The Riot of Eternal Spring: Mykhailo Verykivsky and the Unfinished Musical Revolution of the 1920s
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Mykhailo Verykivsky (1896–1962) belongs to the brilliant cohort of Ukrainian musicians of universal talent, whose creative rise began in the 1920s and whose artistic legacy is an integral part of Ukrainian modernism. In 2009–2016, the author worked with the composer’s manuscripts and personal documents. In cooperation with music scholar Ilona Tamilina, we compiled two archival inventories and published The Consolidated Catalog of Music Manuscripts and Print Editions of Mykhailo Verykivsky’s Works at the Central State Archives and Museum of Literature and Arts of Ukraine (2016). This research revealed a wide range of Verykivsky’s artistic and social activities. It provided the most complete outline of his work and demonstrated how much the established ideas about Verykivsky as a conventional composer were wrong. The most accurate metaphor for Mykhailo Verykivsky in the 1920s seems to be the riot of eternal spring. This trope characterizes his most important and revolutionary compositions. Among them are the symphonic suite Vesnianky [Spring Songs] (1924) and the ballet Spring Fairy Tale (premiered in 1931 in Kharkiv under the title Pan Kanyovsky). In 1929, the composer orchestrated the chorus And It’s Already Spring from Mykola Lysenko’s opera for children Winter and Spring. The title Vesnianka refers to a piece for violin and piano that Verykivsky wrote together with David Bert- ier. In the following decades, the composer worked on an opera script called Spring Stream and wrote the Spring Suite for a mixed a cappella choir based on the poems of Ivan Franko. In his Ukrainian Suite for violin and symphony orchestra, the second movement is entitled Vesnianka. The piano cycle Volyn Watercolors ends with a movement called Spring Games at the Maiden Lake. The spring trope permeates many of Verykivsky’sromances, choral works, and works for children. Verykivsky was involved in many areas of musical life in the 1920s. He worked as a conductor at the opera houses of Kyiv and Kharkiv, collaborated with drama theatres and traveling opera companies. Verykivsky created the repertoire for the newly established Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. In his music, the composer implemented the theoretical concept of the harmonic rhythm of Boleslav Yavorsky. He saw great potential in authentic Ukrainian folklore as a tool to renew the musical language. Verykivsky taught students and conducted choirs. He was one of the founders of the Leontovych Music Society and the Association of Contemporary Music at this Society, and later headed the Association of Revolutionary Composers of Ukraine. He wrote numerous articles and reviews, etc. Verykivsky appreciated the fruitful 1920s and did not want to lose touch with their spirit, despite the ideological purges of the late 1940s, after which he was banned from teaching composition at the Kyiv State Conservatory but allowed to chair the Department of Choral Conducting. Toward the end of his life, and especially during the Khrushchev Thaw, he was working on new editions of his early works and tried to complete his drafts. While working with his archives, one gets the impression that Verykivsky had many more drafts, ideas, and unfinished projects than he managed to finish. This might appear as his personal drama. However, constant revision is an effective approach to creative work. The same approach should be applied to write the history of Ukrainian musical modernism. Scholars should continue to document the facts, collect the works, develop new concepts, keeping in mind the beauty and the feeling of spring euphoria of that time.
Source: Artistic Culture Topical Issues
Author: Iuliia Bentia
Institution: Modern Art Research Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Music
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4412198532