With Podolia region related a childhood of world fame composer and musician Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971). He is a representative of modern European urban music. The most famous compositions are great ballets "The Firebirds", "Petrushka" and "The Rite Of Spring", opera "The Nightingale". They are written mostly in Volyn. Famouse Russian composer was collecting folk tunes in Kiev region. According to their explanation, he wrote music collection "Sayings" and "The Cat's Lullabies". In the wonderful miniatures for children "Recollections ofmy childhood," the songs for voice and piano, written by the musician in the town Ustylug in Volyn and the influence of folk songs, heard in childhood. But, as he writes in his memoirs, many musical impressions brought him stay in Podillia.
The impact of reach Ukrainian culture on Igor Stravinsky was natural. Parent ancestry came from an old Cossack family Sulym-Stravinsky. His mother came from a laird family of Polish origin significant Holodovsky. Composer's father, Fyodor Stravinsky, was once known as an opera singer. He sang in Kiev and Mariinsky (St. Petersburg) Opera House, toured in Kharkiv, Yekaterinoslav. His repertoire were Ukrainian (Malorossian as named on that time) operatic roles, including "Taras Bulba" opera by Mykola (Nicholas) Lysenko. Fyodor Stravinsky honored Ukrainian Book: among his books were publications of Taras Grygorovych Shevchenko, Mykhailo Drahomanov, Mykola Kostomarov, Ivan Petrovych Kotlyarevsky, collection of Ukrainian magazines. He admired the work of Taras Grygorovych Shevchenko, loved poems read by heart. He collected editions of legendary in Ukraine "Kobzar", Shevchenko portraits, illustrations for his works. Fyodor Stravinsky was also a good landscape painter, painted many local landscapes, among them there are views from the tomb of Taras Grygorovych, while on Podillia created several portraits. Fyodor Stravinsky himself posed the famous artist Ilya Repin for his famous painting "The Cossacks Writing Letter to Turkish Sultan" where he portrays a gloomy captain. In Repin, he met with famous Ukrainian historian, collector of Cossack's antiquities Yavornytsky. As you can see, the son of Stravinsky revered Ukrainianculture and history.
Igor Stravinsky has won diverse education. Of the nine years he studied music. The first musical impressions he had before, listening to Ukrainian folk music on Podolia and Volyn. Surrounded by picturesque nature of Central and Western Ukraine and beautiful lyric Ukrainian songs formed the talent of the future composer. Stravinsky family usually spent the summer in Pechysky village near Proskuriv town (now Khmelnytsky) the estate of Igor's aunt, mother's sister Catherine, or dacha near St. Petersburg. Very interesting are the memories of Stravinsky about his stay on Podillia in 1891-1892. The greatest impression on him made Yarmolyntsi town, where small Igor's parents took to the fair. It was about thirty miles from Pechysky. According to the memoirs of Stravinsky, Yarmolyntsi were "lively and picturesque city", which is famous for its fairs, it's background Pechysky looked as "uninteresting town." Children's impressions of Yarmolyntsi fair was such that even the big fair in famous Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) where he had to go later in the musician writes memoirs, "not made me such an impression". Above all remember it is "fair to put a hand Yarmolyntsi products farmers, cattle trading and especially grains, as Yarmolyntsi located in the heart of the ocean of Ukrainian wheat. In addition to the fair peasants gathered in the brightly decorated costumes and seemed so cheerful and attractive. Most of all I enjoyed the competitions in dancing, and "in squatting position" I saw it there; then I used to dance locks from "Petrushka"; similarly, in "Petrushka" entered "Cossachok" dance and "Tropak" dance. In Pechysky I heard many folk music, although it was mostly music for accordion. (Another kind of music rarely performed, as Yarmolyntsi and Pechysky peasant settlements were no bourgeoisie and no shops)..."
In Pechysky composer met his future wife Kateryna Nosenko: "Catherine was my closest friend and comrade, who continued on up to the wedding," he wrote later in his memoirs. Bright Podilia experiences helped shape a rich and diverse musical palette of Igor Stravinsky.
Arsen Zinchenko, "Podilia", Kyiv, 1998
Private guide Sergey Tsarapora translation
