MYKHAYL VERIKIVSKY’S ROMANCE WORK IN THE SOCIO-CULTURAL DISCUSSION OF THE ERA

Abstract

The influence of socio-cultural factors on the chamber and vocal lyrics of M. Verykivsky has been revealed. It has been found that the artist’s romance work developed unevenly and in each decade had its own stylistic priorities. In the first half of the 1920s, the artist turned mainly to the texts of modernist poets, which was expressed in music by expressionistic means (romances to the words of O. Slisarenko, G. Chuprynka, P. Tychyna, M. Semenko, V. Sosyura, M. Johansen). Since the beginning of the 1930s, revolutionary themes have prevailed in his work (romances “Rape”, “In Memory of Kirov”, “Who is for the War”). Only at the end of this decade do significant romances to the words of Lesya Ukrainka appear. In the 1940s, M. Verykivsky mastered the romance genre more actively (works to the words of I. Franko, M. Rylsky, L. Ukrainka, etc.). The cycle “Image of the Beloved” to the words of P. Grabovsky (1944) became central to his vocal lyrics. But with the beginning of a new wave of “purge” of the ranks (1948), when the composer was accused of “idealization of the past” and “national narrow-mindedness”, themes of glorifying Soviet life and the image of the great leader appeared in his romance works. The last surge of activity of M. Verykivsky in chamber and vocal genres was in 1958–1959, when in Soviet Art in general there was a renewed interest in the human personality, its individual manifestations and psychological states, inner intimate life, and their expression was embodied mainly in cyclical forms. At this time, he wrote romances to the words of Y. Slovacky, D. Hofstein, M. Yeremenko, the cycles “Songs of Sappho” translated by I. Franko, “From Modern Greek Lyrics” to the words of N. Vrettanos, “Musical Pepper” and etc. Despite the fact that M. Verykivsky turned to the romance genre in different periods of his work, and the texts of the works were taken from different poetic sources, they have a single compositional core. This indicates a significant style-forming role of chamber-vocal lyrics in the artist’s work, despite the socio-cultural influences that guided his work at each stage, even contrary to personal interests.