Symbolism and Operas by Ukrainian Composers

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to identify symbolist stylistic features in operas by Ukrainian composers as an embodiment of the national characteristic feature of thinking in the art of the twentieth century and in opera in particular. The methodological basis is the intonation approach as an awareness of the genetic commonality of musical thinking and speech in the traditions of B. Asafiev and B. Yavorskyi's concepts in Ukraine, as presented in the works of the authors of this article, as well as in the works of O. Kozarenko, O. Markova, O. Roshchenko, O. Solomonova, V. Shulhina, among other scholars. The scientific novelty is determined by the historical need to understand the significance of the contribution of symbolism to the creative palette of Ukrainian authors, since the ideological in our country and aesthetic in the West rejection of the principles of symbolist thinking as connected with the religious foundations of the worldview has led to the silence of the realities of creative stimuli in art historical research. The latter is especially true of the modern avant-garde in Ukraine, which, represented by M. Boichuk, M. Roslavets and other famous artists today, have "dropped out" of the reviews of Ukrainian art of the twentieth century. Conclusions. The generalisation of the developments of recent decades, which are related to the awareness of symbolist tendencies in the foundations of the work of such masters as V. Barvinskyi, V. Kosenko, M. Leontovych, B. Liatoshynskyi, V. Rebikov, V. Silvestrov, K. Shymanovskyi, and other authors, allows us to assert that in the musical sphere, in opera, the symbolist worldview specifically occupies a prominent place. This is especially true of the trends in the early 1900s of M. Lysenko's work ("Taras Bulba", "Nocturne"), as well as the full implementation of the symbolist principles of expressiveness in M. Leontovych's opera "On the Mermaid's Easter", marked by "Debussyisms" and "Wagnerisms" in the themes and images and the general compositional solution of the one-act "opera-minute". In parallel to these discoveries, there are V. Rebikov's "psychodramas", of which the famous "Yalynka" from the beginning of the twentieth century is awarded the "palm" in the presentation of Debussyism-Scriabinism in the presentation of images-themes. This modernist trend also encompasses the expressiveness of B. Liatoshynskyi's operas, marked by the essence of symbolist-ambivalent manifestation of characters-symbols, characters-archetypes of the compositions of the named master and his many followers.