Mykhailo Mykhailovych Verbytskyi ( uk, Михайло Михайлович Вербицький; March 4, 1815 – December 7, 1870) was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest and composer. He is considered to be one of the first professional

Ukrainian composers Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

Halychyna Galicia ()"Galicia"
''

Verbytskyi is known for composing an alternate melody to the anthem Ще не вмерла України ( Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy), which later became the national anthem of Ukraine. His first name is sometimes translated to the English version of Michael, Polish Michal, Russian and other languages (see

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

for more). Verbytskyi's national anthem became widely played by orchestras and musicians around the world in support of Ukraine as a result of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

Biography

Mykhailo Verbytskyi was born in Nadsiannia. Sources often differ as to the exact location of his birth, with some claiming he was born in

Jawornik Ruski Jawornik Ruski is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Bircza, within Przemyśl County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland. It lies approximately west of Bircza, west of Przemyśl, and south-east of the regional c ...

Як «зустрілися» наддніпрянець і галичанин (How an over-Dnipro resident and a Halychian "met")
website of the ''Den' newspaper'' and christened 8 km away in UluczМихайло Вербицький Етнографія (Mykhailo Verbytskyi Ethnography)
lemky.com (the site of the oldest wooden church in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

where his father was the local priest. Both are now in

Subcarpathian Voivodeship Subcarpathian Voivodeship or Subcarpathia Province (in pl, Województwo podkarpackie ) is a voivodeship, or province, in the southeastern corner of Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów. Along with the Marshall, it i ...

, Poland.) Verbytskyi as born into the family of a priest. He was left an orphan at the age of ten, and was raised from then on by his father's brother, Bishop Ivan Snihurskiy. Snihurskiy took Mykhailo to live with him in Peremysl, where his uncle was very active: founding the city's first

Ukrainian language Ukrainian ( uk, украї́нська мо́ва, translit=ukrainska mova, label=native name, ) is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. It is the native language of about 40 million people and the official state lan ...

printing press, published compilations of folklore and textbooks about the Ukrainian language. In 1818, Snihurskiy even founded a dyak-teaching institute in the city, and ten years later, a cathedral choir and

music school A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...

. Verbystky was therefore placed in a very active and creative environment. In 1833, Verbytskyi entered the Theological Seminary in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

. Here he became seriously engaged in music, learning to play the guitar, which became his favourite musical instrument. He eventually wrote a

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...

teaching how to play the guitar and wrote pieces for the instrument. Because of financial problems, he twice had to leave the Seminary, but he eventually graduated and became a priest. Chapel of the over the graves of priests in the village Mlyny

Chapel of the over the graves of priests in the village Mlyny

In 1852 Verbytskyi received a parish in the village of Mlyny, Yavorskiy county, where he would live and work for the rest of his life. As a priest he wrote many

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

compositions, which are still sung throughout the

Halychyna Galicia ()"Galicia"
''

Єдинородний Сине (Only-begotten Son), Святий Боже (Holy God), Алилуя (Alleluia), Отче наш (Our Father), and Хваліте Господа з небес (Praise the Lord from the heavens).

Music

As a composer he helped lay the foundations for the development of modern Ukrainian music. His works are formally unsophisticated, often strophic, and usually in the minor mode; but his stage works (notably ''Prostachka'' (‘The Simpleton’), 1870) are representative of a popular folk genre that was melodically fluid, singable, pictorial and emotionally evocative. His instrumental writing does not extend far beyond the simple development of folktunes. Nevertheless, he composed 12 symphonies (overtures), on the sixth of which

Stanyslav Lyudkevych Stanyslav Pylypovych Lyudkevych ( uk, Станіслав Пилипович Людкевич; 24 January 1879 – 10 September 1979) was a Ukrainian composer, theorist, teacher, and musical activist. He was the People's Artist of the USSR in 1969. ...

based an orchestral piece and a piano trio. He also composed ''Zapovit'' (‘Testament’, 1868), a setting of

Shevchenko Shevchenko (alternative spellings Schevchenko, Ševčenko, Shevcenko, Szewczenko, Chevchenko; ua , Шевченко), a family name of Ukrainian origin. It is derived from the Ukrainian word ''shvets'' ( uk, швець), " cobbler/shoemaker", and ...

’s poem for bass solo, double choir and orchestra, the operetta ''Podgoryane'' which was staged in Lemberg (now L′viv, 1864), and numerous sacred and secular choral works and songs. He is best known as the composer of the Ukrainian national anthem by the words of

Pavlo Chubynsky Pavlo Platonovych Chubynsky ( uk, Павло Платонович Чубинський; 1839 – January 26, 1884) was a Ukrainian poet and ethnographer whose poem ''Shche ne vmerla Ukraina'' (Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished) was set to music and ad ...

''Shche ne vmerla Ukrayiny'' (‘Ukraine has not Perished’), which in 1917 was adopted by the new Ukrainian republican government.

Compositions

Musicologist Uliana Petrus' has put together a list of 133 known compositions by Mykhailo Verbytskyi. These include: *Large scale secular choral works - 30 *Sacred choral works - 37 *Vocal ensembles *Art songs - 10 *Arrangements of folk songs - 10 *Orchestral works - 18 works including 9 symphonies *Chamber works *15 works for various instruments * Music to 12 stage works

Commemoration

In 2005 the chapel-pantheon over the tomb of Mykhailo Verbytskyi was opened to mark the 140th anniversary of Ukrainian national anthem and 190th anniversary of its composer.

References

Sources

*Andriy V. Szul. The '' New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', edited by Stanley Sadie (1992). and *Загайкевич, Марія Михайло Вербицький - Сторінки життя і творчості - Львів, 1998

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Verbytskyi, Mykhailo 1815 births 1870 deaths People from Przemyśl County Ukrainian classical composers Polish composers National anthem writers Polish opera composers 19th-century classical composers