Levko Revutsky
Encyclopedia
Levko Mykolajovych Revutskyi was a Ukrainian
composer
, teacher, and activist. Amongst his students at the Lysenko Music Institute were the composers Arkady Filippenko
and Valentin Silvestrov
.
uyezd of the Poltava Governorate
(presently in the Chernihiv Oblast
) to a family of a trustee of a rural school. The parents of the future composer were well-educated. His music talent showed up very early and his mother began to teach young Revutsky to play the piano when he hardly was five years old. By age ten, he showed skill at improvisation and had perfect pitch, earning him the nickname "Tuning fork
".
In 1903 his parents transferred Revutsky to Kiev
's Val'ker gymnasium
and simultaneously the music school of Mykola Tumanovsky where he studied fortepiano
with Mykola Lysenko
. Revutsky later recalled, "Lysenko became for me the firxt example of artistic ideals."
Graduating from the gymnasium in 1907, he entered the physic-mathematics faculty of Kiev University
. In 1908, Revutsky also entered law school and at the same time renewed piano classes at the Kiev music college run by the Russian Music Society. He was greatly impressed by visits to Moscow
and St. Petersburg where he attended the theatre and concerts.
In three years of studies in the premiere course of the school Revutsky had considerable successes. In 1911 he graduated to the higher level in the class of G. Hodorovsky. Revutsky’s studies in the class of this master lasted a few years: from 1911 to 1913 year in musical school, and afterwards in the newly opened Kiev conservatory. In the conservatory, Revutsky simultaneously with his piano studies begins to visit Gliere's composition classes. He continued his university studies.
The first part of piano sonata (in C minor), sketches for the first symphony, and the prelude of opus four were created at this time. Revutsky graduated from both the university and conservatory in 1916, and went to fight in the First World War.
. In 1924 Revutsky was invited to Kiev to work as a teacher at the Lysenko Music-Drama Institute. From this time he gave himself to pedagogical work, initially as teacher, and then as professor of music-theory and performance and composition .
In the 1930s Revutsky had considerable achievements as a composer. In addition, he created his music-pedagogical systems. For hismerits in the field of culture Revutsky received the title of People's Artist of Ukraine
in 1942, and in 1944 People's Artist of USSR. In the post-war period he participated in a renewal of artistic-cultural life of the Republic. During 1944–1948 years Revutsky headed the Composers Union of Ukraine. Revutsky was also elected by the deputy of Supreme Soviet of Ukraine to a number of convocations.
In 1950 he undertook the enormous task of editing and preparing Mykola Lysenko
's works for publication. In February, 1969 in connection with his 80th birthday and for creative merit Levko Revutsky was awarded the rank of Hero of Socialist Labor
. He died on March 30, 1977, and is buried in Baikovo cemetery in Kiev.
Levko Revutsky further developed the methods of Lysenko and Leontovych
. He enriched Ukrainian music with his individual stylistic discoveries. The composer's style of Revutsky was formed on the basis of deep and comprehensive understanding of Ukrainian folk melody and traditions of modern professional music. Life-asserting attitude, lyricism, restraint, breadth and riches of emotions, are inherent in the works of this artist. His measured, expressive melody unites with the saturated, difficult harmony. Revutsky exposed reality and in lyrical-dramatic, and in lyrical-epic keys.
His works belong to the treasury of Ukrainian classics (The second symphony and piano concert are the first considerable works of these genres in Ukrainian music).
Revutsky made a considerable contribution to the development of genre folk songs arrangements. There are about 120 original such arrangements in his creative inheritance.
Life and the creative activity of Revutsky can be an example of service to the Motherland and its people for many generations.
“Sonechko” regional child creative activity holiday is sited at Revutsky homestead in Irzhavets of Ichnia district.
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, teacher, and activist. Amongst his students at the Lysenko Music Institute were the composers Arkady Filippenko
Arkady Filippenko
Arkady Dmitriyevich Filippenko was a Soviet Ukrainian composer.- Biography :He was born in the small village of Pushcha-Vodycia, now a suburb of Kyiv . As a pre-schooler, he spent a great deal of time outdoors with his grandfather, a shepherd who played and made pastoral pipes akin to those of...
and Valentin Silvestrov
Valentin Silvestrov
Valentyn Vasylyovych Sylvestrov is a Ukrainian pianist and composer of contemporary classical music.-Education:Sylvestrov began private music lessons at age 15...
.
Early life and education
Levko Mykolayevych Revutsky was born on February, 20, 1889 in Irzhavets, PrylukyPryluky
Pryluky or Priluki is a city located on the Udai River in the Chernihiv Oblast, north-central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Prylutsky Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate municipality within the oblast...
uyezd of the Poltava Governorate
Poltava Governorate
The Poltava Governorate or Government of Poltava was a guberniya in the historical Left-bank Ukraine region of the Russian Empire, which was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Malorossiya Governorate which was split between the Chernigov Governorate and Poltava Governorate with an...
(presently in the Chernihiv Oblast
Chernihiv Oblast
Chernihiv Oblast is an oblast of northern Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Chernihiv.-Geography:The total area of the province is around 31,900 km²....
) to a family of a trustee of a rural school. The parents of the future composer were well-educated. His music talent showed up very early and his mother began to teach young Revutsky to play the piano when he hardly was five years old. By age ten, he showed skill at improvisation and had perfect pitch, earning him the nickname "Tuning fork
Tuning fork
A tuning fork is an acoustic resonator in the form of a two-pronged fork with the prongs formed from a U-shaped bar of elastic metal . It resonates at a specific constant pitch when set vibrating by striking it against a surface or with an object, and emits a pure musical tone after waiting a...
".
In 1903 his parents transferred Revutsky to Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
's Val'ker gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
and simultaneously the music school of Mykola Tumanovsky where he studied fortepiano
Fortepiano
Fortepiano designates the early version of the piano, from its invention by the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century. It was the instrument for which Haydn, Mozart, and the early Beethoven wrote their piano music...
with Mykola Lysenko
Mykola Lysenko
Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist.- Biography :Lysenko was born in Hrynky, Kremenchuk Povit, Poltava Governorate, the son of Vitaliy Romanovich Lysenko . From childhood he became very interested in the folksongs of Ukrainian peasants and...
. Revutsky later recalled, "Lysenko became for me the firxt example of artistic ideals."
Graduating from the gymnasium in 1907, he entered the physic-mathematics faculty of Kiev University
Kiev University
Taras Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv , colloquially known in Ukrainian as KNU is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. It is the third oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and Kharkiv University. Currently, its structure...
. In 1908, Revutsky also entered law school and at the same time renewed piano classes at the Kiev music college run by the Russian Music Society. He was greatly impressed by visits to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and St. Petersburg where he attended the theatre and concerts.
In three years of studies in the premiere course of the school Revutsky had considerable successes. In 1911 he graduated to the higher level in the class of G. Hodorovsky. Revutsky’s studies in the class of this master lasted a few years: from 1911 to 1913 year in musical school, and afterwards in the newly opened Kiev conservatory. In the conservatory, Revutsky simultaneously with his piano studies begins to visit Gliere's composition classes. He continued his university studies.
The first part of piano sonata (in C minor), sketches for the first symphony, and the prelude of opus four were created at this time. Revutsky graduated from both the university and conservatory in 1916, and went to fight in the First World War.
Post graduate work
Demobilized in 1918, Revutsky moved to PrylukyPryluky
Pryluky or Priluki is a city located on the Udai River in the Chernihiv Oblast, north-central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Prylutsky Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate municipality within the oblast...
. In 1924 Revutsky was invited to Kiev to work as a teacher at the Lysenko Music-Drama Institute. From this time he gave himself to pedagogical work, initially as teacher, and then as professor of music-theory and performance and composition .
In the 1930s Revutsky had considerable achievements as a composer. In addition, he created his music-pedagogical systems. For hismerits in the field of culture Revutsky received the title of People's Artist of Ukraine
People's Artist of Ukraine
People's Artist of Ukraine is an honorary and the highest title awarding to outstanding performing artists whose merits are exceptional in the sphere of the development of the performing arts ....
in 1942, and in 1944 People's Artist of USSR. In the post-war period he participated in a renewal of artistic-cultural life of the Republic. During 1944–1948 years Revutsky headed the Composers Union of Ukraine. Revutsky was also elected by the deputy of Supreme Soviet of Ukraine to a number of convocations.
In 1950 he undertook the enormous task of editing and preparing Mykola Lysenko
Mykola Lysenko
Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist.- Biography :Lysenko was born in Hrynky, Kremenchuk Povit, Poltava Governorate, the son of Vitaliy Romanovich Lysenko . From childhood he became very interested in the folksongs of Ukrainian peasants and...
's works for publication. In February, 1969 in connection with his 80th birthday and for creative merit Levko Revutsky was awarded the rank of Hero of Socialist Labor
Hero of Socialist Labor
Hero of Socialist Labour was an honorary title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. It was the highest degree of distinction for exceptional achievements in national economy and culture...
. He died on March 30, 1977, and is buried in Baikovo cemetery in Kiev.
Legacy
The creative legacy of Levko Revutsky is the original legacy in the world of national music, specifically selected from the general background of artistic culture by the unique harmonic beauty. Unsurpassed melodic standards (in particular, in «Song», cantata-poem «Shawl», row of songs for choir, his Concerto № 2 for piano with the orchestra) due to an original combination of individual vivid approach with intonation-harmonical and rhythmic facilities of folk lyric songs and thoughts, and laments. Unexcelled aspiration to show his own art at a level of the best European and world classics standards, distinguish the creative handwriting of a great master in all his undertakings. His creation is a deep re-comprehension, successive claim of artistic ideals. The prosecution of folk song in an eventual result opened the extraordinarily wide and complete picture of folk life in general, with the traditions, faith, aspirations. Revutsky in new historical terms repeated what Mykola Lysenko did, — He organically put together folk and professional music.Levko Revutsky further developed the methods of Lysenko and Leontovych
Mykola Leontovych
Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych was a Ukrainian composer, choral conductor, priest, and teacher of international renown. His music was inspired by Mykola Lysenko and the Ukrainian nationalist music school, along with Kyrylo Stetsenko, Alexander Koshetz, and Yakiv Stepovy...
. He enriched Ukrainian music with his individual stylistic discoveries. The composer's style of Revutsky was formed on the basis of deep and comprehensive understanding of Ukrainian folk melody and traditions of modern professional music. Life-asserting attitude, lyricism, restraint, breadth and riches of emotions, are inherent in the works of this artist. His measured, expressive melody unites with the saturated, difficult harmony. Revutsky exposed reality and in lyrical-dramatic, and in lyrical-epic keys.
His works belong to the treasury of Ukrainian classics (The second symphony and piano concert are the first considerable works of these genres in Ukrainian music).
Revutsky made a considerable contribution to the development of genre folk songs arrangements. There are about 120 original such arrangements in his creative inheritance.
Life and the creative activity of Revutsky can be an example of service to the Motherland and its people for many generations.
Quotes
-
- I attach serious significance to the ethics-moral face of an artist… I do not separate aesthetics from ethics. /**L. Revutsky.**/
-
- Levko Mykolaevich Revutsky is for sure one of the most prominent figures at the musical front of Soviet Ukraine… The creative prosecution of the richest song material of Ukraine exposed Revutsky as a large master, whose taste provided him into treatments of high artistic level and mass fully deserved popularity, which goes out far outside Ukraine… /**B.Liatoshinsky.**/
“Sonechko” regional child creative activity holiday is sited at Revutsky homestead in Irzhavets of Ichnia district.
Honours and awards
- Honoured Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1941)
- Hero of Socialist Labour (24 February, 1969)
- Gold medal "Hammer and Sickle"
- Four Orders of Lenin (20 February 1949, 1953, 27 October 1967, 24 February 1969)
- Order of the Red Banner of LabourOrder of the Red Banner of LabourThe Order of the Red Banner of Labour was an order of the Soviet Union for accomplishments in labour and civil service. It is the labour counterpart of the military Order of the Red Banner. A few institutions and factories, being the pride of Soviet Union, also received the order.-History:The Red...
, four times (17 April 1938, 23 January 1948, 30 June 1951, 24 November 1960) - Stalin Prize, second class (1941) - for symphony number 2
- Shevchenko National PrizeShevchenko National PrizeShevchenko National Prize , the highest award given for works of art and literature in Ukraine. It is named after the Spiritual leader of Ukrainian national revival Taras Shevchenko.-History:...
(9166) - People's Artist of the USSRPeople's Artist of the USSRPeople's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.- Nomenclature and significance :...
(1944)
Orchestral
- Symphony No. 1 in A major opus 3 (1916–1921, revised 1957)
- Symphony No. 2 in E major opus 12 (1926–1927, revised 1940 and 1970)
- Kozachok (Ukrainian folk dance) for orchestra (1929)
- Piano Concerto in F major (1929)
Piano
- Piano Sonata Allegro in B minor opus 1 (1912)
- Seven Preludes for piano opus 4 (1914)
- Seven Preludes for piano opus 7
- Seven Preludes for piano opus 11 (1924)
- Two Pieces for piano opus 17 (1929)
Vocal works
- "The Whole Year" for soloists, chorus and piano (lyrics by Oleksandr OlesOleksandr OlesOleksandr Ivanovych Oles , a well-known Ukrainian writer and poet. He is a father of another Ukrainian poet and political activist Oleh Olzhych who perished in the Nazi labor camps in 1944....
) opus 5 (1923) - Khustyna, cantata (lyrics T. Shevchenko) for soloists, chorus and piano (1923)
- Sonechko, folksong-arrangements for voice and piano (1925)
- Cossack-Songs, folksong-arrangements for voice and piano (1926)
- Galician Songs, folksong-arrangements for voice and piano opus 14 (1926–1927)
- Monologue of Taras Bulba for bass and orchestra (lyrics by Maksym RylskyMaksym RylskyMaksym Tadeyovych Rylsky was a Ukrainian poet.He began writing as a representative of 'pure art' doctrine, during the Stalinist years adopted the official doctrine of 'socialist realism' . In 1937 he was involved in rewriting the libretto of Mykola Lysenko's opera, Taras Bulba...
) (1936) - Festive Song for chorus and orchestra (Lyrics M. Rylsky) (1949)
- Song-Ode, vocal-symphonic poem (1957)
Orchestrations
- Orchestration (re-arrangemnt and editing of opera and additional composition of overture) of Mykola LysenkoMykola LysenkoMykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist.- Biography :Lysenko was born in Hrynky, Kremenchuk Povit, Poltava Governorate, the son of Vitaliy Romanovich Lysenko . From childhood he became very interested in the folksongs of Ukrainian peasants and...
's opera Taras BulbaTaras Bulba (opera)Taras Bulba is an opera in four acts by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko. The libretto was written by Mykhailo Starytsky after the novel Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol. The opera, which was unrevised at the time of the composer's death in 1912, was first performed in 1924...
(with Borys Liatoshynsky) - Piano concerto by Viktor KosenkoViktor KosenkoViktor Stepanovych Kosenko was a Ukrainian composer.He studied piano at the St Petersburg Conservatory and composition with Mikhail Sokolov, a pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 1905-1908. From 1919–29 he lived in Zhytomyr, then Kharkiv and Kiev. From 1934 he taught at the Kiev Conservatory...
Chamber music
- Intermezzo for violin and piano
- Sonata for cello
- ballade for cello and piano (1933)
- incidental music
- film music