Volodymyr Vasyliovych Flys (23 March 1924 - 7 August 1987) was a well-known Ukrainian musicologist, composer, teacher, professor at the Mykola Lysenko Higher Music Institute (now the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy).
Biography.
He was born in Stanislaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk). Since childhood, he played the violin and piano. He received his musical education at the Moniuszko Conservatory, majoring in violin (1932-1939). He studied for six months at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin (1943), having previously passed a harmony exam with the famous German composer Richard Strauss. Upon his return, in 1945-1947, V. Flys studied composition at the Lviv State Lysenko Conservatory in the class of Professor Roman Simovych.
In 1947, as a third-year student, he was arrested by the repressive Bolshevik authorities and, after prolonged interrogation, sentenced to 25 years in prison under the article "Treason against the Motherland and counter-revolutionary activity" (according to biographer Volodymyr Pasichnyk, perhaps the main reason for V. Flys's arrest was his study at the Berlin Conservatory, where the entrance exam in harmony was taken by the outstanding composer Richard Strauss). In 1948, the composer was sent to the Karaganda labour camp (Kazakhstan), which significantly undermined his vitality, and only six years later, on 22 October 1954, the Karaganda Regional Court ruled on the urgent release of V. Flys for health reasons. The final release and closure of the composer's case was carried out in 1956 by the Office of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR at the Belarusian Railway, and the documentation states that the case was closed due to the absence of a criminal offence.
Interestingly, V. Flys's autobiography, which is kept in the archives of the Lysenko Lviv National Art Museum, does not mention anything about these years: "In 1948, I left for the Kazakh SSR, where I worked until 1955 as the head of amateur art at the Kazmedstroy Trust." The same document further states that in 1955, V. Flys moved to the Carpathians, where he led an orchestra of folk instruments at the Delyatyn forestry farm.
In 1957, the composer returned to Lviv, where he resumed his studies at the Lviv State Conservatory named after M. Lysenko (Roman Simovych's composition class), graduating with honours in 1961. His diploma work was the symphonic poem "Yarema Halayda" based on Taras Shevchenko's "The Haidamaks".
In the same year, Volodymyr began his teaching career, which brought many achievements to Ukrainian culture. Until 1963, he worked as a lecturer in music theory at the Ivano-Frankivsk Music College and Ivano-Frankivsk Pedagogical Institute. After moving to Lviv, in 1963-1965 he taught at the Lviv Music School and later received an invitation to teach at the Department of Music Theory, and later at the Department of Composition at the Lviv Conservatory (now the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy), where he worked until the end of his life. During this period, V. Flys became a member of the Union of Composers of Ukraine.
As a teacher, he brought up a whole generation of Ukrainian artists, musicologists and famous contemporary composers, such as Olha Kryvolap, Hanna Havrylets, Viktor Kaminskyi, Viktor Tymozhynskyi, Oleksandr Levkovych, Bohdana Froliak, Oleksandr Opanasiuk, Liudmyla Duma, Roman Stelmashchuk.
"...A man of extremely broad views. He combined kindness and severity, wisdom and sarcasm, erudition, high professionalism and skill..." (L. Duma)
" "Volodymyr Flys was an intelligent, good-natured, perhaps somewhat reserved, but erudite and interesting guy. He was a perfect theorist and competent in creative matters" (S. Stelmashchuk). "
Having never created his family, V. Flys died alone from a serious illness on 7 August 1987.
Musicological heritage
The result of V. Flys's long methodological work was the fundamental textbook "Solfege" for children's music schools from the first to the seventh grade, created in collaboration with the famous Lviv musicologist Yarema Yakubiak. The textbook is not only the most successful work in this field, but also a thorough theoretical work based on a clear explanation of each proposed topic, mainly based on Ukrainian song material and music by Ukrainian composers. The 1st-4th grade editions were published in 1976 and 1979, the 5th grade in 1980 and 1983, the 6th grade in 1981, and the 7th grade in 1982. To this day, the textbook remains valuable and relevant in the field of music pedagogy.
Composer's work
Volodymyr Flys's work is based on the principles of Romanticism aesthetics, close to the Galician composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is manifested in the choice of genres (predominance of vocal and piano), the figurative palette (portraiture, attention to psychological detail), and the means of compositional technique (monothematicism as a principle of forming, individualisation of melody, use of speech intonations, expansion of the timbre and harmonic palette of music through the use of natural modes, juxtaposition of major and minor). Throughout his career, V. Flys remained faithful to the trends of the late Romantic period.
Creative heritage
Works for orchestra
Cantata "Ring the Carpathians" (1960-1975)
Symphonic poem "Yarema Halayda" (1961)
Symphony (1972)
Cantata poem "My Motherland" (1976)
For chamber ensemble
String Quartet (1960, 1976)
Chamber instrumental works
"Song" for violin (1960)
Sonata for piano (1962) (lost)
"Caprice" for violin (1969)
Impromptu for piano (1970)
Scherzo for piano (1972)
Andante for piano (1973)
Prelude and Fugue for piano
Preludes and Fugues for accordion (1974)
Vocal works, arrangements of folk songs
"Birch" with lyrics by V. Sosiura
"Is it true" on the words of O. Oles
"Where did you get your strange lips from?" (lyrics by O. Oles)
"Only you" (lyrics by A. Turchynska)
"What do you bring me in a quiet name" (lyrics by I. Drach)
Ballad about Duma
"I know what war is" (lyrics by M. Khorosnytska)
"And the sky is unwashed" for male choir on the words of Taras Shevchenko
"Behind the steep banks" (Ukrainian folk song)
"There near the mill" (Ukrainian folk song)
"Bright Star" (trio with fp. ad libitum) on words by M. Karpenko
"Kladochka" (a humorous song for women's tercet), lyrics by R. Flys
