Music is capable of helping travel through centuries in search of the understanding of the epochs that were created by human civilizations. An epoch’s character is reflected in it as in the finest manifestation of spiritual matter. Musicians from the Ancient Music Ensemble: Kostiantyn Chechenia, Vadym Shevchuk, and Oleksandr Savchenko are the kind of connoisseurs of ancient music, before which the mysterious curtain of the past opens. They got together to reproduce this music in a way that would be as close as possible to the original. The ensemble knows how the Renaissance epoch sounded in Italy, what were the music tonalities of the baroque and rococo epochs in England, France, Germany, as well as in Ukraine. Playing music on authentic instruments such as the hurdy-gurdy, lute, folk bandura, and flute, the musicians transpose the listeners to the age of Dante Alighieri, Leonardo da Vinci, Louis IV, and Henry VII.
A TRIP TO MUSIC CULTURAL HERITAGE
Before Kostiantyn Chechenia, the ensemble’s artistic director, guitar player, composer, teacher, and associate professor at the Institute of Arts, Drahomanov National Pedagogical University, became interested in ancient music he had gone through an infatuation with The Beatles. Like all the other young people of the 1960s and the 1970s under the influence of this band, he developed a burning desire to create his own music that would be different from the already existing traditions.
He enrolled in Reinhold Gliere Music College in Kyiv and began searching for something that was his own. He tried to be original in his passionate youthful work: he wrote music using not only half-tones, but also quarter tones like in the Oriental musical tradition. College teachers and composers whom Chechenia showed his works somewhat tempered the young musician’s zeal. They told him that before searching for something new he should thoroughly learn the existing musical heritage to avoid involuntary repetitions and inventing something that already exists and to get a good basis for new creations.
“Being a conscientious student, I heeded their advice and began with theory. I read the books about the history of ancient music, listened to records, and later continued more serious research in archives in Poland, Germany, and other European countries. Slavs have always been modest people. Just like an icon painter never signed their works, the tradition of remaining anonymous dominated in ancient Ukrainian music, while the French, as well as pedantic Germans, signed every tiny detail. However, I am convinced that every song has its author, just like the folk song “Yikhav kozak za Dunai” (The Cossack Went Beyond the Danube) was written by Semen Klymovsky and the songs about Hryts were composed by Marusia Churai,” says Chechenia. “The material I gathered and musical works that I performed were enough to write a dissertation. I finished my thesis Ukrainian Instrumental Music, the Second Half of the 16th Century — mid-17th Century. Problems of Authenticity in Performing Culture and successfully defended it.
“Theoretical research led me to a meeting with the Kyiv-based composer Sviatoslav Krutikov, who at the time worked on ancient music. In this way since 1980 I started my trip to the cultural heritage of world’s and Ukrainian music. At the time, still having that youthful passion, I thought that I’d get through all music from the ancient times until the present and will get equipped for writing my own unique music. But it’s been 30 years now that I’ve been playing music and there is no end to it. I can say that I am now somewhere in the middle of the Renaissance period and haven’t really gotten to baroque yet. Every time I play it, I get more excited: this music is so interesting, original, and, I would even say, avant-garde that the present-day composers could never dream of. For example, there are unique sound and rhythm combinations, when the melody is played in various measures simultaneously and the song is sung in different languages all at once.
“Our credo is the restoration of ancient Ukrainian music. Today our country has a characteristic tendency of moving towards Europe. Meanwhile, the ancient musical heritage shows that Ukraine has unchanged European traditions. The European character of our musical layer is obvious. If someone would play European music from the 16th century along with Ukrainian music of that period, one would hardly be able to notice any difference. Ukrainian instrumental music is similar to both Polish and German musical traditions. One can find in European melodies many structures and rhythms that are very close to Ukrainian music, i.e., the latter is equally high-quality and interesting.
“I even had experiments once: I gave musical experts pieces of Polish, French, and Ukrainian music to listen to, and nobody could say with full certainty which was Ukrainian among these. Maybe it turned out to be like that because I was looking for something that would be close to me in those cultures. It is surely understandable that there are more substantial differences in vocal traditions. Only starting from the 17th century, musical traditions were clearly used according to national characteristics. Every country clearly has its own shades of sound depending on the national spirit and mentality. For example, German music is more complicated and is strictly rational.
“The rhythms and intervals of folk music depend on, for instance, natural environment. Therefore, the timbre of people who live in the mountains is different from that of people from steppe and forest areas. More smooth melodies and less contrastive juxtapositions are more characteristic of us, people from steppes. However, if we look at lullabies, they are calm in all the nations. The feelings that are being conveyed while rocking a baby are very similar — calm and full of love.
“In expressing love Ukraine is similar to southern France in the range of expressed feelings. But in Ukrainian music these feeling are more exalted, and you really cry when you perform historical or romantic songs. By contrast, when Germans or Brits sing about military defeats, it is not as touching. Therefore, Ukrainian lyrics has a wider range of feelings.”
THE MATURE WINE OF MUSIC
Chechenia is also famous as a composer because of the music he wrote for the movies Stoit Yavir (There a Sycamore Stands), Kapitansha (The Captain’s Woman) based on a work by Taras Shevchenko, and others.
The musician admitted, “If one wants to compare writing music with discovering and restoring music, which wasn’t performed for three or four centuries, and put it on the scales to see what is more important, then not my opuses but the music that was brought back to the modern audience would be of higher value.”
The oldest music that is performed by his ensemble dates back to the sixth century B.C. Chechenia is glad that the ensemble has no target audience. Both young and older people can listen to their music. Sometimes the music is understood in completely different ways by different generations: older people find it soothing, while young people feel that it could be some kind of medieval rock and people could dance to it. Musicians show by their work that authentic music is not a museum item; it is not covered with a layer of dust, but is absolutely alive. It can be used not only in historical films or performances but is also quite acceptable in the modern sound space. Over 100 pieces of Ukrainian and Western European authentic music were recorded by the Ancient Music Ensemble for the Ukrainian Radio’s Fund. They also released nine music CDs, including one with songs performed by Nina Matvienko.
In time of colossal technological breakthroughs, no matter how surprising it may sound, there were no great discoveries in music. Technology tries to burst into music and make it more mechanical. Meanwhile, authentic motives can be used as music therapy. In this sense, music, just like good wine, has matured through the centuries. It is known that, for example, sound waves that correspond to the note D have a healing effect on respiratory organs.
“Our ensemble can feel the healing effect of ancient music in every rehearsal. After playing it you become as if cleaner,” says Chechenia. “Sometimes when you go through so many pieces of music, you understand that it would be better not to take it out to a big audience, because this is a great responsibility. Unfortunately, not every composer or poet in our country understands this. For the sake of being outrageous they produce ‘sick’ or ugly works without even thinking about the consequences of what those sounds and those words carry in them. When I listen to the modern radio, it makes me feel sad that there are no experienced music editors at the radio stations. There has to be a more professional attitude there, and the priority has to be not what I personally like but what will be played and for whom. Today’s tendency is indifference — listeners will consume this kind of music anyway. Therefore, we have a terrible culture of music consumption; it is just as if somebody would crumb some chocolate into borshch.”
INSTRUMENTS FROM SAINT SOPHIA CATHEDRAL FRESCOES
The authentic instruments used in performing ancient music are just as important as the talent of the musicians. Musical instruments of that time find a new life according to the paintings and sketches that remained until present times. Some of the instruments from the times of Kyivan Rus — the lute, flute, and percussion instruments — were reproduced by the restorers of the frescos in Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. The next will be the organ. All the drafts necessary for its construction have already been made and it’s all about finding enough financing now. In general, musical instruments that have survived until our days were made in the 17th century at the earliest, including the so-called baroque guitar with five double strings made by Antonio Stradivari. From older times we have the lute, oud, hurdy-gurdy, and block flute, which became the instruments used by the Ancient Music Ensemble. It is sad that the future of the study of ancient music is now uncertain.
“Today it is a problem to train a new generation of lute players due to a lack of instruments and a high price of their production,” says Chechenia. “In Poland, for example, there are schools and an academy of ancient music, where different kinds of specialists receive training. There is nothing like this in Ukraine. There are only individual attempts, but they usually fail due to the absence of financing.”
A great deal of work in restoring old instruments has been done by the Kyiv-based Kobzarsky Tsekh (Kobza Workshop). The Tsekh is now functioning thanks to efforts of Mykola Budnyk, a famous kobza and bandura player and a master of folk musical instruments. He had a special talent — he could make an instrument in such a way that it would breathe in player’s hands. He used a special method for selecting wood, drying, and then cutting it. It all reminds one of a mystical performance. Instruments like that enable the Ancient Music Ensemble to bring the world of our ancestors into the present time.
