Attributions of Genre and Style in Piano Works by Ivan Karabyts

Abstract

The piano works of the Ukrainian composer Ivan Karabyts (1945–2002) developed in the wake of the influential avant-garde trends of the second half of the twentieth century. In the style of his piano opuses of the 1960s and 1970s, we can trace the influence of various stylistic discourses of the twentieth century. This stylistic versatility is, on the one hand, a general reflection of the cultural and artistic innovations of the postwar period and, on the other, a manifestation of the trends of the Sixtiers movement, in particular, the Kyiv Avant-Garde, whose activities were shaped by the innovative compositional techniques of the time as a reflection of the avant-garde intentions. The paper aims to study the genre and style attributions of piano works by Ivan Karabyts. The tasks include an analysis of the composer’s style focusing on his piano works of the 1960s and 1970s: Sonata for piano (1964), diptych Prelude and Toccata (1965–1966) and 24 Preludes for piano (1976), intonation, thematic, genre and style of these opuses. The article raises the question of the influence of Borys Liatoshynsky on the piano concepts of Ivan Karabyts, both at the level of symphonism of the piano idea, which was initially tested in the field of instrumental compositions, and at the level of allusions to the works of Liatoshynsky himself in the 1920s in the genre of sonata and prelude. On the other hand, the example of the analyzed piano pieces shows the avant-garde principles of building a sonorous musical composition (atonality, diminished and enlarged intervals, septacords, claves, etc.). We should also mention the baroque principle, realized in the early diptych Toccata and Prelude, and the overall baroque direction of the composer’s work in large forms in his mature period. The pinnacle of the composer’s piano explorations is the 24 Preludes. Their musical language is original, complete with innovative stylistic trends. Important in understanding the composer’s intention are the polyphonic method of deployment, the use of the principle of cyclicity, expressive aspects of toccata, stylistic allusions to iconic styles and composers’ names, and special attention to the Baroque type of prelude. A separate issue is the symbolic and semantic context of the idea, which is formed in combination with improvisation, theatricalization of images, and symphonic generalization, forming lyrical, sound, tragic, and unifying imagery, their interaction aimed at creating the integrity of the idea.