The Composer’s Interpretation of the Psalm 138 «Kamo Poydu ot Litsa Tvoyego» in the Art of V. Kalinnikov, M. Lysenko and Vedenetsky

Abstract

The aim of the article is to describe all the features of the composers’ types of musical expressive means, which are used in the Psalm 138 «Kamo poydu ot litsa tvoyego» in the V. Kalinnikov’s, M. Lysenko’s and Vedenetsky’s artistic legacy. Research methodology consists of the interaction of such research methods as a system approach used in the art criticism, historical, comparative and genre and style analyses. Results. The composer’s interpretations of the Psalm 138 «Kamo poydu ot litsa tvoyego» are represented with three samples in the national culture. The creation of Vedenetsky is just a religious piece. The interpretations of V. Kalinnikov and M. Lysenko belong to the best examples of the national music culture at the turn of 19-20th centuries. They reconstruct the original homeland music culture, which combines church tradition and musical poetics. The sense on the religious poetical word becomes the fundamental element of the compositions. Both composers use the same strophes (7-10) of the Psalm 138 and tune the musical form of this piece. They make the stress on those elements which look to be more important than the others. The 10th strophe of the Psalm 138 is the main. It becomes the most important for both composers. The culminations of all the pieces are made on the same words of this strophe. The art imagery and esthetic value are also very important for the authors. The composers perceive the canonical text as an art object. The text generates a musical intonation, inspires the harmony and texture, and engenders the form. The composers of different mentalities provide a national character attributes into music. Both of the composers dedicate to the romantic tendency that forms the number of used expressive methods. Both V. Kalinnikov and M. Lysenko use the form of the choir concert, which considers being the most bright and capacious. It is possible to reconstruct all the variety of the feelings and the shades of the piece imagery. The laconic and clean texture, short list of the expressive methods with an accent onto the text shows us a minimalism tendency. The V. Kalinnikov‘s concert shows us an author’s lyric tendency and his song melody. At the same time the art piece written by M. Lysenko is full of the Ukrainian folk intonations and has a more meditative and calm character. Its emotions and feeling are seen from time to time. The temporhythm, which becomes an important factor of the dramatic process, also plays an important part of the image meaning of the Psalm exposuring. Versatile and diverse dynamics in these pieces becomes the main type of musical expressiveness. Novelty. The paper presents an attempt to describe all the features of the composers’ types of musical expressive means, which are used in the work with canonical texts. The practical significance. The paper may be of a particular interest to the specialists in religious music culture. Keywords: sacred music, canonical texts, psalms, composer’s interpretation, musical expressive means.