The series Religious Music of Ukraine is the brainchild of the actor Bohdan Kozak, composer Oleksandr Kozarenko, and conductor Mykola Kulyk. It is difficult to describe the significance of what these creative personalities have achieved. So far the series includes 91 works, ranging from ancient Ukrainian sacred monodies to the first Ukrainian Catholic Liturgy for Choir and Orchestra.
On Sept. 27, 2005, an important musical event took place in the concert hall of Lviv’s Philharmonic Society: the premiere of Oleksandr Kozarenko’s Bishops’ Divine Liturgy for Choir and Orchestra performed by the choir and orchestra of the Kapela Trembita, conducted by Mykola Kulyk. The work was received with sincere admiration and joyous emotions, but also with some difficulties in terms of perception, even surprise, as this composition does not conform to the stereotypes of Eastern-rite liturgical music.
The Ukrainian Catholic Liturgy for Choir and Orchestra, composed by the talented Lviv composer Oleksandr Kozarenko, was created as a bishops’ mass to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stamford Eparchy in the US, with the blessing of Bishop Vasyl Lostyn. The composition is for a combination of performers, which is unusual for Ukrainian church music: a mixed choir, soloists, organ, and symphony orchestra. The composer wanted to combine the Eastern liturgical rite with the techniques of Western composers and performance devices. The national essence of this liturgy is formed by both its intonational material (ancient Ukrainian liturgical songs) and the composer’s arrangement in the style of the Ukrainian classicists, primarily Bortniansky, as well as the “new” school of the early 20th century. Here the composer remains true to his creative ideas, successfully realized in his earlier works, such as The Ostroh Triptych, Passions, and Songs to the Mother of God.
At the same time, Kozarenko made a significant and successful attempt to introduce elements of modern European styles, orienting himself on the achievements of such composers as Verdi, Puccini, Janacek, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff. In other words, he has tried to follow the trail previously blazed in the European creative domain by the immense achievements of Mykola Diletsky, Andrii Rachynsky, Dmytro Bortniansky, Maksym Berezovsky, and Artem Vedel, while preserving the Orthodox essence of their liturgical works.
At the same time this work belongs to our times, marking the beginning of another millennium in which the composer unites all these rather different trends into a single composition. He unites all this material in several melodious and harmonious structures that burst forth from a full-tone cluster apparent in the orchestral introduction to the First Antiphon. Contrasted with the diatonic sphere are the romance-style intonations of the solo and ensemble passages, also by Late-Romantic harmonic alterations in the orchestral accompaniment. The choral a cappella passages of the ektenias (prayerful petitions in the Eastern Orthodox liturgy), kontakions, and troparions (anthems offered up to a saint on his day) are another, renewed, element of contrast. Thus, the traditional structure of the Eastern liturgical cycle is happily blended with the established principles of European cantata-oratorio music.
The performers approached this remarkable creative project with a great sense of responsibility. On the one hand, it was necessary to convey to the audience the spirit and religious mentality of the Eastern-rite liturgy and, on the other, to overcome the considerable technical and performance difficulties of a work that is modern and unusual for the Ukrainian Church. The premiere was a great success because the Trembita cappella has gained considerable experience over the past 15 years precisely by performing large-scale compositions of Ukrainian music (Diletsky, Bortniansky, Verbytsky, Liudkevych, Kolessa, Kaminsky, and Kozarenko) and Western (Handel’s Messiah and Rossini’s Requiem).
Another reason for its success was that the composer succeeded in maintaining a fine equilibrium between the Eastern and Western religious and creative paradigms.
I have only one reservation, and that is that here and there the premiere performance was weighed down by an excessive concert sound and accentuated artistry, which are natural for a premiere performance but less desirable for a premiere of a liturgical composition. Still, these are minor shortcomings. The elegant concert hall of Lviv’s Philharmonic Society, the festive excitement of the audience gathered in the sold-out hall, and the presence of a large number of bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Orthodox churches markedly intensified the uplifted mood of the cappella performers. Obviously, much thought should also be devoted to the strict liturgical performance of this bishops’ mass, especially when it is recorded on CD.
Mykhailo Perun, the author and producer of the project, deserves special mention. On his initiative the Andrei Foundation is creating the Religious Music of Ukraine series, which has already earned recognition and gratitude from devoted admirers of Ukrainian church music. The value of this creative project does not lie simply in the creation of a final product — a CD. It is also a quest for the appropriate music, work with performing ensembles, the commissioning of new liturgical and religious music by Ukraine’s leading composers, and, finally, a quest for funds and donors. This project thus has a universal dimension, and in this sense it is unique in Ukraine.
All this provides grounds for anticipating that the creators of the phonogram series Religious Music of Ukraine and Personalities will be honored with Ukraine’s most prestigious award in recognition of their meritorious contribution to the development of the traditions of Ukrainian sacred music and their innovative forms, and their performance throughout the world.
