Musical folklorism in the works of A. Nizhnik: modern forms of the actualization of folklore

Abstract

The interaction of folk and professional culture is widely manifested in modern times. One of the indicative phenomena of such interaction is a musical folklorism. It is refracted in various ways in the work of each composer. The focus of the national musical culture on the refraction of folklore traditions has been established since the 19th century, when the authentic material was processed following the author's artistic intent. That said modern musical culture shows that, despite active metamorphoses of the musical language, often far from the traditional sound, the musical folklorism manifests itself quite actively. That is why it is so important to turn in terms of the research on musical culture to those works in which the specificity of composer creativity is clearly displayed and modern sounds and the authentic folklore texts intertwine. One of these works was the orchestral composition of the contemporary composer Artem Alexandrovich Nizhnik “Karagody of Spring”. It reflects basic principles of working with a folklore source, first of all citation, transformation of the folklore motives, stylization as folklore (an essay “in the spirit of”). All this enriches the author's creative method with new original ideas. The composer's work is an example of a sensitive approach and careful attitude towards folklore, professional work with authentic texts. For the folklore itself it implies a live sound in modern concert practices as one of the forms of its actualization.