Weaving fates. Fryderyk Chopin – Viktor Kosenko

Abstract

Statement of the problem. The relevance of revising the picture of artistic life of the first decades of the 20th century in Ukraine from modern scientific positions does not require additional argumentation. This is equally necessary as for the sound palette of the time, and as for the biographical characteristics of composers creativity, which really are full of lacunas. In the process of a detailed study of Viktor Kosenko’s creativity, various allusions to the lifework of his favorite composer, Fryderyk Chopin, become quite noticeable. Thus the question arises: are we not dealing, alongside the incomprehensible play of fate, with a certain subconscious desire of the Ukrainian composer to “reconstruct” the events of the past? Recent research and publications. A typologically justified comparison of the Ukrainian composer with the Polish genius, in the context of professional activity solely, appears in the work by O. Komenda (2020: 266) devoted to the phenomenon of the creative personality. The publications of the last time include the reconstructions of V. Kosenko’s biography initial period and the descriptions of his preserved personal archival fund, carried out in the process of organizing the corresponding catalog (Mudryk, 2016; Volosatykh, 2021; Ivanova, 2019). M. Tomaszewski’s monograph “Chopin: Man, Creativity, Resonance” (2005) gives interesting materials for comparing the heroes of our study according to various parameters, as well as the illustrated popular science book by A. Brożek and J. Jadacki (2010). Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the study is to expand established ideas about the life and work of V. Kosenko, to introduce the composer’s creativity into the context of European musical culture, to overcome its sometimes outdated and somewhat primitive perception. In the first time, the thoughts on numerous points of intersection, tangential aspects, “mirror reflections” of creative activity and everyday life of two artists are proposed. Reaching the tasks set the complex interdisciplinary and cultural approaches, the historical and comparative methods were used. Results and conclusions. In general, the drawn parallels and analogies deepen and emphasize the contextual connections of Kosenko’s work, highlight the basic components of its “genetic code”, its continuity with the Western European romantic tradition (as well as sensitivity to the further evolution of the post-romantic situation); at the same time, they demonstrate the deep affinity of the spiritual constants of the Polish and Ukrainian national worlds. Overcoming the distorted outdated perception of V. Kosenko’s creativity and personality, considering them in a pan-European context based on modern scientific approaches are the promising directions for the musicologists’ further work on the reproduction of an up-to-date panorama of the artistic life of Ukraine in the first half of the 20th century as of a full-fledged component of world artistic and cultural processes.