THE INSTRUMENTAL CONCERTO AS OBJECT OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

The instrumental concerto is one of the oldest genres of European instrumental music whose history began about three centuries ago and is continuing at present demonstrating an extraordinary variety of forms and diversity of variants of its treatment. Approaching the concerto genre the researchers try to establish the main features characteristic of this genre, to reveal its nature and to formulate a „pattern” or genetic canon of the concerto. In the article there is an analysis of the works of a lot of musicologists from different countries that are dedicated to the historical stylistic evolution of the concerto genre and to the study of the most relevant samples, from their origin (the 16th-17th centuries) up to the present time. In this context, of special interest are the studies signed by A. Veinus, M. Roeder, M. Steinberg, S. Keefe, I. Grebneva, E. Dolinscaia and other musicologists. The article was written on the basis of the materials of the doctoral thesis „Concerto for Viola and Orchestra: Methods of Study” worked out under the supervision of the late scientist and university professor Vladimir Axionov.