«Baroque» Subgroup of Winter-Time Songs of Typological Macrofamily ‹V55, P4› with «Plot Refrains»

Abstract

The article is the first attempt at a systematic description of an independent melotypological group of winter songs of Ukrainians, differentiated from the array of compositions of the typological macrofamily (TMF) ‹V55, p4› (with the main verse 5+5 and different types of refrains), namely, the baroque compositions with plot widespread in the Left-bank Ukraine. Their system code in the indexed Register of winter meloforms by I. Klymenko is Zm10-4 (Зм10-4 in Ukrainian).Based on the results of the analysis of about 100 selected samples (out of 200 known records of this group), the criteria were determined, by which this typological group (TG) differs from other works of TMS ‹V55, p4› - these are large (3-5 syllable-groups) semantically related to the plot of a certain piece (while typical for winter songs are short formula refrains - Koliada, Shchedryi vechir, Oi, dai Bozhe and others), melo-stylistics with features of the later styles (a system of parallel keys(tonalities), manifestation of harmonic functions tonic - dominant), the mixed type of stanza melo-organization, polyphonic texture with elements of chant voice-leading.The parameters, by which the Zm10-4 array is divided into two subgroups, have been established. In the subgroup Zm10-4A, melodic phrasing is autonomous for the content line (verse 5 + 5) and for the refrain part: ‹αβ; γδ ...›. In the Zm10-4B subgroup, the melodic wave is three-element: it covers two syllable-groups of the song inception and the first syllable-group of the refrain: ‹αβγ;…›. This type of melo-organization is a specific, form-building feature of another group of Ukrainian-Belarusian-Polish carols - ТМF ‹V55,р32›. A usage of a melo-model of another typological group in the Zm10-4B melodies enables us to call this subgroup a mixed one.Melodic varieties of a lower level within these two named subgroups are determined on the basis of such individual characteristics: ambitus, the system of fundamental tones, the system of repetitions of melodic phrases, the refrain-primitive, the specifics of the cadence group. A working version of an indexing and an analytical description of nine varieties of melo-forms are proposed.Compositions of the analyzed type have taken strong positions in the northeast of the TMS macro-area ‹V55,р4›. The core of the area was located between the Desna and Vorskla (in the present Chernihiv, Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy regions) - and the territorial attachment of the variety A to the Chernihiv area is particularly evident, and variety B to the notional Poltava area. Some samples come from the nearby districts of the Briansk, Gomel and Mogilev regions (Belarusian ethnic territory). Single records represent the Right Bank - points in Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Rivne and Mykolaiiv regions. The data are reflected on the map of a distribution of the Zm10-4 samples.