ILYA POLSKY’S CYCLE “TWENTY-FOUR CAROLS FOR PIANO” AS THE EMBODIMENT OF THE SYNTHESIS OF CREATIVE ACTIVITY

Abstract

The article examines the phenomenon of individual methods and means of transformation of winter song and ritual thematics using the example of the piano cycle “Twenty-four carols for piano” by Ilya Polsky. It was found that the principles of selection and elaboration of folklore material comprehensively reflect the relevant directions of the author’s activity: performing, pedagogical, folkloristic, and scientific. From the point of view of stylistic features, the tendency towards the neo-stylistics of Fauvism and folklorism prevails, relying on the rhythmic and noisy beginning of the ritual action. It was established that the forms of the compositions are open, improvisational and rhapsodic, with frequent changes of registers, strokes and texture, which corresponds to the task of reproducing the procedurality of the ritual action. In this way, the contrast is achieved by the individualization of the dramaturgical development of the material of each of the plays. With this complex of tools, the composer achieves theatricality and cinematography in the reproduction of a ritual pattern, demonstrates a deep understanding of the specifics of Slavic folklore of the winter calendar cycle. I. Polsky’s cycle “Twenty-four carols” for solo piano demonstrates the author’s original intertextual, polystylistic, tonal-harmonic, and timbral discoveries and is definitely a significant asset of modern concert and didactic piano literature both as a whole and in the ability to interpret individual numbers. Working with the compositions of I. Polsky’s cycle “Twenty-four carols” gives an opportunity to master numerous technical techniques of chord, passage chord, octave, cluster technique, various types of textural organization from ostinate, complementary, polylayered, contrapuntal and subvocal. At the same time, it is an opportunity to learn the ritual and game essence of the ancient layers of the Christmas song folklore of a number of neighboring Slavic peoples in reading through the prism of a significant arsenal of modern musical language.