MYSTICAL LULLABY (BASED ON DIPTYCH B MINOR NO. 6 FROM THE CYCLE "24 PRELUDES AND FUGUES" BY VSEVOLOD ZADERATSKY)

Abstract

The article presents a comprehensive musicological, psychological, historical-cultural, and theological-theological analysis of the diptych “Prelude and Fugue in B minor No. 6” from the cycle “24 preludes and fugues” by Vsevolod Petrovich Zaderatsky.The work is not only a highly artistic example of polyphonic writing, but also a deeply autobiographical document, it is its own native page of the composer’s musical mystical-psychological diary, created in the conditions of the Kolyma concert. “Prelude and Fugue in B minor” is the darkest, most tragic work of the entire cycle. The diptych traces the interaction of musical images and symbols with the author’s inner experience: the intonations of a hungry child’s lullaby, crying, the struggle for one’s own identity, the culminating affirmation of the human spirit. The bell, as a symbolic figure, acts as a “bridge” that ends with the past and the future and preserves the cultural memory of an entire generation of the disadvantaged. Special attention is paid to the dramaturgy of the work as a model of existential testing and spiritual self-affirmation. The autobiographical dimension is supported by parallels between Zaderatsky’s mental and psychological experiences and the experience of surviving broken, split “I”s under the repressions of the totalitarian system.The prelude, with its triplet pulsation, resembles a lullaby sung by a mother to a hungry child. The use of seconds and sevenths introduces the world of the cruel reality of the 20th century, when every word, every movement is under close scrutiny. The fugue is written in the form of a fantasy, where attention is constantly focused on the struggle of the split “I” of the disadvantaged with the surrounding activity. The bells that sound at the end of the child prove that no totalitarian system can withstand the greatness of the human spirit. It is proven that the cycle “24 Preludes and Fugues” is not only a unique artistic heritage, but also a document of cultural memory, which captures the personal tragedy of the townsman and the national trauma of the Ukrainian people. Given the modern realities of the war truth of Ukrainian statehood, the analysis of “Prelude and Fugue in B minor No. 6” appears as a particularly relevant and important act that will help to comprehend the connection between art, historical memory and the indomitability of the human spirit.