Peculiarities of the embodiment of H. Heine’s poetry translations in the vocal cycle of D. Klebanov
Authors: Kalinina A.S. 
Published: June 2019

Statement of the problem. There are a lot of works in the national musicology focusing on the study of vocal chamber music for voice and piano by Ukrainian composers of the 20th century. Researchers cover quite a wide range of issues regarding vocal pieces and touch upon the problems of cyclocreation, dramaturgy, features of musical and linguistic means, etc. However, they rarely pay attention to translation, though there are many vocal opuses, in which composers use foreign poetry. In this case, the specifi c choice of the translated sample helps to determine the principles of the composer’s approach to the embodiment of the poetic text, especially in comparison with other works based on the same sources. Hence separate songs from D. Klebanov’s vocal cycle on the poems of H. Heine did not become an exception, thereby confi rming the relevance of the proposed topic. The purpose of the article is to determine specifi c features of the embodiment of H. Heine’s poetry translations in the vocal cycle of D. Klebanov on the basis of two romances – “In a grove, on a wild path”, “My love, lay your hand on my heart”, as compared to the works of other composers of the twentieth century . To achieve the research objectives the following methods were used: historical, structural-functional, genre-style and comparative. Results. Under consideration are peculiarities of the embodiment of H. Heine’s poetry translations in the vocal cycle of D. Klebanov, one of the founders of Kharkiv composition school. For this work the author took eight verses from the fi rst two cycles of the “Book of Songs” by the German poet. They were based on the motives of love poems with vivid images of nature; sometimes the poems are full of sadness, a sense of loneliness. When D. Klebanov was choosing certain samples from different poetic cycles, he tried to stick to the plot of the “Book of Songs”, since he ordered the poems in the same way they were written in the collection. Another indicator of the composer’s relation to Heiner’s texts is the choice of poetic works which are given in the cycle in Ukrainian and Russian languages. The composer’s individual vision of Heine’s lyric poetry is clearly seen when compared to the vocal works of other composers of the twentieth century, M. Medtner and E. Denisov, written on the same poetic texts. In cross-romances, similar musical-linguistic means are used, including the metrical principle of vocalization of the poetic text, homophonic-harmonic structure, harmony of classical-romantic type. However, each of the composers renders the fi gurative and semantic implications of the poems in their own way. M. Medtner builds his romance “My love, lay your hand on my heart” according to the crescendo principle. Beginning with a quieter dynamics, the composer gradually increases the volume of the sound, which at the end leads to a general climax that moves from the point of the golden section. D. Klebanov chose a different way – to reinforce the dramatism of the poem. This was possible thanks to various musical and linguistic means: a strict, intense melody in the bass doubled in the sixth with a chromatic motion and semiquavers at the end of each bar in the last line of the fi rst stanza, designation Meno mosso, chromaticized vocal melody. The composers’ choice of poetic translations depends on the place and role of the romance in the general structure of the cycle. The eight-part composition of D. Klebanov is based on the wave principle of the plot development. The original four romances pave the way to the fi rst climax – unrequited love in the fi rst romance (“Every morning I awake and ask”), painful memories in the second one (“In a grove, on a wild path”), a tragic image in the third one (“My love, lay your hand on my heart “), and an attempt to overcome the pain in the fourth romance (“First I was afraid of darkness”). Further on, the development is based on contrast: the image of death in the fi fth romance (“Your lovely face, so fair and dear”), a subtle feeling of love in the sixth one (“Oh, let me plunge my heart”), worries because of the marriage of a loved one to another guy in the seventh romance (“I hear the fl ute and the fi ddle”) and disappointment in her spiritual values in the last one (“The violets blue”). Such a location of the third romance justifi es the choice of translation, where the colours are thickening and the content becomes even darker. Such kind of a fi gurative and semantic plot resembles the tradition of a romantic vocal cycle, in which the emotional state of the lyrical character, his emotional collisions сome to the fore. In this perspective, “ 3 Poems of H. Heine” by D. Medtner demonstrate another relationship between the romances of the cycle. All of them have feelings of sorrow, despair circle, a no-go. At the same time, distancing from the immediate events is felt, as if it is a look at someone else’s life, which is evidenced by the storytelling from the third person in the second and third romances. Therefore, the fi rst romance, based on the poem “My love, lay your hand on my heart”, is a kind of “preface” to the cycle, which involves some personal detachment. This leads to the selection of softened content in the translated version of the poem. The second romance, “In a grove, on a wild path”, has a similar function in the vocal cycle of D. Klebanov as it became the preparation for the climax of the third one. The semantic line of his poem is based on two storylines: the external one is the “theme of the journey” that is refl ected in the image of nature, and the internal one is the “theme of sadness”, which focuses on the feelings of the lyrical hero. The composer here, like Анна in the third romance, deepens the line of inner experiences. This became possible thanks to the Tranquillo tempo, fl at minor tonality, massive discordant accompaniment chords, variable measure, melody of the recitative-oratorial type. H. Heine’s poem, presented in the work of D. Klebanov, became the basis of the fi fth romance of E. Denisov’s vocal opus. Like the Ukrainian master, E. Denisov builds his cycle in the spirit of the romantic tradition, but in revealing the fi gurative structure of the poem he goes a different way. He makes a clear distinction between two fi gurativesemantic lines. This is refl ected in the form of a romance that has the features of binarity and variability, the embodiment of the metro-rhythmic structure of the verse based on two opposing principles - metric and cantilena, as well as other means of musical expression. Thus, choosing the same poem by H. Heine, D. Klebanov and E. Denisov represent their own vision of its content. Conclusions The comparative analysis of the embodiment of Heine’s texts by D. Klebanov and other composers of the twentieth century helps to highlight the individual approach of the Ukrainian artist. Despite the fact that the composer chooses similar means of musical expression, he fi nds his own way of refl ecting the semantics of the poetic source. In the above mentioned romances – “In a grove, on a wild path” and “My love, lay your hand on my heart” – the author focuses on the inner confl icts of the lyrical hero, his experiences. Attention paid to the sensory side of the poems also determined the selected translations, since the rejection of translators from the original results in a certain deformation of its meaning and fi gurative structure, which infl uences the musical embodiment of the poetic source.