With Regard to One Archetype of Ukrainian Musical Culture: Tripartite Music

Abstract

Among the archaic archetypes of the Ukrainian musical culture, less researched ones belong to Indo-European (more specific – Indo-Iranian) origin. One of these is a tripartite music ( troyista muzyka ) that preserved deep links with pre-Christian (Scythian, Sarmatian-Alanian, Old Slavic) rituals, individual genres of the Ukrainian epic and calendar ritual folklore. The tripartite word genesis is associated with the ancient trizna Slavic word, related to the concept of a triple sacrifice – water, earth and sky, which Slavs-pagans offered to their gods. The triple ritual sacrifice is tied with the idea of a World Tree, which symbolized the ternary vertical structure of our ancestors’ universe. By analogy, the concept of tripartite correlates with the musical-spatial coordinate – the texture, its trinomial dimension. In the ancient rituals which have been accompanied by the instrumental play, the music has been performed the function of three-level vertical structuring space. An ancient Slavic ritual of triple sacrifice was accompanied by a play on a ritual musical instrument-mediator as an integral attribute of the ritual. The instrument realized a three functional idea, combining and protecting the integrity of the Universe (the world of people, gods and ancestors). Hence, the application of the tripartite idea semantics (trinomial, three-functional) to the tripartite music concept, from its sources rooted in the ritual, and the interconnection of tripartite music with the ancient pagan worship becomes clear. The same function has been performed by the tripartite music of the folk-professional instrumental ensembles of the Ukrainians, which later grew up with a lush blossom in the music of the Ukrainians’ professional tradition. The number of the tripartite musicians’ ensemble members can range from two to five or more musicians. The instrumental and instrumental parts functions are irreversible. The idea of trinomial in the tripartite music has been realized through its texture, the functional interconnection of the composition of three levels, they are upper, middle, lower, which have been embodied through the musical instruments system.