Davitadze A. The genre of folk song settings in the creative work of L. Van Beethoven.

The dissertation is devoted to a special study of the genre of folk song settings, its historical and artistic significance in the creative work of Ludwig van Beethoven and in the context of the traditions of the Viennese classical school, which is the first systematic scientific experience for modern Ukrainian musicology. It has been determined that the relevance of the chosen topic is stipulated by the absence of monographic studies on this large-scale part of Beethoven’s legacy in domestic Beethoven studies; by the urgent need to include into the Ukrainian scientific circulation those modern works on the proposed issues, which have been published in recent decades in Europe, USA, Canada; by the importance of reproducing the historical context, preconditions, life circumstances that accumulated L. van Beethoven’s interest in the genre of settings. These aspects constituted a certain scientific novelty of the proposed study. It has been found that the Viennese classic (as well as his prominent contemporary J. Haydn) created a large number of adaptations of folk songs – 179, which were a part of 8 collections with 19 ethnic song collections. The composer resorted to settings for 14 years – from 1806 to 1820. This is almost one third of the time of his creative activity in the mature and transitional periods, named and justified in the work as a «song stage» of creativity, which concentrates not only L. van Beethoven’s conceptual compositions of great form, but also small forms, including the author’s songs and settings of folklore. In total, it is estimated that 9 the latter are twice the number of the songs of the composer, and are an independent and powerful part of his legacy. In this aspect, certain regular historical parallels between the ancient practice of collecting, arranging, and publishing song collections and its development in the pre-classical and classical periods of development of musical art are reproduced in order to compare different genre and style trends in the evolution of settings and manifestation of the latter in the creativity of Viennese classics, in particular, of L. van Beethoven.