RECONSTRUCTION OF THE BIOGRAPHICAL SCENARIO OF THE LIFE-CREATIVITY OF M. BEREZOVSKYI IN THE LIGHT OF THE BASIC PROVISIONS OF THE N. SAVYTSKA’S CONCEPT OF AGE-OLD MUSICOLOGY

Abstract

Creativity of the outstanding Ukrainian composer Maxym Berezovskyi (1745–1777) chronologically falls on the crossroads of musical-historical epochs and styles. During his creative life, originally associated with Ukraine, and later with the musical culture of St. Petersburg, he became a direct witness and participant in the processes of stylistic transformations that took place in contemporary art. Born in the polyphonic church singing of the old part-style, he soon became one of the reformers of the church-singing tradition and one of the founders of the new art, a new style of spiritual music. The time devoted to Berezovsky for composer activity was very short and was equal from 10 to 12 years. Until now, we are struck by the rapidity of stylistic changes that have occurred in his work. In this, we are convinced by the heritage of the artist in the field of spiritual music, now restored almost in full. Understanding such a swift transition from Baroque to Classicism is possible only if you study the composer’s inheritance of Berezovsky in the context of life-creation. It is well-known about the tragic aspects of Berezovskyi’s life path: the lack of recognition of talent, the lack of decent work, the terrible poverty of recent years of life, suicide, and others. It is also known that Berezovskyi was the pioneer of the Court Singing Chapel and the church composer for the main occupation. This set of facts is first presented in the biographical article Bolchovitinov, published in 1805, that is, almost 40 years after the death of Berezovskyi. This article became the main source of biographical information for the authors of the following materials on the life and work of Berezovskyi, published during the 19th and early 20th century and contained additional and unknown where the details were taken. As to the document that presents the true facts of the biography of Berezovskyi, the article Bolchovitinov apply now. From the creative heritage of the artist during the 19th century a choral concert "Do not turn me away in old age" was published three times, in 1817–1818 for the first time. In the tragic sense of this work, an autobiographical subtext was discovered, confirming the current imagination of the tragic aspects of the life of its creator, and this perception to this concert has not changed to this day. Such a scenario of life-creation could not explain the rapidity of the processes of style transformations that took place in the work of Berezovskyi. The biography of the artist needed to be checked and refined, and the reason for this is small information from the lifelong documentary sources. Based on the study of life documents, the researchers found that Berezovsky began his musical career as an opera soloist, printed reports about the performance of spiritual concerts and the opera Demofont, clarified the period of stay in Italy, revealed documents of the Bologna period (letters to Padre Martini, the statement and the manuscript of examination work, etc.), life-style manuscripts of secular works were found, details of personal life were specified, and others. However, the refutation of the main plot of the biography of Berezovskyi, according to which he was a church singer and church composer, nobody dared, although in none of the list of the Court singing chapel his name is not mentioned. Indifferent also deprived of the axiom of Berezovskyi as a victim of the regime and unrecognized genius, brought to suicide by the difficult circumstances of life. Recent studies have shown that these facts correspond to the events of Berezovskyi’s biography only partially and also need to be refuted, and that, based on the study and correct interpretation of life-time documentary material, a completely different, novel scenario of the artist’s lifecreation should be formed. The basis for the reconstruction was the main provisions of the age-old musicology concept of the famous Lviv musicologist N. V. Savytska, on which we relied in our study. We come to the conclusion that life-formation of M. Berezovskyi is an example of the interrupted biographical scenario that the artist’s professional maturity was at an early age, and constant study led to several changes in the kind of musical activity, professional growth and self-improvement.