Creative figure of V. I. Sokalskyi as Kharkіv genius loci in Z. B. Yuferova’s res omnis aetatis

Abstract

Statement of the problem. The article aims to recreate the features of two historical portraits: the composer and musical critic V. Sokalskyi (1863–1919), whose name belongs to the history of the “pre-conservatory” musical Kharkiv, and the researcher of his work Z. Yuferova (1931–1999), whose monograph dedicated to V. Sokalskyi has become a matter of life (“res omnis aetatis”). The innovative element of the study is the development and introduction into musicology the dialogical research method, which allows identifying the researcher’s scientific method by analyzing the composer’s creative portrait, which she recreated in her work. The methodological basis of the study is supplemented by historical-cultural and historical-contextual analyses based on the material of Z. B. Yuferova’s monograph (2014, published posthumously) dedicated to V. I. Sokalskyi. Conclusions and results of the study. Dialogic research method made it possible to create a double historical portrait, which, on the one hand, reveals the features of the composer’s creative thinking, on the other hand, exposes the researcher’s professional qualities. According to Z. Yuferova, V. Sokalskyi is a pioneer of many genres in Ukrainian music; a person with high human virtues, chivalrous courage of his critical judgments, sincere service to the cultural flourishing of his native city. In turn, the personality of the researcher is characterized by her respect for historical facts, motivated problem analysis, systemic thinking, careful reproduction of the cultural background, reasonable conclusions, and encyclopedic knowledge. High professionalism embodied on the pages of Z. Yuferova’s substantial monograph gives every reason to agree with her assessments, and along with the recognition of the composer and music critic Sokalskyi as a “genius” of artistic Kharkiv at the turn of the 20th–21st centuries, to consider him a much more prominent all-Ukrainian figure. The introduction of V. Sokalskyi’s works into educational and concert programs should become an important prospect for the further revision of the history and renewal of the performance repertoire of the national musical culture.