The oeuvre vectors of Alexander Nazarenko from artistic performance to the composer’s interpretation
In the article, for the first time in Ukrainian musicology, a definition of criteria for the analysis of the creativity of the famous Ukrainian musician-bayan player Alexander Ivanovich Nazarenko was suggested in the variety of its manifestations. We consider such directions of his professional activity as artistic performance, conducting, composition and pedagogy in interaction, the dynamics of which follows from performance to composer interpretation, from solo concertation and conducting of hillbilly bands to the compilation of author’s and two-authored works – original compositions and orchestrations of other’s music, which replenish contemporary repertoire of both singers and performance groups. We also analyze here the A. Nazarenko’s composer’s principles prevailing in his oeuvre as a result of all its directions. Let’s summarize each one. Being a brilliant concert artist, A. Nazarenko was a soloist of the Kharkiv Regional Philharmonic, a participant in international festivals and concerts on Republican radio and television. He is the first performer of the works not only of his teacher (V. Podgornyi), but also of the works of F. Bogdanov, A. Zhuk, V. Bibik. It is the executive practice of A. Nazarenko contributed to the development of his own composer’s and transcriptor’s ideas. In order to expand his own repertoire and later - the repertoire of his students, the author selects music from the records, and begins the fruitful work of other’s music arrangement – creates arrangements, transcriptions, and so forth. In addition, in performance repertoire, and now in his own teaching work, Alexander Nazarenko pays much attention to the popularization of the music of the Kharkiv composers. As for the pedagogical field of A. Nazarenko’s oeuvre, it should be noted that his oustanding teacher – a representative of the Kharkiv bayan school – V. Podgornyi and his followers – in the development of the sound expressive bayan system, they relied on the violin manner of sound extraction. The representative of the Kyiv bayan school – L. Gorenko, whose name is associated with the opening of the bayan class in Kharkiv Music Institute (1951) began from the specifics of piano recovery. A. Nazarenko, being a student of V. Podgornyi, continues the first tradition. At summarizing the Nazarenko’s students impressions, the following characteristics of the educational activities of the musician can be distinguished: extending the instrument paint palette, subjecting the artistic content of music to the artistic performance of the play, the striving for the multiplicity of bayan and accordion expression (simulation of orchestral groups or individual instruments), the perspicuity of the articulation and the removal of the instrument from the everyday perception of the play («harmonica» play). Another important pedagogical principle of A. Nazarenko is the enhancement of the technical capabilities of the performer (the strength and dexterity of fingers, the development of the various tricks of the controlled windbags drive). Another area of A. Nazarenko’s activity is related to his conductor practice. For his creative life, he was able to become the leader and mentor of many collectives, and now his conductor’s work is closely linked to the Bayan Orchestra of Kharkiv National I. P. Kotlyarevsky University of Arts, established as early as in 1993. The orchestra’s repertoire consists of both academic and entertainment works. But it is undeniable that the unique flavor of this collective is the involving in the repertoire of the author’s opuses of A. Nazarenko. Here are some features of the musician’s creative approach to work with the collective. For example, he imagines the orchestral groups similarly to the symphonic orchestra. For instrumentation symphonization, Alexander Nazarenko often includes instruments of the symphonic orchestra – violin, tromba, timpano and others. The oboe and the flute are present in the orchestra permanently. Among the musicians’ demands to the orchestra participants are the expressiveness of the parties, the performance of all the dynamic nuances, and well coordinated communication in the ensemble (picking up roll-calls, the «hearings» of the partner). The orchestra also pays great attention to the tonality of other instruments (diversity of violin dashes and techniques, such as violin pizzicato, imitation of organic legate, etc.). The composer’s vector of Nazarenko’s oeuvre is represented both by creation of his own opuses and by orchestrations, fantasies, and transpositions for bayan and accordion, in which the musician arranges the music of other writers. It is notable that the area of the others’ works orchestration is very common in the oeuvre of the Kharkiv musician. They can be differentiated by such groups according to the source of arrangement: instrumental arrangements and fantasies of folk and entertainment songs, and arrangement of entertainment and academic instrumental works. The unifying factor of these groups of works are the key features of the composer’s style of A. Nazarenko – an extraordinary virtuosity that has undoubtedly been influenced by the performance talent. In the presence of expressive melodic thematism, the musician prefers a complex polyphonized texture, in which several melodic lines and even strata forming colorful harmonies and multichannel chording structures intertwine. This leads to a rich orotund facture. It should be noted that Alexander Nazarenko’s coming into being as composer and music transcriptor began with a simple representation of piano works in which he still has little intruded in the text. Further, during the creative evolution and exploration, the musician began to lean toward transcriptions with modification of the material, with the enrichment of harmony, texture, and the form towards its complication. The main task of the Kharkiv artist’s transpositions and transcriptions is extending the musicians’ view and their performance repertoire. One of the evidence of the recognition and popularity of A. Nazarenko’s works is their involvement in the repertoire by many musicians. So, among the author’s main principles, which he follows in the process of creating the transpositions and transcriptions, there are three different methods of musical material arrangement: 1) the desire to reproduce the style of the original work; 2) search for new intonation, harmony, counterpoints capable of adding new content to the source; 3) introduction of new facture solutions in the original text that reinforce the expressiveness, in particular, of the instrument’s virtuosity.