Music and Time Annotation << Back «Moonlight» Sonata by Beethoven as a Polystylistic Phenomenon (on the Example of Elena Gohman's Music) I.A. Subbotin The dialogue of epochs, cultures, and styles appropriate to the 20th century music is vividly represented in the example of the «Moonlight» sonata by Beethoven. Many modern composers draw upon this work (mostly upon the first part of the sonata). The style range of the sonata interpretation is considerable, it encompasses both academic and popular music, as well as jazz. The phenomenology of Beethoven’s «Moonlight» sonata’s life is explained by the multitude of its own meanings appealing to baroque, classical and romantic music. The polystylistic nature of Beethoven’s «Moonlight» sonata has found its expression in the music art as well as in other spheres of art (cinema, painting, literature, poetry). The transmission of the «Moonlight» into the music of the modern composers lies in the course of polystylism – a characteristic composition technique which reflects the aesthetic modern concepts and enriches the original with new conceptual meanings. A representative example of such interpretation of Beethoven’s music is Elena Gohman’s «Moonlight» sonata from the cycle «Three Tributes» for a soprano, choir and organ (1991). The analysis of parallels and differences in Beethoven’s and Gohman’s musical texts shows a ground-breaking interpretation of polystylism in this piece. A combination of the elements of collage and symbiotic polystylistic types, principles of quoting and alluding, leads to a stylistic modulation from Beethoven’s «Moonlight» to Gohman’s «Moonlight» sonata. Elena Gohman’s work reveals new facets of meaning in Beethoven’s masterpiece as a polystylistic phenomenon of the 20th century music. Keywords: Beethoven’s «Moonlight» sonata, «Moonlight sonata» by Gohman, polystylism, collage, symbiosis, quotation, allusion, stylistic modulation. Contacts: E-mail: subbotin80@mail.ru Pp. 58-62.