PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF THE VOCAL-POETIC PICTURES “IN THE LAND OF THE BLOOMING CHERRY” BY MYKOLA KOLESSA TO THE WORDS OF ISHIKAWA TAKUBOKU IN BOHDAN STELMAKH’S ARTISTIC TRANSLATION: FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF WORK IN THE CHAMBER SINGING CLASS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of aspects of performance analysis of solo songs (vocal pictures) from the cycle “In the Land of the Blooming Cherry” by the outstanding Ukrainian composer, conductor, educator, founder of the Ukrainian conducting school, public figure, academician, and Hero of Ukraine Mykola Kolessa (1903–2006), set to the words of the Japanese poet Ishikawa Takuboku. The composer’s creative work is based on the assimilation of tendencies of contemporary Western European music and mastery of academic genres. At the same time, he imbues his works with national content, which is also reflected in the peculiarities of his musical language. In his art, the composer reinterprets the achievements of Impressionism, Symbolism, and Neoclassicism on national ground and creates his own vivid and distinctive style, enriching Ukrainian national art with new and striking pages. The genre range of Mykola Kolessa’s creative output impresses with its diversity. He is the author of piano, symphonic, and vocal-choral works. It should be noted that within the latter group, a certain disproportion can be observed: choral music and arrangements of folk songs for solo voices prevail, whereas the group of original solo songs and romances is not large. The texts chosen by the composer are mostly those of Ukrainian classical and contemporary poets, or folk texts. The only exception in this regard is the poetry of the Japanese poet Ishikawa Takuboku, which formed the basis of the vocal cycle “In the Land of the Blooming Cherry”. The methodology of this study is determined by the nature of the research problem and involves the use of a set of methods-source studies, theoretical, textological, descriptive-analytical, and traditional musicological-allowing the identification of the specific features of the composer’s song genre. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the chosen perspective, its relevance, and its significance within both the music-theoretical and educational-performance processes. The problem is examined from the standpoint of performance analysis of vocal miniatures, based on the experience of work in a chamber singing class within the creative collaboration of the three participants in the educational-artistic process: the teacher, accompanist, and vocal soloist.