Some aspects of the origin of bandura fingering in the twentieth century as a fundamental basis of performance techniques

Abstract

Background. This article studies the stages of formation of bandura fingering in the twentieth century, analyzes the scientific and methodological literature, that has been the basis for the professional growth of the first bandura performers. The paper highlights fundamental methodological principles that contributed to the technical development and professional skills improvement of the future bandura performer. The article defines the main components of the “bandura school” of the past century, analyzes the basic approaches of professional authors to fingering, fingering combinations and fingering inversions on the bandura and highlights the relevance of their application in modern bandura performance. The study defines the significant professional fingering variants from the past and their importance in the present performance. Methods. In the early twentieth century, there has been a need of professional bandura training and educational textbooks that would promote self-learning of the instrument. As a response to the request of M. V. Lysenko, the famous bandura player from Kharkiv Hnat Khotkevych published the first “Bandura textbook” (Lviv), which promotes the ten-finger performing system, the Kharkiv-type of playing and offers a large number of exercises and technical repertoire, paying special attention to various fingering combinations and position of fingers on the string. The activity of M. Opryshko played a significant role in Ukrainian kobzar art. The “Bandura School” by V. Kabachko and E. Yutsevich is a textbook for primary education. Zinovy Shtokalko, a well-known bandura player of his time, created the “Kobzar textbook”, in which he promotes the Kharkiv-way of playing and professional bandura performance. Notably, due to the transition from the Kharkiv-type to the Kyiv-type banduras, both the technical and artistic expressive capabilities of the instrument have significantly deteriorated. While selecting the educational material, there should be an organic link between the development of students’ musical hearing, new performance techniques and familiarity with musical literacy. Of particular importance, here is the work on improving the artistic quality of performances, the development of students’ artistry. Conclusions. The issue of technical development of the bandura instrumental performer is linked to the problem of fingering. During the twentieth century, many teachers and researchers developed the necessary methodological basis, which became the foundation for the gifted generation of bandura performers. That is why, bandura fingering issue requires deep analysis and thorough review of existing developments, the search for new approaches and their practical implementation.