Choral creativity by Hanna Havrylets as a symbol of the togetherness of Ukraine (on the example of the musical and stage action “We will sow the Golden Stone”)

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in Ukrainian choral music of the modern generation of composers. Hanna Havrylets’ choral works are topical for performers and scholars. The musical and stage performance “We will sow the Golden Stone” is an example of embodiment the idea of united Ukraine, which was preserving its actuality during the all history of the country. Hanna Havrylets is an artistic figure, whose creative work unites Western and Eastern Ukraine. She was born in Galicia, studied and worked in the capital city. Her music reached Eastern Ukraine, where the artist’s choral works are performed by almost every choir group and where they have become the favorite among performers and listeners. Concerning choirs of Kharkiv region, we should mention the Chamber Choir named after Viacheslav Palkin of Kharkiv Regional Philharmonic Society, the Opera Studio Choir and the Student Choir of Kharkiv National University of Arts named after Ivan Petrovych Kotliarevsky, the Student Choir of Kharkiv State Academy of Culture. Research aims and methods. We tried to identify Hanna Havrylets’ choral works’ characteristic features, which are a symbol of the nation’s unity in the contemporary Ukrainian musical space, as well as some religious, philosophical and traditional folk features of the national identity, which perform the unifying function in the Ukrainian musical art. Research results. The features of H. Havrylets’ works that connect the cultural poles became a religious orientation (appeal to the Orthodox tradition), reliance on folklore and national historical and cultural traditions, which, combined with professional skills and composer talent, allowed her to create unique creative projects. One of such projects is the musical stage performance “We will sow the Golden Stone” (1997). The work was created for the People’s Artist of Ukraine Nina Matviyenko (soloist), a choir of boys and a symphony orchestra, the author of the poems is Sofiya Maidanska. Its uniqueness is in the fact that it combines almost all the genres of Ukrainian folk music in one piece united by the only idea of covering all the milestones of Ukrainian history starting from the World Creation and up to the present days. The artistic method of synthesizing musical and stage performance has a multi-level manifestation. Synthesis of art types (music, fine arts, choreography and theater) is supplemented with synthesis of styles, genres, and contents. H. Havrylets skillfully combines peculiarities of artistic thinking, characteristic of Ukrainian folklore, with contemporary composer vision; also the folkloric manner of singing – with the academic. Having considered the musical and stage performance “We will sow the Golden Stone” by H. Havrylets, we found common for Ukrainian culture and art features, which support the idea of unity and collegiality of Ukraine. These common religious, folkloric, philosophical features constitute a single spiritual system of the national culture. Due to her composer talent, H. Havrylets created a complete picture of author’s vision of united Ukraine, embodied in her work all major milestones of the country’s history (from the ancient times and up to the present days), traditions and beliefs of the Ukrainian people (religious and everyday ones), their identity by including regional features into a single system of the Ukrainian nation’s values in the past and the present. An analysis of the work by H. Havrylets gives reason to believe that the composition of the work is carried out on the principle of “unity and diversity”, the use of which contributes to a more vivid expression of its main idea. The unique, original features of the different eras of the history of Ukraine, its geographical regions, the art of its outstanding creators (composers, poets and performers) are combined into a single “portrait” of the Ukrainian nation, in a common image of its mentality and culture. Summary. Thus, in the process of analyzing the musical stage performance “We will sow the Golden Stone” the religious, folklore, and worldview signs of national identity were revealed, bearing the idea of the collegiality of the Ukrainian people. Religious signs include reproduction by the composer of Pagan tradition, coverage of the Pagan era, for which ritual folklore of the ancient Slavs was used; subsequently – and Orthodox symbolism, in praising the original Christianity and the Cossacks as the defender of their native land, thanks to the appeal to the genres “koliadka”, “szhedrivka” (traditional songs usually sung on Christmas holidays), historical songs, works of authors known throughout Ukraine. The folklore signs of the national identity of the work embodying the idea of the collegiality of Ukraine include the use of folklore primary sources collected in different parts of Ukraine by Nina Matviyenko, as well as the coverage of all genres of Ukrainian folklore reflected the foundations of the worldview and everyday life of the people of all regions of the country. An expression of the ideological foundations of national identity and unity became the composer’ coverage of milestones in the history of Ukraine, historical events that happened with Ukraine as a whole – the Golden Horde’ invasion, the exploits of the Zaporozhian Sich, events of the twentieth century, which were tragic for both, Western and Eastern Ukraine. It was in these events that the eternal desire of the Ukrainian people for freedom was clearly manifested, they became symbols of his struggle for territorial integrity and his own religion and self-expression (national consciousness, culture, art), for an ideal future. Since the historical process of unity of the Ukrainian nation has not yet been completed, the problems of this study within the framework of Ukrainian musical art have prospects for further development.