PIANO ART OF THE TERNOPIL REGION OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: HISTORICAL AND MUSICOLOGICAL ASPECT
Authors: Spolska Olena 
Published: May 2023

Piano art of Ternopil region and one of the main forms of its realization – performance, started, according to scientific sources, in the second half of the nineteenth century. This was the time when in Galicia abolished serfdom in 1848 and began the period of formation of educational and cultural organizations “Native School”, “Prosvita”,“Literary Society” and others. They became the main factors in shaping the national consciousness and culture of the local people.The most important role in these processes in the Ternopil region was played by the “Native School” society, in which groups of choral and vocal singing, artistic recitation, and playing musical instruments were organized. Actually, these circles formed a love of art in different directions, including piano music.The founder of piano art in the Ternopil region is the Polish pianist, teacher and cultural and public figure Vladyslav Vshelyachynskyi, a native of the town of Kopychyntsi, in Ternopil region. It was he who became the brightest representative of the piano movement in our study area initially.In 1876, after completing his studies at the Conservatory, Vladyslav Vshelyachinskyi moved to Ternopil to continue and improve his practical activity. He organized the “Friends of Music” Society and a school for piano lessons with him. He was the music director of these two institutions for twelve years.One of the founders of the creation of piano art in Ternopil region was also Denys Leontovych, born in Lviv in 1868. Denis’s father, Theodore Leontovych, whose family started in the village Novosilka Buchach county (now Buchach district of Ternopil region), was at one time a wellknown Lviv cultural and public figure, pianist, music critic, owner of the newspaper “Osnova”), author of popular songs at that time. He became the first piano teacher for his son.Unfortunately, Denys Leontovych’s short life did not allow him to develop his musical talent to the full, but those few years of concert activity of the drunkard deserve attention from musicologists and point to his invaluable contribution to the formation and development of the piano art of the Ternopil region, he had a special love.An important contribution to the formation and development of the piano art of Ternopil region was made by Denys Sichynskyi as a composer, pianist and accompanist. His creative activity was, first of all, connected with Ternopil region. In the initial stages of being in the land, besides creating musical compositions and managing the countryside and small-town choirs, he was involved in the promotion of piano art through his direct creation and representation as an accompanist.Denys Sichinskyi, as a creator of piano art, has realized himself in three spheres – in writing works for piano, in preparing piano accompaniment for choral and vocal works and in accompaniment for famous singers – Solomiia Krushelnytska, Evgen Gushalevych, Oleksandr Myshuga and others. It was these aspects of his creative activity that determined the formation of piano art in Ternopil region in the first half of the nineteenth century.Thus, the piano art of the Ternopil region of the second half of the nineteenth century represents a stage connected with the birth of its main forms of realization – pedagogical, concertperforming, composer-reproductive. All these forms are clearly traced in the activities of such representatives as Vladyslav Vshelyachinskyi, Denys Leontovych and Denys Sichynskyi. Each of them laid the foundations of piano art for its further development and development to the best of its creative potential. This was, first and foremost, designed to ensure that their successors made a more representative contribution to its transfer. And the piano works of Denys Sichynskyi formed a repertoire performed by the Galician pianists of that time, marked by lyricism, genre linearity and typical harmonious turns derived from traditional folk music. Overall, this stage provided the basis for the subsequent professionalization of piano art in the twentieth century.