Myroslav Skoryk

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Myroslav Skoryk
Мирослав Скорик
Skoryk in 2015
Born(1938-07-13)13 July 1938
Lwów, Second Polish Republic (now Lviv, Ukraine)
Died1 June 2020(2020-06-01) (aged 81)
CitizenshipUkrainian, Australian
Occupationcomposer

Myroslav Mykhailovych Skoryk (Ukrainian: Мирослав Михайлович Скорик; 13 July 1938 – 1 June 2020) was a Ukrainian composer and teacher. His music is contemporary in style and contains stylistic traits from Ukrainian folk music traditions.

Skoryk was awarded the titles People's Artist of Ukraine and Hero of Ukraine.

Early life

Myroslav Mykhailovych Skoryk was born in

ethnographer, while his mother was a chemist. Although his parents did not have special musical training, his mother played piano and his father played the violin. Skoryk was exposed to music in the household from an early age, and his great aunt was the Ukrainian soprano Solomiya Krushelnytska.[1]

Skoryk entered the Lviv Music School in 1945,[2] but two years later his family were deported to Siberia, where he grew up. The family did not return to Lviv until 1955.[1][2]

Student years

Lviv Conservatory
, where Skoryk was a student from 1955 to 1960

Between 1955 and 1960 Skoryk studied at the

Lviv Conservatory,[2] There he received training in musical composition and music theory; his teachers included Stanyslav Lyudkevych and Roman Simovych.[2] Skoryk's final exam piece was Vesna ('Spring'), a cantata for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra that was based on verses by the Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko. Other piano pieces written during Skoryk's student years include a piano sonata, and V Karpatakh ('In the Carpathian Mountains'), also for solo piano.[3]

In 1960, Skoryk enrolled in the

postgraduate research program at the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with the composer Dmitry Kabalevsky. He remained there for four years.[2] During this time, Skoryk composed symphonic, chamber, and vocal music . Some works from this period include the Suite in D major for Strings, the Violin Sonata No. 1, and the Partita No. 1 for strings, and the Variations, Blues, and Burlesque.[4][5]

Teaching career

After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory in 1964, Skoryk, then 25, began his first teaching position, becoming Ukraine's youngest composition lecturer at the Lviv Conservatory,

dissertation, completed in 1964, concentrated on the music of the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. Skoryk's book Struktura i vyrazhalna pryroda akordyky v muzitsi XX stolitti (The Structural Aspects of Chords in 20th Century Music) was published in 1983. His students included the composers Osvaldas Balakauskas, Ivan Karabyts and Yevhen Stankovych. Skoryk remained at the Kyiv Conservatory until 1988.[2]

In 1963, Skoryk became the youngest member of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine.[6] During his career, Skoryk was an active member of the union,[2] and was co-chair with Stankovych from 2004 to 2010.[5]

Later years

In 1996, Skoryk moved with his family to Australia, and obtained

Kyiv Opera, a position he held until 2016.[7] He died on 1 June 2020.[7][8]

Music

Skoryk was a composer, pianist and conductor. His works have been performed by ensembles and soloists that include the Leontovych Quartet,[9] Oleh Krysa, Volodymyr Vynnytsky, Oleg Chmyr, Mykola Suk, Victor Markiw, and Alexander Slobodyanik.[citation needed] He was one of the recipients of the Ukraine's Shevchenko National Prize in 1987 for his Cello Concerto.[10] In addition to the works listed below, he also wrote a number of smaller ensemble works, songs, and the score for more than 40 films, including Tini zabutykh predkiv (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors),[4] and Vysokyy pereval [uk] (High Mountain Pass), which included his Melody in A minor.[11]

Skoryk moved towards composing religious music at the end of the 20th century, these compositions include his spiritual concerto Requiem (1999); Psalms for various types of choirs (1999–2005); and the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (2005). According to the Ukrainian

musicologist Liubov Kyianovska [uk], who has written a biography of Skoryk, his spiritual compositions were "not a tribute to fashion", but "a quite natural consequence of long internal work" and the "resolution of the long process of the composer's creative evolution", and that the Liturgy is stylistically sensitive to the traditions of Ukrainian religious music.[12]

Skoryk's religious

Works

Data from Ukrainian Musicians[4] and the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine.[5]

The following is an incomplete list of works by Skoryk:

Vocal

  • 1959 – Requiem
  • 1962 – Four Romances on verses by Taras Shevchenko for voice and piano
  • 1964 – Chelovek (The Person), cantata for soloists, chorus and symphony orchestra (in Russian)
  • 1970 – 0:0 v nashu polzu (0:0 to Our Win), musical comedy
  • 1974 – Try ukrajinski vesilni pisni (Three Ukrainian Wedding Songs) for voice and symphony orchestra
  • 1977 – Na Rusalchyn Velykden (At the Rusalkas Easter), one-act opera
  • 1978 – Pisni Arlekina (Harlequin's Songs), children's musical
  • 1998 – Requiem [uk], a spiritual work for unaccompanied choir[14]
  • 2001 – Moses [uk], opera after Ivan Franko (in Ukrainian)[13]
  • 2003 – Hamaliia, a setting of a text by Taras Shevchenko
  • 2015 – Penitential Psalm, commemorating the "
    Heavenly Hundred" protesters who were shot dead by snipers during the Euromaidan
    in February 2014

Instrumental

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b c "Помер відомий композитор Мирослав Скорик" [The famous composer Myroslav Skoryk has died]. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (in Ukrainian). 1 June 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Baley 2001
  3. ^ Markiw 2010, p. 5.
  4. ^ a b c "Famous Ukrainian Musicians". ukrainianmusicians.com. Archived from the original on 22 May 2006. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d e Stech, Marko Robert (2020). "Skoryk, Myroslav". Internet Encyclopaedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  6. ^ a b Oliynyk, Lesya (12 July 2013). "Мирослав Скорик: "Моя професія – створювати мелодії"" [Myroslav Skoryk: 'My profession is to create melodies']. The Day (Kyiv) (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  7. ^
    Ukrayinska Pravda
    (in Ukrainian). 1 June 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  8. ^ "У Львові поховали композитора Мирослава Скорика" [Composer Myroslav Skoryk is buried in Lviv]. Ukrinform. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  9. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies
    . 1993. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  10. ^ "Лауреати Національної премії України імені Тараса Шевченка 1962–2013" [Winners of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine 1962–2013] (in Ukrainian). Taras Shevchenko National Prize Committee of Ukraine. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  11. ^ Courtney, Laryssa Lapychak (10 July 2020). "Myroslav Skoryk, Ukraine's cultural icon, 81". The Ukrainian Weekly. Archived from the original on 29 March 2022. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  12. ^ Oleksiuk 2019, pp. 70–71.
  13. ^ a b Helbig 2009, p. 155.
  14. ^ Pankevich, Halyna (2016). "Духовні композиції Мирослава Скорика" [Spiritual compositions of Myroslav Skoryk] (in Ukrainian). Drohobytskyi Theological Seminary. Archived from the original on 8 November 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  15. ^ Borysenko 2010, p. 85.
  16. ^ "Ballet "The Return of the Butterfly"" (in Ukrainian). Music-review Ukraine. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  17. ^ "Skoryk Myroslav". Taras Shevchenko National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ukraine. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  18. ^ "Про присвоєння М. Скорику звання Герой України" [On awarding M. Skoryk the title of Hero of Ukraine] (in Ukrainian, English, and Russian). Verkhovna Rada. 2008. Archived from the original on 28 June 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2022.

Sources

Further reading

External links