Spiritual choral compositions of the Ukrainian composers of the first third of the 20th century: genre-stylistic and performance principles

Abstract

Statement of the problem. The article deals with the spiritual and choral works of the composers of the first third of the 20th century on the examples of the liturgical and paraliturgical choral works of K. Stetsenko and O. Koshyts, representatives of the “new school”. (Kozarenko, 2001: 153) of Ukrainian sacred music of the first quarter of the 20th century. Recent research and publications testify to the relevance of the proposed topic. The collection «Olexander Koshyts and time» (Scientific Herald of the UNTAM, 2007, vol. 57) contains scientific articles devoted to various aspects of the creative activity of O. Koshyts. The studies by N. Kalutska (2001) and N. Suprun-Yaremko (2014) are devoted to his composer style. L. Parkhomenko’s monograph (2009) continues to be one of the fundamental works dedicated to K. Stetsenko. O. Zasadna and O. Chersak (2021) examines the process of Ukrainization of liturgical music during the period of national revival (the first third of the 20th century). A. Pater’s dissertation (2021) presents the creative activity of modern professional choirs at Ukraine in the context of the revival of spiritual music. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the study is to reveal the genre-stylistic and performing principles of the selected spiritual compositions: the kontakion «Zi Sviatymy Upokoi» («With the Saints Give Rest») from K. Stetsenko’s «Panakhyda»(«Requiem») and the arrangement of the folk psalm «Oi Khto, Khto Mykolaia liubyt» («Oh, Who, Who Loves Nicholas») by O. Koshyts. The scientific novelty of the study is related to highlighting the fundamental qualities of spiritual choral composer work by K. Stetsenko and O. Koshyts in terms of performance interpretation and the continuity of the tradition of Ukrainian spiritual singing in the genre and stylistic dimension. The historical-cultural, genre, stylistic, structural-functional, interpretative, semantic, and systemic methods are used in the study. Results and conclusion. ● The foundation of K. Stetsenko’s and O. Koshyts’s composer work is the involvement of genres of liturgical and paraliturgical heritage (in the considered cases – memorial services, folk psalms) and the principle of psalmody; elements of folk song style and stylization of folklore images (lullaby in “With the Saints Give Rest”, sound image from the Kobzar and lirnyk tradition – imitation of the sound of the wheel lyre in “Oh, who, who loves Nicholas”). ● The choral work of both artists is characterized by certain common musical and stylistic features: a tendency towards multi-layered texture and expansion of the general range of sound in climaxes; involving the principles of antiphonal singing inherited from the established tradition of Ukrainian choral music; interpretation of the choir as an orchestra of voices; repetition of some syllables of the phrase in the chorus, which is characteristic of the tradition of group folk singing; major-minor variability. ● The examples of modern interpretations of the compositions testify to the high quality of rendition of the spiritual compositions, which was achieved through remarkable plasticity of voice management, experimental choirmaster work on the timbre combinations, microdynamics, etc. ● In our time, the performance interpretations of the spiritual works of the composers of the first third of the 20th century by the best choirs of Ukraine is the evidence of the revival and continuity of the domestic spiritual tradition on a new stage of its understanding.. Masterpieces of spiritual choral heritage, updated after a long time of prohibition in a new quality, prove their enduring value in the 21st century.