The «Koza-dereza» opera by M. Lysenko staged in Konstantinovka art school: the experience of an ensemble score creating
Background. The article highlights the effectiveness of practical forms of music education, which includes the participation of children in theatrical productions. The expediency of using children’s operas by M. Lysenko as a teaching material was emphasized. Operas were created for staging in the family to be performed by as composer’s children as relatives’ and friends’ children. Attempts to put M. Lysenko’s children’s operas on the “big” scene showed the discrepancy between these works and the parameters of the traditional opera, because both the fairy tale story and folk episode material, and the lightened vocal parties of protagonists, were more convincingly performed by young artists than by professional adult singers. That is why M. Lysenko’s children’s operas including “Koza-dereza”, were mostly performed by amateur children’s groups, first of all, by the students of the primary specialized educational art institutions. One of the last performances of the opera “Koza-dereza” took place on the stage of Konstantinovka Art School on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the birth of the classic of Ukrainian music. Teachers and students of all departments of the school joined to the opera staging. Six young soloists were supported by the children’s vocal ensemble, students of the choreography class and the instrumental ensemble that consisted of teachers of the school. The task of creating a score was assumed by a teacher of musical and theoretical disciplines, composer by education, Anna Utina. Objectives – to characterize the factors that determined the direction of work on the creation of the ensemble score of the M. Lysenko’s opera “Koza-dereza” for its performing at the Konstantinovka Arts School. Methods. The methodology of the research is based on the use of a complex of positions of those branches of musicology science, which are related to the themes, forms, drama, instrumentation. Results. The connection between the purpose of the “Koza-Dereza” opera to be performed for children and the choice of the literary source, stylistic orientations, compositional structure and sound solution parameters are traced. It is indicated on the educational role of the fairy-tale story, on the use of national folk sources, on the conditionality of the composition of the opera by the laws of the structure of the folk tales. It is assumed that the composer’s refusal from orchestral sound is due to the acoustics of the living space, where it was planned to be performed the opera, which required chamber sound, and the piano’s timbre peculiarity for children, which was supposed to accompany the vocal choral parties. The main tasks, which determined the nature of the work on orchestration of the opera in the process of preparing for its production on the stage of the Konstantinovka school of art, were sequentially characterized. The instruments used in the score are characterized, the determinism of their choice is emphasized, on the one hand, by external factors – the presence of instruments and musicians willing to take part in the performance of the opera, on the other, the chamberness of the stage action and “transparency” of the piano texture in the M. Lysenko’s clavier. It is noted that the parts of some instruments missing at school funds were reproduced by using synthesizers. The functions of instruments in the ensemble are traced – logical and figurative- semantic. In general, the functions of instruments in the organization of musical tissue are traditional: cello and bass give bass backing to sound, drums perform a rhythmic function, violin and wind – a melodic, bell – ornamental and decorative. However, the need to provide instrumental support to young vocalists has resulted in a fairly widespread using of duplication of their parties by violin, flute, clarinet, although the main load still falls on a piano that simultaneously performs several functions in a score – melodic, rhythmic, harmonic – and is the mainstay for vocalists. Figurative and semantic functions of the instrumental timbres are conventionally divided into colorful and characteristic. Almost all the coloristic elements included in the score are potentially present in the M. Lysenko’s clavier. For instance, inclusion of a bell in the instrumental ensemble that brings a special colorfulness to the sound was inspired by melodic-rhythmic figures of a specific nature, contained in the piano part of the opera and caused by unambiguous associations with the vivid timbre of this instrument. The colority of the sound in orchestration is increased by the comparison of voices. The contrast of voices is emphasized by the register or the nature of sound producing. Attempts to associate instrumental sound with a particular character are concentrated in laconic introductions to solo numbers. In these introductions the appearance and the inner essence of the widely spread fairy-tale types are embodied by the sounds of instruments. Here we meet stubborn goat, tricky and caressy Chanterelles, cowardly Bunny, self-confident Wolf, respectful Bear, proud Cancer. It is the timbr that can cause listeners’ associations with the mass, volume, peculiarities of motion, the color of the voice of characters on the one hand, relying on the mechanism of apperceptive semantics, to reflect certain qualities of their character, on the other hand. The factors that contributed to the chamberness preservation of the author’s idea of the work were identified. First, this is limiting the orchestral composition of all ten instruments, which gives a potential opportunity to hear each of them in general terms. The ensemble principle, in which all the instruments have their own party, that does not coincide with the parties of other instruments, was not found the successive embodiment in the score, firstly, because of the conscious asceticism of the piano part of the Lysenko’s clavier and, secondly, of the need to provide melodic and harmonious support to the singers-beginners. However, the tendency toward the producing chamberness of ensemble sound in the score is certainly traceable, and it is associated with the usage of means of timbre dialogue, in particular, various interchanges between instruments, question-related intonations, and echo techniques. Conclusions. In this manner, the work on creation of the score for the instrumental ensemble was held according to the 2 factors. On the one hand, some external factors like the presence of certain instruments, the need to provide melodic- harmonic support to young vocalists were taken into account. On the other hand, the work was determined by the peculiarities of the author’s original source, according to the desire to preserve the chamberness of the Lysenko’s opera, an inherent characteristic and colority of the sound to emphasize and enhance with the help of the timbres.