (though usage of other formed scales are possible in
the "strict style" as well), presenting different transpositions of
this scale in different sections of the given composition, with
virtually no deviation from this horizontal scale and almost no
incursions of "dissonant" tones, not pertaining to the scale. This
harmonic style is achieved by utilizing only the major and the chain
scalar-modal-units, which in their purely horizontal aspects
emphasize the octatonic scale. The "free harmonic style" involves
usage of a greater amount "dissonant" pitches, avoids strict
adherence to any one harmonic scale, such as the octatonic scale
(except in certain sections when they are needed for structural and
dramatic emphasis) and either uses the regular scalar-modal units
(such as the major and minor) in a freer manner, making greater usage
of all the dissonant intervals or uses more irregular constructions
of scalar-modal-units and at times even combinations of several
scalar-modal-units simultaneously in one piece or section of
composition, allowing a greater freedom of pitch and oscillations
between modal centricity and freer purely chromatic harmonies,
bordering on complete atonality.
In all of Protopopoff's compositions these "double-scalar-modal
units" or "double-scalar-modal-units" are notated above the beginning
of the section involved on an auxiliary fragments of staves as a
means of indication and clarification for the analysis of the harmony
of a given composition. In the large-scale compositions, first of all
in the three piano sonatas, the schemes of the double-scalar-modal-
units are presented in the beginning of each section of the work, in
which a new form of a scalar-modal unit or a new transposition of the
preceding form. In the smaller compositions, most notably in the
songs, only one scalar-modal unit is used, which is carried out
throughout the entire composition. A very complex type of scalar-
modal unit, quite irregular in its structure, is used in the song for
soprano and piano "The Hermit Fox", set to folk texts of the
Arkhangelsk region of Russia. Two double-scalar-modal units,
symmetrically distant from each other by the interval of a tritone,
form one more complex form of a scalar-modal unit forming a "double-
double-scalar-modal-unit," which could even be called a "quadruple-
scalar-modal-unit". The first half of each "double-scalar-modal-unit"
consists of two dominant progressions, forming a "chain progression,"
while the second half of each "double-scalar-modal-unit" presents two
subdominant progressions and resolutions, forming a conjunction of
two double systems of the octatonic scale (Example 12).
In itself each of the two individual "double-scalar-modal-units"
presents itself as the basis of a minor seventh chord C-Eb-G-Bb and
its tritone transposition F#-A#-C#-E (formed from the lowest notes in
all the consonant ditones), which does not form a regular symmetrical
type of scalar-modal-unit. Nevertheless the lowest pitches of the
first halves of each respective "double-scalar-modal-units" form
respectively the chords C-Eb-F#-A (Example 13) and F#-A-C-Eb (Example
14), which brings out the hidden symmetries of this unusual scalar-
modal unit.
Obviously as a result in "The Hermit Fox" a much greater amount of
modal freedom is achieved in terms of a greater availability of
pitches and pitch correlation, resulting from a greater amount
of "dissonant" tones present in the structure of the scalar-modal
unit. This does not presume, though, an absence of structural
correlation nor that atonal "anarchy" is present, but that a greater
chain of levels of "modality" is present and a greater amount of
gradations from a strict adherence to the octotonic scale (formed
from a horizontal spreading out of the major and/or chain scalar-
modal-units) through a whole scale of deviations from it by means
of "dissonant" passing tones, various types of "subsidiary" modal-
scalar units and a more or less free type of "atonality" achieved by
the means of the first two elements. The latter does not present
itself in a dominating form and does not infringe on the sovereignty
of the "quadruple-scalar-modal-unit" but shows itself in the role of
its "polar antithesis".
In addition to the songs, the most important and significant
compositions, written by Protopopoff in the 1920's, are the three
piano sonatas. The First Piano Sonata, completed in 1920 and
published as opus 1, dedicated to his teacher, Boleslav Yavorsky, is
a three movement work, where the new harmonic system, already present
in full, is successfully combined with yet a more traditional
Romantic Lisztian type of piano textures and more or less standard
classical sonata forms. The Third Sonata, finished in 1928 and
dedicated to the memory of Leonardo da Vinci, presents itself as the
most large-scale and brilliant composition, both in terms of piano
textures and in terms of applying his teacher's theoretical system;
in this work Protopopoff achieves the highest level of excellency and
mastery in the usage of a great variety of textural means for the
piano as well as the demonstration of the expressive means
of "constructivist" and "cubist" trends in music. The Sonata is
written in a "free style" in terms of application of Yavorsky's
scalar-modal-units, where, similarly to the song "The Hermit Fox," a
greater amount of freedom is achieved in terms of deviating from a
given strict horizontal scale by means of using a greater amount of
scalar-modal-units with greater amount of dissonant notes, which,
when applied in composition, make up for freer usage of the complete
chromatic spectrum by means of greater amount of gradations between
consonant and dissonant non-harmonic pitches and the resolution of
the latter into the former. In certain sections one could find a
stricter adherence to the octatonic scale (Example 15) while in other
sections there is a greater drive toward free atonality, where,
nevertheless, the connection with the dominating modality is kept
(Example 16).
In the Second Sonata, which we shall examine in greater detail,
despite strong influences of Scriabin's music, the individual traits
of Protopopoff's mature style are already present. The composition
was completed in 1924 and, likewise to the First Sonata, dedicated to
Yavorsky. From the perspective of harmonic language, the Second
Sonata is written in a more "strict style" than the First and Third
Sonatas. It incorporates the octotonic scale, derived from
the "complete major" and the "chain scalar-modal-units" almost
throughout the whole composition with a minimal amount
of "deviations" into the domain of "auxiliary" pitches, which,
nevertheless, are very important in the context of the structural
development of the Sonata.
The Sonata contains nine sections and, hence, nine transpositions
of respectively the major and the chain scalar-modal units. A
presentation of all nine indications of the scalar-modal-units, as
presented at the beginning of each section by means of the auxiliary
fragments of staves, could be demonstrated here, being at the same
time the plan of the harmonic system of the entire Sonata (Example
17). Many of these sections are precede by supplementary sub-
sections, serving either as introductions or as tail-pieces to the
individual sections; they are rhythmically unmetered and feature
rumbling passages of parallel chords or ditones (starting out with
ditones of parallel fifths in the first few sections and then
deviating to other intervals as well as fuller chords) (Example 18).
These passages with the parallel fifths obviously present the most
clear deviations from the "strict style" of the octatonic scale and
the usage of "dissonant tones," though in this context, the rather
simple usage of the "dissonant tones" as parallel tones to
the "consonant" harmonic tones presents a rather elementary almost
textbook demonstration of "dissonance" to perspective future scholars
of Yavorsky's theory.
The basic "melodic" line of the passage does not extend the
boundaries of the octatonic scale, while the pitches in the doubling
lines correspond not only to "passing dissonant" tones, which are
present in Yavorsky's double-scalar-modal units, but also to the two
parallel transpositions of the octatonic scale, derived from the
horizontal presentation of the complete major scalar-modal unit.
Throughout all of the Sonata's nine main sections, the concept of
modal (in terms of the octatonic scale with almost no "passing
dissonant" tones) and thematic unity is carried out in full. The
primary motive of the Sonata, consisting of an ascending minor second
and a descending major third, is developed according to the principle
of monothematicism (Example 19).
Despite the virtually complete absence of direct usage of sonata
form in this work, the latter is present in a more modified form: the
first three sections of the work could in general terms be likened to
an exposition of a sonata. They are connected by their exclusive
usage of complete major scalar-modal-units, whereas all the following
sections, with the exception of the last, incorporate the chain
scalar-modal units, which are much less stable "tonally." The
recapitulatory function of the ninth and final section is emphasized
by a return to the usage of the complete major scalar-modal-unit in
the primary "tonality" (Bb-E).
The allusions to sonata form in this composition could be
continued to be brought out in terms of the descriptive qualities of
the textural usage in each of the respective sections. In the first
section of the Second Sonata, after the initial introductory passage
the primary theme is presented in a heroic, bravura passage, common
to many primary theme groups of standardly formed sonatas (the
author's remark written in Italian - "apello, minacioso"
i.e. "calling out, soaring") (Example 20). The passage is 15 measures
long, not including the first long unmetered passage featuring the
introduction.
In the second section, after its respective introductory passage,
the main theme is presented in a more lyrical and calm manner, which
is frequently associated with subsidiary theme groups (the author's
remark: "dolcissimo, soave, accarezzando" i.e. "very sweetly,
suavely, caressing") (Example 21). This section utilizes the complete
major scalar-modal-unit with the tonality of D-Ab.
The third section resembles a conclusory theme group in its
further elaboration of the calm textures and mood, presenting the
main theme echoed by a discant canonic imitation a major sixth above
the main melody. Here the "complete major scalar-modal-unit" is
presented in a different transposition (F#-C), suggesting an
autonomous musical clause. The third section ends with a louder
dynamic mark with more dynamic chordal and arpeggiated piano
textures, suggesting a completion of a large section of the
composition.
A change of the scalar-modal-unit type and the incursions of
contrasting restless-dramatic passages in the fourth section clearly
resemble a beginning of a development section of a sonata form. This
effect is enhanced by the juxtaposition resembling a "confrontation"
between more diminuted fragments, some of which resemble the
introductory passages and others resemble the previous main sections
with a full-textured statement of the leading motive, each of these
contrasting fragments becoming slightly longer with each
presentation. This section switches to the chain scalar-modal-unit
with the tonality of Eb-A (or Eb-F#-A-C). The fifth section is
texturally much more sparse and emotionally calmer and utilizes
polyphonic means of development, presenting an extreme contrast to
the preceding and the following sections. The chain scalar-modal-unit
is presented in the tonality of Db-G (or Db-E-G-Bb). The sixth
section, the most dramatic in the whole Sonata in its character,
presents a gradual movement towards a climax, resembling a slow march
with a steady march accompaniment in the left hand, emphasizing the
adherence to the theory of the "double-scalar-modal-units" by its
insistence on the two pitches of C and F#, two important pitches in
this section returning to the tonality of Eb-A as presented by the
chain scalar-modal-unit. The whole section has two regularly changing
meters of 3/4 and 5/4, a steady crescendo from the dynamic mark of pp
to that of fff, and presents images of a lofty, grandiose and at the
same time fantastically-grotesque procession (the author's
remark: "maestoso, elevato" i.e. "with majesty, in an elevated
manner".) The unmetered introductory passage is here presented as a
coda to the sixth section, dispelling the heightened drama of its
music.
The structural functions of the seventh and eighth sections are
less explicitly clear. In terms of harmonic design (i.e. by their
continued usage of the chain scalar-modal-units) and their texturally
and emotionally episodic character, they resemble more of episodes
within the structure of the development section, though in the
context of the large-scale form of the composition as well as their
thematic usage and development of the main motive of the piece they
could likewise be associated with the "conclusory" and "subsidiary
theme groups" in a reverse recapitulation of a sonata form. Both
sections lack the unmetered introductory arpeggiated passages. The
seventh section, incorporating the tonality of E-Bb (or E-G-Bb-Db) of
the chain scalar-modal-unit, presents a scherzo type of texture with
many grace-notes and light arpeggiated textures. The eighth section,
returning to the Eb-A tonality of the chain scalar-modal unit, is
slow, lyrical and features a chorale-type texture, each chord
introduced with free-rhythm arpeggios. This section likewise has a
regularly changing succession of 3/4 and 5/4 meters.
The ninth section, presented in the "tonic" Bb-E tonality of the
major scalar-modal unit, starts with an introductory unmetered,
arpeggiated passage, after which the section proper presents a
curiously eclectic mixture of textures, starting with the heroic,
bravura presentation of the main theme as in the first section,
(demonstrating this section's definite recapitulatory function),
which after two measures turns into a grotesque scherzo dance with
extended unmetered measures. The initial bravura theme returns a
second tone only to be interrupted once more with the same humorous
scherzo-like passage after which the main theme returns for the third
and last time, followed by a recurrence of the introductory unmetered
arpeggiated passage presented as a coda to the ninth section and the
whole Sonata, finishing off the whole work in a loud dramatic
textural flurry.
In its form, resembling that of a sonata form with a reverse
recapitulation as well as by it emotional moods the Sonata has some
similarities with Scriabin's "Prometheus". Nevertheless Protopopoff's
aesthetical position still distances itself from both direct
application of sonata form and from direct dramatically-descriptive
means of expression, inherent in the music of late Romanticism. Many
of the musical problems of formal development and the juxtaposition
of the various musical sections are solved by Protopopoff in a
strictly structural and cerebral manner. Especially noticeable are
the differences in the interpretation of the apotheosis in the final
section of Scriabin's "Prometheus" with that of the final, ninth
section in Protopopoff's Second Sonata, which carries out the same
function - it seems to give, purposely and with a large amount of
irony, a reinterpretation of the concept of the climax
in "Prometheus," which in this case is carried out with the means of
the more constructive musical language of the 1920's.
In this manner, holding on to the connections with the spiritual
and musical quests of his time (the latter in terms of a search for
new modal and harmonic musical systems) and successfully combining in
his music many elements of the various diverse artistic trends and
movements of his time Sergei Protopopoff organically obtained a
rightful position in the history of music. The position, which he
obtained was by no means constricted by the dogmas of Yavorsky's
theory but rather greatly inspired in a creative manner by the newly
opening perspectives which they had to offer.

--- In tuning@y..., jpehrson@r... wrote:
> I forgot to include a recent article that appeared by Anton Rovner
on
> Protopopoff... who was, indeed, involved in microtonality:

Well, it's unclear from this how fully Protopopoff worked out his
microtonal theories, let alone whether he actually ever heard any
tuning system other than 12-tET . . . but it looks (based on the
allusion to quarter-tones and sixth-tones) as if he may have seen the
same role for the tritone in microtonality as it plays in
tonality . . . while in my theory, I generalize the tritone using the
notion of the "characteristic dissonance" . . . none of my musical
examples on the Web currently illustrate this, but the last piece I
played at the first Microthon (which appeared to illustrate this)
did . . .

I wrote,

> none of my musical
> examples on the Web currently illustrate this, but the last piece I
> played at the first Microthon (which appeared to illustrate this)
> did . . .

Oops -- the parenthetical remark should have read, "(which appeared
to be the most popular)".

--- In tuning@y..., "Paul Erlich" <paul@s...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_29783.html#29785

> Well, it's unclear from this how fully Protopopoff worked out his
> microtonal theories

Hi Paul...

I just e-mailed Anton Rovner to see if he could amplify the section
on Protopopoff's microtonal work using the reference materials he
has...

Maybe he'll write up some specifics....

JP