Along the Sky Iris - status. Composer Kazarin

Greetings!
` We are pleased to present an information resource that provides a comprehensive overview of the work of the outstanding Russian composer Vyacheslav Kazarin within the context of the finest achievements of World Culture.

Sincerely, art historian Arina Ryazantseva.

Blog, there will be a lot of interesting things:
https://composervaycheslavkazarin.tilda.ws
Wixsite:
https://savasavichev.wixsite.com/composer-kazarin




УКА | UCA:
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Form `8
Preparatory publication of terminology and scholarly apparatus for the concept of ‘Tonal Atonality’




The Status of the Piano Concerto ‘Along the Heavenly Iria’
in the Context of Classical and Contemporary Music

Video:
https://youtu.be/5PSdjLGaqMU




1. Its status within the classical tradition
• its place amongst 19th–20th-century concertos


Judged by the criteria of classical form, Vyacheslav Kazarin’s piano concerto:

- does not fit into the tradition of the Romantic concerto [Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev],
- does not fit into the neoclassical tradition [Stravinsky, Bart;k],
- does not fit into the modernist concerto [Sch;nberg, Berg],
- does not fit into the postmodern concerto [Lutos;awski, Ligeti].


Why?


Because:

- the form is not dramaturgical, but parametric
- the soloist is not a hero, but an agent at the centre
- the orchestra does not accompany, but creates a field
- the piano does not carry a line, but governs the structure
- there are no themes, no motifs, no functionality


In other words, Kazarin’s concerto does not continue the classical tradition, but creates a new branch, just as the following composers once did:
Wagner — with harmony,
Debussy — with texture,
Stravinsky — with rhythm,
Scriabin — with cosmology.


Within the classical tradition, this concerto is an anomaly, but the sort of anomaly that later becomes the new norm.



2. His status in the context of contemporary music
• where does he fit amongst composers of the late 20th and 21st centuries?


When compared with contemporary movements:

- not spectralism [no spectral harmony],
- not minimalism [no repetitions],
- not post-minimalism [no motoric patterns],
- not post-serialism [no constructivism],
- not sonorism [vertical structure is a by-product],
- not neotonalism [there is a centre, but it is not tonal],
- not postmodernism [no quotations, no irony].


In other words, Kazarin’s concerto does not belong to any contemporary movement.


It stands apart, just as:

‘Tristan’ stood apart from Romanticism,
‘The Rite of Spring’ stood apart from modernism,
‘The Ring’ stood apart from the operatic tradition,
‘The Mystical Chord’ stood apart from harmony.


In contemporary music, this concerto is an isolated phenomenon which does not continue existing lines, but creates its own.



3. Status in the context of music theory
• what it means for musical thinking


The concerto ‘Along the Heavenly Iria’ is the first major work which:

- fully realises the system of Tonal Atonality
- demonstrates how the tonal gives rise to the atonal
- constructs form as a biography of the centre
- uses interval fields as functions of the centre
- transforms the vertical into a by-product of the horizontal
- makes the piano a parametric instrument
- creates a new type of cosmogonic chord


This makes the concerto theoretically unique.


In music theory, it occupies a place:

- like ‘Tristan’ for harmony,
- like ‘The Rite of Spring’ for rhythm,
- like ‘Ligeti’s Quartet’ for texture,
- like ‘The Ring’ for dramaturgy.


This work is a manifesto for a new system of thought.



4. Status in the context of aesthetics
• what it means for artistic language


Kazarin’s concerto:

- is not emotional,
- is not narrative,
- is not symbolic,
- is not programme music,
- is not dramatic.


It is ontological.
It shows how the world is structured, rather than ‘what the protagonist feels’.


This is an aesthetic:

- not of Romanticism,
- not of Modernism,
- not of Postmodernism,
- not of the Avant-garde.


This is the aesthetic of acoustic cosmology.
In aesthetic terms, this concert represents a new type of artistic thinking.



5. Main conclusion: the status of the concert
• a precise definition

In the classical tradition
- an anomaly giving rise to a new branch.

In contemporary music
- an isolated phenomenon belonging to no particular genre.

In music theory
- the first major work to realise the system of Tonal Atonality.

In aesthetics
- a cosmogonic work, where form = the unfolding of the world.


In the history of musical thought
- the point at which tonality and atonality are first united into a single system.



Arina Ryazantseva, art historian and biographer of composer Vyacheslav Kazarin
Russia, Moscow 2026

` A-CVK