Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych (, ; 23 January 1921) was a Ukrainian composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist, and teacher. His music was inspired by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko and the Ukrainian National Music School. Leontovych specialised in a cappella choral music, ranging from original compositions to church music to elaborate arrangements of folk music.
Leontovych was born and raised in Monastyrok in the Podolia province of the Russian Empire (now in Vinnytsia Oblast, west of Ukraine). He was educated as a priest in the Kamianets-Podilskyi Theological Seminary. With the independence of the Ukrainian State in the 1917 revolution, he moved to Kyiv, where he worked at the Kyiv Conservatory and the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama. He composed "Shchedryk" in 1914 (premiered in 1916), now known to the English-speaking world as "Carol of the Bells". He was murdered by a Soviet agent in 1921 and is known as a martyr in the Eastern Orthodox Ukrainian Church, where he is also remembered for his liturgy, the first composed in the vernacular, specifically in the modern Ukrainian language.
During his lifetime, Leontovych's compositions and arrangements became popular with musicians across the Ukrainian region of the Russian Empire. Performances of his works in Western Europe and North America earned him the nickname "the Ukrainian Bach". Apart from "Shchedryk", Leontovych's music is performed primarily in Ukraine and by the Ukrainian diaspora.
Biography
Early life
thumb|Mariya and Dmytro Leontovych
Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych was born on in Monastyrok, near the village of , in the Podolia province of Ukraine (then a part of the Russian Empire). He was the eldest of five surviving children (Mykola, Oleksandr (born in 1879), Maria (born in 1885), Victoria (born in 1886), and Olena). His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were village priests. Both his mother, Mariya Yosypivna Leontovych, and his father, Dmytro Feofanovych Leontovych, were singers.
Tulchyn period
thumb|[[Tulchyn, from a photograph of 1908]]
Leontovych's move to Tulchyn marked the beginning of a prolific period of composing. There, he taught vocal and instrumental music at the Tulchyn Eparchy Women's College to the daughters of village priests. He developed a lasting friendship with the composer Kyrylo Stetsenko, who went on to influence his musical style. Stetsenko praised his friend's compositions, saying, "Leontovych is a famous music expert from Podolia. He recorded many folk songs... These songs are harmonised for mixed choir. These harmonisations have revealed the author to be a great expert of both choral singing and theoretical studies".
Music
Works
Leontovych specialised in a cappella music, and composed over 150 compositions, generally inspired by Ukrainian folk songs. These include artistic arrangements of folk songs, religious works (including his liturgy), cantatas, and songs set to the words of Ukrainian poets. His music features rich harmony, vocal polyphony, and imitation. His earlier arrangements of folk songs were primarily strophic arrangements of the melody. As he gained more experience, the structure of his compositions and arrangements of folk songs became strongly connected with the text. Leontovych, who had admired his music since his student days, would perform it in concerts wherever he worked. The Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk and the poet Diodor Bobyr collaborated to turn the unfinished opera into a one-act operetta, which premiered in 1977 at the Kyiv State Opera and Ballet Theatre, 100 years after Leontovych's birth. The North American premiere was held in Toronto on 11 April 2003.
"Shchedryk"
Mykola Leontovych's song "Shchedryk" is his best-known piece. After reviewing the composer's Second Compilation of Songs from Podolia, Lysenko wrote:
The increase in popularity of Leontovych's music was aided by the head of the Ukrainian National Republic, Symon Petliura, who created and sponsored two choirs to promote awareness of the culture of Ukraine. Stetsenko's choir toured across Ukraine, while the Koshetz's Ukrainian Republic Capella toured Europe and the Americas. Performances by the Ukrainian Republic Capella made Leontovych known throughout the western world—in France, Leontovych earned the nickname, "Ukrainian Bach". On 5 October 1921, the Capella performed "Shchedryk" in the Carnegie Hall.
Leontovych's music is currently performed mostly in Ukraine, and few recordings are dedicated exclusively to him.
The Ukrainian diaspora remember him and perform his works. The Canadian Oleksandr Koshyts Choir, based in Winnipeg, performs music by Leontovych and other Ukrainian composers, and has made a recording of his works.
Commemoration
thumb|upright=0.75|A commemorative coin depicting "[[Shchedryk (song)|Shchedryk"]]
On 1 February 1921, nine days after Leontovych's death, artists, academics, and students of the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama in Kyiv gathered to commemorate him. They established the Committee for the Memory of Mykola Leontovych, which later became the Leontovych Music Society, and which promoted Ukrainian music until 1928. There is a memorial museum dedicated to the composer in Tulchyn, and another was established in 1977 in the village of , where he was buried. The museum was rebuilt after the premises became dilapidated. It reopened in 2016. In 2018, a statue of the composer was unveiled in Pokrovsk.
In 2002, to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the composer's birth, the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi held an all-Ukrainian conference "Mykola Leontovych and Modern Education and Science," with guests from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the National Union of Composers of Ukraine. During this event, the city unveiled a memorial plaque to the composer, next to the old building formerly used by the Podollia Theological Seminary.