Shchedryk

The Christmas Carol “Carol of the Bells” is based on "Shchedryk" (Ukrainian: Щедрик, from Щедрий вечiр, "Bountiful Evening".)

"Shchedryk" was arranged by Ukrainian Composer and Teacher Mykola Leontovych (Ukrainian: Микола Леонтович) in 1916 and tells a story of a swallow flying into a household to sing of the wealth that will come with the following Spring.

(Mykola Leontovych)

Mykola Leontovych was born on December 13, 1877 in Monastyrok, Ukraine (then a part of the Russian Czarist Empire.) He was the eldest of 5 Children. His Father (Grandfather and Great-Grandfather) were Village Priests in the Ukrainian Orthodox Christian Religion.

He attended the Podolia Theological Seminary (which his Father and Grandfather also attended) and after graduating in 1899, he decided to break the Family tradition by becoming a School Teacher instead of a Priest.

Leontovych married Claudia Zholtkevych, on March 22, 1902. The Couple's first Daughter, Halyna, was born in 1903. They later had a second Daughter, Yevheniya.

While also working as a Teacher he created Choirs and Compositions ranging from Church Music to elaborate arrangements of Folk Music.

During the October 1917 Communist Revolution Ukraine declared its independence from the Russian Empire and became the Ukrainian People's Republic until the Soviet Communists in Moscow took over Ukraine and made it part of the Soviet Union in 1922.

Leontovych taught Choral Conducting at the Kyiv Conservatory and at the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama during this time.

On January 23, 1921, Leontovych was shot and killed by a Chekist (Soviet State Security Agent) Afanasy Hrishchenko for his promotion of Ukrainian Culture in Markivka, the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic.

On February 1, 1921, nine days after Leontovych's death, Artists, Academics, and Students of the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama in Kyiv gathered to commemorate him. They established the Committee for the Memory of Mykola Leontovych, which later became the Leontovych Music Society, and which promoted Ukrainian Music until closed down by the Communists in 1928.

In 2002, to celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the Composer's Birth, the City of Kamianets-Podilskyi in Ukraine held an all-Ukrainian Scientific Conference entitled "Mykola Leontovych and Modern Education and Science," with guests from the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science, the Ukrainian Composers' Union, and many Local Authorities. During this event, the City held a ceremonial opening of a Memorial Plaque to the Composer, placed next to the old building formerly used by the Podollia Theological Seminary.

He was made a Martyr in the Eastern Orthodox Ukrainian Church.

During his lifetime, Mykola Leontovych’s Compositions and Arrangements became popular with musicians across the Ukrainian Region of the Russian Empire. Performances of his works in Western Europe and North America earned him the nickname "the Ukrainian Bach".

“Carol of the Bells” uses the tune from Mykola Leontovych’s "Shchedryk" written in 1914 with English-Language Lyrics written by Peter Wilhousky in 1936.

You can hear “Carol of the Bells” here:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7nSKqfBk6k

You can hear the Ukrainian Version of Shchedryk / Щедрик with Ukrainian and English Lyrics here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqeJ38DThVc