THE SPECIFICS OF THE SWING MANNER OF THE CROONER

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the rhythm and intonation aspects of swing in the performing manner of crooners. In the historical context of the development of jazz music, in particular the swing era, the activities of large orchestras (big bands) under the leadership of P. Whiteman, B. Goodman, D. Ellington, Ch. Webb, G. Miller, etc., which gained incredible popularity in the USA in the second half of the thirties of the 20th century. The ideas of the conductor-innovator P. Whiteman, who in his team stimulated young musicians and vocalists to the prospect of creating new musical directions and styles, have been separately considered. One of these artists was Bing Crosby, who is considered the founder of the "crooning" genre. The specifics of crooner performance are analyzed in three vectors, such as practical, psychological and historical. When studying the crooner's performing aspect, the main means of the singer's expressiveness are defined, namely alla breve, higher-order beat, riff, stomp-pattern, off-beat, hemiola, agogic. The analogy of the metrorhythmic technique of the baroque period "notes inégales" and its rhythmic-temporal proportions with the "swing" style has also been constructed. The purpose of the study has been to determine the specifics, place, role and meaning of swing in the modern musical space, dominant in the spiritual and social life of several generations of musicians formed in the swing era. The article is based both on the research of the history of jazz by W. Sargent, M. Stearns, S. Fitzgerald, E. Hobsbawm, and J. Dinerstein and on explorations in S. Makievsky's rhythm theory and own analysis of the specifics of variety vocal performance. The detailed study of the rhythm and intonation side of jazz trends, in particular crooning, will help to understand the internal mechanisms of vocal performing culture. In a certain way, this stimulates the harmonic upbringing and competent development of the variety vocalist, introducing into his thinking professional metrorhythmic techniques for the qualitative formation of an original image of the melodic structure of the composition.