FOLKLORE AS A SOURCE OF NATIONAL SYMBOLISM IN UKRAINIAN MUSIC (19TH–20TH CENTURIES)

Abstract

The article offers a theoretical rationale and a systematic account of Ukrainian musical folklore as a source of national symbolism and examines how these symbolic codes are transformed and reinterpreted in Ukrainian music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Methods. The study employs theoretical analysis and synthesis of approaches to the symbol in folklore studies and musicology; genre and typological systematization of song material; comparative-historical analysis of the mechanisms through which folkloric meanings enter professional and popular musical practice; and interpretation of intonational and stylistic solutions as carriers of cultural codes. Results. Folklore is conceptualized as a collective artistic practice and a bearer of cultural memory in which national symbolism is established through stable images, motifs, genre-thematic narratives, and intonational models. The study demonstrates the multilevel nature of the symbolic resource, including its encoding in ritual scenarios, verbal formulas, and the poetics of condensed designation, particularly in compound words that convey stable nominations and epithets. Typical mechanisms for transferring folkloric meanings into professional music are identified: arrangements of folk songs, incorporation of folk melodies into original compositions, and stylization. It is established that, in academic instrumental music, symbolic codes may operate indirectly through intonational organization and stylistic synthesis, where folklore functions as a cultural background. A sacred layer is outlined as a specific zone of interaction between the folkloric and the spiritual. The influence of the sociopolitical conditions of the twentieth century on modes of folkloric representation is summarized, ranging from support for authenticity to the reduction of symbolism to decorative stereotypes. For the late twentieth century, the article describes the entry of folkloric meanings into mass culture through genre syntheses, media dissemination, and sound recording, where folklore emerges as a recognizable code that supports identity. Scientific novelty. The article proposes an integrated view of folklore as a system of codes of national symbolism that retain cultural legibility through multichannel transmission across diverse musical practices. Conclusions. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, folklore functions as a source of national symbolism not as a mere aggregate of borrowings, but as a dynamic system of cultural codes that enters professional music through arrangements, melodic incorporation, stylization, performance representation, intonational and stylistic solutions, and media mechanisms of preservation and dissemination. Further research should focus on the transformation of folkloric symbols in the works of individual composers and in performance practices of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.