Sediuk I. Trends of the two-piano ensemble development in the 20th century music

The dissertation is devoted to the two-piano ensemble development in the context of the leading trends in the 20th century music. The available research projects bear evidence of the fact that playing in four hands on both one and two klaviers appeared in the 16th century. It is proved that after a significant break, the klavier ensemble revived among the composers of the 18th century. The difficulties appearing in the development of the two-klavier ensemble, and the ways they were battled with were directly related to the level of technical equipment and the lack of a uniform height standard. Because of this, it began to flourish starting from the 20th century. The author of the dissertation generalizes the periodization proposed by the music scholars for both four-hand duo and ensemble for two klaviers. The music pieces of the 20th century studied in the dissertation research serve as a proof that piano ensemble is able to flexibly change the playing modes in the spheres of context and the genre style. Those works, where the interaction of the composer and the folk material is reflected, demonstrate that the playing performance logic of a piano ensemble predicts the possibility of using the traditional methods of work with the borrowed folk material and operating with its peculiar features in order to reproduce an archaic sound image. Based on the scientific thought and observations of own analysis, three types of the two-piano ensemble in the 20th century were identified: monochrome, polychrome, and mixed.