The evolution of the piano ballad genre in Ukrainian music

Abstract

Despite the large-scale representation and wide variety, the genre of the Ukrainian piano ballade has not yet been the subject of special study. The purpose of the research is to study the evolution of the piano ballade genre in historical view. The romantic genre of instrumental ballade, established by F. Chopin and F. List, has been widely represented in Ukrainian piano compositions. Among different ballade genres the most widely represented are the ballades for piano solo which started their development from the compositions of F. Chopin. The chronological review shows the close attention of Ukrainian composers to the piano ballade genre from the middle of the 19th century to the present. The genre is widely represented. The most popular among Ukrainian composers is a ballade that is concertante medium piece for piano solo. Along with above-mentioned genres, there are: ballades-miniatures, historical and patriotic ballades, ballades of the song type, which is appropriately projected into dramaturgy and architectonics of formation. From the second half of the 20th century, along with the basic type of ballade, synthetic genre models of ballad type are becoming more common. Among the varieties of genre, there is a miniature ballade as part of a salon or didactic cycle, a ballade - a concertante pieces, a sonata ballade, a concert ballade and a rock ballade. It is characterized by neo-romantic features, narrative style, lyric-epic or epic-dramatic imagery, picturesque description of the plot, vivid emotional contrasts, improvisation and variability in the development of the thematicism, the principle of monotematism. Structurally, the ballade is interpretated as a three-part piece in rhapsodic (contrast-component) or variational form; a ballade in a freely interpretated sonata-cyclical form based on intonational unity of thematicism with numerous figurative transformations.