Iryna Zinkiv
ORCID № 0000-0002-0406-3370
Lviv National Music Academy named after Mykola Lysenko Lviv
i.zinkiv@gmail.com
Embodiment of Denys Sichynsky’s Autobiographic Reflections in His Vocal Creative Work
Abstract
Denys Sichynsky is one of the brightest representatives of the musical culture of Eastern cia at the turn of the twentieth century. He belongs to the so-called second generation of Gali-cian composers, successors and followers of the Przemyśl School, Mykola Lysenko, influenced by European musical romanticism, and a forerunner of modernist trends in Ukrainian vocal music. Vocal music is the main area of the artist’s work.
The pages of Sichynsky’s Autobiography open up a narrative that is a unique model of his own reflection on life events, as well as one of his self-realization forms in the romance genre. It makes it possible to decode a complex creative identity and compare the autobiographi-cal description of his own life history with factual material available. The “Autobiography” becomes a key to understanding the composer’s choice of vocal works and the specifics of reading literary texts of romanticists and his contemporaries, as well as their musical imple-mentation. Sichynsky’s mental constitution, viewed from the pages of his vocal works, is one of his identification forms as an artist with challenging destiny from the Austrian province of the Habsburg Empire at its decline, which coincided with the fin-de-siecle period marked by new artistic trends.
D. Sichynsky’s vocal creative work, which completes the era of Romanticism and reveals the first sprouts of modernist aesthetics in Galician vocal music, was first considered through the prism of autobiographical reflections. The features of the new worldview in vocal works were self-formed uder the influence of the aesthetics of Ukrainian (Ivan Franko, Lesia Ukraiin-ka, Bohdan Lepkyi, Uliana Kravchenko) and Polish (Lucian Rydle, Marian Havalevіch) mod-ernist poets, Ukrainian and foreign romantic traditions of the solo singing genre, as well as opera art by G. Verdi, G. Puccini, and composers-verists. His vocal creative work formed a basis for the chamber and vocal music formation by the new generation of Ukrainian artists of Galicia – S. Liudkevych, V. Barvinskyi, and N. Nyzhankivskyi, who in the first decades of the twentieth century elevated the genre of Ukrainian vocal miniature to the highest level of European vocal art.
Vol. 9 pp. 63-79 2020
ISSN 2083-1226 https://doi.org/10.34858/AIC.9.2020.335
© Copyright by Institute of Music of the Pomeranian University in Słupsk Received: 06.06.2020
Accepted: 26.11.2020
Keywords:
autobiography, autobiographic reflection, Denys Sichynsky’s vocal creative work, composer’s psychological type, Habsburg Empire, fin-de-siecle period
Introduction
Denys Sichynsky is one of the brightest representatives of the musical culture of Eastern Galicia from the fin-de-siecle period. Stanislav Lyudkevych, an outstanding Ukrainian composer of the twentieth century, noted that D. Sichynsky was “too po-werful creative talent”, the first professional composer of Galicia in the late nineteenth
to early twentieth century, a person who chose music as his only profession1. Given
the 110th anniversary of the artist’s death (1865–1909), the issue of understanding his
creative heritage through the prism of his own autobiographical reflections seems especially relevant in Galician musical and cultural development of that time.
Ukrai-nian musicologists (S. Liudkevych2, S. Pavlyshyn3, M. Zahaikevych4, V. Vytvytskyi5,
L. Kyianovska6, etc.) have already done a lot to comprehend the various genres of
Sichynsky’s creative heritage. Among these, the genres of the artist’s vocal creative work remain the least studied. Although D. Sichynsky’s vocal works are the subject of musicologists’ interest, these works are not contemplated in full. Therefore, this paper attempts to provide an integral contemplation of D. Sichynsky’s vocal works written by the composer within the period 1888–1908, which are considered in terms of style evolution through the prism of his biography.
Prolegomena to evolving creative personality
The stages of Sichynsky’s own worldview formation are inscribed in the space of his generation consciousness and cultural and intellectual moods of epoch – the time of the end of the romantic and the emergence of the first modernist tendencies that gained positions in the art of Austro-Hungarian Galicia and sub-Russian Ukraine. He was a promoter of Eastern Galicia musical and social life and a modern, talented composer, of whom composers of the younger generation left commendations. The composer has become a symbolic constituent of the generational identity, which at the same time projects onto the content of his generation’s collective phenomenon. 1 Stanislav Liudkevych, “Denys Sichinskyi. On the 20th anniversary of his dicease”, Stanislav
Liudkevych. Research and Articles (Kyiv: Musical Ukraine, 1973),73-76. 2 Ibidem, 73–76.
3 Stefania Pavlyshyn, Denys Sichinskyi (Kyiv: Musical Ukraine, 1980).
4 Maria Zahaikevych, Musical life of Western Ukraine in the second half of the XIX century (Kyiv:
Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1960).
5 Vasyl Vytvytskyi, Old Galician solo song of the XIX century (Przemysl, 2004), 95-110.
6 Liubov Kyianovska, Stylistic evolution of Galician musical culture of the XIX-XX centuries
The composer’s psychological type traces through the prism of autobiographical reflections. Due to Sichynsky’s own psychic system formed under the influence of social factors, his relationship with the surroundings was complex. He faced unpre-cedented indifference from the provincial community where he spent most of his life, where he was working and creating. Being a pioneer largely in the field of organizing the forms of musical life of the Ukrainians in Galicia, he devoted most of his energy to their development and stabilization, especially through the creation of musical lite-rature for chamber home, vocal, and instrumental music-making. Because the piano was the main musical instrument of the bourgeois society lifestyle of that time, it is not surprising that he wrote his best vocal and choral works accompanied by this instrument.
Sichynsky’s creative passionate style was very dissonant with provincial close -mindedness, even during his periods of instructing. The composer appealed to wider contacts, to a more intense intellectual communication that he was mostly deprived of. The provincial lifestyle locality levelled the expansion of his spiritual horizons, made it impossible to embody the broader intentions of a figure of such a high level of tal-ent. Following escalation of difficult relations with the customer of his single opera, Lev Dzhulynskyi, in whose estate he wrote his last work – “Roksoliana” opera, a city of Stanislaviv, which owes him the Ukrainian musical life became the last creative shelter for composer’s lonely life.
Desperate autobiographical revelations testify to his discrepancies with his own conscience. Therefore, in broader creative perspectives, Sichynsky’s communicative vector was directed towards not only the Ukrainian cultural figures of Galicia (I. Fran-ko, M. Pavlyk, Ulyana KravchenFran-ko, O. Nyzhankivskyi, Ya. Yaroslavenko), but also of the Naddniprianshchyna region (T. Shevchenko, Lesia Ukraiinka), as well as German romanticists (H. Heine), Polish modernists, representatives of “Young Poland”, and positivistic movements in Polish literature (L. Rydle, M. Gavalevich).
Summary biogram
The composer’s “Autobiography” is an important source of biographical information,
which reveals his complex spiritual microcosm7. Its materials were first published in
1904 and then reprinted subsequently, i.e. introduced to the scientific circulation du-ring Soviet times by V. Gadzinskyi in his article “Ukrainian Music Baudelaire”, pub-lished in the journal “Music” in 1924 (issues 3-4). The composer’s “Autobiography” has not yet become the subject of a comprehensive research of the integral life of D. Sichynsky’s. According to V. Gadzinskyi’s reprint of the artist’s “Autobiography” and its introduction to the scientific circulation by musicologist Stefania Pavlyshyn, we learn about the composer’s first vocal works that were unavailable in Ukraine during Soviet times.
Subsequently, they were partially used by other researchers (M. Zahaikevych8,
L. Kyianovska9, N. Kostiuk10).
D. Sichynsky’s life is in many respects a typical example of the artist’s position in the Galician society of that time at the final stage of the Habsburg Empire, which developed on the eve of the First World War. Having no other profession that could ensure his existence, the artist devoted his life entirely to the art of music. The pub-lication of Sichynsky’s “Autobiography” in Gadzinskyi’s article reveals many unk-nown collisions of the artist’s challenging creative life.
There are scarce biographical data about Sichynsky’s life. He was born on 2 Oc tober 1865 in the village of Kliuvyntsi in the Husiatyn district (former Kopychynets district) of the Ternopil region, which at that time was part of the Habsburg monarchy. As a boy he attended public school in Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk) and Terno pil. His father, a teacher by profession, worked as the financial manager of a mano rial estate and had the opportunity to give his son a quality education. Initially, the young man studied at Stanislav Elementary School. However, the premature death of his father left the family without means of subsistence, so schooling in Stanislav had to be interrupted due to the financial difficulties of the family, which occurred shortly after the death of the bread-winner. Subsequently, the family moved to Ternopil (1879), where the future composer graduated from the elementary school and ente red Ternopil gymnasium with Polish
lan-guage of instruction, where he studied from 1879 to 188711. Sichynsky graduated from
the gymnasium at the age of twenty-two years (1887).
How did the Ukrainian artistic life in Ternopil look at that time? Since 1882, Eve nings with Shevchenko events have been held regularly in Ternopil. The gym-nasium hosted a choir, where he mastered the basics of choral singing. Male and female cho irs were established in the early 1880s at the Ruska Besida Society, where Solomiia Krushelnytska performed for the first time. Back in the gymnasium, the young Si chynsky came to know T. Shevchenko’s Kobzar, the cult of which exist-ed among Ukrainian students, as well as the works of the modern Ukrainian writers O. Kvitka -Osnovianenko, I. Nechui-Levytskyi, and Yu. Fedkovych. The young musician at tended stage plays by I. Kotliarevskyi, M. Kropyvnytskyi, M. Karpenko-Karyi, and P. Myrnyi staged by the Ukrainian National Theatre at that time.
Ternopil gymnasium operated a choir that was well known in Galicia. The choir conductor Lev Levytskyi noticed the talented young man and agreed to give him private lessons on music-theoretical disciplines. Later, D. Sichynsky studied under Weigler, who was a student of Mark (Ludwik Marek? – I.Z.), the director of the music school in Lviv. In 1877, the Polish “Friends of Music Society” was established in Ternopil, with a music school headed by Vladyslav Vsheliachynsky (1847–1896), 8 Maria Zahaikevych, Musical life of Western Ukraine in the second half of the XIX century (Kyiv:
Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1960).
9 LiubovKyianovska, Stylistic evolution of Galician musical culture of the XIX-XX centuries
(Cher-nivtsi: Books – XXI, 2007).
10Natalia Kostiuk, “Denis Sichynskyi (1865–1909)”, in Outstanding Figures of Ternopil. Bio-graphical collection. Ed. O.G. Bench, V.M. Troian (Kyiv: Dnipro, 2003), 177-179.
a student of Karl Mikuli. Since 1883, the Society operated a drama group, which
fea-tured performances by Oleksandr Myshuga and Solomiia Krushelnytska12. In 1900,
the Boian Music Society became the center of Ternopil’s musical life. During Si-chynsky’s studies at the Ternopil gymnasium, a branch of the Polish Galician Music Society, founded in 1876, operated in the city. Until 1787, the Polish composer-pianist V. Vsheliachynsky was a director of the Ternopil Branch. After meeting a talented young man, he started giving him free piano and music theory lessons. As D. Sichyn-sky wrote later in his Autobiography, VsheliachynSichyn-sky’s instruction laid the basis for his further compositional work and all musical activity, and finally influenced his
choice of profession and life path13.
In 1886-1887, while studying, the young man started writing his first composi-tions – songs for voice with piano, as well as choirs and piano miniatures. V. Vshe-liachynsky introduced the future composer to the works by the Western European Slavic composers-romanticists – F. Schubert, R. Schumann, F. Chopin, P. Tchai-kovsky – whose influence affected many of the vocal works of the artist. As Sichyn-sky mentioned in his “Autobiography”, the teacher taught him not only the basics of composition, but also invited him into his own home, allowing him to use his own
music library and books on music theory14.
In 1887, after graduating from the gymnasium, D. Sichynsky began working as a petty officer, holding various administrative positions in Lviv, Kolomyia, and Przemyśl, while continuing with music lessons. During his stay in Kolomyia, he wrote many works for the zither – one of the favorite instruments of contemporary urban life at that time. Unfortunately, these works were not preserved. At this time, he organized a male quartet in which he performed the part of second tenor. He toured a lot with this group across the cities of Eastern Galicia. Many of the works of the ear-ly period are lost. However, there is one of the first (currentear-ly known) solo songs with the words of Taras Shevchenko “У гаю, гаю” (“U haiu, haiu”), written in 1888, as well as the male choir “Якби я був пташкою» («Якби») (“Yakby ia buv ptashkoiu” [“Yakby”]) based on the words of the Galician poet H. Hrabovych, published in 1902 by the publishing house “Torban”. Yaroslav Vitskovskyi (Ya. Yaroslavenko), a friend of the composer, was the owner of the publishing house. In the late 1890s, Sichynsky wrote the choir piece “Один у другого питаєм” (“Odyn u druhoho pytaiem) based on Taras Shevchenko’s text, later arranged by S. Liudkevych and, perhaps, thereby
preserved15. In the same way, the choir piece “Нудьга гнітить” (“Nudha hnityt”) was
preserved due to musical editing by S. Liudkevych (for mixed choir) and M. Kolessa (for a male choir).
To obtain higher education in the autumn of 1888, the composer returned to Lviv, entered the University of Lviv named after Jan Kazimierz, and began to study in two academic departments: law school and theology. At this time, the signs of a creative 12Ibidem,177–179.
13Denys Sichynskyi, “Autobiography”, MusicAlmanac (Illustrated Music Calendar), (1904): 72–73. 14Stefania Pavlyshyn, Denys Sichynskyi (Kyiv: Musical Ukraine, 1980), 6–7.
crisis arose (from 1888 to 1892), which the artist mentions in his “Autobiography”, following a “Bunch of folk songs” for mixed choir and the first cantata “Dnieper ro-ars” based on the words by V. Chaichenko (B. Hrinchenko’s pseudonym).
At that time, the young man could not even dream of obtaining a musical higher education, because Galician artists of Ukrainian origin at that time could not settle in their homeland and were looking for work abroad; among them – Modest Mentsyn-skyi, Oleksandr Myshuha, Solomiia Krushelnytska, and others. After graduating from the prestigious faculties of Lviv University, Sichynsky could receive adequate mate-rial support for his work and pursue his favorite hobby – music – in his spare time. However, without completing his studies, after the second academic year at the Law School, during a chance meeting in Lviv with his former teacher V. Vsheliachynsky (1890), and on the advice of his senior teacher and friend, who at that time already held the position of pianoforte professor at the Lviv Conservatory of the Polish Mu-sic Society, he nevertheless decided to dedicate himself entirely to the profession of musician, especially that of composer. Sichynsky studied at the conservatory for two years. On the advice of V. Vsheliachynsky, he began taking lessons in harmony and polyphony from the famous Romanian-Polish composer, founder of the Romanian classical music, and then rector of the Conservatory of the Galician Music Society, Carl (Carol) Mikuli (1821–1897), a student of the famous Frederic Chopin. From the artist’s early vocal works, only two have been preserved until today: a solo song based on Uliana Kravchenko’s words “Кілько дум тут переснилось” (“Kilko dum tut peresnylos”) (1891), published in 1908 in D. Sichynsky’s “Album of Songs”, and “Дума про гетьмана Ничая” (“Дума про Нечая”) (“Duma pro hetmana Nychaia” [Duma pro Nychaia”]) in folk words. The last work testifies that D. Sichynsky was
well acquainted with the vocal and choral works of Mykola Lysenko16, the heroic
character of which was adequately reflected therein.
From the early 1890s, the composer was actively involved in the public life of the Ukrainians in Galicia. He organized musical events with his participation, and conducted his own works and compositions by other composers. In particular, he conducted the choir by M. Lysenko (“Na priu”) dedicated to the second anniversary of the death of Yurii Fedkovych. He was one of the organizers of the Boian Music Society in Lviv (1891), becoming a member of its board, and made considerable ef-forts to replenish the choir’s repertoire, creating a number of choral arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs. The brightest works of that time that have been preserved until today include the choral miniature “Було не рубати зеленого дуба” (“Bulo ne rubaty zelenoho duba”) and cantata “Дніпро реве” (“Dnipro reve”) based on the words by V. Chaichenko (B. Hrinchenko). The last work in 1892 was awarded the first prize of
the Lviv Boiana Society17.
16Perhaps this was facilitated by a friendship with Ostap Nyzhankivskyi, a representative of the
Lysenko School in Galicia.
17Filaret Kolessa was awarded second prize for arrangements of folk songs “Oi, umer staryi batko”
In his “Autobiography” D. Sichynsky emphasizes 1892 as his turning point, a time of creative activity intensification. During this time, he completed his studies at the conservatory and began an independent life as a professional musician. He called this
difficult period of his life “artistic gypsyism”18. Since then, there were constant
chan-ges in places of residence, associated with the search for means to materially support his creative intentions. In 1993, Sichynsky returned to Kolomyia, where for several months he organized a branch of the Boian Singing Society, working there as a choral conductor. At that time there were no centers of professional music culture in the city, only amateur music. The composer engaged the residents of the city with new musical premieres, helping to revive the musical life of the city by holding a series of concerts arranged by Boian under his leadership. The composer’s short stay in Kolomyia was
challenging, as shortly after his arrival, in 1893, the city faced a cholera epidemic19.
At that time, having no means of subsistence, he had to work as a paramedic, trans-porting the dead to the cemetery, miraculously avoiding exposure. Driven to extreme despair, Sichynsky moved on foot to Lviv, where he sought the opportunity to earn money for two years.
In Lviv, due to a favorable coincidence, in 1895 Sichynsky met Ivan Franko and other figures of Ukrainian culture – Mykhailo Pavlyk, Ostap Nyzhankivskyi, Osyp Rozdolskyi, and Filaret Kolessa. Together with them, he became a member of the Committee for the Collection and Publication of Ukrainian Folk Songs. In 1894, the Committee members appealed to the Galicians to collect pearls of folk art and refer these for further publication. The Committee operation became the basis for further Ukrainian folklore development in Western Ukraine. This provided for an opportuni-ty to resume the initiated creative projects. In the same year, the composer moved to Kolomyia for the third time.
Since the mid 1890s D. Sichynsky collaborated with the press, testing his skills as a music commentator. In 1895 he first acted as a music critic, reviewing the premieres of works by Henryh Topolnytsky’ (“Khustyna”) and Petro Nishchynsky’ (“Vechornyt-si”); he also wrote reviews of performances by S. Krushelnytska, O. Myshuha, and M. Levytskyi. In this area of activity, he proved to be a music reviewer of high profes-sional level. In the same year, he moved to Przemyśl, where he became a conductor in the local branch of the Boian Society. As in Kolomyia, he led the Ukrainian musical life of the city, created village choirs, and directed their performances and toured with them.
However, Sichynsky stayed in Przemyśl only for a short time, because his irreg ular and meagre earnings from conducting and private lessons were bare-ly enough for his own material support. A year later (1896), Sichynsky was of-fered a job in an orphanage under the patronage of Count Skarbek in the village of of Drogovyzh near Stryi, where he taught children to play musical instruments and the art of singing for two years, as well as conducting a brass band making considerable efforts to find a suitable repertoire and write his own works for this 18Stefania Pavlyshyn, “Non-implemented Genius (to the 150th anniversary of Denys Sichynskyi)”,
Ukrainian music 3 (17) (2015): 62–67.
19Natalia Kostiuk, “Denis Sichynskyi (1865–1909)”, in Outstanding Figures of Ternopil. Bio-graphical collection. Ed. O.G. Bench, V.M. Troian (Kyiv: Dnipro, 2003), 178.
group. At this time, the composer collected and processed samples of authentic song and dance folklore of the Stryi region, sending these to the members of the Committee for the Collection and Publication of Ukrainian Folk Songs in Lviv, which operated under the auspices of Ivan Franko.
At the end of the 1890s, Sichynsky’s works became quite well known in Gali cia; they were performed at Shevchenko’s concerts in Lviv, Stanislaviv, Ternopil, and Be-rezhany. His “Collection of Folk Songs” is becoming especially popular. In 1899, the composer changed location again, this time settling in Stanislaviv. He did not leave this city, with few exceptions, until the last days of his life.
After returning to Stanislaviv, Sichynsky became one of the heads of the Boian Society local branch already successfully operating at the time he arrived in the city. He became its chief conductor, worked as a music teacher at the Institute of Noble Girls, and performed choral arrangements of works by other composers. Under his le-adership, Stanislaviv Boian became one of the best groups in Eastern Galicia, actively promoting the works by Viktor Matiuk, Sydir Vorobkevych, Yosyp Kyshakevych, Os-tap Nyzhankivskyi, Mykola Kumanovskyi, and the author himself. The composer also founded the first children’s music school in Stanislaviv.
In 1902, Sichynsky initiated the Ukrainian music publishing house Music Libra ry at the Boian Society, which published works by Mykola Lysenko and Ukrainian compos-ers from Eastern Galicia. The composer made many efforts to develop music education in the region. At that ti first children’s music school in Galicia, launched at the Boian Society, which after his me in Lviv he was involved in the founding of the death in 1921 was transformed into a branch of the Lviv Lysenko Music Institute, and in 1939 – the Lviv State Music School (today – Stanislav Liudkevych Music College). On his initia-tive and efforts, the Boian Music Library was established, based on the composer’s own books and music editions, as well as books donated by the city’s residents.
The last decade of the artist’s work was especially productive; the best exam ples of his vocal and choral work, and theatrical music emerged during that time. During this period, Sichynsky devoted much time to organizational work on a vol untary ba-sis, participating in numerous meetings of composers in Galicia. It was then that his solo songs and choral works based on the words by T. Shevchenko and I. Franko, instrumental works, music for theatrical performances, and his “Roksoliana” opera emerged. Shevchenko’s keen sense of social protest was reflected in the poet’s solo song “І золотої, і дорогої” (“I zolotoii, i dorohoii”) and in the cantata “Лічу в неволі” (“Li-chu v nevoli”) (1902), although this theme was not typical of the com poser’s work. He wrote works full of tragic moods based on I. Franko’s words “Пісне моя” (“Pisne moi-ia”), “Непереглядною юрбою” (“Neprohliadnoiu yurboiu”), and “Даремне, пісне” (“Daremne, pisne”), the dramatic monologue “Як почуєш вночі” (“Yak pochuiesh vno-chi”), and the solo song “Не співайте мені цеї пісні” (“Ne spivaite meni tseii pisni”) based on Lesia Ukraiinka’s words. His solo songs based on H. Heine’s texts (“У мене був коханий край» [“U mene buv kokhanyi krai”], “Із сліз моїх” [Iz sliz moiikh”]) are
characterized by refined lyricism20.
Socio-educational activity comprises a separate page in Sichynsky’s biographi-cal script. He toured extensively in various cities and towns of Galicia, organizing concerts of Ukrainian music. Based on his efforts, the choir performed in Stryi in 1902. In the same year, the composer took part in a congress of Ukrainian composers in Przemyśl. He was the most active organizer in the unification of music societies in Lviv (1903), conducting in Chernivtsi at the Shevchenko’s Event. In addition to organizing annual performances in memory of Shevchenko, Sichynsky staged many concerts on other events, as well as home (chamber) performances.
Sichynsky maintained friendly relations with many artists. The circle of his com-rades included Yaroslav Lopatynskyi, Ostap Nyzhankivskyi, and Yaroslav Yaro-slavenko (Vintskovskyi), and through the memories and correspondence with these people one can reconstruct the difficult world of the composer’s feelings. In particular, trying to support his comrade financially, Yaroslavenko sponsored the publication of Sichynsky’s vocal works. In 1905, the composer’s “Album of Twelve Songs” was first published as a separate collection including most of his solo songs, among which the musicologist once again emphasized “Як почуєш вночі” (“Yak pochuiesh vnochi”) based on the words by Ivan Franko. Based on Sichynsky’s correspondence with col-leagues, we know about periods of financial hardship and wandering, when the artist often had to spend the night on the roof of a hotel or on a park bench.
The late vocal works of the artist for this period (1905–1907) include a wonder ful elegiac-sad solo song “Гей, лети павутиння” (“Hey, lety pavutynnia”) based on the words of M. Havalevich, a dramatic monologue “Паду чолом до скелі” (“Padu cho-lom na skeli”) on his own (?) text, a lyrical sketch ”Я тебе люблю” / “Ya tebe liubliu” (“I love you”) based on the words by V. Vilshanetska (1908), as well as many choirs and piano pieces (mostly songs without words).
Apparently, the last years of his life seemed to be the most difficult in the compos er’s life. At the end of 1907, Sichynsky was commissioned to write the “Roksoliana” opera. The request came from Lev Dzhulynskyi, a patriotic Ukrainian church writer and pub-lisher. The composer agreed to this proposal for a small fee and the opportu nity to live and work in the patron’s estate, the village of Lapshyn, without leaving its borders. The year and a half that passed in Dzhulynskyi’s village, near the city of Berezhany in the Ternopil region, turned into isolation for Sichynsky from the outside world, public and musical life, the impossibility of communicating with his friends, and a ban on attending
concerts21. The opera “Roxoliana” was written within a short time and by the spring of
1908 was almost complete. However, due to a conflict with the customer D. Sichynsky did not sign a contract regarding waiver of his copyright. He sought to enter into an agreement with any music publisher that would agree to publish the opera under the
author’s orchestration. However, he failed to implement this idea because no publishers
interested in printing stage music existed in Eastern Galicia at that time.
21Natalia Kostiuk, “Denis Sichynskyi (1865-1909)”, in Outstanding Figures of Ternopil. Bio-graphical collection. Ed. O.G. Bench, V.M. Troian (Kyiv: Dnipro, 2003, 2003), 177-178.
Vocal heritage review
Most of the solo songs created by the composer were intended for performance by
male voices (tenor or baritone)22, which indicates the embodiment of personal,
autho-rial reflections. However, the composer always recorded the vocal part in the treble clef due to existing tradition during the author’s lifetime, to perform pieces depending on the available performing resources with both female and male voices.
For a comprehensive understanding of Sichynsky’s achievements in his favorite genre of solo singing, it is important to show the refraction in his work of difficult life circumstances that influenced the choice of vocal themes. Sichynsky’s narrative as a unique model of own reflection on life events arises in the “Autobiography” as one of the forms of his self-realization in the genre of solo singing. It makes it possible to decode a complex compositional identity, compare the autobiographical description of own life history with the factual known material covered by press of that time.
Fi nally, the “Autobiography”23 of the artist becomes the key to understanding the
choice of the vocal works themes and specifics of reading by him of literary texts from con temporaries, chosen as the basis.
Analysis of D. Sichynsky’s solo songs based on the words of Ukrainian and fo-reign romantic poets (T. Shevchenko, H. Heine), contemporary Ukrainian and Polish modernist poets (Lesia Ukraiinka, I. Franko, B. Lepkyi, U. Kravchenko/Yu. Schnei-der, V. Vilshanetska, M. Havalevich, L. Rydel), as well as solo songs written based on his own texts, shows excellent mastery of vocal writing techniques, knowledge of human voice peculiarities, a subtle sense of artistic word specifics, a sensitive attitude to selected means of expression, and great form sense.
The artist’s life landmarks structure the existential phases of his personal develop-ment history, and his latest vocal works reflect these. They show how the spiritual es-sence of the composer in perceiving himself positions him as a lonely, marginal part of Galician society. His early vocal works vitalism (“У гаю, гаю” [“U haiu, haiu”]) based on the words by T. Shevchenko, “Не співайте мені цеї пісні” (“Ne spivaite meni tsiieii pisni”) based on the words by Lesia Ukraiinka, and romances based on the words by H. Heine during his mature period (1903 – 1908) changes to the theme of confrontation with life (“Finale”), and subsequently – reconciliation with fate and spiritual catharsis (“Паду чолом до скелі” [“Padu cholom do skeli”], “Гей, летить павутиння” [“Hey, letyt pavutynnia”]). Some features of his psychogram can be traced in the texts of the artist’s individual vocal works. These texts shed some light on his conflicts and misun-derstandings with the social environment in which he lived and worked.
The study of D. Sichynsky’s vocal heritage through the prism of autobiographical presentation of memoirs of his contemporaries creates an opportunity to better under-stand the figure of the composer not in terms of traditional chronological biography, but rather to outline his mental image and life story through various genres of vocal 22Only few works are intended exclusively for female voices (“Ne spivaite meni tseii pisni” on the
words by Lesia Ukraiinka and “I love you” on the words by V. Vilshanetska).
23“Dnipro reve” – first cantata of the composer, written on the words by V. Chaichenko (B.
music. The spiritual essence of the artist’s vocal works should be conceived against the background of his intellectual environment, through internal and social contra- dic tions, creative processes, and worldviews.
The theme of Sichynsky’s solo songs reflects the composer’s complex psychot-ype, on the one hand as an active, passionate personality, and on the other as a lonely abandoned human, a marginal part of Galician society, tired of fighting for his sur-vival. It concentrates on the themes of undivided love feelings (“I love you”), compas-sion for the socially disadvantaged (“І золотої, і дорогої” [“I zolotoii, i dorohoii”]), feelings of sadness, hopelessness, despair, tragic confrontation with life (“Finale”, “Паду чолом до скелі” [“Padu cholom do skeli”]), and the dominance of biographi-cal motifs, typibiographi-cal not only for the poets of European, Ukrainian, and Polish Romanti-cism (H. Heine, T. Shevchenko, M. Havalevich), but also the modern trend as well (I. Franko, Lesia Ukraiinka, B. Lepkyi, U. Kravchenko, L. Rydel). The poetic im-ages include perfect miniature lyrical sketches (“У мене був коханий рідний край” [“U mene buv kokhanyi ridnyi krai”], “Із сліз моїх” [“Iz sliz moiikh”]), dramat-ic mono logue scenes, sometimes using intonations of the Duma epdramat-ic (“Дума про Нечая” [“Duma pro Nechaia”]), and works marked by the influences of Italian opera style (“Не співайте мені цеї пісні” [“Ne spivaite meni tsiieii pisni”]). There is a wide range of genres of his solo songs (lyrical song, arioso, waltz, march, barcarole, and dramatic monologue), in novative formal and dramatic solutions. Sichynsky’s vocal work became a link between the traditions of the Przemyśl School, romantic Austrian and Russian vocal miniatures, and the composers of Eastern Galicia who brought the genre of Ukrainian solo singing to the international level (S. Liudkevych, V. Barvin-skyi, N. Nyzhankivskyi).
Sichynsky’s vocal works are distinguished by their author’s excellent
knowl-edge of singing voice specifics and voice data (lower sounds –h – c1– in solo songs
[“І золотої, і дорогої”] [“I zolotoii, i dorohoii”], “Мені байдуже” [“Meni baiduzhe”],
“Я тебе люблю” [“I love you”]), upper – as2 (“І золотої, і дорогої” [“I zolotoii, i
do-rohoii”], “І не питай мене” [“I ne pytai mene”], “Мені байдуже” [“Meni baiduzhe”], “Fіnаle”, “I love you”, “Паду чолом до скелі” [“Padu cholom do skeli”]).
Occasion-ally а2 becomes the upper sound (“Із сліз моїх” [“Iz sliz moiikh”], “Не співайте мені
сеї пісні” [“Ne spivaite meni ceii pisni”]).
S. Liudkevych describes the softness of his melody as “thanksworthy signs” of the composer’s powerful talent style. Its “pouring elegia” is often adjacent to recita-tive, operatic arioso. Following M. Lysenko, Sichynsky introduced elements of Duma stylistics into Ukrainian, and above all Galician, vocal music – a recitative manner of presenting musical material, with a formulaic type of melody characteristic of dumas. This is observed in the work, which is a stylization of the historical folk song “Дума про Нечая” (“Duma pro Nechaia”) (1889).
The initial melody decorated with melismas (“Ой не час тобі” [“Oi ne chas tobi”]) with minor melodic-rhythmic variants is repeated many times with different dynamic gradations – from p to mf and f, which follows from the dramatic nature of the story about Colonel Hadiatskyi, a colleague of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.
Duma genre in D. Sichynsky’s interpretation became more dynamic and dramati-cally charged. Epic expansiveness, grandeur, and restraint of the melody unfolds right in the introduction to solo singing (Adagio trіstimente, bars 1–7), which invariably repeats one laconic theme-melody, with certain variant changes, as if imitating the velopment of thought recitation. It promotes first stanza, which follows exactly the de-velopment of duma song language: “Ой, не час тобі, тай Нечаєнку, та й до корчми ходити” (“Oh, it’s not time for you, Nechaienku, visiting the pub”). Stylistically, it is close to the epic images of vocal works by Mykola Lysenko, picked up and developed by his followers in Eastern Galicia –Anatol Vakhnianyn, Ostap Nyzhankivskyi, and subsequently D. Sichynsky:
Example No. 1. D. Sichynsky. “Duma pro Nechaia”, bars 1-16.
Source: D. Sichynskyi. Vocal and choral works. Educational and methodical manual/author
-compiler G. Karas. Ivano-Frankivsk, 2015. 40 – 41.
The rhythm of D. Sichynsky’s vocal works is extremely elastic. It flexibly follows the text and sometimes aptly shades the mental state of the character – as in solo songs with enduring dramatic development (“I love you”, “Паду чолом до скелі” [“Padu cholom do skeli”]). Quite often, the composer uses syncopated rhythmics in march
-heroic images. In particular, this is clearly reflected in the solo song “Як почуєш вночі” (“Yak pochuiesh vnochi”) based on the words by Ivan Franko (1901, а moll,
e1 – a2). Due to the bright melody, marked by sharply syncopated quarter intonations,
as well as the character of the piano accompaniment in the introduction, the genre of this solo can be called a march song:
Example No. 2: D. Sichynskyi. “Yak pochuiesh vnochi”, bars 1-12.
Source: Nadiia Babynets. Chamber-vocal works of composers of Galicia of the XIX century. For concertmaster classes. Tutorial. Lviv: LNMA, 2005. 30–31.
The world of musical formation, to which D. Sichynsky applies in the genres of chamber and vocal creativity, is very diverse. He mostly cultivates a thorough compo-sitional model, completely innovative for the Galician musical tradition of that time, and less often – a three-part form with a dynamic reprise or a form that is intermediate between a simple and complex three-part (“Pisne moia”, “Babyne lito”, “Meni bai-duzhe”, “Kilko dum tut peresnylos”, “I love you”) or a simple two-part with no repeat (“Yak pochuiesh vnochi”, “Padu cholom do skeli”). Even less often, the artist uses
verse-variant forms (solo song “U haiu, haiu” – with piano interludes between verses).
Some of these have the features of a dramatic monologue, which is, in particular, a result of the influence of the Ukrainian epic folk-professional tradition stylistics
(for example, “Duma pro Nechaiia”); whereas, in others, the influence of operatic works by G. Verdi, G. Puccini, and verists (“Skilky dum tut peresnylos”, “Ne spivaite meni tsiieii pisni”, “I zolotoii, i dorohoii”) can be seen.
The composer, to secure compositional structure and formation, often uses the repetition of the last line (two lines) or a separate phrase of the poetic text at the end of the work. This rather typical phenomenon in Sichynsky’s solo songs relates to the composer trying to further emphasize the significance of the main idea in the poem text (“Skilky dum tut persenylos”, “Finale”, “Padu cholom do skeli”).
The genre basis of D. Sichynsky’s solo songs is quite diverse. It includes, inter alia, march song (“Yak pochuiesh vnochi”), varieties of romantic lied: lyrical song (“U mene buv kokhanyi ridnyi krai”), barcarole “Z moiikh sliz”, “Pisne moiia”, the middle part of “Babyne lito”), lyrical ariozo (“Ne spivaite meni tseii pisni”), dramatic monologue (“Duma pro Nechaia”, “Padu cholom do skeli”), etc.
Conclusions
Denys Sichynsky’s vocal creative work of the 1880s-1900s, considered in terms of style evolution from the standpoint of using the means of individual musical poetics, drama, and musical-performance stylistics, gives grounds to draw certain conclusions.
D. Sichynsky belongs to the so-called second generation of Galician composers, followers of the Przemyśl School and Mykola Lysenko. At the same time, his vocal creative features modern traits reflected in the appeal to the texts of contemporary poets-modernists, in part – in the means of expression system, including form ma king. A contemporary of O. Nyzhankivskyi, a representative of the Lysenko school in Gali-cia, V. Matiuk, F. Kolessa, Ya. Yaroslavenko, he created in his chamber and vocal works an individual style of vocal writing, different from that of his Galician prede-cessors. He is characterized by an expressive manner, not typical of the Przemyśl School composers, marked by a certain influence of the works by M. Lysenko, and the Western European and Russian romanticists (F. Schubert, R. Schumann, P. Tchaikov-sky). His vocal creative work formed the basis for the vocal works by S. Liudkevych, partly V. Barvinskyi, M. Kolessa, V. Vytvytskyi, I. Sonevytskyi, and other Ukrainian artists of Galicia in the first half of the twentieth century.
The composer treats chosen poetic text very carefully and in detail. In folk-styli-zing texts he tries to get as close as possible to the folk style of expression (“Duma pro Nechaia”); in solo songs based on texts of romantic poets (H. Heine) Sichynsky approaches the expressive manner of the late Schubert, partly Schumann and Tcha-ikovsky; and in texts based on the words by Ukrainian poets he tries to adequately embody the features of national prosody, preserving features of Galician dialects in the original texts (for example, those appealed to the poetry by Uliana Kravchenko).
Sichynsky’s choice of themes reflects the composer’s complex psychotype – an ac-tive, passionate personality who is also lonely at the same time, a marginal member of Galician society during the fin-de-siecle period, tired of fighting life. The themes of his
solo songs are focused on undivided feelings of love (“I love you”), compas sion for the socially disadvantaged (“I zolotoii, i dorohoii”), feelings of sadness, ho pelessness, despair, tragic confrontation with life (“Finale”, “Padu cholom do ske li”), and domi-nance of biographical motifs, typical not only for poets of European, Ukrainian, and Polish Romanticism (H. Heine, T. Shevchenko, M. Havalevich), but also the modern trend and modernist poets (I. Franko, Lesia Ukraiinka, B. Lep kyi, U. Kravchenko, V. Vilshanetska, L. Rydel, M. Havalevich). The poetic images include perfect miniature lyrical sketches (“Iz sliz moiikh” on H. Heine’s words), dramatic monologue scenes (“Duma pro Nechaia”), and works marked by the influ ences of the Italian opera style.
The musical style, in particular the melody of D. Sichynsky’s solo songs, reflect the features of Galician urban song (Old Galician elegy), Ukrainian folk song sour-ces, and the Duma epic (“Duma pro Nechaia”), which allowed traditional solo songs to acquire features of a dramatic monologue (showing an influence of Lysenko’s tra-ditions), and was influenced by Italian opera aesthetics – G. Verdi, G. Puccini, com-posers-verists. Elements of folk melodies in connection with the genre of barcarole can be found in works with stylized folklore text (“U haiu, haiu” based on the words of T. Shevchenko), the tradition of romantic serenade with barcarole rhythm in the solo songs “Iz sliz moiikh” and “Babyne lito” (middle part) with the initial textured accompaniment stylized to the accompaniment of a lute or guitar.
The best works for male and female voices – “U haiu, haiu” based on words by T. Shevchenko, “Iz sliz moiikh” based on words by H. Heine, “Yak pochuiesh vno chi” based on words by I. Franko, “Babyne lito” based on words by M. Havalevich, “I love you” based on words by V. Vilshanetska, and “Duma pro Nechaia” – show not only a strong focus on the vocal miniature style of the Austrian-German romanticisms, developed by Sichynsky in the Galician vocal tradition, but also organic assimila-tion and creative development of naassimila-tional, Lysenko tradiassimila-tions, and the rootedness of the composer’s vocal melody in Ukrainian, including Galician song sources, mainly in the urban everyday song genres. In this review, his vocal creative work serves as a connecting link between the traditions of the Przemyśl School and the composers of the Eastern Galicia who brought the genre of Ukrainian vocal miniature in the 1910s and 1930s to the international level (S. Liudkevych, V. Barvinskyi).
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Denys Sichynsky. Autobiography
(Illustrated music calendar. Lviv, 1904, p. 72-73).
I was born in 1865 in Kliuvyntsi, Husiatyn district (today Chortkiv district, Ternopil region, Ukraine – I.Z.). I attended folk schools in Stanislaviv and Ternopil, and subsequently Ternopil Gymnasium. I acquired initial music and piano skills from the famous at that time in Ternopil teacher of singing and music Lev Levytskyi, and later from the pianist Weingner (Prof. Marek’s teacher). In appr. 1886–1887, the famous musician-composer and virtuoso of playing piano and organ, Mr. Vsheliachynskyi served as a director of the local Music Society in Ternopil. He noticed my musical abilities and started instructing me for free to play piano and music theory.
His teaching was a foundation on which I built later my compositional and musical activity, since he himself was an extremely capable and educated man, able not only to teach honestly, but also provided access to his library, rich in both music literature and theoretical textbooks I used whenever possible.
My first compositions date back to the times he instructed me, namely from 1886 to 1887; these are small choral, solo, and piano works, all of which either disappeared or distributed somewhere between people, or remained transcribed among other manuscripts in Ternopil Gymnasium.
1887 and 1888 – the years of my first attempts at composition. Living at that time in dif-ferent locations, for example Lviv, Stanislaviv, Kolomyia, etc. and in very difdif-ferent circum-stances, not so much material as mental, I started writing under their influence. For example, I wrote a lot for zittern in Kolomyia. In 1888, the song emerged “U haiu, haiu” and the male choir piece “Koly b”.
In the autumn of 1888, I found myself as an academician (student of Lviv University – I.Z.) in Lviv, where I encountered my old teacher Volodyslav Vsheliachynsky again, who holds the position of a professor at the Lviv Conservatory. On his advice, I started attending a Harmony and Counterpoint Course instructed by now deceased Mykuli [Carl Mikuli – I.Z.]. I studied with him for a long time, but wrote nothing until 1892, when my “Bunch of folk songs” (mixed choir) and “Dnipro reve”24 emerged. In the same year, my artistic “gypsyism” began, that is, moving from place to place, as well as closely related compositional and pedagogical activi-ties. Thus, in 1893, I initiated founding of Kolomyia Boian. Then, I spent almost two years in Lviv (1893-95) earning a living from lectures and musical works. From 1895 to 1896 I was the conductor of Przemyśl Boian; from 1896 to1898 – conductor in the institution of the Count Skarbek foundation in Drogovyzh; from 1899 until the present with short breaks (i.e. until 1904, the time of “Autobiography” publication – I.Z.) in Stanislaviv or nearby villages, teach-ing steach-ingteach-ing and music, conductteach-ing in “Boian”, or foundteach-ing peasant choirs.
24“Dnipro reve” – first cantata of the composer, written on the words by V. Chaichenko (B.
Life of this type absorbs strength and ability, and who would have thought that a person who devotes himself to pedagogical work finds no time to compose music; with me, it was different. Thus, in Drohobych institution I had to write for the orchestra for the first time in my life, and I wrote, and while establishing peasant choirs, I had to do something appropriate for them, compose, or remake previous pieces and work, because I had to.
So far, I have established three peasant choirs, in 1899-1900 – in the villages of Uhornyky and Myketyntsi near Stanislaviv. These choirs still exist and develop well under the guidance of a teacher from Myketyntsi, Volodymyr Hrytsyshyn; in 1901–1902 (I established choir – I.Z.) in the village of Vyktorovychi near Halych. The time the last choir was established was the time of the last days of my composer’s work: almost all my works are dated with that time, pub-lished so far by the music publishing house Stanislaviv Boian, as well as my last unpubpub-lished (choral – I.Z.) work with a full orchestra (orchestral score – I.Z.).
