Folklore in Mykhailo Starytsky’s plays as a ground for the formation of Ukrainian music and drama theater

Abstract

Statement of the problem. The study and preservation of folk traditions played an important role for the Ukrainian society in the process of forming national consciousness in the second half of the XIX century. It was from that time that the theater movement, whose soul M. Starytsky was, became active, and ethnography significantly influenced both the artist’s theatrical activity and the development of the Ukrainian music and drama theater in general. The article examines ethnographic elements in M. Starytsky’s plays with the purpose to find out the role of folklore in his work as a factor that influenced the formation of the Ukrainian music and drama theater. The scientific and practical novelty of the paper are conditioned by a lack of the separate comprehensive study devoted to ethnographic component as a part of M. Starytsky’s drama legacy and a basic factor of establishing of the Ukrainian musical and drama theater. The general scientific methods of researching, such as analysis, synthesis, generalization, allowed to process a significant amount of material, to draw theoretical conclusions. The principles of objectivity, historicism and systematization made it possible to analyze historical processes in all their contradictions and diversity. The interdisciplinary approach permitted to attract the results of scientific research from the areas of music, theater, and art history. Main attention is paid to the analysis of the playwright’s use of descriptions of rituals, customs, traditions, folk morals of Ukrainians, as well as the examples brining into play the small folk genres, phraseology. The results of the study. The origins, features and functions of ethnography in M. Starytsky’s works are determined, in particular, it is proved that the playwright’s use of the descriptions of Christian and pre-Christian rites was primarily aimed at a true image of traditional Ukrainian society, where the ancient rituals, games, musical and dramatic actions were an important component. It is shown how the rites of the winter and summer cycles of the folk calendar, which are most saturated with various bright rituals and customs, are reflected in various ways in the writer’s plays. It is confirmed that ethnography in M. Starytsky’s work had a positive effect on the formation of the Ukrainian professional theater as musical and dramatic. Conclusions. The folklore-ethnography, in particular calendar-ritual, component is one of the important expressive means, which gives M. Starytsky’s works picturesqueness, deepens the drama, strengthens the characters, makes their stage embodiment more vivid and at the same time emphasizes the peculiarities of the social age: traditions are still quite strong, however, something new is gradually entering the life of Ukrainian society. Customs and rituals embodied on drama scene become the basis for the progress of Ukrainian theater as a musical-dramatic: reflecting the characteristic features of the people’s soul, the folklore elements play an extremely important role, both in terms of reproducing the features of social lives, and from the viewpoint of preserving the national identity.