“Dies irae. Thirty-nine variations” for piano by V. Bibik: composer’s interpretation of the genre
The formulation of the research issue. The article is devoted to one of the little-known works for piano by the world-famous composer Valentin Bibik, “philosopher and poet from music”, according to the apt expression of the People’s Artist of Ukraine Tetiana Verkina. The novelty of the research is that the opus “Dies irae. 39 variations” by V. Bibik has become the subject of special scientific interest for the first time in Ukrainian musicology. The choice of the music piece is determined by the presence in its dramaturgy the integral connections of the composer with “cultural memory” which are realized through the genre synthesis of intonational signs of Western European music and Ukrainian ritual-song culture (lullaby and lamentation). Especially noteworthy is the embodiment of the unique idea of the tragic concept by means of piano thinking, although with a symphonic scope. The purpose of the article is a genre-style analysis of the chosen piece of the composer’s late period of creativity. The time of the creation of variations (1993) was marked by the composer’s appeal to the eternal themes of good and evil, life and death, which is directly related to the spiritual searches of the Master. In the article there were selected such methods of scientific interpretation of “Dies irae. 39 variations” by V. Bibik: genre method (shows typical features of the musical language of the work), stylistic (directs to the comprehension of the specifics of the composer’s musical thinking) and systematic (determines the understanding of the composer’s creativity as a whole). The material of the research is “Dies irae. 39 Variations” – a conceptual musical work, reflecting the composer’s philosophical reflections on the meaning of Being. The presentation of the research material. This musical composition V. Bibik wrote in the Kharkiv period of his creativity, dedicating it to his youngest daughter Victoria. In the same year, the premiere took place in St. Petersburg, in a city where Valentyn Savvych continued his musical career since 1994. For the first time this work was performed in the walls of the composer’s Alma mater – at Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts at the last (before the departure) composer’s concert in December 1993. The interpretation of the Variations by Victoria Bibik, who became the first performer of this piece, contributed greatly to the enthusiastic and warm reception by both St. Petersburg and Kharkiv audiences. In the performance of the piece by the composer’s youngest daughter, we can catch the intuitive comprehension of her father’s ideas. A brilliant pianist, a deep musician, a person spiritually connected with the composer by invisible thin threads she was able to reveal the intention of the music piece. Later, Victoria recorded 39 variations of “Dies irae” on a CD in St. Petersburg, which was published in the United States in 1997. Concerning dramaturgy of the piece: the exposition is a theme with 4 variations, from which three waves of development grow according to the conflict-meditative thinking of V. Bibik. This stage of dramaturgy should be considered a development: the first wave is the V–XVI variations; the second – XVII–XXVIII variations; the third – XXIX–XXXV variations. Finally, the coda consists from XXXVI to XXXIX variations. In contemporary art the theme of “Dies irae” (from the Catholic funeral Mass – Requiem) is a symbol of tragic being. The appeal of V. Bibik to this sequence emphasizes his style of world-view at that time. However, the composer radically transforms the semantics of the theme of the Last Judgment: from the symbol of death to the lullaby as a symbol of life (through instrumental presentation, the tempo of Adagio and metrorhythm 6/4). Only the first line (f-e-f-d-e-c-d), which is repeated twice, sounds from the sequence. The composer writes a theme with quarter notes, except for the final tone d (whole note) in the first octave with the dynamics of the pp and the legato stroke. The absence of a constant bar numbers in the theme and the whole work creates prayerfulness through syntax, when creating musical forms depended on the verbal text and was characterized by free, irregular metrorhythmics. So, the theme of “Dies irae” in the Op. 97 is perceived ambiguously by the listener, being the composer’s mark of V. Bibik’s artistic thinking. His sonata dramaturgy is built on the basis of the variational cycle. Its specificity lies in the fact that the internal conflict develops gradually, by self-development of one theme (not because of the contrast of the two themes according to the classical pattern). Conclusions. 1. V. Bibik’s address to the theme of “Dies irae” is not accidental. As an embodiment of the composer’s creative experience, “39 Variations” contain signs of a late compositional style and, accordingly, a tragic worldview. 2. Daughter Victoria became one of the founders of the performing tradition of the composer’s music. Her creative activity is the unifying link between the composer and the interpreters of his works. 3. The type of dramatic thinking is defined as “monodrama”, since the composer offers an interpretation of the concept of Western European culture (the Biblical image of the Last Judgment) in creative synthesis with a philosophical attitude toward the reflection of spiritual culture of the twentieth century. The composer synthesizes various genre models (initiation, variations, lullaby), multiplying their stylistics by a sonatical principle of thinking to reproduce a multifaceted idea – the involvement of every human destiny to God’s “sobornost” (spiritual community of many jointly living people). Such connotations combine the past, the presence and the future.