Національна Академія Мистецтв України Інститут культурології

The witnesses of the sung lines as the obligatory elements in the development of syllabic versification enable comprehending the viewpoints of M. Smotrycki and other adherents of applicability of metrical system to the Slavonic verse. If one deals with the sing speech such viewpoint will look like something trivial and not extravagant. Under the circumstances any syllable may be prolonged and acquire the temporal measurability¹²³⁹. The jocular declamatory distortions of speech in its turn conceal the old tradition attested in particular with the devices of the so called interior syllables’ incantation («внутрислоговой распев») when syllables are filled with melodic ornament. It is due to this device of elongating syllables that the impossibility of taking syllables for equal arises [Cardine, 1979]. The phenomena of the variability of syllabic number corresponding to a lexical unit are especially widely encountered in vocal practice where the effect of a syllable’s prolongation does already impart to a word the growth of the respective syllabic sequence. Of a special significance are here the witnesses of the so called homoniya («хомовое пение») in the old Orthodox Church where syllables are preponderantly distorted. One of the effects of the homoniya was the formation of the inserted monosyllabic meaningless particles destined to decorate the main text¹²⁴⁰. One of the sources of such device is to be found in the manner of intra-syllabic incantation when a separate syllable was elongated and divided as for example the word днесь pronounced as дъ-ъ-ъ-ъ-не-е-е-сь. These effects were described as the distortions in particular by Yu. Kryzhanych¹²⁴¹. This phenomenon has been widely studied in musicology delivering evidence in favor of the syllables’ inequality. This device can be regarded also as an inversion of the known manner of pronunciation of Latin verses in particular with the rules of elision when the suffix –um was omitted. One can add here also the folklore devices of inserting monosyllabic interjections (oy, hey, ta etc.) that does often serve to the preservation of the number of syllables in the scheme of a syllabic verse. Meanwhile such pleonastic effects can have also other consequences, besides, the origin of the scheme in question presupposes the existence of the ways of syllables’ prolongation instead of such insertions and therefore of the number’s actual variability. In any case it is chant that precedes the formation of proper versification in opposite to prose standing nearer to colloquy.

That the approximation towards colloquy or the increasing of distance has become the principal distinctive feature of prose and verse can be seen in the facts that the chant becomes principal outer power opposing to the inner factors of language. In particular M.L. Gasparov has shown that in the development of Russian verse it was the opposition colloquial vs. sung speech that preceded the development of prose vs. verse. The intermediary position in this opposition is to be found in the songs’ collection of XVII-XVIII centuries¹²⁴⁹. Within this controversy between sung and spoken speech it is to pay attention to the so called contrafacture that is the device of changing text towards the unchanged melody. This device can be regarded as the principal proof in favor of the necessity of involving the songs’ material to elucidate the origins of versification. One can refer to such universal device of adapting verbal and sung components as that of the so called contrafacture where the same melody is sung with and applied to different verses. Accordingly verse can be then regarded as the “unsung song”, as an imperfect or unfinished, unaccomplished chant¹²⁵⁰. These observations and conclusions are resonant with the Ukrainian material where the conjecture of the development of verse from chant has been substantiated by M.M. Sulyma [Сулима 1985]. M.L. Gasparov’s experience of involving chant’s witnesses for the exploration of verse’s development can be extended over dramatic works, in particular over the structure of dialogue as a kind of versified structure. One can easily notice that in music it was a peculiar form of representation used for dialogues that was neither chant nor colloquy – it was recitative. Of a special significance is the fact that it was recitatives that became the source for the development of ensembles as the most peculiar novelty introduced in the transformations of opera¹²⁵¹. Of significance is here the convergence and contemporaneity of these transformations with the removal of the dualistic model of “affect vs. effect” that’s of the opposition of action and sentiment that were represented earlier in arioso and recitatives respectively.

To sum up the interaction between versification and phraseology, one can come to the conclusion of the confrontation of phrase vs. charade as the constant feature of poetic text. The reduction to charades implies the destructive risk that rhythmic energy as an autonomous power reveals. That is why lexical substance becomes initial point for creating poetry in spite of all non-verbal integrative textual factors. This substance indispensably must be present at the beginning to demonstrate the poetic transfiguration that has to take place with the rise of textual entity. The world of non-verbal images appears as the result of integration whereas the generation of text begins on the soil of words¹²⁵². Thus the non-verbal elements being involved in verbal process as the necessary powers of textual integration become themselves submitted to the verbal power. Chant and movement being part and parcel of textual generation become also transported in the verbal world. All this results in the problem of the lexical units’ syllabic representation so that the opposition lexeme vs. syllabeme arises as the foundation for textual integration. In other outlook this problem again attests the parallel existence of phrase vs. charade. The non-verbal transcendental textual integrative source of chant as the final cause for the development of versification is to be born in mind while considering the dual revelations of phrasal units and syllabic sequences.

The experience of the involvement of the evidences of chant with the aim of studying the properties of a verse can be regarded as paragon for drama too; in particular it is useful as an attempt to grasp the structure of scenic dialogue. In this respect the development of ensemble as the special operatic invention initiated with the dialogical recitatives gives also the opportunities for another glimpse to the interrelations of prose and verse in scenic speech. If in literature it is the interplay between colloquy and the non-verbal chant that determines the formation of rhythm there is another position of dramatic replica. When epic narration continues colloquy and lyrical verse involves chant to oppose to it, the scenic speech represents colloquy and therefore makes and overt confrontation to it. That is why scenic speech is opposed to colloquy in the same way as verse is so that dramatic recitative becomes radically opposed to colloquy in spite of all devices of its reproduction and imitation in the space of stage. Dramatic recitative & lyrical verse can therefore be united not only as those belonging to the genera of poetry in opposite to prose but also as the mutually rhythmically organized on the basis of confrontation to colloquy (though in different relation to chant). That dramatic recitative appertains to the realm versification can be seen already from the priority of versified forms in the history of dramatic literature. Prose in scenic speech appears much later than verse. Moreover, the introduction of prose in theatre is connected with the improvised comedy where the commonplaces of colloquy were used. The peculiarity of such ready formulae is in particular there strict rhythmic shapes that prevent from perceiving them as prosaic utterances only. Scenic speech is confronted to colloquy as the verse and a kind of metrical prose, especially as the verse of tales. Therefore one can say of dramatic recitative as of a particular verse that can be regarded as the predecessor of “free verse” together with the lines of proverbs. As the reflected and represented written source of prosaic epic origin scenic speech is radically opposed as their alienated, estranged form. Moreover, it is not only alienated but also carried to the limit of “endurance”. Scenic speech is the exhibited speech and must be taken in its ultimate and extreme forms promoting hyperbole. That is why it demands scansion as the special form of utterance.

Respectively the usual metric factors of literature are replaced here with intentional forces of the phantom of dramatic action. Intention determines suggestion and through it the selection of the expressive devices, in particular of idiomatic common places that act as rhythmic patterns besides the metrics of verse and prose. In particular it goes about the expectations of a partner’s answers in dialogue that contribute significantly to the rhythmic of scenic conversation. For instance while dealing with the insertions of the above discussed improper direct speech one can easily observe that prosaic and versified segments here lose their capacity to be discernible. The interference of voices in such insertions results in textual fragmentation and entails rhythmic transformation of initially planned structure. Such places of disruption are the places of semantic condensation that come here to become an influential rhythmic power displaying intentional destination of the segments. It appears a special kind of dialogical prosaic strophe [Солганик, 1997, 78] as a peculiar unit of dramatic recitative. Thus recitative is not merely a particular formal device. It is organized with intentional background and the respective expectations that can be regarded as the foundations of dramatic rhythm. This effect of intention as the source of metrical background for dramatic rhythm can be found in the expectations appearing in scenic speech. It can be exemplified with a place of homonymous dissociation in M. Yu. Lermontov’s “Masquerade”¹²⁵³ where the emphasized verb “satisfied” acquires diametrically opposite meanings in the both cues (Nina means her conduct, her husband means the success of the committed poisoning). Accentuation here becomes possible only with the reference to the respective expectations that are of semantic intentional nature and can by no means be reduced to metrical organization of sound substance only. In this respect dramatic metrical scheme displays common features with the concept of gravitation known for musicology. Intentions as the source of expectations exposed for the dramatic spectator exert the same effect as the tonality in music.

These intentional prerequisites of metrical schemes that become apparent in drama give grounds for the conclusions as to the peculiar rhythmical properties of scenic scansion as the third form together with verse & prose. It is already within a reproduced colloquial speech taken as a scenic device that one finds resources for versification in opposite to colloquy. It is especially significant that these rhythmic devices are connected with epigrammatic kinds of versification retained in proverbs. For instance one can find exact features of recitative in the following passage from the Wanderer’s monologue in S. Cherkasenko’s “Snowy Storm” (Act 4): «Правду Ви, Діду, мовили, / що доля наша блукає / по закутках. / Де їй, сердешній, і блукати, / як не по закапелках різних. / Доля небагатьох щасливих / має для блукання / всі простори незміряні / на світі…» ‘You are right, Daddy, in saying that our fate roams in the slums. And where has she still to roam besides various dust-hills. The fate of the innumerous wealthy people has wide immeasurable space for roaming around the world’. One can already find here the features of syllabic verse (8+8, 4, 9+9+9, 6, 8+3). Still more important is the appearance of the motif of fate’s roaming that refers to the proverbs (such as «зустріла мене доля серед чистого поля» ‘my fate has met me in the broad field’ or «добра доля іде з широкого поля» ‘good fate goes from the broad field’) and to the widespread beliefs in the personified fate (studied in particular by A.A. Potebnya)¹²⁵⁴. The attachments of the kind can be also exemplified with Antipov’s monologue from M. Gorki’s “Zykov”: «Пускай, что хотят, / то и думают! / … Вот она, рука, / которой я жизнь / свою возводил - / это моя рука!» ‘Let them think what they want! Here it is, the hand, with which I’ve erected my life – it is my hand!’. One can easily divide the speech into the segments of five syllables that display also apparent proverbial references: it would be appropriate to cite such samples of composed words as «рукоделие, рукотворный». Such recitatives can by no means be reduced to the cases of rhythmical prose. They betray the presence of systematic outer pattern that serves as the paragon for their metrical organization. One can here remind the syntactic premises of rhythm that has been discussed previously as the obvious source for such meter of scenic speech. This play with asymmetrical displacements of syntactic divisions acquires also the indispensable syllabic measures that would represent it. The repeated schemes of syntactic structures with its concomitant satellite syllabic external representation become the source of metrical organization that imparts rhythmical regularity to scenic scansion.

It can be suggested that the rise of such a novelty in poetry as free verse is deeply rooted in the old tradition of proverbial expressions. Now it would be convenient to continue the searches of the kind and to demonstrate the presence of another source for it that lies in the foundation of drama inasmuch as drama itself can be regarded as one of the sources for aphorisms. Each text, the versified one as well as the piece of prose, possesses its rhythmic structure. For the prosaic text it is the net of syntactic and semantic expectations (together with prosodic means) that are common with colloquial speech and determine the metric scheme for the development of rhythm. In contrast to it verse confronts with colloquial speech as an overtly separated and secluded playground where artificially coined metric schemes oppose to those of colloquial origin. When prosaic text approaches and imitates colloquial speech it is the artificial conventions of an extralinguistic nature that are innate to versified text and set it against each colloquial expression. Due to this artificial and artistic set of conventions any versified texts always bears something alien to colloquial habits and at the same time something mutual with the realm of music culture so that a verse may be defined as a kind of an unsung song. It is the opposition of