BETWEEN SUFFERING AND ETERNITY (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE PRELUDE AND FUGUE NO. 3 IN G MAJOR BY V. ZADERATSKY)

Abstract

Vsevolod Petrovich Zaderatsky (1891–1953) is a genius, one of the brightest representatives of Ukrainian composers of the 20th century, whose work was banned for a long time. Still little studied and almost not performed in Ukraine.The experience of imprisonment in a concentration camp located in the Kolyma River valley not only did not break his psychological integrity, but also became a powerful impetus for the creation of a unique cycle "24 Preludes and Fugues", which became a kind of mystical-psychological diary of unprecedented psychological depth of that time. This is a story of a tragic composer, lasting more than two and a half hours, about his own experiences and the tragedy of his brothers as a demonstration of the ability of the human spirit to withstand all adversity, even in terrible times of totalitarian violence. Here the sound becomes the voice of an entire era, stubbornly telling its story about what cannot be spoken about. Prelude and Fugue No. 3 in G major recreates a document of personal and collective cultural memory, in which a kind of temporal and thematic double frame is created, symbolizing the mental and psychological hopelessness of the unfortunate prisoners in a terrible existentially borderline situation. The multi-layered inner musical content, which clearly demonstrates the splitting of the "I" of each prisoner's personality, echoes the previously unseen suffering, which nevertheless leads everyone to the place of meeting with Eternity. The Prelude embodies the eternal movement, which through numerous transformations leads to God, and the fugue figuratively complements the diptych, personifying the hymn of the tireless struggle of the individual, which even the evil Fate is unable to overcome. Diptych No. 3 occupies a special place in the cycle "24 Preludes and Fugues", which shows us, the descendants, that every person is able to rise above terrible circumstances and emerge from the shadow of suffering into the light of eternal Love and Peace.