Musical Shevchenko Series of Vladyslav Zaremba

Abstract

The article deals with a generalized musicological analysis of the songs from two vocal collection series, titled «Kobzar Tarasa Shevchenka» (Taras Shevchenko’s Kobzar) by the 19th century Ukrainian composer of Polish origin Vladyslav Zaremba in order to attract attention to the composer’s creative heritage, reveal the most typical features of his musical language and determine their stylistics in the context of the 19th century musical culture. Also the article attempts to specify the significance of the vocal works collection in the context of developing the Ukrainian romance and the 19th century Ukrainian T. Shevchenko series.The article focuses on the content of vocal compositions associated with typical folk characters, as well as the composer’s vision of his characters’ complex and rich inner world. The article considers the works devoted to the themes of orphanhood, loneliness, alien land, love, typical romantic motives of the Cossack will, sentiments of grief and melancholy, which form the figurative and poetic content of Shevchenko’s poems.The analysis is focused not only on V. Zaremba’s lyrical songs, but also his vocal works, which raise the complex social issues of difficult maidenhood, orphanhood, the search for better life, the main characters’ romantic attempts to realize their dreams and the sad realities. The main attention is focused on the role of the piano, which is interpreted by the composer as an active participant in the dramatic action. However, the piano version of V. Zaremba’s vocal works highlights an extremely important and vivid element of the national sound sphere, namely the imitation of playing the bandura, which performs the semantic role of the national Ukrainian symbol and is perceived as an important component of the national culture. Thus, the conducted analysis allows visualizing the figurative and emotional world of T. Shevchenko’s poetry and deducing the values of the bandura as a semiotic sign in the 19th century Ukrainian musical culture, which will become especially noticeable in M. Lysenko’s works. An important issue in analyzing the composer’s style is the focus on the synthesis of European school achievements with the individual elements of the national school as a certain stage in the development of Ukrainian professional music, which replaces amateurism and dilettantism.