About the compositional peculiarities of the secular miniatures in Volodymyr Zybitskyi’s choral oeuvre

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Secular miniature being one of the varieties of the choral miniature genre received its original interpretation in Volodymyr Zybitskyi's works. Each of the examined miniatures of the said genre variety has a programeness principle connected with specification and music concretization of the specific image introduced in a poetic text. Although the text is the key factor of almost every choral piece (with the exception of vocalizing), which in general testifies to the choral music programmeness, imagery of the literary and poetic texts is reflected not in all compositions. musical zubitsky compositional choral

The purpose of the paper is to find out the compositional features of the genre of choral miniature of secular subject matter and to reveal the basic principles of their realization in V. Zybitskyi's choral works "My Love" ("Моя любов"), "Sons" ("Сини").

The analysis of the latest studies and publications. The researches dealing with the musical composition and form had been extensively developing in musicology of the late XIX early XX centuries. These are the works by V. Zaderatskyi [3], E. Nazaykinskyi [4, 5], E. Ruchievskaya [6], N. Scherbakova [8]. The study of V. Zubitskyi's choral music is marked by a considerably lower intensity by A. Tereshchenko [7], V. Belikova [1], M. Varakuta.

The summary. The secular miniature firstly comes to the Ukrainian professional music, for centuries connected with the practice of the church divine service, in ХVII-XVIII centuries. This phenomenon was caused by the processes of the gradual secularization of the church cantatory art. N. Herasimova-Persidskaya and other researchers of the part singing style in the Russian and Ukrainian music of the mentioned period noted the significant role of the folk-song tones, dance rhythms, cantus facture, in other words everyday layer was penetrating into the part concerts and acquiring the meaning of the set style peculiarities of the said genre [2]. In the sphere of cantus music the secular inception is manifested in a greater degree because in addition to the spiritual canta (psalms), the canta of other content (lyrical, comic, everyday, etc.) set up on a different intonational basis were composed at that time.

In the second half of the XVIII century the synthesis of secular and spiritual principles took place in D. Bortnanskyi and M. Berezovskyi's works. The composers educated in Italy were well aware of the latest achievements of secular musical art. In the spiritual oeuvres of the authors written for the choir a cappella a significant influence of the secular element introduced by opera and instrumental Italian music is revealed.

During the XIX century the secular line in the Ukrainian composers' choral works is conclusively released of the church music influence and begins to progress independently. The driving force for the process is the development of the choral performance or community singing that appeared from the 40's of the XIX century and led to the organization of the national choral school, which flowered in the late XIX early XX centuries.

One of the reasons of the secular line development in the choral oeuvre is the necessity to renew the repertoire for the amateur groups of the choral singing established across the board in the Ukrainian cities and communities.

Since the 20's of the XX century the secular line of the choral oeuvre of the Ukrainian composers has become predominant and over time the dominant one. The Ukrainian composers of the XX century advert to the best poetic samples of the Ukrainian, Russian and foreign authors and compose numerous choral works of the secular subject matter.

V. Zybitskyi adverting to the secular variety of the choral miniature genre pays a great attention to it as he is attracted by the original poetic oeuvre and ample opportunities for the realization of the author poetry in music, especially in the choral miniature. The implementation of the author's text in the secular choral miniatures, the reflection of its compositional features, plotline, imaginative characteristics, etc., in turn speaks for the program character peculiarities in the secular miniatures.

V. Zybitskyi choses the poetic texts pretty thoroughly in the field of the secular choral miniatures. On the one hand, he addresses the heritage of the Ukrainian culture genius T.G. Shevchenko ("In our lands on Earth "), whose poetry has been approved in the choral music long ago; on the other hand, the composer actively uses the poetic oeuvre of the modern authors (P. Pidgoretskyi, S. Demchuk and L. Kostenko).

In his secular choral miniatures V. Zybitskyi leans toward the authenticity of the images and moods of musical interpretation embodied in the poetic texts and to the reconstruction of the basic idea of each of the poems with the help of the musical language transmitted by the poets by means of word and rhyme.

In his secular miniatures V. Zybitskyi touches on simple and at the same time crucial and important issues, such as a question of life and death, maternal love ("Sons", text by S. Demchuk), search for inner harmony ("My love", text by P. Pidgoretskyi). The miniatures embody a whole range of the emotional states: from love lyrics to tragedy.

An imaginative concept of the choral miniature "My love" (text by P. Pidgoretskyi) is based on the idea of search for the inner harmony by a person. Both verse and music are penetrated with a bright flamy temperament, love of life, an unrestrained desire of a hero to know his inner world.

The strophic text structure is directly reflected in the compositional structure of the choral miniature written in a simple binary form both parts of which correspond to the stanzas of the text. Each of the parts is marked by the capacity, eventivity and a high degree of musical thought concentration.

The first part of the binary form is written in a form of a unitary development period. Three phasicity is noticed in the mentioned part composition: the initial intonational pulse (lines 1-4), its development (bars 5-8) and generalization (bars 9-10) are clearly distinguished from the general stream of musical exposition.

The pulse phase is introduced by the exposition of the thematic corn (primarily the imitative-polyphonic one) the tones of which will become the base of the whole miniature. The developmental phase is marked by active stretto-imitation statements of the reduced intonations of the theme, which cover each of the choral sections. The completion phase presents a concise but rather active marcato choral recitation with its peculiar rhythmic sameness of all the voices united in the high-power chordal complexes.

The second part of the miniature generally inherits the construction of the first one (pulse, development, generalization). Thus, there appears a certain balance between the first two phases. This leads to their unification. This is largely facilitated by the location of both phases in a musical form, namely in the third quarter of a simple binary form on which the function of the developmental middle falls. The compression of the developmental phase and the need for its compensation to achieve the equilibrium in the composition structure of the second part contributed to the expansion of the completion phase, which became the climax zone and the logical outcome of the entire miniature.

The mono-intonational nature is typical of the subject matter of the choir. All the musical and thematic plot of the miniature grows out of the initial iambic motif based on the rhythmic formula of three eighths a quarter with a metric accent on the last tone. This motif maintaining the rhythmic stability throughout each form part acquires various melodic variations: from the sound repetition and conjunct motion mainly in the first part to the broad upward leaps at intervals exceeding an octave (ninth and diminished twelfth), which fills the main theme of the choral miniature with the different semantic gradations.

A short iambic motif gives rise to the construction of larger structural formations musical phrases alternating in accordance with the principle of the contrastive complementarity. A certain roundness of the intonations, in which the waltz movement is felt is specific to the first phrase exposed in the soprano section at the beginning of the miniature. In contrast, the following phrase has much more activity. The used in it "leap rhythm" composed by means of the rhythmic figure "two sixteenth eighth" triggers associations with the images of the horsemen mentioned in the poetic text ("like two horsemen in a fight"). At the same time the images of the horsemen are a metaphor for the poet, by means of which he explains the confrontation of the antagonistic feelings (love and hate) that occurs in his soul. This confrontation is recorded in the intonational structure of the initial musical phrases, which arising from a single thematic corn (metaphorically from the heart) are both contrasting (like hate) and complementary (like love).

The composition is marked by the freshness of the musical language, by the "acerbity" of the chord concords. The polyphony grows out of unison and becomes the result of its splitting. Seconds as well as the enharmonic equal to them the augmented intervals (increased prime and reduced third) as the basis for expanding the melodic line and the structural component in the formation of the harmonic vertical structure are constructive elements of a polyphonic canvas here. The scale of the main tonality (a-moll) is diatonic and enriched by the modal tones that appear in each of the choral sections while in the musical canvas there are not only a consistent introduction of diatonic and modal variations of the scale levels within a single section, but also a simultaneous combination of them in the different sections.

The miniature is performed in an agile tempo (Allegretto, robusto) except for the final five-act (Grave), which is the result of the previous development. The music process is rash and dynamic. It captures with its energy and emotional openness, because in the heart of a composer as in the heart of a poet is no place for hate, the heart is filled with hot, ardent and passionate love. The choice between hate and love in favor of the latter is the result of the comprehension of one's inner self covering the process of inner harmony gaining.

The choral miniature "Sons", text by S. Demchuk, represents a completely different imagery and sums up a dramatic, filled with pain and the inner stress narrative, in which the tragedy of a mother, who lost all her seven sons in the war is revealed.

In the text of the poetic authentic source this event is narrated very restrained as if the narrator speaks with effort overcoming the pain, barely restraining tears.

A wide range of emotional states of the text is expressed with maximum fullness in the music of the choral miniature from humility and submissiveness to fate to an insane explosion of despair. For this purpose the composer selects the necessary means of the musical language and uses the expressive possibilities of the choir.

The compositional structure of the choral miniature inherits the principle of a poetic text structure consisting of two four-line stanzas. The miniature splits into two parts, the totality of which forms a simple binary form. Both parts are preceded by textless structures (corresponding bars 1-10 and 30-39), which perform the function of an instrumental introduction preceding the presentation of the main theme (in the vocal miniatures this material would be given to a piano section). Similarly, a musical material that completes this miniature (bars 58-66) is set up like the instrumental conclusion.

The imaginative-emotional development in each of the parts has a clearly expressed crescendo growing character. This is emphasized by a prolonged movement towards a dramatic climax and a rapid decline of dynamic tension immediately after its achievement (the first dynamic wave being a prototype of future dramatic climaxes appears already in the introductory period). Thus, the composer shows pain and despair of the mother, who lost her children at war. The image of the female protagonist is personified in the second part of the miniature, in a solo soprano section filled with expressive cry-lamentation intonations.

A gradual crystallization of the tones of the main theme as well as its subsequent exposition and development appear in the first part of the choir. The stage of crystallization, the formation of the topic falls on the introduction construction (Lento, doloroso), the stages of exposition and development fall on the main, "text" part (Largo, mesto).

The introductory composition like any instrumental introduction plunges us in the imaginative construction of the composition and creates mood, that will dominate in the miniature. The introduction is based on introducing the narrow-volume intonational cells (tetrad and tertian) into the all choral sections. The theme will afterwards be formed from the said cells.

The initial key is g-moll. However, it is represented in a modified form with the lowered degrees (I, II, IV, VII both natural and lowered). In the certain sections the module scale is represented in a reduced form. In the sections of the female voices that correspond to each other on the principle of "band" two-voice texture with the tertian second (which is not always followed due to the mobility and melodic freedom of voices) fragments of a modal scale are presented, but they are absent in the male sections. In the soprano section these are tones corresponding to VI, VII and Ih degrees in combination with I, II, IIh, III and IVh degrees (the latter one is the peak of the scale). Since the intonational cells that simultaneously sound in different sections of the mixed choir and are constructed on the different tone sequences are variants of one chant, their interaction forms a heterophonic polyphony similar to the folk-song one, for which such modal modifications are rather typical. Consequently, the composer uses the means of texture-modal pastiche of the choral polyphony in the introduction, which is spread in the folk-song oeuvre.

The intonational contours of the main theme of the choral miniature are almost an exact "copy" of the chant that opens the introductory composition. There is also an initial conjunct "run-up" before the leap and an upward leap proper, its significance is emphasized by a metric accent (a strong beat) and a rhythmic slowdown (the enlargement of the duration). The emotional restraint which is a reflection of the narrative nature of the exposition is typical of the theme. The composer uses the choral line up capabilities quite economically gradually introducing sections based on the intonationally close matter. In such a case the imitation effect is recreated with the different time distances of the voices introduction (one quarter is between the tenor and the alto sections, two bars are between the tenor and bass sections). This is explained by the freedom of linear development of the sections, the totality of which forms the polyphony of the heterophonic texture.

In the second sentence (Poco con moto, bars 20-29) the main theme undergoes the significant rhythmic transformations inquiring a great precision of the rhythmic canvas. This gives it more similarity with the introductory chant. Here for the first time the image of the composition protagonists appears sons, so both the theme and the character of its exposition become more robust and emotionally rich.

A brief but very dynamic emotional rise leads to a bright culminating point located at the end of the part (bars 27-28). This is a kind of "scream of desperation" which brings tragic flavors to the narration.

The second part of the miniature (Drammatico, piu mosso) is also opened with a textless introductory construction based on the same chant structures as the introduction to the first part. Without losing its meaning during whole second part, the structures become the background material for the developing solo soprano of the dramatic cry-lamentation intonations abruptly turning into the scream in the said section.

In this section the exacerbation of the emotional and psychological state that "has burst" in the culmination zone takes place. For this purpose, the composer distinguishes a solo voice from the soprano part, personifying the image of the mother and opposes the soloist part to an array of choral voices giving it a special intonational construction.

The differentiation of the choral array into relief and background with the isolation of the solo section was necessary for the compositor for singling out the image of the female protagonist from the mass of the people. In the general ensemble the choir is an equal participant of the performing process in spite of the fact that it is given an accompanying role. The choir personifying the image of the nation not only comments on the events watching mother's suffering from the outside but also sympathizes, empathizes, supports, perceiving personal maternal tragedy as a nationwide grief.

Conclusions. In V. Zybitskyi's secular miniatures a closed connection between the manifestation of the miniature phenomenon in the different spheres of a sacral culture (literature, poetry, pictorial art and theatre) is revealed. In the compositional structure minor forms prevail: a simple binary with a developed inner multiphase composition, imitative-polyphonic methods, mono-intonation of the thematic invention, texture differentiation of the background and relief. The national distinctness is manifested in melodies, rhythmic and modal features. The melodic lines of the choral miniatures of this type are very plastic. They diverse in rhythm and "play" with many modal colors and melodies of choral sections have a distinctly expressed vocal nature. The tone row is concretized due to the text authentic source, in other words programmeness elements, wherefore the important features of a secular miniature are portrait, concentrating on the recreating a protagonist without showing minor details or engaging minor characters, the representation of one dramatis persona (a similar phenomenon is observed in a portrait miniature), firstperson narrative (similar to how it happens in a one-man theater), lack of plot connected with the absence of time for its development (as in a literary story). It translates to laconism of form, means and a performance line up (choir a cappella without orchestra participation).

References

1. Belikova, V. (2003) Characteristics of V.Zybitskyi's musical language by the example of the choir "Vesilna". The musicology of Dnipropetrovsk region: Collected works [Edited by Y.M. Novikov] [in Ukrainian].

2. Herasimova-Persidskaya, N. (1990) The formation of the choral compositions principles in the Russian and Ukrainian music of the XVII early XVIII centuries. Editor in chief E. A. Ruchevskaya. L.: LOLNC named after N. A. Rymskyi-Korsakov [in Russian].

3. Zaderatskyi, V. (1995) The musical form. Moscow: Music [in Russian]

4. Nazaykinskyi, E. (1982) Logic of the musical composition. Moscow: Music [in Russian].

5. Nazaykinskyi, E. (2009) The poetics of the musical miniature. Moscow: SRC "Moscow conservatory" [in Russian].

6. Ruchievskaya, E. (1998) Classical musical form. St. Petersburg [in Russian].

7. Tereshchenko, A. (1990) Volodymyr Zybitskyi's "Chumatsky songs". National oeuvre and ethnography. Kyiv [in Ukrainian].

8. Shcherbakova, N. (2009) The principles of the compositional integrity in Y. Ishenko's vocal oeuvre. Music studies PhD thesis. Kyiv [in Ukrainian].

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