Genre and style constants of B. M. Lyatoshynsky’s choral cycle “From the Past”

Abstract

Statement of the problem. The creative discoveries by B. M. Lyatoshynsky in choral music sphere played a significant role not only in forming the unique, deeply original musical language of the composer, but also in the further development of Ukrainian choral art. His a cappella choral opuses for a mixed choir based on lyrics by Ukrainian and foreign poets are very revealing in the aspect of innovative searches in the musical art of the 20th century. Recent research and publications. In the musicological literature, Lyatoshynsky’s choral works are considered quite thoroughly in the works of some researchers: I. Liashenko (1991), I. Hulesko (1994), O. Torba (2002), M. Novakovych (2012). A. Lashchenko (2013), O. Kozarenko (2015), V. Moisiiuk & V. Shkoba (2022). In general, the analysis of recent studies showed that the main attention is focused on the verbal-musical contexts and figurative poetics. Among the less studied aspects of Lyatoshynsky’s musical heritage, the issue of studying genre and stylistic features of his a cappella choral music is particularly acute, including the choral cycle “From the Past”, which determine the relevance of the presented article. Objectives, methods and novelty of the research. The purpose of the article is to identify the genre and style parameters of Lyatoshynsky’s choral cycle “From the Past”. For the first time in domestic musicology, the artistic and stylistic features of Lyatoshynsky’s choral cycle “From the Past” were analyzed in the aspect of dialogue between traditions and innovation. A set of general scientific and particular musicological approaches to the phenomenon under consideration was used to reveal the content of the declared topic. Conclusion. The analysis of Lyatoshynsky’s choral cycle “From the Past” allows us to draw conclusion about the innovative nature of this work, which became an “encyclopedia” of new genre and style guidelines in the context of musical culture of the 20th century. We noted that a characteristic attribute of the cycle is a dialogue aimed at understanding and combining different musical styles. In the choral opus, an organic connection is felt both with tradition and with the trends of musical art of the 20th century. When analyzing the choral cycle, it was proved that it is a vivid example of an organic combination of “old” and “new” music. The dialogue of cultural eras is realizing due to such main parameters as polymelodism and polyphonicity. The mentioned features embody the idea of genre-style synthesis in Lyatoshynsky’s compositions connected with such a cultural phenomenon as dialogue.