Opus is a musical term. For what does this concept exist in music?

What does the word "opus" mean for musical culture? The history of the emergence of the word, the theoretical foundation of it, as a musical term, the modern meaning - about all this later in the article.

In our language culture the word "opus" was fixed mainly in two semantic meanings:

• A derisively contemptuous definition of any literary work that does not deserve high praise.
• "Opus" is a musical term.

Since the first option is clear, try to deal with the second.

The emergence of the word "opus"

The word "music" is based on the concept of "musical work", but the second is not identical to the first and has historical boundaries.

There is music as a work, and this is due to the written tradition; And there is music, as an activity connected with the improvisational reproduction of her samples.

This distinction was first recorded in the treatise of N. Liestenius "Musica" in 1537. It was in this treatise that for the first time it was said that the opus is a "written, fully completed work". Thus, for the first time a new concept "opus" was fixed.

In the first millennium of Christianity, the oral form of music dominated so much that even the term "improvisation" did not exist because there was no alternative. The development of two variants of creativity in music began only from 9-10 centuries, when the first copies appeared on paper.

In this period of the Middle Ages, "pessimistic" music and "practice" still existed in parallel, all events of human life were accompanied by musicians playing and often the performer alternated his own compositions with strangers, without feeling a sharp edge between these concepts.

It was important to combine the already well-established formulas, the same motifs freely migrated from one work to another, and this was not considered plagiarism. Talent manifested itself in the way of processing the material.

Written musical culture is a European innovation

Gradually, the elements of novelty in creativity became more and more appreciated, such creation of new, previously not existing tunes, began to be called "writing". In this sense, the history of the formation of European musical professional art does not differ in any way from the processes taking place on other continents.

The only difference is that it is in Europe that the written Creativity, the only written musical culture in the world was born here. And it changed everything: a new concept of musical art, aesthetic criteria, the psychology of creativity, auditory settings changed, methods of teaching music professionally began to be created.

Along with the uniqueness of the musical composition, the concept "composer" appeared - the creator of the new work. The next natural step was the creation of autonomous music, which was no longer connected with any domestic needs, but represented a value in itself.

Theoretical substantiation of the concept of "opus"

German philosopher and music theorist of the twentieth century Karl Dalhous emphasizes the following attributes that define the notion of "opus":

• Compositional completeness;
• A fully written text;
• Autonomy, lack of applied music binding;
• "Aesthetic contemplation as awe," the self-worth of "absolute music," without text and program.

Another German music theorist Hans Egggebrecht gave a more precise definition of the concept of "composition", writing that "opus" is:

• Theoretical (subordination to the rules of theory);
• The presence of philosophical content;
• Fixed in notes;
• polyphony;
• Belonging to the author;
• Completeness of form;
• uniqueness.

What does the word "opus" mean today?

To date, the opus is no longer just an essay recorded by notes on paper. The word "opus" means that the work was published and a certain number was assigned to it during the publication. Depending on the time when the music was published, the opus can have a larger or smaller numeric expression.

If during the life of the composer some of his works were never printed and, accordingly, does not have his own opus, he is given the title "posthumous opus", that is, one that was published after the author's death.

The figure of the opus does not always reflect the time of writing the work. If it was written in the early period of creativity, and published for the first time many years later, then the number of the opus will be given to him later. For example, written by Beethoven in his youth rondo "Rage over the lost penny" has a late issue number 129.

Sometimes the composer publishes several works at once. All of them are assigned one opus number, but different serial numbers. For example, Chopin's 24 preludes are published as opus 28, but have different order numbers from 1 to 24. Thus, the expressions "Chopin - the fifth prelude" and "Chopin-opus 28, No. 5" mean the same thing.