“A Sea Symphony” by R. Vaughan Williams and its literary source

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to identify the features of the artistic concept of “A Sea Symphony” by R. Vaughan Williams and the key role in its formation of the literary source of the work. The methodology of the work is based on the application of analytical, structural, comparative and intertextual methods, which makes it possible to expand the horizons of cognitive search and identify intertextual semantic connections within the studied phenomenon. The scientific novelty is that for the first time in Ukrainian musicology the literary source of “A Sea Symphony” by R. Vaughan Williams receives analytical coverage as an important component of the holistic artistic concept of the work. Conclusions. As a result of the work carried out, it was established that the poetic texts by W. Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” became the literary source of the symphony. They are both separate poems of the poet and fragments from his poems. Combining them, the composer builds his own compositional and dramatic logic, subordinate to the idea of revealing the significance of the mythological image of the sea, which appears in the symphony as a polysemantic archetypal complex. Features of the composer's work with a poetic text, the validity of certain notes, replications, transpositions while maintaining and accentuating its key role in building the musical and artistic whole are revealed. The specificity and principles of the distribution of poetic texts between parts of the work, as well as vocal parties, solo and choral, are determined.