You're reading: Lifestyle Blog: Ukraine’s popular Shchedryk lives new life beyond the country’s borders

No matter how hard you try to promote cultural products, nothings beats universal appeal and a bit of luck. 

One example is the popular Ukrainian New Year song
(shchedrivka) “Shchedryk.” Internationally recognized, the song has spawned an
American version called “The carol of bells”, which duplicates the melody
exactly though the words are devoted to Christmas celebrations unlike the
original Ukrainian New Year version.

In Ukraine
this folk song was popularized by famous Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych,
who has a long history with the piece. His first edition was finished in
1901-1902, but the fifth and final one only arrived 17 years later. In 1921 the
song was first played abroad, at a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, and
has kept gaining popularity since.

“In Ukraine
the song in its professional edition was first performed by the choir at St.
Volodymyr University (now Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University).The choir
was then led by Oleksandr Koshets, who later toured the United States,” says
Svitlana Leshchynska, folklore department professor at Kyiv National Taras
Shevchenko University. “And that’s how our song traveled so far,” she explains.

The English
language version, known as Carol of the Bells, was writen in 1936 by Peter
Wilhousky, an American composer of Rusyn origin. It has
since featured in dozens of famous Hollywood movies, including Home Alone and
Die Hard 2.

While in
Ukraine the culture of singing national carols and New Year songs is slowly
disappearing, Ukraine’s “Shchedryk” lives on in some unexpected places around
the world. One Chinese choir, for instance, performs the song in its original
Ukrainian version.

However many
think that the origin of such songs no longer matters as they represent
universal values.  “The usage of folk
motives in professional music among the nations and cultures is totally natural
and there can hardly be something better to spread the culture abroad,”
Leshchynska says. “However this time they didn’t borrow the whole piece, rather
changed it and gave it a new meaning,” she explains.

But she
argues that the song’s truth history should be better known and promoted.
“After all this song has an author and is a subject to copyrights,” she said.

The song performed by Chinese girls chior in its original version, in Ukrainian.

Carol of bells, the American version of popular Ukrainian New Year song Shchedryk.

The performance of the Choral Art Academy chior during its tour in Germany, Cologne.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVj4x53ooyo

Shchedryk remake by famous Ukrainian rock musician Oleh Skrypka and his band Vopli Vidoplyasova.

Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected].