On Valerii Antoniuk’s "Testament" Choir based on Taras Shevchenko’s Poem

Abstract

The purpose of the article consists in the study of modern Ukrainian composer V. Antoniuk’s reading of T. Shevchenko's program poem “Testament” using the means of musical expressiveness inherent in his individual manner with the use of the arsenal of artistic and technical tools of choral writing. Research methodology comprises a cultural approach, structural-systemic, complex and musicological analysis with generalisation of the results. Scientific novelty. Valerii Antoniuk's choral writing has been explored for the first time through the prism of the thesaurus of musical symbols and the concept of neo-romanticism (symbolism) in the context of the Ukrainian musical tradition. Conclusions. The genre of this work has been determined as “choir fresco”. The authors have found that neo-romanticism is an important component in V. Antoniuk's artistic worldview and philosophical paradigm, so the influence of romanticism poetics can be traced in the work. The archetypal images of Ukrainian artistic culture embedded in the work are analysed, which are simultaneously identified with reality, but also remain certain generalising symbols of the musical thesaurus of the author's style. The mood of the lyrical hero of the work is represented – the narrator-protagonist with the entire spectrum of his feelings, philosophical perception of the depths of the life fullness, merging with the surrounding world, feeling a part of it. The personal feelings and moods of the Ukrainian composer of the beginning of the 21st century are outlined and characterised. V. Antoniuk's understanding of the artistic and aesthetic idea, time-space, height and power accentuation of traditional singing of his native Shevchenko region by birth and origin, conglomerated with the means of modern compositional technique, revealed a deep level of the artist's individual mentality, which vividly certifies the ontological genesis of his creative identity.

Key words: mentality, image, symbolism, thesaurus, choir fresco, shevchenkiana.