Genre as a Musical Sign of the Era in the Novel “Tango of Death” by Yurii Vynnychuk

Abstract

Relevance of the study. The Ukrainian urban space and the stages of its formation is a promising and one of the most relevant vectors for the study of Ukrainian history. Nevertheless, Ukrainian cities, as centers of the formation of professional art and major cultural trends, still rarely become the subject of scientific research necessary for a holistic understanding of our history. The article deals with the novel by Yurii Vynnychuk, which is dedicated to the history, culture and musical life of the city of Lviv. Insufficient knowledge in the scientific literature of the place and significance of the musical sphere in the heritage of Ukrainian writers, in particular, Yurii Vynnychuk, forms the relevance of this article. Main objective of the study is to determine the role of musical art in the creativity of Yurii Vynnychuk using the example of the novel “Tango of Death”, to explore the semantics of the tango genre for the author of the novel, and to study and characterize the musical source, which became the central artistic object of the novel “Tango of Death”. Research methodology. The research methodology includes the use of historical, contextual, sociological, etymological, comparative typological methods, as well as the method of intertextual research. The results of directorial artifacts. The musical experience of Yurii Vynnychuk and knowledge of the history of Lviv contributed to the diversity of the musical and artistic layers involved in the novel “Tango of Death”. The main place in the novel belongs to the musical composition of the same name “Tango of Death”. Its music becomes an instrument that has the functions of a conductor of the soul with the possibility of its rebirth in the next life. Also, the music of “Tango of Death” appeals to the era itself, for which tango is the leading genre that keeps the memory of the lost generation. The musical prototype of tango in Yurii Vynnychuk's novel is the pre-war Polish hit “To ostatnia niedziela”, created in 1935 by Jerzy Petersburski and Zenon Friedwald. The analysis of the metrical structure of the syllables of the stanzas reveals the coincidence of the structure of the first part of the stanza of Jerzy Petersburgsky's tango with the stanza composed by the author of the novel. This fact may indicate the desire of Yurii Vynnychuk to generalize the image of tango through the references for the genre itself, thanks to the preservation of dance rhythms with its metric repetition. The study of the polyfunctionality of intermedial connections between the artistic text of Yurii Vynnychuk and the musical-intonation sphere of culture opens up new facets of understanding the novel and the entire literary heritage of the author.