In the dissertation the specificity of intonation as a factor of meaning formation in piano performance is theoretically substantiated and investigated. Based on the analysis of recent publications and research of domestic and foreign musicologists, as well as works on the theory and practice of piano performance, it was found that intonation as a factor of meaning formation in piano performance is a theoretically unformed concept. Being a pervasive, guiding principle, intonation is involved in all problems of artistic performance and creative interpretation, as evidenced by a number of such important issues of artistic performance on the piano, related to the intonation dimension, such as: timbre aspect of sound; reproduction in the process of performing the form of the work; reproduction of multi-element musical fabric in different textured types; motor sphere of the pianist; use of means and methods of piano expression and regularities of their interaction; rhythmic expressiveness, etc. However, the authors of works on performance intonation consider it mainly from narrow angles.Therefore, the problem of intonation as a factor of meaning formation in piano performance is new for modern art history and an essential indicator of scientific prospects of this work. The purpose of the study is to identify the nature and significance of the phenomenon of intonation as a factor in resin formation in piano performance. The main tasks: to reveal the meaning of the concepts «intonation», «intonation»; to study the phenomenon of meaning-making in art; to trace the evolution of the piano in the aspect of musical-intonational representations of society, to reveal the current problems of musical practice in different historical periods; determine the intonation-semantic connections in the system of relations composer – performer – listener; to systematize the views focused in the theory of intonation in the projection on piano intonation as a factor of meaning formation; offer an author's interpretation of the content of a key concept; to identify the performance parameters of the intonation-semantic activity of the pianist and to determine new approaches to the performance embodiment of the form in the process of piano intonation. The first section examines domestic and foreign philosophical, musicological, linguistic and psychological literature on the concepts of «intonation», «intonation». It is proved that these cultural phenomena have different interpretations. The meanings of the concept of "intonation" in the process of cognition are revealed: a unique rhythmic and melodic system of languages and gestures of the peoples of the world; alternation of increases and decreases, accelerations and decelerations of tones at the proclamation of language constructs; specific coloring of human speech, its individual facial and bodily movements, as well as pauses (expressive fading); a special cultural symbol in rhetoric, musical and theatrical arts, where conductors, singers, speakers and others create standards of intonation culture; comprehension of already existing sounds in the system of sound relations, precisely recorded by memory: tonalities and tones; intonation as sound. It was found that these definitions reveal not only the structural, but also the figurative-semantic and articulatory-expressive meaning of intonation, which are related to sound filling, sound formation, sound production, and are close to the concept of «intonation».The study of intonation as a factor in the formation of meaning in piano performance does not exhaust all the features of the phenomenon and necessitates further scientific research in the direction of studying the structural unity of artistic means of performance and their specificity in different stylistic contexts; psychophysiological patterns of the performance process, which are determined by genre and stylistic features of music.
