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"ON THE 100TH BIRTHDAY OF STANYSLAV LIUDKEVYCH" by Oksana Bryzhun-Sokolyk On January 24, 1979 composer Stanyslav Liudkevych lit the 100 candles of his life: a life full of inspiration and work, a life dedicated to art and culture, and to the Ukrainian nation. Throughout 1979 we are honoring this unusual individual. Not only because he has reached the age of 100 years, an achievement in itself, but primarily because he is still holding his own at this patriarchal age — his only complaint is that his eyesight is beginning to fail him. 1979 is also the 100th anniversary of the birth of Simon Petliura and of Albert Einstein. How many momentous events have occurred in this time span! And how many musicians and generations of musicians have been cultivated by this one person, how much Liudkevych has done for the development of Ukrainian music! S. Liudkevych began to compose when still a high- school student. As early as 1898 when he was 19, his work ’’Eternal Revolutionary” for chorus and orchestra (to the words of Ivan Franko) was performed. He had written this work to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the poet’s literary activity. Liudkevych’s first reviews, journalistic and academic articles appeared in 1899,when he was a student at Lviv University. In 1900 in an article entitled "Ukrainian Singers and the National Question” he expressed what was to become his credo: "Even the greatest artists are not absolved from the responsibility of devoting all their strength, all their art to their nation. Art is not diminished thereby, indeed it is elevated by its idealism, which is lacking in music in general and among us Ukrainians in particular.” After finishing his university studies, Liudkevych taught Ukrainian, Latin and Greek languages in high school, on and off,until World War I.In the meanwhile he also co-founded (in 1905) a short-lived but significant journal ’’Artistic Newsletter.” In 1907, Liudkevych went to Vienna where he capped his musical training (begun with his childhood piano lessons at his mother’s knee) with a doctorate in musicology. He also spent an additional two years in Munich and Leipzig rounding out his knowledge of musical developments in the West, and throughout his stay in Europe working with some of the best-known musicians of this period. Back in Lviv, Liudkevych continued to teach and in 1910 became the director of the Music Institute. He reorganized the teaching of music and produced The Principal Foundations of Music. He composed, lectured, wrote articles about Ukrainian composers — which was an important contribution to the history of Ukrainian music. He became a member of the Shevchenko Scientific Sciety, and the head of its Music Commission, founded in 1936. Stanyslav Liudkevych — sketch. Станислав Людкевич — шкіц Liudkevych’s achievments in music are immense. He was the first Ukrainian composer to bring attention to purely instrumental music. In Liudkevych’s orchestral works, the orchestra is a full-fledged partner of the chorus. Liudkevych was also the first to introduce to the systemization of Ukrainian folk music the rhythm which is still used today. In 1926 he wrote: ’’Music for the musically gifted nation should and must be not a luxury, but its bread and butter element, necessary for its cultural development.” His works are extremely varied. There are compositions for the piano as well as symphonic, choral-orchestral, vocal and instrumental works. There are two operas as well as compositions of church music unknown to Soviet audiences) and arrangements of folk songs. Many of Liudkevych’s works published in Ukraine recently have been censored, or are simply put out in very limited editions of 800, 900 or 1200 copies. For example, the 1976 edition of his book Researches, Articles, Reviews has dropped many articles which had been included in the 1973 edition. Interestingly enough, the articles concerned Krushelnytska, Myshuha, Mencinsky, Maria Sokil and others, an article entitled ’’The Renaissance of the Bandura,” and another "On the National Element in Music.” Fortunately, the Ukrainian Music Foundation in New York City acquired the 1973 edition of the book and reissued it in 1976, in the West, without the knowledge of the author. Not all of Liudkevych’s works may be performed in Ukraine today. When they are performed, some titles are changed. For example, ’’Striletska Rhapsody” becomes "Halitska Rhapsody.”
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