Initial experience of synchronic description of historical musicology texts

Abstract

The author discusses a small initial experience of using synchronic description in musicology texts. In the beginning, the origin of the synchrony–diachrony dichotomy introduced into linguistics by Ferdinand de Saussure is revealed. These terms and concepts from linguistics turned out to be so generative in methodological terms that they were adapted into other scientific disciplines. Starting with Saussure, the specificity of the relations of the two approaches is most deeply expressed as the relation of the system of the subject – synchrony and its evolution – diachrony. Next, the article discusses collective intelligence (Lotman) as a result of the activity and cooperation of experts of the same specialty. The productivity and relevance of using a synchronic approach for an adequate comparison of musical works, especially in the history and theory of performing arts, is emphasized. The main objective of the article was to test the use of a synchronic approach for the formation of textual information about the formation of the classical style in musical Europe of the XVIII century. The main pathos and function of the synchronic approach is "comparison". When the beginnings of events are aligned, it becomes possible to compare them (events) with each other, and the results of the comparison are attributed to the synchronization time. The synchronic approach demonstrates the continuity and monomericity of historical time. In synchrony, we see that juxtaposition and comparison overcome the natural separateness of historical events. The conclusions of the article summarize the main properties of the synchronic and diachronic approaches: synchrony reflects the system structure of the object and phenomenon, and diachrony, their evolution. For more productive event matching, synchronization of several parameters and types is necessary. This type of historical research can be described as a multifactorial synchronic analysis of historical events. Further prospects for the development of synchronic and diachronic approaches lie in their synthesis, when multiple slices of synchrony are sorted by chronology, and diachrony consists of synchronic slices of time.