BOOK NOTES (09/13/98)

BOOK NOTES

New comprehensive study of Ukrainian musical elements

EDMONTON - "Ukrainian Musical Elements in Classical Music" by Yakov Soroker is the first comprehensive account of the influence of Ukrainian motifs on the classical music of Europe and Russia from the 18th century through the first half of the 20th.

Going beyond earlier, fragmentary treatments that considered direct Ukrainian borrowings by classical composers, Mr. 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, the author discusses the role of these elements in the works of the Viennese classical school, 19th century German, Austrian and Hungarian composers, Frederic Chopin and later Polish composers, Bela Bartok, and Russian composers, including such major figures as Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, and lesser lights such as Khandoshkin, Serov and Kabalevsky.

Drawing on a vast musical literature and a lifetime of study, Mr. Soroker demonstrates the significant influence of Ukrainian themes - often wrongly identified as "Russian," "Hungarian," "Gypsy" or "Turkish" - on classical music. The text is enriched with 100 musical examples and a bibliography citing works in several languages. Offering a fresh analytical approach and a wealth of new information, this book, published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, is an important contribution to the literature on classical music.

Mr. Soroker was born in 1920 in Bessarabia; he studied in Chisinau, then at the Moscow Conservatory with David Oistrakh. He completed his studies at the conservatory in 1955 with a dissertation on Beethoven's violin sonatas, going on to a career as a performer and pedagogue. From 1962 to 1976 he held the chair of music history and theory at the Ivan Franko Pedagogical Institute in Drohobych.

He has published more than 100 works, including monographs and articles, particularly on the works of Beethoven and Prokofiev and on the violinists Szigeti, Goldstein and Oistrakh. In 1976 he settled in Jerusalem, where he died in 1995.

The book may be ordered from: CIUS Press, 352 Athabasca Hall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E8 Canada. Credit card orders may be faxed to (403) 492 - 4967.

The clothbound 161-page book costs $26.70, including GST; add $3 for shipping.

Publication covers old Rus' monetary systems

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Prof. Omeljan Pritsak's "The Origins of the Old Rus' Weights and Monetary Systems," has recently been published by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and distributed by Harvard University Press.

In this sweeping work, Dr. Pritsak charts how the metrological and numismatic system of Western Europe, Arabia, Khazaro-Bulgaria and, later, Byzantium influenced the development of their counterparts in Kyivan Rus'.

Dr. Pritsak begins with a survey of the weights and monetary systems extant in Eurasia in the seventh to 11th centuries and goes on to solve many fundamental, century-old problems in the study of Old Rus' metrology and numismatics.

Many of Dr. Pritsak's conclusions challenge conventional theories in this field. Students of the history of Ukraine, Russia and Eastern Europe in general will find this to be the most thoroughly researched and documented English-language study of the subject to date.

This book is the result of over 20 years of work by Dr. Pritsak, former director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. In 1990-1997 he served as director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

The 160-page book is available from: Harvard University Press, 79 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138; telephone, 1-800-448-2242; fax, 1-800-962-4983. Price: $29 (clothbound). Applicable taxes, shipping and handling charges are extra.

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