World of Mykola Lysenko: Ethnic Identity, Music, and Politics in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Ukraine, The

Western Folklore, Fall 2003 by Kononenko, Natalie

The World of Mykola Lysenko: Ethnic Identity, Music, and Politics in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Ukraine. By Taras Filenko and Tamara Bulat. (Edmonton: Ukrainian Millennium Foundation, 2001. Pp. viii + 434, foreword, preface, acknowledgments, introduction, photographs, appendices, bibliography, index. $55.00 cloth)

In Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, a statue honoring Mykola Lysenko as the father of Ukrainian classical music sits in front of the Opera House. But Lysenko was much more than a composer of operas; he was an internationally renowned pianist, a conductor, a choir director, a teacher, and the founder of a music school. More importantly to folklorists, he was Ukraine's first prominent ethnomusicologist, recording a wide variety of folk songs and collecting and describing folk musical instruments from venues throughout his native land. The authors seek to acquaint Western readers with the full range of Lysenko's contributions. They begin with his birth in 1842, describe the village where he was born, and then proceed with an account of his schooling. Like most children of the nobility, Lysenko went to university, first in Kharkiv and later in Kyiv. He received a degree in the natural sciences and briefly served as an arbitrator in Skvyra, but when this position was eliminated he had an opportunity to admit that his passion for music far surpassed his interest in all other subjects. He entered a conservatory in Leipzig and from that point on worked exclusively in music.

The authors trace Lysenko's career as a musician and musicologist both chronologically and thematically. They examine his travels in other Slavic countries, his further training at the conservatory in St. Petersburg, and his ethnographic work in folk music. A chapter is devoted to Lysenko as a performer, another to him as a composer, and another to the music school that he founded in Kyev. The authors bring forth the musicians, actors, writers and other artists with whom Lysenko interacted, relate the celebrations honoring the mature composer on the fiftieth anniversary of his career in music, and provide an account of his death in 1912.

Of the underlying themes of this book, two in particular stand out. One is political: Lysenko had the misfortune of being interested in things Ukrainian at a time when tsarist policy insisted on Russification. As a result, some of his work could not be published in his own country. This happened to the third volume of his Collection of Ukrainian Folk Songs for Voice and Piano, which had to be printed in Leipzig, only to have its importation into Ukraine prohibited. Other works, such as the operetta Chornomortsi, had to be published in Russian translation; they could not appear in the original Ukrainian. The authors show that Lysenko was a nationalist, dedicated to familiarizing his fellow Ukrainians with their musical heritage, especially folksongs. Even the heart attack that took Lysenko's life, the authors imply, can be attributed to political persecution, as it came shortly after the liquidation of the Ukrainian Club in which Lysenko was involved and at approximately the same time as police orders were yet again issued for his arrest. The second of the book's outstanding themes concerns Lysenko's stature on the world stage. The authors quote liberally from concert reviews and from the letters and reminiscences of famous people to show that he was known and esteemed not only in Ukraine, but internationally.

Filenko and Bulat's presentation technique is interesting and effective. The book is full of beautiful photographs and on virtually every page we can look at the famous people with whom Lysenko interacted or by whom he was influenced. There are pictures of family and friends and photos and portraits of Lysenko showing him at every stage of his life. Photos of buildings in which he studied and worked appear alongside pictures of the books he read and reproductions of covers to the books he wrote and the music he composed. The text is interspersed with quotations, especially from a book published in 1968 containing reminiscences of people then still living who remembered Lysenko. Most of this material has never before been available in English, and the wealth of primary documents makes reading this book a thrilling experience. Such a delectable array is usually available only in archives.

Unfortunately, the book does have shortcomings, the most serious being that while we learn a great deal about what other people thought of Lysenko, we learn next to nothing of the man himself-how he thought, how he worked, what inspired him. Information about his family life is lacking; spouses and children are briefly mentioned and pictures appear, but little is offered concerning them and their interactions with Lysenko. This dearth of personal information contrasts sharply with the copiously illustrated image of the public Lysenko. The emphasis on Lysenko's public persona and his interaction with famous people may also explain the brevity of the folklore chapter, where we find scant description of Lysenko as a collector working among the un-famous folk. Yet since Ukrainian folksong was so central to Lysenko's oeuvre, the reader expects more. These complaints are minor, however, and could be remedied by a follow-up volume filling in lacunae.