Strokes to M. Lysenko-Conductor "Portrait” (the case study of memoirs and letters)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to outline the methodical principles of M. Lysenko’s cooperation with a choir and to disclose his conducting practice. The research methodology is based on the combination of biographical and theoretical approaches and the method of generalisation. As a whole, they highlight the main aspects of the master’s conducting activity, peculiarities of choral works interpretation, and creative methods of cooperation with a choir. The novelty of this research involves disclosing an issue about M. Lysenko’s conducting activity for the first time through the prism of contemporaries’ memoirs, epistolary, which helped to manifest a deep interest in choral activity, as well as, reconstructing separate conductors’ concert performances with a choir and accentuating the methodology of learning compositions, their "reading” with the help of manual techniques. The peculiarities of M. Lysenko’s conducting style and his connection with Ukrainian national singing tradition have been summarised here for the first time. Conclusions. M. Lysenko’s multifaceted talent – he is known to be a composer, a pianist, a conductor, a teacher, a musicologist – testifies his versatility as a master, who seemed to be organised, original, productive and having his own unique style in different spheres of creating activity. This kind of performing method correlated with organisational, compositional, musical-public, and pedagogical practice – the symbiosis of which was focused on the process of Ukrainian nationalisation. Although conducting activity did not play an important role in his life and work, we can state that M. Lysenko’s work as a conductor is a great contribution to a national culture-creating process. Its description reveals the depth of the artistic “workshop” of M. Lysenko, concentrating on separate aspects of conducting and interpretations, of which M. Lysenko is a composer and a conductor, showing his artistic potential, hidden in a choral musical score.
 Key words: M. Lysenko, choir, conducting activity, interpretation, memoirs, letters.