THE CHOIRS PRELUDES-SONGS BY PYLYP KOZYTSKYI AS MUSICAL-HISTORICAL AND ARTISTIC MATERIAL

Abstract

The article analyses the features of P. Kozytskyi’s choral letter in the cycle “Eight Preludes- Songs”. Written in the traditions of M. Leontovych, the works of P. Kozytskyi show new views on the interpretation of a capella sound as an individually interpreted “choral instrumentalism”. The works demonstrate analysed two of the main semantic spheres of the choral genre in Ukrainian folklore music. The first sphere is the tragedy in the ballad “Oh, in the field, the room was standing...”, where poetic symbolism and polyphonic musical development are attained, as in the best works of M. Leontovych, such as “Pryalya” and others. The second sphere is a baby carol, which goes back to the ancient folklore patterns in music, and resonates with M. Leontovych’s “Dudaryk” and “Shchedryk”. The Eight Prelude Songs cycle by P. Kozytskyi is a collection of pearls of Ukrainian choral music. The purpose of the article is to outline the characteristic features of the works of the choral cycle “Eight Preludes-Songs” by P. Kozytskyi in musical-historical and artistic aspects on the example of selected works. Written as a tribute to the memory of M. Leontovych, this artistic material is set out in the mentioned traditions of musical folklore and “choral instrumentalism” of the Master, and bears the mark of the best modernist quest of the time. P. Kozytskyi’s style in the early 1920’s has quite different incarnations and actively evolves, which M. Yurchenko traces on the example of spiritual works: in the early compositions (1910’s) the influence of the “Petersburg style” is felt, as early as in the 20th. in those years avant-garde features, connected with intense imagery, bold conflicting comparisons, a peculiar mode sphere with natural reversals, harmony with harmless consonants, rare-life doubles, tolerant dissonances, impositions, livings, interferences, are clearly manifested. The musical compositions of the cycle are polyphonic miniatures on folk-song basis, created in continuation of M. Leontovych’s method. The latter, according to P. Kozytskyi, is based on “choral instrumentation” – the interpretation of choral parts as instrumental, which provides the “song soul” with a special colour and richness of the choral palette, in which the choir is a “magic lantern" designed to set the meaning of the song, that is, to be the newest means of creating artistic and emotional expression. Written in the traditions of the contemporary M. Leontovych, a few years after the death of the artist, P. Kozytskyi’s works show new views on the interpretation of acapella sound, above all as individually interpreted “choral instrumentalism”. As a result of the conducted research, we come to the conclusion about the innovative features of P. Kozytskyi’s choral letter in the series “Eight Preludes-Songs”. Written in the traditions of the contemporary M. Leontovych, a few years after the artist’s death, P. Kozytskyi’s works show new facets of the acapella sound, above all as individually interpreted “choral instrumentalism”.