Kosenko H. Viola’s timbre semantics in the works of Kharkiv composers of the 1960–2000s.

The thesis is devoted to the substantiation of the systematic manifestations of the timbre semantics of the viola in the works of Kharkiv composers of the 1960–2000s. The issue of timbre is one of the most difficult in theoretical musicology. This is due to the fact that, first, the timbre characteristics of instruments and vocal voices are often difficult to systematize, and secondly, they are as diverse as the whole ambient sound world that surrounds us – the real and the artistic. In modern organology, a comprehensive science of instruments as “organs”, “instruments” of musical thinking, they are considered as a continuation of a person, more or less alienated from the person depending on the way of playing. The formula “an instrument is also a human” (E. Nazajkinskij) follows from the attitude toward the instrument as a continuation of the voice, where, after the wind aerophones, the priority belongs to the bowed string chordophones. The least studied from the perspective of artistic semantics is the viola, in particular, its timbre roles which it shares in the three main genre groups of instrumental music making – symphonic, concert and chamber ensemble. It was determined that Kharkiv authors, guided by certain established models of viola music making, reveal in their works the features of national and regional language stylistics. The compositions analyzed in the thesis appear to be typologically exemplary in the contemporary interpretation of the viola timbre, which gives grounds to consider them stylistically important in the world viola practice, as well as those that require wider use in the concert and educational-and-pedagogical activities of Ukrainian violists.