Borys Liatoshynsky’s 1910s–1920s Instrumental Chamber Music: Evolution from Salon Style to Symphonic Drama

Abstract

This paper examines the evolution of the signature traits of Borys Liatoshynsky’s instrumental chamber music during the 1910s and 1920s in the context of the overall evolution of the composer’s expressive means. Also presented is the complex analysis of Liatoshynsky’s creative personality in his early (the 1910s) and modernist (1920s) periods in order to outline the impact of the cultural and historical environment the artist lived in during the late 1910s, as well as the influence of the troubled sociocultural situation of the time on his imagery. It was found that in the 1910s Liatoshynsky turned to modifying expressive means of late Romanticism; however, during the 1920s the palette of his instrumental chamber music shifted to symphonic experiments. For Liatoshynsky, instrumental chamber music becomes a testing ground for his creed as a symphonic composer with the respective imagery and existential drama behind his design