Bookvica

[UKRAINIAN FOLKLORE]

Item #1321

Collection of five fragile sheet music brochures of Ukrainian folk songs. Four of them were published in one series with similar anonymous designs resembling national embroidery schemes. One was printed in another publishing house with a different design. All of them were most likely issued in the 1930s.
The 1920s and the early 1930s became well-known as the Ukrainian Renaissance. Development of Ukrainian culture began along with other national cultures in the Soviet Union. New musical institutions were founded in various Ukrainian cities. Folklore was studied as the key part of national culture. At the same time, single repressions of Ukrainians had happened since the very beginning. In 1921, composer M. Leontovich was murdered by a chekist (a member of the Soviet secret police). After adoption of social realism as the only right art movement, any cultural figures who deviated from this method were severely criticized. Thus, works by B. Lyatoshinsky and L. Revutsky were attacked at the plenary sessions of the Union of Composers; Revutsky almost ceased art activity after 1934.

1) Oi, u poli viter vie [i.e. Oh, Wind Is Blowing in a Field] / music by L. Revutsky. Kharkiv: Mystetstvo, n.d. 4 pp. 19x14 cm. In original wrappers decorated with Ukrainian ornament. Upper edge chipped, pale water stain on outer edge, otherwise very good. One of 10 000 copies. Music was adapted by composer Levko Revutsky (1889-1977). He graduated from university and conservatory during WWI and after demobilization, Revutsky first taught in provincial choirs, then at the Lysenko Music and Drama Institute. In 1934-1960, Revutsky was a professor of the Pyotr Tchaikovsky Kiev Conservatory and the Tashkent Conservatory during a period of wartime evacuation. Apart from his prolific activity as a composer, Revutsky adapted more than 120 Ukrainian folk songs.
2) Na vgorodi kalynon’ka [i.e. A Water Elder Is in a Garden] / music by M. Lysenko. Kharkiv: Mystetstvo, n.d. 4 pp. 19x14 cm. In original wrappers decorated with Ukrainian ornament. Lower edge of front cover chipped, pale water stain on outer edge, otherwise very good. One of 10 000 copies. Song was adapted by composer and ethnomusicologist Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912), a founder of a national composer’s school. Lysenko insisted on using only the Ukrainian language for his operas. Mentions of a water elder can be found occasionally in Ukrainian folklore as a national symbol. Numerous songs included the word kalyna and its variations.
3) Oi, hylia, hylia huson’ky [i.e. Hey, Little Geese] / music by M. Lysenko. Kharkiv: Mystetstvo, n.d. 4 pp. 19x14 cm. In original wrappers decorated with Ukrainian ornament. Upper edge chipped, pale water stain on outer edge, otherwise very good. One of 10 000 copies. Song was adapted by composer and ethnomusicologist Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912), a founder of a national composer’s school. Lysenko insisted on using only the Ukrainian language for his operas. Different variations of this song are known with changes after the second stanza.
4) Oi, koly b toi vechir [i.e. Oh, If Only That Evening] / music by P. Demutskii. Kharkiv: Mystetstvo, n.d. 4 pp. 19x14 cm. In original wrappers decorated with Ukrainian ornament. Small horizontal tears of spine, pale water stain on inner edge, edges of covers tanned, with foxing on front wrapper, otherwise very good. One of 10 000 copies. The song was adapted by composer and folklorist Porfirii Demutskii (1860-1927). During his study in the 1880s, he joined a choir under direction of M. Lysenko. After graduation, he directed own peasant choir. After the Revolution, he became a member of the ethnographic commission of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and at the same time a professor at the Lysenko Musical and Drama Institute where he taught a course in folk music. In all, he processed and collected about 700 Ukrainian folk songs.
5) Oi, nastupyla ta chorna khmara. Zbiralysia vsi burlaky [i.e. Oh, a Black Cloud Has Come. All Barge Haulers Gathered]. Kiev: Derzhlitvydav, 1936. 4 pp.: ill. 17,5x13 cm. In original illustrated wrappers by Ia Rudenskii. Upper and outer edges chipped and soiled, pale water stain on outer edge, otherwise very good. One of 14 000 copies. The first song is about poor urban dwellers who gathered together, got drunk and might be dangerous for wealthy passersby. This song is suited to proletarian culture by class struggle and a victory of poor men. In the second song, barge haulers are complaining about land policies of empress Catherine the Great and Polish general Potocki: both ruled parts of Ukraine in the 18th century. It is, again, about people’s hardship in a bourgeois country.

Price: $750.00