«PIANO PIECES FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH» BY MYKOLA LASTOVETSKY: THE IMAGINATIVE AND THEMATIC DIMENSION

Abstract

Relevance of the study. Creating music for children is an important and morally responsible task. The musical material mastered during the study by the growing musicians mostly projects their musical taste and forms an individual musical thesaurus. Main objective of the study – to consider the vectors of the imaginative and thematic range of the M. Lastovetsky’s piano works on the example of his five piano collections. The methodology of the article is based on the application of musicological, artistic, culturological and analytical approaches. An important need in creating works for children of didactic orientation has been revealed. The piano works of the modern Ukrainian composer, a member of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine MykolaLastovetsky are characterized. His five collections of «Piano Pieces for Children and Youth», published in recent years, are considered. The composer has written them for pianists of varying degrees – from primary to professional. It is stated, that a large number of miniatures have been united into cycles, combined by a certain imaginative and thematic, dramaturgic or compositional principle. Genre (song, dance, marching) and multifaceted figurative and thematic priorities of piano compositions are researched. Among the leading imaginative and thematic spheres are children’s and folk-national themes, fairy-tales and legendary-mythological themes, ritual actions, images of the nature, historical themes, lyrical and romantic reflections, oriental, religious themes, images of birds and animals. National motives and the sphere of the lyrics are identified as priority. It is revealed that a number of works are distinguished by a bright national specificity, have Boykos folklore coloring. Scientific novelty. For the first time in Ukrainian piano music M. Lastovetsky combined dodecaphonic technique with Boyko’s folklore («Rational Sketches»), used the term «perespivy» as a separate genre variety («Light Piano «Perespivy» of Galician Yagilkas»), created «Fifty Polyphonic Canon Pieces on the Themes of Ukrainian Folk Songs». Conclusions. Most of miniatures are programmatic, associational and sound imaginative. The imaginative and thematic, genre and stylistic, compositional and semantic means of the analyzed piano compositions are inspired by the M. Lastovetsky’s creative imagination. The importance of teaching the modern generation of young pianists on the works of Ukrainian composers of the past and present is emphasized.