Ukrainian ethnographer, folklorist, composer, musicologist and literary critic. Active member of the Scientific Society named after T. Shevchenko (since 1909), VUAN (since 1929). Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR of the 2nd convocation. The founder of Ukrainian ethnographic musicology.
Brother of Alexander and Ivan Koless. Father of Mykola Kolessa, Daria Kolessa-Zaleska and Sofia Kolessa-Sonday, uncle of pianist Lyubka Kolessa.
Biography
He was born in the city of Dobromyla (according to encyclopedias, in the village of Tatarske, now Pishchany, Stryi District). From 1878 he studied at an educational institution in the city of Strya (now Strya School No. 7).
In 1891-1892 he studied at the University of Vienna, in particular he attended a course of lectures on harmony by Anton Bruckner. In 1896, he graduated from Lviv University.
He taught in gymnasiums in Lviv, Stryi, and Sambor. At different times he worked with I. Franko, M. Lysenko, Lesya Ukrainka. In 1918, he defended his thesis at the University of Vienna and received the degree of doctor of philology. He studied the rhythm of Ukrainian folk songs, folk songs of Halychyna, Volhynia, Lemkivshchyna.
in 1922-1924 he taught Ukrainian literature at the Ukrainian Secret University in Lviv. During the accession of Western Ukraine to the Ukrainian SSR, he was elected in October 1939 as a deputy of the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine, in 1947 as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. 3 1939 — professor at Lviv University, director of the State Museum of Ethnography in Lviv (since 1940), head of the Lviv Department of the Institute of Art History, Folklore and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (since 1940). Participant of international congresses of folklorists, musicologists and philologists (Prague, Warsaw, Vienna, Antwerp).
He died on March 3, 1947 at the age of 75 in Lviv. Buried in the family tomb on field 78 of the Lychakiv cemetery.
Family
His older brother Ivan Kolessa, the author of the collection "Galician-Russian Folk Songs with Melodies", had a great influence on the musical and folklore interests of the young F. Kolessa. Under his instructions, F. Kolessa actively collected folk works, developed folk songs for the choir and vocal ensembles.
Research activities
Academician Filaret Mykhailovych Kolessa is a scientist with a world name, his multifaceted and fruitful activity became an outstanding contribution to the development of Ukrainian folkloristics and literary studies.
Using the cultural-historical, comparative and methods of the anthropological school, Filaret Kolessa soberly assessed the possibilities of each of the schools. Using the comparative-historical method, the scientist did not share the opinions of the school of comparativism, whose followers, fascinated by various influences, tried to delve too deeply into history. According to Kolessa, Mykhailo Drahomanov, Mykola Sumtsov, and Ivan Franko often exaggerated the importance of foreign influences in their scientific investigations. Therefore, the greatest methodological authority for the folklorist was Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, who, in his opinion, chose the right subject of research, namely the degree of internationality of traveling stories and the process of their denationalization, which made it possible to assimilate them organically on Ukrainian soil.
The methodology of F. Kolessa can be characterized as a comprehensive approach to the analysis of works of oral literature. The researcher is convinced that all methods should be applied to a certain folklore genre to highlight its various aspects.
Participants of the congress of Ukrainian writers in Lviv on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the publication of Kotlyarevsky's "Aeneid", 1898: Sitting in the first row: Mykhailo Pavlyk, Yevgenia Yaroshynska, Nataliya Kobrynska, Olga Kobylyanska, Sylvester Lepkiy, Andriy Tchaikovsky, Kost Pankivskyi. Standing in the second row: Ivan Kopach, Volodymyr Hnatiuk, Osyp Makovey, Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Ivan Franko, Oleksandr Kolessa, Bohdan Lepky. Standing in the third row: Ivan Petrushevich, Filaret Kolessa, Yosyp Kishakevich, Ivan Trush, Denys Lukiyanovych, Mykola Ivasiuk.
"Review of Ukrainian-Russian folk poetry"
"Review of Ukrainian-Russian folk poetry" by F. Kolessa was first published in 1905 in Lviv by the "Prosvita" Society. The aim of the work was to interest the general public in folk song culture, to deepen understanding of its value and significance for national development.
"Overview..." in particular begins a series of valuable works in which F. Kolessa embodied his own original concept of genre systematization of Ukrainian folklore. Among such works are the handwritten "Collection of Ukrainian Folk Songs" (1914, in collaboration with Osyp Rozdolsky) for the Austrian project "Das Volkslied in Österreich", the survey "Characteristics of Ukrainian Folk Music" (1932), the encyclopedic article "Oral Literature" for the Ukrainian General encyclopedias (1930—1935) and the well-known monograph and textbook "Ukrainian oral literature" (1938).
At the same time, "Review of Ukrainian-Russian folk poetry" is an important milestone in the development and understanding of F. Kolessa's popularization and educational and didactic concepts. It is about the creation of popular science, educational and reference literature on Ukrainian folklore and folkloristics — activities in which the scientist was closely involved and which clearly need to be interpretedin the context of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, which is relevant for Western European humanitarian science, and the tendency towards the institutionalization of ethnographic disciplines.
It is important that in this process Ukrainian folkloristics moved at the forefront of scientific progress, despite its "non-state, unofficial" status: in the last decade of the 19th century, simultaneously with the Germans, French, Austrians, English and other European nations, Ukrainians organized scientific centers for the study of folk-traditional cultures, establish ethnographic specialist publications, establish systematic scientific and research work. Quite organically, in this series of activities, the need for widespread popularization of folk culture and especially the achievements of ethnographic thought by establishing it as a teaching discipline in the system of school and university education arises.
Expedition to Trans-Dnieper Ukraine
Backgrounds from the Kolessa collection
Read more: Filaret Kolessa's expedition to Trans-Dnieper Ukraine
In the summer of 1908, Filaret Kolessa made a folkloristic expedition to Dnieper Ukraine, recording the repertoire of six folk performers in Myrhorod Region. Opanas Slastyon helped him in his work, Lesya Ukrainka and Klyment Kvitka also joined in the fall of 1908. The main goal of the expedition, according to the project initiators, was to publish the melodies of the traditional Kobzar-Lyrnitsa repertoire, and phonographing should help in this as best as possible.
The result of Filaret Kolessa's five-year work — all recorded and transcribed material was published in two volumes (XIII and XIV] "Melody of Ukrainian People's Dumas" in 1910 and 1913, respectively.
"Ukrainian folk song in the newest phase of its development"
F. Kolessa devoted his research to the problem of folklore innovations "Ukrainian folk song in the newest phase of its development" (1928). In the work, the scientist drew attention to the differences in the state of preservation of folklore material on the territory of Ukraine, which, in his opinion, are caused by historical conditions, as well as various problems of a local and state nature, the influence of neighboring peoples, etc.
In this work, F. Kolessa uses the assets of the cultural-historical school, analyzing the autochthonous genres of Ukrainian oral literature, as well as the historical-comparative method for clarifying the degree of nationalization of traveling folklore motifs.
"The ballad about the daughter-bird in Slavic folk poetry"
F. Kolessa's work "The Ballad of the Bird-Daughter in Slavic Folk Poetry" is an in-depth study of one song theme in a historical and comparative aspect. The task of this studio is a diverse interpretation of the same plots in the folklore heritage of the East and West Slavic peoples.
For the analysis of the ballad genre, the scientist chose a historical-comparative method, which made it possible to determine the national specificity and deny the completely traveling nature of the ballad plots. The use of this method of research in relation to folklore systems of different peoples gave the scientist the opportunity to assert the uniqueness of Ukrainian oral literature.
"Ukrainian oral literature"
In 1938, F. Kolessa published a unique book "Ukrainian oral literature", which contained 643 pages in a "pocket" format. Nothing was said about the purpose of this edition, but we can say with confidence that it was the first textbook on folklore both for educational institutions and for self-study. By genre, it is an anthology of oral poetic texts and a systematic outline of the folklore course as a discipline.
Having identified the main features of Ukrainian oral literature, F. Kolessa turns to the problem of periodization of folklore, which he subordinates to the historical principle (the development of genres of oral literature correlates with the history of Ukraine).
The scientist divided the evolution of folk art into three periods:
the ancient era (the flourishing of chivalric and conjugal poetry, ritual songs with Christian plot layers);
the Middle Ages — the golden age of Ukrainian folk poetry (Cossack historical songs and poems, the development of love lyrics);
the latest age (new meaning is embodied in ancient forms, rapid development of a short song form).
The necessity of researching the folklore of F. Koless proves that:
oral literature is older than literature;
folklore is valuable material for learning about the worldview of our ancestors;
oral literature is a source for written literature;
all methods of studying folklore are important for clarifying the genesis of poetic genres, as they highlight cultural interactions and the degree of their nationalization.
An important advantage of this work was the comprehensive study of folklore: both the texts and the melodies submitted to them, which made it possible to investigate the folklore sample from the point of view of textology and ethnomusicology. The scientist himself more than once noted the need to analyze the folklore text along with its melody, as it plays an important role in interpreting the genesis of oral poetic works and distinguishing folklore genres. Studying the genre-structural types of Ukrainian songwriting, the scientist pays special attention to size and presents its formula. Poetics of the poetic structure of songs,F. Koless even devoted a separate section to their rhythmicity and specific imagery "Songs and prose: two main types of verse form: the style of folk songs." None of his predecessors could describe the poetic means of Ukrainian folklore in such detail.
Therefore, the researcher pays attention to the forms of stanzas, the use of "triple rhyme", shows the remains of alliteration in carols as a means of rhythmization, understanding by alliteration the "unison" of the initial syllables (epanaphora) and the repetition of the second half of the poem at the beginning of the next one (concatenation). It is about rhetorical rhyme, parallelism, symbolism, constant epithets, "tautological shades", poetic inflections, question formulas, archaisms, caressing (shredded) forms of words and typification.
F. Kolessa believed that folkloristics is closely related to the history of literature, as well as to psychology, the history of religion, and sociology. Considering folklore as the basis for learning about the entire cultural development of the nation and the necessary material for understanding the historical-literary process, the scientist noted that the need for its research is extremely important. Thus, while presenting concise but accurate interpretations of the concepts of folklore, oral literature and the corresponding subject of analysis, the Ukrainian researcher never mixes them up. For F. Kolessa, folklore is always a science, and oral literature is the subject of her study.
Composer activity
Collection "Our Thought"
The compositional activity of F. Kolessa is concentrated mainly in the choral genre. Original choruses based on the words of T. Shevchenko, Yu. Fedkovich, O. Makovey, O. Oles and other poets, numerous arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs were an integral part of the repertoire of Western Ukrainian choral groups and gained wide recognition.
The future composer showed considerable musical abilities while studying at the Stryi Gymnasium, where he drew the attention of the composer O. Nyzhankivskyi. Under the influence of this experienced artist, F. Kolessa began to seriously study history, music theory, harmony, dreaming of devoting himself to composing.
After graduating from the gymnasium, during his stay at the Vienna Theological Seminary, F. Kolessa deepened his musical education. During his one-year stay in Austria, he listened to a series of lectures on harmony by the outstanding Austrian composer Anton Bruckner at the University of Vienna, attended opera performances and concerts.
F. Koless paid considerable attention to his compositional activities during his studies at the Faculty of Philosophy of Lviv University (1892-1896). During these years, he published many arrangements of folk songs, including choral "knitters" - "On a generous evening", "Street", "Cossacks in folk songs", he was preparing for publication the collections "Obzhynka" and "Hagilka". The result of persistent work as a composer during this period was a large collection of compositions for male and mixed choirs "Our Thought" (1902).
At the same time, F. Kolessa also created original works, such as "Oh, my old father died", "If I had shoes" to the words of T. Shevchenko, which were often performed at concerts and republished in various music collections.
Immersion in scientific work did not allow Kolessi to systematically engage in composition, but studying the folklore of certain ethnographic territories, in particular Transcarpathia, Polissia and Volhynia, the composer simultaneously created his best choral arrangements. This is how the collections appeared - "Russian Folk Songs from Subcarpathian Rus", Part I (1923), "Russian Folk Songs from Southern Subcarpathia", Part II (1923) and "Volyn Folk Songs" (1937).
The gravedigger of the Filaret Kolessa family on field 78 of the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv
F. Kolessa, as an experienced ethnopsychologist, selected highly artistic samples for processing and elaborated them with taste. The scientist's special interest in the outlying regions of the Ukrainian ethnographic territory (Hutsulshchyna, Lemkivshchyna, Volhynia, Polissia, Transcarpathia, etc.) was also reflected in his compositional activity. The dialectal vocabulary of the works is preserved everywhere, and explanations are provided for some obscure words.
The works of FM Kolessa are still performed by modern professional and amateur ensembles and are undoubtedly a valuable part of the Ukrainian choral heritage.
Main works
"Review of Ukrainian-Russian folk poetry" (1905),
"Rhythm of Ukrainian folk songs" (ZNTSh, vol. 69, pp. 7-30; 1906, vol. 71, pp. 44-95; 1906, vol. 72, pp. 80-111; 1906 , vol. 73, pp. 65-118; 1906, vol. 74, pp. 33-68; 1907, vol. 76, pp. 64-116),
"Melody of Ukrainian People's Dumas" (1910-13),
"Catch-up and characteristic features of Ukrainian folk melodies" (1913-14),
"Ukrainian People's Dumas" (1920),
"Ukrainian folk dumas in relation to songs, poems and the origin of chants" (1920-21),
"On the Genesis of Ukrainian People's Dumas" 1921,
"View of the history of the Ukrainian language" 1921,
"On the weight of scientific research over oral literature" (1922),
"Folk songs from southern Subcarpathia" (1923),
"Recitative forms in Ukrainian folk poetry" (1925),
"Ukrainian folk songs at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries." (1928),
"Ukrainian folk song in the latest phase of its development" (1928),
"Folk songs from Galician LemKivshchyna" (1929),
"The ballad about the daughter-bird in Slavic folk poetry" (1936-37),
"Volyn folk songs" (1937),
"Ukrainian oral literature" (1938),
"Folk Song Melodies of Ukrainian Transcarpathia" (1946).
Kolessa F. Melodies of jackdaws, recorded on the phonograph by Yosif Rozdolsky. T. 2 / written and edited by F. Kolessa. — B. m.: b. v., 19–?. — 2, 100 p.
Kolessa, Filaret. Ukrainian oral literature / Filyaret Kolessa. — Lviv: At the expense of the fund "Learn, my brothers", 1938. — 645 p. — (Popular scientific library of the "Prosvita" Society — Learn, my brothers!; part 1–4 (22)).
Kolessa F. Ending formulas in the Ukrainian national thoughts in connection with the question of catch-up thoughts / written by Filaret Kolessa. — B. m.: b. in., 1939?. — P. 30–67, 2: tab.
Kolessa F. Ukrainian People's Dumas: the first complete edition. with intelligence, explanations, notes and pictures of kobzars / Dr. Filyaret Kolessa. — Lviv: Published by T-va "Enlightenment", 1920. — 160, VIII, 4 p. : tab., sheet music, 8 sheets. fig. — (Enlightenment General Library).
Materials for Ukrainian ethnology. T. 14: Melodies of the Ukrainian People's Dumas. Series 2 / Ethnogr. commission of science t-va named after Shevchenko; transcribed on a phonograph and edited by F. Kolessa. — Lviv: From print. Science t-va named after Shevchenko. — 1913. — 2, XXXVI, 2, 195, 2, 43 p.
Musical works
Words and notes of the song "Trumpets are playing over the Dniester!" Oleksandr Kolessa from the Vienna edition of 1916. Harmonized by Filaret Kolessa.
choruses "Oh, the old father is dead", "I trampled the path", "If only I had shoes", "Once upon a time in Ukraine" (all in T. Shevchenko's slang), etc.;
arr. Ukrainian folk songs - knitwear: "Street" (1895), "Obzhynky" (1898), "Hagilki" (1900); collection "Our Thought" (1902), etc.;
"Military Quartets" for voc. quartet, person. and women choirs (1915),
"March of Ukrainian riflemen" (s. O. Makovey, 1915). "I was a Rusyn" (by O. Dukhnovych, 1928), etc.;
arr. Ukrainian folk songs for children
He left the "History of Ukrainian Ethnography" in manuscript.
Commemoration
Memorial plaque on the building of the Scientific Society named after Shevchenko (24 Vinnychenko St.)
On the facade of the NTSH building on the street A memorial plaque to Filaret Kolessi was installed at 24 Vynnychenka St. in Lviv.
