Ukrainian composer. Laureate of seven international composition competitions.
Biography
Oleksandr Shchetynskyi was born in Kharkiv. In 1983, he graduated from the Kharkiv Institute of Arts (now the Ivan Kotlyarevskyi Kharkiv National University of Arts) as a composer in the class of Valentin Borisov. He supplemented his education by participating in various courses and master classes, where he attended lectures by, in particular, Witold Lutoslavskyi, Bohuslav Schaeffer, Krzysztof Penderetskyi, Edison Denisov, and others. In 1991, he graduated from the Computer Music Course at the Krakow Academy of Music.
Since 1982, he has been teaching; first - at a music school, where he applied the Braynin method, later, from 1991 - at the Kharkiv Institute of Arts (classes of composition, instrumentation and a special course on compositional techniques of the 20th century). In 1995, he held a series of lectures on modern music at the National Music Academy of Ukraine. He gave lectures on modern Ukrainian music, and also presented his own works in Europe (Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia), Russia, the USA and Ukraine. In 1999 and 2001, he conducted composition master classes in Ohrid (Macedonia).
Since 1989, his work has become known abroad. The list of performers of his works is quite significant and includes such figures and collectives as "Helikon-Opera" in Moscow, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra in Wales, the Slovak Radio Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the "musikFabrik" ensemble, "Kairos Quartett " (Germany), "Ensemble Continuum", "MAVerick Ensemble" (USA), etc.
Oleksandr Shchetynskyi received a number of awards for his works:
The main and special award at the International competition named after Kazimierz Serocki (Poland, 1990)
First prize at the International Sacred Music Competition in Friborg (Switzerland, 1991)
Second prize at the International Competition named after Witold Lutoslavskyi (Poland, 1995)
The second award at the International Competition named after Henri Dutillo (France, 1996)
The third award at the International Competition named after Gustav Mahler in Klagenfurt (Austria, 1998)
Russian National Theater Award "Golden Mask" in the nomination "innovation" (Moscow, 2008)
Second prize at the International Composer's Competition in Luxembourg
Art
Music for movies
Oleksandr Shchetynskyi wrote the music for Ihor Podolchak's feature films Las Meninas (2008), Delirium (2012), Merry-Go-Round (2017).
Since the main character of the film, Mother, is a former cellist, and Son learned to play the piano as a child, the majority of the music was created for these instruments. Without completely rejecting the traditional use of music in cinema as a background for dialogues or a means of emotional coloring of the frame, the director and composer focused on the independent role of music as a meaningful counterpoint to words and video sequences. In many scenes, music comes to the fore and is combined with noises (both natural and artificially created) that are edited according to musical principles, so the entire sound sequence of the film can be considered as a complete sound installation. For the 15-minute musical scene of the film (Sin's memories and delusions), which does not contain a single word, Shchetynsky created a Sonata for cello and piano - an independent concert composition that can be performed separately from the film. The co-director of this musical part of the film was the well-known American music video maker Dean Carr.
The stylistic palette of the music, in accordance with the multifaceted semantic structure of the film, is quite wide — from baroque, classical and late-romantic allusions to harsh atonalism and sonoristics. However, the composer avoids a collage of different styles, striving instead for their integration and synthesis.
Music for Delirium
The music for the film was written by Oleksandr Shchetynskyi. Initially, the director and composer planned to match the music to the traditional Dies Irae (Latin: Day of Wrath) genre, which is part of the Catholic mass. Six finished instrumental pieces were written, named according to the sections of the Latin text of the mass: Dies Irae, Quantus tremor, Mors stupebit, Ingemisco, Tuba mirum, Lacrimosa. The composer limited himself to the means of a symphony orchestra and used neither text nor vocals. The music did not contain direct imagery and, in particular, due to avant-garde stylistic techniques, paradoxically combined with the titles, appealing to the principles of surrealism, which fully corresponded to the aesthetics of the film and the director's intentions. However, during the work, the authors decided to use only two pieces of music - Mors stupebit at the beginning of the film (only the title DELIRIUM is on the screen) and Dies irae at the end (credits). During the unfolding of the action of the film, there is no music at all. The only exception is the prayer-recitation of the priest, where the Dies irae text is used (the composer himself took part in the voicing of this episode). Thanks to this, the opening and closing musical fragments acquired an additional dramatic meaning: an introduction to the "problematics" of the film (the effect of tuning to the corresponding aesthetic "wave") and a meaningful generalization. Instead, the priest's prayer this pspecifies the problem.
Participation in competitions of international film festivals
2017
NATIONAL COMPETITION — Odesa International Film Festival. (Merry-Go-Round)
2009
COMPETITION — Trieste Film Festival, Italy (Las Meninas)
COMPETITION — Mediawave Festival. Hungary (Las Meninas)
2008
TIGER AWARDS COMPETITION — 37th Rotterdam International Film Festival, Netherlands (Las Meninas)
NEW FILMMAKERS COMPETITION — 32th Mostra Internacional De Cinema Sao Paulo, Brazil (Las Meninas)
FEATURES COMPETITION — Split International Film Festival, Croatia (Las Meninas)
COMPETITION "CINEMA WITHOUT A FILM" Open Film Festival "Kinoshock", Anapa, Russia (Las Meninas)
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION — 8th International Film Festival Era New Horizons, Wroclaw, Poland (Las Meninas)
EASTERN PANORAMA COMPETITION — 16th Artfilm International Film Festival, Slovakia (Las Meninas)
COMPETITION — l'Alternativa. 15th Barcelona Independent Film Festival, Spain (Las Meninas)
FIPRESCI COMPETITION — 7th Transilvania International Film Festival, Romania (Las Meninas)
Participation in the programs of international film festivals
2017
20th Revelation Perth International Film Festival. Perth, Australia (Merry-Go-Round)
2009
32nd Gothenburg International Film Festival. Sweden (Las Meninas)
Festival of European Cinema, Kyiv (Las Meninas)
5th European Film Festival. Essex, UK, Warsaw, PL, Graz, AT, Athens, GR, Budapest, HU, Bristol, UK, Turku, FI, Moscow, RU, Dresden, DE, Stockholm, SE, Einhoven, NL, Malaga, ES, Aalborg, DK (Las Meninas)
2008
Goeast — 8th Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, Wiesbaden, Germany (Las Meninas)
9th Seoul International Film Festival, South Korea (Las Meninas)
30th Moscow International Film Festival, Russia (Las Meninas)
36th La Rochelle International Film Festival, France (Las Meninas)
43rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic (Las Meninas)
17th St.George Bank Brisbane IFF, Australia (Las Meninas)
14th Athens International Film Festival, Greece (Las Meninas)
28th Cambridge Film Festival, Great Britain (Las Meninas)
XXV Festival De Cine De Bogotá, Colombia (Las Meninas)
Tallinn Black Nights IFF, Estonia (Las Meninas)
Santa Fe Film Festival, USA (Las Meninas)
