Jan Karol Gall's vocal lyrics

Section 2. Music space of Ukraine

Abstract

Statement of the problem. The life and work of the Polish composer Jan Karol Gall (1856–1912) are inextricably linked with the city of Lviv, where he lived and worked from 1896 until his death and where he was widely known as the conductor of the “Echo-Macierz” choir of the Polish Singing Society “Echo”. Under Gall’s leadership, the choir achieved its greatest success, and it was for him that he composed most of his choral compositions. But the artist closely interacted not only with Polish, but also with Ukrainian musical circles: he was a professor at the Conservatory of the Galician Musical Society in Lviv, and from 1903 he lectured on music theory at the Mykola Lysenko High Music Institute, was the Head of the Lviv Musical Society “Harmony”, collaborated as a music critic with the “Lviv Gazette”, and also created arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs. The work of Jan Gall is little-known in contemporary Ukraine, despite the fact that the composer wrote about 400 choral and 90 solo songs, four operas, cantatas and others. The study of outstanding examples of world art for their inclusion in concert programs in our country is an urgent task for Ukrainian art criticism. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the study is to identify the features inherent in Gall’s composer style based on his selected vocal works. Historical and contextual, comparative, systematic and analytical methods are used. The scientific novelty of the work is due to the fact that the work by Jan Gall is not highlighted in domestic musicology, despite the fact that he worked in Lviv for a significant part of his life. There is still no research that deals with the study of this composer’s work and the influence that Jan Gall had on the development of the Ukrainian school of composition. Research results. An analysis of Jan Gall’s four songs (“Barkarola” op. 13 no. 3, “Dziewczę z buzią jak malina” op. 1 no. 3, “Piękniejszej rzeczy nie widziałem w świecie…”, “Serenada” op. 25 no. 3) revealed a characteristic feature of the composer’s style, which consists in a combination of features inherent in the genre of songs “a la Italiano” and colorful rhythms characteristic of the genres of Polish folk dances (“krakowiak”, “mazurek”). The song “Siedzi ptaszek na drzewie. Krakowiak” op. 15 no. 3. is an example of a work close to Polish folk songs. The national traditions are manifested not only in the melodiousness and simplicity of the vocal part, but also in the rhythms inherent in the krakowiak. In terms of structure, all the songs, with the exception of “Dziewczę z buzią jak malina”, which is written in verse form, are close to stanza-variant compositions. Conclusion. The originality of Jan Karol Gall’s songs is associated with the combination of features Italian vocal style with the rhythms inherent in the genres of Polish folk dances. The samples of vocal lyrics presented in the study show that one of the features of Jan Gall’s composer style is the use of the Lydian and Phrygian modes, harmonic minor, and the juxtaposition of the same and parallel keys. The composer also achieves a colourful palette of music by introducing a number of tonal deviations. This technique is most clearly reflected in such songs as “Barkarola” and “Dziewczę z buzią jak malina”. The imagery, the way the vocal part of Jan Gall’s songs is arranged and the fact that all of these works are written for tenor indicate the influence on the style of the works by Francesco Paolo Tosti.