Carol Of The Bells: A Song History

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The Ukrainian song "Shchedryk" is a shchedrivka, one of the carols sung on New Year's Eve that express hopes for good harvests, health and fortune.[1] In its verses a swallow flies into a home and promises the family a prosperous year ahead.[2] In many villages it was sung on January 13, New Year's Eve by the old Julian calendar, with teenage girls usually carrying it from house to house.[3] Composer Mykola Leontovych made a choral setting of the folk song, whose melody uses only four notes, and conductor Oleksandr Koshyts persuaded him to let it be performed in Kyiv in 1916.[4]

Stylized watercolor of a dark church front on a rainy night, with a swinging bell shape in the sky above it

Charles Burchfield, Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night, watercolor and gouache over graphite on wove paper, December 1917. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.

Symon Petliura, who led Ukraine at the time, conceived of a touring choir to help the country gain recognition abroad, and he chose Koshyts as its conductor.[5] As the choir toured internationally, "Shchedryk" became its signature piece.[4] The Ukrainian National Chorus introduced the song to American listeners at Carnegie Hall on October 5, 1922.[2][5] Leontovych did not live to see that night: he died on January 23, 1921, after an agent of the Cheka shot him in his parents' house.[6]

The American choir director and arranger Peter Wilhousky, to whom the music suggested ringing bells, wrote new English words and copyrighted them in 1936.[3] Carl Fischer Music published his English arrangement, titled "Carol of the Bells."[5] The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine counts more than 150 rearrangements of "Shchedryk" for various combinations of voices and instruments.[6] Butch Ross includes it, in DAD tuning, in The Dulcimer Christmas Book, a collection of Christmas classics arranged for Appalachian dulcimer, published by Fingers Of Steel.[7]

Our book that contains the song "Carol Of The Bells"

Sources

  1. Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine: "Carols".
  2. NPR (via WUNC): "100 years ago, 'Carol of the Bells' came to America — from Ukraine".
  3. Rice University News: "'Carol of the Bells' wasn't originally a Christmas song".
  4. America Magazine: "The story of 'Carol of the Bells,' a Christmas classic born in Ukraine".
  5. Carnegie Hall: "'Carol of the Bells' at Carnegie Hall".
  6. Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine: "Leontovych, Mykola".
  7. Fingers Of Steel: "Butch Ross, The Dulcimer Christmas Book".
  8. Image: Charles Burchfield, Church Bells Ringing, Rainy Winter Night, watercolor and gouache over graphite on wove paper, December 1917. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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