Oleksandr Ivanovych Steblianko (1896, Lebedyn - 1977), composer and folklorist, was born in the city of Lebedyn, Kharkiv province (now Sumy region). He was born into a peasant family, graduated from a parochial school, and sang in the church choir. He received his first music lessons from his singing teacher O. I. Pinchuk, the leader of the Lebedyn choir. From 1914 to 1918, he studied at the Starobilsk Teachers' Gymnasium.
He graduated from the Kharkiv Music and Drama Institute (1926), majoring in theory and composition with Honoured Professor S. Bohatyriov, where he studied together with future figures of Ukrainian art M. Koliada, A. Maitus, A. Shtoharenko, H. Tiumeneva.
From 1930 to 1934, he was a teacher of music theory and harmony at the Kharkiv Music College.
In 1936-1941 and since 1945, he was the head of the musical folklore department and a teacher of folk art at the Kharkiv Conservatory. In the 1930s, he was admitted to the Union of Composers of Ukraine.
In May 1943, he joined the Red Army. At the front, he was a sapper. In March 1944, he returned to Lebedyn after a hospital stay and later returned to the conservatory. For many years, O. Steblianko headed the House of Folk Art in Kharkiv and saw his goal in identifying folk artists, carriers of folklore. He collected and researched folk songs in Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Donbas, and Chernihiv regions, and later became almost the only collector of folklore in Eastern Ukraine. The folklorist was interested in the processes of migration of Ukrainian songs to other regions. Recordings made by Steblianko in the Kuban, North Caucasus, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ossetia, and Karachay region have been found. In total, he collected more than 2,000 Ukrainian folk songs.
And this journey began in the Lebedyn region. He recorded the first songs from his mother, sisters, a relative, the talented singer Marusia Hrytsenko, the family of Borys Hmyria, and the singer himself.
Oleksandr Ivanovych Steblianko lived for eighty years, sixty of which he devoted to collecting and processing Ukrainian folk songs.
Works
Works for string quartet "Scherzo", "Andante" (1925); "Rondo" (1926); "Fugue" (1950);
The a cappella chorus "The Red Viburnum Blossomed in the Valley" is based on Shevchenko's poetry.
Suite for orchestra of folk instruments on themes of Ukrainian folk songs.
Romances and choral songs, arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs, music for performances.
Musicological works
"Fret structure and chromaticism of Ukrainian folk songs" (1946).
"Performance of Folk Songs, Ensembles and Folk Choirs" (1952).
Collections of songs recorded by O. Steblianko were published.
Ukrainian folk songs, K., 1965.
Songs of Sloboda Ukraine. Vol. 2. Recordings from Lebedynshchyna / Collecting work, notation by O. Steblianko - Kharkiv: Maidan.1998 - 200 p.: notes, photos. - ISBN 966-7077-63-2
