Denys Sichynsky / Galicians I

Denys Sichynsky (1865-1909)

In his youth, Denys Sichynsky studied with pianist Wladyslaw Wszelaczynski in Ternopil.  Wszelaczynskiwas a pupil of Karol Mikuli, the director of the Lemberg Conservatory in Galicia.  Prior to his private studies with Mikuli, Sichynsky had already started to write art songs.  

During the 1890s Sichynsky led an unsettled life.  He worked as a music teacher, copyist, arranger, conductor, performer, organizer, critic, and composer.  It is from this period that most of his art songs originate.  In 1891 Sichynsky helped found the Lviv “Boian” Choir and, in 1902, he organized a Ukrainian music school in Stanyslaviv (Ivano-Frankivsk) where he settled during the last decade of his life.  

Stylistically, Sichynsky’s music is mid-late romantic.  There is a wonderful sense of melody, reflecting the melos of Ukrainian folksongs.  Many of his art songs are through-composed, rich in modulation, and operatic in style.