Historically Informed Vocal Performance in the Mirror of Modern Musicological Research

This article offers a concise overview of scholarly literature on the issue of Historically Informed Performance (HIP) in the sphere of vocal music. Special emphasis is placed on contributions by Ukrainian researchers (M. Marchenko, Ye. Lazarevych, L. Artyukhova, O. Tabulina, D. Savon, A. Kolyada). M. Marchenko, in particular, examined the features of performance strategies and interpretive models of national part-song heritage. Ye. Lazarevych analyzed Ukrainian liturgical music from the perspective of HIP, drawing on performances by the “Byzantine Choir” conducted by M. Antonovych. L. Artyukhova proposed several approaches to interpreting Baroque music by contemporary vocalists – academic, authentic, and synthesized. The specificities of Western European Renaissance choral music performance in Ukraine were explored in the work of N. Danshyna. O. Tabulina addressed the appropriateness of vibrato as a component of vocal technique in Baroque compositions. D. Savon investigated the vocal style of German Baroque choral music through both scholarly and performance-based lenses. A. Kolyada emphasized the significant sociocultural role of the independent platform “Open Opera Ukraine”, which actively promotes HIP in Ukraine. For the first time, the article also considers two foreign studies (R. Wistrich, J. Potter, and K. A. Henshaw). R. Wistrich and J. Potter argue against narrowly defined vocal specializations, advocating instead for a close integration of training and scholarship, as well as for vocal versatility in historically grounded performance practice. K. A. Henshaw explored the relationship between semiotic gestures in vocal performance and specific musical- rhetorical figures characteristic of the Baroque era. Drawing from this diverse body of work, the article identifies several key perspectives on early vocal music performance: historical-stylistic (L. Artyukhova, N. Danshyna), genre-specific (M. Marchenko, D. Savon), organizational-aesthetic (R. Wistrich and J. Potter, A. Kolyada, Ye. Lazarevych), and integrative-semiotic (K. A. Henshaw).