Ukrainian musicology

The Becoming of Oleksandr Koshetz’s Creative Individuality (Kyiv Period)

Tetiana Husarchuk, Olga Volosatykh — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Relevance of the study. Oleksandr Koshetz is a unique figure in Ukrainian musical culture. His conducting talent was admired throughout the world, and his artistic phenomenon continues to attract the attention of experts. Among the issues raised in the literature in connection with the work of this master, the problem of the nature of this outstanding phenomenon stands out, the question of what factors — external and internal — determined his appearance on the horizon of national choral art. That is why it is important to consider the Kyiv period of O. Koshetz’s creative activity, because it was then that the leading features of the artist’s creative personality were formed. Working with numerous choral ensembles, he demonstrated a synthesis of deep roots in the national singing art with academic professionalism, forming his unique creative portrait.

The research methodology is based on the integrative use of the methodology of the humanities, the application of historical-dynamic and comparative methods, methods of historical reconstruction, source analysis, etc.

The scientific novelty of the study is determined by the coverage of Oleksandr Koshetz’s creative activity during the Kyiv period, which was extremely important for the formation of his creative individuality. In order to identify the leading factors that influenced the formation of the artist's creative individuality and to reveal the creative achievements of this period, memoirs, correspondence, and materials from the Kyiv press were analyzed, and an attempt was made to comprehensively cover the aspects of the formation of the creative phenomenon of this brilliant musician. The purpose of this article is to identify the key factors that influenced the formation of O. Koshetz’s creative personality and to reveal his creative achievements in various aspects of his activity in Kyiv.

Conclusions. During his time in Kyiv Oleksandr Koshetz fully developed as a creative personality and specialist of the highest level. His creative individuality grew on the fertile ground of folk song culture, national traditions of church singing, and broad education in the field of European classics. He acquired the latter two components in Kyiv. The combination of all three factors largely determined the phenomenon that was O. Koshetz’s conducting mastery, which included colossal musical erudition, rich timbre, and perfection in the architectonics of musical form. No less important in the formation of Koshetz’s phenomenon were his personal qualities — spirituality, artistic empathy, brilliant artistic temperament, and powerful suggestion. Having received a powerful passionate impulse from M. Lysenko, O. Koshetz became a leading figure in Ukrainian choral performance during his Kyiv period.

Research into the Kyiv period of Oleksandr Koshetz’s activity reveals the origins and, at the same time, the outstanding creative achievements of the artist, which determined his further creative destiny and its worldwide fame. Further research can deepen our understanding of the unique creative phenomenon of Koshetz as a conductor, composer and a Human being.

The Role of the Scientific and Methodological Heritage of Borys Mylych in the Formationof Ukrainian Piano Pedagogy of The Second Half of the 20th century (to the 120th Anniversary of his Birth)

Tetyana Omelchenko — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The relevance of the study. The pedagogical, scientific and methodological activities of the outstanding Ukrainian teacher-pianist, scientist-methodologist Borys Ovsiyovych Mylych (1904–1991), a pupil of the outstanding teacher, founder of the Kyiv Conservatory V. V. Puhalsky, are highlighted, and the directions of his multifaceted activity are determined. The importance of Mylych as a teacher as an outstanding organizer and inspirer of the school-studio at the Kyiv Conservatory in the training of highly professional pedagogical personnel for higher, secondary and primary musical educational institutions of Ukraine in the second half of the 20th century is emphasized, as well as the compiler of an entire library of educational repertoire - a tenvolume series of manuals for students of children's music schools from grades 1 to 7, as well as numerous collections of works by Ukrainian composers for schools and music schools, which are in demand to this day.

At the same time, the situation of forgetting the significant methodological heritage of B. O. Mylych, which developed in the late 20th - early 21st centuries, is outlined. Namely: the absence of his works in the programs on piano teaching methods of secondary and higher musical educational institutions, the absence of scientific research of his numerous methodological works.

The main objective of the study. The purpose of this publication is to determine the factors that formed the musical education of B. O. Mylych as a pianist, teacher, methodologist, to define the areas of his pedagogical activity and the main provisions of the methodology.

The methodology includes the analytical method of the main works of B. O. Mylych, such as: “On the formation and improvement of the teaching skills of pianist teachers”, a manual for preschool children's piano lessons “The Little Pianist”, three books for working with pupils of all grades of the State Musical School “Education of a Pianist Student”, which were included in the complete collection of works of B. O. Mylych “Piano pedagogy”, compiled by the author of the article. The generalization method contributed to the formulation the main provisions of B. O. Mylych’s methodology.

Results and conclusions. The author proves that the introduction of the works of B. O. Mylych into scientific circulation will contribute to the development of scientific research in the field of Ukrainian piano pedagogy, the expansion and deepening of professional knowledge and skills of specialists in the field of music pedagogy.

The Significance of Lev Venedyktov's Creative Personality in the Development of Ukrainian Musical and Performance Art

Oksana Letychevska — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Relevance of the study. 2024 marked the centenary of the birth of Lev Mykolaiovych Venediktov, an outstanding Ukrainian musician, choral and opera conductor, teacher, public figure, People’s Artist and Hero of Ukraine. His 60-year-long service to the National Opera of Ukraine, including almost four decades as its chief chorus master, represents one of the most remarkable chapters in the national history of music performance. An analysis of his artistic and pedagogical legacy is essential for understanding the development of Ukrainian choral and operatic performance, as well as the continuity of educational traditions in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Main objectives and scientific novelty. The main aim of this research is to identify L. Venediktov’s professional, pedagogical and public contribution to contemporary Ukrainian musical culture, to determine his influence on the development of the national performing school, and to reveal the artistic and human dimensions of his creative personality. The study provides new insights based on unpublished archival materials, interviews with the artist, his colleagues, students, and the author’s personal observations, thus enriching academic understanding of the essence of L. Venedyktov’s creative personality.

Methodology. The research uses historical, biographical, analytical, and empirical methods. Archival and press materials from the National Opera of Ukraine were examined to trace the dynamics of the choir’s artistic growth. Interviews with colleagues and students were considered to reconstruct the mechanisms of Venediktov’s pedagogical influence and to identify the features of his rehearsal process. The connection between the principles of L. Venedyktov’s choirmaster’s work and the traditions of Ukrainian opera performance was traced. The generalisation of the materials allowed us to reconstruct a comprehensive picture of his professional ethos and legacy.

Findings and conclusions. Lev Venediktov’s multifaceted activity as chorus master, conductor, and pedagogue defined an entire era in the development of Ukrainian musical performance. Under his direction, the opera choir of the National Opera of Ukraine reached an exemplary level of ensemble precision, timbral richness, and stylistic authenticity, becoming a benchmark of operatic choral performance. His work as a teacher at the National Music Academy of Ukraine fostered several generations of conductors who continue his artistic principles. The study concludes that Venediktov’s universalism, combining artistry, scholarship, leadership, and pedagogy, made him a key figure in shaping modern Ukrainian opera and choral art. His creative and educational legacy remains a vital link in the continuity of national musical traditions and a significant contribution to Ukrainian cultural identity.

Gustav Mahler—Reformer of Performing Arts: from Provincial Kapellmeister to Vienna Opera Maestro

Oleksandr Zavolgin — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The phenomenon of Gustav Mahler as an Austrian modernist composer and one of the most influential conductors of the early 20th century, who became a defining figure in the formation of European musical performance of the modern era, is highlighted. His role as an artist who combined the traditions of late Romanticism with new trends in modernist thinking is explored, creating a kind of synthesis of classical heritage and an individual interpretative approach. The stages of Mahler's professional development are characterized - from his first conducting attempts in the provincial theaters of Bad Halle, Laibach and Olmütz, where he gained experience and developed his own performing technique, to the period of the heyday of his creative activity in Budapest, Hamburg and Vienna. It is emphasized that the decade of G. Mahler's work at the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper, 1897–1907), which became the culmination of his reformist aspirations, deserves special attention. The article highlights his introduction of strict performance discipline, demands on the orchestra, soloists and choir, rejection of vocal embellishments, elimination of the claque1, darkening the auditorium, and also a return to full, authentic versions of the operas of Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner. The complexity of reconstructing G. Mahler's conducting style is investigated due to the lack of audio and video recordings, which necessitates the analytical study of scores with his author's retouches, letters, diaries and memoirs of contemporaries. It is emphasized that G. Mahler established a new concept of a conductor - an interpreter-artist who not only coordinates the performance process, but also forms his own dramaturgy of sound, reproducing a musical work as a living, emotionally and spiritually charged artistic event.

The Role of the Department of Opera and Symphony Conducting at the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in Preserving and Developing the Ukrainian Conducting School

Dileaver Osmanov, Viktor Zdorenko — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The development of the Ukrainian conducting school is a key factor in shaping the national artistic space and preserving Ukraine’s cultural identity. The Department of Opera and Symphony Conducting at the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music serves as a strategic center for training highly qualified conductors, combining traditional European approaches with the national musical context. The relevance of this study is determined by the need for a comprehensive understanding of the department’s role in forming professional mastery, developing the national conducting tradition, and integrating Ukrainian music education into the global cultural space.

The study aims to comprehensively examine the role of the Department of Opera and Symphony Conducting at the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in preserving, developing, and transforming the Ukrainian conducting school, analyzing its contribution to the formation of the national artistic tradition, and integrating it into the modern international educational and cultural context. The scientific novelty lies in the systematic combination of historical, pedagogical, and methodological aspects of the department’s activities, which allows assessing its strategic role in shaping the modern Ukrainian conducting school.

A comprehensive scientific and methodological approach was applied, including the analysis of historical and biographical sources, pedagogical programs, curricula, musicological publications, and the professional activities of the department’s faculty and alumni. The study combines historical and cultural analysis with the description of practical activities, allowing for the systematization of the department’s contribution to the development of the national conducting tradition and international integration.

It was established that the Department of Opera and Symphony Conducting has served for over a century as a key center for training conductors, ensuring the continuity of professional traditions, developing creative individuality, and maintaining a national performance style. Distinguished educators and maestros – including S. Turchak, Y. Dushchenko, M. Kanershtein, V. Zdorenko, and others – have trained a generation of highly skilled alumni who continue the traditions of the Ukrainian conducting school in national and international musical ensembles.

The study demonstrates the effectiveness of combining classical conducting approaches with modern educational and digital practices, enabling the department to respond to the challenges of globalization and wartime transformations. The results highlight the department’s significance as a strategic center of artistic education, contributing to the development of Ukrainian musical culture, enhancing its international reputation, and training highly qualified specialists capable of integrating national art into the contemporary global cultural discourse.

Stylistic Features of Olena Chmut’s Harmonic Thinking (Based on Original Choral Compositions)

Nadiya Selezniova — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Selected choral works by the Bukovinian composer Olena Chmut are examined, representing the principal directions of her creative output — original choral compositions. The study characterizes the features of the composer’s harmonic language, her stylistic markers, and the specificity of her artistic thinking are described, with particular attention to the interaction between tradition and innovative approaches. The discussion is based on a detailed harmonic analysis of original compositions, including the choral miniature Vesniane (“Spring Song”) and the diptych on texts by Ivan Franko, Do Not Forget and Your Eyes. The harmonic language and polyphonic devices are analyzed within the context of dramaturgy and form-building processes that determine the features of free through-composed development of thematic material. In the folk-song arrangements, the predominance of the principle of harmonic variation is identified as one of the leading methods of musical development. It is established that Olena Chmut’s harmonic language is characterized by active explorations in the sphere of sonority, chromaticization, the complication of both vertical and horizontal structures, poly-chordal textures, chords saturated with alterations and substitute tones, extensive doublings, as well as textural embodiments of multi-sonorous structures. The study reveals the use of multi-voiced altered chordal verticalities associated with jazz stylistics and the composer’s masterful application of polyphonic techniques. Special attention is paid to the interaction of harmony with other musical expressive means in close connection with the imaginative content of the poetic text, ensuring the organic integrity of the choral scores. The research demonstrates that the analyzed compositions represent vivid examples of contemporary Ukrainian choral music, in which traditional harmonization techniques are combined with innovative approaches reflective of modern compositional thinking. The findings may be used in further studies of choral arranging and harmonization methods, in examining the genre-stylistic specificity of modern choral writing, as well as in identifying current developmental trends in Ukrainian choral music.

Between Tradition and Experiment: the New Concerto Paradigm in Serhii Piliutikov’s Double Bass Concerto

Myroslav Avramenko — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0200

Relevance of the study. The transformation of the instrumental concerto in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries is associated with a rethinking of its dramaturgical model, the role of the soloist, and the timbral organization of musical form. In contemporary Ukrainian music this process is particularly evident in the expansion of the solo repertoire for instruments that were traditionally limited to orchestral functions. Serhii Piliutikov’s Double Bass Concerto “Better Be Still When the Dragon Sings” represents a significant example of this tendency and has not previously been the subject of a comprehensive musicological study.

Main objective of the study. The aim of the research is to identify the principles of the new concerto paradigm in this composition and to reveal the specific interaction between traditional and experimental elements in its genre-dramaturgical and timbral conception.

Methodology. The research is based on an integrated methodological approach combining genre-stylistic, structural-functional and timbral-dramaturgical analysis. The genre-stylistic method made it possible to determine the relationship between the work and the historical concerto model. Structural analysis was applied to reveal the processual nature of the single-movement form and its latent three-part organization. Timbral analysis was used to examine the orchestration and the acoustic balance between the soloist and the orchestra. An interpretative approach, supported by materials of composer–performer communication, made it possible to clarify the role of the performer’s individuality and the variability of the cadenza.

Results and conclusions. The concerto is interpreted as a representative example of a contemporary type of concerto thinking in which the traditional dialogic principle is combined with a processual form, timbral dramaturgy, and an open interpretative model. A shift from purely technical virtuosity to timbral and articulatory virtuosity is revealed, as well as the personification of the solo instrument. The composer–performer interaction is defined as one of the key mechanisms of the new concerto paradigm. The work is shown to be significant for the development of the Ukrainian double bass repertoire and for the renewal of the instrumental concerto genre in contemporary musical culture.

Significance. The results of the study contribute to contemporary Ukrainian musicology and to the theory of the instrumental concerto and may be applied in academic and performing practice.

Directorial Innovations in Opera Productions Within the Theatrical, SiteSpecific, and Media Spaces

Olena Kasyanova — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The article examines the process of reinterpreting established models and generating new formats of opera productions within theatrical, site-specific, and media environments. It identifies one of the most complex vectors of contemporary directorial innovation: the modernization of staging strategies within the conventional proscenium theatre, historically governed by stable and long-standing principles of operatic production. The study outlines priority pathways for renewing the artistic product in institutional music theatres and analyzes the emergence and syncretic development of polygenre forms, particularly dance opera, distinguishing between its European model—where the character is embodied by two performers (the singer as “soul” and the dancer as corporeal expression)—and its American variant, in which a single performer integrates vocal and choreographic embodiment.

The research further explores the formation of a new operatic format resembling a miniseries, characterized by dynamic pavilion shifts and close-up representations of multiple locations within the unfolding narrative. The specific features of two alternative trajectories of visionary opera are defined through the directorial strategies of Robert Wilson and Romeo Castellucci. Wilson’s approach is associated with visual harmonization achieved through light design and corporeal plasticity, resulting in painterly and architectural stage compositions, whereas Castellucci’s productions emphasize existential tension, radical conflict between music and image, and the deliberate transgression of ethical norms.

The article analyzes the use of unconventional open-air locations—natural landscapes, architectural ensembles, historical monuments, urban, industrial, and sacred spaces—leading to the development of site-specific opera. A defining feature of this format is the integration of a particular location as an indispensable dramaturgical and directorial component, rendering the project nontransferable to alternative settings. The combination of site-specific strategies with performance art, installation, ritual, and land art significantly expands the dramaturgical and semantic functions of opera.

Special attention is given to the impact of twenty-first-century global communication on the refinement of existing and the emergence of new operatic formats in the media space, including radio, film, television, video, multimedia (with a distinct MTV-influenced stylistic branch), and online opera. These formats share transformative features related to the reconfiguration of stage space, miseen-scène construction, and modes of audience perception according to the technological medium. The study demonstrates that the conceptual and practical realization of contemporary media opera is fundamentally determined by the orientation of dramaturgy and directing toward the specific type of carrier.

The findings substantiate the necessity of further interdisciplinary research aimed at systematizing and classifying innovative operatic formats within the context of global artistic communication and evolving aesthetic demands of contemporary audiences.

"Iphigenia in Tauris" by Kyrylo Stetsenko: Musical Dramaturgy in the Web of Mnemosyne

Oksana Gorodetska — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0200

The article presents an in-depth interpretation of the musical dramaturgy of the mono-opera Iphigenia in Tauris (1921) by Kyrylo Stetsenko, based on the dramatic scene by Lesya Ukrainka. The study focuses on the internal mechanisms of thematic development that embody the heroine’s reflective consciousness, unfolding within the dimension of memory. Memory functions not merely as a narrative element but as a structural principle shaping the opera’s intonational, modalharmonic, and compositional organization.

The purpose of the article is to interpret the opera’s musical dramaturgy as a unified psychological process in which the conflict between fatal obligation and the vital force of remembrance becomes the main driving force of development. Particular attention is given to the interaction between the planes of present reality and the idealized homeland, to the transformation of the leitmotivic complex, and to the expressive role of modal variability, polyphonic texture, and timbral symbolism.

The research demonstrates that the principle of retrospection operates at multiple structural levels, culminating in the cathartic reinterpretation of thematic material in the reprise. The monoopera reveals a synthesis of neoclassical orientation and modernist psychological intensity, positioning the work among the most significant achievements of Ukrainian opera in the first third of the twentieth century.