Musical references of intermedial images in the films based on the drama-extravaganza Lisova Pisnya [“The Forest Song”] by Lesya Ukrainka

Abstract

The presentation examines the specific features of musical imagery in the screen versions of Lesya Ukrainka's drama-féerie Lisova Pisnya (The Forest Song). Films with music by Igor Shamo (1961), Boris Buevsky (1976), and Yevhen Stankovych (1980) mark a significant evolution in the interpretation of Lesya Ukrainka’s masterpiece: the light pastoral gives way to the symbolization of the figure of the poetess. It is taken into account that the movies have different emotional colors and express the trending social moods of the last three decades of the Soviet era - the «spring arising» and hopes of the 1960s, the disappointment of the 1970s, and the total «Brezhnev depression» of the 1980s. 

The processes of semantic transformation of Lesya Ukrainka's work in film are realized through various intertextual connections between the text of «Forest Song» and artifacts of musical culture, literature, and cinematography. The conceptual differences of the screen versions are related to the forcing of a specific genre component of the literary extravaganza drama (fairy tale, allegory, or mystery). The image of sopilka playing (folk flute playing) is the conceptual focus of the musical solutions of the film versions. This image has an intermedial character and appeals to diverse musical references – from improvisations-imitations or folklore tunes to metaphors of sopilka playing in professional music.

In general, the musical references of the intermedial images of «Forest Song» became an essential indicator of the transformation of the canon of perception of «Forest Song». Y. Stankovich used the folk tunes notes by Lesya Ukrainka in the film score. In 1980, it was significant. Strengthening the connection of music with the author's text of the drama renewed a certain authenticity of the legendary text. This strengthening also emphasized resistance to Soviet ideology's oppression in the cultural aspect.

In the presentation, the comparative analysis methods are general for studying musical references of intermedial images. The inseparability of music from the integral image system of the film and the ability of different film versions of «Forest Song» to form a common dialogic space are taken into account.