Music of Ukraine
Encyclopedia
Ukraine
is a multi-ethnic Eastern Europe
an state situated north of the Black Sea
, previously part of the Soviet Union
. Many of its ethnic groups living within Ukraine have their own unique musical traditions and some have developed specific musical traditions in association with the land in which they live.
The most striking general characteristic of authentic ethnic Ukrainian folk music is the wide use of minor modes or keys which incorporate augmented 2nd intervals. This is an indication that the major-minor system developed in Western European music did not become as entrenched or as sophisticated in Ukraine.
Rhythmically the music rarely uses complex time-signatures, but compound meters are encountered, and the music can be extremely complex harmonically.
Harmonically three and even four part harmony had developed and was recorded in the central steppe regions of Ukraine, but was not in popular use in the mountain regions by the late 19th century.
1. Solo singing - primarily ritual songs including holosinnya sung at wakes.
2. Solo singing with instrumental accompaniment by professional itinerant singers known as kobzari or lirnyky. The highest form of development of this style of singing can be seen in the lyric historical folk epics known as dumy
sung to the accompaniment of the bandura
, kobza
or lira (lirnyk
). Dumy were sung primarily in the dorian mode
3. The third is an archaic type of modal "a cappella" vocal style 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 several types of plagal cadences. 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. This style is evident in the Kolyadka
and Shchedryk.
4. *The other vocal styles are marked by the influences exerted by European music, by paraliturgical music of Danylo Tuptalo and his circle in the early 18th century, and later by classical music and urban culture.
Ukrainian vocal musics exhibit a wide variety of forms – monodic, heterophonic, homophonic, harmonic and polyphonic.
One of the most active proponents of these styles of Ukrainian vocal music is Nina Matviyenko
. In recent time groups have been established dedicated to preservation to Ukrainian traditional polyphony, notably "Bozhychi", "Hurtopravci", "Volodar", "Korali" and "Drevo".
(lute
), bandura
, torban
(bass lute), violin
, basolya (3-string cello), the relya or lira
(hurdy-gurdy) and the tsymbaly; the sopilka
(duct flute), floyara
(open, end-blown flute), trembita
(alpenhorn), fife
, volynka
(bagpipes); and the buben (frame drum), tulumbas (kettledrum), resheto
(tambourine) and drymba/varhan (Jaw harp). Traditional instrumental ensembles are often known as troïstï muzyki (literally ‘three musicians’ that typically make up the ensemble, e.g. violin, sopilka and buben). When performing dance melodies instrumental performance usually includes improvisation.
The traditional dances of Ukraine include: the Kozak
, Kozachok
, Tropak
, Hopak
, Hrechanyky, Kolomyjka
and Hutsulka
, Metelytsia
, Shumka, Arkan
, Kateryna (Kadryl
) and Chabarashka. Dances originating outside the Ukrainian ethnic region but which are also popular include: the Polka
, Mazurka
, Krakowiak
, Csárdás
, Waltz
, Kamarynska and Barynya
. Ukrainian instrumental and dance music has also influenced Jewish (Hava Nagila
-Let's rejoyce) and Gypsy music and much of it was included in the repertoire of itinerant klezmorim
.
Early in the 20th century, Pavlo Humeniuk of Philadelphia became famous in North America for his fiddle music.
Although most instrumental dance music in Ukraine can be sung to, there exist in Ukraine a group of professional folk musicians who sing to their own accompaniment. These itinerant musicians were generically called kobzar
i (kobzar - singular), and accompanied their singing with the kobza
, bandura
, or lira
. Although their origins stretch back to antiquity, their repertoire and customs directly date back to the 17th century in which they depict the period of the conflicts between the Kozaks and various foreign oppressors. There were many cases of those folk singers being blind which became a stereotype in the cultural memory.
Kobzari
The kobzari organized themselves into regional professional guild-like structures, known as a "Kobzar Guild".
During Soviet era almost all of the traditional kobzari were killed, the bulk perishing during Stalin's "purges" during 1930's. Even the instrument, kobza and bandura, were prohibited and confiscated. A practice of the Ukrainian ethnocide that continued after the fall of the Russian Empire
.
Under the inspiration of noted traditional bandurist Heorhiy Tkachenko
a Kobzar Guild was re-established in 1991 in Kiev by Mykola Budnyk in order to revive and foster the ancient kobzar traditions. The Guild unites many fine singer-musicians in Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora
. Many of its members are not formally Conservatory trained.
The most notorious songs and music
(a type of alpenhorn, to signify death, birth, a marriage or another significant event) by the Hutsuls
in the Carpathian
mountains.
was instituted which gradually grew to an intolerance to organized religion. Religious music was not supported by the regime and in time was purged from performance. Many aspects of classical music were also branded as being bourgeois and decadent.
A movement was started in the 20's for "Proletarian songs" - music of the working people. Most of these mass songs were primitive and vulgar. Many were not in Ukrainian. In time it was noticed that this music only catered for the working classes in the cities and did not take into account the large percentage of Ukrainian peasants living in village setting. As a consequence, songs of the village were also defined as being also from the working class. Resulting from this reclassification the Soviet government began to give significant support to this form of music. Hence, various "fakeloric" ensembles came into existence. After World War II huge resources continued to be given to support this style of music in order to displace the onslaught of mass culture from the West.
Numerous folk choirs were established such as the Veriovka folk choir directed by Hryhoriy Veriovka. A stylized dance troupe was established by Pavlo Virsky
based on a synthesis of ethnographic dance and ballet. Particularly popular were the numerous Bandurist Capellas. These particular pseudo-folk forms blending ethnographic materials in an art setting have also become popular in the Ukrainian diaspora
in North America.
, Hryhoriy Kytasty
, Julian Kytasty
, Victor Mishalow
, et al. have played a significant role in defining Ukrainian ethnicity in the New World, while fusing traditional musical material with new possibilities offered by contemporary instruments.
music which can trace most of its origins to the Jewish Pale of Settlement
and to South-western Ukraine. It is estimated that one third of the total Jewish population of Europe lived on Ukrainian ethnic territory at the turn of the 19th century
Russian music has also had a strong base for development in Ukraine. Many of the early performers on Russian folk instruments came from Ukraine and these performers often included Ukrainian melodies in their repertoire. The 4 string Russian domra
continues to be used and taught in Ukraine despite the fact that it has been replaced by the 3 string domra
in Russia proper.
The music of the above groups differs considerably, as did the audiences for whom they cater.
The first category is closely tied with the Ukrainian national school of music spearheaded by Mykola Lysenko
. It includes such composers as Kyrylo Stetsenko
, Mykola Leontovych
, Levko Revutsky
. Most of their music contains Ukrainian folk figures and are composed to Ukrainian texts.
The second category is of particular importance and international visibility, because of the large percentage of ethnic minorities in urban Ukraine. This category includes such composers as Franz Xavier Mozart
, Isaak Dunayevsky
, Rheinhold Gliere, Yuliy Meitus and Sergei Prokofiev
, performers Volodymyr Horovyts
, David Oistrakh
, Sviatoslav Richter
and Isaac Stern
. The music of these composers rarely contains Ukrainian folk motives and more often is written to the texts of Russian or Polish poets.
In the third category we have a number of prominent individuals who are often not part of the mainstream Ukrainian culture but who have made a significant impact on music in Ukraine, while living outside of its borders. These include historic individuals such as: Bortniansky
, Berezovsky
, Vedel
, Tuptalo and Titov
. It also contains "Soviet" composers such as Mykola Roslavets, Isaak Dunayevsky
who were born in Ukraine but who moved to other cultural centres within the Soviet Union. In North America we have Mykola Fomenko, Yuriy Oliynyk, Zinoviy Lavryshyn and Wasyl Sydorenko.
, bandura
or torban
.
In the course of the 18th century in the Russian Empire court musicians were typically trained at the music academy in Hlukhiv
, and largely came from Ukraine. Notable performers of the era include Tymofiy Bilohradsky
who later studied lute
under Sylvius Leopold Weiss
in Dresden, his daughter Yelyzaveta who was a famous operatic soprano, and Oleksiy Rozumovsky
, a court bandurist and the morganatic husband of Empress Elizabeth.
The first professional music academy was set up in Hlukhiv, Ukraine in 1738 and students were taught to sing, play violin and bandura from manuscripts. As a result many of the earliest composers and performers within the Russian empire were ethnically Ukrainian, having been born or educated in Hlukhiv, or had been closely associated with this music school.
See: Dmytro Bortniansky
, Maksym Berezovsky
, Artemiy Vedel
.
, Mykola Leontovych
, Kyrylo Stetsenko
, Yakiv Stepovy
, Anatoliy Kos-Anatol'sky, Andriy Shtoharenko
, Mykola Dremliuha, Samuel Maykapar
, Oleksandr Bilash
, Ivan Karabyts
.
There are also musicians that are difficult to categorize, such as
, Roman Turovsky) who have been preserving Ukrainian music of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Eras.
Public Domain scores of Ukrainian music on-line:
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
is a multi-ethnic Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an state situated north of the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, previously part of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Many of its ethnic groups living within Ukraine have their own unique musical traditions and some have developed specific musical traditions in association with the land in which they live.
Traditional ethnic Ukrainian music – in general
Ukraine found itself at the crossroads of Asia and Europe and this is reflected within the music in a perplexing mix of exotic melismatic singing with chordal harmony which does not always easily fit the rules of traditional Western European harmony.The most striking general characteristic of authentic ethnic Ukrainian folk music is the wide use of minor modes or keys which incorporate augmented 2nd intervals. This is an indication that the major-minor system developed in Western European music did not become as entrenched or as sophisticated in Ukraine.
Rhythmically the music rarely uses complex time-signatures, but compound meters are encountered, and the music can be extremely complex harmonically.
Harmonically three and even four part harmony had developed and was recorded in the central steppe regions of Ukraine, but was not in popular use in the mountain regions by the late 19th century.
- Ritual songs show the greatest tendency to preservation. They are frequently in recitative style, essentially monodicMonodyIn poetry, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments another's death....
, based on notes in the range of a third or a fourth. An example of this style is the theme for the Shchedrivka "ShchedrykShchedrykShchedryk is a Ukrainian shchedrivka, or New Year's carol. It was arranged by composer and teacher Mykola Leontovych in 1916, and tells a story of a swallow flying into a household to sing of wealth that will come with the following spring...
" known in the West as "Carol of the BellsCarol of the Bells"Carol of the Bells" is the common English language title of a Christmas carol of Ukrainian origin, which has in recent years grown in popularity, particularly in English-speaking countries. The work was originally a choral miniature composition by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych based on...
".
- A large group of Ukrainian ritual melodies fall within a perfect fourth with the main central tone as the lowest note. Many of the ritual Easter melodies known as Hayivky fall into this category. The tetrachordTetrachordTraditionally, a tetrachord is a series of three intervals filling in the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion. In modern usage a tetrachord is any four-note segment of a scale or tone row. The term tetrachord derives from ancient Greek music theory...
al system is also found in wedding and harvest songs. Folk dances often have melodies based on two tetrachords fused together.
- The pentatonic scale in anhemitonic form is common in spring songs known as VesniankyVesniankyVesnianky are spring dances performed in the lands of present-day Ukraine which have been performed for thousands of years. While they pre-date Christianity, Christian missionaries altered many of the dances by incorporating Christian themes into the songs and poetry which accompany the dancing....
.
- The bulk of Ukrainian folk songs melodies are based on scales identical to mеdieval modesModus (medieval music)In medieval music theory, the Latin term modus can be used in a variety of distinct senses. The most commonly used meaning today relates to the organisation of pitch in scales...
, but differ in melodic structure. The Mixolydian and DorianDorian modeDue to historical confusion, Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different musical modes or diatonic scales, the Greek, the medieval, and the modern.- Greek Dorian mode :...
modes are used more often than IonianIonian modeIonian mode is the name assigned by Heinrich Glarean in 1547 to his new authentic mode on C , which uses the diatonic octave species from C to the C an octave higher, divided at G into a fourth species of perfect fifth plus a third species of perfect fourth : C D...
and AeolianAeolian modeThe Aeolian mode is a musical mode or, in modern usage, a diatonic scale called the natural minor scale.The word "Aeolian" in the music theory of ancient Greece was an alternative name for what Aristoxenus called the Low Lydian tonos , nine semitones...
modes. This is a feature of traditional paraliturgical Koliadky.
- The augmented 2nd interval is found, as well as the raising of the fourth and seventh degree of the scale. It is often used for melodic expression. This melodic manner gives an effect that is described as adding severe tension or sadness in some Ukrainian songs. The phenomenon is not found in Russian folk songs and is thought to have been introduced or developed in the 17th century.
Traditional ethnic Ukrainian vocal music and performers
Ukrainian folk song singing style can be divided into a number of broad aesthetic categories.1. Solo singing - primarily ritual songs including holosinnya sung at wakes.
2. Solo singing with instrumental accompaniment by professional itinerant singers known as kobzari or lirnyky. The highest form of development of this style of singing can be seen in the lyric historical folk epics known as dumy
Duma (epic)
A Duma is a sung epic poem which originated in Ukraine during the Hetmanate Era in the sixteenth century...
sung to the accompaniment of the bandura
Bandura
Bandura refers to a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of a box zither and lute, as well as its lute-like predecessor, the kobza...
, kobza
Kobza
The kobza is a Ukrainian folk music instrument of the lute family , a relative of the Central European mandora...
or lira (lirnyk
Lirnyk
The lirnyk was an itinerant Ukrainian musician who performed religious, historical and epic songs to the accompaniment of a lira, the Ukrainian version of the hurdy-gurdy....
). Dumy were sung primarily in the dorian mode
3. The third is an archaic type of modal "a cappella" vocal style in which a phrase sung by a soloist is answered by a choral phrase in 2- or 3- voice vertical polyphony
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
/heterophony
Heterophony
In music, heterophony is a type of texture characterized by the simultaneous variation of a single melodic line. Such a texture can be regarded as a kind of complex monophony in which there is only one basic melody, but realized at the same time in multiple voices, each of which plays the melody...
/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 several types of plagal cadences. 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. This style is evident in the Kolyadka
Kolyadka
Kolyadka is a traditional song usually sung in Eastern Slavic countries only on Orthodox Christmas holidays, between the 7th and 14th of January. It is believed that everything sung about will come true....
and Shchedryk.
4. *The other vocal styles are marked by the influences exerted by European music, by paraliturgical music of Danylo Tuptalo and his circle in the early 18th century, and later by classical music and urban culture.
Ukrainian vocal musics exhibit a wide variety of forms – monodic, heterophonic, homophonic, harmonic and polyphonic.
One of the most active proponents of these styles of Ukrainian vocal music is Nina Matviyenko
Nina Matviyenko
Nina Mytrofanivna Matviyenko , a Ukrainian singer, People's Artist of Ukraine.Matviyenko was born on October 10, 1947 in village of Nedilytse, Yemilchyne Raion, Zhytomyr Oblast at the time in the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union . She completed her studies in Ukrainian philology at the Kiev...
. In recent time groups have been established dedicated to preservation to Ukrainian traditional polyphony, notably "Bozhychi", "Hurtopravci", "Volodar", "Korali" and "Drevo".
Traditional ethnic Ukrainian instrumental folk music and performers
Common traditional instruments include: the kobzaKobza
The kobza is a Ukrainian folk music instrument of the lute family , a relative of the Central European mandora...
(lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
), bandura
Bandura
Bandura refers to a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of a box zither and lute, as well as its lute-like predecessor, the kobza...
, torban
Torban
The torban is a Ukrainian musical instrument that combines the features of the Baroque Lute with those of the psaltery. The Тorban differs from the more common European Bass lute known as the Theorbo in that it had additional short treble strings strung along the treble side of the soundboard. It...
(bass lute), violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, basolya (3-string cello), the relya or lira
Lira
Lira is the name of the monetary unit of a number of countries, as well as the former currency of Italy, Malta, San Marino and the Vatican City and Israel. The term originates from the value of a Troy pound of high purity silver. The libra was the basis of the monetary system of the Roman Empire...
(hurdy-gurdy) and the tsymbaly; the sopilka
Sopilka
Sopilka is a name applied to a variety of woodwind instruments of the flute family used by Ukrainian folk instrumentalists. Sopilka most commonly refers to a fife made of a variety of materials and has six to ten finger holes...
(duct flute), floyara
Floyara
The floyara is a more perfected form of the sopilka. It is characterized as an open ended notched flute. The floyara is a pipe of approximately a metre in length. One end is sharpened and the breath is broken against one of the sides of the tube at the playing end. Six holes in groups of three...
(open, end-blown flute), trembita
Trembita
The trembita is a Ukrainian alpine horn made of wood.Used primarily by mountain dwellers known as Hutsuls in the Carpathians. It was used as a signaling device to announce deaths, funerals, weddings....
(alpenhorn), fife
Fife (musical instrument)
A fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse flute that is similar to the piccolo, but louder and shriller due to its narrower bore. The fife originated in medieval Europe and is often used in military and marching bands. Someone who plays the fife is called a fifer...
, volynka
Volynka
Volyňka is a river in the Czech Republic in the South Bohemian Region rising on the hill called Světlá hora and flowing 46.1 km northeast to city of Strakonice, where merging in Otava River. Volyňka flows through towns such Vimperk, Volyně, Strakonice. and villages such as Lčovice and Čkyně. -...
(bagpipes); and the buben (frame drum), tulumbas (kettledrum), resheto
Resheto
The resheto is a Ukrainian percussive folk instrument. The resheto consists of a wooden ring with a diameter of up to 50cm . Initially the ring was strung with a sieve rather than a skin tightened over one side. The resheto is struck with the hand or a stick.-Sources:*Humeniuk, A. Ukrainski...
(tambourine) and drymba/varhan (Jaw harp). Traditional instrumental ensembles are often known as troïstï muzyki (literally ‘three musicians’ that typically make up the ensemble, e.g. violin, sopilka and buben). When performing dance melodies instrumental performance usually includes improvisation.
The traditional dances of Ukraine include: the Kozak
Kozak
- Cossack :* Kozak — a member of a traditional community of people living in Ukraine and also southern Russia....
, Kozachok
Kozachok
Kozachok or kazachok is a folk dance from Ukraine. It is a fast, linear, couple-dance in 2/4, typically in a constantly increasing tempo and of an improvisatory character in a major key...
, Tropak
Tropak
The Tropak is a traditional Ukrainian folk dance from the Slobozhan region of Ukraine settled primarily by descendants of the Zaporozhian Cossacks....
, Hopak
Hopak
Hopak , also referred to as Gopak or Cossack dance, is a Ukrainian dance. It is performed most often as a solitary concert dance by amateur and professional Ukrainian dance ensembles, as well as other performers of folk dances...
, Hrechanyky, Kolomyjka
Kolomyjka
The kolomyjka is a Ukrainian folk dance especially popular in southwestern Ukraine. It originated in the eastern Galician town of Kolomyia...
and Hutsulka
Hutsulka
The Hutsulka is a popular Ukrainian folk dance from southwestern Ukraine. It is performed by amateurs, professional Ukrainian dance ensembles as well as other performers of folk dances....
, Metelytsia
Metelytsia
Metelytsia is a popular folk dance from Ukraine. It is performed by amateurs, professional Ukrainian dance ensembles as well as other performers of folk dances....
, Shumka, Arkan
Arkan (dance)
Arkan is a popular dance of the Ukrainian Hutsul people . It is performed by amateurs, professional Ukrainian dance ensembles, as well as other performers of folk dances....
, Kateryna (Kadryl
La Mantovana
La Mantovana is a sixteenth century song composed by the Italian tenor Giuseppe Cenci, also known as Giuseppino del Biado, to the text Fuggi, Fuggi, Fuggi da questo cielo. Its earliest known appearance in print is in del Biado's 1600 collection of madrigals...
) and Chabarashka. Dances originating outside the Ukrainian ethnic region but which are also popular include: the Polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
, Mazurka
Mazurka
The mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the third or second beat.-History:The folk origins of the mazurek are two other Polish musical forms—the slow machine...
, Krakowiak
Krakowiak
The Krakowiak, sometimes referred to as the Pecker Dance, is a fast, syncopated Polish dance in duple time from the region of Krakow and Little Poland. This dance is known to imitate horses, the steps mimic their movement, for horses were well loved in the Krakow region of Poland for their civilian...
, Csárdás
Csárdás
Csárdás is a traditional Hungarian folk dance, the name derived from csárda . It originated in Hungary and was popularized by Roma music bands in Hungary and neighboring lands of Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Burgenland, Croatia, Ukraine, Transylvania and Moravia, as well as among the Banat...
, Waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
, Kamarynska and Barynya
Barynya
Barynya is a fast Russian folk dance and music. The word barynya was used by simple folk as a form of addressing to a woman of higher class, a feminine form for the word "barin", landlord....
. Ukrainian instrumental and dance music has also influenced Jewish (Hava Nagila
Hava Nagila
"Hava Nagila" is a Hebrew folk song that has become a staple of band performers at Jewish weddings and Bar/Bat Mitzvahs.-History:...
-Let's rejoyce) and Gypsy music and much of it was included in the repertoire of itinerant klezmorim
Klezmer
Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...
.
Early in the 20th century, Pavlo Humeniuk of Philadelphia became famous in North America for his fiddle music.
Traditional vocal-instrumental folk music and performers
Kobzar
A Kobzar was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment.-Tradition:Kobzars were often blind, and became predominantly so by the 1800s...
i (kobzar - singular), and accompanied their singing with the kobza
Kobza
The kobza is a Ukrainian folk music instrument of the lute family , a relative of the Central European mandora...
, bandura
Bandura
Bandura refers to a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of a box zither and lute, as well as its lute-like predecessor, the kobza...
, or lira
Lira
Lira is the name of the monetary unit of a number of countries, as well as the former currency of Italy, Malta, San Marino and the Vatican City and Israel. The term originates from the value of a Troy pound of high purity silver. The libra was the basis of the monetary system of the Roman Empire...
. Although their origins stretch back to antiquity, their repertoire and customs directly date back to the 17th century in which they depict the period of the conflicts between the Kozaks and various foreign oppressors. There were many cases of those folk singers being blind which became a stereotype in the cultural memory.
Kobzari
The kobzari organized themselves into regional professional guild-like structures, known as a "Kobzar Guild".
During Soviet era almost all of the traditional kobzari were killed, the bulk perishing during Stalin's "purges" during 1930's. Even the instrument, kobza and bandura, were prohibited and confiscated. A practice of the Ukrainian ethnocide that continued after the fall of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
.
Under the inspiration of noted traditional bandurist Heorhiy Tkachenko
Heorhy Tkachenko
Heorhiy Kyrylovych Tkachenko .-Biography:Tkachenko was able to complete his high school education in Kharkiv before continuing his education in Moscow. He completed his education in Moscow as an architect in 1929 and continued to live in Moscow where he designed many of the parks around the city...
a Kobzar Guild was re-established in 1991 in Kiev by Mykola Budnyk in order to revive and foster the ancient kobzar traditions. The Guild unites many fine singer-musicians in Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora
Ukrainian diaspora
The Ukrainian diaspora is the global community of ethnic Ukrainians, especially those who maintain some kind of connection, even if ephemeral, to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Ukrainian national identity within their own local community.-1608 To 1880:After the loss...
. Many of its members are not formally Conservatory trained.
The most notorious songs and music
- Cossacks march
Ritual instrumental music
Although not precisely definable as music, there are signals played on the trembitaTrembita
The trembita is a Ukrainian alpine horn made of wood.Used primarily by mountain dwellers known as Hutsuls in the Carpathians. It was used as a signaling device to announce deaths, funerals, weddings....
(a type of alpenhorn, to signify death, birth, a marriage or another significant event) by the Hutsuls
Hutsuls
Hutsuls are an ethno-cultural group of Ukrainian highlanders who for centuries have inhabited the Carpathian mountains, mainly in Ukraine, the northern extremity of Romania .-Etymology:...
in the Carpathian
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...
mountains.
Pseudo-folkloric music
With the establishment of the Soviet regime in Ukraine a policy based on state atheismState atheism
State atheism is the official "promotion of atheism" by a government, sometimes combined with active suppression of religious freedom and practice...
was instituted which gradually grew to an intolerance to organized religion. Religious music was not supported by the regime and in time was purged from performance. Many aspects of classical music were also branded as being bourgeois and decadent.
A movement was started in the 20's for "Proletarian songs" - music of the working people. Most of these mass songs were primitive and vulgar. Many were not in Ukrainian. In time it was noticed that this music only catered for the working classes in the cities and did not take into account the large percentage of Ukrainian peasants living in village setting. As a consequence, songs of the village were also defined as being also from the working class. Resulting from this reclassification the Soviet government began to give significant support to this form of music. Hence, various "fakeloric" ensembles came into existence. After World War II huge resources continued to be given to support this style of music in order to displace the onslaught of mass culture from the West.
Numerous folk choirs were established such as the Veriovka folk choir directed by Hryhoriy Veriovka. A stylized dance troupe was established by Pavlo Virsky
Pavlo Virsky
Pavlo Pavlovych Virsky was an innovative dancer, balletmaster, choreographer, and founder of the P. Virsky Ukrainian National Folk Dance Ensemble, whose work in Ukrainian dance was groundbreaking and influenced generations of dancers....
based on a synthesis of ethnographic dance and ballet. Particularly popular were the numerous Bandurist Capellas. These particular pseudo-folk forms blending ethnographic materials in an art setting have also become popular in the Ukrainian diaspora
Ukrainian diaspora
The Ukrainian diaspora is the global community of ethnic Ukrainians, especially those who maintain some kind of connection, even if ephemeral, to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Ukrainian national identity within their own local community.-1608 To 1880:After the loss...
in North America.
Traditional music and the Bandura
In North America pseudo-folk or "reconstructive" bandurists such as Zinoviy ShtokalkoZinoviy Shtokalko
Zinoviy Shtokalko . Amongst the more renowned performers of bandura art, one of the prominent is that of bandurist virtuoso Zinoviy Shtokalko.-Biography:...
, Hryhoriy Kytasty
Hryhory Kytasty
Hryhoriy Trokhymovych Kytasty was a Ukrainian émigré composer and conductor. In 2008 he was honored with the Hero of Ukraine state decoration.- Early years :Hryhory Kytasty was born in the town of Kobeliaky, Poltava oblast...
, Julian Kytasty
Julian Kytasty
Julian Kytasty is a Ukrainian-American composer, singer, kobzar, bandurist, flute player and conductor. He was born January 23 1958 in Detroit, Michigan, in the family of refugees....
, Victor Mishalow
Victor Mishalow
Victor Mishalow is an Australian born Canadian bandurist, and educator. He is also known as a composer, conductor, and musicologist.-Biography:Born April 4, 1960, in Sydney, Australia, he graduated from the Sydney University B.A...
, et al. have played a significant role in defining Ukrainian ethnicity in the New World, while fusing traditional musical material with new possibilities offered by contemporary instruments.
Traditional music of non-Ukrainian ethnic minorities in Ukraine
Of the traditional musics of non-Ukrainian ethnic minorities living in Ukraine possibly the richest and most developed is that of Jewish KlezmerKlezmer
Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...
music which can trace most of its origins to the Jewish Pale of Settlement
Pale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed, and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited...
and to South-western Ukraine. It is estimated that one third of the total Jewish population of Europe lived on Ukrainian ethnic territory at the turn of the 19th century
Russian music has also had a strong base for development in Ukraine. Many of the early performers on Russian folk instruments came from Ukraine and these performers often included Ukrainian melodies in their repertoire. The 4 string Russian domra
Domra
The domra is a long-necked Russian string instrument of the lute family with a round body and three or four metal strings.-History:In 1896, a student of Vasily Vasilievich Andreyev found a broken instrument in a stable in rural Russia...
continues to be used and taught in Ukraine despite the fact that it has been replaced by the 3 string domra
Domra
The domra is a long-necked Russian string instrument of the lute family with a round body and three or four metal strings.-History:In 1896, a student of Vasily Vasilievich Andreyev found a broken instrument in a stable in rural Russia...
in Russia proper.
Ukrainized versions and borrowed music
- PolonaisePolonaiseThe polonaise is a slow dance of Polish origin, in 3/4 time. Its name is French for "Polish."The polonaise had a rhythm quite close to that of the Swedish semiquaver or sixteenth-note polska, and the two dances have a common origin....
- The Hills of Manchuria
Popular Ukrainian folk songs
- Pidmanula Pidvela (song)Pidmanula Pidvela (song)Pidmanula Pidvela is a popular humorous Ukrainian folk song. The name literally translates as "you tricked me and let me down".There are many different variations of the song, but all have pretty much the same format. Traditionally, it is about a guy complaining to his girl because she tells him...
- Shchedryk (song) - originally an ancient folk chant arranged by Mykola LeontovychMykola LeontovychMykola Dmytrovych Leontovych was a Ukrainian composer, choral conductor, priest, and teacher of international renown. His music was inspired by Mykola Lysenko and the Ukrainian nationalist music school, along with Kyrylo Stetsenko, Alexander Koshetz, and Yakiv Stepovy...
- Zaporozhets za DunayemZaporozhets za DunayemZaporozhets za Dunayem Beyond the Danube, also referred to as Cossacks in Exile) is a Ukrainian comic opera with spoken dialogue in three acts with music and libretto by the composer Semen Hulak-Artemovsky . The orchestration has subsequently been rewritten by composers such as Reinhold Glière and...
- comic opera based on popular folk song - Oi ne khody Hrystiu - by popular folk artist Marusia ChuraiMarusia ChuraiMaria or Marusia Churai was a semi-mythical Ukrainian Baroque composer, poet, and singer. She has become a recurrent motif in Ukrainian literature and the songs ascribed to her are widely performed in Ukraine....
Art (Classical) music
Ukrainian art (classical) music can be divided up into ethnic sub-categories:- 1) Composers and performers of Ukrainian ethnicity living in Ukraine.
- 2) Composers and performers of non-Ukrainian ethnicity who were born or at some time were citizens or were active in Ukraine.
- 3) Ethnic Ukrainian composers and performers living outside of Ukraine within the Ukrainian diasporaDiasporaA diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
.
The music of the above groups differs considerably, as did the audiences for whom they cater.
The first category is closely tied with the Ukrainian national school of music spearheaded by Mykola Lysenko
Mykola Lysenko
Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist.- Biography :Lysenko was born in Hrynky, Kremenchuk Povit, Poltava Governorate, the son of Vitaliy Romanovich Lysenko . From childhood he became very interested in the folksongs of Ukrainian peasants and...
. It includes such composers as Kyrylo Stetsenko
Kyrylo Stetsenko
Kyrylo Hryhorovych Stetsenko was a prolific Ukrainian composer, conductor, critic, and teacher. Late in his life he became an Ukrainian Orthodox Priest and head of the Music section of the Ministry of Education of the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic.- Early life and Education :Kyrylo...
, Mykola Leontovych
Mykola Leontovych
Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych was a Ukrainian composer, choral conductor, priest, and teacher of international renown. His music was inspired by Mykola Lysenko and the Ukrainian nationalist music school, along with Kyrylo Stetsenko, Alexander Koshetz, and Yakiv Stepovy...
, Levko Revutsky
Levko Revutsky
Levko Mykolajovych Revutskyi was a Ukrainian composer, teacher, and activist. Amongst his students at the Lysenko Music Institute were the composers Arkady Filippenko and Valentin Silvestrov.-Early life and education:...
. Most of their music contains Ukrainian folk figures and are composed to Ukrainian texts.
The second category is of particular importance and international visibility, because of the large percentage of ethnic minorities in urban Ukraine. This category includes such composers as Franz Xavier Mozart
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart , also known as F. X. Mozart, W. A. Mozart Son, or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jr., was the youngest child of six born to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wife Constanze. He was the younger of his parents' two surviving children...
, Isaak Dunayevsky
Isaak Dunayevsky
Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky was the biggest Soviet film composer and conductor of the 1930s and 1940s, who achieved huge success in music for operetta and film comedies, frequently working with the film director Grigori Aleksandrov...
, Rheinhold Gliere, Yuliy Meitus and Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
, performers Volodymyr Horovyts
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...
, David Oistrakh
David Oistrakh
David Fyodorovich Oistrakh , , David Fiodorović Ojstrakh, ; – October 24, 1974, was a Soviet violinist....
, Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was a Soviet pianist well known for the depth of his interpretations, virtuoso technique, and vast repertoire. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Childhood:...
and Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...
. The music of these composers rarely contains Ukrainian folk motives and more often is written to the texts of Russian or Polish poets.
In the third category we have a number of prominent individuals who are often not part of the mainstream Ukrainian culture but who have made a significant impact on music in Ukraine, while living outside of its borders. These include historic individuals such as: Bortniansky
Dmytro Bortniansky
Dmitry Stepanovich Bortniansky was a Russian composer of Ukrainian origin; his father however had been born in thePolish village of Bartne, and was of Lemkos stock.....
, Berezovsky
Maksym Berezovsky
Maksym Sozontovych Berezovsky was a Ukrainian composer, opera singer, and violinist.Berezovsky was the first Ukrainian composer to be recognized throughout Europe and the first to compose an opera, symphony, and violin sonata. His most popular works are his sacred choral pieces written for the...
, Vedel
Artemy Vedel
Artem Vedel was one of the most prominent Ukrainian composers of the 18th century. Together with Maksym Berezovsky and Dmytro Bortniansky, Vedel is recognized as one of the big three composers of the period....
, Tuptalo and Titov
Titov
Titov or Titova is a Russian last name which may refer to people:* Alexey Nikolayevich Titov, a composer* Egor Titov, a soccer player* Gennady Titov, former KGB general* German Titov, an ice hockey player* Gherman Titov, a cosmonaut...
. It also contains "Soviet" composers such as Mykola Roslavets, Isaak Dunayevsky
Isaak Dunayevsky
Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky was the biggest Soviet film composer and conductor of the 1930s and 1940s, who achieved huge success in music for operetta and film comedies, frequently working with the film director Grigori Aleksandrov...
who were born in Ukraine but who moved to other cultural centres within the Soviet Union. In North America we have Mykola Fomenko, Yuriy Oliynyk, Zinoviy Lavryshyn and Wasyl Sydorenko.
Baroque and classical music
During the Baroque period, music was an important discipline for those that had received a higher education in Ukraine. It had a place of considerable importance in the curriculum of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Much of the nobility was well versed in music with many Ukrainian Cossack leaders such as (Mazepa, Paliy, Holovatyj, Sirko) being accomplished players of the kobzaKobza
The kobza is a Ukrainian folk music instrument of the lute family , a relative of the Central European mandora...
, bandura
Bandura
Bandura refers to a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of a box zither and lute, as well as its lute-like predecessor, the kobza...
or torban
Torban
The torban is a Ukrainian musical instrument that combines the features of the Baroque Lute with those of the psaltery. The Тorban differs from the more common European Bass lute known as the Theorbo in that it had additional short treble strings strung along the treble side of the soundboard. It...
.
In the course of the 18th century in the Russian Empire court musicians were typically trained at the music academy in Hlukhiv
Hlukhiv
Hlukhiv or Glukhov is a historic town in Sumy region of Ukraine, just south from the Russian border . As of 2001, the city's population is 35,800...
, and largely came from Ukraine. Notable performers of the era include Tymofiy Bilohradsky
Timofiy Bilohradsky
Timofiy Bilohradsky was a lutenist, composer and kobzar-bandurist of Ukrainian ethnicity, active in St. Petersburg and Königsberg....
who later studied lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
under Sylvius Leopold Weiss
Sylvius Leopold Weiss
Silvius Leopold Weiss was a German composer and lutenist.Born in Grottkau near Breslau, the son of Johann Jacob Weiss, also a lutenist, he served at courts in Breslau, Rome, and Dresden, where he died...
in Dresden, his daughter Yelyzaveta who was a famous operatic soprano, and Oleksiy Rozumovsky
Alexey Razumovsky
Count Alexei Grigorievich Razumovsky , was a Ukrainian Cossack who rose to become lover and, the morganatic spouse of the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna.- Early life :...
, a court bandurist and the morganatic husband of Empress Elizabeth.
The first professional music academy was set up in Hlukhiv, Ukraine in 1738 and students were taught to sing, play violin and bandura from manuscripts. As a result many of the earliest composers and performers within the Russian empire were ethnically Ukrainian, having been born or educated in Hlukhiv, or had been closely associated with this music school.
See: Dmytro Bortniansky
Dmytro Bortniansky
Dmitry Stepanovich Bortniansky was a Russian composer of Ukrainian origin; his father however had been born in thePolish village of Bartne, and was of Lemkos stock.....
, Maksym Berezovsky
Maksym Berezovsky
Maksym Sozontovych Berezovsky was a Ukrainian composer, opera singer, and violinist.Berezovsky was the first Ukrainian composer to be recognized throughout Europe and the first to compose an opera, symphony, and violin sonata. His most popular works are his sacred choral pieces written for the...
, Artemiy Vedel
Artemy Vedel
Artem Vedel was one of the most prominent Ukrainian composers of the 18th century. Together with Maksym Berezovsky and Dmytro Bortniansky, Vedel is recognized as one of the big three composers of the period....
.
Romantic and nationalist schools
Mykola LysenkoMykola Lysenko
Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist.- Biography :Lysenko was born in Hrynky, Kremenchuk Povit, Poltava Governorate, the son of Vitaliy Romanovich Lysenko . From childhood he became very interested in the folksongs of Ukrainian peasants and...
, Mykola Leontovych
Mykola Leontovych
Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych was a Ukrainian composer, choral conductor, priest, and teacher of international renown. His music was inspired by Mykola Lysenko and the Ukrainian nationalist music school, along with Kyrylo Stetsenko, Alexander Koshetz, and Yakiv Stepovy...
, Kyrylo Stetsenko
Kyrylo Stetsenko
Kyrylo Hryhorovych Stetsenko was a prolific Ukrainian composer, conductor, critic, and teacher. Late in his life he became an Ukrainian Orthodox Priest and head of the Music section of the Ministry of Education of the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic.- Early life and Education :Kyrylo...
, Yakiv Stepovy
Yakiv Stepovy
Yakiv Stepovy - was a Ukrainian composer, teacher, and music critic. Stepovy was born Yakiv Yakymenko in Kharkiv, in the Russian Empire . Stepovy's older brother, Theodore Yakymenko, was also a composer. Stepovy was a representative of the Ukrainian musical intelligentsia of the 20th century...
Soviet Romantic school
Rheinhold Gliere, Borys Lyatoshynsky, Lev Revutsky, Mykola VilinskyMykola Vilinsky
Mykola Vilinsky was a Ukrainian composer and a professor at the Odessa and Kiev Conservatories.He was descended from a Ukrainian family of hereditary nobles...
, Anatoliy Kos-Anatol'sky, Andriy Shtoharenko
Andriy Shtoharenko
Andriy Shtoharenko was a Soviet composer and teacher.-Biography:Andriy Shtoharenko was born in the Ukrainian village of Novi Kaidaky . He completed his music studies at the Kharkiv Conservatory in 1936 under S. Bohatyriov. From 1921-30 he worked a teacher of singing in Middle schools...
, Mykola Dremliuha, Samuel Maykapar
Samuel Maykapar
Samuil Moiseevich Maykapar was a Russian romantic composer, pianist, professor of music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and author of outstanding piano practice pieces that became international grand classics....
, Oleksandr Bilash
Oleksandr Bilash
Oleksandr Bilash was a renowned Ukrainian composer, the author of popular liric songs, ballads, operas, operettas, oratorios and music for films...
, Ivan Karabyts
Ivan Karabyts
Ivan Fedorovich Karabyts was a Ukrainian composer and conductor, People's Artist of Ukraine.He graduated from the Kiev Conservatory in 1971 as a student of Boris Lyatoshynsky and Myroslav Skoryk. He conducted the Dance Ensemble of the Kiev Military District and the Kiev Camerata...
.
- See also:Soviet musicSoviet musicSoviet music is the music composed and produced in the USSR. It varied in many genres and epochs. Although the majority of it was written by Russians, it was also influenced by various national minorities in the Soviet Republic. The Soviet state supported musical institutions, but also carried out...
Avant garde music
Ukraine and its diaspora have also produced a great number of fine avant-garde composers with widely varying degrees of affinity with the folk idioms, such as- Virko BaleyVirko BaleyVirko Baley is a renowned Ukrainian-American composer, conductor, and pianist. He was born in Radekhiv, Union of Soviet Socialist Republic , the only child of Petro and Lydia Baley. Before he had celebrated his first birthday, Hitler's army had invaded Poland and World War II had begun...
, - Valentin SilvestrovValentin SilvestrovValentyn Vasylyovych Sylvestrov is a Ukrainian pianist and composer of contemporary classical music.-Education:Sylvestrov began private music lessons at age 15...
, - Leonid Hrabovsky.
There are also musicians that are difficult to categorize, such as
- Mariana SadovskaMariana SadovskaMariana Sadovska is a German-based Ukrainian actress, singer, musician, recording artist and composer.-Life:Sadovska began her work with Les Kurbas Theater at Anatole Vasiliev's Festivals in St. Petersburg and Moscow. There she was tapped for the "Slavic Pilgrim Project" by Jerzy Grotowski in...
– avantgarde and folk singer and composer - Roman Turovsky – historicistMusical historicismMusical historicism signifies the use of historical materials, structures, styles, techniques, media, conceptual content, etc., whether by a single composer or those associated with a particular school, movement, or period...
lutenist-composer
Early music revival
There are also musicians in Ukraine (Kostyantyn Chechenya, Vadym Borysenko) and in diaspora (Volodymyr Smishkevych, Julian KytastyJulian Kytasty
Julian Kytasty is a Ukrainian-American composer, singer, kobzar, bandurist, flute player and conductor. He was born January 23 1958 in Detroit, Michigan, in the family of refugees....
, Roman Turovsky) who have been preserving Ukrainian music of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Eras.
Ukrainian musicians and composers
- Mykola LysenkoMykola LysenkoMykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist.- Biography :Lysenko was born in Hrynky, Kremenchuk Povit, Poltava Governorate, the son of Vitaliy Romanovich Lysenko . From childhood he became very interested in the folksongs of Ukrainian peasants and...
. 1842-1912. Composer, pianist, and patron. He is considered the father of Ukrainian classical music. - Semen Hulak Artemovsky. 1813-1873. Composer of opera "Zaporozhetz za dunayem" (Kozaks beyond the Danube).
- Mykola LeontovychMykola LeontovychMykola Dmytrovych Leontovych was a Ukrainian composer, choral conductor, priest, and teacher of international renown. His music was inspired by Mykola Lysenko and the Ukrainian nationalist music school, along with Kyrylo Stetsenko, Alexander Koshetz, and Yakiv Stepovy...
. 1877-1921. Composer. Best known worldwide for his arrangement of Shchedryk, which became known in North America as "Carol of the Bells." - Dmytro BortnianskyDmytro BortnianskyDmitry Stepanovich Bortniansky was a Russian composer of Ukrainian origin; his father however had been born in thePolish village of Bartne, and was of Lemkos stock.....
http://www.gmcc.ab.ca/nw/bort/about.htm. 1751-1825. Ukrainian liturgical composer. Born Hlukhiv, Ukraine. - Reinhold GliereReinhold GlièreReinhold Moritzevich Glière was a Russian and Soviet composer of German–Polish descent.- Biography :Glière was born in Kiev, Ukraine...
. 1875-1956. Composer. Born in Kiev. - Mykola VilinskyMykola VilinskyMykola Vilinsky was a Ukrainian composer and a professor at the Odessa and Kiev Conservatories.He was descended from a Ukrainian family of hereditary nobles...
. 1888-1956. Ukrainian classical composer and teaching professor. - Oleksandr BilashOleksandr BilashOleksandr Bilash was a renowned Ukrainian composer, the author of popular liric songs, ballads, operas, operettas, oratorios and music for films...
. Ukrainian classical and popular song composer. His best known song is Dva Kolery (Two Colors). - Myroslav SkorykMyroslav SkorykMyroslav Skoryk is a famous Ukrainian composer of diverse and impressive compositions. His music is contemporary in style and contains stylistic traits from two disparate folk traditions: Ukrainian and American.- Early life :...
. Ukrainian classical composer. - Volodymyr Ivasiuk. 1949-1979. Ukrainian popular song composer, murdered by the KGB. His best known song is Chervona Ruta.
- Valentin SilvestrovValentin SilvestrovValentyn Vasylyovych Sylvestrov is a Ukrainian pianist and composer of contemporary classical music.-Education:Sylvestrov began private music lessons at age 15...
- Svitlana AzarovaSvitlana Azarovathumb|Svitlana AzarovaSvitlana Azarova is a Ukrainian/Dutch composer of contemporary classical music born January 9, 1976 in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union.-Early years:...
1976- Ukrainian composer of contemporary classical music - Aleksandr ShymkoAleksandr ShymkoAleksandr Shymko , born August 4, 1977 in Borshchiw, Ukraine, is an award-winning Ukrainian composer and pianist.-Biography:Aleksandr Shymko graduated from Chernovtcy Music S. Vorobkevich College as pianist. In 1998 he was studying composition in the class of professor Y. Ischenko at the National...
- Roman MiroshnichenkoRoman MiroshnichenkoRoman Miroshnichenko - is one of the most prominent virtuosos of contemporary jazz on ex-USSR territory. Roman is a phenomenal guitarist who has his own and highly individual touch and stamp on the guitar, improvisation flight and melodic tunes all captured in his well-mixed recordings and...
1977 - jazz-fusion guitarist, composer, producer. Independent Music Awards winner. - Sons of Day - A Ukrainian Alternative RockAlternative rockAlternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band that lives in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and sings almost exclusively in English
Works by non-Ukrainian composers using Ukrainian folk material
- Karol SzymanowskiKarol SzymanowskiKarol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist.-Life:Szymanowski was born into a wealthy land-owning Polish gentry family in Tymoszówka, then in the Russian Empire, now in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. He studied music privately with his father before going to Gustav Neuhaus'...
, Composer, born in Ukraine. - Stepan RakŠtepán RakŠtěpán Rak is a Rusyn-born Czech classical guitarist and composer. He is well known for the technical innovations that he uses in his compositions.-Interviews:** * -Photos:...
, b. 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." - Béla BartókBéla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
- Rhapsody no 2. for violin - Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
- Razumovsky Quartets, Opus 59 No. 1-3, Air de la Petite Russe, - Luigi BoccheriniLuigi BoccheriniLuigi Rodolfo Boccherini was an Italian classical era composer and cellist whose music retained a courtly and galante style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. Boccherini is most widely known for one particular minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No...
- - Johannes BrahmsJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
- - Dargomyzhsky - KozachokKozachokKozachok or kazachok is a folk dance from Ukraine. It is a fast, linear, couple-dance in 2/4, typically in a constantly increasing tempo and of an improvisatory character in a major key...
- Antonín DvořákAntonín DvorákAntonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
- DumkyDumkyDumka is a musical term introduced from the Ukrainian language, with cognates in other Slavic languages. Originally, it is the diminutive form of the Ukrainian term duma, pl...
trios - Alexander GlazunovAlexander GlazunovAlexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...
- HopakHopakHopak , also referred to as Gopak or Cossack dance, is a Ukrainian dance. It is performed most often as a solitary concert dance by amateur and professional Ukrainian dance ensembles, as well as other performers of folk dances... - Reinhold GliereReinhold GlièreReinhold Moritzevich Glière was a Russian and Soviet composer of German–Polish descent.- Biography :Glière was born in Kiev, Ukraine...
- - Mikhail GlinkaMikhail GlinkaMikhail Ivanovich Glinka , was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music...
- - Mikhail GoldsteinMikhail GoldsteinMikhail Emanuilovich Goldstein , was a Soviet composer and violinist of Ukrainian-Jewish origin, brother of prominent violinist Boris Goldstein.-Biography:...
- Joseph HaydnJoseph HaydnFranz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
- String quartet no. 20. opus 9 no. 2 - Ignaz von Held
- Johann Nepomuk HummelJohann Nepomuk HummelJohann Nepomuk Hummel or Jan Nepomuk Hummel was an Austrian composer and virtuoso pianist. His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the Romantic musical era.- Life :...
- Trio op. 78 in A major - Dmitri KabalevskyDmitri KabalevskyDmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky was a Russian composer.He helped to set up the Union of Soviet Composers in Moscow and remained one of its leading figures. He was a prolific composer of piano music and chamber music; many of his piano works have been performed by Vladimir Horowitz. He is probably...
- Violin concerto - Hans KockelmansHans KockelmansHans Kockelmans is a Dutch composer, teacher, and performer of Early Classical and electronic music.He studied baroque lute with Mijndert Jape, as well as electronic music, and classical guitar at the Maastricht conservatory....
- Vanessa LannVanessa LannVanessa Lann has been a composer and pianist since the age of five. She studied at the Tanglewood Institutewith Ruth Schonthal. She also attended the Westchester Conservatory of Musicat Harvard University, where her main teachers were Earl Kim, Peter Lieberson, and Leon Kirchner...
- Two Ukrainian Folk Sketches for B-flat clarinet and piano - Leoffler - Memories of My Childhood (Life in a Russian village) Symphonic poem, Nights in Ukraine,
- Franz LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
- MazeppaMazeppa-Places:United States* Mazeppa, Minnesota* Mazeppa, Pennsylvania* Mazeppa Township, Wabasha County, Minnesota* Mazeppa Township, South DakotaAustralia* Mazeppa National Park-People:* Ivan Mazepa, known also as Mazeppa, a Ukrainian Cossack hetman...
Symphonic poem No. 6, Ballade d'Ukraine - Miaskovsky -
- Stanisław MoniuszkoStanisław MoniuszkoStanisław Moniuszko was a Polish composer, conductor and teacher. His output includes many songs and operas, and his musical style is filled with patriotic folk themes of the peoples of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
_ - Franz Xaver Mozart -
- Modest MussorgskyModest MussorgskyModest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
- Opera: Sorochynsky Yarmarok - Walter PistonWalter PistonWalter Hamor Piston Jr., , was an American composer of classical music, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University whose students included Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, and Elliott Carter....
- Ukrainian Suite for orchestra - Quincy PorterQuincy PorterQuincy Porter was an American composer and teacher of classical music.Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he went to Yale University where his teachers included Horatio Parker and David Stanley Smith. Porter received two awards while studying music at Yale: the Osborne Prize for Fugue, and the...
- Ukrainian suite for strings - Sergei ProkofieffSergei ProkofieffSergei Prokofieff was born in Moscow in 1954, where he studied fine arts and painting at the Moscow School of Art. He encountered anthroposophy in his youth, and soon made the decision to devote his life to it. He wrote his first book, Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries while...
- - Sergei RachmaninoffSergei RachmaninoffSergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
- Piano Concerto no 3. - Nikolai Rimsky-KorsakovNikolai Rimsky-KorsakovNikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
- - Andrei SychraAndrei SychraAndrei Osipovich Sychra was a Russian guitarist, composer and teacher, of Czech ancestry...
- Piotr Tchaikovsky - Born in Russia to 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. Piano concerto Bb, Op. 23
- Carl Maria von WeberCarl Maria von WeberCarl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
- Variation for Piano op. 40
Ukrainian performers and composers in North America
- Virko Baley. Composer. Conductor of Las Vegas Symphony.
- 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.
- Gary KuleshaGary KuleshaGary Kulesha is a Canadian composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Since 1995, he has been Composer Advisor to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has been Composer-in-Residence with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the Canadian Opera Company . He was awarded the National Arts Centre...
, Ukrainian-Canadian composer. - Victor MishalowVictor MishalowVictor Mishalow is an Australian born Canadian bandurist, and educator. He is also known as a composer, conductor, and musicologist.-Biography:Born April 4, 1960, in Sydney, Australia, he graduated from the Sydney University B.A...
- Alexis KochanAlexis KochanAlexis Kochan is a Ukrainian-Canadian composer and singer. She was born in 1953 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Ukrainian immigrants.-Biography:Singer Alexis Kochan was born in 1953 and raised in Winnipeg's North End...
- Julian KytastyJulian KytastyJulian Kytasty is a Ukrainian-American composer, singer, kobzar, bandurist, flute player and conductor. He was born January 23 1958 in Detroit, Michigan, in the family of refugees....
- Roman Turovsky
- Darka and SlavkoDarka and SlavkoDarka & Slavko is one of the most popular duos in Ukrainian diaspora and Ukraine.The duo "Darka & Slavko" was formed when Darka Konopada & Slavko Halatyn, both...
External links
Audio clips: Traditional music of Ukraine. Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève. Accessed November 25, 2010.Public Domain scores of Ukrainian music on-line: