The piece ‘Sunny River’ is unparalleled

 

In world music, there are no direct parallels to what V. Kazarin achieves in his piano piece

‘Sunny River’, based on the Russian folk song ‘Ah, you Volga, Mother, vast steppe’

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1. In world music, folklore is always either stylised, reworked or
quoted


There are three models for working with folklore in history:

~    Stylisation
[Rimsky-Korsakov, Bartók, Kodály, Lyadov] Folklore → is preserved as a melody → is set to the composer’s own harmony.

~    2. Adaptation
[Stravinsky, Ligeti, Messiaen] Folklore → is fragmented → is used as source material.

~    3. Quotation
[Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Silvestrov] Folklore → is inserted into the context as a ready-made theme.

None of these approaches corresponds to what Kazarin does.



2. Kazarin does not stylise, rework or quote. He translates folklore into intervals

This is a fundamentally new type of work:
~   the melody is not harmonised,
~   it is not varied,
~   it is not developed,
~   it is not processed,
~   it is not used as a theme.

It is transformed into an intervalic entity, and then into an acoustic flow.

This is not found in the works of:
Bartók,
Stravinsky,
Ligeti,
Messiaen,
Pärt,
Silvestrov.



3. No composer has ever created such an extended form from a single folk motif without developing it

Usually:
~   folk theme → developed [Bartók],
~   varied [Lyadov],
~   contrasted [Stravinsky],
~   is transformed into a symbol [Sylvester],
~   is dissolved into harmony [Messiaen].

In Kazarin’s work:
~   the theme is not developed,
~   is not varied,
~   is not contrasted,
~   is not harmonised,
~   is not repeated.

It appears once [figure 8] and then dissolves into an interval.

·    Such an approach is unheard of in international practice!



4. No composer has ever constructed a large-scale form based on a ‘soft centre’ and a triplet texture

There are no equivalents in world music:
~   forms of flow,
~   forms without dramaturgy,
~   forms without thematic material,
~   forms without harmony,
~   forms without repetitions,
~   forms where folklore → interval → field → flow.

This is a new type of form not found:
~   in minimalism,
~   in spectralism,
~   in postmodernism,
~   in the avant-garde,
~   or in neo-folklorism.



5. No composer has ever used folklore as a ‘cosmogonic essence’ rather than as material

For all others:
~   folklore = material,
~   folklore = theme,
~   folklore = symbol,
~   folklore = stylisation.

In Kazarin’s case:
~   folklore = an acoustic essence manifesting itself at the centre of the system.

This is a unique ontology.



6. No composer has ever translated folklore into a parametric system

Tonal Atonality operates as follows:
~   song → interval,
~   interval → field,
~   field → parameter,
~   parameter → flow.

·    There is no equivalent to this in world culture!



7. Why there are no parallels

For a parallel to exist, three conditions must be met:
~   folk music as the primary source,
~   atonality as the medium,
~   parametric form as the structure.

In world music:
~   there is folklore + tonality [Bartók],
~   there is folklore + modernism [Stravinsky],
~   there is folklore + avant-garde [Ligeti],
~   there is folklore + mysticism [Messiaen],
~   there is folk + post-Romanticism [Sylvesterov].

However, there is no folk + atonality + parametric form.



·    Conclusion

Kazarin has created a new approach to working with folk music that has no historical parallels.
It is:
~   not stylisation,
~   not an adaptation,
~   not a quotation,
~   not a set of variations,
~   not avant-garde,
~   not minimalism.

It is a parametric transformation of folklore, realised for the first time in Vyacheslav Kazarin’s piano piece ‘The Sun River’.

Arina Ryazantseva, art historian and biographer of composer Vyacheslav Kazarin

Russia, Moscow 2026

 

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