FOUNDING OF THE CONCEPT OF MUSICAL REPERTORY: SHEET MUSIC LIBRARIES OF THE FIRST PAID PUBLIC CONCERTS

Abstract

Summary. The experience of the organizers of the first paid public concerts has been widely studied in the musicologicalliterature, although the names of John Banister, Thomas Britton, Carl Friedrich Abel, Anne-Danican Philidor, PierreSimart(t), or Jean-Joseph Moure(t) are hardly securely fixed in the minds of a wide circle of professionals. Awarenessof their activities is important for understanding the historical progress of the development of concert practice, instrumental genres, and virtuosity as a necessary feature of a concert performer. The study of elements of their organizational worksheds light on the specific circumstances that influenced the history of performance, namely the emergence of the conceptof concert repertoire, by analogy with the theatrical repertoire. The aim of the work, therefore, is to clarify, based onthe materials of the activities of the first long-term companies of public paid concerts, certain reasons for the spreadof new canons of public performances, where multiple performances of works in concert programs became possible.The research methodology consists of applying music-historical and descriptive methods to study approaches to the acquisition and use of musical materials in the organization of paid public concerts in the late 17th – mid-18th centuries.The scientific novelty of the work lies in the analysis of an unusual aspect of the activities of the organizers of the first series of public paid concerts. For the first time, the difficulties in acquiring and obtaining musical materials (in the form of printed or transcribed parts, voice notes, etc.) are considered as one of the reasons for the emergence of the ideaof repeating works whose scores were available in the organizers’ musical libraries.This aspect of the research led to the following conclusions. As a result of the work of public concert organizationsin certain circumstances of limited resources (time for rehearsals, finances for renting a venue, paying musicians and ordering printed or transcribed sheet music necessary for the constant updating of concert programs) the groundsarose for repeated or even multiple performances of certain works, which began to be consolidated and improved in the form of a ready-to-perform high-quality musical repertoire. Listening impressions, focused exclusively on listening to music, without being distracted by theatrical action, plot collisions, costumes, scenery, etc., also included the experienceof comparing different performances. The increasing proportion of instrumental music in concert programs, in particularin Le Concert Spirituel, led to a surge in the popularity of the virtuoso concert style. The fame of musicians was born on the stage, and they then developed their success in a variety of areas related to music. Music publishers began to publishtheir compositions with greater enthusiasm; professionals and amateurs tried to learn from them, from purchased notes, in private lessons, with published Methods (Schools of playing). More and more people appeared who wanted to masterfamous works, which gradually made up the repertoire of the performer.