The Album “Guernica” by the “KAT” band: a Musical Representation of a Painting by Pablo Picasso

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31318/2522-4190.2022.133.257316

Keywords:

synthesis of arts, concept album, rock art, “Guernica”

Abstract

Relevance of the study. Rock art has a syncretic origin and gravitates towards multi-level synthesis throughout the history of its development. Incorporating elements from other art forms is an essential characteristic of rock music. The trends in the interaction of art forms in the field of rock culture are considered on the example of the concept album “Guernica” by the “KAT” band, dedicated to the cognominal painting by Pablo Picasso. The main source of analysis is the audio recording of the album. The “Guernica” album is a vivid example of an artistic dialogue that takes place on the literary, musical and visual planes.

The scientific novelty of the study. The concept album “Guernica” by the Ukrainian hardcore band “KAT”, dedicated to the painting of the same name by Pablo Picasso, for the first time became the object of musicological analysis and is considered as an example of synthesizing trends in the field of rock art.

The main objective of the study is to determine the levels of artistic interactions between the concept album “Guernica” by the “KAT” band and the original painting by Pablo Picasso.

The methodology is based on the contextual method (to consider rock art as a synthetic phenomenon) as well as methods of holistic (to describe the album), comparative and intermedial analysis (to identify the levels of artistic interaction between a piece of music and the original painting).

Results of the study. The concept album “Guernica” by the hardcore band named “KAT” is not just a dedication to the cognominal painting by Pablo Picasso. Аrtistic dialogue between works of art takes place in the visual (album cover), literary (direct descriptions of the elements of the picture, the technique of seeing events from different angles borrowed from visual art, reportage style of texts) and musical plane (recitative intonations, fast drumbeats, extreme vocal techniques); on the descriptive (direct references to the elements of the picture) and emotional and figurative levels. The album is a vivid example of intermediality in the field of rock art.

Author Biography

Iryna Palkina, Municipal Art Educational Institution of the Children's Music School No. 27

Candidate of Art Criticism, Teacher of the Highest Category

References

Goncharenko, D. (2013). Syncretic trends in the art of the late nineteenth — early twentieth century [Synkretychni tendentsii u mystetstvi kintsia ХІХ — pochatku ХХ stolittia]. In: MIST: Art, History, Modernity, Theory [MIST: Mystetstvo, istoriia, suchasnist, teoriia]. Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. No. 9. Kyiv, pp. 24–32 [in Ukrainian].

Donchenko, N. P., Zaitseva I. Ye. and Tatarenko M. H. (2017). «Rock opera»: to the question of formation and development of the genre [«Rok-opera»: do pytannia stanovlennia ta rozvytku zhanru]. In: National Academy of Culture and Arts Management Herald [Visnyk Natsionalnoi akademii kerivnykh kadriv kultury i mystetstv]. No. 4, рр. 146–153 [in Ukrainian].

Yanykh, E. A., compiler (2009). Doom Metal [Dum-metal]. In: Dictionary of musical terms [Slovar muzykalnykh terminov] Moscow: AST; Donetsk: Agata, pp. 96–97 [іn Russian].

Zaitseva, I. Ye. (2017). Musical and rock opera as multifunctional art genres [Miuzykl i rok-opera yak polifunktsionalni mystetski zhanry]. In: Young Scientist [Molodyi vchenyi]. No. 11, рр. 543–548 [in Ukrainian].

Komlikova, A. (2011). Rock opera: to the question of the genre in Ukraine [Rok-opera: do pytannia stanovlennia zhanru v Ukraini]. In: Kyiv Musicology [Kyivske muzykoznavstvo]. R. M. Glier Kyiv Institute of Music. № 39. Kyiv, рр. 159–166 [in Ukrainian].

Liva, N. V. (2012). Rock culture as a phenomenon of romantic tradition [Rok-kultura yak yavyshche romantychnoi tradytsii]. The dissertation author’s abstract for gaining the degree of the Doctor of Art Criticism by specialty 26.00.01 Theory and History of Culture. National Academy of Culture and Arts Management. Kyiv, 16 p. [in Ukrainian].

Lisnevska, A. V. and Borysenko N. S. (2020). Synthesized arts as a component of modern mass music culture [Syntezovani vydy mystetstva yak skladova suchasnoi masovoi muzychnoi kultury]. In: Communication skills in Art education [Maisternist komunikatsii u mystetskii i profesiinii osviti]. No. 1. Zhytomyr: N. M. Levkovets, рр. 105–109 [in Ukrainian].

Manko, S. B. (2012). Musical and rock opera in the Ukrainian socio-cultural area [Miuzykl i rok-opera v ukrainskomu sotsiokulturnomu prostori]. In: Culture of Ukraine [Kultura Ukrainy]. Kharkiv State Academy of Culture. No. 39. Kharkiv, рр. 268–276 [in Ukrainian].

Novgorodtsev, S. (1995). Rock crops [Rok-posevy]: in 2 Volumes. Volume 1: Classics. Radio stories with pictures [Klassika. Radiorasskazy s kartinkami]. Moscow: SKiT Interneshnl, 264 p. Available at: http://pink-floyd.ru/articles/seva/ (accessed: 09.05.2021) [in Russian].

Panimash, D. 5 ukrainian hard concept albums that need to be listened to [5 vazhkykh kontseptualnykh albomiv Ukrainy, yaki potribno poslukhaty]. Available at: https://slukh.media/texts/best-hard-concept-albums-from-ukraine/ (accessed: 07.10.2021) [in Ukrainian].

Proletarsky, A. (2018). KAT: “Youth ends when interest in everything new disappears” [KAT: «Molodost zakanchivaetsa togda, kogda ischezaet interes ko vsemu novomu»]. In: Karabas LIVE. March 15. Available at: https://karabas.live/kat-interview/ (accessed: 05.10.2021) [in Russian].

Prosalova, V. (2013). Intermediality as a phenomenon of art and method of analysis [Intermedialnist yak yavyshche mystetstva i metod analizu]. In: Philological seminars: literary criticism and criteria of Art [Filolohichni seminary: literaturna krytyka i kryterii khudozhnosti]. Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. No. 16. Kyiv, pp. 46–53 [in Ukrainian].

Ukhov, D. (1986) Rock music. A look from the 80’s [Rok-muzyka. Vzghliad iz 80-kh]. In: Crossroads and dead ends of bourgeois culture [Pereputia i tupiki burzhuaznoi kultury]. Moscow: Iskusstvo, рр. 400–426 [in Russian].

Yanykh, E. A., compiler (2009). Hardcore Metal [Khardkor]. In: Dictionary of musical terms [Slovar muzykalnykh terminov]. Moscow: AST; Donetsk: Agata, pp. 132–133 [іn Russian]

Chibalashvili, A. (2015). The influence of artistic trends of the early twentieth century on music art [Vplyv mystetskykh techii pochatku XX stolittia na muzychne mystetstvo]. In: MIST: Art, History, Modernity, Theory [MIST: Mystetstvo, istoriia, suchasnist, teoriia]. Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. No. 11. Kyiv, pp. 278–285 [іn Ukrainian].

Shpakovska, V. (2005). On the interpretation of historical themes in the genre of modern musical-dramatic theater «rock opera» [Do pytan interpretatsii istorychnoi temy u zhanri suchasnoho muzychno-dramatychnoho teatru «rok-opera»]. In: Contemporary Art [Suchasne mystetstvo]. Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. No. 2. Kyiv, рр. 167–176 [іn Ukrainian].

Published

2022-03-21

Issue

Section

PROCESSES OF THE INTERACTION OF ARTS