The most famous Christmas melody, “Shchedryk,” composed by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych, is over a century old. It gained worldwide popularity after the Oleksandr Koshytsia Choir toured Europe and the United States in the 1920s.
The Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych created the first version of the Christmas melody in the early twentieth century, then spent another 20 years improving it and writing five versions. Researchers believe that the author based the melody on Ukrainian folklore. This ritual song was performed in pre-Christian times for the New Year, which used to be celebrated in early spring. So, in fact, this carol was not originally related to Christmas.
Leontovych used the Volyn version of “Shchedryk” as the textual basis for the song, which was recorded by folklorists and published in one of the collections. However, the author may have known this carol since childhood in Podillia. In his melody, the composer combined the techniques of folk polyphony and polyphony, thus creating a choral masterpiece where each voice plays an independent expressive role.
The first performance of “Shchedryk” was by the student choir of Kyiv University on December 29, 1916, during a New Year’s concert in the Merchants’ Assembly Hall (the present-day National Philharmonic of Ukraine). According to eyewitness accounts, the melody and performance impressed the audience. As a result, both the melody and Leontovych himself became widely known in Kyiv’s musical circles.
Three years later, on May 11, 1919, the choir, under the direction of conductor and composer Oleksandr Koshyts, performed “Shchedryk” for the first time abroad in Prague. After that, the Ukrainian choir went on tour to Vienna, Geneva, and Zurich. In total, over the course of two years, the melody was performed in 45 cities in 10 Western European countries.
Interestingly, this tour had a diplomatic mission. The musicians were sent abroad by Symon Petliura, who had just become the head of the Directorate of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and realized that by popularizing our culture, it would be possible to draw Europe’s attention to the Ukrainian issue.
Over its century-long history, “Shchedryk” (Carol of Bells) has been performed not only in the world’s most famous concert halls but also in cult foreign films and television series such as “Home Alone,” “Santa Claus,” “Die Hard,” “South Park,” “The Simpsons,” and many others.
