DATELINE NEW YORK: A-caroling we go (01/26/97)

DATELINE NEW YORK: A-caroling we go

by Helen Smindak

While Christmas lingers only as a pleasant memory for most Christians of the Western world, the joyousness of the Yuletide season has continued through January for those Ukrainians who adhere to the Julian calendar. Extending the beauty and brightness of the season for several weeks, Christmas Day was celebrated January 7, New Year's Day on the 14th and "Vodokhryshchia" or the Epiphany, on the 19th, in commemoration of the baptism of Christ.

In New York City, where a dozen Ukrainian churches still follow the old calendar, Christmas with all its traditional trappings arrived this month.

Following a custom begun 10 years ago, the Dumka Chorus of New York trooped from church to church in the metropolitan area during recent weeks in the manner of Ukrainian carolers, who went from house to house in earlier days. Although they carried no star and were not accompanied by masked and costumed figures leading a cow or a goat, the Dumka choristers were received warmly wherever they brought tidings of Christ's birth and wishes for prosperity, good health and good life in the new year.

The chorus transported the ritual Christmas songs known as koliadky and schedrivky to two Ukrainian churches in New Jersey at the turn of the year, to St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church in downtown Manhattan on January 12 and, later the same day, to that famous Fifth Avenue landmark, St. Patrick Roman Catholic Cathedral, where hundreds of listeners harkened to the Ukrainian carols.

Paying a visit to St. Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral on January 19 the Dumka Chorus offered an hourlong concert of koliadky (Christmas carols) and schedrivky (New Year carols), under the masterful direction of the ensemble's conductor, Vasyl Hrechynsky.

Although the city was experiencing below-freezing temperatures and an even colder wind-chill factor - the coldest of the season - St. Vladimir Cathedral was filled with worshippers, many of whom live in New Jersey and Long Island, and members of a sister parish, Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Church in lower Manhattan. The congregation included Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations, Anatolii Zlenko, and his wife, Liudmyla, consul general of Ukraine in New York, Viktor Kryzhanivsky, and Kyiv opera star Lydia Bychkova.

Opening with the glorious carol "Boh Predvichnyi" (God Eternal), the chorus went on to sing the triumphant "Khrystos Narodyvsia" (Christ Is Born), composed by Mr. Hrechynsky to words by L. Dmytryshyn, and the reverential old carol "Dnes Poyushche" (Singing Today), in an arrangement by Kyrylo Stetsenko.

The program included rarely performed schedrivky arranged by Mykola Leontovych, K. Polischuk and I. Nedilsky, and an ancient song reconstructed into a carol by the Christian church "Oy, Rano, Rano, Pivni Zapily", arranged by Vasyl Stupnytsky. Solo parts were admirably fulfilled by tenor Lubomyr Pavlovych in "Oy, Tam Za Horoyu" (There Beyond the Hill), soprano Yevhenia Babiuk-Klufas in "V Poli, Poli" (In the Field), and tenor Vasyl Tershakovec in "Oy, Ty Yasna Zirka" (Oh, You Bright Star).

Paul Liteplo's baritone voice gave emphasis to the poignancy of the song "Ne Plach, Rakhyle" (Don't Cry, Rachel), arranged by Theodosiy Kupchynsky and Mykola Kolessa. "O Holy Night," the only non-Ukrainian carol in the program, received additional luster from the clear, luminous voice of soprano Sviatoslava Kaczaraj, singing in English. Blending in melodiously, the chorus added background music to the last portion of each verse.

Simulating the sound of church bells in the carol "A, v Yerusalymi" (In Jerusalem), the Dumka basses delivered a rhythmic succession of deep-toned bell sounds in slow motion - "Bom, Bom, Bom, Bom" - while the women's section chimed in with vivacious high notes. The chorus skillfully juxtaposed the two levels of tone and tempo, endowing the carol with animation and good cheer.

For its concluding selection, the chorus proferred the old New Year carol "Schedryk," harmonized by Mykola Leontovych. Known to the world as the sprightly "Carol of the Bells" in its modern, fast-paced version, the Ukrainian carol was sung in its original moderate tempo, though with the same happy spirit. The carol, which comes from the Volyn region of Ukraine, relates the story of a swallow which warbles to the farmer about the prospects of a marvelous bounty: sheep, lambs, the produce from his fields and a beautiful black-browed wife.

Leontovych's arrangement received its first public performance in 1916, when a student choir performed it in Kyiv under the direction of Alexander Koshetz. An American composer/arranger, Peter J. Wilhousky, who heard the carol during the U.S. tour of the Koshetz Ukrainian Chorus in 1922, added new words to the music, and it became "Carol of the Bells."

During the divine liturgy and the ceremonial blessing of water (a rite performed in Ukraine at the river's edge), St. Vladimir's choir provided a cappella music under the direction of Stephanie Kulyk. Bass-baritone George Fedoriw, a longtime member of the choir, sang the prayer "Otche Nash" (Our Father). He also was heard in a solo rendition of Adolphe Adam's devout "O Holy Night," which he sang in Ukrainian. The composition, usually delivered by a soprano voice, was translated into Ukrainian over 35 years ago by the Very Rev. Hryhoriy Pavlovsky, who served at St. Vladimir Cathedral with the Rt. Rev. Lev Wesolowsky at the church's earlier location on the Lower East Side.

Emceeing the community dinner in St. Vladimir's auditorium after the concert, Alex Redko strode from table to table, chanting a Ukrainian New Year's greeting as he "sowed" handfuls of grain on the tables with a wish for "good health and much wealth."

The Very Rev. Roman Tarnawsky, who recently arrived from Ternopil in Ukraine with his wife, Lida, and son, Roman, to take up duties as the new pastor of St. Vladimir's, was introduced to the assembly by Mr. Redko, along with the Rt. Rev. Volodymyr Bazylevsky, pastor emeritus; Deacon Yuriy Malakhovsky of Holy Cross Ukrainian Catholic Church in Astoria, N.Y.; parish president Viacheslav Vyshnevsky; and Vsevolod Salenko, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Federal Credit Union in New York, who announced that the union was donating $500 to the Dumka Chorus for its work on behalf of Ukrainian culture. Also presented were 20-year-old Ruslan Korobeynik from Poltava, Ukraine, now a student in the New York area, and George Bazylevsky, both of whom assisted the clergy - the Revs. Tarnawsky and Bazylevsky and the Rev. Thomas Popovcyh of the Serbian Orthodox Church - as they celebrated the liturgy.

True to Ukrainian fashion, the convivial dinner gathering continued far into the afternoon, interspersed by a rousing "Mnohaya Lita" by the Dumka Chorus and piano solos by Iryna Kyishchenko, a Ukrainian resident of Moscow. As happy families left the church, most were carrying shopping bags or tote bags laden with jars of holy water intended for home.

Carolers galore

Carolers in large numbers have been spotted at the Mayana Gallery at 136 Second Ave. (fourth floor) since January 12, and will continue to be seen there until February 2. They appear in paintings, watercolors, graphics and tempera works that focus on Ukrainian Christmas customs. Depicting carolers, the creche, the blessing of water rites and other Christmas tableaux, the works were executed by Petro Bilchuk, Valerian Duvirak, Yulian Kolesar, Vitaly Litvin, Omelian Mazuryk, Andriy Pikush and Marina Tsesarska, all of Ukraine.

Mayana curator Slava Gerulak's unique ceramic icons and her "vertep" group, a set of two-foot-high ceramic figures that portray the manger scene in Bethlehem, are also on exhibit. The vertep was displayed in the World Trade Center's Christmas show in the early 1970s.

Christmas decorations created by Ms. Gerulak and her daughter, Elmira Gerulak, adorn a group of Christmas trees, each showing an individual theme. One tree, for example, is decorated with painted eggshells (the inspiration here was Ukrainian mythology), another bears glass ornaments painted with faces, while a third is festooned with birds, angels and stars made of paper.

Mayana Gallery hours are 6-8 p.m. on Friday, and 1-4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

A unique genre

Ukrainian schedrivky are the most unique genre of Ukraine and could perform a colossal public relations service for the country if properly harnessed, according to Teodor Teren-Juskiw of New York.

Mr. Juskiw, a music authority who writes reviews for the Svoboda Ukrainian daily newspaper and several other Ukrainian publications, voiced these convictions when he addressed a gathering of the Ukrainian Art and Literary Club at the Mayana Gallery on December 17.

Discussing Ukrainian koliadky and schedrivky as performed by choirs in Ukraine, in particular male and mixed choruses, Mr. Juskiw noted that no other country in the world has New Year well-wishing carols - "not even Slavic countries like Russia and Poland."

As he played cassette tapes to demonstrate the music and words of schedrivky, he listed these points: schedrivky are poetic, melodic and optimistic; they bear references to Ukraine's princely era, to Kozak times and to the days of the chumaky (salt traders); and, hey fall into two cycles, the pre-Christian or "Velychaini" that wish good life, good luck and good health, and the Christian.

"Back in 1922, Ukraine sent out the Koshetz choir to tour abroad, and they popularized our 'Schedryk' carol which became a universal favorite at Christmastime," he pointed out.

Mr. Juskiw believes that Ukraine should consider forming a good-sized chorus (at least 40 singers, complete with contrabasses, "because Ukrainian contrabasses are the best contrabasses in the world") and dispatch it on a world tour with a repertoire of schedrivky and perhaps some koliadky.

"That would be the Olympiad of Ukraine," he declared.

"ER" errs

The December 19 episode of the NBC-TV evening drama "ER" inflicted some real-life pain to Ukrainians involved with the production. The show recreated a Ukrainian Christmas Eve supper but made a serious error by referring to Ukrainian Easter eggs as Christmas eggs - even though the episode's Ukrainian consultants pleaded to have the mistake corrected before the show was aired.

The response from an '"ER" official: "Don't worry, it's show business after all. Only 50 million people will see the show, and only Ukrainians may, I repeat may, notice that something ain't kosher!"

"ER" fans will know that one of the characters, Nurse Carol Hathaway, is of Ukrainian descent. In the December 19 episode, Carol's mother tried to show Carol some of the wonderful traditions of her Ukrainian heritage by preparing a Christmas Eve supper (Sviata Vechera).

The segment, which I understand was brief and came near the end of the show, pictured a group of people in Ukrainian costumes decorating pysanky. That certainly "ain't kosher"; a good many people who are not Ukrainian, in addition to Ukrainians, can tell you that pysanky are decorated only for Easter.

The drama's principal characters, George Clooney, Julianne Margulies and Rose Gregorio, backed the Ukrainians who argued with the director to change the scene. Other supporters included six members of the set dressing team and five members of the costume department.

Set dressing and costumes for the Sviata Vechera scene were donated from the private collections of the Wrzesniewski, Dudynsky, Keske, Samokish and Broza families of Los Angeles, all of whom deserve praise for their good-hearted assistance.

Comments and opinions on this "emergency" can be directed to "ER," 4000 Warner Blvd., Building 133, Room 191, Burbank, CA 91522; or sent to me in care of The Ukrainian Weekly.

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