EDITORIAL: Dumka: half-century of song (04/09/00)

EDITORIAL

Dumka: half-century of song

The Ukrainian word "dumka" has two meanings: the first meaning is thought or opinion - "v mene bula taka dumka" - and the second meaning is that of a lyrical song or instrumental composition patterned on traditional folk-song melodies. It is lyrical song that the Dumka chorus of New York has brought us for 50 years.

Founded in 1949 in New York as an all-male chorus composed of 40 members, Dumka became a mixed male-female choir in 1959. Since its beginning it has been directed by a half-dozen conductors, currently by Maestro Vasyl Hrechynsky.

Dumka held its first concert in Manhattan's Beethoven Hall on Sunday, February 12, 1950, an event attended by about 300 guests. The first program included many Ukrainian carols, "schedrivky" and religious hymns since the concert preceded a traditional Christmas season "prosfora" dinner. Into the Ukrainian American community at the time, post-war immigrants had just begun to arrive and the Dumka chorus made a profound impression on the guests of the first concert.

The Ukrainian Weekly wrote of the first concert: "If ever you have been caught in the expectant hush of a gathering mid-summer storm and, by a sudden clap of thunder, found yourself engulfed in pulsing waves of magnificent sound and force ... [then] you might envision the impact of the first crashing chords sung by the new Dumka chorus ... Nothing like it has been heard in and around New York in years ... not since the days when the great Koshetz waved his magic hands over the 'human organ' of the seven [combined] Ukrainian Catholic church choirs ... and from those 350 throats evoked the pealing fortissimos and the poignant pianissimos that gave rise to the Koshetz Legend. ... Inevitably, the many 'Old Guard' Ukrainians present as guests ... did apply the Koshetz yardstick and found the measurement exciting. Under the direction of [Leonty] Krushelnytsky, the chorus showed such a mastery of choral harmony, cleanness of attack, dynamics and diction, and such an intelligent and instant response to the director's every gesture that one could easily hope for the additional and needed mastery in the near future of the fluid phrasing, the delicate counterpoint and the sensitive 'feel' for each song that has seldom been heard since the Carnegie and Town Hall concerts of the combined choruses."

Dumka's concert that afternoon was greeted with a standing ovation and was returned with two encores.

Fifty years later the chorus is again preparing to make a profound impression as it celebrates its golden anniversary on Sunday, April 9, at 2 p.m. in The Great Hall at The Cooper Union. The concert program will include classics by Ukrainian composers such as Bortniansky, Lysenko, Liudkevych, Nyzhankivksi, Kos-Anatolsky, Kolessa, Leontovych, as well as arrangements by contemporary composers such as Yevhen Stankovych among its close to 20 selections.

For 50 years the chorus has been maintaining and cultivating the beautiful heritage of Ukrainian secular and religious music. For this we say thank you to Dumka and offer a "Mnohaya Lita" - may you long continue to bring us your heartfelt song.

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