Czy przyszłość muzyki to nowe bel canto? Kilka uwag o życiodajnej sile melodii
Is the New Bel Canto the Future of Music? Several Remarks on the Life-giving Forces of Melody

Summary/Abstract: An attempt at solving the question: why are melodies the vital force and energy of European music, and whence comes this incessant need for new melodies? Psychological studies indicate that melodic talents are the innate feature of every person and advance from the first cry of the new-born and then simultaneously with the development of speech. The progress of these abilities repeats the melodic stages that mankind experienced in its evolution. Reflections presented in this article focus, in greater detail, on the question: to what extent are the three fundamental laws of perception of Gestalt psychology (proximity, continuity, closure) respected in the history of European music, and what sort of consequences were introduced by the twentieth century, when numerous composers spurned melody? The turn of the contemporary public towards light and classical music is the natural consequence of twentieth-century musical avant-gardes, which severed communication with the listener. The restitution of the melody began in the 1970s due to the return of composers to singing (New Romanticism) and progresses thanks to their broad interest in the opera. Will the opera, which was the nucleus of Baroque music, once again inspire contemporary music? Are we witnessing a return to the melody, comparable with its revival during the Renaissance, in the wake of complicated and over-intellectualized trends at the end of the Middle Ages (ars subtilior)? Examples taken from the history of music and cited in the article demonstrate the ways in which across the ages mankind wished to save certain melodies for future generations by introducing a new text (contrafactum), instrumental versions and transcriptions, variations on popular melodies, as well as variants of folk and religious songs and their use as material for improvisations.

• Details
• Contents