Preservation and Restoration of the Cultural Heritage of Ukraine: the Experience of Audio Recordings of the VIA Era
Authors: Kocherzhuk D. 
Published: July 2023

The purpose of the article. The article highlights the peculiarities of the development of the traditional Ukrainian songbook in the works of well-known vocal and instrumental ensembles (VIA) such as “Smerichka / The Spruce” (Vyzhnytsia, Chernivtsi region) and “Dzvony / The Bells” (Kyiv). The influence of electro musical instruments on artistic processes and the experience of audio recordings of the VIA era as a traditional form of preservation and restoration of song heritage is emphasized. The characteristic features of the emergence of the “big-bit” style in the works of popular bands of the last third of the XX century are outlined.

The methodology. In the course of the research, the methods of analysis, synthesis, generalization, and explanation were used, which were used in the historiographical study of the development of discographic products in the period of the 1970–1990s. The method of statistics was also used to compare the musical content of European countries and Ukraine; the method of description provided a generalized picture of the development of music record companies that actively promoted the creation and restoration of music products. 

The results. The emergence of the first Ukrainian vocal and instrumental ensembles VIA “Dzvony / The Bells” and “Smerichka / The Spruce” was a natural phenomenon in the national popular art, marked by the consequences of the intensive development of the industrialization of musical culture in the world. Electronic music, which emerged as a scientific and technical trend of the avant-garde, has become one of the conventional streams of contemporary (popular) culture. There is no doubt that the activities of Ukrainian big beat bands of the 1960s and 1970s laid the foundation for the emergence of popular art in Ukraine. Big beat ensembles were primarily aimed at young people, whose demands were guided by global mass music trends, despite the ideological obstacles of the time. Thus, the works of the VIA “Dzvony / The Bells” “Smerichka / “The Spruce” were based primarily on the aesthetic principles of the new trend rather than on the traditional confessions of the musical culture of the time (academic and folk art). Active work with the use of various electro musical instruments and studio equipment, as well as the use of jazz and rock music arrangement methods, contributed to the spread of mass music culture. VIA’s appeal to the genres of Ukrainian folklore was due to the natural need for national self-determination within the totalitarian system of the time, as a kind of resistance of the creative personality to the dominant ideology. This led to the emergence of original compositions on the Ukrainian territory and beyond, using folk sources and their own compositions, saturated with national melodies. Notably, this all happened when Ukrainian vocal groups were part of state concert institutions, which was not the case in Western Europe. Such determinism implied an opposite structure, including a rigidly conditioned repertoire policy, collective dependence on state orders, which limited the creative perspectives and efforts of musicians to produce new models of musical performance. The localization of censorship, the lack of a competitive market, and the prohibition of popularizing European bands characterized the consequences of the degradation of a significant number of domestic vocal and instrumental ensembles, in particular, this was reflected in their decline in terms of artistic level. However, their best examples marked the horizon of national pop culture in the last third of the XX century.

The scientific novelty. For the first time, the current analysis of the development of Ukrainian electro musical instrumentation, based on the “big beat” style, which was dominant in the beginning of Ukrainian popular (pop) art by the VIA “Dzvony” / “The Bells” and “Smerichka” / “The Spruce”, is carried out.

The practical significance. In the course of the research, the results of the scientific work can be applied to teaching professional disciplines in higher education institutions, as a component of creative and practical disciplines in sound recording, history of popular art, solo singing, etc.