About the choral concert «Ne otverzhi mene vo vremia starosti» by Andriy Rachinsky

Abstract

In the article the concert «Ne otverzhi mene vo vremia starosti» is studied by A. Rachinsky, whose choral score has just been reconstructed from the vocal parties of the manuscript collection of party works. The purpose of the article is to keep track the influence based on the material of the concert «Ne otverzhi» of A. Rachinsky's spiritual works written in a new style on the first composer's experiences by M. Berezovsky, created during the early period of creativity, before departure to study in Bologna. The methodology of the research is based on the principles of comparative analysis, which provides the basis for identifying common and distinctive features and identifying the hereditary connections between the work of A. Rachinsky and M. Berezovsky. Analysis of the concert «Ne otverzhi» by A. Rachinsky with full choral score revealed in this work the signs of a new style (individualization of the themes, increasing the role of solo constructions, relying on the functional harmonic framework basis, the use of cyclic composition with the final fugue, etc.) and confirmed affiliation with the era of early classicism. Comparing this work with the concerts of the early period of M. Berezovsky’s work, especially with the concert «Ne otverzhi», written on the same text, showed many inherited features (from the interpretation of the cyclic form, the similarity of the figurative and emotional decision of some musical themes and the compositional structure of the sections to the «germination» of certain rhythm formulas), and also revealed distinctive features, first of all, in the general meaningful concept of concert cycles, which is connected with the character of the final fugue, which in the concert of A. Rachinsky is a personification of life-affairs reminiscent of the beginning, a symbol of victory of man over enemies, while in M. Berezovsky suffering and protesting people still become a victim of life circumstances. The revealing of the handwritten source with the full musical text of the concert «Ne otverzhi» by A. Rachinsky completed a long stage of search for choral parties and opened the way for public performance of this work worthy of being sung in Ukraine and abroad.