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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.66.06.7
How to Cite:
Antonyuk, V., Artiukhova, L., Kalashnyk, M., Matiushenko-Matviichuk, V., & Shesterenko, I. (2023). "Ten solosingings to poems
by Japanese poets…" by Valeriy Antonyuk in the context of ethno-cultural dialog. Amazonia Investiga, 12(66), 64-73.
https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.66.06.7
"Ten solosingings to poems by Japanese poets…" by Valeriy Antonyuk
in the context of ethno-cultural dialog
«Десять солоспівів на вірші японських поетів…» Валерія Антонюка у світлі
етнокультурного діалогу
Received: April 1, 2023 Accepted: May 28, 2023
Written by:
Antonyuk Valentina1
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1821-1933
Artiukhova Liudmyla2
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2163-2456
Kalashnyk Mariya3
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6432-2776
Matiushenko-Matviichuk Valentyna4
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0034-0227
Shesterenko Iryna5
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1694-0350
Abstract
The aim is to clarify the specifics of the synthesis
of music and words in Valeriy Antonyuk’s vocal
cycle "Ten solosingings to poems by Japanese
poets of the XVI-XVII centuries translated by
Mykola Lukash" for soprano and piano.
Addressing this issue involves accomplishing the
following tasks: researching this vocal cycle in
the light of ethnocultural dialogue; to carry out
an analysis of the structure and figurative content
of the poetic texts of Japanese classical poets
translated into Ukrainian by M. Lukash; to reveal
the features of the composer's handwriting,
which determine the peculiarities of the creation
of images through the synthesis of music and
words. Methodology. To achieve the goal and
solve the tasks, we apply a cultural approach and
use structural-systemic, musicological, complex
methods and generalization of results.
Conclusions. We made an attempt to research the
vocal cycle "Ten solosingings to poems by
1
Department of Chamber Singing Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music, Kyiv, Ukraine. WoS Researcher ID:
IXN-3052-2018
2
Creative graduate student, teacher of the department of Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music, Kyiv, Ukraine. WoS
Researcher ID: IXN-3439-2023
3
Department of Music Art, H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine. WoS Researcher ID:
GSD-6059-2022
4
Soloist at the National Philharmonic of Ukraine; teacher of the department of Chamber Singing of Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky
Academy of Music and Pavel Chubynsky Academy of Arts, Honored Artist of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine. WoS Researcher ID:
IXN-3065-2023
5
PhD in Art history, Associate Professor, Professor of General and Specialized piano department of the P. I. Tchaikovsky National
Musical Academy of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine. WoS Researcher ID: IXN-3200-2023
Antonyuk, V., Artiukhova, L., Kalashnyk, M., Matiushenko-Matviichuk, V., Shesterenko, I. / Volume 12 - Issue 66: 64-73 /
June, 2023
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Japanese poets of the XVI-XVII centuries
translated by Mykola Lukash" for soprano and
piano in the light of ethnocultural dialogue. Joint
efforts were aimed at identifying common
emotional and figurative vibrations and creating
a musical work that, using modern musical
means, illuminates the aesthetic, philosophical
and artistic worldview of haiku poems with their
reinterpretation, touching on the Ukrainian
mentality.
Keywords: vocal cycle, globalization,
ethno-cultural dialogue, composer's creativity,
mentality, soliloquies.
Introduction
Ethnocultural dialog in the field of vocal art
constitutes a modern paradigm of creative
endeavors and at the same time actualized
archaic layers of national culture. The era of
globalization is marked by an ever-growing
interest in European society in the countries of
the Eastern region, in particular Japan, and as a
result, releases a rich cognitive potential
(cultural, artistic, and musicological). This
allows not only to study individual artistic
artifacts but also to expand one's knowledge of
Japan and its culture in general by immersing
oneself in the cultural context of the Land of the
Rising Sun.
The synchronization of the world process, as a
new level of the space-time continuum, reveals
and exacerbates the inherent contradictions of the
human world and determines the main lines of its
further evolution. The current stage of
globalization highlights the dialectic of
contradictions in intercivilizational relations,
actualized the problem of finding adequate forms
and ways to resolve them, and forms a living
space where man and the world are the same and
are an extension of each other. Taken together,
all of this encourages an ongoing ethno-cultural
dialog. The interest of European composers in
the culture of the East is traditional: interest in
exotic cultures in European music has appeared
in the eighteenth century. Oriental motifs are
already clearly visible in the operas "Gallant
India" by J.-F. Rameau, "Le Cinesi" by
C. W. Gluck, "Soliman der Zweyte" by
F. X. Süssmayr, and his "Sinfonia Turchesca in
Do". In the nineteenth century, the oriental theme
was already more clearly expressed. The East is
presented in the ballet "La Péri" by
F. Burgmüller, "The Butterfly" by J. Offenbach,
"Namuna" by E. Lalo; in the operas "Jamile" by
G. Bizet, "Samson and Delilah" by
C. Saint-Saëns; vocal cycles "Oriental Melodies"
by F. David, "Lotus Petals" by R. Strauss, etc.
The beginning of the twentieth century was
marked by the staging of "Madama Butterfly"
(1904) by G. Puccini, who would return to the
"oriental theme" 20 years later with his opera
"Turandot". Oriental themes are also found in the
operas "Four Indian Poems" by M. Delage, "The
Bronze Horse" by D. Auber, "The Nightingale"
by I. Stravinsky; ballets "Khamma" by
C. Debussy, "Padmavati" by A. Roussel.
The oriental style in these works is reflected in a
range from exquisitely ostentatious stylization
(the use of pentatonic modes and characteristic
instrumentation) to direct quotations of popular
folk melodies ("Turandot" contains more than 10
such melodies, including the Chinese folk song
"Jasmine Flower", the leitmotif of the princess).
Thus, the musical works of this period are "...a
certain European design on Asian motifs"
(Golosova, 2010). The oriental gallery of oriental
images is present in the vocal and instrumental
works of M. Glinka, A. Dargomyzhsky,
M. Balakirev, A. Rubinstein, O. Serov,
O. Borodin, M. Mussorgsky, S. Rachmaninoff
and N. Rimsky-Korsakov, whose symphonic
suite Scheherazade was based on the
construction and development of the themes of
European music and oriental melodic and
intonational decoration. At that time, it was new
music of a peculiar style fusion and a certain
generalized character, which had no connection
with the further action and development of the
work's drama.
Literature Review
The XXth century presented many new names
among Ukrainian composers who made a
significant contribution to the history of the
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convergence of Ukrainian and Eastern musical
cultures. The problem of comprehending the
peculiarities of Eastern culture is reflected in
vocal and instrumental cycles: "Chinese Flute"
by A. Rudnytsky, "Lonely Girl" (based on the
poem by Wang Sen Yu) by V. Baltarovych
(1916); "Three Romances on Poems by the
Ancient Chinese Poets Li Bo, Wang Wei, Tsui
Gofu" by B. Lyatoshynsky and "Three Etudes on
Japanese Lyrics" by V. Shyrinsky (1925); "Five
Japanese Poems" by M. Ipolitov-Ivanov (1928);
"Arabian Night" (1930) by B. Yanovsky; "Six
Japanese Poems" by D. Shostakovich (1928-
1932); "Three Poems from Japanese Lyrics" by
I. Stravinsky (1932); "Oriental Melody" (1932)
by L. Revutsky; "Songs of the Masters" by
L. Revutsky; and Songs of a Traveler (based on
poems by Ha Zhi Zhang, Bo Ju Yi, Wang Wei)
(1941-1942) by G. Sviridov; Broken Lines
(1945); and Six Songs to Words by Chinese
Poets (1952) by M. Peik. The chamber vocal
treasury was replenished with M. Kolessa's cycle
"In the land of the blossoming cherry-trees" on
the words of I. Takuboku (1978). A further result
of the development of the "oriental theme" in the
late twentieth and early twentieth centuries is the
vocal and instrumental opuses "Love Songs",
"Reflections" by M. Dremliuha on O. Khayyam's
poems; L. Hrabovsky "From Japanese Hoku"
(1964; 2nd ed. 1975) and I. Karabyts - "From the
Songs of Hiroshima" on E. Yoneda's poems for
soprano and flute (1973); vocal cycles by
Yu. Y. Ishchenko's vocal cycles "Six Japanese
Poems to the Words of Medieval Poets";
Meditative Performance "Songs of Spring" to the
poems of ancient Chinese poets (1986) and
"From Ancient Chinese Poetry" (two romances
for tenor and two harps to the poems of
Qiu Yuan), (2017) by M. Shukha, and finally,
"Songs of Love" to the poems of ancient
Japanese poets (2017) by I. Oleksiychuk.
The vocal cycle by Kyiv composer Valeriy
Antonyuk "Ten solosingings to Poems by
Japanese Poets of the XVI-XVII centuries
Translated by Mykola Lukash" for soprano and
piano (2000) is, on the one hand, a continuation
of the romantic line of the artist's wandering
journeys into the world of the unknown, and on
the other hand, a kind of identification of the
other as one's own. It is a search for the common,
something that unites, brings us closer, and
destroys psychological boundaries and barriers.
Ukraine, which at all times has historically been
at the ethno-cultural crossroads between the
West and the East, has traditionally been
involved in a continuous interchange, a dialog of
cultures as an objective necessity. Therefore, the
sense of the involvement of contemporary
Ukrainian author V. Antonyuk in the whole
world, the sense of himself as a part of this world,
the realization of the self-worth and uniqueness
of his own spiritual experience, and within this,
the search for grounds for cultural dialog with the
whole world, constitute the philosophical
foundations of the artist's appeal to foreign
cultural, in particular Eastern artistic
achievements. The development of the chamber
vocal genre in the twenty-first century and the
possibilities of certain optimization and
modernization of the arsenal of musical and
expressive means have not been fully studied.
The aim of this article is to determine the
specifics of the synthesis of music and words in
Valeriy Antonyuk's vocal cycle "Ten
solosingings on Poems by Japanese Poets of the
XVI-XVII Centuries Translated by Mykola
Lukash" for soprano and piano. The solution of
this problem requires the following tasks: to
study the vocal cycle "Ten solosingings to Poems
by Japanese Poets of the XVI-XVII centuries
Translated by Mykola Lukash" for soprano and
piano by composer Valeriy Antonyuk in the
context of the phenomena of ethno-cultural
dialogue; to analyze the structure and figurative
content of poetic texts of Japanese classical poets
translated into Ukrainian; to identify the features
of the composer's handwriting that determine the
peculiarities of creating the images of the work
through the synthesis of music and words; within
the framework of cultural studies, to determine
the formation of the author's style features and
features of the compositional method; to
highlight the influence of cyclicality on the
creation of the communicative component.
V. Vasina-Grossman (1972-1978),
N. Hovorukhina (2009), L. Horelik (2006),
Yu. Malyshev (1968), K. Ruchievska (2011)
studied the interaction of words and music in the
romance genre in the projection to the study of
the vocal cycle. In recent years, notable results in
the field of studying cyclic chamber and vocal
music as a single artistic and creative system of
composer and performer thinking have been
achieved by O. Balanko (2017). The principles of
cyclization as a fundamental basis of artistic
thinking in contemporary Ukrainian music based
on the example of cultural analysis of vocal and
symphonic cantatas by V. Antonyuk was carried
out by O. Hrytsenko (2016; 2017; 2019). In the
composers practice, musical cycles of various
types have historically been formed and
developed: vocal and instrumental, chamber and
symphonic, suite and concert. However, the
cycle formation itself is the least studied in the
musicology literature. This applies to the entire
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historical period of the cycle formation process
from its inception in the vocal works of
representatives of the Austro-German school of
composition, whose traditions were developed in
further composing and performing experience, to
the present day. The interest of the musicological
community in solo singing as a genre traditional
in Ukraine is unconditional, genuine, but
somewhat inert. Numerous collections
(arrangements) of folk songs by classical
Ukrainian musicians (primarily by M. Lysenko
and his followers) have revealed a genetic
connection with the folklore of the composer's
song, romance, ballad, vocal blues, amateur
author's (bard's) song, and vocal and instrumental
improvisation. Although solo singing as a genre
has been around for more than three centuries
and its genesis dates back to H. Skovoroda
(1973), musicologists have traditionally focused
on the works of the large form. But it is in the
genre of chamber soliloquies that the first
attempts of the composer's pen occur
(biographical references of classical composers
testify to this!). It is the solo choruses that are a
kind of creative laboratories in which, thanks to
the comprehension of the depths of the national
mentality, the gradual convergence of
composers' intentions with the origins of ethnic
intonation can be traced, and processes related to
the expansion and individualization of types,
types, methods of compositional technique, and
testing of their functional capabilities occur.
The scientific novelty is that Valeriy Antonyuk's
vocal cycle "Ten solosingings to Poems by
Japanese Poets of the 16th-17th Centuries
Translated by Mykola Lukash" for soprano and
piano is being introduced into scientific
circulation for the first time, although this music
is well known to both performers and audiences.
The material for the analysis is the music
manuscript and poetic texts of V. Antonyuk's
vocal cycle "Ten Solos on Poems by Japanese
Poets of the 16th and 17th centuries. translated
by Mykola Lukash" for soprano and piano: an
audio recording of the work made at the studio of
the National Union of Composers of Ukraine
"Arcadia" by People's Artist of Ukraine
Valentyna Antonyuk with piano accompaniment
by the author of the music (2001), as well as
video recordings of the concert performance of
the cycle interpreted by the winners of
international competitions Lyudmyla
Artyukhova and Olena Kumanovska (2022,
concertmaster – Dmytro Pivnenko).
Methodology
To achieve the goal and solve the tasks set, we
apply a cultural approach and use structural-
systemic, musicological, and complex methods
and generalization of results. Analyzing Valeriy
Antonyuk's vocal cycle " Ten solosingings on
Poems by Japanese Poets of the XVI-XVII
Centuries Translated by Mykola Lukash" for
soprano and piano, we take as a basis the
definition of the term "soliloquies" given by
Y. Malyshev as "...solo vocal works with
instrumental accompaniment, which represent
the individual creativity of professional
composers" (Malyshev, 1968). The image of the
Inner Other proposed by the Swedish semiotician
G. Sonesson, a model that can be used to
understand the attitude of an individual to other
cultures, is one of the manifestations of the
modern trend of defining the intercultural
primordial nature of humanity (Sonesson, 2003).
It is quite obvious that in this regard,
globalization leads to the formation of the
contours of a single civilization, which, however,
does not in any way negate either cultural
diversity or specific features of the civilizational
development of the West and the East. In the
processes of their interaction, it is crucial to find
new dialogic forms of activating spiritual
guidelines within a single universal civilization,
so the need and timeliness of addressing this
topic is obvious.
Results and Discussion
The composer V. Antonyuk wrote his "Ten
solosingings on Poems by Japanese Poets of the
XVI-XVII Centuries Translated by
Mykola Lukash" for soprano and piano in 2000
as a student (he graduated from the Tchaikovsky
National Music Academy of Ukraine in 2003).
At present, the young composer (a student of
Professor, People's Artist of Ukraine,
Shevchenko laureate H. I. Lyashenko) already
has performed works in his creative portfolio:
"Glamorous Waltz" (1996) for orchestra (first
folk and later symphony), "Festive Dance" for
guitar quartet (1996), "Eleven Children's Pieces
of Easy and Medium Difficulty for Piano"
(1997), "Theme and Six Variations" for piano
(1998), "States - 7 Preludes for Piano" (1998),
Cantata in six parts for mixed choir based on the
poems of O. Mandelstam. Mandelstam's "The
Thinning of the Thin Wick" (2001), a vocal cycle
in five parts for mixed choir based on the words
of Paul Verlaine in the Ukrainian translation of
M. Lukash's "Sad Landscapes" (2001), and a
large variation work "Theme and Six
Transformations" for piano quintet (2000), for
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which the young composer became the winner of
the Prokofiev International Competition
"Ukraine-2000" (in the composer's homeland).
At the same time, V. Antonyuk was already
working on his future diploma work, the
symphony "Sounding is Present" (in 2003, this
work was performed under the baton of
conductor V. Blinov). A large vocal and
symphonic work "Cantata in Five Parts for
Soprano and Symphony Orchestra to Words by
F. G. Lorca (Ukrainian translation by
M. Lukash)" has already been conceived and is
gradually being realized. The Cantata was also
created at this time because immediately after
graduating from the NMAU, V. Antonyuk
presented this work to the National Union of
Composers of Ukraine and was enrolled in its
membership. Thus, at the time of writing the
vocal cycle "Ten solosingings on Poems by
Japanese Poets of the XVI-XVII Centuries
Translated by Mykola Lukash" for soprano and
piano, V. Antonyuk was young but already a true
master with his own style and creative
handwriting. The composition of large-form
works was a continuation of his work on the
cycles of solos and provided an opportunity to
test, verify and experiment on the material of
vocal miniatures in order to achieve the best
result both directly in the cycle of solos and to
gain some professional experience necessary in
the future.
An interesting observation is made about the
literary basis of the vocal cycle. In 2001, the
composer worked simultaneously on choral
cycles: he created a Cantata in five parts for
mixed choir based on the words of Paul Verlaine
in the Ukrainian translation by M. Lukash, which
was called "Sad Landscapes", and wrote a
Cantata in six parts for mixed choir based on the
poem by O. Mandelstam "Thinning of the Thin
Wick". All the texts are foreign language and
foreign culture; two of them are translated by
Mykola Lukash from Japanese and French. But
why did the composer choose these authors, what
does he want to determine for himself at this
period of his life, and what problem is he
solving?
Paul Verlaine was a French decadent poet, a
prominent representative of literary movements
such as symbolism and impressionism. His
poems are intimate, musical and organized in a
special way: with the predominance of female
rhyme, the selection of a specific sound and its
repetition, with the depiction of nature and
landscapes, which, according to the
Impressionist canons, reflected. First the state of
mind. This special melodiousness of Verlaine's
poetry is very difficult to convey when translated
into any other language. But it is precisely this
feature of Paul Verlaine's poems-states that
attracts V. Antonyuk.
For example, in the poetry of O. Mandelstam, the
sound expression and musicality of the poems
became decisive for the young composer. As for
V. Antonyuk's interest in exotic material such as
Japanese classical poetry, its laconicism
coincided with his mastery of the modern means
of musical postmodernism, and three-line
unrhymed haiku poems suggested "...the idea of
the "extra-historical" nature of this aesthetic
system, designed rather to transmit the pulsation
of the macrocosm through the microcosm of
creative consciousness" (Dolinin, 2007).
Therefore, considering the poetry of
representatives of three rather distant
geographical regions, the composer V. Antonyuk
tries to answer the question of how the heart of a
Japanese, a Frenchman, a Russian-speaking Jew
expresses itself, and whether the heart of a
Ukrainian is able to feel, catch, and internalize
(comprehend and make it his own).
The form of a poem is not only the style of
writing vocal music (graphic form) but also its
sound. Therefore, in poetic speech,
phonosemantic and phonosymbolic connections
become the main ones. The artistic power of
sound is manifested in the fact that it enhances
the impression created by the semantics of the
word; in some cases, sound is the root cause: it
leads to meaning, is shaped by sound. The sound
side of language is studied not only in euphony
(a section of poetics) but also in orthoepy (a
section of vocal pedagogy). It is at this time that
the composer's mother (a teacher of vocal
disciplines at the NMAU, the inspiration and first
performer of her son's vocal music) is actively
researching the ethnolinguistic problems of
singing (Antoniuk, 2001). This once again
demonstrates the young composer's neoclassical
interest in the problem of the sound of the
language and culture of another ethnic group and
his attempts to bring thoughts, meanings and
artistic ideas wrapped in a certain foreign
language background closer to the Ukrainian
audience. He defines himself as a translator, and
the young composer considers music to be the
common denominator, a prism that will
ultimately determine the angles of incidence of
the incoming ray of poetic thought and the angle
of its final deflection.
Taking the literary basis of the vocal cycle "Ten
solosingings on Poems by Japanese Poets of the
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16th and 17th centuries Translated by
Mykola Lukash" for soprano and piano based on
poetic texts (haiku) by Matsuo Basho (another
pseudonym - Munefusa, real name – Kinsaku,
1644-1694), Sengin (real name: Todo Eshitada,
1642-1666), Kobayashi Issa (real name: Yataro
Kobayashi, pseudonym: Issa, 1763-1827), Horo,
Kyoroku, V. Antonyuk composes a series of solo
songs that have their own drama and form a
narrative circle: the lyrical hero offers the listener
memories of his life expressed through vocal and
instrumental means.
Haiku poetry uses the aesthetic principle of Sabi.
The meaning of the Japanese concept of sabi
cannot be literally translated; its primary
meaning is "the sadness of loneliness." Sabi, as
a special concept of beauty, has defined the entire
style of Japanese poetry. Beauty, according to
this principle, was supposed to express complex
content in simple, strict forms that were meant to
encourage contemplation. Calmness, restraint of
colors, elegiac sadness, harmony achieved by
sparing means - this is the art of Sabi, which calls
for concentrated contemplation and rejection of
everyday fuss. Similarly, the first five poems of
V. Antonyuk's vocal cycle "Ten solosingings on
Poems by Japanese Poets of the 16th and 17th
Centuries, translated by Mykola Lukash" for
soprano and piano describe a state of mind that
corresponds to the concept of sabi. Only the
reason and means of expression change.
The main artistic and aesthetic task of haiku is to
overcome the boundaries between the natural and
human worlds, between the micro- and
macrocosm, to reveal their unity and
interconnection. Therefore, traditionally, the
subject of haiku is the world around us: natural
phenomena and objects, and even a person
speaks everything, describing not an action but a
state in words, thus determining the coordinates
of the hero's soul considering everything that
exists. This poetic form is not characterized by
the active use of tropes and figures of speech.
The authors presence in the poetic text is
expressed cautiously and indirectly. As for V.
Antonyuk's music in these solo chants, it also
follows the word, but performs not the function
of echoing, but creates a certain counterpoint
with its means of expression, emphasizing the
declared emotional orientation, providing certain
clarifications, placing and strengthening
semantic accents, modeling certain passionate
dominants. Such a literary and musical
correlation in turn makes it possible for a
performer-singer to interpret the characteristics
of the image created by the composer, who
develops a complex of textual invariants.
Creating solo chants for haiku texts, V. Antonyuk
undertook a complex phonosemantic task: to
highlight and emphasize the inexpressible in
music by instrumental and vocal soundscapes. To
do this, the composer carefully studied the
complex system of Japanese symbols,
reflections, emblems, signs, and indices. After
all, over the centuries of their existence, ancient
haiku have been overgrown with layers of
commentary, but they are more suggestive than
specific. Hint, understatement has become an
additional means of poetic expression. For
example, a pine tree is a traditional image of
waiting, a constant homonymous metaphor:
matzah, "pine tree," is associated with matzah,
"to wait." Ancient pine trees are a constant poetic
image, a symbol of loyalty, devotion, and
reliability in love.
Let us now analyze the solos of this vocal cycle.
"A clear waterfall... / Three virgin pines falling
into the water/in a line" (Matsuo Basho) (Lukash,
1990).
The first solo song of the cycle has a graceful
introduction that imitates the sound of a
waterfall. The downward direction of the
melody's flow - on a quartal progression followed
by a tetrachordal addition to the instrumental
accompaniment - is superimposed on the upward
contrast of the vocal part. Separate dissonant
inclusions personify the clay that, falling, slightly
pollutes the crystal water. But the clay also falls
"in harmony"; the dissonant formations, although
not resolved, are quickly replaced by further
consonant sounds. The solution of the vocal part
is interesting: its ascending line toward the
waterfall stream seems to make us pay attention
to the tops of the pines. And the oyster mushroom
falls, and the voice goes up, as if it were not
falling but soaring, because this oyster
mushroom is a symbol of hope, and hope always
lifts us up. Contrary to the haiku genre, the
composer does not divide the solos into two
parts: music full of hope unites, so the integrity
of the expression is a priority here.
"Our age is like dew:/ even if the dew is small, /
but even that is a pity..." (Kobayashi Issa)
(Lukash, 1990).
The second soliloquy of the cycle is written in the
words of a poet who grieves for a dead child
(Kobayashi Issa outlived all his children). Dew is
a common metaphor for the frailty of life, just as
a flash of lightning, foam on the water, or quickly
falling cherry blossoms are a constant image of
the transience and ephemerality of life. Melting
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away with the dew (in the sense of "dying") is a
constant motif in Japanese poetry. "Tears" and
"dew" are traditional metaphors for Eastern
poetry. Buddhism teaches that human life is short
and ephemeral and therefore has no special
value. But it is not easy for a parent comes to
terms with the loss of a beloved child. In
addition, dew is a stable image of approaching
autumn. It was believed that it was dew as well
as light autumn rain that "painted" the greenery
in autumn colors, and that flowers and grasses
withered more from dew than from cold rains.
Sister dew is a constant companion of the cold
autumn wind, and dew (tears) that have frozen by
morning is a constant motif of haiku in late
autumn and winter.
The musical introduction to this solo chant
begins with a chain of chordal dissonances
alternating with short, rapid passages of
accompaniment. The vocal part resembles
crying, moaning, and restrained sobbing. The
vocalist sings sadness and sorrow in a very
excited, emotionally filled way. The chordal
ending, built with the use of harmonic sequences
of the introduction, adds architectonic balance:
grief cannon be shared with anyone, it is
experienced by those who are destined to. The
one-part form of this solo chant is mentally
Ukrainian: the musical content of these poems
should be expressed in this way.
"On a bare branch/a lonely raven quiet age. / in
an autumn evening." (Matsuo Basho) (Lukash,
1990).
Analyzing the third soliloquy of the cycle, it is
advisable to recall the myth in which Amaterasu
(the Mistress, the great lady of the Sun, who
illuminates the Sky; the Heavenly Candle) sent a
raven named Yatagarasu to be the guide of
Emperor Jimmu in a campaign aimed at
establishing a unified Japanese state. Thus, the
raven is a messenger of the gods, a solar symbol
with an important world-creating function.
In this haiku about a raven, the seasonal word is
"autumn"; therefore, the color of the poems is
restrained, stingy, gloomy, dim, emphasized by
the atmosphere of an autumn evening, literally,
"twilight of autumn", that is, "black against the
background of thickening twilight." The poems
are like a monochrome ink drawing: nothing
superfluous, everything is extremely simple,
quiet and sad; life has its own end for everyone:
the great, the small and those who do great
things, and for the ordinary, the ordinary.
The composer, with the help of several skillfully
chosen details of the sound and laconic means of
musical expression, has created a picture of late
autumn. One can feel the absence of wind; nature
seems to have frozen in sad immobility. The
musical image, outlined rather sparingly, is
saturated with great meaning and at the same
time - extremely concrete, fascinating, leading.
It seems that you are looking into the waters of a
river, the bottom of which is very deep; the
reflection of your face on its surface melts in the
depths of these waters, dissolves, ceases to be.
The composer depicted the landscape with
sounds, and through it conveyed the state of mind
of the lyrical hero. So it is not the loneliness of
the raven that he speaks of, but his own. The
listener's imagination is left with a lot of room:
together with the lyrical hero, he can feel only the
sadness inspired by autumn nature, or share with
him the longing born of deeply personal
experiences.
"Evening. Wind. / Blue herons/wash the waves."
(Josiah Buson) (Lukash, 1990).
The fourth soliloquy of the cycle. Note that birds
are much more common in Japanese poetry than
animals. The image of a heron in Japanese
folklore symbolize vigilance and calmness. The
heron is a bird of the water; it also embodies
delicacy as it is able to take off without muddying
the water. Usually, in Japanese mystical poetry,
the heron is a good sign of change for the better.
The piano introduction to this solo chant begins
with an imitation of swift water flow with
elements of percussion and stylized Japanese
motifs. It is interesting to observe the vocal line
of this solo chant: at the beginning the melody is
static, recitative; starting from the eighth measure
it moves upward, thus creating a narrative effect,
thanks to which the listener gradually finds
himself inside the story described in the haiku.
Then, starting from the 16th measure, there is a
return to the origins of the external contemplation
of this musical story.
"The snow beat the flowers... / Only the aster/and
the masters glory did not fade" (Sengin) (Lukash,
1990).
The fifth soliloquy of the cycle is based on a
poem by Todo Esitada (pseudonym Sengin).
"Aster" in the thesaurus of Japanese symbols
means sadness, longing for something, and tears.
Winter is a traditional theme in haiku poetry. "In
this case, "winter" is not only the theme of the
haiku but also kigo, a seasonal word, an
expression that indicates the season (however,
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not only the time, but also the state of the
protagonist on whose behalf the poet speaks).
The custom of yukimi ("admiring the snow") is a
part of winter life. What are these poems about:
should we admire the first snow, should we
grieve for the faded flowers, or should we be
content with the blooming aster? These questions
are answered by the music. The introduction,
which begins with an arpeggiated dissonant
chord, immediately creates an anxious, sad,
wistful, and pensive mood. The reason for this is
the dissonant combinations that accumulate and
do not resolve. Consonance comes only on the
words "glory to the master" - thanks to the
intonation in the vocal part, which is picked up
by the piano accompaniment. Starting as a
lament, the soloist's vocalization gradually
acquires a different emotion, although the sobs
are quite clear: these are intonational turns of the
melody upwards, interrupted phrases, individual
high sounds (cries) - everything testifies to
despair, longing, sadness. The pity for those who
have passed away is somewhat diminished by the
thought of the good glory of the Masters, which
does not fade for a long time, is not afraid of time
or snow, and remains forever in human memory.
The last phrase of the solo chant is almost
completely peaceful (there is a noticeable
softening of the attack of the sound, which
indicates a certain emotional relief).
"Nightingale sings/on a bamboo beech:/ it is still
floating." (Khoro) (Lukash, 1990).
The literary title of the sixth solo song of the
cycle is "Light Music" (Lukash, 1990). For
Japanese poets, one of the most striking poetic
images was the nightingale. However, in
Japanese texts, the bird that translators define as
a nightingale can be a completely different bird,
namely, the uguisu (Japanese for "reed warbler").
It is a small, brownish-white speckled bird with
a very sweet-sounding voice. The reed warbler
announces the end of winter and starts singing as
spring approaches, which is why it is so popular.
Bamboo is another metaphorical symbol. A short
knee of bamboo - a buchok (stick, twig) - is a
traditional image of a short time. But the bamboo
stick does not sink, it continues to float, meaning
that there is hope that life is not over yet.
The melodic line of this solo chant is built of
short, broken, emphatically sharp instrumental
intonation. The finely drawn rehearsals and high
registers depict the joyful chirping of a spring
bird. But either the spring was cold that year or
the winter was too exhausting, but the light (as
intended by the composer) breathing for some
reason always resembles a sigh. This is
facilitated by V. Antonyuk's constant pauses in
the musical movement and sharp drops in the
vocal line, which create neither spring joy nor
euphoria of anticipation of the coming summer.
The moderate tempo and small dynamic range
somewhat soften the overall character of the
sound, but the bitter taste of understanding the
transience of the human era is present here.
"The rice cakes - / even those have become
smaller... / November has blown." (Kyoroku)
(Lukash, 1990).
The music for the seventh solo chorus is
perceived either as a children's rhyme, a tongue-
in-cheek, or some stylized song for
schoolchildren (one can feel an allusion to
Prokofiev's "Chatterbox" on the words of
A. Bartók ("And the teacher in class explained
about Japandi - you ask who didn't understand").
The fast tempo, the exaggeratedly abundant,
multi-note texture of the piano accompaniment is
excessively clear, with octave duplication: like a
teaching song from a collection of pedagogical
repertoire. The melodic line is also too bright,
interval-intermittent: it jumps through the octave,
with a recitative, rehearsed sound and a certain
didactic flavor. That is right because this is the
only way to mix, hide and distract the listener's
attention from the main thing: the autumn of life
has come, and with it poverty, begging and
hardship. Rice in Japanese poetry is a symbol of
poverty and hardship. November, as a "seasonal
word" (a term that means not only a season, but
also a season of life and sadness), has the
function of a kireji, a separating word. A haiku
consists of two semantic parts of unequal length.
Therefore, to divide it into two parts, it is
necessary to use kireji (Japanese for "cutting" the
meaning; indicates a semantic pause (kire),
division into haikai and the connection of
images, creating a semantic space between
them). The musical fabric of this solo chant also
has kire, but it is achieved by purely musical
means: a lively, emphatically optimistic sound
descends to a moderate, recitative conclusion,
with a rehearsed repetition of the last word, as if
proving a point not to the listener but to oneself.
This is a kind of emotional culmination of the
cycle, a dramatic peak provided by V. Antonyuk
at the point of the golden section and once again
prove its integrity. The lyrical hero tries to prove
that he still has the strength to resist fate; life is
not yet complete; all these disagreements are
absurd, meaningless, nonsense, and everything
will be fine.
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"Silence, peace, and order. / Somewhere there is
drowning between the rocks/the chirping of
cicadas." (Matsuo Basho) (Lukash, 1990).
The eighth cycle number is based on a poem by
Basho Matsuo. In the Japanese system of poetic
symbols, cicadas are a commonly used image.
The chirping of cicadas was perceived by the
Japanese as crying and moaning; hence, the
image: "tears of cicadas" is a constant metaphor.
The tears of cicadas were represented in poetry
as bitter ("bloody") tears, hence the crimson of
autumn leaves. The weakening voices of cicadas
are an image of late autumn when these insects
die of cold. That is why the voices of cicadas fade
into silence, disappearing altogether. In Japanese
mythology, rocks are a symbol of the boundary
between life and non-life: rocks are barren
because it is impossible to survive there; old and
weak people are taken there and left to die.
Where there are rocks, there can neither peace
nor order because there is simply no life there.
Even silence is like the other side of sound there:
without silence, it is impossible to perceive the
sound that dissolves and ceases to be.
The music of this number is a kind of quiet
culmination of the cycle. Note that composer
V. Antonyuk will adopt this dramaturgical
technique and use it in one way or another in
almost every work. Now in this cycle, he makes
only the first such attempt: combining verbal and
musical content, he depicts silence... with
silence. The accompaniment is silent, and only
the voice remains, which is also no longer
singing; there is no music either: everything is
swallowed up by silence. The vocalist recites a
few words in ppp, and then there is complete
silence.
"The last leaves!" (Natsume Soseki) (Lukash,
1990).
The ninth soliloquy of the cycle has the literary
title "Old Friends". Leaves in many metaphors of
Japanese poetics are an image of the sung word
and words in songs. "The Japanese song is rooted
in the soil of the heart, and "...the leaves of words
(koto-no-ha) bloom," writes Ki-no Tsurayukil
(883-946), a poet, prose writer, and theorist of
classical verse (Breslavets, 1994).
Another icon of the Japanese artistic worldview
is the wind: it is not just a symbol, but an
archetypal image of the driving force, the force
of life. The voice of the wind changes, and while
in summer it resembles a sigh, bringing coolness,
in winter and autumn it blows with a whistle,
bringing cold, hunger, and death. The image of
the wind is often used: the wind-turning leaves
are an image of autumn. The wind blowing into
the sleeves is a constant image of travelers' songs.
In this haiku, the wind is a force of nature that
controls the nature of human life; it knows who
will live and who will fall like a leaf from a tree.
Ask fate and get the verdict: how much more life
you have left. Such starting points give us the
opportunity to assert that at the same time we are
talking about both the earthly existence of the
poet and the fluidity of the artistic works and
poems he composes: whether they will remain in
human memory for a long time or whether they
will be swept away by the wind of fate like
autumn leaves.
This solo song, the shortest of the entire cycle, is
in tone and timbre close to the first number. Its
refined and sophisticated music sounds only for
a moment. There is no lengthy introduction-
preface, no repetition, no interludes-
explanations: our life is a moment; gentle as the
breath of a rose, but also as changeable.
Therefore, the composer chose an unexpected
dramaturgical move: he did not explain anything,
providing a commentary only within the
framework and scope of the poetry form.
"Summer rains... / Only once between the
pines/the moon cleared." (Jos Buson) (Lukash,
1990).
The tenth is the final solo song of the cycle. In
traditional Japanese poetry, the moon is often
likened to the image of a woman: one has to wait
for it for a long time, especially in summer, when
the moon appears only at dawn. The vision of
the moon is reflected on a sleeve moistened with
tears, so seeing the image of a beloved or lover
considering the light of the moon is a constant
motif in poetry. So these poems are about love,
because there is hope (symbolized by the pine
tree); summer will come (symbolized by joy,
happiness, etc.) and life will go on, because if you
have dreams of love, it will come and it will still
be there. This idea is shared by the author of the
music of the solo chant, an architectonic structure
that creates a kind of arch, giving balance to the
whole cycle. The sound of the voice in this solo
chant - close to the linguistic and intonational
nature of the Ukrainian lullaby - has the same
transparent texture, illuminated and tonic.
Conclusions
We have tried to study the vocal cycle "Ten
solosingings on Poems by Japanese Poets of the
XVI-XVII Centuries Translated by Mykola
Lukash" for soprano and piano by composer
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Valeriy Antonyuk considering musical
phenomena of ethno-cultural dialogue. The joint
efforts were aimed at identifying common
emotional and figurative vibrations and creating
a piece of music that highlights the aesthetic,
philosophical and artistic worldview of haiku
poems with their reinterpretation, which is
relevant to the Ukrainian mentality. To
summarize, the vocal cycle composed at the
beginning of the twenty-first century by a young
composer gives grounds to speak of his use of
new vocal forms in which tradition and
innovation are intertwined. The composer has
found the latest methods of intonation, and the
relationship between voice and accompaniment
is raised to a new level. The cycle has a through
drama, which generally corresponds to the
philosophical content of its poetic basis and
demonstrates his own understanding of the poetic
texts. With the stylistic means of postmodernism,
using elements of minimalism, the Ukrainian
composer reveals the content of classical
Japanese poetry, not always in accordance with
the formal canon, while maintaining a single
internal connection in the discourse of the cyclic
form.
V. Antonyuk's vocal cycle "Ten solosingings on
Poems by Japanese Poets of the 16th and 17th
Centuries Translated by Mykola Lukash" for
soprano and piano reveals the author's
subjectivity and outlines his artistic position
toward higher spirituality. V. Antonyuk's
intentions to work in the genre of a cycle of solo
chants arise because of his searches in the artistic
and aesthetic plane, attempts to interpret the
philosophical theme: are we really different in
this world?
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