The scientific objective of the dissertation is the genre and style characteristics of the choral cycle in modern Ukrainian music.
In the choral cycles of contemporary Ukrainian composers, genre constants change due to new semantic paradigms, which, in turn, affect the weakening of the structural principles of the genre model, and therefore the semantic level comes to the fore. The choral cycle in the postmodern manifestation is marked by the individuality of the dramatic and genre-style solution, and it, as a rule, does not deviate from the established model, which is recognizable.
Meta-genre structure characterizes the multimedia model of artistic integrity in the cyclical choral works of composers of the late 20th – early 21st centuries. Multimedia becomes a compositional and dramatic principle of organization in the choral cycle. The key factor of cyclization is the unity of texts of different arts (synesthetic combination of ancient musical monody and principles of expressiveness of fresco art), coexistence of verbal components representing different types of culture – church (Orthodox and Catholic), secular, folk, and combination of traditions of spiritual music (significant chant, antiphonal and responsive types of singing) and means of modern compositional techniques (sonorism and timbre sound, acoustic effects and electronic sounds).
The concept of "season" in the choral works of Ukrainian composers of the second half of the 20th century is realized in three dimensions – meaningful, formative and stylistic. The meaningful dimension reflects the philosophical idea of eternity and cyclical repetition and is universal for all analysed choral cycles; formative dimension reflects the appeal of composers to a four-part choral cycle, where the parts unite on the suite principle; style parameter allows distinguishing three types of works. The cycles focused on romantic stylistics are based on the predominance of landscape imagery (choral cycles of Borys Liatoshynskyi and Taras Kravtsov); neo-folklore works (choral cycles by Lesia Dychko and Valentyna Martyniuk) appeal to archaic folk ideas of the natural cycle; intellectual polystylistic play distinguishes the choral cycle of Myroslav Skoryk, and to some extent is represented in the works of V. Martyniuk and T. Kravtsov. An individual interpretation of the universal idea of cyclicity marks all these cycles.
The analysis of semantic and compositional-dramatic features of the choral cycle "Frescoes of Kyiv" (2016) by Victor Stepurko determined that a characteristic feature of the composer's choral writing is a synesthetic combination of artistic principles of music (ancient church monody) and visual (fresco) arts. It appears through the intermediality of the architectural and compositional organization of the work.
The verbal component of Valentyna Martyniuk’s choral cycle is connected with its theme and idea, which is reflected in the title of the collection – "I Pray for Ukraine" (2005). The idea of reproduction of various sound images becomes important for the music of the five choral miniatures of the cycle, for example, symbolic singing, church bells, "shouting" of ancient spring rites, sonorous effects of awakening of nature, lullabies of Mother Ukraine, which are built into a single dramatic line, uniting five parts of the work in a cycle.
The embodiment of spiritual content in the secular choral cycle can be observed in the work of Iryna Aleksiichuk "Letters from a shell" (2005), which is characterized by not only subtle sound and symbolism, but also a special prayerful concentration, which allows speaking prayer discourse in the work. The combination of modern compositional techniques with the traditions of sacred music in choral writing (in particular, antiphonal singing and significant singing), the use of a wide range of modern means of expression (sonorism, timbre) made the work of I. Aleksiichuk a model of highly artistic meditative lyrics, which is rightly considered one of the pearls. Ukrainian choral music.
Viktoriia Poliova’s cycle "Light Songs" (2015) shows the peculiarities of the embodiment of the meditation idea within the prayer discourse. The choral writing techniques used in the work, namely the combination of closed and open sound, solo and ensemble sound (responsorial singing tradition), comparison of different choir groups, division of the choir into two hemispheres (antiphony singing tradition) form a sound space. The sound space represents centuries-old national musical tradition: from the ancient Orthodox monody to the sonorism of electronic sounds. The depth of the symbolic embodiment of the artistic idea, the combination of European and Ukrainian musical traditions, the use of a number of modern means of expression allowed the author to achieve a high level of musical generalization in the cycle "Light Songs". It gives reason to consider it one of the peaks of Ukrainian music of the 21st century.
