Telezhynskyi Mykhailo Teodorovych (*26 January 1886 - †1939) was a composer, choral conductor, publicist, spiritual and political figure.
He was born on 26 January 1886 in the village of Bulai, Berdychiv district. In 1905, he graduated from the Kyiv-Podilsk Theological School and was enrolled in the Kyiv Theological Seminary. In 1913, Telezhynskyi was ordained to the priesthood, but he refused to become a priest and devoted himself entirely to art. He devoted the following years to self-improvement in the professional musical sphere, while at the same time satisfying his bright social temperament by participating in the political life of Kyiv. In 1917, Telezhynskyi became a very prominent figure in the capital: he was a member of the Central Rada, a state inspector of the UPR troops, and the conductor of the first Ukrainian National Choir founded by K. Stetsenko.
A chance meeting with K. Stetsenko in 1918 at the Brody station during his forced "travelling" marked the beginning of several months of close personal and creative communication between the two musicians. Telezhynskyi's future was closely connected with Volyn, where he moved in the summer of 1919. First Kamianets-Podilskyi and then Volodymyr-Volynskyi became the centres of his versatile activities. Initially holding a modest position as a psalmist in one of Volodymyr's churches, Telezhynskyi quickly found himself in the vortex of social and artistic life when he joined the local Prosvita. In 1922, he organised the Zamochok Choir, one of the best choirs in Volyn. At the same time, he met Arsen Rychynskyi, the chief physician of the local hospital, in whom he found a like-minded person and a close friend. Both became advocates for the revival of autocephaly and the Ukrainisation of church services.
In the same year, 1922, Telezhynskyi began his compositional activity: first, he created a liturgy, and later his "Collection of Songs and Fun for Children" was published in Stanisławów by the Lyra Publishing House. In 1927, Teleżynski's critical and journalistic activity began. Starting with his first article, which was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the publication of M. Maksymovych's collection of Ukrainian folk songs, Telezhynskyi purposefully studied the history, theory, aesthetics and practice of Ukrainian musical folklore and became one of the leading national experts on this issue.
For many years, the composer, as a publicist, collaborated with the newspaper "Ukrainska Niva", which was published in Ukrainian, first in Warsaw, and later in Lutsk. Thus, in 1928, the newspaper published two biographical essays by Telezhynskyi - about K. Stetsenko and M. Leontovych.
The composer often gave lectures and introductory speeches at concerts with his choir. In 1929, after a series of concerts by the choir in Lutsk, Telezhynskyi accepted an offer to take the position of regent of the choir of the local Brotherhood of the Holy Cross. In 1930, Telezhynskyi was appointed inspector of Ukrainian folk choirs at the School Curatorate. This gave him the impetus to develop the theory of choral business in a series of newspaper publications, to launch regular conducting courses, and later to develop a unique document - the Statute of Ukrainian Folk Choirs.
He did not abandon his political activities: in 1931, Telezhynskyi was elected ambassador to the Sejm, where, together with journalist P. Pevnyi, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian Niva, they founded a new political organisation, the Volyn Ukrainian Association. Telezhynskyi became its general secretary.
In the 1930s, many of the composer's works appeared: 4 dozens of choral arrangements, a collection of 160 Ukrainian folk songs, solo songs, including the cycle "Asters" to the words of O. Oles, the children's opera "Santa Claus", "Vespers and Morning Service". Telezhynskyi's music is marked by noble traits of his personality. It is distinguished by poetry, emotionality, and depth. The choral arrangements of Volyn folk songs in some respects resemble the style of M. Leontovych, although they are more modest in form. Children's songs are imbued with a subtle sense of a child's worldview and demonstrate a careful and touchingly cautious attitude to the original. The composer's sacred works are characterised by a restrained manner of expression and ascetic harmonic language, which testifies to a conscious search for such means of expression that would correspond to the ancient national traditions of the signifying chant - the traditions of "true churchianity and religious mood".
In 1936, Telezhynskyi was ordained again and became a priest of St Basil's Church in Volodymyr. Obviously, this was the formal pretext for his arrest, while the real reason was Telezhynskyi's political nationalist activities. The composer tragically died in 1939 while being escorted to a camp "while trying to escape".
