Ukrainian Echoes in F. Chopin's Songs

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the Ukrainian-Lithuanian core of the Biedermeier lines of F. Chopin's heritage with a focus on his Songs, which objectively represented a significant component of the achievements of his compositional genius. The research methodology is based on the intonation approach of the Asafiev school in Ukraine and China, which focuses on the common genesis of human musical and speech culture and has been developed in the works of leading Ukrainian scholars, including those of D. Androsova, L. Horelik, O. Markova, O. Muravska, Chinese scholars Liu Binqiang, Ma Wei and many other specialists. The scientific novelty of the work is manifested in the originality of the perspective of cognition of F. Chopin's heritage in the organic reliance of the latter on Ukrainian and Lithuanian sources in the line of A. Mickiewicz's "Lithuanianness", as well as in the fact that for the first time a musicological analysis of the symbolism and semantics of the composer's songs, which he wrote from 1829 to 1847, that is, throughout his creative life, is presented. Conclusions. F. Chopin’s songs declare an essential aspect of the embodiment of the "thoughtfulness" (according to I. Belza) of Chopin's heritage, since they implement the highly artistic European "provincialism" that leads, through the discoveries of J. Lenz and M. Gogol, to verism as a powerful trend in European and world art. The Lithuanian-Ukrainian components of "Sarmatism", which nourished the creative discoveries of F. Chopin's entourage in the persons of A. Mickiewicz, S. Witwizki, B. Zalesski and other artists, promoted independent lines of the composer's artistic development. They differed from his Biedermeier performance and Mazurka culture, as well as from the romantic and protosymbolist achievements that dominate the composer's major forms. F. Chopin's songs constitute a line of creative searches, undervalued by both the author himself and art historians of pro-romantic inclination, which are in the direction of realistic and verist principles – the latter were, apparently, unexpected for the author himself, who did not dare to publish miniatures during his lifetime, which he wrote throughout his life.

Key words: musical genre, Ukrainian style, nationality in music, song, F. Chopin's style.