Library of the choir
The series of sheet music publications “Kyiv Choir Library” (KCL) was initiated on October 17, 1996. On this day, a group of Western entrepreneurs and diplomats, led by the co-chairs of the organizing committee — Mr. Viktor Yushchenko (then Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine) and Mr. William Green Miller (former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine), with the participation of Mr. Andriy Viter (President of the PR agency “Romyr & Associates”) — organized a concert by the Kyiv Chamber Choir for diplomatic and business representatives of Ukraine. The funds raised were used to purchase a computer-based editing system and software for sheet music preparation.
Starting the following year, with financial support from the Main Department of Culture of Kyiv, cultural funds, and private individuals, the first scores began to be published. Today, the Library’s catalog contains hundreds of works of Ukrainian choral music from the 16th century to the present, most of which have never been published before.
The Kyiv Choir Library is one of the few consistent scholarly publishing houses in modern Ukraine. The publication of ancient music is carried out in collaboration with leading Ukrainian musicologists — N. Herasymova-Persydska, L. Korniy, L. Parkhomenko, M. Yurchenko, V. Syvokhip, T. Husarchuk, and others. Thanks to their research work, we have access to the most reliable primary sources — copies of autographs, manuscripts, and ancient editions. As a result of this collaboration, complete collections of sacred works by M. Diletsky, S. Pekalytsky, A. Vedel, M. Verbytsky, M. Leontovych, Ya. Yatsynevych, and K. Stetsenko have already been published. The publication of contemporary choral music is prepared in collaboration with the composers themselves. For the first time, collections by Yevhen Stankovych, Myroslav Skoryk, Lesia Dychko, and Roman Twardowski have been published.
Most of the works published by the Library have been performed and recorded by the Kyiv Choir. The performance experience has allowed us to enrich the publications with choral editing (adjustments to metronomes, nuances, articulations, and sometimes for the convenience of conducting, time signature and measure divisions have been added).
Another feature of the publications is the editing of texts. All Church Slavonic texts are presented in Ukrainian transliteration according to the centuries-old liturgical tradition of Rus-Ukraine. Sacred works by composers of the early 20th century and contemporary authors, written in Ukrainian, are edited according to the 1999 edition of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, which offers the closest translation to the Church Slavonic language.
The activities of the Kyiv Choir Library have a wide range of practical applications — its publications are intended for choir conductors, choir directors, singers, students, and music researchers. The immortal creations of the best composers from the thousand-year history of Ukrainian choral culture should become a universal heritage.
Mykola Hobdych,
editor of the “Kyiv” Choir Library
⠀
⠀
Choral Works. Hanna Havrylets
⠀
The sheet music collection “Hanna Havrylets. Choral Works” is the first complete publication of the artist’s choral compositions (original works, transcriptions of vocal-symphonic and orchestral scores, and arrangements). The collection is divided into several sections: “Sacred Music” (19 works); “Christmas Songs” (22 carols and Shchedrivkas); “Folk Songs” (22 arrangements); “Music of Poetry” (12 compositions set to poems by Ukrainian poets); and “Oratorios”. Hanna Havrylets’ choral output is impressive in both scope and artistic value. The textual part of the publication contains detailed information about the composer’s life, revealing a portrait of an extraordinary creative personality, as well as an analysis of all sections of the sheet music collection. The articles are authored by renowned musicologist Anna Lunina.
This work will be valuable for conductors and musicologists and can be used in academic courses on the history of Ukrainian music, choral literature, and conducting in music institutions.