The Carols of Bells - A 1,000 year old Ukrainian Story
- theadventuresofaro
- Jan 16, 2023
- 3 min read
One night, a thousand years ago, a simple melody was created by a small group of well wishers, looking to bring some promise and hope to the coming new year. Using the sparrow as a sign of good tidings, a song was created telling the story of a small bird bringing best wishes and good luck to those whose homes it visited. This was the humble yet powerful beginnings of the holiday song, The Carol of the Bells or Shchedryk as is its original name, created in what is now Ukraine over 1,000 years ago by simple pagan believers. At the time, New Years was celebrated in the spring and little did anyone know, for the next nearly 1,000 years, what an impact this beautiful tune would have on the world and the role it would ultimately play in the fight for freedom that its creator's descendants would experience.
This folk song continued being passed down, family to family, community to community, never being written down or formally taught until the early 1900's. Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych was so moved by the song that he decided to create a formal composition of it and be the first to prepare it for performance. However he was so passionate and driven to get the melody just right that it took him nearly 20 years to finish the composition using just a four note harmony. And his timing was incredible because in the early 1920's Ukraine began a fight for independence and this beautiful song in its own way became a battle cry, a cry for the rights and freedoms that Ukrainians were being denied.
The plan was to prepare the song with a choir and orchestra and tour it all over the world to engage other governments in acknowledging that Ukraine was its own country with its own culture and history. The Russian's were on their way to invading and the choir had to make a quick decision. They were putting themselves in danger preparing this tour, basically announcing themselves to the Russians that they wanted their freedom. One night they decided to pack and leave, and the next day the Russians invaded Ukraine. They got out just in time.
On their tour they visited many countries in their campaign. One country was the United States. They performed at Carnegie Hall in October of 1922 with many children making up their choir. The song was a huge success but it did not bring them the freedom they so desperately desired and deserved. Sadly Ukraine would soon become part of the USSR and did not receive their freedom for another 70 years. But the song had made an impact and now today there are over 100 versions of The Carol of the Bells. Including the more well known version here in America which was composed by Ukrainian-American composer Peter J. Wilhousky in 1936 who translated the song into English from its original Ukrainian.
Today Ukraine is once again in a horrendous fight for its freedom. Just recently a children's choir got together in Ukraine and prepared once again to travel to the US to perform this incredible song in the hopes of bringing inspiration and hope to all who hear it. In December 2022, The Carol of the Bells was again performed in Carnegie Hall in it's original form. And the choir once again had to rehearse under threat of Russian attack. Adding to that, an original ballet was choreographed for performance at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage by folk group Gerdan in December (start the clip at 21min.) The ballet was choreographed and performed by Roman Mykyta and his partner, two very young but very talented performers.
There is something so very magical about this story and this song. For over 1,000 years it has continued to inspire and bring tidings of hope, independence and freedom and to allow us to continue to expand and explore what can be done with the arts, with ballet and with music. It represents everything Ukraine is fighting for with its haunting and beautiful melodies. Please join us in continuing to help the children of Ukraine preserve and promote their culture in all its iterations so that we can all move forward to the new year with tidings of hope and the promise of a beautiful future.
References and Further Reading:
More about The Carol of the Bells:
More to watch and listen to:
An original version of Shchedryk : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqeJ38DThVc
Gerdan's Ballet of The Carol of the Bells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPG1XVxGBGc
(start clip at 21min.)
More about the Carnegie Hall Performance:
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