MUSIC REVIEW: Julian Kytasty's "Black Sea Winds" (04/14/02)

MUSIC REVIEW: Julian Kytasty's "Black Sea Winds"

by Marcia Ostashewski

NEW YORK - "Black Sea Winds: The Kobzari of Ukraine" offers a surprisingly uncomplicated texture for sounds that are so very rich. This latest solo recording of bandurist Julian Kytasty, like all his music, has a grounded quality and directness where one normally comes across ethereal, harp-like sounds. The pieces on the CD draw largely upon a traditional and historical kobzar repertoire of "religious and moralistic songs [dumas], lively humorous songs and instrumental dance tunes." Of the recent recordings of Ukrainian music I have reviewed, this one is exceptional in that it includes carefully written liner notes (yes, there are Grammy Awards for these, too). The liner notes were written by Mr. Kytasty and so provide an intimate glimpse of the artist and his understanding of his place in this creative tradition. The information included in the booklet of the CD case not only details the roots of bandura traditions, but also describes the impetus of Mr. Kytasty's own music.

In a recent interview, Mr. Kytasty identified the greatest influence in his music and life as bandurist Zynovyi Shtokalko. Dr. Shtokalko, who died in New York in 1968, was a medical doctor, researcher, modernist and poet - "very 20th century," said Mr. Kytasty. "He showed us how to create new music out of the solo tradition, he took the old stuff and carried it way past what the blind players did. Dr. Shtokalko played music that was more instrumentally interesting - dumas that were virtuosic instrumental compositions that went along with the traditional texts; he experimented with tuning - altering the kobzar modes, making the music sound almost atonal."

"Black Sea Winds," recorded in London by November Music, was inspired by Dr. Shtokalko's "non-academic, non-museum type way" of playing. This recording was mostly improvised, Mr. Kytasty told me - "to reproduce [the old kobzar music] is not to do it right; reproducing it note for note is 'doing something' but not doing music." Mr. Kytasty says he is "following through on what Shtokalko did, [playing music that has] a sense of being really traditional and yet breaking into modern sensibilities."

The soft velvet tone of Mr. Kytasty's voice, together with the percussive elements of his unique performance style, give an unmistakable earthy quality to this recording. This includes, for example, the sounds of Mr. Kytasty's breath and almost guttural declamatory style of singing while telling a story of a widow and her ungrateful sons. The sons turned their mother out of her own home, but lived only a short time before misfortune befell their families. Another duma recounts a letter from a sister to her brother; she weeps about her sorrowful life in a new land, as she has become widowed and "left orphaned with my small children." One more tale of a passage of generations into a new land is embedded in a song that was created behind a church in a Brazilian-Ukrainian community. Movement between the notes in this melody, played on sopilka (wooden flute), is often preceded by the slight bending of tones, or delicate ornamentation. The kobzars, Mr. Kytasty mentions in the liner notes, called this elaborate treatment of pitches "dodavaty zhaloschiv" or "adding sorrow."

Mr. Kytasty's meticulous translations of song texts and descriptions of pieces in the liner notes reflect the intricate stories, characters and personalities that he weaves with his music. These intensely personal journeys are an essential element of what Mr. Kytasty writes is his "contemporary meditation on the kobzari and their time, interspersing kobzar songs with my own compositions and improvisations." "I have tried to be true to the music in spirit, and in an improvisational moment grasp the thread that runs through the players I learned from, back to the kobzari, then to their predecessors" (from the liner notes).

This CD also is an intensely personal journey the listener takes with Mr. Kytasty, through sounds and scenes and emotions. Along passages of sorrow, playful joy and peaceful contemplation, amidst current debates regarding global/local dynamics, preservation of musical cultures and the changing nature of these traditions, "Black Sea Winds" crosses through time and space. This music is truly wonderful.

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