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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20534/EJA-17-2-50-53
Yan Iryna Mykolaivna, Ph.D in Arts, associate professor, doctorant of the National Academy of Managerial Staff of Culture and Arts, Ukraine
E-mail: [email protected]
THE ROLE OF UKRAINIAN FOLKLORE IN THE FORMATION OF UKRAINIAN MUSIC AND DRAMA THEATRE OF THE LAST THIRD OF THE XIX CENTURY
Abstract: The article considers special features of introducing Ukrainian folklore to the national theatre-professional stage and analyzes its role in the formation of Ukrainian music and drama theatre of the last third of the XIX century. Ukrainian folklore was an integral part of the drama of Ukrainian music and drama theatre, contributed to the preservation and cultivation of the Ukrainian people's historical memory, awareness of their own national and cultural identity.
Keywords: Ukrainian theater culture, nation-building, traditions, Ukrainian music drama theatre, Ukrainian folklore, repertoire.
The study of the specifics of Ukrainian music and to highlight the introduction specifics of Ukrainian
drama theatre formation in the projection of historical retrospective is due to the intensive search for new conceptual foundations for the revival and development of Ukrainian theatrical culture. Ukrainian folklore is an integral part of the historical memory of the Ukrainian people, a vivid manifestation of national and cultural identity, an integral part of the dramatic palette of the Ukrainian music and drama theatre, which is syncretical in its essence.
The coverage of trends and ways of development of Ukrainian theatrical art is devoted the works of D. Antonovych, N. Andrianova, O. Krasylnykova, B. Romanytsky and oth. Historical-ethnographic and folklore aspects of the Ukrainian culture formation are covered in the works of F. Kolessa, A. Iva-nytskyi, S. Grytsa, O. Pravdyuk and oth. However, despite the significance of the scientists work, the study of specific features of the Ukrainian music and drama theatre formation in the aspect of the national cultural tradition and the projection of contemporary art trends still requires a historical and art-study analysis. Therefore, the purpose of this research is
folklore on the national theatre-professional stage and determine its role in the process of the Ukrainian musical and drama theatre formation of the last third of the XIX century.
The analysis of archival, historical, and scientific sources containing valuable material about the peculiarities of the Ukrainian stage art formation proves the fact that Ukrainian folk music (ritual and game ones) is the source of the origin of the Ukrainian theater and drama. The beginning of the theatrical action, in particular, ceremonial games (mass round dances, vesniankas, hayivkas) gradually evolved into more complex theatrical forms: games of folk actors, theatrical and carnival acts, theaters of calendar rituals, nativity show dramas.
In the course of evolution, ritual games differentiated into related types — folk rituals and drama that contained techniques of theatrical expressiveness (word, dialogue, rhythmic movement and song) and gradually transformed; the elements of stage action were not only illustrative but also had psychological coloring — they conveyed actors' feelings and mood,
their relation to the depicted events, phenomena of nature, etc. Later, certain theatrical form has already started to combine with a specific plot, characters, and elements of decorative design in folk rituals. That means that beginning of the theatrical action had already the dramaturgy (the artistic image, dialogue and movement), transforming in its turn folk ceremonies (wedding and Christmas ones) into small narrative plays. Folklore starts to reflect the totality of different national archetypes (mythological, religious, historical, ethical, aesthetic, figurative, etc.). The folklore heritage of Ukraine was passed on from generation to generation, creating the traditions of the nation.
Ukrainian folklore is an integral part of Ukrainian national spiritual culture, an important regulator of public consciousness, since it is a social value, reflects historically-cultural development, philosophical ideas and views, mental characteristics of the Ukrainian people as an ethnos, its customs and traditions, creative and spiritual achievements and values, which the Ukrainians were creating over the centuries.
Defining the historical value of Ukrainian folklore, A. Ivanytskyi notes: «The historicism of folklore is a category of content inherent in the oral folk art of each nation, because folklore is a part of the history of the people, the history of its culture, and it is history it self» [4, 131].
Ukrainian music and drama theatre came out of the people and synthesized not only the principles of «transformation» and «deeds», but also the game, authentic and secondary folklore, way of life, rituals, ethnography. Thus, the social essence of the Ukrainian music and drama theatre allows it to act as a social institution that ensures the historical continuity, assimilation and reproduction of cultural, social values, rules, norms and standards.
Namely as the system component of that time society, the Ukrainian music and drama theatre survived, adapted and integrated into the policultural society of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian em-
pires of the last third of the XIX and the beginning of XX century, performed a number of ethno-social roles — ethno-preserving, ethno-consolidating, nationalizing, propagandizing national culture and theatrical art.
During the period under review, Ukrainian music and drama theatre became a bright national phenomenon, a source of an indestructible national spirit, since the socio-political, economic and national cultural conditions in which the Ukrainian community existed were aimed at the complete destruction of the Ukrainian ethnos and Ukrainian culture.
The state power of the Russian Empire denied the identity of the Ukrainian nation and believed that the further development of Ukrainian culture would lead to a national-spiritual revival, an independent socio-political and cultural life, which would entail the destruction of the state-political unity of the empire. The power structures, carefully performing their functions, controlled the activities of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, trying to direct it exclusively to the cultural sphere, to prevent the manifestation of the national ideology towards awareness of Ukrainian sovereignty and also to prevent an active political struggle for national and social liberation [3, 67].
Censorship has become the main instrument for introducing the imperial policy of Russification. In order to ensure constant ideological control, Main Directorate of Censorship operated with committees in some large cities of the empire, which was divided into internal, foreign and departmental (spiritual, theatrical, military) censorship. Censorship, being an instrument of the political system, was hostilely not only to Ukrainian-language works but also to the entire Ukrainian culture as a whole.
It was extremely difficult to get permission to censor the publication of Ukrainian-language works of Ukrainian intellectuals. After the examination, local censors had to send manuscripts to the Main Directorate of Censorship of the Press, which in turn sent them to St. Petersburg Censorship Committee, which, after viewing, returned them again to the Main De-
partment for its conclusion. After studying all previous conclusions, the head of the Main Directorate for Censorship of the Press decided their future [8, 10].
Thus, the acting bureaucratic-repressive, censorship apparatus carried out the unification of the political consciousness of the Ukrainian intelligentsia and the assimilation of the Ukrainian nation as such. However, no matter how the imperial power tried to ban the language, in the last third of the XIX century the Ukrainian nation really existed in the number of about 35 million people, whose sign of identification was the Ukrainian language and culture [4].
Ukrainian music and drama theatre of the last third of the XIX century, based on high Shevchenko's commandments, has turned into a powerful factor of national identification and formation of a nation.
The founders of the Ukrainian theater — M. Kro-pyvnytskyi, N. Sadovskyi, I. Karpenko-Karyi, M. St-arytskyi, M. Zankovetska, P. Saksaganskyi directed their activity to the withdrawal of Ukrainian theatrical culture from the colonial state to the European way of development, assertion of a national style in one's own creativity, popularization of the Ukrainian artistic heritage among people at large. They realized the historical mission of the theatrical art in upholding the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian society, in asserting its spirituality, in protecting its national identity and preserving both the ethnos and the nation.
In order to fulfill these nation-forming tasks, the leading theatrical figures used all their creative instruments — musical-dramatic, ethnographic-everyday specifics of the repertoire, ethnographic character of the scenery, costumes, choreographic design of the performances.
It was Ukrainian folklore that was the main feature of the Ukrainian musical and drama theater, it acted as a powerful ethno-consolidating factor, in the deformed conditions of existence of the Ukrainian ethnos.
Ukrainian folklore has become an integral part of the dramatic palette of Ukrainian musical and dramatic performances: «Natalka Poltavka», «Mos-
kal-magician» by I. Kotliarevskyi, «Zaporizhzhian cossak over the Danube» by S. Hulak-Artemovskyi, «Oh, do not go Hryts to vechornytsi» by M. Starytskyi, «Vechornytsi» by P. Nishchynskyi, «Kat-eryna» by M. Arkas and oth [7, 231].
Musical folklore pieces in Ukrainian musical drama performances were an important means of improving the psychological typification of actors, reproduced the ethnographic and everyday atmosphere of scenic action, contributed to the authentic, profound disclosure of the artistic content of the work and made a direct impact on the viewer. Representatives of various classes and social layers, with their characters, inner experiences, and conflicting spiritual worlds were reflected in the everyday types created in an artistically-scenic way.
Ukrainian folklore — lyrical, dance-comic songs, romance songs — was included in I. Kotlyarevskyi's plays «Natalka Poltavka» («Noise in the oak wood», «The Neighbor's house is white», «The cossack walked from the Don», «Vorskla River»), «Moskal-magician» («Ever since I got married», «Oh, the wind does not blow from there», «He was there and now there isn't, he went to the mill»), in M. Starytskyi «Oh, do not go Hryts to vechornytsi» («Oh, there is a well in the field, water flows from it», «Oh, blow, blow a stormy wind») and oth [6, 70].
Calendar-ritual folklore (vesnyankas, haivkas, carols, scenes of the wedding action) has become a unique decoration of many Ukrainian musical and dramatic performances. Ritual Christmas carols became a part of the plays: «Nazar Stodolya» by T. Shevchenko, «Oh, do not Go Hryts to Vechornytsi» by M. Starytskyi, Vesnyankas and haivkas were introduced in the play «Bondarivna» by M. To-bilevych, Kupala's songs were included in the play «Night on Ivan Kupala» by M. Starytskyi. Musical pieces from the wedding rite became the decoration of these plays: «Matchmaking at Goncharivka» by H. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, «Nazar Stodolya» by T. Shevchenko, «Two families», «Songs in roles» by M. Kropyvnytskyi, «Chornomortsi» by M. St-
arytskyi and oth [6, 80-81]. Ukrainian musicaldrama performances reproduced the national psychological type of the Ukrainians, propagated their ethnographic features and customs, promoted national-spiritual awakening and were extremely popular among the general public.
Thus, Ukrainian folklore was an integral part of the drama of Ukrainian music and drama theatre, contributed to the preservation and cultivation of the Ukrainian people's historical memory, awareness of their own national and cultural identity.
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