Ivan Fedorovych Karabyts (; January 17, 1945 – January 20, 2002) was a Ukrainian composer and conductor, and a People's Artist of Ukraine.
He was born in village Yalta in the Donetsk region of the Ukraine, and graduated from the Kyiv Conservatory in 1971, where he studied under Borys Lyatoshynsky and Myroslav Skoryk. Karabyts conducted the Dance Ensemble of the Kyiv Military District and the Kyiv Camerata. He also taught at the Kyiv Conservatory.
Ivan Karabyts wrote works for solo piano, orchestra, voice, piano, and voice, as well as different combinations of instruments. His works have been performed throughout the nations of the former Soviet Union, many European nations, and the United States. He died in Kyiv, aged 57.
His son is the conductor Kirill Karabits.
Style
L. Kyyanovska maintained that all of the composers who influenced Karabyts' music were united by passion and a willingness to confront the officially accepted canons of art. Nevertheless, Karabyts' teacher Borys Lyatoshynsky had a noticeable influence on his music, as well as a group of like-minded students including V. Silvestrov, L. Grabovsky, V. Godziatsky, V. Guba, E. Stankovych, and O. Kiva. O. Beregova considered that Karabyts' work showed the breadth and universality of creative thinking and an innovative approach to traditional musical genres and forms.
Early works by Karabyts are distinguished by the expressiveness of musical language and the search for individual style and the composer's liberal use of dodecaphony. Most of the early works were chamber works, some of them in neofolk style, including "Three songs on folk texts" for voice and piano (1969), "Songs by Yavdokha Zuikha" for voice, flute and viola, and "Music" for solo violin (1974).
In the 1970's and 80's, Karabyts was attracted to large-scale musical productions. Symphonic and vocal-symphonic genres predominate (such as the oratorio "Kyiv Frescoes" and three concerts for orchestra), as well as philosophical and civic themes (including themes of the Motherland, memory, moral duty).
Karabyts' vocal-symphonic works tend to conceptual concreteness, entertainment, achieved by dramaturgical functions of the narrator, independent and rather active role of the poetic component, program accuracy of musical expression, genre associativity, timbre dramaturgy, etc.
The universality of the musical language of the works of his next period was determined by the synthesis of various elements of modern compositional techniques (such as pointillism, aleatorics, sonoristics) in combination with new tonal and new modal pitch organization, intersection of different stylistic tendencies (neoclassicism, neo-baroque, neo-impressionism, jazz). In the figurative sphere, the tragic is intensified and the theme of repentance is actualized (Concerto 3 "Lamentation", Concert-triptych for orchestra), the pantheistic theme sounded in a new way («Music from Waterside»).
In a letter to Virko Baley, Ivan Karabits described his own style as follows:
Selected works
For orchestra
Symphonies: No. 1 "5 songs about Ukraine" (1974), No. 2 (1977) Concerts for orchestra: No. 1 (1981), No. 2 (1986), No. 3 (1989) "Dedicated to October" (symphonic prelude, 1977) Triumphal Overture (1980) ballet "Heroic Symphony" (1982)
For choir (voice) and symphony orchestra
"Garden of Divine Songs" on the poem by Hryhoriy Skovoroda for choir, soloists and symphony orchestra (1971) "Vivere memento" ("Remember to live") on the poem by Ivan Franko for bass and symphony orchestra (1970) "My native Donbass" (1980) "Kiev frescoes" opera-oratorio on verse by Borys Oliynyk for soloists, choir and symphony orchestra "Prayer of Catherine" on the poem by Catherine Motrych for chtitsa, children's choir and symphony orchestra (1993) "Jubilee cantata" on the poem Mykola Rudenko for soloists, choir and symphony orchestra
For instruments solo and symphony orchestra
Piano concertos with orchestra: No. 1 (1968), No. 2 (1971), No. 3 "Lamentation" (1989) 5 musical moments for piano and orchestra (1999) Cello concerto with orchestra (1968)
For jazz band
Quintet (1966) Ukrainian souvenir (1980) "Festive Kyiv" (1980) "Symphony of Labor" (1981)
For chamber orchestra
Symphony for Strings (1967) Symphony №3 for strings Concertino for chamber orchestra (1970) Triptych for Strings (1996) Vio-serenade (2000) for string orchestra