The piece ‘Sunny River’ and its

contemporary sound

 

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’

УКА | UCA:
xVK-1xxxx`26`x-RAxN-xxf



Let us begin with a brief conclusion: ‘Sun River’ does not sound avant-garde, but it is thoroughly contemporary, because Kazarin employs Tonal Atonality in its ‘soft’, lyrical mode: not by dismantling the folk song, but by ‘illuminating’ it through fields of intervals and a triplet texture.

This is a different mode of the TA [tonal atonality] system, not the one found in his violin piece ‘From the Heart to the Sun!’ or his piano concerto ‘Along the Heavenly Iria’.



Now, in detail.


·        The piece’s main style: ‘contemporary archaism’

The piece is simultaneously:
~       archaic (Russian song, modality, melodiousness),
~       contemporary (interval fields, non-repetitiveness, parametric texture),
~       not avant-garde (no clusters, no noise, no aggression),
~       not neoclassical (no harmony, no functionality),
~       not minimalist (no repetitions, no motoric patterns).

This is an extremely rare stylistic type: modernity without the avant-garde and archaism without retro.



·        II. The triplet texture as the basis of the style

From the very first bars [see p. 2 of the piano score]:
~       ‘3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3…’ — continuous triplets in the right hand.
This is a key element:
~       it creates a sense of flow,
~       it establishes a rhythmic gravity,
~       it makes the music not pulsating, but moving,
~       it removes the sensation of a bar grid,
~       it creates the effect of ‘eternal time’.

This is Kazarin’s signature trait.



·        III. Modal-interval horizontal line

The folk song is not quoted verbatim, but its modality ‘shines through’ via the intervals:
~       seconds,
~       thirds,
~       fourth inversions.

In the score, this is evident in the opening bars: smooth modal progressions without functional harmony.

Horizontal line:
~       not melodic,
~       not thematic,
~       modal-interval-based,
~       ‘sings’ but does not ‘narrate’.

This makes the music Russian, but not folk.



·        IV. Two-layered texture [soft version]

Unlike the concerto ‘Along the Heavenly Iria’, where the two-layered structure is rigid [centre vs. periphery], in ‘The Sun River’ it is soft and fluid:
~       lower layer — sustained notes,
~       upper layer — triplet texture.

This is evident in the opening bars:
~       Left hand — long notes, right hand — triplets.

This creates:
~       a sense of a river’s flow,
~       the effect of constant movement over a foundation of stability,
~       a soft version of the ‘centre’ [not D, but a modal zone].



·        V. Centre: neither tonal nor atonal, but
‘modally acoustic’

In the concerto, the centre is D, rigid and acoustic. In ‘Sunny River’, the centre is:
~       not fixed,
~       not tonal,
~       not atonal,
~       but modally acoustic.

It is perceived as:
~       a ‘zone’,
~       ‘modal light’,
~       ‘a foundation without a tonic’.

This is evident in the sustained notes of the left hand [for example, bars 1–4], where there is no functional role, but there is a sense of foundation.



·        VI. Non-repetition as a ‘soft’ law

Unlike the concert ‘Along the Heavenly Iria’, where non-repetition is ‘strict’, here it is ‘soft’:
~       the texture is repeated (triplets),
~       but the intervals within it are constantly changing,
~       there are no literal repetitions of phrases,
~       there is no periodicity.

This creates a sense of:
~       a natural flow,
~       a ‘river’,
~       continuity without cycles.



·        VII. Why the piece sounds contemporary, though it is not avant-garde

Because Kazarin uses contemporary techniques, but in a subtle way:
~       interval fields
[seconds, thirds, fourths — but without clusters]

~       parametric texture
[tuplets + durations]

~       absence of harmony
[no chords, no functions]

~       absence of themes
[no melody in the classical sense]

~       absence of motoric drive
[not minimalism]

~       absence of avant-garde effects
[no noise, no extended techniques]

In other words:
contemporaneity is achieved not through avant-garde means, but through parametric thinking.



·        VIII. The Overall Style of the Piece

‘Sunny River’ is a gentle, lyrical manifestation of Tonal Atonality, in which:
~       centre = modal zone,
~       horizontal = interval-based melodiousness,
~       vertical = a by-product,
~       texture = two-layered,
~       rhythm = triplet texture,
~       form = flow, rather than dramaturgy.


This makes the piece:
~       Russian,
~       contemporary,
~       non-avant-garde,
~       non-academic,

yet deeply individual.



 

Arina Ryazantseva, art historian and biographer of composer Vyacheslav Kazarin

Russia, Moscow 2026

 

` A-CVK