Mykola Leontovych
Meet the father of Ukrainian choral music and the pioneer of Ukrainian polyphony, whose folk-inspired music helped to define the Ukrainian national identity
Mykola Leontovych by Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. ©2001 All Rights Reserved. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.CFC Big Ideas in association with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy
Prominent Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych is known as the author of a world-renowned Shchedryk (later also adapted into an English-language Christmas carol, Carol of the Bells).
Leontovych was born in Monastyrok, Ukraine, in 1877.
Mykola received his first musical lessons from his father, who directed a school choir and was skilled at playing the cello, double bass, harmonium, violin, and guitar. He studied music at the Kamianets-Podilskyi Theological Seminary and the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella.
Leontovych was a prolific composer and wrote over 150 choral works.
Mykola Leontovych by Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. ©2001 All Rights Reserved. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.CFC Big Ideas in association with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy
His creative legacy includes arrangements of folk melodies, compositions based on the liturgical texts, choral compositions set to the words of Ukrainian poets, and an unfinished opera, On the Water Nymph’s Easter.
Leontovych also pursued a pedagogical career. The composer worked on the music committee of the People's Commissariat of Education and taught at the Music and Drama Institute. He also taught choral conducting at the Kyiv Conservatory and worked at the Mykola Lysenko Music and Drama Institute.
Mykola Leontovych by Track cover of «Shchedryk» | Mykola Leontovych By Ukrainian Background is licensed under a Creative Commons License.CFC Big Ideas in association with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy
For 20 years, he taught choral singing and organized choirs. Leontovych became one of the initiators to establish the choirs in the educational institutions in Podillia, Donbas, Kyiv, and Tulchyn.
A milestone of the composer's artwork, Shchedryk had a fascinating story and a powerful cultural and political significance. Leontovych managed to transform a folk melody into a choral masterpiece.
The artistic value of Shchedryk made it one of the tools of Ukraine's cultural diplomacy, which it remains until now.
In 1918, during the national liberation struggle, the Ukrainian People's Republic declared its independence. In 1919, Symon Petliura, Head of the Ukrainian State, directed conductor Oleksandr Koshyts to assemble a choir to then go on a tour.
During this tour, the choir's mission was to represent Ukrainian culture and gain international recognition for Ukraine as a state.
By 1922, the Ukrainian choir, with their hit masterpiece, Shchedryk, reached the United States. It was later transformed into its English version, Carol of the Bells by Peter Wilhousky, an American composer of Ukrainian descent. Now, Shchedryk is famous all around the world.
Mykola Leontovych was murdered by a Soviet agent in 1921 and became a martyr in the Eastern Orthodox Ukrainian Church. He is also remembered for his liturgy, the first to have been composed in the vernacular, specifically in the modern Ukrainian language.
The composer did not get a chance to witness the world's recognition of the greatness of his work. However, Shchedryk remains both a well-known masterpiece and a powerful tool of Ukrainian cultural diplomacy.
Based on text by Borys Filonenko
Original text from the album of the Prominent Ukrainians project, published jointly by Pictoric Illustrators Club, Pavlo Gudimov Ya Gallery Art Center, Artbook Publishing House and Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
Photo:
©2001 All Rights Reserved. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.
