Product Code Database
Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko (; 22 March 1842 – 6 November 1912) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist of the late Romantic music. In his time he was the central figure of Ukrainian music, with an oeuvre that includes operas, , choral works, orchestral and chamber pieces, and a wide variety of solo piano music. He is often credited with founding a national music tradition during the Ukrainian national revival, in the vein of contemporaries such as Edvard Grieg in Norway, The Five in Russia as well as Smetana and Dvořák in what is now the Czech Republic.
By studying and drawing from Ukrainian folk music, promoting the use of the Ukrainian language, and separating himself from Russian culture, his compositions form what many consider the quintessential essence of Ukrainian music. This is demonstrated best in his epic opera Taras Bulba from the Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol, in which the grandeur, complexity and Ukrainian-language libretto prevented its staging during Lysenko's lifetime.
To promote and cultivate Ukrainian culture, Lysenko set works by many Ukrainian poets to music, especially Taras Shevchenko, to whom he was particularly devoted. His musical setting of a patriotic poem by Oleksandr Konysky, known as the "Prayer for Ukraine", has become Ukraine's spiritual anthem. Lysenko had a profound influence on later Ukrainian composers, including Stanyslav Lyudkevych, Alexander Koshetz, Kyrylo Stetsenko, Yakiv Stepovy, and most importantly, Mykola Leontovych.
He is the namesake of the Mykola Lysenko International Music Competition and the Lysenko music school, which is now the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University. Despite his immense renown in Ukraine, Lysenko remains relatively unknown outside of his home country.
Lysenko studied music at an early age, first receiving piano instruction from his mother. At the age of nine, he was brought to Kyiv to continue musical study in . He studied piano under and music theory. His early compositions from this time survive, including a Polka () and Nocturne (1859–1860) for piano, as well as a piece for string orchestra, Moldavskaya, Russian Pizzicato (1859–1860). In 1860, Lysenko attended the Gymnasium of Kharkiv, and studied at the city's university, and later at the Kyiv University. At the latter he continued his music studies with Dmitriyev, Wilczyk and Wolner, and graduated in 1865 with a degree in the natural sciences. Lysenko then completed two years of civil service in Tarashcha county as a for disputes involving former and their land-ownership claims. He pursued further music studies at the Leipzig Conservatory, Germany, from 1867 to 1869, where his primary teachers included Carl Reinecke for piano as well as Ernst Richter for composition and theory.
His early works included musical settings of Ukrainian poets, particularly Taras Shevchenko, an important figure of early Ukrainian literature, whose text he set in the choral work Zapovit ('The Testament'). Two other factors were important to his nationalistic fervor: close relationships with his cousin, Mykhailo Starytsky, the historian Volodymyr Antonovych and the scholar Tadei Rylsky; and also his association with the hromada in Kyiv, the . Lysenko concluded that music was the best way he could express his patriotism, and aimed to create an independent school of Ukrainian music, rather than duplicate existing styles of Western classical music. In 1869 Lysenko returned to Kyiv, and in the words of music historian Richard Taruskin, "he returned home a committed musical nationalist".
On his return to Kyiv he continued to arrange and study Ukrainian folk melodies. He split his time between numerous activities: giving piano lessons, working at the Russian Musical Society (RMS) chapter in Kyiv, and composing. During this period Lysenko wrote his first opera Chernomortsy (the 'Black Sea Sailors') between 1872 and 1873. Also during these years he wrote an orchestral fantasia, entitled Ukraïns′kyy kazak-shumka (Ukrainian Cossack Song) and a chamber piece for flute, violin and piano, the Fantasy on Ukrainian Themes. Lysenko went to Saint Petersburg from 1874 to 1876 to study orchestration with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Besides Rimsky-Korsakov, he met with other members of The Five, particularly Modest Mussorgsky, who was working on an opera set in Ukraine, The Fair at Sorochyntsi. During this short stay in Saint Petersburg Lysenko conducted a choir and wrote many piano compositions, writing more than 10 works in a variety of genres.
By the late 1870s, Lysenko was recognized as a leading figure in Ukrainian music. As a Ukrainian composer living in a Russian-controlled state he endured continued difficulties from the government. His relationship with the RMS gradually deteriorated, until he was completely ignored. Unlike his Russian colleagues, Lysenko received no state support, and sometimes active resistance from Russian officials. He was repeatedly monitored by the government and often attacked in the local press, because his activities in support of Ukrainian culture made him suspicious to the political officials – in particular his frequent meetings with other Ukrainian patriots, and later, his support of the 1905 revolution and heading of the Ukrainian Club. He was jailed for his stance on the revolution in 1907.
The Ems Ukaz decree of 1876 that banned use of the Ukrainian language in print was one of the obstacles for Lysenko; he had to publish some of his scores abroad, while performances of his music had to be authorized by the imperial censor. For his opera libretto Lysenko insisted on using only Ukrainian. He was so intent on promoting and elevating the Ukrainian culture that he didn't allow his opera Taras Bulba to be translated – he maintained that it was too ambitious to be staged in Ukrainian opera houses. Tchaikovsky was impressed by the opera and wanted to stage the work in Moscow. Lysenko's insistence on it being performed in Ukrainian, not Russian, prevented the performance from taking place in Moscow.
Lysenko set music to many poets, particularly the Ukrainian modernism, which he found the best way to express his patriotic and political beliefs. These included Ivan Franko, Yevhen Hrebinka, Oleksandr Oles, , Shchegolev, Staryts′ky and Lesya Ukrainka, but also others such as Heinrich Heine, Adam Mickiewicz and Semyon Nadson. He was particularly devoted to Taras Shevchenko, and set 82 texts from the poet's Kobzar collection. In Ukraine, comparisons are often drawn between Lysenko and Shevchenko, both of whom form what many Ukrainians consider the essence of their culture and identity.
His 1885 choral setting of a patriotic poem by Oleksandr Konysky, originally intended for a children's choir, became known internationally as "Prayer for Ukraine", a spiritual hymn for the country.
From 1950 to 1959, Lysenko's complete works were published in Kyiv in 22 volumes.
A group of Ukrainian composers and musicians, including , Ariadna Lysenko (the composer's granddaughter), Yevhen Rzhanov, Andriy Shtoharenko, Myroslav Skoryk and Yevhen Stankovych founded the Mykola Lysenko International Music Competition in 1962 in honor of Lysenko. Lysenko's home in Kyiv where he resided from 1894 to 1912 was converted into the Mykola Lysenko House-Museum in 1987, one the city's many museums for important cultural figures.
|
|
