Choral performance art as a category of a modern choral studies

Abstract

Statement of the problem. During the Soviet period, the development of the domestic choral studies was inhibited due to the impossibility of publishing researches in the Ukrainian language. Single, but significant researches of the outstanding Ukrainian practicing choirmasters Konstantin Pihrov and Mykola Kolessa became the summation of their experience, which gained unparalleled importance for the development of choral studies, its performing branch. During the time of Ukrainian independence, the situation changed for the better thanks to choral culture urgent issues study, which necessarily requires a systematic approach to the Ukrainian choral studies categorical apparatus development. The relevance of the study topic is that nowadays the choral studies categorical language remains incompletely studied, in particular, such an important component of it as choral performance. Recently research and publications. Analytical studies of the Ukrainian choral experts and practicing choirmasters in the performance field are devoted to topical issues regarding universalization of the choral conductor profession (Yu. Kalyniuk, Yu. Tkach), searching for new means of expression in choral performance (Yu. Puchko, Ye. Bondar), working with choirs of various creative directions and age specifics (Yu. Ivanova, O. Letychevska). In particular, Nataliia BielikZolotariova, Olena Zaverukha, Oleksii Fartushka were involved in the choral studies of categorical apparatus. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the study is to reveal the essence of the “choral performance” category of modern choral studies. The research is based on the application of historical-contextual, systemic, terminological, choral studies methods of analysis. Its scientific novelty lies in the fact that, in this study, for the first time in domestic musicology and choral studies, the category of “choral performance” and its components was considered, the specific regularities of the choral performance process were clarified. Results and conclusion. As a result of the “choral performance” category analysis, a definition of the chorus as a representative of choral performance was provided, as well as the essense specifics of choral performance containing, first of all, in the characteristic of the actual performer presented as the symbiosis of the choral team and the conductor. As a conclusion, the components (levels) of the studied categories are determined: professional, amateur, educational choral performance. In turn, at certain levels of choral performance, additional branches are formed: academic, folk, church, pop, children’s and other directions. Since the defined levels of the category “choral performance” have a systemic nature, the category as such appears as an open-ended metasystem.