Ukraine is an Eastern European country situated North of Black Sea, formerly part of the Soviet Union. Ethnic Ukrainians live in the countries that surround Ukraine as well: Belarus, Russia, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Moldova and in diaspora, in countries like the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Australia etc. Ukraine has always been a home to many ethnic groups other than Ukrainians, including Lemkos-Rusyns, Poles, Jews, Greeks, Gagauz, Karaim, Armenians, Germans, Tatars etc.
To 1800
editThe early history of music in Ukraine is centred on Kiev. However, Kiev, and thus Ukraine, fell in political importance in the 13th and 14th centuries, and between the 14th and 17th centuries the principal purveyors of formal music instruction were the church brotherhoods, who were particularly active in Lwów (now L'viv), Peremyshl (now Przemyśl), Ostrog (now Ostrih) and Luzk (now Lutsk), as well as Kiev. Although set up primarily for religious education, music instruction was a significant part of the curriculum. An important development in music occurred when the Polish-Lithuanian union of 1569 brought the Ukrainian Church under Western influence. Western musical theories and polyphony were adapted at the Mohyla Academy (1615–1915) in Kiev, the central institution of higher learning in 17th-century eastern slavdom. By the second half of the 16th century neumatic notation had been replaced with the five-staff system called kyivs'ke znamya. The intellectual revolution of the 1600s was given a decisive push by the first great Ukrainian composer and theorist, Nikolay Dilets'ky. He was well equipped for the task of Westernizing Ukrainian music, since he had received an excellent education at the Jesuit academy in Vilnius and was familiar with new developments in Polish music. One of the most prolific composers in eastern Europe, Diletsky wrote the first work on the new music theory to issue from eastern Europe (Grammatika peniya musikiyskago, published in various editions between 1677 and 1681). Dilets'ky (and by extension the Mohyla Academy, which trained composers such as F. Ternopil's'ky, Y. Zahvoys'ky, H. Skovoroda, Bortnyansky, Berezovs'ky, Rachyns'ky, and Vedel, determined the course of the development of music on the territory which then encompassed Ukraine, Belorussia, Lithuania and Russia. For this new style of multi-voiced choral compositions, known as partesniy spiv (‘part singing’), Dilets'ky provided the theoretical and practical foundation. This resulted in the primacy of the polyphonic style in Kiev and led to the development of the genre of the ‘partesniy’ (‘choral’) concerto. This particularly slavonic mixture of Baroque, and later Classical, styles became firmly established in Kiev and other parts of Ukraine and was transmitted to Moscow via Ukrainian singers and composers who worked there. The popularity and importance of the ‘partesniy’ concerto is attested by the fact that in 1697 two music registers belonging to the L'viv Dormition Brotherhood record 398 works by Ukrainian composers for three to 12 voices (the majority, 120, for eight voices). In 1738 the Hlukhiv Singing School was founded.
As Ukraine began to reach its musical maturity in the 18th century, its accomplishments started to serve, and be absorbed by, Russia's musical development, so that in the early 19th century Kiev lost its musical primacy to Moscow. More and more musicians were being engaged in Russia and forced to develop a musical life there. This trend had already started at the end of the 17th century when the tsar summoned Diletsky to Moscow to teach the rudiments of polyphonic style, and continued with the appointment in the early 18th century of I. Popovsky as the precentor of the imperial court choir and the recruitment of singers from Ukraine. It became more pronounced when the Rozumovs'ky (Razumovsky) family (which produced the last hetman of Ukraine, to 1764) established itself in St Petersburg and began hiring gifted musicians from Ukraine (e.g. M. Poltorats'ky). The flowering of the Ukrainian school can clearly be seen in the work of three masters: Artemy Vedel, Berezovs'ky and Dmytro Bortnyans'ky. The last two also studied elsewhere in Europe, and upon their return were to remain in St Petersburg: Berezovs'ky, very briefly before his suicide, and Bortnyans'ky for the rest of his productive life. In their best and most original work, notably in the genre of the a cappella choral concerto, the two styles of Baroque and Classical are synthesized into a choral style of symphonic proportion and dramaturgy.
2. The 19th Century
editIn the 19th century, Ukrainian culture became victim to increasing repression in the Russian Empire, culminating in the Ems Ukaz of 1876, which forbade the dissemination of Ukrainian culture except for travelling troupes presenting musical comedy of the vaudeville variety. From the end of the 18th century into the middle of the 19th, instrumental music had begun to be written by such composers as 0leksandr Lizogub, H. Rachyns'ky and Yo. Vytvyts'ky (1813–1866). Large estates also had their own private serf orchestras and, mostly anonymous, composers wrote a great deal of Gebrauchsmusik for them. In western Ukraine (which was under Austro-Hungarian rule and did not have similar restrictions), musical activity first centered in Peremyshl, then moved to Lemberg (now L'viv). In Peremyshl, a group of semi-professional composers (chief among them Mykhaylo Verbyts'ky, the composer of the present national anthem, and I. Lavrivsky (1822–73), developed a distinctive school of Ukrainian music aimed at the amateur and tied to folklore. It was also used as a tool of Prosvita (‘Enlightenment’) societies, uniquely Galician organizations formed to promote Ukrainian populist ideals. There were Prosvita societies in eastern Ukraine after 1905 as well. Other composers who worked in the same vein were V. Matyuk (1852–1912), Isidor Vorobchievici (1836–1903, educated at the Vienna Music Academy) and Anatol' Vakhnyanyn, active in Lemberg and the composer of the opera Kupalo. The first important 19th-century Ukrainian work was for the stage. Tradition holds that 19th-century Ukrainian national music began with Semen Hulak-Artemovs'ky's The Cossacks beyond the Danube (1863, St Petersburg). Italian tradition provides the basis, but there is a Ukrainian colour in the harmonic and melodic structure, as well as in the use of folk tunes. It is a marvellous and clever work that combines musical sophistication and Ukrainian vaudeville.
The cornerstone of Ukrainian 19th-century music is the work of composer, pianist, choral conductor, ethnomusicologist and teacher Mykola Lysenko, who, with his opera Taras Bulba (composed 1880–91, after Gogols novel), forged a national style. After settling in Kiev in 1876, Lysenko began to create a Ukrainian style based on folk music; he also aided in the revival of Ukrainian language and the attempt to separate the achievements of Ukraine from those of Russia. Lysenko was acknowledged to be the leading figure in Ukrainian music circles but because of his strong national and political beliefs, he was shunned by the influential Russian Musical Society. In 1904 he established in Kiev the Muzychno-Dramatychna Shkola (Music and Drama School; among its students were the composers Levko Revuts'ky and Kirill Stetsenko. Lysenko's achievements were considerable but uneven. Although a few composers wrote symphonies, such as Mykhailo Kalachevs'ky's Ukrainian Symphony in A minor (1876) and V. Sokals'ky's (1863–1919) symphony in G minor (1892), the main focus of late 19th-century composers was on choral music and opera. In this period Petro Sokals'ky composed Mazepa (1858–9), May Night (1876) and The Siege of Dubno (1878). Although not produced professionally, these works created a musically distinctive Ukrainian language, though modelled on Czech as well as Russian national operas. Other Ukrainian composers who wrote operas under these difficult circumstances were Vakhnyanyn (Kupalo, 1870), Mykola Arkas (1852–1909; Kateryna, 1899), Borys Pidhorts'ky (The Spark of Kupalo, 1901), Denis Sichyns'ky (1865–1909; Roskolyana, 1908) and Stetsenko (the miniatures Polonianka, Lesychka, kotyk ta pivnyk). In all these the material is based on Ukrainian history or on plots drawn from works by Shevchenko or Gogol', and the use of folk tunes to establish Ukrainian identity.
3. The 20th Century
editThe creative and pedagogical activities of Lysenko were particularly influential. Professional organizations in L'viv, such as Lysenko Higher Institute of Music (established in 1903) and Boyan Music Society, and Muzychno-Dramatychna Shkola (Music and Drama School), established in Kiev in 1904, which in 1918 became the base for Muzychno-Dramatychny Institut im. Lysenka (The Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama), put an end to the amateur aspects of Ukrainian music. Increased contacts between eastern and western Ukraine (stimulated by efforts to circumvent the tsarist ban on Ukrainian publications by setting up publishing houses in L'viv), further reduced the composers' isolation and led to a growth in professionalism. Ironically, another important institution was the Russian Musical Society, which in addition to sponsoring concerts, established music schools in a number of Ukrainian cities in the 19th century which developed into conservatories. In 1913 the Kiev Conservatory was so formed, and its second principal (1914–20) was Glière, who after Lysenko was most effectual. In its early years the conservatory boasted an excellent staff, producing a number of important performers, among them Vladimir Horowitz. The first two decades of the 20th century were thus critical in establishing a group of professional composers and teachers such as Mykola Leontovych, Yakir Stepovy, Stetsenko in Kiev, Filaret Kolessa in L'viv, Stanislav Lyudkevych, and Fedir Akimenko in Khar'kiv.
One of the first masterpieces of this period was Lyudkevych's symphonic cantata, The Caucasus (1902–13). It is a monumental choral symphony, inspired by the choral concerto tradition of 18th-century Ukraine, and a work of considerable power and originality. Another composer of importance was Leontovych, the most brilliant and original product of the Lysenko school in Ukrainian music. Between 1908 and 1918 Leontovych dispensed with the traditional Lysenkovian aesthetic and began to compose in a vividly expressive and figuratively rich fusion of Ukrainian improvisational polyphony, sophisticated imitative counterpoint, Impressionist harmonic refinements and dramatic complexity though rooted firmly in genuine folk tradition. In this he rivalled similar attempts by Bartók and Kodály.
Between 1917 and the establishment of Soviet Ukraine in 1922, Ukraine experienced enormous social and political changes. A number of different governments ruled, each with its own cultural programme. During the 1920s many important artistic personalities emerged: P. Kozyts'ky (1893–1960), Viktor Kosenko, Mykhaylo Verykivs'ky, Msykola Kolyada, Volodymyr Femelidi, Borys Yanovs'ky and Mykola Vilinsky. In western Ukraine, at that time part of Poland, Lyudkevych was joined by Vasyl' Barvyns'ky, Adam Soltys (1890–1968) and Mykola Kolessa in developing the Galician school. Opera companies, symphony orchestras, choral ensembles, and various folk groups were established in all the major cities of Ukraine.
The two most important names to emerge in the 1920s were Levko Revuts'ky and Borys Lyatoshyns'ky. Their creative outlooks defined the two divergent attitudes in Ukrainian music for the rest of the century: on the one hand the view that to be Ukrainian, music had to have a direct connection with folk music, and on the other that it could develop independently of folklore and still retain its national character. Revuts'ky did most of his important work in the 1920s, including the Symphony no.2 (1926–7), which gave a new twist to the Lysenko tradition. But the composer of genius was Lyatoshyns'ky. He initiated the modern movement in Ukraine with a series of intense and highly expressive works that reflected a central preoccupation with expressionism: Piano Trio no.1 (1922), two piano sonatas (1924, 1925), Violin Sonata (1926), String Quartet no.3 (1928) and Symphony no.2 (1935–6). He also experimented with folk music, and in such works as the Overture on Four Ukrainian Themes (1927) and the opera The Golden Ring (1929) integrated folklorism into his style with considerable success.
Lyatoshyns'ky was influenced by the then prevalent romantic vitalism, a loosely defined Ukrainian artistic current that shared with other modernist movements of the day an exuberant belief in the dawning of a new age and which was an alternative to the primitivization of the arts that was beginning to take place throughout the USSR in the 1930s. Unfortunately, it came into being almost simultaneously with the advent of Socialist realism, a dogma that first discouraged and then forbade such developments. In Ukraine this was gradually accomplished by dissolving various competing musical societies and replacing them with a single Union of Composers of Ukraine in 1932, which executed the party's dictates with terrible efficiency. The result was a wholesale retreat from the sort of composing done in the 1920s. Typical works were the Symphony no.1 (1937) by K. Dankevych (1895–1968), the Piano Concerto (1937) by M. Skoruls'ky (1887–1950), Lyatoshyns'ky's second opera, Shchors (1938), the symphony-cantata My Ukraine (1942) by Andry Shtoharenko, and operas such as The Young Guard (1947) by Yuly Meytus, Taras Shevchenko (1964) by Heorhy Mayboroda and The Destruction of the Squadron (1967) by Vitaly Hubarenko. The most famous Ukrainian socialist realist opera was K. Dankevych's Bohdan Khmel'nytsky (1951, 2nd version 1953, 3rd version 1977). Socialist realism also produced some exemplary work, e.g. Lyatoshyns'ky's great Symphony no.3 (1951, rev. 1954), in which the two sides, the expressionistic and the national, are most successfully integrated.
By the end of 1956 committees were being formed to begin the slow process of rehabilitating the cultural leaders of the 1920s and 30s – the thaw had begun. This post-Stalinist thaw brought in a new renaissance, reminiscent of the 1920s. In Kiev the so-called Kiev avant garde, all of them students of Lyatoshyns'ky, broke with the still prevailing dogma of socialist realism (similar positions were taken in L'viv by Andry Nikodemowicz, and in Khar'kiv by Valenty Bibyk). The musical dignitaries who ruled at that time found the emergence of avant-gardism not only difficult to accept but ideologically suspect, if not intolerable. But by the mid-1970s atonality had become accepted. Stravinsky was rehabilitated and Ukrainian music was developing in many different directions. These included the new folklorism of Myroslav Skoryk, the eclectic and overtly national post-Romantic expressionism of Yevhen Stankovych, the intellectual structuralism of Hrabovs'ky, the neo-expressionism of Volodnyr Zahortsev, the neo-classicism of Ivan Karabyts, the Christian aesthetic of Alemdar Karamanov, the monolithic directness of Bibyk and the mystical and mytho-poetic polystylistics of Sil'vestrov. In the last decade of his life Lyatoshyns'ky triumphantly returned to his first style in such works as the Polish Suite (1961), Symphony no.4 (1963), and the extraordinary cycles for unaccompanied chorus (1964–66).
The interrupted, non-linear history of Ukrainian politics and culture has affected the Ukrainian artistic mentality, producing a way of thinking that often defies standard logic. In music, this attitude takes the form of extreme introspection, involving the use of fantastic colours, and an inward lyrical quality that permeates even the most exuberant passages. A hyperbolic atmosphere pervades, in which events that are strange and fantastic somehow seem quite natural. Between the late 1960s and the mid-80s a large number of works were written that illustrate this quixotic tendency. Some of the better known are Autumn Music (1966) by Huba, Drama (1970–71) and Quiet Songs (1974–84) by Sil'vestrov, When the Fern Blooms (1978) and Chamber Symphony no.4 (1987) by Stankovych, Symphony no.3 ‘In the Style of Ukrainian Baroque’ (1980) by Levko Kolodub, Chamber Cantata no.3 (1982) of Oleh Kiva and When? (1987) by Hrabovs'ky.
There is now in Ukraine a younger generation of composers who have achieved international recognition. Among these are, in Kiev, Volodymyr Runchak and V. Zubytsky; in Khar'kiv, Oleksandr Shchetyns'ky and Oleksandr Grinberg; in L'viv, Yury Lanyuk; and in Odessa, Karmela Tsepkolenko. A number of Ukrainian composers, or composers of Ukrainian descent, live and work in diaspora: Valery Kikta (in Russia), Hrabovs'ky (in the USA since 1990), Bibyk (in Israel since 1998), M. Kouzan (in France), George Fiala and L. Melnyk (in Canada) and Virko Baley (in the USA).
The presence of many Ukrainian composers and performing ensembles on European, Asian and American stages and in recording studios has greatly increased since independence, while two in particular, the National Honoured Academic Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the Kiev Camerata, have made recordings since 1955. Festivals have also proliferated, the principal ones being the Kyiv Music Festival and Premières of the Season (annual since 1990) and Kontrasty (Contrasts) in L'viv (annual since 1995). An equally remarkable development in Ukrainian music has been the gradual emergence of historians and musicologists. Although a number of ethno-musicological studies were done in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the seminal works on Ukrainian music were Pylyp Kozytsky's Spiv i muzyka v Kirsky akademiïza 300 rokiviï isnuvannya (‘Singing and music in Kiev Academy during 300 years of its existence’) (1917) and by M. Hrinchenko's Istoriya ukraïns'koï muzyky (1922). In the period of the late 1950s and early 60s M. Hordiychuk, O. Shreier-Tkatchenko, Y. Malyshev and L. Arkhimovych did important work. In 1964 Muzychna Ukraïna began to publish an annual, Ukraïns'ke muzykoznavstvo (‘Ukrainian musicology’), on a wide variety of subjects. A pioneering issue was no.6 (1971), which was devoted to Ukrainian music of the 16th to 18th centuries. Prominent among Ukrainian musicologists in recent years have been Herasymova-Persyds'ka (specializing in the Baroque and Diletsky), V. Samokhvalov, M. Kopytsya (both on Lyatoshyns'ky), O. Zin'kesych and S. Pavlyshyn (on contemporary composers) and T. Husarchuk (on Arteny Vedel).
II. Traditional Music
editThe most striking general characteristic of Ukrainian folk music in general is that its vast majority is in minor modes or keys (unlike, for example, music of Baltic peoples). There is no rational explanation for this phenomenon, and the fact remains, while the people of Ukraine do not exhibit any inordinate moroseness, even under the weight of History which dealt the Ukrainians a low hand for a very long time, with several periods of virtual depopulation of the Land.
Interestingly, minor 3rds and 6ths were nor considered dissonant in Ukraine, unlike in the rest of Medieval Europe. They were common in parallel motion, and sometimes a cadence would end on the minor 3rd, in penitential Psalms that typically reserved Picardy thirds only for the very final note.Yakov Soroker ("Ukrainian Musical Elements in Classical Music", Translated by Olya Samilenko. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 1995.) identifies several melodic phrases as characteristic of Ukrainian folk music. One phrase which he identifies is characterized by the movement of the leading tone, not up to the tonic, but down to the dominant.Another melodic stereotype is the ascending minor sixth, most frequently symbolizing an exclamation.A third type of Ukrainian melody is encountered in the "dumy," so much so that it is often referred to as the "duma mode," the Dorian mode with a sharpened fourth degree.A fourth characteristic of Ukrainian songs which Soroker gives is that of changing mode from major to parallel minor (an atavistic carryover from Renaissance bass patterns).A fifth type of melody contains augmented seconds, occurring mainly in the western regions of Ukraine among the Hutsuls and Lemkos. This particular feature is present in the versions of Baroque Lute works of Sylvius Leopold Weiss preserved in the so-called Moscow Weiss Manuscript (mid-18th century). These augmented seconds are not found in the standard versions of this music preserved elsewhere. Based on this it has been postulated that the Manuscript belonged to Timofey Belogradsky, a Ukrainian student of Weiss' in Dresden. An e-edition of this Manuscript may be found HERE.There is a phrase which Soroker considers a "signature" melody among Ukrainian songs. There are two versions, one of which features a descending minor sixth, from the fifth of the scale down to the seventh degree, with a direct resolution to the tonic. The other version has the descending minor sixth from the fifth degree down to the leading tone, to the second degree and then the tonic.
Ukrainian folk song can be divided into 3 broad aesthetic categories (a deliberate if necessary oversimplification...): The first is an archaic type of modal "a Capella" song in which a phrase sung by a soloist is answered by a choral phrase in 2- or 3- voice vertical polyphony/heterophony/harmony. The vocal inflection here is quite mediaeval in character, and some peculiarities of distinctly Ukrainian flavor are noticeable, such as parallel fifths and octaves, and/or plagal cadences in which the perfect fifth is a leading note to the tonic in cadential figures which move from IV to I in final resolutions. This feature is thought to have originated in Ancient Greece. This type of song, once dominant, after 1650 has ceded its hegemony to the newer tonal types, but can still be found in isolated villages.
1. Historical Background and General Features
editMuch of Ukrainian music is influenced by the country's geographical position, lying between eastern Europe and western Asia, with both Slav and non-Slav neighbours. Its musical life is recorded in a number of historical sources. The 11th-century frescoes in the cathedral of St Sofia in Kiev depict musicians playing aerophones, instruments resembling lutes, guslis, a harp, organ and cymbals. They also show the skomorokhi dance and theatrical performances. The Chronicle of Volïnsk (1241) mentions Mitusa, a ‘renowned’ singer from Galicia, and documents of the 14th and 15th centuries record Ukrainian lira (hurdy-gurdy) players at the Polish court, and the bandura performer Churilo. The Kiev znamennïy chant is thought to have been developed from non-liturgical vocal music in the second half of the 11th century.
Ukrainian vocal musics exhibit a wide variety of forms – monodic, heterophonic, homophonic, harmonic and polyphonic (from the 16th century) – often reflecting the instrumental accompaniment with which they are associated. Common traditional instruments include: the kobza (lute), Bandura, torban (bass lute), violin, basolya (similar to the cello), the relya (a hurdy-gurdy on wheels) and the cimbalom; the sopilka (duct flute), floyara (open, end-blown flute), trembyta (long wooden trumpet), fife, accordion and koza (bagpipes); and the buben (frame drum), tulumbas (kettledrum, played by Cossack regimental musicians), resheto (tambourine) and drymba (jew's harp). Traditional instrumental ensembles are often known as troïstï muzyki (from the ‘three musicians’ that typically make up the ensemble, e.g. violin, sopilka and buben; violin, cimbalom and buben; violin, accordion and buben). When performing dance melodies instrumental performance often includes improvisation.
Melodies may be broadly classified in four ways: formulaic recitative with a narrow pitch range, common in ritual, ceremonial and epic genres; declamatory recitative with a non-strophic structure, used for dumy; rospivno-protyazhnïy melodies with two- or three-line stanzas (AB, AAB, ABB), followed by a modified reprise, typical of domestic and social texts; and melodies based on dance rhythms characteristic of games, epigrammatic refrains and short and cyclical instrumental forms. Although West Asian melodic characteristics can be discerned, traditional musics have been greatly influenced by the Western major-minor system. Rospiv (chant) melodies and melodies based on dance rhythms come close to Western diatonic and functional-harmonic models.
Among the traditional dances of Ukraine are: the kozak, hopak, kolomïyka and hutsulka in duple time; and the metelitsya, shumka, arkan and chabarashka. Dances originating outside the region but which have been widely adopted include: the polka, mazurka, krakowiak, csárdás, waltz, barynya and tropak. Vocal and instrumental genres of dance melodies are found; both display a characteristic acceleration of tempo during performance. Dance melodies for vocal performance form a ‘template’ to which a great number of often short, different lyrical texts may be sung. The opposition of accents in the text against those of rhythm and metre is a characteristic feature of dance melodies. Ukrainian instrumental and dance music was also influenced by Jewish and Gypsy korchmar (‘tavern’) ensembles.
2. Vocal Music
editCalendrical, ritual and celebratory musics. Kolyadki (‘carols’) and shchedrivki are sung at Christmas and New Year respectively. The texts of these songs refer to agriculture and domestic life. Sung antiphonally, they consist of a verse and refrain of blessings (e.g. oy day Bozhe, ‘may God grant you’, dobriy vecher, ‘good evening’), often with lines of 5+5 syllables. They have a limited pitch range and are usually in a diatonic major or minor mode. The singers are accompanied by players who portray characters known as ‘the goat’ and ‘Malanka’. Carols from church traditions are also sung.
Vesnyanki are songs performed by women to celebrate the coming of spring. They have a characteristic exclamation, ‘gu’, which is sung as a glissando at the end of each stanza (ex.1). There are round-dance and game variants of vesnyanki (e.g. proso, ‘millet’, kryviy tanets, ‘the crooked dance’, and vorotar, ‘the gate-keeper’), which have become children's game-songs. Texts have various forms but each stanza usually has two lines. Kupal'skiye songs which were performed during the summer solstice, have now been appropriated for the festival of the birth of John the Baptist. Associated with these songs are the petrivochnïye, which were sung from Trinity Sunday to St Peter's day (12 July). The texts of both types of song refer to love and match-making. Harvest is marked by obzhinochnïye songs, which accompany the weaving of garlands from ears of wheat and rye, and by a procession of reapers.
All calendrical and ritual songs are performed by a group, who partly sing antiphonally. The melodies have a narrow pitch and are variants of basic formulae. They consist of one or two lines with refrains (less frequently they can be of three lines with a repetition of the second half) and are both sung in unison and with heterophony.
Of celebratory ritual songs – vesilnï (wedding), krestyl'nï (baptismal) and pomynal'nï (funerary) – the largest number are wedding songs. Indispensable at a Ukrainian wedding are the ritual songs ladkannya, sung by a chorus, often antiphonally between men and women. They comment on and describe the wedding rituals, for example decorating the wedding sapling (gil'tse), untying the bride's tress and covering the head of the bride with a cap. The singing uses both unison and heterophonic textures, with the voices often in parallel 3rds. A singer using a high falsetto (tonchik) sings above the chorus (ex.2). The ladkannya texts have lines of 5+3, 6+3 and 7+3 syllables. The melodies are formulaic, use ornamentation and a slight slowing of the tempo to delay the movement from note to note, particularly when in the Western major mode and when sounding the first degree. In the western parts of Ukraine ladkannya are recited in unison on the tonic, or in 3rds (gymel).
(ii) Polyphonic and heterophonic song. During the second half of the 17th century Ukraine was divided into the dneprovskoye levoberezh'ye (left bank of the Dnieper), which was Orthodox, and the pravoberezh'ye (right bank), which was Greco-Catholic. A widespread genre on the levoberezh'ye was the polyphonic singing of ‘street’ long songs (protyazhnïy).
In these the second, supporting, part was sung with a belïy (‘white’) chest sound in a low to medium register. The pitch was set by the leader and was taken up by the chorus from which an upper voice (govryak) stood out. The melodic lines were similar to rospiv (chant) melodies on which the singers could improvise. Characteristic features included frequent changes of metre, and repetition of the preceding musical line for the first line of a new stanza. This style was used for love songs, domestic songs, songs sung by ox-cart drivers (chumaki) who carried salt from the mines, and in Cossack songs.
In north and north-western Ukraine (Poles'ye and Volïn') a form of heterophony is found of falsetto singing with glissandi over a tonic drone, the top line having an ambitus of a 4th or 5th. The style is found in ritual songs, for example vesnyanki (spring songs), troitskiye (songs for the Trinity), obzhyiskovi (reaping songs) and vesilnï (wedding songs). The ends of the stanzas are characterized by long pauses on the last accented syllable of the stanza, and a shortening of the last unaccented one (ex.4).
3. Music of the Carpathians. The three peoples who live in the Carpathian region – Boykys, Hutsulys and Lemkïs – possess distinct musics influenced by their pastoral and agrarian economy. The most common genres are solo songs, performed in a parlando rubato style; group songs are performed in unison. Melodies often consist of microtonal descending lines, with a glissando at the end of the stanza; they are similar to shepherds’ tunes played on the sopilka or drymba.
Ghukannya are solo songs used to exchange messages between shepherds, in a style similar to yodelling. These are found in the foothills of the Carpathians and also in parts of Slovakia and Romania. Another widespread genre of this region is the recitative-like holosinnya (lament) for the dead. They were once found throughout Ukraine and are associated with the long, chanted epic chronicles (oprïshkov and gayduk) which recount the deeds of historical liberators of Ukraine, and contemporary unusual events in the people's lives.
The music of Hutsulys is greatly influenced by the kolomïyka couplet (with lines of 4+4+6 syllables), particularly the slow protyazhnïy songs. Boykys and Hutsulys also have rapid tunes of the kolomïyka-type, which provide the basis for thousands of short texts of an epigrammatic character. They are performed solo with instrumental accompaniment, including troïstï muzyki ensembles at weddings and during leisure-time activities. A characteristic mode of the Hutsulys has a lowered third and sharpened fourth and seventh degrees, and is known as the ‘Hutsuly mode’ (ex.5). Hutsuly vocal music may also be pentatonic. Ukrainian Lemkïs, who live in the extreme west of the country, have musics that have characteristically swift tempos and are based on dance rhythms.
4. Epics
editDumy. A genre of Ukrainian performed epic poetry, dumy are mainly found in central and eastern regions. They have recitative-like, declamatory melodies, not arranged in stanzas, often accompanied by the kobza, bandura or lira. Large-scale works, which can total more than 300 lines or more of poetry, are linked to the epics of old Kiev, the byliny and Slovo o polko Igoreve (‘The lay of Igor's campaign’).
Dumy are first mentioned in the annals of the Polish chronicler S. Sarnitski (1567), and were first written down in 1693 as Kozak Holota (Cossack Holota). Some 50 tales, in a large number of variants, have been documented, which were composed by soldiers in Cossack campaigns and later were cultivated by professional players who specialized in playing the kobza and lira. Many of these performers were blind and were formed into guilds.
To gain recognition as players of the kobza and lira, musicians had to spend three to six years studying under a master of the guild. During this time they would learn the epic repertory, study the dumy melodies, gain proficiency in playing the instruments, learn Levian (the language of the guild) and the guild's etiquette, and pass an examination, known as vizvilka or otklinshchini. The schools and guilds, which were organized on a territorial basis and protected the rights of the musicians, existed until the beginning of the 20th century. Outstanding performers of dumy include O. Veresay, A. Shut, M. Kravchenko, G. Goncharenko, I. Skubiy, M. Dubina, E. Movchan, G. Tkachenko and A. Hrebin.
The lines of dumy are not equisyllabic, extending over 6–16–18 syllables grouped together in irregular declamatory groups (ustupy). A performance begins with a rhetorical exclamation, ‘oy’ or ‘hey’ sung to a descending musical phrase, known as zaplachka (‘weeping’). This phrase contains the basic motif that is varied by the kobza or lira throughout the performance. A characteristic feature of traditional performance is the ornamented cadences performed at the end of each ustupy. Motifs in the texts often are embellished with rhyming figures of speech (e.g. dumaye-hadaye, plache-rydaye) and phrases such as nevolya turets'kaya (‘Turkish captivity’) or slava kozats'ka (‘Cossack glory’), and conclude with a ‘glory’ section, slava ne umre, ne polyazhe, bude slava slavnaya pomezh kozkami, pomezh druz'yami, pomezh rytsaryami (‘let not glory die, let it not perish, let there be resplendent glory among Cossacks, among friends, among knights’).
In addition to the dumy, traditions of epic performance in Ukraine included the Kievan byliny (after the collapse of the Kievan state, 882–1054, the performers of byliny migrated north), ‘historical’ songs, ballads and spivanki-khroniki (‘sung chronicles’). These ‘chronicles’ took the form of performed short stanzas of epic poetry. They were performed in both urban and rural contexts, assimilating many regional styles, in particular urban kant melodies.
The earliest records, both texts and music, of historical songs date from the late 17th century (Hoy na hori zhentsi zhnut, ‘Hoy, the Reapers are Reaping on the Hill’, and Oy bida, bida tiy chaytsi nebozi, ‘Oh Woe, Woe Poor Lapwing’). The text of the ballad Dunayu, Dunayu, chemu smuten techesh? (‘Danube, Danube, Why do you Flow so Sadly?’) was recorded in the grammar book of the Czech scholar Jan Blagoslav (1550–60). Large cycles of songs in rhymed syllabic verse about national heroes, such as Morozenko, Nechaye and Khmel'nitsky, have survived in manuscripts dating from the 19th and 20th centuries.
During the 17th and 18th centuries Cossacks, members of the lower middle class and those in training for the priesthood were taught singing, alongside other subjects, in ‘schools of the brotherhood’ set up in important urban centres (for example those in Lvov, founded 1585, Kiev, 1615, and Lutsk, 1617). These schools introduced elements of written tradition and the major-minor system into epic performance. Historical songs and ballads have melodies in march rhythms that reflect underlying harmonic progressions and cadences in which a leading note resolves onto the tonic.
The growing importance of written traditions in the growth of the romance during the 18th and 19th centuries was a result of interaction between traditional and urban musics. Especially popular romances include Yikhav kozak za Dunay (‘The Cossack Went beyond the Danube’), text by S. Klimovsky, Chorniï brovy, kariï ochi (‘Black Brows, Brown Eyes’), text by K. Dumitrashko, and Stoit' hora visokaya (‘There Stands a High Mountain’), text by L. Glibov.
Research
editThe first written records of Ukrainian traditional songs and instrumental melodies were set down in the 17th and 18th centuries in publications such as Mykola Diletsky's Gramatyka muzykal'na ({{lang-uk|The grammar of music; 1675), the Bohohlasnik (Word of God) of the Pochayeyev monastery (1790), V. Trutovsky's four-volume Sobraniye russkikh prostïkh pesen s notami (A collection of simple Russian songs with notation; 1776–95) and Sobraniye narodnïkh russkikh pesen s ikh golosami (A collection of Russian songs with their vocal parts) by N. L'vov and I. Prach (1790). During the 19th and into the 20th century scholars started to produce work which concentrated on regional traditions and specific genres. They include: Vaclav from Oleska and K. Lipinsky, M. Lysenko, A. Rubets, O. Kolberg, S. Lyudkevych and I. Rozdol's'sky, A. Konoshchenko, F. Kolessa, K. Kvitka, L. Yashchenko, A. Humenyuk, Z. Vasylenko, V. Goshovs'ky, O. Pravdyuk and A. Ivanis'ky.
Important institutions which have been responsible for the collection and publication of traditional musics are: the south-western division of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (Kiev, 1873–6), the Studyroom of Musical Ethnography at the Historical and Philological section of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (1922–32). The Institute of Folklore in Kiev (now the Institute of Art History, Folklore and Ethnology) was founded in 1936. In addition to amassing a large archive of recordings it has published collections of texts and music.
The most distinctive musical instrument unique to Ukraine is currently the bandura, a 19th century invention used in folk and semi-classical music, and bandura's historical predecessors: torban, kobza and "starosvits'ka" bandura, all previously facing extinction, but now being revived. Starting in the 15th century, itinerant musicians called (kobzari) used the kobza to accompany dumas, epic sung poetry (dumy). In the 19th century many (but not all) of them were blind, and this stereotype remains in folk memory. The kobzari were organized in a professional guild, known as the "Kobzar Guild/Kobzars'kyj Tsekh". During Soviet era kobzari were persecuted, and many perished during Stalin's "purges" during 1930's. The Kobzar Guild has been revived in recent years, under the leadership of such fine singer-musicians as Kushpet, Kompanichenko, Drach, Cheremsky, Koval', Khaj and others.
Early in the 20th century, Pavlo Humeniuk of Philadelphia became famous in the USA for his fiddle music. American musicians, especially from the New York, Cleveland and Detroit areas, became well-known and, in many ways preserved Ukrainian traditions that faced extinction in Ukraine proper (such as Zinovy Shtokalko, Hryhory Kytasty, Julian Kytasty, Victor Mishalow, et al.).
Throughout Ukraine, vocal polyphony was once common, but it has been in decline in recent years, as Western pop and rock became prevalent. However there are groups dedicated to preservation to Ukrainian polyphony, notably "Bozhychi", "Ghutropravci", "Volodar", "Korali" and "Drevo".
The Hutsuls, Carpathian mountain tribe, are known for their trembita, a type of alpenhorn, and their multiple varieties of the flute (sopilka). Hutsul folk melodies, rhythms and dance moves were effectively used by the Ukrainian winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 Ruslana.
One of the most important and truly original musicians to come out of Ukraine in recent years is the ultra-avantgarde folk singer and harmonium player Mar'jana Sadovs'ka.
Ukrainian pop and folk music arose with the international popularity of groups like Vopli Vidoplyasova, Vij, Okean Elzy, et al. and individual musicians, such as Julian Kytasty, Oleg Skrypka and Mar'jana Sadovska, all of whom dress traditional music in ultra-avantgarde forms. There are also musicians (Kostyantyn Chechenya, Wolodymyr Smishkewych, Vadym Borysenko and Roman Turovsky-Savchuk) who have been preserving Ukrainian music of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Eras (See http://polyhymnion.org/torban for in-depth discussion of Ukrainian music and its instruments from antiquity to our time).
Ukraine and its diaspora have also produced a great number of fine classical and avant-garde composers and musicians with widely varying degrees of affinity with the folk idioms, from extreme (in the case of Lysenko, Kytasty, Andrec or Turovsky) to none (See: Baley, Silvestrov, Hrabovsky), with many more in between (Skoryk, Stankovich, Karabits, Leontovych, Liatoshinsky, Revutsky, Kos-Anatol'sky, Andrij Bondarenko).
Ukraine has produced a large number of great performers of Classical music (both ethnic Ukrainians and not, such as Borys Gmyrja, Vladimir Horowitz, Roman Kofman, Ivan Kozlovsky, Salomeja Krushel'nyts'ka and many others.
Popular performers in Ukraine
edit
- Julian Kytasty – singer, composer, kobzar, bandurist
- Mar'jana Sadovska – singer, composer [1]
- Okean Elzy – popular rock band
- Plach Yeremiji – rock music
- Ruslana - singer , composer , pianist , conductor [2]
- Vij – Ukrainian folk-rock [3]
- Vopli Vidoplyasova – Ukrainian folk-rock [4]
Other Ukrainian musicians and composers
edit- Mykola Lysenko. 1842-1912. Composer. He is considered the father of Ukrainian clasical music.
- Semen Hulak Artemovsky. 1813-1873. Composer of opera "Zaporozhetz za dunayem" (Kozaks beyod the Danube).
- Mykola Leontovich. 1877-1921. Composer. Best known for his arrangement of Shchedryk, which became known in North America as "Carol of the Bells."
- Dmitri Bortniansky [5], [6]. 1751-1825. Ukrainian liturgical composer. Born Hlukiv, Ukraine.
- Reinhold Gliere. 1875-1956. Composer. Born in Kyiv.
- Peter Tchaikowsky. 1840-1893. Born in Russia of a Ukrainian father and a French mother. His Symphony #2 is nicknamed "Ukrainian Symphony" because of its use of Ukrainian folk themes. He wrote an opera "Mazepa" based on Pushkin's poem. His family owned estates in Ukraine and he collected Ukrainian folk music.
- Myroslav Skoryk. Ukrainian classical composer.
- Virko Baley. Composer. Conductor of Las Vegas Symphony.
- Karol Szymanowski. 1882-1937. Composer. Born in Ukraine.
- Volodymyr Ivasiuk. 1949-1979. Ukrainian popular song composer. His best known song is Chervona Ruta.
- Dmitri Tiomkin. 1899-1979. Born Poltava, Ukraine. American film composer (academy award for score of movie High Noon, also best song from that movie "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling"). A U.S.A. postage stamp was issued in his honor.
- Stepan Rak. 1945- . Prolific Czech composer and guitarist. "... identifies the village Chust in Ukraine as the place where the newborn infant, who was later christened as Stepan Rak, was found by Soviet soldiers in a bomb-wrecked house."
- Gary Kulesha. Ukrainian-Canadian composer.
References
edit- Alexis Kochan and Julian Kytasty. "The Bandura Played On". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, pp 308-312. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
- Victor Mizynec, Folk Instruments of Ukraine. 1987. Bayda Books, Doncaster, Australia. ISBN 0-908480-19-9
- Roman Turovsky, "TORBAN: The Lute in Ukraine": http://polyhymnion.org/torban
- (ru icon)Arkhimovych, L., et al (1961). Musical Culture of Ukraine (Muzykal'naya kul'tura Ukrainy), State Music Publishers.
- (uk icon)Arkhimovych, L., et al (1964). Outline of the History of Ukrainian Music (Narysy z istorïï ukraïns'koï muzyky), Art.
L. Arkhimovych, ed.: Istoriya Ukraïns'koï Radyans'koï muzyky [The history of Soviet Ukrainian music] (Kiev,1990)
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O.I. Dey and S.Y. Hrytsa, eds.: Spivanky-khroniky (Kiev, 1972)
V. Dovzhenko: Narysy z istorïi ukrains'koï radyanskoï muzyky [Study of the history of Soviet Ukrainian music] (Kiev, 1957–67)
V.L. Goshovsky: Ukrainskiye pesni Zakarpat'ya [Ukrainian songs of Transcarpathia] (Moscow, 1968)
V.L. Goshovsky: U istokov narodnoy muzïki slavyan [The sources of Slavonic folk music] (Moscow, 1971)
R. Harasymchuk: Tantse hutsulskiye (L'viv, 1939)
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F.M. Kolessa: ‘Über den melodischen und rhythmischen Aufbau der ukrainischen (kleinrussischen) rezitierenden Gesänge, der sogenannten “Kosakenlieder”’, IMSCR: III Vienna 1909, 276
F.M. Kolessa: ‘Das ukrainische Volkslied, sein melodischer und rhythmischer Aufbau’, Österreichische Monatsschrift für den Orient, xlii (1916), 218
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Musicae Aes Et Scientia. Naukovyi Visnyk, Vypusk 6 [Scholarly Herald, Volume 6], Natzional'na Akademiya Ukrainy [National Music Academy of Ukraine], Kyiv, 1999
Ukrains'ke Muzykoznavstvo [Ukrainian musicology] (Kiev, 1963–98)
{{EasternEuropeanmusic}} [[Category:Ukrainian music|*]]