Mykola
Lysenko

Probably brought into music by his mother, Mykola Vytal'yevych Lysenko returned the favor by passing the art to his daughter, Maryana, his son, Ostap, and to his entire fatherland through the founding of the Ukrainian School of Music in the late 1800s. He was regarded as an important leader in his country's music circles, and also of its political movements. In fact, it is reasonable to suggest that he is better remembered as a nationalistic figure than as a musician: a sponsor of the 1905 revolution, Lysenko was imprisoned for several months in 1907, and his death in 1912 was widely mourned. Lysenko studied at the Gymnasium at Khar'kiv, the University of Kiev (1860 - 1864), and the Leipzig Conservatory; his teachers included Dmitriyev, Nejnkevic, Panochini, Carl Reinecke, E.F. Richter, Wilczyk, and Wolner. Between his studies in the Ukraine and Germany, he spent two years in the Imperial Civil Service; it was during this time that his national and political interests were awakened by exposure to philosophical and poetic literature, especially that of Shevchenko. He eventually chose to express these interests by setting patriotic texts to music (notably his cantata, Zapovit (The Testament), to words by Shevchenko), and by collecting native folk songs, many of which are preserved in seven-volumes he compiled and arranged between 1868 and 1911. This experience eventually shaped the style of his small, fine, Chopin-esque piano pieces, many of which exhibit folk-like characteristics. The operas Taras Bul'ba (1880 - 1891) and Natalka Poltavka (1889) were his best-known stage works; a handful of his songs were released on Forlane in 1992.