Yuriy Oliynyk’s double bandura concert in the context of the genre development
The article considers the music dramaturgy and poetry of Yuriy Oliynyk’s Sixth bandura concert (b. 1931), the famous American composer of Ukrainian origin. Concert for two banduras and “Antiphonal” symphony orchestra, created in 2012, is considered in the context of the artist’s work genre evolution and stylistic panorama of his other works of the late period. In 2016 Yu. Oliynyk celebrates its 85th anniversary. A resident of the American south (Sacramento, CA) obtained a brilliant musical education as a pianist and composer. A contemporary of Myroslav Skoryk, Valentyn Sylvestrov, Yevgen Stankovych, and Lowell Libermann, Astor P’yatsol in American music, — he belongs to a generation of talented contemporary symphonists working in twelve tone tonality of modal type [4]. He seamlessly combines features of the modern Ukrainian, American and Mesoamerican musical traditions. Since the late 1980s the bulk of his compositions is made of the pieces for bandura. He devotes a considerable attention to this instrument due to his wife — Olga Oliynyk, known bandura player in the United States and Ukraine, who participated in the premiere versions of almost all Yuriy Oliynyk’s bandura concerts. The Sixth concert for two banduras and symphony orchestra has a program called Antiphonal Concerto. The work is dedicated to the blessed memory of the composer’s son Oleksandr. It was premiered in 2012 in Ukraine, in the Lviv Regional Philharmonic Hall with the guidance of conductor Yuriy Lutsiv. Oleg Sozansky (²st Bandura) and Taras Lazurkevych (2nd Bandura) acted as solo performers. In this work, like most of his opus for Bandura, composer organically combines features of the Ukrainian, contemporary American and Mesoamerican musical traditions. “Antiphonal” concert has three parts with rather traditional tempo combinations: ² — Àllegro ma non troppî, ²² — Andante, ²²² — Quasi presto. The work is one of the most important achievements of the Master not only in the concert genre, but its artistic heritage as a whole. In the bandura concert genre this is one of the most interesting works created by the artists of Ukraine and Ukrainian Diaspora in the past decade. According to the author, two Bandura soloists should be placed at the extreme points of the stage to simulate with their roll call the echo principle, typical of the late Renaissance and Baroque choral culture. Between them, like the body, must be located Orchestra should be located in-between like an organ [5, p. 2]. The “Composer’s Notes” to the score indicate the antiphonal effects in concert drama and bitonal comparisons, which sound somewhat dissonant, but very freshly. To achieve the artistic conception Yu. Oliynuk used for the first time some technical difficulties in bandura parts, noting that the performance of work “requires technical proficiency, where the right hand moves from the bottom row of the bandura strings to the top quickly and often” [5, p. 2]. Filigree smoothness, colorful orchestral score, characteristic of all Yuri Oliynyk’s symphonic canvases, was embodied in the “Antiphonal” concert. His drama contains a number of effective compositional techniques, mostly the principle of intonation and rhythmic unity of thematic invention and its polyphonic development, which is complemented by flawless, fresh colorful orchestration. The Concert No. 6 represents these principles consistently over a three-part circular track. The first part — Àllegro ma non troppî — d moll - C dur, — was written in sonata form (with a mirror reprise). The statement of dynamic and at the same time anxious and restrained main theme declares the principles of orchestral and timbre, intonation and inverse polyphonic roll calls and bitonal effects, which is one of the leading dramaturgic means of combining cycle. The main theme is a lyrical opposition to the image (Cantabile con passione) with dominating simulation development. The second part — Andante — is a lyrical centre for the cyclic compositions. In th³s part the allusions arise with the lyrical pages of George Bizet, George Gershwin, Astor P’yatsola, and Aram Khachaturian’s music. For example, the part culmination is associated with the famous Adagio theme from Khachaturian’s “Spartacus” ballet. Same as in the first part, the bandura’s solo cadenza determines the beginning of reprise. The third part — Quasi presto – the final movement. Final is based on rhyme formula that combines exquisite tripartite Baroque dance with the Ukrainian cant. Composer’s mental affinity with the world of his predecessors and contemporaries is complemented with Renaissance polyphony techniques (antiphonal singing) and modern bi-tonal effects. Ñonsequently, “Antiphonal” concert flowed like a fresh stream into the stylistic panorama of contemporary academic bandura tradition adding the spirit of neo– folklorism, neo-Baroque and neoclassical styling, colourful music of Mesoamerica’s people and his native Ukrainian music known from the childhood