Mykola Vitaliyovych Lysenko (March 10 (22), 1842, Hrynky — October 24 (November 6), 1912, Kyiv) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor, teacher, collector of song folklore, public figure.

Lysenko's most famous works include the music of the hymns "Prayer for Ukraine" and "Eternal Revolutionary", performed in particular by the Kyryll Stetsenko choir during St. Zluka, the operas "Taras Bulba", "Natalka Poltavka" and others. Lysenko created numerous arrangements of folk music for voice and piano, for choir and mixed composition, and also wrote a significant number of works to the words of Taras Shevchenko.

Origin

Mykola Lysenko, 1865

He was born in the village of Hrynky, Kremenchug District, Poltava Governorate (now Kremenchug District, Poltava Region, Ukraine) in the family of the nobleman Vitaly Romanovych Lysenko, a colonel of the Order Cuirassier Regiment[ru] This village belonged to Mykola Bulyubash[5], his maternal uncle. My father was a highly educated person, he spoke Ukrainian at home.

The mother, Olga Yeremiivna, came from the Poltava landowner family Lutsenkos and from the Cossack family Bulyubashes. She was educated at the St. Petersburg Smolny Institute for Noble Girls, spoke almost exclusively French and forced all family members to do so.

He came from the Lysenko Cossack-senior family. Historical documents testify to Yakov Lysenko as one of the founders of the family (1st half of the 17th century, took an active part in the liberation war). Ivan, the son of Yakov, was a well-known military and political figure of the second half of the 17th century, was a Chernihiv colonel, later a Pereyaslav colonel, and later a commanding hetman; In 1695, he participated in the Azov campaigns. His son Fyodor (Mykola Vitaliyovych's great-great-grandfather) was the chief judge from 1741[6].

early years

From an early age, he knew French and Ukrainian, and learned the Russian alphabet from his father's fellow soldier, the Russian poet Afanasy Fet. His godparents were uncle Andriy and the sister of the famous mathematician Mykhailo Ostrogradsky, Maria Ostrogradska, who was the wife of Mykola Bulyubash's great-grandfather.

Already at the age of five, Mykola's mother, Olga Yeremiivna, saw the boy's talent for music and began to take care of his studies. She herself played the piano beautifully, felt her son's musicality and gave him his first lessons. From the age of five, the parents invited a teacher for the little one. After being educated at home, Lysenko studied in Kyiv, first at the Veil boarding house (where he took lessons from the Czech Neinkvych)[7], then at the Geduen boarding house (the teacher was the Czech Panochini[7]), where children were prepared for gymnasium.

In 1855, he began his education at a privileged educational institution - the 2nd Kharkiv Gymnasium, where he studied with Mykola Dmitriev and the Czech Vilchek. The talented teenager quickly became a popular pianist in the city, who was invited to evenings and balls, where he performed piano sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven, waltzes by Chopin, brilliantly improvised on the themes of Ukrainian folk songs.

After graduating from gymnasium, he entered the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Kharkiv University. But in 1860, due to financial difficulties, the Lysenko family moved to Kyiv, and Mykola, together with his third cousin Mykhailo Staritsky, transferred to Kyiv University. On June 1, 1864, Mykola Vitalyovich graduated with honors from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics "in the category of natural sciences", and in May 1865 he defended his thesis on the topic "Propagation of filamentous algae" and received the degree of candidate of natural sciences. He was a member of a number of Ukrainian student societies and church choirs. Ukrainian folk music became his passion, and he began ethnographic work collecting and studying Ukrainian folk songs, which continued throughout his life.[8]

An atmosphere of patriotism reigned among the Ukrainian students of the university, and this contributed to the formation of Lysenko as a public figure. Together with other relatives and friends, Mykhailo Drahomanov, Mykhailo Starytskyi, and Petro Kosach, he belonged to the "Kyiv Community", worked in several circles related to ethnographic activities, founded and conducted a student choir, organized concerts. Citizens opened Sunday schools and libraries at their own expense, worked in them. Lysenko simply changed and began to convince his friends that it is necessary to speak Ukrainian not only with the people, but also with each other. They traveled on foot through Ukraine, collecting folklore. So, in 1861, Lysenko and Starytsky spent New Year's holidays in Poltava Oblast at their friend, the author of the national anthem of Ukraine, Pavel Chubynskyi. When Taras Shevchenko was reburied in May 1861, Kyiv noblemen students Mykhailo Drahomanov, Petro Kosach, Tadei Rylskyi, Mykhailo Starytskyi and Mykola Lysenko harnessed a funeral cart and carried him across the Chain Bridge and then along the Dnieper Embankment to the Church of the Nativity on Podil.