Music
Mykola Leontovych specialized in a cappella choral music. He is remembered today mostly through the musical works he left behind, which include over 150 choral compositions. These range from artistic arrangements of folk songs, religious works (including his liturgy), cantatas, and choral compositions set to the words of various Ukrainian poets. His two most famous works are the choral miniatures "Schedryk" and "Dudaryk".
Leontovych also commenced work on an opera (Na rusalchyn velykden’ - On the Water Nymph's Easter) based on Ukrainian myths and the works of Borys Hrinchenko. By the end of 1920 he had finished the first of three acts. However, Leontovych was murdered before he could complete the opera. Attempts to complete and edit the opera were made by Ukrainian composer Mykhailo Verykivsky. Composer Myroslav Skoryk and poet Diodor Bobyr used the musical material of the unfinished opera to make a one act operetta; this premiered in 1977 at the Kiev State Opera and Ballet Theatre, one hundred years after Leontovych's birth. The North American premiere took place in Toronto on April 11, 2003.
One of the largest influences in Mykola Leontovych's music is that of Mykola Lysenko who is considered "the father of Ukrainian classical music". Leontovych admired Lysenko's music ever since he was a student at the Kamianets-Podilskyi Theological Seminary, when he had the seminary's choir perform the composer's music. Since then he would perform Lysenko's music in concerts wherever he worked.
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