The Work of Maryna Denysenko for the Instrumental Bandura Performance: The Aspects of Timbre and Sonority

Abstract

This study considers modern instrumental and vocal-instrumental bandura performance with regard to the aspects of timbre and sonority. The latter influence innovative experiments in the field of bandura performance the most. Modern instrumental compositions for bandura are marked by the expansion ofstylistic attributes; the use of a wide range of new techniques and elements of polystylistics, classical genre prototypes, and the most recent technologies (aleatorics, cluster, layered polyphony, sonorism, etc.). These explorations are also characterized by a deeply individual artist’s idea, marked by innovative discoveries in the bandura technique, often determined by the timbre and sound concept of the composition. It should be noted that the bandura in its modern form (namely, Chernihiv and Lviv chromatic prototypes) is a relatively new instrument. It has undergone a significant transformation over the centuries: from an accompanying one to an instrument with a broad expressive potential for genre and stylistic solutions in interpreting the stylistic discourses. Its dynamic development is evident in recent decades, when bandura, because of its timbre and dynamic potential, happened to be on the forefront of the innovative compositional explorations with experimental techniques and approaches. The increased attention of composers to the sound of the bandura, its diversity, changeability, length, etc. encourages performers and composers to experiment with the innovative ways of bandura sound-producing. The well-known Ukrainian composer Maryna Denysenko (1962–2022) worked productively in this direction. Her work testifies to the attention to timbre and sonorous expressiveness along with expanding and changing the emphasis on the traditional approaches to the bandura performing. In her works, Denysenko significantly modernizes the expressive and performing potential of the bandura performance, while at the same time modifying established ideas about the genre models of bandura art and the field of timbre/ sonority of academic bandura.