“CRIMEAN SKETCHES” BY SERHII BORTKEVYCH THROUGH OF THE ORIENTALISM SEMANTICS PRISM

Abstract

Works of Serhii Bortkevych – composer and pianist from Kharkiv, were unknown in his Motherland during the Bolshevik era. Today we have the opportunity to study the legacy of the artist in the context of historical, genre, stylistic and other views, in particular, the problem of the “cultural meeting” of the Occident and the Orient in the musical art of past centuries, which is important for today. The purpose of the article is to reveal the semantic and stylistic features of the "Eastern" type of thinking in the suite “Crimean Sketches” by Serhii Bortkevych and to show this work among other examples of the embodiment of Orientalism in Ukrainian piano music. The research methodology is related to the following tasks: to outline the essence of the phenomenon of the “cultural meeting” of the West and the East; to consider the general thematic panorama of Serhii Bortkevychʼs music, to distinguish the works in which the features of orientalism are manifested; analyse the piano suite “Crimean Sketches” op. 8 through the prism of orientalism identifying it’s features; to show Serhii Bortkevychʼs suite among other examples of the orientalism embodiment in Ukrainian piano music. Scientific novelty. The article analyses the composition by Sergii Bortkevych, who was banned as a composer during the soviet era, through the prism of the oriental semantics embodiment. Conclusion. Serhii Bortkevychʼs piano suite “Crimean Sketches” reflects the composerʼs traditional romantic worldview, which is embodied in the corresponding semantic and stylistic features, including those caused by a combination of Occidental and Oriental types of musical thinking, the latter of which is caused by the atmosphere of the southern mountainous and Crimea marine environment. Manifestations of the Occidental thinking type in the suite are due to its programmatic semantics associated with the southern world of nature and life. They are revealed in the colourful display of the mysterious gorge with its varied landscapes in the first number “Rocks of Uch-Kosh”, the sophistication of the melodism in the robes of arabesque texture and the fresh colour of harmonic juxtapositions in the second number “Sea Caprice”, the “capriciousness” of the melodism and the oriental flavour of natural ethnic harmony in the play “Oriental Idyll”, the harmonic sequences colours and the overtone sounds phonies in the finale “Chaos”.