Changes in the Late 20th and Early 21st Century Concert Kanklės Repertoire and Contemporary Performance Trends
Doctoral student: Aistė Bružaitė
Supervisors: Prof. Lina Naikelienė, Prof. Habil. Dr. Daiva Vyčinienė
Consultants: Prof. Rūta Rikterė, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Laima Budzinauskienė
Department: Folk Instruments
Duration: 2016–2017
(artistic doctorate studies for art licentiates)
Abstract
Aistė Bružaitė
In the late 20th century, the concert kanklės repertoire substantially changed. As the kanklės players’ school was getting more professional, increasingly more composers became interested in that Lithuanian instrument and expressed inovative ideas, unusual for the kanklės music performers and audiences, in their compositions. The present research paper chose to analyse the repertoire for the kanklės and chamber ensembles (which included the concert kanklės), its characteristics, and the changes in it in the period from the late 20th to early 21st century; it examined original compositions for the kanklės and conducted an in-depth study of the specificity of the instrument, technical possibilities of its performance, and the diversity of playing techniques. The most important and most striking solo compositions for the kanklės were identified, and their authors were introduced. The classical and contemporary kanklės repertoire, its changes, and the current composition trends were analysed separately. The paper presented a survey and its findings: during the survey, Lithuanian composers and musicologists were interviewed in order to identify their common insights into the concert kanklės opportunities and to evaluate its situation in the contemporary context of professional music. The concert kanklės playing techniques were comprehensively introduced and classified, and the traditional and nontraditional kanklės playing techniques were systematised in a table which also offered their examples and notation symbols. A separate overview of playing the new electric kanklės was included: the instrument has already attracted the attention of composers and got established in the context of contemporary professional music. The paper provided information about the instruments of foreign countries, related to the Lithuanian kanklės, and made attempts to establish certain links in the area of their performance. The latest trends in the compositions for concert kanklės were analysed and related to the implementation of their performance by identifying certain nuances and difficulties that performers tended to face. Four contemporary compositions from the concert kanklės repertoire were analysed (Piece G.r. by Egidija Medekšaitė, Snowing in Magnolia Blossoms by Vytautas Germanavičius, From Circe to Charybdeby Kira Maidenberg, and Affected Woman by Šarūnas Nakas) that stood out due to innovative ideas and original playing techniques.
