OLENA DYACHKOVA

THE PASTORALE IN UKRAINIAN PROFESSIONAL MUSIC OF THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES: GENRE, MODE, AND CONCEPT

OLENA DYACHKOVA

Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine uccellino.a.cantare@gmail.com

In Ukrainian modern music, the word “pastorale” is quite common in the titles of works. The most famous compositions are the “Symphony of Pastorales” (Symphony No. 5) and the string trio “Submissive Pastorale” by Yevhen Stankovych, as well as numerous pastorales in Valentyn Silvestrov’s micro- and macrocycles.

Pastorale imagery can also be presented in compositions without direct mention of the word “pastorale” in the title. And finally, the pastorale’s semantics can be created by the special timbre combination.

Aim: In general, in Ukrainian contemporary music, the pastorale genre indicates an artistic dialogue with the musical traditions of different eras and national schools. The study of the features of this dialogue will make it possible to reveal the specifics of the pastorale and its signification.

Research background: Alla Korobova explains that the pastorale is a complex musical genre having a fairly long historical evolution, ambiguous parameters, numerous genre subspecies, and stylistic and national modifications. To these observations, the following could be added: In the twentieth century, the semantics of the classical pastorale were actively used in the works of the socialist realism style. Since the 1960s, alternative pastorale images have appeared in Ukrainian poetic cinema (the films of S. Parajanov or Y. Illenko). As the Ukrainian composers (L. Hrabovsky, M. Skoryk, Y. Stankovych) worked in cinematography, we can assume that the semantics of the musical pastorale was intensively innovated in film music.

Methodology: The work was carried out based on the studies of A. G. Korobova, Y. V. Nazaikinsky, D. S. Likhachev, and E. S. Zinkevich.

Results and conclusions: In modern Ukrainian music, the pastorale is presented in several structural-artistic forms: as a genre (V. Gubarenko), as a genre of the second plan (genre mode) (L. Hrabowski, Z. Almashi) and as semantic concepts. In the latter case, the pastorale is associated with the artistic realization in music of the mythological concepts of Orpheus (V. Silvestrov, Y. Stankovych) and the Lost Paradise (Y. Stankovych, L. Hrabovsky).

Keywords: genre, pastorale, genre modus, Ukrainian music, music signification.

Olena Dyachkova is an assistant professor at the P.I. Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine. She teaches the courses Contemporary Music: Trends and Concepts; Music Criticism; and the History of Music. Candidate of Science (2000). The title of her doctoral thesis was “Metaphor as a factor of artistic activity of the music works.” She has been a member of the National Composers’ Union of Ukraine since 2001. She is a member of the International Musical Society (IMS, since 2019). Her fields of interest include music analysis, semiotics, interpretation, contemporary music, music and literature, and music in cinema. More information available at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1131-0552