Victoria Poleva’s “Nova”
Notes by TŌN bassoonist Shelby Capozzoli
Nova is a dramatic yet minimalist tone poem written by Victoria Poleva in 2022 and dedicated “To the courage of Ukraine”. Poleva was born to a musical family in Kyiv, where she studied and later worked in the composition department of the Kyiv Conservatory. As her compositional style developed, she began writing pieces in the style of “sacred minimalism”, a framework that uses simple, transparent melody and harmony within a holy context. Nova fits within this genre both by its simplicity and with its reference to English Baroque composer Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary.
Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary, otherwise known as the Prince of Denmark’s March, was written around 1700. He was the organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral at the time, and therefore greatly influenced by sacred music. But this piece’s impact was felt most notably during World War II. It was often radio broadcast to occupied Denmark, reminding them of their solidarity with England and their combined opposition to the Nazi attack. Poleva begins Nova with an imitative trumpet call that is made up of overlapping snippets of Clarke’s Voluntary. Her direct reference of this piece calls back to the English people’s resistance against Nazi Germany and compares it to Ukraine’s current resistance against Russia.
But perhaps what is most essential to the piece’s message is its title. A nova is “a star showing a sudden large increase in brightness and then slowly returning to its original state over a few months”. Unlike a supernova, which is an event so sudden and catastrophic that it always leads to the death of a star, a nova is a brief, dramatic period of change that allows the star to return (more or less) to where it started. I believe Poleva’s intention in naming this piece is to imply that all of this chaos and destruction of war is but a brief blip in Ukraine’s history, and as soon as we know it, the country will be at peace again. This message of hope can be heard in the very structure of Nova. The opening trumpet call could be seen to represent the harmonious existence of Ukraine before the war. Then, a driving rhythmic theme is introduced in the piano and percussion, oppressively encroaching and unceasing in its crescendo, much like the Russian attack on Ukraine. The middle of the piece is met by a huge, triumphant full orchestra sound, like the crux of a war when you finally see the light on the horizon. And from there, the piece descends back into the driving rhythm, but this time with the trumpet voluntary overlaid, illustrating that although the country will hopefully return to where it once was, the echoes of the pain of war will remain.