Unknown dimensions of the sacred choral music of M. Leontovych
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32405/2308-8885-2024-2(112)-7-12Keywords:
Mykola Leontovych, spiritual heritage, sacred songs, Bohohlasnyk, Virgin MaryAbstract
The research is dedicated to exploring the little-known spiritual heritage of Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych (1877-1921), related to the religious aspect of the famous Ukrainian compser’s life. By recounting the composer’s biography and analyzing his life, it is hypothetically suggested that the choral miniature “The Song of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bar City: “O Highly Praised Mother...” represents one of the composer’s early works and may belong to his early period of compositional development.
This article underscores the historical significance and the profound spiritual and cultural content of the choral miniature “The Song of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bar City”. It highlights the necessity for a music teacher to grasp the entirety of Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych’s life, encompassing the social, political, and spiritual context, to enable modern students to truly fathom the depths of his work.
The author concludes that the life and work of Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych are the vital, ancient roots from which the national spirit of Ukrainians continues to grow. Unraveling the multifaceted aspects of the composer’s biography is crucial for understanding his achievements’ spiritual, artistic, emotional, and intellectual world, a task that future generations of researchers must undertake. By immersing ourselves in the historical realities of the composer’s life, we become part of his cultural continuum, engaging in a profound dialogue with his works, whose value we are duty-bound to transmit to future generations.
Modern art teachers need comprehensive knowledge about the composer and an understanding of his life’s social, political, and spiritual context to understand the meaning of his work. Therefore, the prospects for further research lie in developing ways to popularize the composer’s creative heritage in working with students of institutions of general secondary education, institutions of out-of-school education, and institutions of primary art education, as well as in project activities with future music teachers.
References
50-richchia smerti Mykoly Leontovycha vidznacheno v Niu-Yorku velychavym kontsertom khoriv [The 50th anniversary of the death of Mykola Leontovych was celebrated in New York with a magnificent choir concert]. (1971, December 14). Svoboda, 230, 1.
Almes, I. (2018). “Drogi klejnocie naroda ruskiego”: Dukhovna pisnia seredyny XVIII stolittia na chest ikony Bozhoi Materi Vitsynskoho vasyliianskoho monastyria [“Drogi klejnocie naroda ruskiego”: Spiritual song of the middle of the 18th century in honor of the icon of the Mother of God of the Vitsyn Basilian Monastery]. Kalofoniia: Naukovyi zbirnyk z istorii tserkovnoi monodii ta hymnohrafii, 9, 265-277.
Bohatskyi, S. (2023). Istoriia ta ikonohrafiia Barskoi ikony Presviatoi Bohorodytsi [History and iconography of the Bar icon of the Holy Mother of God]. Tserkovno-istorychnyi zbirnyk Volynskoi Dukhovnoi Seminarii. Kharkiv: Ukraina – Pabysher, 4, 127-132.
Bohohlasnyk [z notamy]: pisny blahohoviinyia prazdnikom hospodskim, bohorodichnym i narochitykh sviatykh..., k sim zhe nikotorym chudotvornym ikonam sluzhashchyia, tazhe razlychnyia pokaiannyia i umilitelnyia soderzhashch [The herald [with notes]: reverent songs for the feast of the Lord, the Mother of God, and dedicated saints..., serving some miraculous icons, also containing various penitential and tender songs]. (1790). Pochaiv: Drukarnia Uspenskoho monastyria. Retrieved from http://irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/dlib/item/0000002
Vysotska, K., & Koshelnyk, M. (2019). Sviashchennytskyi rid Leontovychiv [The priestly family of Leontovych]. Mykola Leontovych: muzychna lehenda Podillia: Proceeding of the Scientific and Practical Conference for the 140th Anniversary of the Birth of M.D. Leontovych, Vinnytsia, December 13, 2017. (pp. 43-57). Vinnytsia: Vinnytskyi oblasnyi kraieznavchyi muzei.
Zavalniuk, A. (2002). Mykola Leontovych. Doslidzhennia, dokumenty, lysty. Do 125-yi richnytsi vid dnia narodzhennia [Mykola Leontovych. Studies, documents, letters. To the 125th anniversary of the birth]. Vinnytsia: “Podillia-2000”.
Zosim, O. L. (n. d.). Bohohlasnyk. Velyka ukrainska entsyklopediia [The Herald. Great Ukrainian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://vue.gov.ua/Bohohlasnyk
Koshel, O. (2022). Dukhovenstvo Pravoberezhnoi Ukrainy v natsionalno-kulturnomu i dukhovno-osvitnomu vidrodzhenni (druha polovyna XIX – pochatok XX stolittia) [Clergy of Right-Bank Ukraine in the national-cultural and spiritual-educational revival (the second half of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th century)]. Kamianets-Podilskyi: TOV “Drukarnia “Ruta”.
Medvedyk, Yu. (2015). Ad Fontes: z istorii ukrainskoi muzyky XVII – pochatku XX stolittia: vybrani statti, materialy, retsenzii [Ad Fontes: On the history of Ukrainian music of the 17th – the early 20th centuries: selected articles, materials, reviews]. Lviv: LNU im. Ivana Franka.
Kuzyk, V. (Ed.). (2019). Mykola Leontovych. Khorovi tvory [Mykola Leontovych. Choral works]. Kyiv: Muzychna Ukraina.
Kornii, L., & Klymenko, E. (1999). Muzychnyi arkhiv M. D. Leontovycha: kataloh [Music archive of M. D. Leontovych: Catalogue]. Kyiv: Instytut rukopysu NBU. im. V.I. Vernadskoho,
Peresunko, T. (2019). Kulturna dyplomatiia Symona Petliury: “Shchedryk” proty “ruskoho mira”. Misiia Kapely Oleksandra Koshytsia (1919–1924) [Simon Petliura’s cultural diplomacy: “Schedryk” against “Russian Peace”. The mission of the Oleksandr Koshyts Chapel (1919–1924)]. Kyiv. Vydavnychyi dim «ArtEk».
Sonevytskyi, I. (1972). Velykyi ukrainskyi kompozytor [Great Ukrainian composer]. Visnyk OOChSU, 1(274), 20-26.
Yaropud, Z. (2004). Ukrainski narodni pisni v obrobtsi dlia khoru bez suprovodu: ukrainska pisenna folklorna spadshchyna [Ukrainian folk songs arranged for unaccompanied choir: (Ukrainian folk song heritage)]. Vinnytsia: VMHO “Rozvytok”.
Yasinovskyi, Yu. (2011). Vizantiiska hymnohrafiia i tserkovna monodiia v ukrainskii retseptsii rannomodernoho chasu [Byzantine hymnography and church monody in the Ukrainian reception of early modern times]. Lviv: Vydavnytstvo Lvivska Politekhnika.
Mykulanynets, L., Zhyshkovych, M., Bassa, O., Kachur, M., & Dikun, I. (2023). Biography as a factor of shaping the artists creative style. Amazonia Investiga, 12(67), 30-37. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.67.07.3
