I grew up around a piano. I dated an Italian pianist (ugh). My priests all played piano. I damn near lost interest in the instrument until I stumbled onto the work of Lubomyr Melnyk a few years ago. The piano has been beautifully redeemed thanks to the sheer beauty, intricacy and power of his work.
Ukraine
[Music] Bel Canto Choir Vilnius – Shchedryk [Щедрик] (Carol of the Bells)
What a wonderful chorus! The Bel Canto Choir of Vilnius, Lithuania, do a standout performance of the Christmas classic written by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych.
[Music] Ivan Kozlovskiy – Ukrainian Christmas Carols (rec.1947)
We drift gently into the Nativity with a few Ukrainian Christmas Carols performed by tenor Ivan Kozlovskiy and orchestra.
[Music] Enver İzmaylov – Aranjuez
Uzbek-Ukrainian guitarist Enver İzmaylov, known for his amazing tapping technique on the guitar, does justice to a piece penned by Spanish maestro Joaquín Rodrigo.
[Film] Viy (1967)
[Video] Lubomyr Melnik – Requiem (Fragment)
Lubomyr Melnik has been featured on these pages previously. Expect to see a lot more of his work as the years roll by.
[Sample] Lubomyr Melnyk – The Six Day Moment
Today must be a great day for piano music, as it’s been on my mind. Lubomir Melnyk is a composer and pianist who hails from Ukraine (and now residing in Canada) who records for Erased Tapes. He’s a relatively new name to me, and certainly, after this sample, he’s worth exploring.
[Poetry] ‘Letter to Marianna Kijanowska’ by Volodymyr Bilyk
I don’t get to run into much that would, at least where I live, be termed ‘hipster poetry’, but thanks to my Facebook colleague, Ukrainian poet and musician Volodymyr Bilyk, I have a chance to sample a taste:
Not sure if it really means something
But i have to write this:
you are in some way almost shriekingly anti-strange
and it dissappoints me so much that it makes me curious in a scientific way
and i think i’m having not-so-over-the-top insulting stroke of faux faith in complexity
all because of youAsk me “why” before you’ll ask me “what”
Well…
I have no clue how to explain it
i know nothing about that
so let it be the poem
at least on that terms it seems to be coherentshriekingly as screamingly but with the double entendre and ox breath on the corner after a fight
anti-strange as friction but in terms of knowing
curiosity as brave attempt and scientific just to kill-off rampart interest of instinctand please dont laugh at it
not-so-over-the-top insulting stroke is the stroke as usual but only when you get used to them –
althrough it remains the same in every form it gets.
faux faith is like old-age faith, it even fools you in the same manner as encyclopedic explanation of faith fools its natural understandingmy faith in complexity happened
because i dont believe that it cant be so simple. You cant be like an early records of Einstuerzende Neubauten. You can’t be just like you are and nothing more. You can’t not hide something in the very deep of you. you cant have no second bottom. It’s impossibly ridiculous
and even if you laugh and answer me so clever i will say you “cool” i just think that it happens like that all the way through.and still it makes me wonder insultingly
but what exactly?
but i have written what already
maybe the second of one which is second oneBut i think i just had written it to be misunderstood
in a world-weary way of courseSo let it be the letter
And let it be my pay-off for the mad ununderstandung
And still i havent quoted Cohen’s song.So long…
and be THRAKATTAK
Anyone who references King Crimson in poetry is okay in my book.
