THE BELL AS A FIGURE OF MEMORY (ON THE EXAMPLE OF PRELUDE AND FUGE № 1 IN C MAJOR FROM THE CYCLE “24 PRELUDES AND FUGE” BY V. ZADERATSKY

Abstract

The article presents a comprehensive interpretation of the first diptych “Preludes and Fugues” in C major from the cycle “24 Preludes and Fugues” by Vsevolod Petrovich Zaderatsky in musicological, psychological and cultural aspects. Special attention is paid to the symbolism of the bell as a sign of memory, sacred musical time considered in the context of the existential experience of the concentration camp and liturgical symbolism. The study substantiates the interpretation of the bell as a figure of memory, which in the conditions of the concentration camp acquires a special apophatic power, because its sounding occurs only in the imagination, the inner world, due to its absence in real life, thus becoming a kind of way of thinking and a form of preserving the national spiritual experience. Methodology: the article uses a structural analysis of the musical text, semiotics of sound, intertextual reading and a hermeneutic approach. The musical material is considered as a kind of diary, in which the bell appears not as an object of image, but as a way of thinking, a fundamental inner mental life of the prisoner and memory, which acquires national features. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the tritone, repeating figures, the lower bell, the metaphorical architectonics of the inverted cross, the bell, the mirror structure of the diptych and the eschatological sound of the finale. Scientific novelty: for the first time in the history of musicology, the diptych from the cycle “24 Preludes and Fugues” by Vsevolod Petrovich Zaderatsky has been analyzed and an original concept of the bell as a formative element of the acoustic figure of memory, embodying the categories of the sacred, existential and historical, has been proposed. Parallels are traced between the architectonics of musical form and ritual models of the bell in the Ukrainian tradition. It is established that in the prelude the bell performs the function of a call, a reminder, a prayer, and in the fugue – of a transition, a boundary, an eschatological conclusion. The conclusions emphasize that the bell becomes a spiritual space of testimony, a kind of symbol of the presence of that which cannot be uttered, understood and forgotten, and allows the listener to form a deep emotional connection with the national culture of Ukraine and an understanding of symbolic ancient knowledge.