Ivan Omelyanovych Levytskyi (b. November 16, 1875, Mala Luka - d. April 8, 1938, Lviv) was a Ukrainian composer, violinist, choral conductor, and music educator.
Biography.
He was born on November 16, 1875 in the village of Mala Luka (now Chortkiv district, Ternopil region, Ukraine). He studied at a gymnasium in Ternopil.
From 1899 to 1913 he worked in the judicial institutions of Ternopil, while also teaching at the Second Gymnasium in 1903-1910, working as the second conductor of the Boyan Society, and organizing an ensemble where Marian Krushelnytskyi played. In 1910, he passed the exam to become a teacher of singing and violin and from 1913 taught singing and music at the private women's teacher's seminary of the Ridna Shkola society in Lviv.
He participated in the First World War. He fought in the Austro-Hungarian army and was wounded. After his demobilization, he lived in Vienna and in 1915-1917 took private lessons in harmony and composition from Richard Stor, taught singing and violin at seminary courses.
Since 1918 he lived in Lviv, where he worked as a teacher at a private teacher's seminary, organized concerts, and performed as a violinist and choral conductor. Since 1919, he has been a professor of music at the only Ukrainian-teaching seminary in Lviv. During the 1920s and 1930s, he worked intermittently at the Higher Music Institute (among his students was Yevhen Tsehelskyi); in 1934-1937 he taught at the Polish seminary. He died in Lviv on April 8, 1938.
Works.
As a composer, author of:
works for violin - Elegy, Song without Words, Romance, Nocturne (1910s), Ukrainian Rhapsody, Caucasus, Ballad, Ukrainian Tanks No. 1, 2;
works for chorus - Beyond the ravine is a ravine (1914), The sky is unwashed and the waves are asleep (1914), The wind is blowing along the street (1914), Water flows into the blue sea (1923), The wind is violent, I am walking quietly (all based on Taras Shevchenko's words); "I'm not complaining about you, fate", "Look at the well" (both to the words of Ivan Franko); "Green Rutonyka" (words of Oleksandr Oles);
solo songs - "Sometimes I long for you" (1914, words by Bohdan Lepkyi), "In my native school" (1931, words by Vasyl Shchurat);
arrangements of folk songs;
arrangements for violin and piano, including "Dumy o Nechai" by Denys Sichynskyi.
The musician's repertoire included works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Henryk Wieniawski, and his own compositions.
He is the author of the textbook "Outline of the History of Music" (Lviv, 1921). Among his works:
Fundamentals of Music Theory. Lviv, 1921;
Popular Science of Harmony. Zhovkva, 1929;
On the so-called violin tone and its conditions // Boyan. Drohobych, 1930. № 4-5.
