Victor Stepurkо’s choral heritage and its functioning in the contemporary performing space

Abstract

The aim of the study is to consider the concert performance of choral works by V. Stepurko, whose creativity is one of the leading branches in the development of contemporary Ukrainian choral music.The object of the research is the choral music of Victor Stepurko. The subject is a concert practice of Ukrainian choirs that perform composer’s music.Research methodology. The following methods are used in the article: historical-biographical – it is aimed to study the composer’s choral heritage; system-complex, through which the components of choral composition are considered. The analysis of performances is aimed to reveal the peculiarities the artist’s oeuvres by choir collectives. With the help of musicological method some genre features of performed works are revealed and their character in concert programs by choral groups is determined.Relevance of the study. The spiritual choral work of V. Stepurko is described on the example of performing practice of various choir collectives; the author has revealed problems of concert performance of composer’s music. The concert performance of his works (“Dyvo-Dyvneye”, diptych “Supramental dream”) was analyzed for the first time.The author carried out a brief genre analysis of choral works of the composer, especially the spiritual choral music, leading in his work. Being basic in the genres of classical music, V. Stepurko boldly experiments and modernizes them, embodying sacredness and spirituality, preaching through the voices of instruments and singers the depth and grandeur of God’s Word. The works of the composer emotionally affect the listener, his music is easy to perceive as a result of appealing totraditional intonational sources, folk-ephemeral structures, and complex – thanks to deep intellectual decoding, it is verified and balanced with the use of formal means. The author considers the characteristic feature of his vocal forms and their correspondence to poetic structures, the logic of poetic syntactic norms. He demonstrates the professional technique of writing in a clear musical form, which makes it possible to know his soul, to plunge into his musical world.The author raises the issues of the possibility to perform in concert secular activities the religious themes and genres. The peculiarities of the creation of some works by V. Stepurko (“Dyvo- Dyvneye”, 1996; diptych “Supramental Dream”, 1997) are highlighted in the article.The performance of V. Stepurko’s music by different groups is characterized: in particular, the choir ensemble from Makarov “Holy-circle”, created by the composer himself in 1992. It was after the execution by this collective such works as “Litany of Supplication”, “Believe” and “Hear the Lord”, the gradual increase of the composer’s popularity began.The significance of V. Stepurko’s music in festivals – “Musical premiere of the season” and “Golden-domed Kiev”– has been highlighted.V. Stepurko’s music sounds not only in Ukraine but also abroad. The Kyiv Chamber Choir performed one of the early works of V. Stepurko – “Thanks to the Lord”, which was written for a choir with a saxophone, it has been performed in Denmark at the festival “Copenhagen – European Capital of Culture’96”, in Vatican City (2000), in the USA (2002) in the famous Carnegie Holl. Poltava chamber choir “Gilea” under the direction of Pavel Lymansky in 2000 at the competition in Italy performed the works “Litany of Supplication” and “Lord Have mercy”, having won the title of laureate of the second prize and the first place in the nomination “For the best performance of spiritual music”.Thanks to the choir “Kyiv”, choral works by Ukrainian composers, including works by V. Stepurko, have always sounded in a broad cultural context. Thus, in 1996, his music at the Kyiv Music Fest Festival was performed alongside the works of prominent foreign composers such as J. Tavener, A. Onegger, R. Tvardovsky, as well as other contemporary Ukrainian authors – Yu. Alzhnev, M. Shukh, C. Lunyov, L. Dychko.Fateful for the creative cooperation of V. Stepurko with the choir “Kyiv” was 1997, when at the festival “Golden-domed Kiev” this collective performed the entire written choir’s works of the composer at that time. He himself called this concert “his second birth”.Findings and conclusions. Today Victor Stepurko’s works can be heard at concerts, festivals, assemblies and other musical events. His music sounds being performed by various choir: chamber choir “Kyiv”, its artistic director M. Gobdych has released several recordings with works by V. Stepurko, they are called “Ukrainian Christmas”, “Christmas with chamber choir “Kyiv”, “Monologues of the ages”; Chamber Choir “Khreshchatyk” (artistic director P. Strutz), choir of the National Television and Radio Company (artistic director Yu. Tkach), chamber choir of the R. M. Glier Institute of Music (artistic director Z. Thomson) and many other collectives often perform the works of the composer. V. Stepurko’s choral work is increasingly attracting the attention of researchers. The issues of its concert performance are equally relevant and interesting.