M. ANTONOWYCZ’S ARCHIVE AS THE CULTURAL MEMORY : BIOGRAPHICAL AND CREATIVE PROFILE OF THE COMPOSER IVAN VOVK

Abstract

Archive of Myroslaw Antonowycz, a famous Ukrainian musicologist and conductor, in particular, music Ukrainian studies of the archive, is being studied in the article and the presence of music rarities in the archive, in particular, autographs of works by N. Nyzhankivskyi, M. Fomenko, including materials highlighting a little-known figure of Ivan Vovk, a Ukrainian composer in exile, are being ascertained. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to create a biographical and creative profile of the Ukrainian composer Ivan Vovk on the basis of M. Antonowycz’s archive.
Presentation of the main material. The name of Ivan Vovk (1921-2007) stands among the little-known Ukrainian composers, representatives of the Ukrainian artistic emigration. During the World War II, he found himself in France, and since then his life path has been connected with emigration: at first, in Europe, later, in the USA and Brazil. The epistolary of Myroslaw Antonowycz, a well-known Ukrainian musicologist and conductor, gives us a broader idea of Vovk as a person, circumstances of his life and creative work; information about Ivan Vovk is found in his correspondence with a musicologist Pavlo Matsenko.
Information about the composer I. Vovk is being analyzed in printed sources and M. Antonowycz’s epistolary, information about I. Vovk’s creative heritage, i.e. chamber-vocal, chamber-instrumental, works of various genres in violin and piano music, is being systematized. The composer’s activities are also highlighted in musical and social life of the Ukrainian diaspora in the USA.
Conclusions. The study of M. Antonowycz’s archive reveals a lot of valuable biographical information about the composer Ivan Vovk, in whose works the classical European school and national spirit are organically combined.
Original creative profile of the composer, whose musical language reflects romantic attitude with distinct national intonational core, is being asserted. His creative works have been in the repertoire of Ukrainian performers and contributed to the preservation of the national identity in a foreign world.