The World of Mykola Lysenko: Ethnic Identity, Music, and Politics in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Ukraine

The World of Mykola Lysenko: Ethnic Identity, Music, and Politics in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Ukraine. By Taras Filenko and Tamara Bulat. (Edmonton: Ukrainian Millennium Foundation, 2001. Pp. viii + 434, foreword, preface, acknowledgments, introduction, photographs, appendices, bibliography, index. $55.00 cloth) In Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, a statue honoring Mykola Lysenko as the father of Ukrainian classical music sits in front of the Opera House. But Lysenko was much more than a composer of operas; he was an internationally renowned pianist, a conductor, a choir director, a teacher, and the founder of a music school. More importantly to folklorists, he was Ukraine's first prominent ethnomusicologist, recording a wide variety of folk songs and collecting and describing folk musical instruments from venues throughout his native land. The authors seek to acquaint Western readers with the full range of Lysenko's contributions. They begin with his birth in 1842, describe the village where he was born, and then proceed with an account of his schooling. Like most children of the nobility, Lysenko went to university, first in Kharkiv and later in Kyiv. He received a degree in the natural sciences and briefly served as an arbitrator in Skvyra, but when this position was eliminated he had an opportunity to admit that his passion for music far surpassed his interest in all other subjects. He entered a conservatory in Leipzig and from that point on worked exclusively in music. The authors trace Lysenko's career as a musician and musicologist both chronologically and thematically. They examine his travels in other Slavic countries, his further training at the conservatory in St. Petersburg, and his ethnographic work in folk music. A chapter is devoted to Lysenko as a performer, another to him as a composer, and another to the music school that he founded in Kyev. The authors bring forth the musicians, actors, writers and other artists with whom Lysenko interacted, relate the celebrations honoring the mature composer on the fiftieth anniversary of his career in music, and provide an account of his death in 1912. Of the underlying themes of this book, two in particular stand out. One is political: Lysenko had the misfortune of being interested in things Ukrainian at a time when tsarist policy insisted on Russification. As a result, some of his work could not be published in his own country. This happened to the third volume of his Collection of Ukrainian Folk Songs for Voice and Piano, which had to be printed in Leipzig, only to have its importation into Ukraine prohibited. Other works, such as the operetta Chornomortsi, had to be published in Russian translation; they could not appear in the original Ukrainian. …

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