Thematic factor in the development of the Ukrainian musical: social aspects in content composite

Abstract

The article presents an overview of one of the key thematic directions of contemporary Ukrainian musical theatre – works of social orientation. Although various scholars have addressed certain aspects of this important genre within modern Ukrainian culture and art, the growing popularity of musicals among different age groups, professionals, and admirers of musical and stage performance prompts a deeper exploration of its distinctive features and developmental patterns within Ukrainian music. The study of underlying trends may reveal significant vectors of genre evolution, reflecting not only the creative interests of individual artists and ensembles but also broader socio-cultural demands. The purpose of the article is to systematize data concerning the chronology, thematic orientation, and, where applicable, genre characteristics of Ukrainian musicals staged by domestic theatres and creative collectives, in order to form an integrated panorama of this synthetic genre’s development. The research identifies the dominance of social aspects in numerous works, leading to the designation of a distinct “social direction.” It was found that most of these musicals are based on well-known literary or dramatic sources, with a remarkable exception – the “musical about corruption,” which signifies a substantial renewal not only within this thematic trend but also in the general conceptual framework of the genre. The analysis of the main thematic perspectives within the identified direction, as well as consideration of musical-stylistic and dramaturgical factors in each work, suggests that these features are decisive for the libretto-dramaturgical structure, while the musical component traditionally enriches the content and dramatic development. Two principal musical-stylistic centres are observed in the realization of authors’ concepts – the song-based and the jazz-based. The observations and generalizations obtained indicate the need for further research in this direction, particularly the study of the interrelation between thematic content and musical style as a factor of intragenre differentiation in Ukrainian musicals. For the first time in Ukrainian musicology, a systematic analysis of the musical genre through the lens of its thematic differentiation has been carried out, expanding the predominantly historical-stylistic, chronological, or age-based approaches. It has been demonstrated that even within the field of children’s musicals – traditionally regarded merely as an age category – there exists a considerable potential for internal thematic classification. The article proposes to view the Ukrainian musical not only as a synthetic theatrical-musical genre but also as a polythematic phenomenon reflecting the socio-cultural, moral-ethical, and psychological dominants of contemporary society. The terminological parameters of the musical genre in the context of Ukrainian musical art of the 20th – 21st centuries have been refined, and its genrethematic variations have been outlined as a specific model of the cultural representation of the epoch.