To sources of polysematics Kitch (on the example of the “spiritual song” of the XVII–XVIII centuries)

Abstract

The article proposes a consideration of the phenomenon of Kitch in the context of the development of the culture of Western Europe, the flow of cultural processes of which was significantly different from the processes that occurred in the culture of the colonized part of Ukraine in the 17–19th centuries. The main reason for such differences was primarily in aristocratic imperatives and educational tendencies, which aggregately contributed to the development of art in the whole Europe. During this period, Ukraine was at the crossroards of Metropoles and, as a result of historical circumstances, was not able to develop similarly to Western European conditions. The lack of dominant role in society, and, in particular, the absence of universities, concentrated creative progress within church art and imitation of western samples, as well as the development of amateur art, which will form a whole layer of “Grassroots” culture. In fact, in the Baroque period in Ukraine only polyphony was introduced into the liturgical rite and a party concert on the Western model was staged. At the same time, the musically educated intelligentsia, which was concentrated at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, composed chants, spiritual songs and brought them to the lower strata of society. Since all this was closely connected with the church rite, over time, the leading place in society was taken by the spiritual aristocracy, which gradually took over the educational mission of the people. The introduction of the practice of salons in Ukraine in the 19th century, the tradition of home music, in fact, had no resistance, because this tradition was nurtured mainly in the families of priests, who at that time had an authoritative influence on the processes taking place in society. On this basis, the use of means of “Kitch” was detected long before this term appeared with internal polysemantic characteristics in Germany of the XIX century. We believe that kitsch in music appeared when the society intuitively needed it, even in periods when this term did not yet exist, but the principles and methods that later became the basis of definition, and formed the basis of the conceptual structure of kitsch, had already been in existence. In essence, kitsch was a measure that balanced culture within different social strata and social needs, as well as disseminated it. Differences in the functioning of the kitsch phenomenon were observed: in European countries kitsch had negative semantics, in Ukraine, on the contrary, the most relevant examples of European cultural achievements were spread and interpreted in their own way. This blurred the border between “low” and “high” culture. Apparently, this is the main reason that the phenomenon of “kitsch” in Ukrainian culture played a positive role, helped to supplement the missing links and relieved tension in the confrontation between “an original” and “a copy”. This prepared a solid foundation for the emergence of Ukrainian professional art in the twentieth century.