STANISLAV LIUDKEVYCH – GREAT UKRAINIAN COMPOSER, PROGRESSIVE PUBLIC ACTIVIST, ORGANIZER OF THE MUSICAL LIFE IN THE WESTERN UKRAINE
Authors:   Ivan Franko National University of Lviv Department of Musical Art, YUZYUK Nataliya 
Published: February 2024

The article investigates the main features of artistic, educational, pedagogical, scientificpublicist and sociopolitical progressive activity of Stanislav Liudkevych that is exceptionally significant for the development of the national culture and, specifically, Ukrainian music, even in the new historical circumstances. It also dwells upon Stanislav Liudkevych’s public activity as the organizer of the musical life in Lviv and other cities of the Western Ukraine that resulted in the organization of the Union of Professional Musicians of Ukraine (1934–1939), the work of which put an end to the professionalization of Halych musicians and started the traditions that exist till now. It also studies the questions from the artist’s report on the First Pedagogical Congress of the Union of Professional Ukrainian Musicians on November 2nd and 3rd, 1935, and from his scientific articles, that still answer the thorny problems of the current development of the Ukrainian culture. The article reveals the aspects of the composer’s biography referring to the creation of vocal chamber music (choirs and solo singing), piano music for the pedagogical repertoire (original works and the translation of the Ukrainian folk songs for the piano), and ensemble works for the piano duets. The paper separately investigates the composer’s input in the pedagogic area and musical schooling as well as teaching music in the public schools that has an immense impact on the esthetic upbringing of the young person. Stanislav Liudkevych started his artistic path on the verge of 19th and 20th century, in the period of essential conflicts in social and cultural life. He soon became an example of the progressive national artist that joined the worldly and artistic aspirations together. He was a highly-qualified musician, a person with wide and comprehensive general education, for whom the fight for the artistic progress and creative professionalism constituted the very basis of his diverse activity. The life and creativity of Stanislav Liudkevych is an example of unique purposefulness and active desire to fulfill the primary ideals of humanity. He responded heartily to the most significant and thrilling social events. The main idea of the composer’s music as well as his multiple publicist and musicological articles is the fight for freedom, for the development of the spiritual and, specifically, musical culture of his people, for the relationship with other progressive cultures, etc. The composer’s diverse activity is characterized by the integrity of the worldview, standpoint of a progressive person formed by the examples of the leading national thought, as well as the ideals of the symbolic poets, such as Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko. The composer understood the art as a social phenomenon that is inseparably connected to the life of a community, as a reflection as the whole history of the society. Throughout many decades the composer acted as the leading artist that strives for the life of his native culture and for the improving of the spiritual health of Ukrainian nation. Thus, not only music composition, but also the whole progressive activity of Stanislav Liudkevych, such as sociopolitical, educational, pedagogical and critic, are vital for the development of the Ukrainian art.