Pedagogical value of studying the creative heritage of Mykola Leontovych in classes on choral arrangement

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Pedagogical value of studying the creative heritage of Mykola Leontovych in classes on choral arrangement

Ignatovska Oksana Ivanivna,

Leading Concertmaster of the Department of Choral Conducting and Vocals

and Methods of Music Education Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A.S. Makarenko

Karpenko Evgen Vitaliyovych,

Associate Professor of the Department of Stage Art, Variety and Directing Techniques Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A. S. Makarenko

The article examines the relevance of studying the work of the outstanding Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych. An attempt is made to prove the importance of students' awareness of the importance of the composer's innovative achievements both in the historical aspect and for the current stage of the development of Ukrainian choral art. It is emphasized that students' creative pursuits in the field of arrangement become much more effective if they have as a model works written by experienced composers who have passed many years of testing and have not lost their artistic significance to this day.

The relevance of the research lies in the need to intensify the educational process in choral arrangement classes in connection with increasing the role of independent work of the student during the distance learning period. Self-study requires carefully developed tasks, awareness of the methodology of their implementation, the presence of models on which the student could rely in his own creative pursuits. The works of Mykola Leontovych, in particular, can serve as such examples.

An intensive study of the peculiarities ofform formation, harmony and melodic development of choral voices can increase the skill level of future choral conductors-arrangers. Proposed methods ofstudying the works of M. Leontovych, which, in the opinion ofthe author, can contribute to the improvement of the educational process in classes on choral arrangement.

Leontovich's innovation deserves great gratitude and respect, because it was Leontovich who managed to create such a style of choral writing that has not lost its relevance even in our time. The historical aspect of understanding the significance of Leontovych's work is able to strengthen students' incentive to more thoroughly study the composer's works and his creative methods.

Students of higher education should understand that the attention to Leontovych and his legacy both by theoretical researchers and practicing performers is due to the perfection of the musical presentation, the logical development of the material, vivid imagery, and interesting musical solutions. Researchers pay attention to choral orchestration, which is characteristic of the composer's best works. A thorough study of Leontovych's creative output should become the school without which it is impossible to raise a serious specialist.

Key words: Mykola Leontovych, choral arrangement, choral orchestration, subvocal presentation, imitation polyphony, analysis, synthesis.

Ігнатовська Оксана, Карпенко Євген. Педагогічне значення вивчення творчої спадщини Миколи Леонтовича на заняттях з хорового аранжування

У статті розглядаються питання актуальності вивчення творчості видатного українського композитора Миколи Леонтовича. Здійснюється спроба доведення важливості усвідомлення студентами значення новаторських досягнень композитора як в історичному аспекті, так і для сьогоденного етапу розвитку українського хорового мистецтва. Наголошується, що творчі пошуки студентів у галузі аранжування стають значно ефективнішими, якщо вони мають за взірець твори, написані досвідченими композиторами, які пройшли багаторічну апробацію і не втратили свого художнього значення до сього дня.

Актуальність дослідження полягає в необхідності інтенсифікації навчально-виховного процесу на заняттях з хорового аранжування у зв'язку з підвищенням ролі самостійної роботи студента в період дистанційного навчання. Самостійні заняття потребують ретельно розроблених завдань, усвідомлення методології їхнього виконання, наявності взірців, на які можна було би спиратися студентові у власних творчих пошуках. Такими взірцями можуть слугувати, зокрема, твори Миколи Леонтовича.

Інтенсивне вивчення особливостей формоутворення, гармонії та мелодійного розвитку хорових голосів здатне підвищити рівень майстерності майбутніх хорових диригентів-аранжувальників. Запропоновані методи вивчення творів М. Леонтовича, які, на думку автора, можуть сприяти удосконаленню навчального процесу на заняттях з хорового аранжування.

Новаторство Леонтовича заслуговує великої вдячності і поваги, бо саме Леонтовичу вдалося створити такий стиль хорового письма, який не втратив актуальності і в наш час. Історичний аспект усвідомлення значення творчості Леонтовича здатний посилити у студентів спонукальний мотив до більш ретельного вивчення творів композитора та його творчих методів.

Здобувачі вищої освіти мають розуміти, що увага до Леонтовича та його спадщини як дослідників-теоретиків, так і практиків-виконавців зумовлена досконалістю музичного викладу, логічним розвитком матеріалу, яскравою образністю, цікавими музичними рішеннями. Дослідники звертають увагу на хорову оркестровку, яка властива кращим творам композитора. Ретельне вивчення творчого доробку Леонтовича має стати тією школою, без якої серйозного фахівця виховати неможливо.

Ключові слова: Микола Леонтович, хорове аранжування, хорова оркестровка, підголосковий виклад, імітаційна поліфонія, аналіз, синтез.

Introduction

mykola leontovych classes choral arrangement

Studying the course of choral arrangement, students of the Institute of Culture and Arts, who have chosen the profession of choral conductor, at a certain time face the task of performing an arrangement of a Ukrainian folk song for an unaccompanied choir.

The first steps of future masters are quite difficult, because such a task contains significant elements of a composer's work and requires a clear vision of the final result of creative searches.

The teacher's explanations concern, first of all, the careful identification of the harmonic underpinnings of the melody, the gradual development of the musical material, the disclosure of the content of the song with the help of a fairly wide palette of expressive means that modern artists have in their arsenal.

It is important to emphasize that students' creative pursuits are greatly facilitated if they have as a model works written by experienced composers who have passed many years of testing and have not lost their artistic significance to this day.

Such a model can be the work of Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych, this unsurpassed master of processing Ukrainian folk songs. Of course, a teacher cannot limit a student's erudition by focusing on the work of only one composer. However, Leontovych's work must occupy a worthy place among the names of choral composers, whose works are taken as a model in classes on choral arrangement.

N. Gerasimova-Persidska, M. Hordiychuk, N. Horyukhina, V. Dyachenko, P. Kozytskyi, S. Lyudkevich, S. Orfeev, I. Pyaskovsky and others devoted their works to the study of M. Leontovich's work. But it should be noted that the creative heritage of the composer contains many more such facets, the study of which can be of great importance for the education of masters of choral writing.

The relevance of the study lies in the need to intensify the educational process in choral arrangement classes in connection with increasing the role of the student's independent work. Self-study requires carefully developed tasks, awareness of the methodology of their implementation, the presence of models on which the student could rely in his own creative pursuits. The works of Mykola Leontovych, in particular, can serve as such models.

Research problem. The development of choral art, as a traditional form of Ukrainian music-making, is impossible without further improvement of the training of choral conductors. Choral arrangement occupies a significant place among the professional competencies of a choirmaster. Therefore, attention to the quality of performing creative tasks in choral arrangement by students should be at a high level. Editing of a Ukrainian folk song is one of the main creative tasks performed by student choirmasters during their studies.

The purpose of the research is to justify the need to study M. Leontovych's work in choral arrangement classes in the context of performing educational tasks.

Research objectives:

- Awareness of the significance of M. Leontovych's work in the historical aspect.

- Justification of the relevance of the composer's creative achievements.

- Formation of methodological principles for studying the works of M. Leontovych in the context of performing educational tasks on choral arrangement.

Awareness of the significance of M. Leontovych's work in the historical aspect

Investigating the significance of Mykola Leontovych's work for the formation of professional skills and abilities of students of higher education in choral arrangement, methods of analysis, comparison, discussion, creative experiment, synthesis, etc. are used. Students conduct a comparative analysis of choral arrangements by various authors, identify characteristic musical devices, peculiarities of voice management in scores. This is how students realize the huge step that the Ukrainian folk song processing school made in connection with the work of M. Leontovych. When recommending students to explore the creative path of Mykola Leontovych, it is important to draw attention to such aspects. First of all, through persistent studies, in which the composer's desire for perfection was realized, Leontovych made a surprising leap in terms of mastering the compositional technique and gained the opportunity to create world-class choral works. The talent of the composer, his creative rise to the heights of mastery logically cause respect and trust in the composer. Secondly, it is important to realize the historical merits of Leontovych, because he is not only the author of wonderful choral arrangements, but also the first to bring the choral arrangement of a Ukrainian song to the world level.

Mykola Leontovych knew and loved folk songs well, but it must be admitted that he did not have a professional musical education, unlike Mykola Lysenko, who graduated from the Leipzig Conservatory. Leontovych had an intuitive sense of the desired choral style, but he was not confident in the fidelity of the direction of creative searches. Thus, already in his early works, the composer made attempts to use polyphony, but at the same time, as Leontovych's teacher B. Yavorskyi recalls, “he was panic-stricken” about free handling of the text: 1) repetitions, 2) fragmentations, 3) repeatedly spoken text [5, p. 18]. Classes with B. Yavorsky allowed Leontovych to gain the creative confidence that a composer needs. For him, the question no longer arose: “Maybe it's forbidden?”. During a short period of hard work, Leontovych managed to improve his creative style and composing technique to such an extent that he managed to write such a masterpiece as “Schedryk”, known all over the world, even under the supervision of Yavorskyi. “M. Leontovich's choral arrangement “Shchedryk” is a real masterpiece" [4, p. 181].

Some young choirmasters exaggerate Yavorsky's role in writing this masterpiece. Like, “Schedryk” was almost written by Yavorsky. But Yavorskyi did not write “Schedryka”, he was not given to write music of such a level. Although more than one generation of musicians is already grateful to him for the fact that he provided Leontovich's talent with a solid theoretical and practical foundation. A talented teacher, he managed to direct the composer's creative pursuits in a fruitful direction. And it was Mykola Leontovych who managed to fill the given form and breathe life into the provided musical and expressive means. In the future, he repeatedly proved that “Shchedryk” is not random luck, but a natural result of persistent efforts, the result of which were dozens of wonderful arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs (for example, “Dudaryk”, “Cossack is carried”, “Pryalya”, etc.). The degree of Leontovich's giftedness cannot help but surprise. At the same time, his desire for self-improvement, selfless work on the development of creative skill, which the composer spared no time and effort, is surprising.

Researchers of Leontovych's work spoke quite negatively about the choral arrangements of his predecessors. P. Kozytskyi, characterizing the designs of Mykola Lysenko, writes that the style of the designs was “too dry, intellectual, foreign-ethnographic. Pre-invented techniques appeared in it and there was no delving into the soul of the song” [4, p. 3]. Kozytsky also criticizes Ya. Stepovoy's treatments.

Of course, such an outstanding musician as Mykola Lysenko sought to reveal the meaning of the folk song in his own arrangements. But due to objective reasons at that time it was impossible. Lysenko did not manage to penetrate as deeply into the soul of a folk song as Leontovych did. Although Mykola Lysenko marveled at the sophistication of Ukrainian folk polyphony, the composer relied mainly on the traditions of Western European music in his arrangements. Less significant composers limited themselves to the harmonization of folk melodies.

Leontovych's compositional activity not only enriched the repertoire of Ukrainian choirs, but it asserted truly innovative ideas in the field of processing folk songs. Leontovych managed to implement the techniques of a real subvocal presentation, when each part is really a variant of the main melody; the composer widely introduced the couplet-variation form, which is characteristic of folk performance; Leontovych proposed the techniques of choral orchestration, which, at the same time, was perfectly combined with the great vocal performance of the choral parts.

Leontovich's innovation deserves great gratitude and respect, because it was Leontovich who managed to create such a style of choral writing that has not lost its relevance even in our time. The historical aspect of understanding the significance of Leontovych's work is able to strengthen students' incentive to more thoroughly study the composer's works and his creative methods.

Justification of the relevance of the composer's creative achievements

The awareness of the relevance of Mykola Leontovych's work sometimes does not come immediately to young choral conductors. The organicity ofthe musical fabric inLeontovych's works is a given, which is not always adequately appreciated. Inexperienced specialists sometimes confuse the naturalness of the development of musical fabric with excessive simplicity. However, one should not make hasty conclusions, the question of the relevance of Leontovych's creative heritage for modern masters of choral writing should be studied by every student. As already mentioned, Leontovich's creative achievements and the culture of his choral style were highly appreciated by N. Gerasimova-Persidska, M. Gordiychuk, N. Horyukhina, V Dyachenko, P. Kozytskyi, S. Lyudkevich,

S. Orfeev, I. Pyaskovsky and others. Of course, the opinion of authoritative researchers, which students need to familiarize themselves with, should attract attention to the composer's works. The fact that “Schedryk” is repeatedly heard in American films and is even considered an “American song” in America also indicates that the composer's works are still relevant in our time.

The significance of Leontovych's work is not limited to the revolutionary discoveries of the beginning of the 20th century. It is difficult to find a Ukrainian choral group whose repertoire does not include works by Leontovych. Leontovych's works are performed by children's groups, amateur choirs, his compositions are performed by leading professional choirs, such as “Dumka”, “Kyiv”, “Khreshchatyk”, “Oreya”, choir named after H. Verevka, etc. Such popularity of the outstanding artist's works should also convince inexperienced musicians of the need to immerse themselves in the world of wonderful arrangements written by Leontovych.

P. Kozytskyi explains the success of Mykola Leontovych as follows: “He bowed not to the melodic pattern, but to the essence: he was looking for the song's “soul” and dreamed of reflecting it in the sound symbols of the arrangement” [4, p. 8].

The composer achieves great skill in the use of musical and expressive means, which are subordinate to the task of revealing the artistic image of the work. The composer's works still sound fresh today, they are devoid of archaism. Even the composer's simple one-part compositions, such as “Grytsyu, Grytsyu, to work”, “The boat is sailing” or “Good evening, girl” bear the stamp of a great master who was able, at first glance, with insignificant strokes, to breathe energy into the development of musical material of a short song. The variety of artistic images, the convenience of choral parts, taking into account the specifics of vocal voices - all this makes the composer's works attractive to performers. Leontovych uses the linear development of choral parts in a strange combination with a sense of the harmonic underpinning of the melody.

The composer varies choral timbres, which again and again forces us to talk about choral orchestration. The composer did not use an aleatoric technique, or something like a dodecaphonic system. However, those elements of compositional technique that Leontovych mastered a century ago are still used by choral composers today. It should be noted that not all composers manage to achieve such a unity of voices in subvocal presentation, convenience and expressiveness of voice management, variety of timbre colors in the sound of the choir.

A specialist choirmaster must go through a school of choral writing. And it is expedient to have the works of Leontovych, which are an example of the high culture of choral performance, as a model on which a young conductor should rely.

Methodological principles of studying the works of M. Leontovich in the context of performing educational tasks on choral arrangement

Increasing the role of the student's independent work against the background of shortening the study period requires the creation of a certain system of methods that could be effectively used both during classroom classes and by students themselves. In order for students to understand the importance of Leontovych's creative heritage in shaping the artistic and value orientations of future arrangers, it is important to thoroughly familiarize yourself with the composer's works and do not limit yourself to 1-2 scores.

The method of observation in music turns into listening and playing scores. A general positive impression can be a strong enough basis for further study of the composer's works.

The discussion method can bear fruit after the observation stage. The teacher should draw students' attention to the specifics of the sound of Leontovych's choral works - their figurative variety, expressiveness of climaxes, choral orchestration.

Further deepening requires melodic and harmonic analysis. These methods make it possible to understand the peculiarities of Leontovich's polyphony, the melodization of choral voices, the combination of smooth voice leading with expressive jumps and, at the same time, to reveal the peculiarities of the vertical development. The composer has a good sense of the harmonic underpinning of the main melody, but allows the voices to intertwine in unexpected dissonances, which, at the same time, do not contradict the figurative sphere of the work. According to the musicologist Ihor Pyaskovskyi, “Astringent harmonic consonances are formed here with the autonomous linear movement of the voices” [6, p. 130].

Singing works or individual parts from Leontovych's scores can give good results in terms of educating future arrangers. When creating his own score, the student should also sing the written parts in order to identify awkward or unclear fragments.

Analysis of Leontovych's scores allows us to reveal the peculiarities of choral orchestration. The composer not only widely uses the techniques of exclusion and inclusion of choral parts in the development of musical material, but also creates whole variations where, for example, the bass is excluded (“Rolling Staf', “Pryalya”). In addition, by changing the tessitura ratios of the voices, the composer discovers one or another choral timbre during the work, the owner of which temporarily finds himself in a relatively higher tessitura.

Leontovych's choral orchestration is not instrumental, but purely vocal in nature. Because the convenience of parts for singing cannot be explained by their instrumental nature.

It is important to carefully analyze the form of Leontovych's elaborate treatments and identify means of material variation (for example, textural or timbre variation). Perfection of musical form is one of Leontovych's highest achievements.

Leontovych's vision of the form of the work is directly related to the figurative content. Even when performing homework, the composer sought to subordinate all expressive means, and form in particular, to the problem of revealing the content of the song.

Having mastered the choral arrangement, young choirmasters move on to synthesis - to creating their own scores, the quality of which will be influenced by studying Leontovych's works. Undoubtedly, it is impossible to achieve such culture of voice management, expressiveness of choral voices, logic of linear and harmonious development as that of an unsurpassed luminary in a short time. However, such a statement of the question should not discourage the desire to master the arrangement. Processing of folk songs is a very popular genre and it is worth mastering the technique of creating such scores. Sometimes the processing of a folk song is the only way to preserve it, because folk performers are gradually disappearing, and most of the songs used by Leontovych are no longer sung by the people. But they live in the repertoire of Ukrainian choral groups. The successful processing of a folk song can be compared to the cutting of precious stones. That's why this genre is alive and arrangers should pay due attention to it.

After completing tasks on creating arrangements of folk songs, it is useful to apply the discussion method, not to limit yourself to correcting mistakes. The discussion requires great tact and benevolence, because the future masters of choral writing at the first stage of their creative journey do not yet have the confidence that allows them to argue the significance of their own creative findings. It is important to contribute to the formation of such confidence, strengthening the desire to write choral works, and the development of aesthetic taste.

The limits of the scientific article do not allow for a more thorough presentation of the arguments in favor of the study of Mykola Leontovich's work by arranging students. However, as practice shows, it is the reliance on the best examples of Ukrainian choral music, among which the works of M. Leontovych occupy a prominent place, that allows novice arrangers to acquire those valuable guidelines that will help to improve their own creative style in the future.

Disscussion

1. Carrying out a comparative analysis of choral compositions by Ukrainian composers of different times, students of higher education significantly expand their horizons regarding approaches to the processing of folk songs, harmony, voicing and form.

2. Studying the works of Mykola Leontovych draws attention to the need to create comfortable and expressive choral parts in arrangements.

3. Using the example of the works of Mykola Leontovich, students master approaches to creating a verse-variation form and building a logical development of musical material.

4. Studying examples of such masterpieces as the works of Mykola Leontovich significantly increases the motivation to master arrangement skills.

Results

Thus, the study of Leontovych's works in classes on choral arrangement in conditions of intensification of the educational process is relevant and important. Future choirmasters must be aware of both the historical significance of the composer's work and his place in today's Ukrainian choral culture.

The perfection of Leontovych's works can be known only by carefully studying them. The first stage of studying Leontovych's works is observation, which in the musical sphere acquires the meaning of listening, playing and singing scores. Interest in studying the creative heritage of the luminary of choral music cannot arise from those who are not familiar with his work.

Students should understand that the attention to Leontovych and his legacy both by researchers-theoreticians and practitioners-performers is due to the perfection of the musical presentation, the logical development of the material, vivid imagery, and interesting musical solutions. Researchers pay attention to choral orchestration, which is characteristic of the composer's best works. A thorough study of Leontovych's creative output should become the school without which it is impossible to raise a serious specialist.

Literature:

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References:

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