Children’s choir in the works of Valentyna Drobiazhina

Relevance of the research topic. Music for children’s choir is represented by a significant layer in the creative heritage of Ukrainian composers. However, children’s choral music has hardly been considered in musicolo-gical research. Among the composers of the Kharkiv region, the choral works of V. Drobiazhina received special recognition. The lack of musicological research on the composer’s work has determined the relevance of this work. The purpose of the article is to analyze the peculiarities of the artistic aesthetics and compositional style of V. Drobiazhina’s choral music for children. The methodology of the theoretical analysis combines fundamental methods and approaches to modeling a holistic picture of the composer’s children’s choral heritage: genre-stylistic; functional-structural; systemic. The results. The first collection “Merry Songs” for junior children’s choir, was published in 1976. Jazz rhythms and harmonies, alternating recitation and singing, consonant intonation characterize this cycle. “In the Forest Workshop” is the most popular one among V. Drobiazhina’s works, and it is performed by many children’s choirs in Ukraine. The choir imitates the sounds of the winter forest and creates a premonition of spring. “Spring” is one of V. Drobiazhina’s last compositions. The artist’s extremely delicate sensual soul, passionate love for Ukraine and its musical culture are fully reflected here. The scientific novelty of the research. The genre-stylistic aspect of V. Drobiazhina’s choral music for children, the peculiarities of aesthetics and composer’s style are highlighted in the article for the first time. The practical significance of the article lies in the fact that these materials can be used in the courses “Choral Literature” and “History and Theory of Choral Performance”. Conclusions. Music for children’s choir is one of the most outstanding pages of V. Drobiazhina’s composi-tional heritage. The uniqueness of V. Drobiazhina’s children’s choral music lies in the combination of the extraordinary richness of the musical material with accessibility both for perception and performance. The composer’s music organically combines Ukrainian national traditions with modern means of expression.