The Ukrainian Art Song Project sends you this gift of song…♪

We invite you to listen to a beautiful interpretation of

I Rose at Dawn ~
Удосвiта встав я

Composer: Mykosla Lysenko
Poet: Panteleimon Kulish

Benjamin Butterfield, tenor
Albert Krywolt, piano

Panteleіmon Kulish
Translation: Watson Kirkconnell

I rose at dawn, while still the world was dark;
Lights here and there wink in the huts apart;
Each flickers as in skies a star’s bright spark…
I marvel and rejoice, and ask my heart:

“Tell me, prophetic heart, will dawn soon break?”
“Yes, light will soon appear; our folk will wake,
The sun to every window joy will take!”

I rouse at once to strike the living chord:
“Awake and rise, all men, to your reward!”
My soul a novel intuition knows,
And native speech my heart’s rim overflows.

Lysenko was a longstanding admirer of the literary work of Kulish, but only set one of his poems to music— three years after the poet’s death. This is a matinata, a morning serenade. The music begins quietly, but soon f lowers into a glorious sunrise.

Пантелеймон Куліш

Удосвiта встав я… темно ще надворi…
Де-не-де по хатах ясне свiтло сяє,
Сяє ясне свiтло, як на небi зорi…
Дивуюсь, радiю, у серця питаю:
“Скажи, вiще серце, чи скоро свiт буде?”

“Ой, скоро свiт буде,
Прокинуться люди,
У всяке вiконце
Засiяє сонце…”

Ой ударю ж зразу
У струни живiї:
Прокиньтесь, вставайте,
Старiї й малiї!

Вiщуванням новим
Серце моє б’ється,
Через край iз серця
Рiдне слово ллється.

Впродовж багатьох років Лисенко захоплювався літературними творами Куліша, однак поклав на музику лише один його вірш, три роки після смерті поета. За жанром це т. зв. матіната – ранкова серенада. Музичний розвиток починається досить спокійно, проте швидко розквітає сліпучими тонами сходячого сонця.

the score

MYKOLA LYSENKO (1842–1912)

Mykola Lysenko is the father of modern Ukrainian classical music. His prolific life’s work laid the foundation for the further development and expansion of Ukrainian musical culture. He influenced a large group of Ukrainian composers, including Stetsenko, Stepovyi, Leontovych, Koshyts, and Liudkevych. A compilation of Lysenko’s works in 22 volumes was published in Kyiv in 1950–59.

Lysenko was a composer, ethnomusicologist, pianist, and conductor. He studied at the Kharkiv and Kyiv universities and, later, at the Leipzig Conservatory under Reinicke and Richter (1867–69). From 1874 to 1876 he studied orchestration under Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg. In 1904, he founded his own School of Music and Drama in Kyiv.

The list of Lysenko’s operatic compositions include Black Sea Cossacks (1872); three operas based on the works of the Ukrainian writer Mykola Hohol – Christmas Night (1873–82),
The Drowned Maiden (1883) and Taras Bulba (1890); and the operettas Natalka from Poltava (1889) and Aeneas (1911). Himself a well-known pianist, Lysenko composed a piano sonata, two rhapsodies, a suite, a scherzo and a rondo, as well as an abundance of smaller pieces, including songs without words, nocturnes, waltzes and polonaises. He also wrote a number of works for strings. Of the Ukrainian composers, Lysenko was the most committed to the art song genre. Lysenko’s 133 art songs (lirychni pisni in Ukrainian) relate a wonderfully descriptive and passionate story of 19th- and early 20th-century European life.