POLYPHONY OF UKRAINIAN BAROQUE PARTES IN THE LIGHT OF THE MEDIEVAL THEORY OF MODALITY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31318/2522-4190.2025.143.342797Keywords:
medieval theory of modality, hexachord, modal chromaticism, modal-mode diatonic, Ukrainian baroque partes, partes concertos by Mykola DyletskyAbstract
Relevance of the study. The traditions of Ukrainian partes singing, which developed in the East Slavic territories during the 17th and first half of the 18th centuries, have been studied widely and in various ways, however, some issues still remain unresolved. One of them is the influence of the medieval theory of modality on the pitch organization of polyphony in partes singing.
Main objective(s) of the study. The purpose of the article is to review the main provisions of the medieval theory of modality in its projection on the polyphony of Ukrainian partes singing.
The scientific novelty consists in identifying manifestations of medieval modal theory in the polyphony of Ukrainian partes, which affected the specificity and main features of partes art.
Methodology. The methodological basis is made up of general scientific methods: study and generalization, abstraction and formalization, systematic analysis and synthesis.
Results / findings and conclusions The main provisions of the medieval theory of modality, which became the basis of polyphony in church music of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and partly the Baroque, are studied. The main features of this system, which were described in the works of famous European theorists (Guido d’Arezzo, H. Glarean, G. Zarlino, etc.), are indicated. The influence of the main provisions of the medieval theory of modality on Ukrainian partes polyphony, which represents the Baroque era, is revealed.
In the process of analyzing the main provisions of the medieval theory of modality in their projection onto the features of Ukrainian baroque partes, the main attention was paid to the system of hexachords, on the basis of which polyphony was formed with the dominance of interval and triadic consonances, modal tonality, formed on the basis of natural-mode mesatonic in its projection onto the polyphonic vertical, specific types of cadences that arose under the influence of the time organization of musical compositions of vocal polyphony of a strict style and had modal chromaticisms and dissonant consonances, the issue of the weakness of the tonal center and functional connections between triads, etc.
The material for the study was the discovered four-part concertos by Mykola Dyletsky.
Downloads
References
Herasymova-Persydsʹka, N. O. (1978). Khorovyy kontsert na Ukrayini ХVII–ХVIII st. [Choral Concert in Ukraine of the 17th–18th Centuries]. Kyiv : Musical Ukraine. 181 р. [in Ukrainian].
Dyletsʹkyy, M. (1970). Hramatyka muzykalʹna (1723) [Musical Grammar (1723)]. Kyiv : Musical Ukraine. 109 p. [in Ukrainian].
Gulyanitskaya, N. S., ed. (1987). Istoriya garmonicheskikh stiley zarubezhnoy muzyki doklassicheskogo perioda [History of harmonic styles of foreign music of the pre-classical period]. Moskow: Gnessin State Musical Pedagogical Institute. Vol. 92. 160 р. [in Russian].
Shumilina, O. (2014). Lʹvivsʹkyy partesnyy rukopys i tayemnytsi tvorchosti Mykoly Dyletsʹkoho [The Lviv Partes Manuscript and the Secrets of Mykola Dyletsky's Creativity]. In: Ukrayinsʹka muzyka [Ukrainian music]. Vol. 2 (12), pp. 32–45 [in Ukrainian].
Shumilina, O. (2024). Lʹvivsʹkyy partesnyy rukopys: pytannya avtorsʹkoyi atrybutsiyi anonimnykh tvoriv [Lviv Partes Manuscript: the Question of Authorship of Anonymous Works]. In: Ukrayinsʹka muzyka [Ukrainian music]. Vol. 3-4 (50-51), pp. 148–155 [in Ukrainian].
Shumilina, O. (2000). Ukrayinsʹke partesne bahatoholossya yak perekhid vid modalʹnoyi do funktsionalʹnoyi harmoniyi [Ukrainian partesne polyphony as a transition from modal to functional harmony]. In: Kyyivsʹke muzykoznavstvo [Kyiv Musicology]. Vol. 3, pp. 23–33 [in Ukrainian].
Zarlino, G. (1965). Le Istituzioni harmoniche (1558) [The Harmonic Institutions (1558)]. Reprint in Monuments of Music and Music Literature in Facsimile, II/1. New York : Broude Brothers, 370ґр. [in Italian].
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Olha Shumilina
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Our journal abides by the CREATIVE COMMONS copyright rights and permissions for open access journals.
Authors, who are published in this journal, agree to the following conditions:
The authors reserve the right to authorship of the work and pass the first publication right of this work to the journal under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows others to freely distribute the published research with the obligatory reference to the authors of the original work and the first publication of the work in this journal.
The authors have the right to conclude separate supplement agreements that relate to non-exclusive work distribution in the form in which it has been published by the journal (for example, to upload the work to the online storage of the journal or publish it as part of a monograph), provided that the reference to the first publication of the work in this journal is included.
