Timbre-image of the viola in Valentin Bibik’s Fifth String Quartet in the context of the «last work» concept
Authors: Marharyta Pashkovska 
Published: September 2022

Statement of the problem. The opuses, which were created at the final stage of the composer’s creative path – namely, V. Bibik’s Fifth String Quartet – always arouse the special interest of researchers as the “last word” of the artist, which accumulates the peculiarities of his thinking and contributes to the integrity of the perception of his work We are particularly interested in the fact that quite often the latest works of composers, par excellence, those of the 19–21 centuries, are associated with the timbre of the viola (J. Brahms, M. Reger, D. Shostakovich, B. Britten, B. Bartok, P. Hindemith, B. Martinu, E. Bloch, A. Khachaturyan and others), which can also be traced in V. Bibik’s work. The phenomenon of involving the viola in the late opuses of composers of the 19–21 centuries has not been specifically considered so far, therefore, the discovery and application of this research angle constitutes a certain scientific novelty of our work. The purpose of the presented research is to consider the specifics of the application of the timbre semantics of the viola in the late works of the famous Ukrainian composer Valentyn Bibik (1940–2003) using the example of his Fifth String Quartet (2002). A set of general and special musicological approaches was used to explore the topic: historical and biographical in the study of V. Bibik’s life and creative path; stylistic, since the specifics of the composer’s late style are considered; semantic, in connection with the study of the timbre image of the viola; organological, in connection with the analysis of timbre-sematic and articulation-stroke means of expression; the method of performance analysis, focused on revealing the semantics of the viola timbre in the researched work. The article presents the references to works by researchers on the issue of the semantics of the timbre-image of the viola (Kosenko, 2018; Kupriyanenko, 2005; Horodetskyi, 2019 and others), on the studies dedicated to the issues of periodization of the work of composers, in particular, the typology of late period of creativity (Savytska, 2008, 2010), and on some works devoted to V. Bibik (Shapovalova, 2007a, b; Ivanova, & Mizitova, 2020; Shchetynsky, 2021, Serhaniuk, Shapovalova, Nikolaievska, & Kopeliuk, 2021). Results and conclusions. Based on the research of G. Kosenko, E. Kupriyanenko, and A. Horodetskyi, we have deduced some parameters for analyzing the semantics of the viola timbre-image: – creating a semantic “image of the instrument”; – accentuation of timbre qualities that express its specificity; – selection of intonations that form psychological characteristics presented by the alto timbre; – emphasis on various timbre components that influence the richness of the viola timbre. – performance influence on the timbre-image of the viola; – gravitation of the alto timbre towards certain moods; – use of two opposite parts of the viola register (high – low) for the characterization of internally contrasting images. The typology of creative periods (according to N. Savytska, 2008) was projected onto the work of V. Bibik, as a result of which it was found out that the late period of his compositional activity (according to our periodization – 1994–2003) can be attributed to the “consolidating” type, since the main constants of the artist’s style such as philosophical aspect, symphonism, polyphonisation, monologisation, meditative type of the dramaturgy are preserved. A compositional and dramaturgical analysis of the Fifth String Quartet was done, the techniques of instrumental exposition and development of thematic material were considered, attention was focused on the peculiarities of the use of the timbre image of the viola in the semantic field of the work. Based on the analysis of the Quartet, taking into account the stylistic dominants of the composer’s work, the main trends in the use of the viola timbre in V. Bibik’s late work are highlighted. It is concluded that the composer significantly expands its semantic spectrum due to the technical and performance capabilities of the instrument.