Christmas in Ukraine

Khrïstos razhdayetsia! Slavite yeho! Christ is born! Glorify Him!

When Cappella Romana invited me to prepare this concert “Christmas in Ukraine,” a wealth of musical memories came into my imagination. Since I am of Ukrainian descent, I felt instant inspiration and also a sense of responsibility. How can I represent the many centuries of Ukraine’s sacred and secular Christmas repertoire in one concert? Our current era of re-emerging nationalist jingoism around the globe also poses a challenge. How can we as a chorus convey this culture not as monochromatic but in all its rich complexity? 

Many of us living west of the Carpathian Mountains have little familiarity with Ukraine as a nation and culture. For generations, Ukraine was regarded as a colony of Russia, and the Ukrainian language called a dialect of Russian. Even today, news about Ukraine is often filtered through the lens of Russia. The New York Times and NPR, when covering the Maidan protests, the referendum in Crimea, or the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine, typically consult correspondents based in Moscow rather than Kyiv. If we have an image of Ukraine or Ukrainians at all, it is perhaps a vague blur. 

Music can speak a thousand words, and I hope the sonic and poetic images of this concert will more clearly acquaint you with the colorful country that is Ukraine and its cultural sensibility. 

Ukrainians are a singing people: their appreciation of singers and vocal music runs deep. Even in the 18^th century, Western European travelers commented on constant singing in Ukraine’s fields and villages. Famous for its fertile land, Ukraine is highly agrarian, and its songs often express a reverence for nature. The choral music of Ukraine, as you will hear, is unabashedly melodic and triadic, its lyrics sentimental. Because Ukraine adopted Christianity (in the 10^th Century) rather precipitously, its carols flow between pagan and Christian expression without contradiction. Ukrainians venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary: their ancient worship of an earth-mother perhaps transferred to the Christian Theotokos (Mother of God). In carols, they express wonder at the virgin birth and the Star in the East, and a fascination with the angelic chorus, shepherds, animals, and even flowers surrounding Jesus in the manger. Many of the pieces you will hear—the carols as well as the Bortniansky Choral Concerto—describe the celestial and the terrestrial realms as a continuum: a continuum made possible with God’s descent to earth in the form of the Christ-child accompanied by angels touching down to the manger. 

In Ukraine, carols are sung between Christmas Eve, called Sviatiy Vechir or “Holy Night” (December 24 in the new calendar and January 6 in the Julian calendar), and Epiphany—called Shchedriy Vechir or “Bountiful Eve” (January 6 new calendar or January 19 in the Julian calendar). There are generally two types of carols. Although there is some overlap, in general koliadky are associated with Christmas and refer to the story of Christ’s birth; shchedrivky are associated with the feast of the Epiphany or Theophany. In earlier centuries and an ancient calendar, Schedriy Vechir fell in springtime. Thus, many ancient shchedrivky refer to bird migration, the birth of livestock, and future harvest. The famous carol that most Americans know in its English version as “Carol of the Bells” is one such shchedrivka. In the original Ukrainian, it mentions the return of a swallow, harvest, and sheep multiplying—no bells at all. The carol “Pavochka khodït” has only a tenuous relation to the Christmas season through its refrain.

In Ukraine, Christmas music-making does occur in churches and concert halls, but rather than being focused on lengthy oratorios or cantatas, its repertoire centers in a cappella miniatures. Even the categories of Ukrainian carols have diminutive names: koliadky and shchedrivky—little carols, little epiphany songs. There are hundreds of them! and they are ubiquitous. Whether sung by professional choirs in many vocal parts, by concert soloists, old women in their babushka-scarves together with the church congregation, family members of all ages sitting around a table, a young child on the way home from school, by itinerant groups of carolers improvising harmonies as they go door-to-door, or by pop artists on you tube, these koliadky and shchedrivky are sung with gusto and sung annually. Contemporary Ukrainian composers and arrangers honor the carol aesthetic as well. The pieces by Alzhniev, Dychko, Yakovchuk, and Yakymets you will hear tonight are rooted in folk oral tradition and manage to evoke intimacy, familiarity, and grandeur all at once. 

Ukrainians also treasure the spoken word: the recitation of poetry is promoted from an early age and is part of traditional Christmas and Epiphany celebrations. The custom of caroling door-to-door includes vinchuvannia, a practice of exclaiming a blessing to each household. These blessings, addressed to the master or mistress of the house, are delivered at a quick pace, typically in rhythmic, rhyming couplets. Sometimes the blessings are polite, sometimes irreverent, often comic. Our concert will include a few folk vinchuvannia, poetry recitations, and vignettes by celebrated Ukrainian writers. 

Overall, our program spans several centuries, urban and rural regions, liturgical and folk music. It groups short pieces somewhat thematically to allow continuity of singing and thought. It includes ancient liturgical chant; a concerto by Bortniansky, perhaps the most famous composer of Ukrainian descent; and a piece by Lesia Dychko, among the most esteemed composers of present-day Ukraine. It also features arrangements by the ethnographer Stetsenko and by the choral conductor Koshetz whose concert tours in the 1920s first brought his colleague Leontovich’s “Carol of the Bells” to world-wide attention. We present pieces from the diaspora as well: Hurko, Kuzma, Kytasty, and Lepkiy. The history of Ukraine includes the stories of artists who were exiled or displaced but who themselves (and their offspring) never forgot their homeland. 

We begin our journey with the oldest known Ukrainian folksong, invoking a Creator-God to “breathe life” onto the earth. We continue with an Old Testament psalm verse that is sung as part of the Christmas Day matins liturgy: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Breath is understood to be both the source of all creation and the power through which humans can sing in praise of their Creator. In Ukrainian, the very word “dukh” means both breath and spirit. At Christmas, Ukrainians adore the earth and heavens and worship the Christ-Child in the same breath. Whether in church, seated around a family table, or walking door-to-door in the winter air, Ukrainians share an innate understanding that the act of singing brings them closer to each other as a people and closer to their Creator-God: a God that is everywhere and at all times “with us.” 

Z namy Boh!

—Marika Kuzma

I am grateful to Nariman Asanov, Phil Bodrock, Daniel Galadza, Melanie Kuzma, the Kyiv Chamber Choir, Ihor Stasiuk, and the Yara Arts Group for contributing materials and consultation for this concert.