Its opening bars, almost haunting with that sparkling, entrancing four-note ostinato, will be familiar to millions worldwide. “Shchedryk” – or “Carol of the Bells”, as it is known to English-language audiences – has become a mainstay of Christmas music, originally written by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914. The song reverberates with profound sensitivity: it is part uncanny and part full-bodied and rapturous, bound in by a lustrous melody which sounds like it is made out of glass.
Hromadske: 100 years since Ukraine’s ‘Carol of the Bells’ went international
People take photos at the Christmas market at Kontraktova Square in Kyiv on Jan. 12, 2019.
