Mykola Leontovych - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych (born ; died January 23, 1921) was a Ukrainian

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...

composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, choral

Choir

A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

, priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

, and teacher of international renown. His music was inspired 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...

and the Ukrainian nationalist music school, along with 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...

, Alexander Koshetz, and 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...

. Leontovych specialized in a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

choral music, ranging from original compositions, to church music, to elaborate arrangements of folk music.

Leontovych was born and raised in the Podolia region

Podolia Governorate

The Podolia Governorate or Government of Podolia, set up after the Second Partition of Poland, comprised a governorate of the Russian Empire from 1793 to 1917, of the Ukrainian People's Republic from 1917 to 1921, and of the Ukrainian SSR from 1921 to 1925.-Location:The Podolian Governorate...

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...

. He was educated as a priest

Priest

in the Kamianets-Podilskyi

Kamianets-Podilskyi

Kamyanets-Podilsky or Kamienets-Podolsky is a city located on the Smotrych River in western Ukraine, to the north-east of Chernivtsi...

Theological Seminary and later furthered his musical education at the Saint Petersburg Court Capella

Saint Petersburg Court Capella

The Saint Petersburg Court Capella is the oldest active Russian professional musical institution. Based in the city of Saint Petersburg, it was founded in 1479 by an order of Ivan III of Russia as the State Choir of Singing Dyaks. The insitution currently consists of a choir, an orchestra, and has...

and private lessons with Boleslav Yavorsky

Boleslav Yavorsky

Boleslav Leopoldovich Yavorsky was a Russian musicologist, music teacher, administrator and pianist.Through his teachings and editorial positions he heavily influenced the Soviet music theory. However, outside Soviet circles, he has had little impact....

. With the independence of the Ukrainian state in the 1917 revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

, Leontovych moved to Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

where he worked at the Kiev Conservatory

Kiev Conservatory

The Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music is a Ukrainian state institution of higher music education. Its courses include postgraduate education.-History:...

and the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama. He is recognized for composing "Shchedryk" in 1904 (which premiered in 1916), known to the English speaking world as "Carol of the Bells

Carol 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...

" or as "Ring Christmas Bells." He is known as a martyr

Martyr

A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

in the Eastern Orthodox Ukrainian Church

Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church is one of the three major Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. Close to ten percent of the Christian population claim to be members of the UAOC. The other Churches are the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Russophile Orthodox...

, where he is also remembered for his liturgy, the first liturgy composed in the vernacular, specifically in the modern Ukrainian language. He was assassinated by a Soviet

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....

agent in 1921.

During his lifetime Leontovych's compositions and arrangements became popular with professional and amateur groups alike across Ukraine. Performances of his works in western Europe and North America earned him the nickname "the Ukrainian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

" in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. Apart from his incredibly popular Shchedryk, Leontovych's music is performed primarilly 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...

Early life and education

Mykola Leontovych was born on in the Monastyrok community, near the village of Selevyntsi, in the Podolia

Podolia

The region of Podolia is an historical region in the west-central and south-west portions of present-day Ukraine, corresponding to Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Vinnytsia Oblast. Northern Transnistria, in Moldova, is also a part of Podolia...

region 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...

(in modern-day Ukraine

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...

). His father, grandfather, and great grandfather were village priests. His father, Dmytro Feofanovych Leontovych, was skilled at singing and playing cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

, double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

, harmonium

Harmonium

A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...

, 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....

, and guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, in addition to directing a school choir. Leontovych received his first musical lessons from him. His mother, Mariya Yosypivna Leontovych was also a singer.

Other members of Leontovych's family also grew up to have careers in music. His younger brother became a professional singer, his sister Mariya studied singing in Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

, his sister Olena studied fortepiano

Fortepiano

Fortepiano designates the early version of the piano, from its invention by the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century. It was the instrument for which Haydn, Mozart, and the early Beethoven wrote their piano music...

at the Kiev Conservatory

Kiev Conservatory

The Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music is a Ukrainian state institution of higher music education. Its courses include postgraduate education.-History:...

, and his sister Victoriya also knew how to play several musical instruments.

In the summer of 1879 Dmytro Leontovych was moved to a new parish located in the village Shershni where he would spend his childhood. Then in 1887 Leontovych was admitted to Nemyriv

Nemyriv

Nemyriv is a historic city in the Vinnytsia Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Nemyriv Raion . Nemyriv is one of the eldest cities in Vinnytska oblast, Ukraine...

gymnasium. Due to financial problems a year later, however, his father transferred him to the Sharhorod Spiritual Beginners School, whose pupils received full financial support. At the school Leontovych mastered singing, and was able to freely read difficult passages from religious choral texts.

Theological seminary

In 1892, Leontovych began his studies at the theological seminary in Kamianets-Podilskyi

Kamianets-Podilskyi

Kamyanets-Podilsky or Kamienets-Podolsky is a city located on the Smotrych River in western Ukraine, to the north-east of Chernivtsi...

, which both his father and grandfather had attended. His younger brother Oleksandr was enrolled as well, graduating two years after Mykola.

During his studies there, Leontovych continued to advance his skills on the violin

Violin

, and learned to play a variety of other instruments. He also participated in the seminary’s choir, and when an orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

was formed during his third year of study, Leontovych joined, playing the violin until his graduation. Leontovych studied music theory

Music theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...

and started writing choral arrangements as a student at the seminary.

When the seminary’s choir director died, the school administration requested that Leontovych take over this position. As the conductor of the choir, Leontovych added secular music to the repertoire of traditional church music. This included Ukrainian folk songs arranged by Mykola Lysenko

Mykola Lysenko

, Profyriy Demutskiy, and himself. Leontovych graduated from the Kamianets-Podilskiy Theological Seminary in 1899 and broke the family tradition by becoming a music teacher instead of a priest.

Early musical career and family

At the time, a career in music in Ukraine meant having an unstable income, causing Leontovych to seek employment wherever he could find it. Leontovych worked in Kiev

Kiev

, Yekaterinoslav

Yekaterinoslav Governorate

The Yekaterinoslav Governorate or Government of Yekaterinoslav was a governorate in the Russian Empire. Its capital was the city of Yekaterinoslav .-Administrative divisions:...

, and Podolia

Podolia Governorate

guberniya

Guberniya

A guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire usually translated as government, governorate, or province. Such administrative division was preserved for sometime upon the collapse of the empire in 1917. A guberniya was ruled by a governor , a word borrowed from Latin ,...

s over the next few years in order to remain gainfully employed. His first position after graduating was in a secondary school

Secondary school

Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

in the village of Chukiv (present-day Vinnytsia Oblast

Vinnytsia Oblast

Vinnytsia Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Vinnytsia.-Geography:The area of the region is 26,500 km²; its population is 1.7 million....

) as a vocal and math teacher. During this time Leontovych continued to transcribe and arrange folk songs. He completed his "First compilation of songs from Podolia" and began working on his second compilation. He also inspired the children at the school to sing in the choir and play in the orchestra. He would later write a book about this as a professor at the Kiev Conservatory

Kiev Conservatory

The Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music is a Ukrainian state institution of higher music education. Its courses include postgraduate education.-History:...

, titled "Як я організував оркестр у сільській школі" (How I organized an orchestra in a village school).

After several conflicts with the school's administration, Leontovych got a new job as a teacher of church music

Church music

Church music may be defined as music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclestiacal liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. This article covers music in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. For sacred music outside this...

and calligraphy

Calligraphy

Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...

at the Theological College in Tyvriv

Tyvriv

Tyvriv is a town in Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine. Geographically it is in eastern Podolia on the shore of Southern Bug. It is the administrative center of the Tyvrivskyi Raion ....

. Besides working with the college choir, Leontovych organized an amateur orchestra that often performed at college events. As he did earlier with choirs, Leontovych included arrangements of folk songs among the usual religious works sung in theological schools. These included arrangements by Mykola Lysenko

Mykola Lysenko

, his own choral arrangements of folk songs, and entirely original works. One such work was based on a poem by Taras Shevchenko

Taras Shevchenko

Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko -Life:Born into a serf family of Hryhoriy Ivanovych Shevchenko and Kateryna Yakymivna Shevchenko in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire Shevchenko was orphaned at the age of eleven...

titled “Зоре моя вечірняя” (Oh my evening star).

During this period Leontovych met a Volynhian girl named Claudia Feropontivna Zhovtevych, whom he married on March 22, 1902. The young couple's first daughter, Halyna, was born in 1903. They later had a second daughter named Yevheniya.
Financial hardships prompted Leontovych to accept an offer to move to the city of Vinnytsia

Vinnytsia

Vinnytsia is a city located on the banks of the Southern Bug, in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast.-Names:...

to instruct at the Church-Educators' College. Again he organized a choir and, later, a concert band

Concert band

A concert band, also called wind band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, wind orchestra, wind symphony, wind ensemble, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of several members of the woodwind instrument family, brass instrument family, and percussion instrument family.A...

, with which he performed both secular and spiritual music. In 1903 he published his “Second compilation of songs from Podolia” which he dedicated to Mykola Lysenko.

In 1903 and 1904, during his vacation from the Church-Educators' College, Leontovych traveled to Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

. There he attended lectures held at the St. Petersburg Court Capella, which was associated with composers 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...

, 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.....

, and Mikhail Glinka

Mikhail Glinka

Mikhail 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...

. He studied music theory, harmony

Harmony

In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...

, and 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 ....

with Semen Barmotin, and choral performance with Puzarevskiy, both of whom were well known at the time. On April 22, 1904, he earned his credentials as a choirmaster of church choruses.

Again, disputes with the administration of the college resulted in Leontovych seeking new employment.
In the spring of 1904, he left Podolia and moved to the Donbas

Donets Basin

Donbas or Donbass , full rarely-used name Donets Basin , is a historical, economic and cultural region of eastern Ukraine. Originally a coal mining area, it has become a heavily industrialised territory suffering from urban decay and industrial pollution.-Geography:Donbas covers three...

region in eastern Ukraine, where he became a teacher of vocal and instrumental music in a school for railroad workers' children. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, Leontovych organized a choir of workers that performed in meetings. These works included arrangements of Ukrainian

Ukrainian folk music

Ukrainian folk music includes a number of varieties of ethnic , folkloric, folk inspired popular and folk inspired classical traditions....

, Jewish, Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

n, Russian

Ethnic Russian music

Ethnic Russian music specifically deals with the folk music traditions of the ethnic Russian people. It does not include the various forms of art music, which in Russia often contains folk melodies and folk elements or music of aother ethnic groups living in Russia.-History:The roots of Russian...

, and Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

folk songs. Leontovych's activity caught the attention of local authorities, and in the spring of 1908 he was forced to move back to his native Podolia region to the city of Tulchyn.

Tulchyn period

Leontovych's move to Tulchyn marked the beginning of a period of compositional maturity and major artistic achievements in the life of the composer.

In Tulchyn, Leontovych taught vocal and instrumental music at the Tulchyn Eparchy Women's college to the daughters of village priests. There he met composer Kyrylo Stetsenko

Kyrylo Stetsenko

who was a student of Mykola Lysenko

Mykola Lysenko

and also specialized in choral music. Stetsenko lived in a nearby village at the time where he was working as a priest, and their acquaintance developed into a lasting friendship that influenced Leontovych's music. Stetsenko was the first critic of Leontovych's music, saying, "Leontovych is a famous music expert from Podolia. He recorded many folk songs... These songs are harmonized for mixed choir. These harmonizations have revealed the author to be a great expert of both choral singing and theoretical studies". Leontovych also transitioned to more renowned music during his choir performances, such as Russian composers Mikhail Glinka, Alexey Verstovsky

Alexey Verstovsky

Alexey Nikolayevich Verstovsky was a Russian composer, musical bureaucrat and rival of Mikhail Glinka.-Biography:...

, and Peter Tchaikovsky in addition to Ukrainian composers Mykola Lysenko, Kyrylo Stetsenko, and Petro Nishchynskyi.

From 1909, he studied under musical theoretic Boleslav Yavorsky

Boleslav Yavorsky

, whom he periodically visited in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

and Kiev

Kiev

over the next twelve years. Leontovych also became involved with theatrical music in Tulchyn and its community life by taking charge of a local organization called "Prosvita", meaning "Englightenment".

This period in his career was among the most productive, as he created numerous choral arrangements. These included his famous "Shchedryk", as well as "Піють півні" (The roosters are singing), "" (A mother had one daughter), "" (Little Dudka
Pipe (instrument)
Pipe describes a number of musical instruments, historically referring to perforated wind instruments. The word is an onomatopoeia, and comes from the tone which can resemble that of a bird chirping.-Folk pipe:...

player), "" (Oh, the star has risen), and others. In 1914 Stetsenko convinced Leontovych to have his music performed by the student choir of the Kiev University

Kiev University

Taras Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv , colloquially known in Ukrainian as KNU is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. It is the third oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and Kharkiv University. Currently, its structure...

under the leadership of Alexander Koshetz. On December 26, 1916, the performance of his arrangement of "Shchedryk" brought Leontovych great success from the public in Kiev and raised the interest of intellectuals.

Career in Kiev

During the October Revolution

October Revolution

and the establishment of the Ukrainian People's Republic

Ukrainian People's Republic

The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...

in 1918, Leontovych relocated without his family to Ukraine's capital Kiev, where he was active as both a conductor and composer. Several of his pieces gained popularity among professional and amateurs groups alike, who added them to their repertoire. In the beginning of 1919 the rest of his family also relocated to Kiev. During this period Leontovych also began teaching choir conducting alongside Hryhoriy Veryovka

Hryhoriy Veryovka

Hryhoriy Huriyovych Veryovka was a Ukrainian composer, choir director, and teacher.-External links:*...

at the Kiev Conservatory, and also taught at the Mykola Lysenko

Mykola Lysenko

Institute of Music and Drama. Leontovych was one of the organizers of the first Ukrainian State Orchestra. He participated in the founding of the Ukrainian Republic Capella

Ukrainian Republic Capella

The Ukrainian Republic Capella was a musical company during and after World War I which toured Europe and North America with the intent to promote Ukrainian culture abroad. The main sponsor of the Capella was Symon Petlura.-Background:During World War I, many events shook Eastern Europe...

of which he was the commissioner.

Move back to Tulchyn and death

During the conquest of Kiev on August 31, 1919, the Denikin Army persecuted the Ukrainian intelligentsia. Because of this, Leontovych returned to Tulchyn with his family. There he started the city's first music school, since the college where he worked previously was closed down by the bolshevik

Bolshevik

The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

s. He also began to work on his first major symphonic work, the opera (On the water nymph's Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

).

During the night of January 22–23, 1921, Mykola Leontovych was murdered by Chekist

Cheka

Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...

(Soviet state security) agent Victor Grishchenko. Leontovych was staying at the home of his parents, whom he was visiting for Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

(which is celebrated in January in Eastern Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

). The undercover Chekist had also asked to stay the night at the house and shared a room with Mykola. At dawn he shot the composer, who died of blood loss a few hours later in the arms of his parents.

Several facts point to a political motive behind the assassination. His participation in the independence movement, such as commissioning Ukrainian Republic Capella

Ukrainian Republic Capella

, aimed at promoting Ukraine as an independent state, earned him many enemies. Leontovych's older daughter Halyna later recalled her father saying, shortly before his death, that he had documents to leave the country to Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, and that he had these documents with him among his sheet music during a concert. However, after returning from tea following the concert, Leontovych noticed that someone had gone through his papers. His plans to leave the country, along with the fact that he was killed by a Soviet agent, also indicate political reasons for his death.

Character

Mykola Leontovych was highly critical of himself. According to his first biographer Oles' Chapkivskyi, a contemporary of the composer, Leontovych would sometimes work on one choral setting without letting anyone else see it for up to four years. After the publication of his "Second Compilation of Songs from Podolia", he changed his mind and was not fully satisfied with it, and as a result he bought all 300 copies and had them destroyed.

Chapkivskyi also described Leontоvych as having a shy personality, saying "He abstained from fame, feared attention and advertisement." On the other hand, Chapkivskyi claimed that Leontovych's jealousy, fear of competition, and fear of non-acceptance from the established musical society, caused the music of Leontovych to be little known.

Zynoviy Yaropud of the Kamianets-Podilskyi State Pedagogical University writes that "all of [Leontovych's] contemporaries called him a quiet, gentle person. He was not an active leader of the national-revolutionary movement

Ukrainian War of Independence

The Ukrainian War of Independence was a series of military conflicts between Ukrainian, Anarchist, Bolshevik, the Central Powers forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary, the White Russian Volunteer Army, and Second Polish Republic forces for control of the territory of modern Ukraine after the...

, which revealed in the years of 1917-1921 a whole handful of prominent fighters for the Ukrainian republic," revealing that the composer was politically quiet, but not indifferent.

Leontovych's friend, O. Buzhanskiy, recalls that the composer was "always full of humor; spoke so that everyone was laughing to tears, but he remained serious and stayed calm." Stetsenko also described Leontovych to be a "witty storyteller" and that his students at the Church Educator's School in Tulchyn were "in love with him" because of his storytelling.

Religious views

Mykola Leontovych grew up in a highly religious environment. He was a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church, descended from a series of village priests. He was also a graduate of the Podollia Theological Seminary in Kamianets-Podilskyi, which mostly trained Orthodox clergy.

As a person with a professional theological education, Leontovych kept up with the movement of the establishment and recognition of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church

Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church

, which was reestablished in 1918. The composer's output during this period became rich in new sacred music, following the examples of Kyrylo Stetsenko

Kyrylo Stetsenko

(a close friend of Leontovych, also an orthodox priest and composer) and Alexander Koshetz. Leontovych's works form this time included "" (On the Resurrection of Christ), "" (Praise ye the name of the Lord), and "" (Oh quiet light), among others. A milestone in the development of Ukrainian spiritual music was the composition of his liturgy

Liturgy

Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

(Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

The Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom is the most celebrated Divine Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite. It is named after the anaphora with the same name which is its core part and it is attributed to Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople in the 5th century.It reflects the work of...

), which was first performed in the Mykolaiv Cathedral at the Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Kiev Pechersk Lavra or Kyiv Pechersk Lavra , also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, is a historic Orthodox Christian monastery which gave its name to one of the city districts where it is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine....

on May 22, 1919.

Commemoration

On February 1, 1921, nine days after Leontovych's death, a large number of artists, professors, and students of the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama in Kiev gathered to commemorate him, as is expected according to Christian tradition. They established the Committee for the Memory of Mykola Leontovych, which later became the All-Ukrainian Mykola Leontovych Music Society, and promoted Ukrainian music until 1928.

Ukrainian writer and politician of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Pavlo Tychyna

Pavlo Tychyna

Pavlo Tychyna was a major Ukrainian poet, interpreter, publicist, public activist, academician, and statesman.-Life:Born in Pisky in 1891, he was baptized on January 27 that mistakenly was considered his birth date until recently. His father, Hryhoriy Timofiyovych Tychyna, was a village deacon and...

, was an admirer of Leontovych and wrote about the composer's death in prose

Prose

Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...

. Poets Maksym Rylskyi and Mykola Bazhan

Mykola Bazhan

Mykola Platonovych Bazhan was a Soviet Ukrainian writer and poet. He was awarded the Stalin Prize ....

also dedicated poetry to him.

The name of Leontovych is carried by musical groups, such as the Leontovych Bandurist Capella

Leontovych Bandurist Capella

The Leontovych Bandurist Capella was a male choir whose members accompanied themselves using a Ukrainian folk instrument known as a bandura. It was established in the displaced persons camps in Germany in 1946 and had an active performance schedule up until 1949.In 1946 Hryhory Nazarenko together...

, and by educational institutions such as the Vinnytsia College of Arts and Culture. Streets in Kiev and other cities have been named after him. There is a memorial museum dedicated to him in the city of Tulchyn, and another was established in 1977 in the village of Markivka where he was buried.

In 2002, to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the composer's birth, the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi held an all-Ukrainian scientific conference entitled "Mykola Leontovych and modern education and science," with guests from the Ukrainian ministry of education and science, the Ukrainian composers' Union, and many local authorities. During this event the city held a ceremonial opening of a memorial plaque to the composer, placed next to the old building formerly used by the Podollia Theological Seminary.

Music

Mykola Leontovych specialized in a cappella

A cappella

choral music. He is remembered today mostly through the musical works he left behind, which include over 150 choral compositions. These range from artistic arrangements of folk songs

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, religious works (including his liturgy), cantatas, and choral compositions set to the words of various Ukrainian poets. His two most famous works are the choral miniatures "Schedryk" and "Dudaryk".

Leontovych also commenced work on an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

(Na rusalchyn velykden’ - On the Water Nymph's Easter) based on Ukrainian myths and the works of Borys Hrinchenko

Borys Hrinchenko

Borys Dmytrovych Hrinchenko was a classical Ukrainian prose writer, political activist, historian, publicist, and ethnographer. He was instrumental in the Ukrainian cultural revival of the late 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries....

. By the end of 1920 he had finished the first of three acts. However, Leontovych was murdered before he could complete the opera. Attempts to complete and edit the opera were made by Ukrainian composer Mykhailo Verykivsky. Composer Myroslav Skoryk

Myroslav Skoryk

Myroslav 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 :...

and poet Diodor Bobyr used the musical material of the unfinished opera to make a one act operetta; this premiered in 1977 at the Kiev State Opera and Ballet Theatre, one hundred years after Leontovych's birth. The North American premiere took place in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

on April 11, 2003.

One of the largest influences in Mykola Leontovych's music is that of Mykola Lysenko

Mykola Lysenko

who is considered "the father of Ukrainian classical music". Leontovych admired Lysenko's music ever since he was a student at the Kamianets-Podilskyi Theological Seminary, when he had the seminary's choir perform the composer's music. Since then he would perform Lysenko's music in concerts wherever he worked.

Shchedryk/Carol of the Bells

Mykola Leontovych's "Shchedryk" is the composer's most well-known piece. In its English version as Christmas carol

Christmas carol

A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...

, it is a holiday favorite, the "Carol of the Bells

Carol of the Bells

". It is famous for its four-note ostinato

Ostinato

In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...

motif and has been arranged over 150 times since 2004. The original Ukrainian text of "Shchedryk" used hemiola

Hemiola

In modern musical parlance, a hemiola is a metrical pattern in which two bars in simple triple time are articulated as if they were three bars in simple duple time...

, a shifting of accents within each measure between 6/8 and 3/4, which is lost in the English translations. The most popular English translation was composed in 1936 by Peter J Wilhousky who was influenced by the culture of his Eastern European parents and the traditional Christian story of carols ringing out at the birth of Jesus, although other English adaptations of the song were also made in 1947 by M. L. Holman, 1957 and 1972.

The song has been used many times in the soundtracks for films and television. For example, it was used in the box office

Box office

A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....

hits The Santa Clause
The Santa Clause
The Santa Clause is a 1994 American fantasy-dramedy film directed by John Pasquin, it is distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. and starring Tim Allen. In the film, Allen plays Scott Calvin, an ordinary man who accidentally causes Santa Claus to fall from his roof on Christmas Eve...

and Home Alone
Home Alone
Home Alone is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy, who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation...

, Will Vinton

Will Vinton

Will Vinton is an American director and producer of animated films. He was born in McMinnville, Oregon, near Portland. He has won an Oscar for his work, and several Emmy Awards and Clio Awards for the work of his studio.- Education :...

's award-winning A Claymation Christmas Celebration
A Claymation Christmas Celebration
Will Vinton's A Claymation Christmas Celebration is an Emmy Award-winning Christmas television special originally broadcast on the American CBS TV network in 1987...

, and as a parody called "Carol of the Meows

Carol of the Meows

Carol of the Meows is a Guster single that is a parody of the Christmas song "Carol of the Bells". It was featured on The O.C. episode "The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn't"...

" in The O.C.
The O.C.
The O.C. is an American teen drama television series that originally aired on the Fox television network in the United States from August 5, 2003, to February 21, 2007, running a total of four seasons...

show's "The Chrismukkah That Almost Wasn't". It has also been arranged and performed by many groups, regardless of singing style or genre, ranging from classical (Vienna Boys Choir), to traditional music groups (Celtic Woman

Celtic Woman

Celtic Woman is an all-female musical ensemble conceived and assembled by Sharon Browne and David Downes, a former musical director of the Irish stage show Riverdance...

), to pop singers and groups (Jessica Simpson

Jessica Simpson

Jessica Ann Simpson is an American recording artist, actress, television personality, and fashion designer whose rise to fame began in 1999. Since that time, Simpson has achieved many recording milestones, starred in several television shows, movies, and commercials, launched a line of hair and...

, Destiny's Child

Destiny's Child

Destiny's Child was an American R&B girl group whose final line-up comprised lead singer Beyoncé Knowles alongside Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. Formed in 1997 in Houston, Texas, Destiny's Child members began their musical endeavors in their pre-teens under the name Girl's Tyme...

Musical style

Leontovych had an imaginitive and original style. Many of his works have "deft use of imitative counterpoint

Counterpoint

In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...

" and subtle harmonic invention, which is often impressionistic. He had a strong desire for his music to arouse the sense

Sense

Senses are physiological capacities of organisms that provide inputs for perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology , and philosophy of perception...

s, especially sight

Visual perception

Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...

saying, "I'm interested in which colors you used for high tones, and which for the low ones. I myself often think about that, to combine sound and color."

His choral compositions feature rich harmony

Harmony

, vocal 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 ....

, and imitation

Imitation (music)

In music, imitation is when a melody in a polyphonic texture is repeated shortly after its first appearance in a different voice, usually at a different pitch. The melody may vary through transposition, inversion, or otherwise, but retain its original character...

. His earlier choral arrangements of folk songs were primarily strophic arrangements of the melody. As the composer gained more experience, the structure of his choral compositions and arrangements of folk songs became more frequently intertwined with text

Written language

A written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will instinctively learn or create spoken or gestural languages....

.

Leontovych's arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs was a unique art. He would create entirely original, artistically independent choral compositions on the basis of Ukrainian folk melodies and lyrics. He followed the traditions of improvisation

Improvisation

Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...

of Ukrainian kobzar

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...

s, who would interpret every new strophe

Strophe

A strophe forms the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode. In its original Greek setting, "strophe, antistrophe and epode were a kind of stanza framed only for the music," as John Milton wrote in the preface to Samson Agonistes, with the strophe...

differently. He also employed humming and the variability in timbre

Timbre

In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...

of singers' voices as techniques in reaching a desired emotional or sensual

Sense

effect.

A central topic of Leontovych's work is choral music about everyday life. His music frequently reflect actual actions and events. An example of this is his shchedrivka “Ой там за горою” (Oh there behind the mountain) in which a tenor

Tenor

The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

initially starts the song with a solo and the rest of the voices of the choir gradually come in, reflecting carolling

Carol (music)

A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character....

when new groups of singers join in. Then, a switching of parts begins between different groups of the choir, recreating the clamorous atmosphere of the New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...

Reception and popularity

For most of his career, Leontovych kept his music to himself, only performing it during his own concerts. This was because of the composer's highly self-critical and shy personality. Leontovych's first critic was his friend and fellow priest and composer Kyrylo Stetsenko

Kyrylo Stetsenko

, who described him to be "a great expert of both choral singing and theoretical studies". He also convinced Leontovych to publish his music and have it performed by the Kiev University

Kiev University

.

The successful debut of "Shchedryk" earned Leontovych popularity among specialists and fans of choral music in Kiev

Kiev

. Leontovych's mentor-turned-coworker at the Kiev Conservatory

Kiev Conservatory

The Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music is a Ukrainian state institution of higher music education. Its courses include postgraduate education.-History:...

, Boleslav Yavorsky

Boleslav Yavorsky

, also positively evaluated his newly-written works. During another concert, Leontovych's "Lehenda", set to a poem by Mykola Voronyi, gained great popularity.

After reviewing Leontovych's "Second Compilation of Songs from Podolia", Lysenko wrote: "Leontovych has an original, illustrious gift. In his arrangements I found separate passages, movement of voices, which later developed in a geniously weaved musical network."

The increase in popularity of Leontovych's music was aided by the head of the Ukrainian National Republic, Symon Petliura, who created and sponsored two choirs that would promote the awareness of and the culture of Ukraine

Culture of Ukraine

Ukrainian culture refers to the culture associated with the country of Ukraine and sometimes with ethnic Ukrainians across the globe. It contains elements of other Eastern European cultures as well as some Western European influences. Within Ukraine, there are a number of other ethnic groups with...

. One choir headed by Kyrylo Stetsenko

Kyrylo Stetsenko

toured across Ukraine, while the Ukrainian Republic Capella

Ukrainian Republic Capella

headed by Alexander Koshetz toured Europe and the Americas. Performances by the Ukrainian Republic Capella made Leontovych known throughout the western world. In France

France

Leontovych earned the nickname, "Ukrainian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

" . On October 5, 1921 the Capella performed "Shchedryk" in the Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. In 1936, ethnically Ukrainian Peter J. Wilhousky who worked for radio NBC wrote his own lyrics for the song, which became known as the "Carol of the Bells

Carol of the Bells

".

Apart from Shchedryk, or the Carol of the Bells, Leontovych's music is currently performed mostly in Ukraine and few recordings are dedicated to him exclusively. The Ukrainian diaspora

Ukrainian diaspora

remember him and perform his works. For example, the Olexander Koshetz Choir based in Winipeg, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, performs music of Ukrainian composers including Leontovych, and have made a recording of his music.

External links

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Early life and education

Theological seminary

Early musical career and family

Tulchyn period

Career in Kiev

Move back to Tulchyn and death

Character

Religious views

Commemoration

Music

Shchedryk/Carol of the Bells

Musical style

Reception and popularity

See also

External links