Composer Valentyn Borysov. Symphony of life

Abstract

Background. The aim of the article is examination and presentation of Valentyn Borysov’s creative life, who was a celebrated Ukrainian composer (1901–1988), a classic of Kharkiv composition school, author of vivid and profound works in such spheres as symphonic, choral, chamber, vocal and piano music; his 120th anniversary in 2021 will be a big milestone for artistic community of Ukraine. Valentyn Borysov’s creativity is an indispensable part of national music, one of its treasures. He belonged to artists who had defined ways of development of Ukrainian professional music in XX century. In his creative outcome we can see influences of numerous artistic tendencies, characteristic for extremely controversial, but also prolific epoch. Composer being a part of quite ambivalent period of Ukraine’s cultural history conditioned usage of diverse research approaches; his works are regarded both in the light of existing musical traditions and on the background of his contemporary cultural environment. This is the novelty of the study. Integrity of presentation of Valentyn Borysov’s creative life is supported by the fact that this article considers his pedagogical activity in his alma mater, nowadays Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts, which resulted in bringing up a constellation of well-known Ukrainian composers, as well as his public and aimed at cultural enlightenment work. Results and conclusions. For V. Borysov, stage of accumulation of professional and personal experience coincided in time with a turning point in development of Ukrainian musical art. In these years composer attended classes of S. S. Bogatyrov, forefather of Kharkiv composition school; he studied alongside with M. Koliada, H. Tumeneva, D. Klebanov, V. Barabashov, M. Tits, who constituted a brilliant generation of Ukrainian composers several decades later. Symphonic and chamber works of this time showed such features of V. Borysov’s creative method as large-scale thought, leaning towards epic and heroic images, skilful usage of advanced composition techniques. At the same time, under the influence of external factors V. Borysov turned to relevant genre of his time, such as mass song and choral music. As early as on the primary stage of his development as a composer, V. Borysov defined Ukrainian folklore as one of the main sources for his inspiration. Folklore component of musical language became one of the prominent features of his style, its presence is conspicuous on each stages of his evolution. Submission of individual to collective, national conditioned V. Borysov’s interest to monumental forms of symphony, oratorio, cantata, poem, defined their leading role through late style of composer’s creativity. Unique combination of already existing aesthetic premises, high level of moral imperative, relevance of musical language created phenomenon of “V. Borysov’s late style”. The article regards the most original works, which were received very well by the contemporaries: “Divertissement” for symphonic orchestra, “Music for strings”, concert compositions for piano, violin, viola, sets of piano miniatures, composed on late period (70s–80s). Singularity of musical language in these works is created by the fact that V. Borysov succeeded to create a unique mixture of folklore tradition with “sonic field” of avantgarde musical art; with this musical language incredibly relevant, “eternal” problems of existence are embodied. This article was inspired by a desire to draw attention to V. Borysov’s legacy, to revive profound and immensely talented works of the composer, to enrich culture of modernity with them, to remind people of XXI century about such a treasure, that his works are.