Ragtime in the work of composers of academic tradition

Abstract

The twentieth century can be called a century of universal synthesis, and the specific feature of musical creativity is synthetic nature of creative thinking. The expansion of intonation sphere, free dialogue of various genres, styles are becoming more obvious, and in this process an extraordinary role is given to mass music and jazz. The twentieth century created the opportunity not only to take paints from the richest palette, but also to mix them boldly. More often there are compositions in which the effects of various expressive systems are pronounced. So these effects absorb the elements of jazz idiomatics. It means all kinds of symbioses with jazz, which are called hybrid genres: jazz opera, jazz ballet, jazz symphony, jazz oratorio, etc. The interaction of academic and jazz music took place at different stages of the evolution of the world musical culture, and the formation of this trend is associated with the creativity of composers of the academic tradition of the USA and Western Europe in the late 19 – early 20 century. The subject of this work is the aspect of the penetration of jazz idioms, precisely, the methods of ragtime into the music of the academic tradition of the early twentieth century. The main focus is on the work of the most significative European composers, primarily members of the famous French “Six”, as well as outstanding masters of American academic music. All this is supported by musical examples (notes), which give a holistic view of the subject of research.