Scientific herald of Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine

Song from the Bohohlasnyk «When the Soul is Separated from the Body»: Sources and Textual Aspects

2025-12-22T12:25:07+02:00

Relevance of the study. Among the works of the Bohohlasnyk, one of the most popular is the song “When the soul is separated from the body”. It was known to Ukrainian believers even before the Bohohlasnyk was published, thanks to its widespread circulation in manuscript songbooks. Due to its theological, literary and musical value, the song was included in the first Ukrainian cantional, which is the Pochaiv edition, and thanks to this it became part of the national spiritual song canon.

The purpose of the article is to conduct a comprehensive study of the song “When the soul is separated from the body” in its historical path from the original source to the codified version in the Bohohlasnyk.

The methodological basis of the article was, in addition to source-meaning-textual methods, historical-cultural, analytical, comparative and heuristic methods, which made it possible to comprehensively consider different versions of the song “When the soul is separated from the body” and trace its textual and melodic transformations in historical dynamics.

The results and conclusions. The text of the song “When the soul is separated from the body” refers not only to Ukrainian baroque poetry with motifs of memento mori and vanitas vanitatum, but also to church hymnography. The incipit of the song is taken from the text of the canon included in the Order of the Departure of the Soul (Ἀκολουθία εἰς Πυχορραγοῦντα), and its content is concentrated on the key moments of the hymnographic primary source, at the same time the author strengthens the moral and instructive orientation. The melody of the song “When the soul is separated from the body” has Polish origins. The work is a textual and melodic contrafactum of the song “I am already leaving you, sweet child”, which is an adapted translation of the Polish planctus song “Już Cię żegnam, najmilszy Synu Jezusie”. When preparing the work for publication, the editors of the Bohohlasnyk made a literary revision of it, which did not affect the content and formal features, however, these changes a clear separation the pre-Bohohlasnyk and post-Bohohlasnyk versions of text. The themes of the songs “I am already leaving you, sweet child” and “When the soul is separated from the body” are not related, but since the theme of death is central in both works, it was this that inspired the author of the latter to turn to the translation of the Polish planctus as a textual and melodic model. The analysis of melodic variants from the mid-18th century manuscript and the Bohohlasnyk showed the kinship of the melodies of the songs “I am already leaving you, sweet child” and “When the soul is separated from the body”, and also revealed melodic transformations that arose in the process of existence, in which we observe a tendency to maximally assimilate the contrasting parts of the melody of the original. In the version of the song “When the soul is separated from the body” from the Bohohglasnyk, we see not only a smoothing of contrasts, but also its approximation to the sound of Ukrainian church monody, thereby more closely linking it with the text, which is based on Eastern Christian church hymnography

The Song «Do Not Weep, Rachel» in the Stylistic Concept of the Sokyrynskyi (Halahanivskyi) Vertep

2025-12-22T12:37:49+02:00

Relevance of the study. The paraliturgical song “Do Not Weep, Rachel” is analyzed in the context of the Sokyryntsi (Halahan) Nativity Play, a unique monument of Ukrainian musical and theatrical culture of the 18th–19th centuries. The historical evolution of this work is traced from the medieval European mysteries Ordo Rachelis of the 11th century and the Ukrainian school drama to the Sokyryntsi Nativity Play where the motif of Rachel’s lament acquires a distinct stage form and symbolic depth.

Purpose of the article. Specific attention is paid to the textological and musicological analysis which endows the piece with the theatricality and ensures its organic integration into the dramaturgy of the performance.

Methodological basis. The melodic, rhythmic and intonational means of the song are examined on the basis of the Sokyryntsi Nativity Play manuscript of the mid-19th century, in comparison with 18th-century manuscript collections and printed Bohohlasnyks of the late 18th–19th centuries. This analysis elucidates the tragic emotionality of the piece and emphasizes its stage effectiveness.

Results and conclusions. The unique dramaturgical solution of Rachel’s lament scene in the Sokyryntsi Nativity Play is outlined: the verses of the song are presented in a modified order that creates a special dramatic relief and alternates with the spoken lines of the characters, intensifying the emotional tension. It is shown that such a combination was chosen to strive the theatrical expressiveness and was also determined by the theological concept of the compilers of the Sokyryntsi Nativity Play.

It has been established that within the structure of the Nativity Play the paraliturgical song “Do Not Weep, Rachel” is transformed into the dramatic center of the performance, functioning as a climactic peak, an emotional retardation, and a generalized moral-ethical evaluation of the events. It has been demonstrated that the combination of sacred song tradition with theater in the Sokyryntsi Nativity Play generates new artistic and semantic meanings, significant both for its own time and for the contemporary cultural discourse.

«The Instinct of Workmanship» in the Structure of Composer Activity. The Case of Ravel

2025-12-22T12:58:59+02:00

The relevance of the study. It consists in considering the Ravel's music not only in the con- text of the author's artistic evolution, but also as but also as a unique example of composer's skill - an attribute of a true Master, whose creative process is subordinated to certain structural principles. The main objective of the study is to clarify the basic rational positions of Ravel's compo- sitional mastery, that modus operandi (the artist's usual way of solving creative problems) that defines him as an artistic individuality (which is understood as the integrity of the artist's artistic world). The methodology includes biographical (to clarify the circumstances of Ravel's life and ed- ucation), phenomenological (to study the composer's artistic individuality), and structural (to understand the main guidelines of creative activity). Abstracting from stylistic and genre premises, let us try to understand what place skill occupies in the structure of composer's activity, which unites motivating motives, guidelines, actions and goals. This general structure is made specifically artistic by two additional parameters: the measure of talent and one of its components - the "instinct of workmanshipl (so-called Т. Veblen term).Results and conclusions. Like any human activity, composer practice is a special type of communication. Its unity is ensured by a structure that includes “motives, certain guidelines, actions, and goals.”It is made specifically artistic by additional parameters: the measure of talent and the “instinct of mastery,”(оr “the instinct of workmanship” by T.Veblen), which sets the intensity of using the primary resource of talent and regulates the vectors of its training, development, and existence. Ravel's music is a model of composer's skill. The report clarifies the basic options of his composer's skill, his “the instinct of workmanship”, that modus operandi (the artist's usual way of performing certain creative tasks, which determines the integrity of his artistic world). During his formative years, D'Annunzio's "bella figura" was important, among other things. Through the prism of D'Annunzio, Ravel reads the epigrams of Clément Marot. The Renaissance poetics of the style marotigue, strangely rhyming with the eclecticism of decadence, passing through the filters of the composer's good taste and dandyism, leaves behind the habit of distancing himself from the objects of reproduction. This guideline becomes the cornerstone of Ravel's compositional mastery. The second operating option involves reproducing one's Presence in the text as a deviation from the “zero degree of writing.” Ravel tested, varied, and maximized his authorial “degree of displacement” in his compositional writing on his way to the late style dépouillé.(this is clearly visible in his polyphonic technique of competition and original fugues, and the Piano Trio). The third option of Ravel's mastery is a special mechanism of catharsis. Ravel, like M. Proust, understood well that ideas, including musical ones, are "produced" by suffering, and the transformation of suffering into an idea causes a feeling of pleasure, including through the awareness of the skill with which this transition was made.

Semantics of Movement and Dance in the Works of Maurice Ravel

2025-12-22T13:14:29+02:00

The relevance of the study. The semantic layers formed by Maurice Ravel's lifelong appeal to dance genres have been studied. It has been noted that the semantic thesaurus manifested through connections with dance genres is a multi-valued component of Ravel's unique artistic world, which he carefully created from the first to the last composition, connecting all the layers of his work with through-going plastic lines. It has been emphasized that the artist's constant appeals to previously written compositions with the aim of making a new orchestral or ballet version, as well as numerous allusions to them and quotations in his later opuses (especially in the opera The Child and the Charms and The Piano Concerto in g major) form the impressive integrity of his artistic world, the basis of which were dance genres and, more broadly, attention to the category of movement and the means of its embodiment in music. It is emphasized that the ‘grounding’ and provocative simplicity of using the expressive possibilities of dance (after all, it is originally a household, everyday genre) introduce into Ravel’s works the rhythm of the ‘breathing’ of a huge layer of European culture, which structures the dynamic semantic space of the composer’s works in the unfolding ‘from the earthly to the heavenly’. It is proven that it is precisely in this act of the inextricable connection of what is in the moment of ‘here and now’ and the timeless, everyday and high supra-mundane that Ravel’s loyalty to the philosophy of dandyism, which was for him the basis of life and creativity, was manifested.

The main objective of the study is to highlight the semantic layers formed by the composer's constant appeal to dance genres, his desire to embody the expression of gesture and movement in music, and to extrapolate the visual characteristics of dance figures into the musical space.

The methodological basis of the article is the use of historical, comparative, and phenome- nological methods of analysis.

Results and conclusions. Ravel retains the traditional reliance on dance genres for French composers, but for him this connection turns into a special channel of communication with the listener. The deep feeling of the moving bodily nature of dance becomes a sign of Ravel’s devotion to the rhythms of life — they must be beautiful and convey an energetic impulse, which the artist called ‘enthusiasm for living’. This ‘touch of life’ through all forms of movement fills Ravel’s music and directs us to understand the meaning of the composer’s works.

The Basque world of his mother, a wonderful dancer, and the dynamic world of super-speed and precise mechanisms of his father were united in the consciousness of Ravel the artist. Serving Beauty, the search for perfect form complemented the family spectrum of the meanings of life and formed a unique spiritual space that does not lose its relevance for us today.

French Baroque opera and reality TV: points of intersection

2025-12-22T14:02:01+02:00

Relevance of the study. It lies in considering the production of Platée by Jean-Philippe Rameau (Garsington Opera, 2024, directed by Louisa Muller) as a vivid example of artistic dialogue between the Baroque and contemporary culture. The research highlights the unique nature of Rameau’s Platée — a work whose genre hybridity and irony constantly attract modern stage directors, inspiring innovative interpretations through the lens of today’s media formats.

The main objective of the study is to identify the features of Louisa Muller’s staging of Platée and to analyze the interaction between Baroque operatic aesthetics and the phenomenon of contemporary media culture, particularly reality television and its subgenre — dating shows.

The methodology includes historical-stylistic (to determine the original Baroque context of Rameau’s opera), comparative-analytical (to trace the specifics of stage interpretation, scenography, and costume design), as well as structural-functional, genre-stylistic, and intonational-dramaturgical methods (for a comprehensive examination of the work).

Results and conclusions. The study interprets Platée as a synthesis of Baroque theatricality and the aesthetics of twenty-first-century media spectacle. The production reveals parallels between the emotional expressiveness of Baroque opera and the performative nature of reality TV, where the boundary between authenticity and simulation becomes blurred. Muller’s concept, based on the format of dating shows such as The Bachelor or Love Island, recontextualizes the mythological plot from Pausanias’s Description of Greece as a satire on contemporary culture of visibility and emotional exhibitionism. Through ironic play with reality, illusion, and theatricality, the production exposes the continuity between Baroque and modern conceptions of human nature. It is concluded that Rameau’s Platée in Muller’s version demonstrates the openness of Baroque opera to reinterpretation and its relevance within the dialogue between theatre and media culture.

Sarabande: «two-faced Janus» of the baroque repertoire

2025-12-22T14:10:18+02:00

Relevance of the study. The study examines the evolution of the sarabande as a phenomenon that reflects the cultural dynamics of Early Modern Europe, focusing on its transformation from a popular Iberian dance, marked by rhythmic vitality and expressive corporeality, into a refined musical form associated with court etiquette and intellectual introspection. The relevance of the research lies in the need to reassess the sarabande not merely as a component of the Baroque suite, but as a genre shaped by social, theatrical, and ritual practices.

The main objective of the study is to reveal the semantic and expressive duality of the sarabande and to trace the mechanisms of its stylistic transformation in instrumental music.

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 integrates comparative historical analysis of literary and theoretical sources, examination of choreographic and musical treatises, and stylistic analysis of musical scores. This approach allows the research to correlate socio-cultural contexts with specific musical and performance practices. By comparing Spanish, French, and German traditions, the study demonstrates how the sarabande’s expressivity shifted from external gesture to internal emotional expression.

Scientific novelty lies in highlighting the sarabande as a genre that simultaneously preserves and transforms its origins. The article shows how the sarabande maintained its inherent theatricality even when integrated into abstract instrumental forms, particularly in the works of French clavecinists (Louis Couperin, Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, François Couperin) and later in the sarabandes of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, where ornamentation becomes a means of meditative expression.

The main findings reveal the sarabande as a “double-faced” genre, oscillating between sensuality and solemnity, corporeality and reflection. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of the sarabande for art and education: it functions as a key interpretive model for historically informed performance, encourages reconsideration of ornamentation as a structural and expressive tool, and continues to inspire modern artistic practices, including cinema and neoclassical composition.

Francis Poulenc avant la lettre: reception of creative work in the optics of metamodernism

2025-12-22T14:17:03+02:00

Relevance of the study. The research addresses the urgent need to revise the entrenched biographical and aesthetic clichés surrounding the work of Francis Poulenc, such as the dichotomy of “monk and hooligan,” which overshadows the profound conceptual unity of his creative method. Given the transition of contemporary culture to the metamodern paradigm, the music of Poulenc is highly relevant as an intuitive precursor to the post-postmodern search for sincerity, authenticity, and the integration of fragmented experiences.

Main Objective. The main objective is to overcome the stereotyping of Poulenc’s art through the prism of metamodernism and to substantiate his unique aesthetic as an avant la lettre expression of metamodern sensibility (chuttievo-chutlyvist').

Methodology. The study adopts a multidimensional approach. The phenomenological method is applied to analyze Poulenc’s aesthetics, which is essentially rooted in the principle of sincerity and the synthesis of life and art. The metamodern optics of oscillation (T. Vermeulen, R. van den Akker) is used as a new methodological framework, enabling the reinterpretation of Poulenc’s contradictions not as artistic fragmentation, but as a multipolar pulsation inherent to the integrity of the modern consciousness. The discourse analysis of musicological sources (H. Lacombe) was implemented to trace how the “aesthetic code” of Poulenc’s creativity – the transformation of suffering into spiritual energy – forms the foundation of his distinctive artistic world.

Results and Conclusions It is substantiated that the paradoxical nature of Poulenc’s work represents a new aesthetic module—metamodern sensibility (chuttievo-chutlyvist'). His creative method is not one of dramatic duality, but a multipolar oscillation that successfully merges opposites (secular and sacred, ironic and sincere) into a single, renewed unity. The “aesthetic code” is formulated as a method of transcendence: transforming chaos and loss into energy of love and beauty, which corresponds to the metaphor of “radiant warmth”. It is concluded that Poulenc’s art resonates with the idea of contemporary retrospection (the ability to exist simultaneously in the past, present, and future), creating an artistic world that, as noted by Lacombe, “denies chronological time”. His legacy provides a key to understanding metamodern authenticity.Significance and Perspectives. The research offers a fundamentally new conceptual approach to the reception of Poulenc’s oeuvre, defining him as a symptom of an era seeking new ways of unity amidst fragmentation. Perspectives for further research lie in applying the concept of “sensibility” as a methodological framework for analyzing the works of other composers of Modernism and Postmodernism whose aesthetic principles were also shaped by the intense oscillation between tradition and experiment.

«Antigone» by Jean Cocteau and Arthur Honegger: innovative artistic concept and critical reception of the artwork

2025-12-22T14:27:56+02:00

Relevance of the study. The 20th century was a time of creative revolution, and Jean Cocteau emerged as a visionary balancing between tradition and the avant-garde. A true polymath—poet, playwright, director, painter—he became a generator of ideas and a catalyst for artistic innovation. His collaborations with figures such as Picasso, Stravinsky, Satie, and Chanel reveal his exceptional talent for uniting different arts, especially within the realm of musical theatre, where his contribution proved one of the most significant of the century.

Among these collaborations, his partnership with Arthur Honegger stands out as a remarkable example of artistic synthesis in interwar French culture. Honegger’s spiritual depth and structural clarity complemented Cocteau’s poetic imagination, resulting in a shared pursuit of new forms of artwork that fused word, music, and stage action. Their joint creation, Antigone (1927), represents the culmination of this unity — an innovative reimagining of musical theatre whose influence and critical reception underscore the enduring relevance of its study.

The main objective of the study is to to explore the innovative artistic concept of the opera Antigone, the peculiarities of its implementation and perception by the audience.

The research methodology: the study involves the use of the following methods: historical (to examine the context in which the opera Antigone was created), comparative (to identify innovations in Jean Cocteau's libretto in comparison with Sophocles' tragedy), structural-analytical, genrestyle and intonational-dramaturgical (to analyse the musical structure of the work), and sourcebased (to study archival critical articles devoted to the staging of the opera).

Results and conclusions. Opera «Antigone» by Jean Cocteau and Arthur Honegger is an exceptional fusion of the playwright and composer's original creative views on the famous ancient tragedy, which led to the creation of a unique innovative artistic concept. The search for expanding the horizons of drama and musical theatre, characteristic of the artists' work, and the perfect balance of immersion in the space of philosophical meanings and contemporary meanings underline the historical significance of the opera. Experiments with words and time, while preserving the deep mysterious ideas embedded in Greek theatrical masterpieces, created a unique example of a musical and theatrical work that gave rise to new artistic pursuits of the twentieth century.

In fact, the embodiment of the artists' artistic concept became an outstanding creative precedent, which later led to the understanding of the phenomenon of metatheatricality and the effects of alienation, and with them to the creation of the following iconic interpretations of Antigone by Jean Anouilh (1944), Bertolt Brecht (1948), Carl Orff (1949) and Rolf Hochhuth (1969).

However, despite the significance of «Antigone» for the art world, which is also clearly reflected in critics' reviews, the work has not yet received a modern performance, which significantly narrows the perception of Arthur Honegger's musical and theatrical work, with its saturation of complex, multi-layered philosophical ideas. «Antigone» needs new productions, to be brought to the stage, and to fulfil its potential as an artistic force capable of influencing the minds of listeners and contributing to a rethinking of reality.

Manifestations of composer's individuality in transcriptions

2025-12-22T14:34:45+02:00

Relevance of the study. Composer’s individuality is one of the key concepts in contemporary musical discourse. Its study requires a variety of approaches — philosophical, aesthetic, historical, psychological, sociological, cultural, biographical, etc. However, the essence of a composer's individuality cannot be understood without a professional analysis of the musical structure of a work.

The Main objective of the study is to specify the dialectic of interaction between the typical (collective, well-known) and the atypical (individual) at the level of instrumentation in the work of artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The methodology of the study is technological and comparative analysis applied in various dimensions: since the subject of consideration is transcriptions, they are compared with each other, but also with their prototypes.

Results and conclusions. Webern's main method of working with the original in his orchestral transcription of Bach's 6-voice Ricercar from ‘The Musical Offering’ is a motivic and thematic analysis of the source material and the presentation of the results of this analysis through orchestration. Karl Dahlhaus calls this method ‘analytical instrumentation’ (Dahlhaus C., 1978, p. 181). Its essence is to assign different motifs to different instruments and thus, with the help of timbral differences, emphasise the motivic and thematic structure of the fugue and the functional difference between the motifs. The constant timbral recolouring of the melodic lines in Ricercar's transcription is used by Webern to clearly define the form of the work, which unfolds as a pulsation of thematic saturation and relaxation. In his transcription of Bach's organ prelude and fugue in E flat major, Schoenberg, compared to Webern, resorts to a fundamentally different, much more traditional orchestral style characteristic of the late Romantic period. Both works — by Schoenberg and Webern — are directly related to Bach's musical ideas and complement them well. However, the ways in which two orchestrators interact with ‘borrowed’ material in them differ significantly, in accordance with the priorities that the two artists realised in their own work. The individual traits of the composers' personalities are vividly manifested in Leonid Hrabovsky's Six Pieces for String Quartet (1991), created as transcriptions of M. Leontovich's choral miniatures. The melodic and harmonic structure of each piece generally reproduces the structure of the original. Leontovych's tonality and the musical character are preserved, as well. However, the texture of the original undergoes significant reworking in accordance with the performance capabilities of the string quartet. Various techniques of playing the strings are used, including those borrowed from extended performance techniques which appear in the original works by Hrabovsky. Instead of precise repetition of the original couplets Hrabovsky always presents a sort of ‘strict variations’. When analysing the transcription, it is especially easy to separate the ‘original’ from the “borrowed”, so they particularly clearly show how differently outstanding artists can work with “borrowed” material, while remaining faithful to the spirit of the original and without significantly altering its text.

Witold Lutosławski’s «Venetian Games» for Orchestra: Specifics of Musical Dramaturgy in Aleatoric Composition

2025-12-22T16:22:28+02:00

Relevance of the study. The creative legacy of Witold Lutosławski occupies a central place in the panorama of twentieth-century music, representing a synthesis of strict compositional logic and aleatoric freedom. His orchestral work Venetian Games demonstrates an innovative approach to musical form and dramaturgy through the technique of controlled aleatoricism. The study is relevant because it explores the transformation of compositional thinking in the mid-twentieth century and the evolution of the principles of sound organization that became influential for the development of contemporary orchestral language.

Main objective(s) of the study. The main goal of the research is to identify the specific features of the dramaturgical and structural organization of Venetian Games and to determine how the composer combines chance operations with precise structural control to achieve a multilayered artistic result.

Methodology (how the study was done). The study employs structural and analytical methods, score analysis, and comparative approaches to reveal the interaction of timbral and rhythmic parameters. The research traces the relationships between instrumental groups and examines the processes of contrast, substitution, and opposition that form the dramatic progression of the composition.

Results / findings and conclusions (significance). The analysis shows that Venetian Games exemplifies a deeply reasoned compositional conception based on the alternation of contrasting sound blocks and the development of timbral dramaturgy. Lutosławski’s use of controlled aleatoricism allows him to balance interpretative freedom with structural coherence. The work expands the boundaries of orchestral thinking, offering listeners a complex, multi-level perception of form and motion.

Prospects for further research. Future studies may focus on classifying the principles and parameters of ensemble and orchestral dramaturgy, as well as on identifying the composer’s typical strategies of dramaturgical development in the context of aleatoric composition.

Silhouettes of tango in the soundscape of Argentina: Astor Piazzolla's music for solo guitar

2025-12-22T16:38:08+02:00

The relevance of the study lies in the consideration of Astor Piazzolla's music for solo guitar from the perspective of the historical interaction of Argentine tango genre traditions, taking into account versions of its stylistic renewal in the composer's work.

The main objective of the study is to identify authentic genre features of tango in the context of its stylistic reconstruction in Astor Piazzolla's work, using the example of the cycle ‘Five Pieces for Guitar’ and taking into account idiomatic performance borrowings. The novelty of the article lies in introducing genre and style analysis of the work into Ukrainian musicology in the context of connections with the timbral sonotypes of local soundscapes, performance techniques for imitating the sound of other instruments, and the interaction of the language of music with the poetics of dance movement.

The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary approach and methods of historicaltheoretical, systemic, structural-functional analysis applied to determine the linguistic specificity of Argentine tango, the interaction of dance gestures with the metrorhythmic patterns of music, the influence of the stylistic features of the composer's work, and folk and academic guitar performance techniques.

Results and conclusions. The specificity of the analytical approach lies in correlating the archetype of tango with the characteristics of the sonotype of Argentina's soundscapes and the timbral resources of archaic and modern instruments of various ethnic origins. The connections between the musical poetics of the genre and the plasticity of choreographic movement, which has Iberian and African-American roots and also depends on the articulation of accentual rhythms consistent with the local Spanish dialect of the inhabitants of Buenos Aires, are analysed. The cycle ‘Five Pieces for Guitar’ reveals the instrumental idioms of tango in solo performance thanks to special effects that imitate the timbres of other voices in the ensemble with the sounds of the guitar. The connections between each of the pieces in the cycle and the metrorhythmic features of milonga and Cuban habanera are highlighted. Connotations with European genre foundations of thematicism are emphasised, as well as conventional visualisations of typical tango characters in the characteristic emotional atmosphere of the dance. The influences of jazz musical vocabulary and elements of contemporary academic thinking are summarised. Guitar techniques and performance methods, melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements of the musical language of folk, academic, and nonacademic traditions appear as a set of integral attributes of the genre and style projections of Astor Piazzolla's tango nuevo music, aimed at the depths of national sound mythologems.

«Elegy» and «Hutsul circle» for domra by Oleksandr Nekrasov: genrestyle and performance features

2025-12-22T16:48:09+02:00

The relevance of the study consists in the need for detailed examination of domra miniatures in order to provide appropriate interpretation of the pieces through in-depth analysis of the compositional style and determination of genre-stylistic and performance specificity. Main objective of the study is to outline the genre-stylistic and performance features of "Elegy" and "Hutsul circle" for domra and piano by Oleksandr Nekrasov. The methodological foundation is based on the application of the following methods: source study and textological methods — in the analysis of musicological literature on the selected topic; musical-textological method — for outlining interpretative versions of the miniatures; intonational, analytical, stylistic and comparative methods — for establishing the genre-stylistic and performance features of the two compositions.

Results and conclusions. The compositional techniques used by O. Nekrasov demonstrate the composer’s aspiration for individual expressivity, the search for innovative methods of conveying artistic content, as well as engagement in experimental practices. His attempt to transcend traditional forms underscores innovation, originality, and the endeavor to realize creative ideas through innovational means of expressing both content and the emotional dimension of a musical work, thereby emphasizing the composer’s distinctive style. “Elegy” and “Hutsul Circle” are miniatures exemplifying through-composed dramaturgy, manifested in the continuous thematic development, their interaction, and skillful expansion, resulting in coherence and dynamic progression within the pieces. Attentive attention of the composer to details has been noted, particularly regarding dynamic, fingering, and articulation aspects. The use of chromatic elements by the author in the compositional technique has been revealed in the cantilena at both micro- and macro-levels, along with the application of programmatic elements, specifically the creation of the effect of circulation in the virtuoso piece across various levels — from a single measure to the overall structure of the work. These findings have served as the basis for characterizing the artist's thinking as expansive.

The art of timpani performance: stages of development

2025-12-22T16:55:54+02:00

The relevance of the study. Despite its long history of development, the art of solo performance on percussion instruments began to actively evolve only in the last century, achieving popularity among composers, performers, and listeners (unlike string, woodwind, and brass instruments) only in the second half of the 20th century. The timpani play a special role within the percussion family, combining rhythmic and pitch organization of sound. In this context, tasks related to the indepth analysis and systematization of the timpani repertoire become relevant for domestic musicology–particularly works written specifically for timpani, considering their intonational-thematic potential and technical performance specificity.

The main objective of the study is to trace the historical evolution of the timpani as a solo instrument and to determine the stages and achievements along this path.

The methodology includes the following methods: the principle of historicism serves as the methodological foundation; analytical method is used for working with scholarly literature; the method of historical-stylistic analysis and the analytical-descriptive method are used to define the specifics of timpani use in solo and orchestral performance; the method of performance analysis is applied to reveal the peculiarities of timpani playing in the works of composers from different eras; and theoretical generalization is used to draw conclusions.

The main results and conclusions. The historical evolution of solo timpani playing passed through the following stages: the functional-signal phase (military-ceremonial, mid-XV – XVII centuries); the period of integration into orchestral practice and the appearance of isolated solo works (XVII—XIX centuries); the formation of an autonomous solo repertoire (mid-XX – XXI centuries). Over time, due to the instrument’s technical evolution, the creative potential of the timpani unfolded in various ways. Today, the timpani are not only one of the main instruments of the symphony orchestra but also a full-fledged solo instrument, capable of carrying a complete melody and serving as a central expressive color in the complex palette of contemporary musical composition. Solo performance on the timpani, beginning in the second half of the 20th century, is “in its prime”, finally asserting itself as a full-fledged type of solo performance art and gaining popularity among performer-timpanists, composers, and listeners. The continuous technical development of the instrument contributes to the emergence of virtuoso timpanists, whose skill inspires composers to new creative achievements, and they, in turn, continue to surprise audiences with new challenges for the virtuoso timpanists. It is not possible to cover the defined issues in full within the scope of a single article. Therefore, in the future, the horizons of research on the topic can be expanded through a more detailed study of the technical development of the timpani, the analysis of a greater number of compositions, and a deeper exploration of the specifics of national performance schools. Musical art is constantly in a state of active development, and according to the results of the study conducted, a significant number of new musical compositions can be expected, in which the timpani will play a bright and weighty role.