THE ECUMENICAL SPACE OF CHORAL MUSIC: MILITARY EXPERIENCE IN CONTEMPORARY COMPOSITIONAL CREATIVITY

Abstract

The article presents the first experience of musicological analysis and interpretation of interfaith compositions by contemporary artists, emphasising the scientific novelty and relevance of the chosen topic. The work focuses in particular on composers’ responses to the horrific events of the present day in the works Stabat Mater by Iryna Aleksiychuk and Ukrainian War Requiem by Benedict Shihan, which are permeated with the idea of military memorials. The purpose of the paper is to identify the genre-semantic transformations of the requiem and cantata in 21st-century sacred music through the prism of military experience. The research methodology is based on an integrated approach that involves a synthesis of genre-style, analytical, transcultural, spiritual-semantic, and intonational-dramaturgical methods. A special place in the article is given to the Ukrainian context, in which sacred works acquire the significance of musical monuments to the victims of war and symbols of the indestructibility of the national spirit. Based on the material of I. Aleksiychuk’s cantata “Stabat Mater,” the artistic means of embodying the image of the Mother (a symbol of personal and national grief) are analysed, reveals the dramaturgy of the cycle, the principles of form creation, the role of the leitmotif, timbral symbolism, and genre-intonational features that form a trajectory from lamentation to philosophical enlightenment. A review of B. Shikhan’s Ukrainian War Requiem, an ecumenical memorial cycle based on a synthesis of Orthodox, Latin and Ukrainian texts, has been conducted. The conclusions summarise the findings of the study. It has been proven that I. Aleksiychuk’s Stabat Mater is an intimate prayer for the victims of war and an artistic projection of Mother-Fatherland mourning her sons. It has been revealed that the multilingualism of B. Shikhan’s Ukrainian War Requiem, the reference to the rites of the funeral service, and the combination of different cultural traditions form a universal language of solidarity and peace, which are vividly interpreted by the American composer in support of the Ukrainian people. It is emphasised that the newly created a cappella choral compositions create a new aesthetic of wartime art and become an important tool of cross-border cultural diplomacy, musical reflection on tragic reality, representing the transformation of static grief into a dynamic process of spiritual resistance and prayer, in order to find peace of mind.