THE “24 PRELUDES” FOR THE PIANO BY IVAN KARABYTS AS AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF THE UKRAINIAN RENAISSANCE OF THE 1970S
Authors: Kopeliuk Oleh 
Published: March 2021

Background. The research is devoted to revealing the semantic analysis of the dramaturgy of one of the large-scale compositions in the creative work of IvanKarabyts – the cycle “24 Preludes” for the piano. The composition was written by Ivan Karabyts in 1976 and today it is of great interest to concert performers and fans of modern piano music. The attention of pianists to the cycle “24 Preludes” by I. Karabyts is attracted, firstly, by the distinctive, original musical language, secondly – by a wide range of performing capabilities and means of expression, and thirdly – by vivid images that inspire pianists to reproduce artistic ideas, hidden philosophical implications. The object of research is the cycle “24 preludes” for the piano as a musical encyclopaedia, reflecting the artistic era in the context of the Ukrainian renaissance of tthe 1970s, and the aim is to identify stylistic patterns by means of the semantic analysis of the dramaturgy of the cycle, finding the intersection in a kind of dialogue with a diverse, significant fund of the music of the 20th century. The methodology of research is focused on the relationship of special methods of analysis: functional-structural, intonation, genre, style, semantic and interpretative one. Results. Ivan Karabyts chooses for his cycle a model of tonal dramaturgy of the cycle “24 Preludes”, introduced by F. Chopin and later by D. Shostakovich, namely – the movement along the circle of fifths in the ratio of major-minor. From the point of view of musical semantics of the preludes of the cycle they can be divided into 5 thematic groups (contemplative and introspective lyrics; grotesque and dance; sound imitation and spatial-visual; stylistic allusions; and tragedy ones), varied in genre-stylistic sense (according to the criteria of modelling the awareness of the lyrical hero (I – the world around me.) The dramaturgy of the cycle is built through their correlation, while forming a certain plot, which begins with the image of the lyrical hero, and ends with a demonstration of the society which is ambiguous and problematic for a human. The composer chooses the prelude as a genre with a historical memory of culture, which allows performers and listeners to experience the range of psychological moments of the human spirit in the turbulent world of events of the last third of the 20th century. The composer is fascinated by this genre not by chance, because the prelude allows reflecting in miniature numerous states of “fixed” moments of existence, the inner balance of the artist and the world. Each prelude in the cycle is a kind of creative laboratory, a field of creative experiments. It reflected both already developed and new methods and principles of the composer’s thinking. While performing one prelude after another as a whole composition, one realizes that this genre expresses the freedom of creativity, the element of existence: it is a fantasy, and a story of the heart, and the revelation of the spirit, and at the same time – bright genre sketches. Conclusions. The analysis of the musical semantics of I. Karabyts’s piano cycle “24 Preludes” testified to the presence of 5 genre-stylistic groups in the cycle (according to the criterion of the dual world notion “psychology I – the world around”). Thus, the genre-semantic analysis of the piano cycle “24 Preludes” has shown that I. Karabyts does not lose touch with history and time, by paying tribute to the masters of the 18th–20th centuries, continuing to develop the type of tonal dramaturgy, laid down by J. S. Bach. In the cycle there is a special “counterpoint” of the “blues” stylistic. The dramaturgy of the cycle has a detailed plot, which begins with the image of the lyrical hero, and ends with a demonstration of the society ambiguous and problematic for a human (“I – World”). The dramaturgy of the romantic dual world turns into a harmony of the modern world with multiple images, echoes of time and inner drama. The genre semantics and its analysis allow the performer to comprehend the large-scale cycle as an artistic picture of the world, and its stylistic unity – as a spiritual universe which belongs to the Ukrainian art of the 21st century.