UKRAINIAN CHURCH MUSIC: THE ISSUE OF LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article considers developmen to fUkrainian church music from the perspective of the accompanying linguistic processes. The issue of liturgical language was actualized when Ukraine gained its independence,Ukrainian churches (the Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Greek Catholic Church) resume dtheir work, and new church organizations appeared. The linguistic issue assumed critical importance with the restoration of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Ukrainianization of all areas of church life is also reflected in church music and determines certain tendencies of its present-day existence. At the same time, certain traditions left their marks on the spiritual heritage of Ukrainian composers, who worked in different confessional and political circumstances. The purpose of the proposed article is to highlight the dynamics of linguistic changes that accompanied Ukrainian church music at various stages of its creation, and to identify the specificity of its functioning in modern conditions. The following methods are used for this purpose: the method of retrospective (to explore the processes of historical development of Ukrainian church music),the comparative historical method(to reveal the general tendencies of the liturgical language evolution in different parts of Ukraine in a particular historical period), the method of musical and textual analysis for considering the texts of church musical compositions and identifying the historical features of their text fixation), the linguistic method (to analyze linguistic phenomena in church music). Scientific novelty. The study validates a significant influence of linguistic processes that accompanied the evolution of Ukrainian church music on the modern practice of liturgical singing. The logic of historical development proves an indisputable vector for Ukrainianization of the church life of Ukrainians. At the present stage we can talk about Ірина МАТІЙЧИН ISSN 2078-6794. Вісник Львівського університету. Серія мист-во. 2019. Вип. 20 79 convergence of two tendencies in Ukrainization of church music: the performance of ancient song samples in Church Slavonic with Ukrainian pronunciation; the performance of ancient church songs translated into Ukrainian, as well as the performance of liturgical and paraliturgical songs written in Ukrainian. Conclusions. Preserving an original linguistic basis in old compositions, liturgical singing becomes a conservative element of church services, because it prolongs an active life of the Church Slavonic language, in which a wide array of Ukrainian church songs was written.