Lysenko Nikolai Vitalievich short biography. Mykola Lysenko (1842–1912) composer, pianist, teacher, choral conductor, founder of Ukrainian classical music

Nikolai Lysenko, whose biography is described in this article, is both a conductor, pianist, public figure, a talented teacher. All my life I have been collecting folklore songs. He did a lot for the social and cultural life of Ukraine.

Family

Lysenko Nikolai Vitalievich comes from an old Cossack family. His father, Vitaly Romanovich, was a colonel of a cuirassier regiment. Mother, Olga Eremeevna, came from the Lutsenko landowners.

Childhood

From early childhood, the primary education of Nikolai, who was born in 1842, was carried out by his mother herself, together with the poet Fet. She taught Nicholas French, dancing and proper manners. And Fet taught Russian. When Nikolai was 5 years old, Olga Eremeevna discovered that her son had a penchant for music. A music teacher was invited to develop talent. From early childhood, Nikolai was interested in poetry. His great-aunt and grandfather instilled in him a love for Ukrainian folk songs.

Education

After home schooling ended, Nikolai began to prepare to enter the gymnasium. First he studied at the boarding school of Weil, and then of Geduin. Nikolai Lysenko entered the 2nd Kharkov gymnasium in 1855. He graduated with a silver medal in 1859.

Then he entered Kharkov University. To the Faculty of Natural Sciences. A year later, his parents went to live in Kyiv, and Nikolai moved to the Kiev University, to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, to the Department of Natural Sciences. He graduated from the university in 1864 and a year later became a candidate of natural sciences.

After some time, in 1867, Nikolai Vitalievich continued his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory, which was the best in all of Europe. He was taught to play the piano by K. Reinecke, E. Wenzel and I. Moscheles, composition by E. Richter, theory by Paperitz. Further, Nikolai Lysenko improved his skills in symphonic instrumentation at the St. Petersburg Conservatory under Rimsky-Korsakov.

The beginning of a creative journey

At the gymnasium he took private music lessons. And gradually became a famous pianist. He was often invited to balls and parties, where he performed Chopin and Beethoven. He played dance compositions and improvised with Ukrainian melodies.

When Nikolai studied at Kiev University, he sought to acquire as much knowledge as possible in music. Therefore, I carefully studied operas such as Glinka, Wagner, etc. It was from this time that Nikolai began collecting and harmonizing Ukrainian folk songs.

At the same time, Nikolai Lysenko organized student choirs, which he led, and performed with them in public. While studying at the Leipzig Conservatory, he realized that it was more important to create, collect and develop Ukrainian folk music rather than copying foreign classics.

Creative career

Since 1878, Nikolai became a piano teacher, working at the institute noble maidens. In the 1890s. taught young people at music schools in Tutkovsky and Blumenfeld. In 1904, Nikolai Vitalievich founded his own school in Kyiv (since 1913 - named after Lysenko). It became the first establishment to provide higher education at the conservatory level.

To create a school, he used money donated by friends, which was intended to buy a summer house and publish his works. The educational institution was constantly under close police control. In 1907, Nikolai Vitalievich was even arrested, but he was released the next morning.

From 1908 to 1912 he chaired the board of the Ukrainian Club. This society carried out educational activities. Organized musical and literary evenings and advanced training courses for teachers. In 1911, Nikolai Vitalievich was the head of the committee that contributed to the installation of the monument to T. Shevchenko. It was Lysenko who subsequently improved the music for the operetta “Natalka Poltavka”.

Lysenko's creativity

Lysenko wrote his first work in 1868, while studying at the Leipzig Conservatory. It was a collection Ukrainian songs for piano and voice. This work has enormous scientific and ethnographic value. In the same year, a second work was published - “Zapovit”, written for the anniversary of Shevchenko’s death.

Nikolai Lysenko has always been at the center of cultural life in Kyiv. Being on the leadership team of the Russian musical society, he accepted Active participation in many concerts that were held throughout Ukraine.

He was involved in music clubs. And he even obtained permission to stage plays performed in Ukrainian. In 1872, Nikolai Vitalievich wrote two operettas: “Christmas Night” and “Chernomorets”. Subsequently, they became the basis of national Ukrainian art, forever entering the theatrical repertoire.

In 1873, Lysenko published the first musicological work on Ukrainian folklore. At the same time, Nikolai Vitalievich wrote piano works and symphonic fantasies.

In St. Petersburg, together with V. Paskhalov, he organized choral concerts. Their program included works by Lysenko, as well as Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian and Polish songs. It was in St. Petersburg that he wrote his first rhapsody on a Ukrainian theme, the 1st and 2nd polonaises, and a piano sonata.

Returning to Kyiv in 1876, Lysenko focused on performing activities. He organized concerts, played the piano, and created new choirs. He donated the money collected from the events to public needs. It was during this time that he wrote most of his largest works.

In 1880 Nikolai Vitalievich began working on one of the best operas"Taras Bulba". Then many more musical works were released. Separately, it is worth noting the improvement of the music in the operetta “Natalka Poltavka” in 1889. This work has been subjected to numerous adaptations more than once. But only in Lysenko’s edition did it turn out to be artistically complete.

Nikolai Vitalievich created a separate direction - children's opera. From 1892 to 1902 he organized choral tours throughout Ukraine. In 1904, Lysenko opened a drama school, which for many years became an important Ukrainian institution for special education.

In 1905, he, together with A. Koshits, founded the Boyan choir society. The creators themselves conducted it. But soon Boyan disintegrated due to political conditions and lack of material resources. The society lasted only a year.

IN last years Lysenko wrote the work “The Aeneid” during his lifetime. The opera mercilessly criticized autocratic orders and became the only example of satire in Ukrainian musical theater.

Social activity

All his life Nikolai was engaged not only in creativity, but also social activities. He is one of the organizers of the peasant Sunday school. Was engaged in preparation Ukrainian dictionary. Participated in the census of the Kyiv population. Worked in the South-Western branch of the Russian Geographical Society.

Personal life

In 1868, Lysenko married his second cousin, Olga Alexandrovna O'Connor. She was 8 years younger than him. They lived in marriage for 12 years, but then separated because they did not have children. They did not file an official divorce.

Lysenko's second marriage was civil. At one of the concerts in Chernigov, he met Olga Antonovna Lipskaya. Later she became his common-law wife. They had five children. Olga died after the birth of her next child in 1900.

Death of the composer

Lysenko Nikolai, composer, died on November 6, 1912 from a sudden heart attack. Thousands of people from all Ukrainian regions came to bid farewell to him. The funeral service took place in the Vladimir Cathedral. A choir walked ahead of the funeral procession. It consisted of 1200 people, and their singing could be heard even in Kyiv. Lysenko was buried in Kiev

The village of Grinki, Kremenchug district, Poltava province (now Globinsky district, Poltava region) - October 24 (November 6), Kyiv) - Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor, teacher, collector of folklore songs and public figure.

Biography

Nikolai Lysenko was from the old Cossack elder family of Lysenko. Nicholas's father, Vitaly Romanovich, was a colonel of the Order Cuirassier Regiment. Mother, Olga Eremeevna, came from the Poltava landowner family of Lutsenko. Nicholas was homeschooled by his mother and famous poet A. A. Fet. Mother taught her son French, refined manners and dancing, Afanasy Fet - the Russian language. At the age of five, noticing the boy’s musical talent, they invited a music teacher for him. From early childhood, Nikolai was fond of the poetry of Taras Shevchenko and Ukrainian folk songs, the love for which was instilled in him by his great-uncle and grandmother - Nikolai and Maria Bulyubashi. Upon completion home education, to prepare for the gymnasium, Nikolai moved to Kyiv, where he studied first at the Weil boarding school, then at the Geduin boarding school. In 1855, Nikolai was sent to the second Kharkov gymnasium, from which he graduated with a silver medal in the spring of 1859. While studying at the gymnasium, Lysenko studied music privately (teacher N.D. Dmitriev), gradually becoming a famous pianist in Kharkov. He was invited to evenings and balls, where Nikolai performed plays by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, played dances and improvised on themes of Little Russian folk melodies. After graduating from high school, Nikolai Vitalievich entered the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Kharkov University. However, a year later his parents moved to Kyiv, and Nikolai Vitalievich transferred to the Department of Natural Sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kyiv University. Having graduated from the university on June 1, 1864, Nikolai Vitalievich received a candidate of natural sciences degree in May 1865.

After graduating from Kyiv University and a short service, N.V. Lysenko decides to receive a higher musical education. In September 1867, he entered the Leipzig Conservatory, considered one of the best in Europe. His piano teachers were K. Reinecke, I. Moscheles and E. Wenzel, in composition - E. F. Richter, in theory - Paperitz. It was there that Nikolai Vitalievich realized that it was more important to collect, develop and create Russian music than to copy Western classics.

N.V. Lysenko was buried in Kyiv at the Baikovo cemetery.

Kyiv addresses

• st. Reitarskaya, No. 19 (lived during 1888-1894).
• st. Saksagansky, No. 95 (lived during 1898-1912), now here is the House-Museum of Nikolai Lysenko.

Memory

Already on September 14, a celebration of the memory of N.V. Lysenko took place in Poltava on the occasion of the first anniversary of his death. By this date, the Poltava community published a biography of the composer (V. Budynets “The Glorious Music of Nikolai Vitalievich Lysenko” (published by the Poltava Ukrainian Bookstore,).

• Streets in Kyiv and Lviv, the Lviv National Academy of Music, the Kharkov State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater (since 1944) and the Kiev Secondary Specialized Boarding School are named after N.V. Lysenko.

• In 1962, the string quartet of the Kyiv State Philharmonic was named after N.V. Lysenko. In the same year it was organized musical competition named after Nikolai Lysenko, which had national status until 1992, and since 1992 it has become international.
• December 29, 1965 near National Opera Ukraine on Theater Square a monument to N.V. Lysenko was unveiled. Sculptor A. A. Kovalev, architect V. G. Gnezdilov.
• The monument was erected in the composer’s homeland, in the village of Grinki.
• In 1968, a television film-play was released "Introduction" , dedicated to the life and work of N.V. Lysenko. The role of Lysenko was performed by the artist P. S. Morozenko.
• In 1983, the Znamenskaya Music School was named after Nikolai Lysenko.
• In 1986, at the film studio named after A. Dovzhenko, director T. Levchuk shot a historical and biographical film “And the memory will respond in sounds...” , showing pages from the life of Nikolai Vitalievich Lysenko. The role of the composer in the film was played by the artist F. N. Strigun.
• In the Kyiv apartment of N.V. Lysenko at 95 Saksaganskogo Street, it is open memorial museum.
• In 1992, the Ukrainian Post issued a postage stamp and an artistic marked envelope with an original stamp, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of N.V. Lysenko.
• In 2002, on the occasion of the 160th anniversary of the composer's birth, the National Bank of Ukraine issued a commemorative coin with a face value of 2 hryvnia. The obverse of the coin depicts a musical excerpt from the composition “Prayer for Ukraine” (1885), and the reverse shows a portrait of N. Lysenko.
• Ukrainian musicians are annually awarded the Nikolai Lysenko Prize.

Creation

While studying at Kiev University, trying to acquire as much as possible musical knowledge, Nikolai Lysenko studied the operas of A. Dargomyzhsky, M. Glinka, A. Serov, and became acquainted with the music of Richard Wagner and Robert Schumann. It was from this time that he began collecting and processing Little Russian folk songs, for example, he recorded a wedding ceremony (with text and music) in Pereyaslavsky district. In addition, he was the organizer and leader of student choirs, with which he performed publicly.

While studying at the Leipzig Conservatory in October 1868, Lysenko published “A Collection of Ukrainian Songs for Voice and Piano” - the first release of his arrangements of forty Ukrainian folk songs, which, in addition to their practical purpose, have great scientific and ethnographic value. In the same 1868 he wrote his first significant work- “Testament” to the words of a poem by T. G. Shevchenko, on the anniversary of the poet’s death. This work opened the “Music for the Kobzar” cycle, which included more than 80 vocal and instrumental works of various genres, published in seven series, the last of which was published in 1901.

N.V. Lysenko was at the center of the musical and national-cultural life of Kyiv. Being a member of the directorate of the Russian Musical Society in 1872-1873, he took part in its concerts held throughout Little Russia; led a choir of 50 singers, organized in 1872 at the Philharmonic Society of Lovers of Music and Singing; worked in the “Circle of Music and Singing Lovers”, “Circle of Music Lovers” of Y. Spiglazov. In 1872, a circle led by N. Lysenko and M. Staritsky obtained permission to publicly stage plays in the Little Russian dialect. In the same year, Lysenko wrote the operettas “Chernomortsy” and “Christmas Night” (later transformed into an opera), which were included in the theatrical repertoire, becoming the basis of the Ukrainian national opera art. In 1873, his first musicological work on Ukrainian was published. musical folklore- “Characteristics musical features Little Russian thoughts and songs performed by kobzar Ostap Veresay.” During the same period, Nikolai Vitalievich wrote a lot piano works, as well as a symphonic fantasy in Ukrainian folk themes"Cossack-Shumka".

During the St. Petersburg period, Lysenko took part in concerts of the Russian Geographical Society and directed choral courses. Together with V.N. Paskhalov, he organized concerts of choral music in the “Salt Town”, the program of which included Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Serbian songs and works by Lysenko himself. He develops friendships with composers " Mighty bunch" In St. Petersburg he wrote the first rhapsody on Ukrainian themes, the first and second concert polonaises, and a piano sonata. There, Lysenko began work on the opera “Marusya Boguslavka” (unfinished) and made the second edition of the opera “Christmas Night”. His collection of girls’ and children’s songs and dances “Molodoshi” (“Young Years”) was published in St. Petersburg.

In 1880, he began work on his most significant work - the opera “Taras Bulba” based on the story of the same name by N. V. Gogol with a libretto by M. Staritsky, which he completed only ten years later. In the 1880s, Lysenko wrote such works as “The Drowned Woman” - a lyric-fantastic opera based on N. Gogol’s “May Night” with a libretto by M. Staritsky; “Rejoice, unwatered field” - cantata to poems by T. Shevchenko; third edition of “Christmas Night” (1883). In 1889, Nikolai Vitalievich improved and orchestrated the music for the operetta “Natalka Poltavka” based on the work of I. Kotlyarevsky, in 1894 he wrote the music for the extravaganza “The Magic Dream” based on the text by M. Staritsky, and in 1896 - the opera “Sappho”.

Among N. Lysenko's authorial achievements, it is also necessary to note the creation of a new genre - national children's opera. From 1888 to 1893 he wrote three children's operas based on folk tales on the libretto of the Dnieper-Chaika: “Koza-Dereza”, “Pan Kotsky (Kotsky)”, “Winter and Spring, or The Snow Queen" “Koza-Dereza” became a kind of gift from Nikolai Lysenko to his children.

From 1892 to 1902, Nikolai Lysenko organized tours around Ukraine four times, the so-called “choral travels”, in which he performed mainly his own choral works to Shevchenko's texts and arrangements of Ukrainian songs. In 1892, Lysenko’s art historical research “On the torban and the music of Vidort’s songs” was published, and in 1894, “Folk musical instruments in Ukraine.”

In 1905, N. Lysenko, together with A. Koshits, organized the Boyan choral society, with which he organized choral concerts of Ukrainian, Slavic and Western European music. The conductors of the concerts were himself and A. Koshits. However, due to unfavorable political conditions and lack of material resources, the society disintegrated, having existed for little more than a year. At the beginning of the 20th century, Lysenko wrote music for the dramatic performances “The Last Night” (1903) and “Hetman Doroshenko”; in 1905 he wrote the work “Hey, for our native land.” In 1908, he wrote the chorus “The Silent Evening” to the words of V. Samoilenko, in 1912 - the opera “Nocturne”, created lyrical romances based on texts by Lesya Ukrainka, Dniprova-Chaika, A. Oles. In the last years of his life, Nikolai Vitalievich wrote a number of works of sacred music, which continued what he had founded back in late XIX century “Cherubic” cycle: “The Most Pure Virgin, Mother of the Russian Land” (1909), “I will go from Thy presence, Lord” (1909), “The Virgin is giving birth to the Most Essential One today,” “By the Tree of the Cross”; in 1910, “David’s Psalm” was written based on the text by T. Shevchenko.

In 1880, being already mature composer, Nikolai Lysenko performed in Elisavetgrad (now Kropyvnytskyi) with big concert, which was a stunning success, as reported by the press at the time. During the concert, the overture to “Christmas Night”, the Ukrainian rhapsody “Dumka-Shumka”, and romances were played.

Major works

Operas

• "Christmas Night" (1872, 2nd edition 1874, 3rd edition 1883)
• "Sappho" (1896)
• "Nocturne" (1912)

Children's operas

• "Goat-Dereza" (1888)
• "Pan Kotsky" (1891)
• "Winter and Spring, or the Snow Queen" (1892)

Operettas

• "Chernomortsy" (1872)

Works based on words by T. Shevchenko

• cycle “Music for the Kobzar” (1868-1901), including more than 80 different vocal genres from songs to detailed musical and dramatic scenes.

Musicological works

• “Characteristics of the musical features of Little Russian dumas and songs performed by kobzar Ostap Veresay” (1873)
• "On the torban and the music of Vidort's songs" (1892)
• "Folk musical instruments in Ukraine" (1894)

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An excerpt characterizing Lysenko, Nikolai Vitalievich

Pierre woke up late on September 3rd. His head ached, the dress in which he slept without undressing weighed down his body, and in his soul there was a vague consciousness of something shameful that had been committed the day before; This was a shameful conversation yesterday with Captain Rambal.
The clock showed eleven, but it seemed especially cloudy outside. Pierre stood up, rubbed his eyes and, seeing the pistol with a cut-out stock, which Gerasim had put back on the desk, Pierre remembered where he was and what lay ahead of him that very day.
“Am I too late? - thought Pierre. “No, he will probably make his entry into Moscow no earlier than twelve.” Pierre did not allow himself to think about what lay ahead of him, but was in a hurry to act as quickly as possible.
Having straightened his dress, Pierre took the pistol in his hands and was about to leave. But then for the first time the thought came to him about how, not in his hand, he could carry this weapon down the street. Even under a wide caftan it was difficult to hide a large pistol. It could not be placed inconspicuously either behind a belt or under an armpit. In addition, the pistol was unloaded, and Pierre did not have time to load it. “It’s all the same, it’s a dagger,” Pierre said to himself, although more than once, while discussing the fulfillment of his intention, he decided with himself that the student’s main mistake in 1809 was that he wanted to kill Napoleon with a dagger. But, as if Pierre’s main goal was not to carry out his intended task, but to show himself that he was not renouncing his intention and was doing everything to fulfill it, Pierre hastily took the one he had bought from the Sukharev Tower along with the pistol a blunt, jagged dagger in a green sheath and hid it under his vest.
Having belted his caftan and pulled down his hat, Pierre, trying not to make noise and not meet the captain, walked along the corridor and went out into the street.
The fire that he had looked at so indifferently the night before had grown significantly overnight. Moscow was already burning from different sides. Karetny Ryad and Zamoskvorechye were burning at the same time. Gostiny Dvor, Povarskaya, barges on the Moscow River and a wood market near the Dorogomilovsky Bridge.
Pierre's path lay through the alleys to Povarskaya and from there to the Arbat, to St. Nicholas the Apparition, with whom he had long ago determined in his imagination the place where his deed should be carried out. Most of the houses had locked gates and shutters. The streets and alleys were deserted. The air smelled of burning and smoke. Occasionally we encountered Russians with anxiously timid faces and Frenchmen with a non-urban, camp look, walking along the middle of the streets. Both of them looked at Pierre in surprise. Except tall and thickness, in addition to the strange, gloomily concentrated and suffering expression on his face and entire figure, the Russians looked closely at Pierre because they did not understand what class this man could belong to. The French followed him with their eyes in surprise, especially because Pierre, disgusted by all the other Russians who looked at the French in fear or curiosity, did not pay any attention to them. At the gate of one house, three Frenchmen, who were explaining something to Russian people who did not understand them, stopped Pierre, asking if he knew French?
Pierre shook his head negatively and moved on. In another alley, a sentry standing by a green box shouted at him, and only at the repeated menacing scream and the sound of a gun taken by the sentry on his hand did Pierre realize that he had to go around to the other side of the street. He heard and saw nothing around him. He, like something terrible and alien to him, carried his intention with haste and horror, afraid - taught by the experience of the previous night - to somehow lose it. But Pierre was not destined to convey his mood intact to the place where he was heading. In addition, even if he had not been delayed by anything on the way, his intention could not have been fulfilled simply because Napoleon had traveled more than four hours ago from the Dorogomilovsky suburb through the Arbat to the Kremlin and was now sitting in the most gloomy mood in the Tsar’s office the Kremlin Palace and gave detailed, detailed orders about the measures that immediately had to be taken to extinguish the fire, prevent looting and calm the residents. But Pierre did not know this; He, completely absorbed in what was to come, suffered, as people suffer who stubbornly undertake an impossible task - not because of the difficulties, but because the task is unusual for their nature; he was tormented by the fear that he would weaken at the decisive moment and, as a result, lose self-respect.
Although he did not see or hear anything around him, he instinctively knew the way and did not make the mistake of taking the side streets that led him to Povarskaya.
As Pierre approached Povarskaya, the smoke became stronger and stronger, and there was even heat from the fire. Occasionally they soared fiery tongues from behind the roofs of houses. More people met on the streets, and these people were more anxious. But Pierre, although he felt that something extraordinary was happening around him, was not aware that he was approaching a fire. Walking along a path that ran through a large undeveloped place, adjacent on one side to Povarskaya, on the other to the gardens of Prince Gruzinsky’s house, Pierre suddenly heard the desperate cry of a woman next to him. He stopped, as if awakening from sleep, and raised his head.
To the side of the path, on the dry, dusty grass, household belongings were piled up: feather beds, a samovar, icons and chests. On the ground next to the chests sat an elderly, thin woman, with long protruding upper teeth, dressed in a black cloak and cap. This woman, rocking and saying something, cried sorely. Two girls, from ten to twelve years old, dressed in dirty short dresses and cloaks, looked at their mother with an expression of bewilderment on their pale, frightened faces. A smaller boy, about seven years old, wearing a suit and someone else’s huge cap, was crying in the arms of an old woman nanny. A barefoot, dirty girl sat on a chest and, having loosened her whitish braid, pulled back her singed hair, sniffing it. The husband, a short, stooped man in a uniform, with wheel-shaped sideburns and smooth temples visible from under a straight-on cap, with a motionless face, pushed apart the chests, placed one on top of the other, and pulled out some clothes from under them.
The woman almost threw herself at Pierre's feet when she saw him.
“Dear fathers, Orthodox Christians, save, help, my dear!.. someone help,” she said through sobs. - A girl!.. A daughter!.. They left my youngest daughter!.. She burned down! Oh oh oh! That's why I cherish you... Oh oh oh!
“That’s enough, Marya Nikolaevna,” the husband addressed his wife in a quiet voice, obviously only to justify himself to a stranger. - My sister must have taken it away, otherwise where else would I be? - he added.
- Idol! The villain! – the woman screamed angrily, suddenly stopping crying. “You have no heart, you don’t feel sorry for your brainchild.” Someone else would have pulled it out of the fire. And this is an idol, not a man, not a father. You noble man“,” the woman quickly turned to Pierre, sobbing. “It caught fire nearby,” he said to us. The girl screamed: it’s burning! They rushed to collect. They jumped out in what they were wearing... That's what they captured... God's blessing and a dowry bed, otherwise everything was lost. Grab the children, Katechka is gone. Oh my God! Ooo! – and again she began to sob. - My dear child, it burned! burned!
- Where, where did she stay? - said Pierre. From the expression on his animated face, his woman realized that this man could help her.
- Father! Father! – she screamed, grabbing his legs. “Benefactor, at least calm my heart... Aniska, go, you vile one, see her off,” she shouted at the girl, angrily opening her mouth and with this movement showing off her long teeth even more.
“Show me off, show me off, I’ll... I’ll... I’ll do it,” Pierre said hastily in a breathless voice.
The dirty girl came out from behind the chest, tidied up her braid and, sighing, walked away stupidly bare feet forward along the path. Pierre seemed to suddenly come to life after a severe faint. He raised his head higher, his eyes lit up with the sparkle of life, and he quickly followed the girl, overtook her and went out onto Povarskaya. The entire street was covered in a cloud of black smoke. Tongues of flame burst out here and there from this cloud. A large crowd of people crowded in front of the fire. A French general stood in the middle of the street and said something to those around him. Pierre, accompanied by the girl, approached the place where the general stood; but French soldiers stopped him.
“On ne passe pas, [They don’t pass here,”] a voice shouted to him.
- Here, uncle! - said the girl. - We'll go through the Nikulins along the alley.
Pierre turned back and walked, occasionally jumping up to keep up with her. The girl ran across the street, turned left into an alley and, after passing three houses, turned right into the gate.
“Right here now,” said the girl, and, running through the yard, she opened the gate in the plank fence and, stopping, pointed to Pierre a small wooden outbuilding that burned brightly and hotly. One side of it collapsed, the other was burning, and the flames were shining brightly from under the window openings and from under the roof.
When Pierre entered the gate, he was overcome with heat, and he involuntarily stopped.
– Which, which is your house? - he asked.
- Oh oh oh! - the girl howled, pointing to the outbuilding. “He’s the one, she’s the one who was our Vatera.” You burned, my treasure, Katechka, my beloved young lady, oh, oh! - Aniska howled at the sight of the fire, feeling the need to express her feelings.
Pierre leaned towards the outbuilding, but the heat was so strong that he involuntarily described an arc around the outbuilding and found himself next to big house, which was still burning only on one side of the roof and around which a crowd of French was swarming. Pierre at first did not understand what these French were doing, carrying something; but, seeing in front of him a Frenchman who was beating a peasant with a blunt cleaver, taking away his fox fur coat, Pierre vaguely understood that they were robbing here, but he had no time to dwell on this thought.
The sound of the crackling and roar of collapsing walls and ceilings, the whistle and hiss of flames and the animated cries of the people, the sight of wavering, now scowling thick black, now soaring lightening clouds of smoke with sparkles and sometimes solid, sheaf-shaped, red, sometimes scaly golden flame moving along the walls , the sensation of heat and smoke and the speed of movement produced on Pierre their usual stimulating effect of fires. This effect was especially strong on Pierre, because Pierre suddenly, at the sight of this fire, felt freed from the thoughts that were weighing him down. He felt young, cheerful, agile and determined. He ran around the outbuilding from the side of the house and was about to run to the part of it that was still standing, when a cry of several voices was heard above his head, followed by the cracking and ringing of something heavy that fell next to him.
Pierre looked around and saw the French in the windows of the house, who had thrown out a chest of drawers filled with some kind of metal things. Other French soldiers below approached the box.
“Eh bien, qu"est ce qu"il veut celui la, [This one still needs something," one of the French shouted at Pierre.
- Un enfant dans cette maison. N"avez vous pas vu un enfant? [A child in this house. Have you seen the child?] - said Pierre.
– Tiens, qu"est ce qu"il chante celui la? Va te promener, [What else is this interpreting? “Get to hell,” voices were heard, and one of the soldiers, apparently afraid that Pierre would take it into his head to take away the silver and bronze that were in the box, advanced threateningly towards him.
- Un enfant? - the Frenchman shouted from above. - J"ai entendu piailler quelque chose au jardin. Peut etre c"est sou moutard au bonhomme. Faut etre humain, voyez vous... [Child? I heard something squeaking in the garden. Maybe it's his child. Well, it is necessary according to humanity. We all people…]
– Ou est il? Ou est il? [Where is he? Where is he?] asked Pierre.
- Par ici! Par ici! [Here, here!] - the Frenchman shouted to him from the window, pointing to the garden that was behind the house. – Attendez, je vais descendre. [Wait, I'll get off now.]
And indeed, a minute later a Frenchman, a black-eyed fellow with some kind of spot on his cheek, in only his shirt, jumped out of the window of the lower floor and, slapping Pierre on the shoulder, ran with him into the garden.
“Depechez vous, vous autres,” he shouted to his comrades, “commence a faire chaud.” [Hey, you're more lively, it's starting to get hot.]
Running out behind the house onto a sand-strewn path, the Frenchman pulled Pierre's hand and pointed him towards the circle. Under the bench lay a three-year-old girl in a pink dress.
– Voila votre moutard. “Ah, une petite, tant mieux,” said the Frenchman. - Au revoir, mon gros. Faut être humaine. Nous sommes tous mortels, voyez vous, [Here is your child. Ah, girl, so much the better. Goodbye, fat man. Well, it is necessary according to humanity. All people,] - and the Frenchman with a spot on his cheek ran back to his comrades.
Pierre, gasping for joy, ran up to the girl and wanted to take her in his arms. But, seeing a stranger, the scrofulous, unpleasant-looking, scrofulous, mother-like girl screamed and ran away. Pierre, however, grabbed her and lifted her into his arms; she screamed in a desperately angry voice and with her small hands began to tear Pierre’s hands away from her and bite them with her snotty mouth. Pierre was overcome by a feeling of horror and disgust, similar to the one he experienced when touching some small animal. But he made an effort over himself so as not to abandon the child, and ran with him back to big house. But it was no longer possible to go back the same way; the girl Aniska was no longer there, and Pierre, with a feeling of pity and disgust, hugging the painfully sobbing and wet girl as tenderly as possible, ran through the garden to look for another way out.

When Pierre, having run around courtyards and alleys, came back with his burden to Gruzinsky’s garden, on the corner of Povarskaya, at first he did not recognize the place from which he had gone to fetch the child: it was so cluttered with people and belongings pulled out of houses. In addition to Russian families with their goods, fleeing here from the fire, there were also several French soldiers in various attire. Pierre did not pay attention to them. He was in a hurry to find the official’s family in order to give his daughter to his mother and go again to save someone else. It seemed to Pierre that he had a lot more to do and quickly. Inflamed from the heat and running around, Pierre at that moment felt even more strongly than before that feeling of youth, revival and determination that overwhelmed him as he ran to save the child. The girl now became quiet and, holding Pierre’s caftan with her hands, sat on his hand and, like a wild animal, looked around her. Pierre occasionally glanced at her and smiled slightly. It seemed to him that he saw something touchingly innocent and angelic in this frightened and painful face.
Neither the official nor his wife were in their former place. Pierre walked quickly among the people, looking at the different faces that came his way. Involuntarily he noticed a Georgian or Armenian family, consisting of a handsome, very old man with an oriental face, dressed in a new covered sheepskin coat and new boots, an old woman of the same type and a young woman. This very young woman seemed perfect to Pierre oriental beauty, with her sharp, arched black eyebrows and long, unusually gently ruddy and beautiful face without any expression. Among the scattered belongings, in the crowd in the square, she, in her rich satin cloak and a bright purple scarf covering her head, resembled a delicate greenhouse plant thrown out into the snow. She sat on the bundles somewhat behind the old woman and motionless with large black oblong, with long eyelashes, looked at the ground with her eyes. Apparently, she knew her beauty and was afraid for it. This face struck Pierre, and in his haste, walking along the fence, he looked back at her several times. Having reached the fence and still not finding those he needed, Pierre stopped, looking around.
The figure of Pierre with a child in his arms was now even more remarkable than before, and several Russian men and women gathered around him.
– Or lost someone, dear man? Are you one of the nobles yourself, or what? Whose child is it? - they asked him.
Pierre answered that the child belonged to a woman in a black cloak, who was sitting with the children in this place, and asked if anyone knew her and where she had gone.
“After all, it must be the Anferovs,” said the old deacon, turning to pockmarked woman. “Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy,” he added in his usual bass voice.
- Where are the Anferovs! - said the woman. - The Anferovs left in the morning. And these are either the Marya Nikolaevnas or the Ivanovs.
“He says she’s a woman, but Marya Nikolaevna is a lady,” said the yard man.
“Yes, you know her, long teeth, thin,” said Pierre.
- And there is Marya Nikolaevna. “They went into the garden, when these wolves swooped in,” the woman said, pointing at the French soldiers.

Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor, teacher, collector song folklore and public figure.

Nikolai Lysenko came from the old Cossack elder family of Lysenko. Nikolai's father Vitaly Romanovich, was a colonel of the Order Cuirassier Regiment. Mother, Olga Eremeevna, came from a Poltava landowner family Lutsenko. Nicholas was homeschooled by his mother and a famous poet A. A. Fet. The mother taught her son French, refined manners and dancing, Afanasy Fet - Russian. At the age of five, noticing the boy’s musical talent, they invited a music teacher for him. From early childhood Nikolai was interested in poetry Taras Shevchenko and Ukrainian folk songs, the love for which was instilled in him by his great-uncle and grandmother - Nikolai And Maria Bulyubashi. After finishing his home education, in preparation for the gymnasium, Nikolai moved to Kyiv, where he studied first at the Weil boarding school, then at the Geduin boarding school.

In 1855, Nikolai was sent to the second Kharkov gymnasium, from which he graduated with a silver medal in the spring of 1859. While studying at the gymnasium, Lysenko studied music privately, gradually becoming a famous pianist in Kharkov. He was invited to evenings and balls, where Nikolai performed plays Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, played dances and improvised on themes of Ukrainian folk melodies. After graduating from high school, Nikolai Vitalievich entered the natural science faculty of Kharkov University. However, a year later his parents moved to Kyiv, and Nikolai Vitalievich transferred to the Department of Natural Sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kyiv University. Having graduated from the university on June 1, 1864, Nikolai Vitalievich received the degree of Candidate of Natural Sciences in May 1865.

After graduating from Kyiv University and a short service, N.V. Lysenko decides to receive a higher musical education. In September 1867, he entered the Leipzig Conservatory, considered one of the best in Europe. His piano teachers were K. Reinecke, I. Moscheles And E. Wenzel, by composition - E. F. Richter, according to theory - Paperitz. It was there that Nikolai Vitalievich realized that it was more important to collect, develop and create Ukrainian music than to copy Western classics.

In the summer of 1868 N. Lysenko married Olga Alexandrovna O'Connor, who was his second cousin and was 8 years younger. However, after 12 years life together Nikolai and Olga, without officially filing a divorce, separated due to the lack of children.

Having finished with great success in 1869, studying at the Leipzig Conservatory, Nikolai Vitalievich returned to Kyiv, where he lived, with a short break (from 1874 to 1876, Lysenko improved his skills in the field of symphonic instrumentation at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the class N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov), just over forty years, engaged in creative, teaching and social activities. He took part in organizing a Sunday school for peasant children, and later in the preparation of the “Dictionary Ukrainian language", in the Kyiv population census, in the work of the South-Western Branch of the Russian Geographical Society.

In 1878, Nikolai Lysenko took the position of piano teacher at the Institute of Noble Maidens. In the same year he entered into a civil marriage with Olga Antonovna Lipskaya, who was a pianist and his student. The composer met her during concerts in Chernigov. From this marriage N. Lysenko had five children. Olga Lipskaya died in 1900 after giving birth to a child.

In the 1890s, in addition to teaching at the institute and private lessons, N. Lysenko worked in music schools S. Blumenfeld And N. Tutkovsky.

In the fall of 1904, the Music and Drama School (since 1913 - named after N.V. Lysenko), organized by Nikolai Vitalievich, began operating in Kyiv. It was the first Ukrainian educational institution that provided higher musical education according to the conservatory program. To organize the school, N. Lysenko used funds raised by his friends during the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the composer’s work in 1903 to publish his works and purchase dachas for him and the children. Nikolai Vitalievich taught piano at school. Both the school and N. Lysenko as its director were under constant police surveillance. In February 1907, Nikolai Vitalievich was arrested, but was released the next morning.

From 1908 to 1912, N. Lysenko was the chairman of the board of the Ukrainian Club society. This society carried out large public educational activities: organized literary and musical evenings, organized courses for folk teachers. In 1911, Lysenko headed the committees created by this society to promote the construction of the monument to T. Shevchenko on the 50th anniversary of the poet’s death.

Nikolai Lysenko died on November 6, 1912, suddenly from a heart attack. Thousands of people came from all regions of Ukraine to say goodbye to the composer. Lysenko's funeral was held in Vladimir Cathedral. The choir that walked ahead of the funeral procession numbered 1,200 people; its singing could be heard even in the center of Kyiv. N.V. Lysenko was buried in Kyiv at the Baikovo cemetery.

Creation

While studying at Kiev University, trying to acquire as much musical knowledge as possible, Nikolai Lysenko studied opera A. Dargomyzhsky, Glinka, A. Serova, got acquainted with music Wagner And Schumann. It was from this time that he began collecting and harmonizing Ukrainian folk songs, for example, he recorded a wedding ceremony (with text and music) in Pereyaslavsky district. In addition, N. Lysenko was the organizer and leader of student choirs, with which he performed publicly.

While studying at the Leipzig Conservatory in October 1868, N. V. Lysenko published “A Collection of Ukrainian Songs for Voice and Piano” - the first release of his arrangements of forty Ukrainian folk songs, which, in addition to practical purposes, have great scientific and ethnographic value. In the same 1868, he wrote his first significant work - “Zapovit” (“Testament”) to the words of T. Shevchenko, on the anniversary of the poet’s death. This work opened the “Music for the Kobzar” cycle, which included more than 80 vocal and instrumental works of various genres, published in seven series, the last of which was published in 1901.

N.V. Lysenko was at the center of the musical and national-cultural life of Kyiv. Being a member of the directorate of the Russian Musical Society in 1872-1873, he took an active part in its concerts held throughout Ukraine; led a choir of 50 singers, organized in 1872 at the Philharmonic Society of Lovers of Music and Singing; took part in the “Circle of Music and Singing Lovers”, “Circle of Music Lovers” Y. Spiglazova. In 1872, a circle led by N. Lysenko and M. Staritsky, obtained permission for public performances of plays in Ukrainian. In the same year, Lysenko wrote the operettas “Chernomorets” and “Christmas Night” (later transformed into an opera), which firmly entered the theatrical repertoire, becoming the basis of the Ukrainian national opera art. In 1873, N. Lysenko’s first musicological work on Ukrainian musical folklore, “Characteristics of the musical features of Little Russian thoughts and songs performed by kobzar Ostap Veresai,” was published. During the same period, Nikolai Vitalievich wrote many piano works, as well as a symphonic fantasy on Ukrainian folk themes “Cossack-Shumka”.

During the St. Petersburg period, N. Lysenko took part in concerts of the Russian Geographical Society and led choral courses. Together with V. N. Paskhalov Nikolai Vitalievich organized concerts of choral music in the “Salt Town”, the program of which included Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Serbian songs and works by Lysenko himself. He develops friendly relations with the composers of the “Mighty Handful”. In St. Petersburg he wrote the first rhapsody on Ukrainian themes, the first and second concert polonaises, and a piano sonata. There, Lysenko began work on the opera “Marusya Boguslavka” (unfinished) and made the second edition of the opera “Christmas Night”. His collection of girls’ and children’s songs and dances “Molodoshi” (“Young Years”) was published in St. Petersburg.

Returning to Kyiv in 1876, Nikolai Lysenko began active performing activities. He organized annual “Slavic concerts”, performed as a pianist in concerts of the Kyiv branch of the Russian Musical Society, at the evenings of the Literary and Artistic Society, of which he was a board member, and in monthly folk concerts in the People's Auditorium. Organized annual Shevchenko concerts. From seminarians and students familiar with musical notation, Nikolai Vitalievich is re-organizing the choirs in which they received the beginning art education K. Stetsenko, P. Demutsky, L. Revutsky, O. Lysenko and others. The money collected from the concerts went to public needs, for example, in favor of 183 students of Kyiv University who were drafted into soldiers for participating in the anti-government demonstration of 1901. At this time, he wrote almost all of his large piano works, including the second rhapsody, the third polonaise, and the nocturne in C sharp minor. In 1880, N. Lysenko began work on his most significant work - the opera “Taras Bulba” based on the story of the same name N. Gogol to a libretto by M. Staritsky, which will be completed only ten years later. In the 80s, Lysenko wrote such works as “The Drowned Woman” - a lyric-fantastic opera based on “May Night” by N. Gogol with a libretto by M. Staritsky; “Rejoice, unwatered field” - cantata to poems by T. Shevchenko; third edition of “Christmas Night” (1883). In 1889, Nikolai Vitalievich improved and orchestrated the music for the operetta “Natalka Poltavka” based on the work I. Kotlyarevsky, in 1894 he wrote music for the extravaganza “The Magic Dream” based on the text by M. Staritsky, and in 1896 the opera “Sappho”.

Among N. Lysenko's authorial achievements, it is also necessary to note the creation of a new genre - children's opera. From 1888 to 1893, he wrote three children's operas based on folk tales with a libretto by the Dnieper-Chaika: “Goat-Dereza”, “Pan Kotsky (Kotsky)”, “Winter and Spring, or the Snow Queen”. “Koza-Dereza” became a kind of gift from Nikolai Lysenko to his children.

From 1892 to 1902, Nikolai Lysenko staged four touring concerts across Ukraine, the so-called “choral travels”, in which mainly his own choral works were performed based on Shevchenko’s texts and arrangements of Ukrainian songs. In 1892, Lysenko’s art historical research “On the torban and the music of Vidort’s songs” was published, and in 1894 - “Folk musical instruments in Ukraine”.

In 1905, N. Lysenko, together with A. Koshits organized the Boyan choral society, with which he organized choral concerts of Ukrainian, Slavic and Western European music. The conductors of the concerts were himself and A. Koshits. However, due to unfavorable political conditions and lack of material resources, the society disintegrated, having existed for little more than a year. At the beginning of the 20th century, Lysenko wrote music for the dramatic performances “The Last Night” (1903) and “Hetman Doroshenko”. In 1905, he wrote the work “Hey, for our native land.” In 1908, the chorus “The Silent Evening” was written to the words of V. Samoilenko, in 1912 - the opera “Nocturne”, lyrical romances based on the texts were created Lesya Ukrainka, Dnieper Chaika, A. Olesya.

In the last years of his life, Nikolai Vitalievich wrote a number of works in the field of sacred music, which continued the “Cherubic” cycle he founded at the end of the 19th century: “The Most Pure Virgin, Mother of the Russian Land” (1909), “I will go from Thy presence, Lord” ( 1909), “The Virgin is giving birth today to the Most Essential”, “By the Tree of the Cross”; in 1910, “David’s Psalm” was written based on the text by T. Shevchenko.

Memory

* Streets in Kyiv and Lvov, Lvovskaya National are named after N.V. Lysenko music academy, Kharkov State academic theater opera and ballet (since 1944) and the Poltava Music School.
* In 1962, the string quartet of the Kyiv State Philharmonic was named after N.V. Lysenko. In the same year, a music competition named after Nikolai Lysenko was established, which had national status until 1992, and since 1992 it has become international.
* On December 29, 1965, a monument to N.V. Lysenko was unveiled next to the National Opera of Ukraine on Theater Square. Sculptor A. A. Kovalev, architect V. G. Gnezdilov.
* The monument was erected in the composer’s homeland, in the village of Grinki.
* In 1986 at the film studio named after A. Dovzhenko director T. Levchuk a historical and biographical film “And in the sounds the memory will respond...” was shot, showing pages from the life of Nikolai Vitalievich Lysenko. The role of the composer in the film was played by F. N. Strigun.
* A memorial museum has been opened in the Kyiv apartment of N.V. Lysenko at 95 Saksaganskogo Street.
* In 1992, the Ukrainian Post issued a postage stamp dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of N.V. Lysenko.
* In 2002, on the occasion of the 160th anniversary of the composer’s birth, the National Bank of Ukraine issued a commemorative coin with a face value of 2 hryvnia. The obverse of the coin depicts a musical excerpt from the composition “Prayer for Ukraine” (1885), and the reverse shows a portrait of N. Lysenko.

Major works

Operas

* “Christmas Night” (1872, 2nd edition 1874, 3rd edition 1883)
* "The Drowned Woman" (1885)
* “Natalka Poltavka” (1889)
* “Taras Bulba” (1890)
* "Sappho" (1896)
* "Aeneid" (1911)
* "Nocturne" (1912)

Children's operas

* “Goat-Dereza” (1888)
* “Pan Kotsky” (1891)
* “Winter and Spring, or the Snow Queen” (1892)

Operettas

* “Chernomortsy” (1872)

Works based on words by T. Shevchenko

* cycle “Music for the Kobzar” (1868-1901), including more than 80 different vocal genres from songs to detailed musical and dramatic scenes.

Musicological works

* “Characteristics of the musical features of Little Russian thoughts and songs performed by kobzar Ostap Veresay” (1873)
* “On the torban and the music of Vidort’s songs” (1892)
* “Folk musical instruments in Ukraine” (1894)

An outstanding Ukrainian composer, folklorist, conductor, pianist and public figure. The name of Nikolai Lysenko is associated with the formation of professional music, theater and art education in Ukraine. Nikolai Vitalievich Lysenko was born on March 10 1842 in the village Grinki of the Kremenchug district in the Poltava region in a Cossack-landowner family. Nikolai's father, Vitaly Romanovich, was a Poltava nobleman and served in the army. Mikola Lisenko, breaking this long-standing tradition, laid the foundation for a new one - a generation of talented musicians. Nikolai's parents were wealthy people and nurtured their child very much. Little Nikolai Lysenko walked around dressed in velvet and lace, was a very capricious and headstrong guy and did not want to listen to anyone. From an early age he was taught Russian literacy, French, dancing and playing the piano, that is, he was raised like most noble children of that time.

And although Nikolai was not told anything about Ukraine, it surrounded him on all sides. Nikolai Lysenko also became acquainted with his native language and folk songs from his grandmother. At the age of 9, Nikolai was taken to Kyiv to the Geduin school. He studied very well, was one of the first, and did not give up music. After graduating from Geduen's school, which was equivalent to 3 years of a gymnasium, Nikolai Lysenko entered the 4th grade of a gymnasium in Kharkov. His musical studies lasted, and every year the young man played better and better. Under the guidance of teachers - the then famous pianist Dmitriev, later the Czech Kilchik, Mikola Lisenko plays works of great composers different nations, learns musical taste from them.

After graduating from high school, Nikolai Lysenko entered Kharkov University, and a year later transferred to Kiev University. Young Lisenko became interested in the Ukrainian national movement - he began to study and record Ukrainian folk songs, including the songs of the famous kobzar Ostap Veresai. At this time, Nikolai Lysenko felt himself not only a lover of the people, but also a sincere and forever faithful son of Ukraine, ready to give his whole life and work in the interests of his native people.

IN 1864 Mr. Mikola Lisenko graduated from the natural sciences department of the Kyiv University of St. Vladimir, and a year later received a diploma of a candidate of natural sciences. Staying in Kyiv and participating in the Kyiv Society had a decisive influence on the young man’s worldview.

IN 1867 Nikolai Lysenko goes to Leipzig to complete his musical education. Here in 1868 Mr. Mykola Lisenko compiles and publishes the first collection of folk songs he recorded and the first 10 songs that he himself created based on the words of Taras Shevchenko. Nikolai Lysenko ended the Leipzig Conservatory with a brilliant performance of Beethoven's 4th piano concerto with his own cadenza, which was respectfully written about in German magazines.

WITH 1869 Mr. Nikolai Lysenko lived in Kyiv. He becomes a teacher at a music school, giving private lessons. He is invited to many wealthy families, but he does not pursue such fame. Getting a good salary for teaching, everything free time gives to Ukrainian song: issues new collections of folk songs, composes his own songs. IN 1876 a decree was issued that prohibited the printing of books, works for the theater and musical works With in Ukrainian words. Even a simple folk song was forbidden to be sung in a concert if the words were Ukrainian. But Mikola Lisenko is compiling new collections of folk songs.

In the 90s of the XIX century. Nikolai Lysenko, having organized the choir, traveled with it to Ukraine more than once. I wanted to show Ukrainians all the richness and beauty of their native song and teach them how to sing this song. The then Ukrainian musical and cultural life Kyiv. Mykola Lisenko gave concerts as a pianist, organized choirs and gave concerts with them in Kyiv and throughout Ukraine. IN 1900 Mr. Nikolai Lysenko established his own school in Kyiv. To stage his works, he often visited Galicia, where he was well known and loved.

Mykola Lisenko created many songs based on texts by Ivan Frank, Mikhail Voronoi and Lesya Ukrainka. He is one of the founders of the Ukrainian professional theater, in particular the opera theater: he wrote 11 operas, created music for up to 10 dramatic performances. The composer never saw his main brainchild, the opera Taras Bulba, despite P. Tchaikovsky’s offer to facilitate its production on the Moscow stage. But his “Natalka Poltavka” is still extremely popular. The operatic legacy of Mikoli Lisenko continues its stage life today in different editions.

The funeral of the father of Ukrainian music also became an open political demonstration by thousands of people. For the first time, Ukrainian youth came to the defense of the national shrine, surrounding the mournful march and preventing the police from making arrests. However the highest award Nikolai Lysenko is not just a tribute to the memory and honor of descendants, but the fact that it was he who was destined to become the author of two national anthems, which affirm the spiritual greatness of man and people. The first of them is “The Eternal Revolutionary” (in 1905 g.) to a poem by I. Frank, the second - “Children’s Hymn” to a poem by O. Konisky (in 1885 g.), the now world-famous “Prayer for Ukraine”, which 1992 approved as the official anthem of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church(Kyiv Patriarchate).

Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor, teacher, collector of folklore songs and public figure.

Nikolai Lysenko came from the old Cossack elder family of Lysenko. Nikolai's father, Vitaly Romanovich, was a colonel of the Order Cuirassier Regiment. Mother, Olga Eremeevna, came from the Poltava landowner family of Lutsenko. Nicholas was homeschooled by his mother and the famous poet A. A. Fet. The mother taught her son French, refined manners and dancing, Afanasy Fet - Russian. At the age of five, noticing the boy’s musical talent, they invited a music teacher for him. From early childhood, Nikolai was fond of the poetry of Taras Shevchenko and Ukrainian folk songs, a love for which was instilled in him by his great-uncle and grandmother, Nikolai and Maria Bulubashi. After finishing his home education, in preparation for the gymnasium, Nikolai moved to Kyiv, where he studied first at the Weil boarding school, then at the Geduin boarding school.

In 1855, Nikolai was sent to the second Kharkov gymnasium, from which he graduated with a silver medal in the spring of 1859. While studying at the gymnasium, Lysenko studied music privately (teacher N.D. Dmitriev), gradually becoming a famous pianist in Kharkov. He was invited to evenings and balls, where Nikolai performed plays by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, played dances and improvised on themes of Ukrainian folk melodies. After graduating from high school, Nikolai Vitalievich entered the natural science faculty of Kharkov University. However, a year later his parents moved to Kyiv, and Nikolai Vitalievich transferred to the Department of Natural Sciences of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kyiv University. Having graduated from the university on June 1, 1864, Nikolai Vitalievich received the degree of Candidate of Natural Sciences in May 1865.

Nikolay Lysenko

After graduating from Kyiv University and a short service, N.V. Lysenko decides to receive a higher musical education. In September 1867, he entered the Leipzig Conservatory, considered one of the best in Europe. His piano teachers were K. Reinecke, I. Moscheles and E. Wenzel, in composition - E. F. Richter, in theory - Paperitz. It was there that Nikolai Vitalievich realized that it was more important to collect, develop and create Ukrainian music than to copy Western classics.

In the summer of 1868, N. Lysenko married Olga Alexandrovna O’Connor, who was his second cousin and was 8 years younger. However, after 12 years of marriage, Nikolai and Olga, without officially filing for divorce, separated due to the lack of children.

Having completed his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory with great success in 1869, Nikolai Vitalievich returned to Kiev, where he lived, with a short break (from 1874 to 1876, Lysenko improved his skills in the field of symphonic instrumentation at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the class of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov) , just over forty years, engaged in creative, teaching and social activities. He took part in the organization of a Sunday school for peasant children, and later in the preparation of the “Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language”, in the census of the population of Kyiv, and in the work of the Southwestern branch of the Russian Geographical Society.

In 1878, Nikolai Lysenko took the position of piano teacher at the Institute of Noble Maidens. In the same year, he entered into a civil marriage with Olga Antonovna Lipskaya, who was a pianist and his student. The composer met her during concerts in Chernigov. From this marriage N. Lysenko had five children. Olga Lipskaya died in 1900 after giving birth to a child.

In the 1890s, in addition to teaching at the institute and private lessons, N. Lysenko worked at the music schools of S. Blumenfeld and N. Tutkovsky.

In the fall of 1904, the Music and Drama School (since 1913 - named after N.V. Lysenko), organized by Nikolai Vitalievich, began operating in Kyiv. It was the first Ukrainian educational institution that provided higher musical education according to the conservatory program. To organize the school, N. Lysenko used funds raised by his friends during the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the composer’s work in 1903 to publish his works and purchase dachas for him and the children. Nikolai Vitalievich taught piano at school. Both the school and N. Lysenko as its director were under constant police surveillance. In February 1907, Nikolai Vitalievich was arrested, but was released the next morning.

From 1908 to 1912, N. Lysenko was the chairman of the board of the Ukrainian Club society. This society carried out extensive social and educational activities: organized literary and musical evenings, and organized courses for public teachers. In 1911, Lysenko headed the committees created by this society to promote the construction of the monument to T. Shevchenko on the 50th anniversary of the poet’s death.

Nikolai Lysenko died on November 6, 1912, suddenly from a heart attack. Thousands of people came from all regions of Ukraine to say goodbye to the composer. Lysenko's funeral was held in Vladimir Cathedral. The choir that walked ahead of the funeral procession numbered 1,200 people; its singing could be heard even in the center of Kyiv. N.V. Lysenko was buried in Kyiv at the Baikovo cemetery.

Creation

While studying at Kiev University, trying to acquire as much musical knowledge as possible, Nikolai Lysenko studied the operas of A. Dargomyzhsky, Glinka, A. Serov, and became acquainted with the music of Wagner and Schumann. It was from this time that he began collecting and harmonizing Ukrainian folk songs, for example, he recorded a wedding ceremony (with text and music) in Pereyaslavsky district. In addition, N. Lysenko was the organizer and leader of student choirs, with which he performed publicly.

While studying at the Leipzig Conservatory in October 1868, N. V. Lysenko published “A Collection of Ukrainian Songs for Voice and Piano” - the first release of his arrangements of forty Ukrainian folk songs, which, in addition to practical purposes, have great scientific and ethnographic value. In the same 1868, he wrote his first significant work - “Zapovit” (“Testament”) to the words of T. Shevchenko, on the anniversary of the poet’s death. This work opened the “Music for the Kobzar” cycle, which included more than 80 vocal and instrumental works of various genres, published in seven series, the last of which was published in 1901.

N.V. Lysenko was at the center of the musical and national-cultural life of Kyiv. Being a member of the directorate of the Russian Musical Society in 1872-1873, he took an active part in its concerts held throughout Ukraine; led a choir of 50 singers, organized in 1872 at the Philharmonic Society of Lovers of Music and Singing; took part in the “Circle of Music and Singing Lovers”, “Circle of Music Lovers” by Y. Spiglazov. In 1872, a circle led by N. Lysenko and M. Staritsky obtained permission to publicly stage plays in Ukrainian. In the same year, Lysenko wrote the operettas “Chernomorets” and “Christmas Night” (later transformed into an opera), which firmly entered the theatrical repertoire, becoming the basis of the Ukrainian national opera art. In 1873, N. Lysenko’s first musicological work on Ukrainian musical folklore, “Characteristics of the musical features of Little Russian thoughts and songs performed by kobzar Ostap Veresai,” was published. During the same period, Nikolai Vitalievich wrote many piano works, as well as a symphonic fantasy on Ukrainian folk themes “Cossack-Shumka”.

During the St. Petersburg period, N. Lysenko took part in concerts of the Russian Geographical Society and led choral courses. Together with V.N. Paskhalov, Nikolai Vitalievich organized concerts of choral music in the “Salt Town”, the program of which included Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Serbian songs and works by Lysenko himself. He develops friendly relations with the composers of the “Mighty Handful”. In St. Petersburg he wrote the first rhapsody on Ukrainian themes, the first and second concert polonaises, and a piano sonata. There, Lysenko began work on the opera “Marusya Boguslavka” (unfinished) and made the second edition of the opera “Christmas Night”. His collection of girls’ and children’s songs and dances “Molodoshi” (“Young Years”) was published in St. Petersburg.

Returning to Kyiv in 1876, Nikolai Lysenko began active performing activities. He organized annual “Slavic concerts”, performed as a pianist in concerts of the Kyiv branch of the Russian Musical Society, at the evenings of the Literary and Artistic Society, of which he was a board member, and in monthly folk concerts in the People’s Auditorium. Organized annual Shevchenko concerts. From seminarians and students familiar with musical notation, Nikolai Vitalievich re-organizes the choirs in which K. Stetsenko, P. Demutsky, L. Revutsky, O. Lysenko and others received the beginnings of their artistic education. The money collected from the concerts went to public needs, for example, in favor of 183 students of Kyiv University who were drafted into soldiers for participating in the anti-government demonstration of 1901. At this time, he wrote almost all of his large piano works, including the second rhapsody, the third polonaise, and the nocturne in C sharp minor. In 1880, N. Lysenko began work on his most significant work - the opera “Taras Bulba” based on the story of the same name by N. Gogol with a libretto by M. Staritsky, which he would complete only ten years later. In the 1880s, Lysenko wrote such works as “The Drowned Woman” - a lyric-fantastic opera based on “May Night” by N. Gogol with a libretto by M. Staritsky; “Rejoice, unwatered field” - cantata to poems by T. Shevchenko; third edition of “Christmas Night” (1883). In 1889, Nikolai Vitalievich improved and orchestrated the music for the operetta “Natalka Poltavka” based on the work of I. Kotlyarevsky, in 1894 he wrote music for the extravaganza “The Magic Dream” based on the text by M. Staritsky, and in 1896 the opera “Sappho”.

Among N. Lysenko's authorial achievements, it is also necessary to note the creation of a new genre - children's opera. From 1888 to 1893, he wrote three children's operas based on folk tales with a libretto by the Dnieper-Chaika: “Goat-Dereza”, “Pan Kotsky (Kotsky)”, “Winter and Spring, or the Snow Queen”. “Koza-Dereza” became a kind of gift from Nikolai Lysenko to his children.

From 1892 to 1902, Nikolai Lysenko four times organized touring concerts throughout Ukraine, the so-called “choral travels”, in which mainly his own choral works were performed based on Shevchenko’s texts and arrangements of Ukrainian songs. In 1892, Lysenko’s art historical research “On the torban and the music of Vidort’s songs” was published, and in 1894 - “Folk musical instruments in Ukraine”.

In 1905, N. Lysenko, together with A. Koshits, organized the Boyan choral society, with which he organized choral concerts of Ukrainian, Slavic and Western European music. The conductors of the concerts were himself and A. Koshits. However, due to unfavorable political conditions and lack of material resources, the society disintegrated, having existed for little more than a year. At the beginning of the 20th century, Lysenko wrote music for the dramatic performances “The Last Night” (1903) and “Hetman Doroshenko”. In 1905, he wrote the work “Hey, for our native land.” In 1908, the choir “The Quiet Evening” was written to the words of V. Samoilenko, in 1912 the opera “Nocturne” was written, lyrical romances were created based on texts by Lesya Ukrainka, Dniprova Chaika, and A. Oles. In the last years of his life, Nikolai Vitalievich wrote a number of works in the field of sacred music, which continued the “Cherubic” cycle he founded at the end of the 19th century: “The Most Pure Virgin, Mother of the Russian Land” (1909), “I will go from Thy presence, Lord” ( 1909), “The Virgin is giving birth today to the Most Essential”, “By the Tree of the Cross”; in 1910, “David’s Psalm” was written based on the text by T. Shevchenko.