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Ukrainian Musical Elements in Classical Music This monograph is the first comprehensive account of the influence of Ukrainian motifs on the classical music of Europe and Russia from the eighteenth century through the first half of the twentieth. Going beyond earlier, fragmentary treatments that considered direct Ukrainian borrowings by classical composers, Yakov Soroker analyzes Ukrainian elements in the musical language of the composers and regions under study. Beginning with a survey of the modes, melodies and rhythms characteristic of Ukrainian folk music, Soroker discusses the role of these elements in the works of the Viennese classical school, nine­ teenth-century German, Austrian and Hungarian composers, Frederic Chopin and later Polish composers, Bela Bartok, and Russian composers, including such major figures as Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rakhmaninov, and Prokofiev, and lesser lights such as Khandoshkin, Serov and Kabalevsky. Drawing on a vast musical literature and a lifetime of study, Soroker demonstrates the signifi­ cant influence of Ukrainian themes, often wrongly identified as “Russian,” “Hungarian,” “Gypsy,” Continued on back flap Ukrainian Musical Elements in Classical Music Ukrainian Musical Elements in Classical Music Yakov Soroker Translated by Olya Samilenko Edited by Andrij Homjatkevyc [КІУС Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press [cius. Edmonton 1995 Toronto Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press University of Alberta University of Toronto Edmonton, Alberta Toronto, Ontario T6G2E8 CANADA M5S 1A1 CANADA Copyright © 1995 Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies ISBN 1-895571-06-5 Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Soroker, Yakov Ukrainian musical elelements in classical music Translation of: Ukrainski elementy v tvorchosti kompozytoriv-kliasykiv. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-895571-06-5 I. Music - History and criticism. 2. Folk music - Ukraine - Influence. I. Horniatkevych, Andrii. II. Title. ML3690.S67 1995 781.6*816291791 C95-930468-1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Printed in Canada Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................... 1 Several Melodic Phrases Characteristic of Ukrainian Folk M usic........................................................................ 5 Classical Composers ............................................................................. 15 Franz Joseph H aydn.......................................................................... 15 Luigi Boccherini ............................................................................... 19 Wolfgang Amadeus M ozart.............................................................. 21 Ludwig van Beethoven..................................................................... 25 Johann Nepomuk Hummel .............................................................. 35 Carl Maria von Weber ..................................................................... 37 Franz Liszt ......................................................................................... 39 Johann Landwehr............................................................................... 43 Johannes Brahm s............................................................................... 45 Felix Petyrek....................................................................................... 47 Polish Composers .................................................................................. 50 Frederic Chopin.................................................................................. 50 Stanislaw Moniuszko ........................................................................ 58 Karol Szymanowski .......................................................................... 60 Other Polish Composers ................................................................... 64 Bela Bartdk......................................................................................... 69 Russian Composers ............................................................................... 76 Ivan Khandoshkin ............................................................................. 76 Mikhail Glinka.................................................................................... 79 Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky................................................................ 85 Aleksandr Serov.................................................................................. 89 Modest Musorgsky............................................................................. 92 Petr Tchaikovsky ............................................................................... 96 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.............................................................. 105 Sergei Taneev .................................................................................. 109 Aleksandr Glazunov............................................................................ Ill Sergei Rakhmaninov............................................................................ I ll Reinhold G li£re.......................................................................... 115 Nikolai Miaskovsky ............................................................................ 116 Sergei Prokofiev . 117 Dmitrii Kabalevsky 122 Conclusion ............... 125 N o te s......................... 126 Select Bibliography . 137 Index of Folk Songs . 141 Index ......................... 145 Introduction The presence of Ukrainian elements in the music of non-Ukrainian composers and the ties of such composers with Ukrainian culture have been the subject of considerable scholarship. Borys Kudryk, Bernard Scharlitt, Andrei Budiakovsky, Mikhail Pekelis, Jan Prosnak, Stefaniia Pavlyshyn, Aristide Wirsta, Myroslav Antonovych, Wasyl Wytwycky, and Roman Sawycky are but a handful of scholars who have made significant contributions in this area.1 Nevertheless, their works contain certain inaccuracies. Several of these scholars treat the topic from a narrow perspective, ignoring the presence of Ukrainian elements in the musical language of the epoch and region, as well as the influence exerted by these components on the language of professional composers. Dealing only with direct Ukrainian borrowings by European classical composers from Bach to Schubert, the aforementioned scholars have failed to address the broader issue of the presence of Ukrainian elements in the music of classical composers of other nationalities. The influence of folklore on classical European music, whether it be direct or, as is more frequently the case, subliminal, is a generally acknowledged phenomenon. The Viennese composers Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, as well as the Romantic composers Weber, Schubert, Liszt, and Brahms often relied on the music of Eastern countries for inspiration. To a certain extent this can be explained by “geopolitical” factors. Many of the major composers of Western Europe lived in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which included territories (and peoples) of Hungary, Bohemia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Croatia. It is difficult to imagine an enlightened resident of the Austro-Hungarian Empire of that time, particularly one knowledgeable about music, as ignorant of the folklore of these regions, including Ukrainian folklore. Western musicians who borrowed Ukrainian themes or musical phrases without being aware of the existence of Ukrainian music or, for that matter, of the Ukrainian nation often misidentified Ukrainian folklore as “Russian.”2 They referred to Ukrainian music as “Russian,” “Hungarian,” or, in some cases, “Turkish.” Composers of Western, Central, and Eastern Europe sought novel themes and images in what they considered the exotic folklore of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. An examination of the musical legacy of these composers suggests that the quest for dance genres often led them to Hungarian, Gypsy, and Romanian music, whereas the search for lyrical themes (particularly of a melancholy strain) led them to Ukrainian folklore and the Ukrainian musical idiom. Ample proof exists that Ukrainian music was known in Europe as early as the 2 Yakov Soroker sixteenth century. Melodies of Ukrainian songs with translations of their lyrics into German, French and English appeared in print in the second half of the eighteenth century. A collection of musical scores to Russian and Ukrainian folk songs with an English translation of the lyrics was published in London in 1816. English translations of Ukrainian dumy and theoretical works on them appeared in 1840. A Polish translation of the popular Ukrainian folk song, “Oi ne khody, Hrytsiu, ta na vechernytsi” (Oh, Hryts’, Don’t Go to Evening Parties; attributed to Maria Churai), was published in 1822 in Lviv and reprinted in German translation in 1848. There is evidence to suggest that this song was widely known in other countries, including France (as early as the beginning of the 1830s), the Czech and Slovak lands, Belgium, and even the United States. Equally well known was the song “Ikhav kozak za Dunai” (The Cossack Rode beyond the Danube; music and words by Semen Klymovsky).3 Furthermore, a large body of works by German, Austrian, Hungarian, Polish, Russian and other composers is based on original Ukrainian folkloric material and will

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