КОМПОЗИТОРСЬКА ТВОРЧІСТЬ НАРОДНОГО АРТИСТА УКРАЇНИ МИКОЛИ БАЛЕМИ

Abstract

The genre-style priorities of vocal and instrumental creativity of the famous Ukrainian composer, long-time artistic director and chief conductor of the Khmelnytskiy Academic ensemble of song and dance “Cossacks of Podillya” Mykola Balema are elucidated. Attention is drawn to his numerous national-patriotic, spiritual-liturgical, folkloristic, lyrical-customs artifacts, operas “Eternal Stage” (Karmalyuk) and “Prophet” (T. Shevchenko), etc. The composer’s music is characterized by a wide range of musical creativity due to the appeal to almost all musical forms: opera, symphony, cantata, ode, liturgy, suite, ballad, sonatas, romances, musicals, pop songs (folk, rock, jazz, pop), music for the theater, adaptation of Ukrainian folk songs. In total, the composer created more 700 musical works of different genres: 11 vocal and choreographic compositions, suite, 13 vocal and symphonic compositions, 200 adaptations of historical, Cossack, family-related, holiday-calendar folk songs of Podillya and Ukraine, 26 works for the academic choir on poems of Ukrainian poets and 31 children’s songs. On the basis of his own vocal-choral music, the composer created a number of various theatrical concert programs for choir, orchestra and ballet of the ensemble “Cossacks of Podillya”. He wrote the series “Marches of Ukrainian Victory” for military brass bands. In his musical language, modern musical instruments with a national tradition, historical and cultural origins are organically combined with a projection of the aesthetics of Ukrainian national-cultural revival.