Musical culture in southern Ukraine discussed at Shevchenko Society (10/24/04)

Musical culture in southern Ukraine discussed at Shevchenko Society

by Dr. Orest Popovych

NEW YORK - Performances of both classical and folk music in contemporary southern Ukraine were demonstrated with the aid of videorecordings, and their cultural context was discussed by the husband-and-wife duo of Dr. Jaropolk Lassowsky and Dr. Hanna Chumachenko at the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) building here on September 18. The program was introduced by NTSh president Dr. Larissa Zaleska Onyshkevych.

Dr. Lassowsky, a professor of music at Clarion State University in Pennsylvania, who is also a violinist, conductor and composer, has recently returned from his stint as a Fulbright fellow at the Kherson State University in sourthern Ukraine, where he taught music history and the application of computers to music. He also conducted three different orchestras in Kherson. In his lecture, Dr. Lassowsky shared with the audience his recent experiences there.

Kherson, a city of about 400,000 inhabitants (comparable to Pittsburgh) is home to the Kherson Regional College of Music, attended by some 800 students (not part of the university). Although this college is rich in tradition, dating back to Mykola Lysenko, Dr. Lassowsky said he detected a certain lack of confidence there, based on a self-perception of provincial status. Finding this attitude unjustified, Dr. Lassowsky challenged the students to prepare and perform the famous Fifth Symphony by Beethoven. With Dr. Lassowsky as the conductor, the college orchestra, consisting of 60 students and five faculty members, managed this novel, (for them) task just fine, as demonstrated by the video excerpts.

Another piece performed by the college orchestra was Mykola Lysenko's overture to the opera "Natalka Poltavka," as orchestrated by Dr. Lassowsky. The NTSh audience was treated to an unabridged version of the overture on video, as it was played at a concert in Kherson before some 1,200 listeners, with Dr. Lassowsky conducting. The conductor-composer was rewarded with well-deserved applause both in Kherson and here. Also shown were examples of vocal performances by the students and faculty, which attested to the high level of competence at the Kherson Regional College of Music.

In addition to conducting the college orchestra, Dr. Lassowsky appeared also as guest conductor with two local professional ensembles, the Kherson Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kherson Chamber Orchestra. Of the excerpts of their performances, particularly memorable was the "Elegy" composed by Dr. Lassowsky in memory of Mykola Kulish, the Ukrainian playwright who was murdered by the Communists in 1937. Mr. Kulish was a native of the Kherson region and Dr. Lassowsky got the inspiration for this composition by visiting Mr. Kulish's native village. In appreciation, the Kherson Philharmonic accorded Dr. Lassowsky the title of resident composer and guest conductor.

In the future, Dr. Lassowsky said he is planning for Kherson a comprehensive program of presentations of Lysenko's works, orchestral as well as choral. Popularizing Ukrainian music in Ukraine may sound paradoxical, but it is necessary, concluded the speaker.

Next to speak was Dr. Chumachenko, a philologist specializing in Ukrainian ethnography and folklore, and a professor at Kherson State University, a position she has retained even after emigrating to the U.S. During her husband's visiting professorship there, she taught in its graduate division.

As an ethnographer, Dr. Chumachenko prefaced her musical presentation by first providing the necessary ethnocultural context. She showed videos of the landscapes and houses along the southern banks of Dnipro River, related what kind of people - mostly fishermen and vegetable farmers - live there and shared snippets of their experiences under communism. Although there is some local Kozak tradition in the region, most of the population of southern Ukraine had migrated there from other regions of Ukraine - Poltava and Vinnytsia were mentioned - and even from as far away as the Carpathian mountains. This diversity is reflected in their music and attire, Dr. Chumachenko noted.

Subsequently, she showed a video from a festival of folk music at Hola Prystan, near the delta of the Dnipro, where many village ensembles showed off their songs and dances - a mélange of spring songs, songs of the Ivan Kupalo rituals and others. Renowned among the folklore ensembles is a women's singing group called Oleshshya from the village of Kardashynka in the Kherson region, which has appeared at folk festivals elsewhere as well. Featured also were jocular contemporary songs about present-day situations. At folk festivals it is not uncommon for the audience to join in the performance. Dr. Chumachenko summed up by observing that the folk music of southern Ukraine reflects its people's "art of survival."

Dr. Lassowsky said he was very grateful for the enthusiastic cooperation of all the institutions he worked with during his stay in Kherson: the Kherson Regional College of Music (Director Olena Lypa, Vice-Director Natalia Drobot, Orchestra Director Dmytro Siryi); Kherson State University (Rector Yuriy Belyaev, Vice-Rector Oleh Mishukov, Dean of the School of Arts and Culture, Mykola Levchenko); the Department of Culture of the Kherson Regional Administration (Vasyl Ryleev, chairman); Director of the Kherson Philharmonic Yuriy Ivanenko; the Kherson Philharmonic Orchestra Hilea (Music Director and Conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko).

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