Author Lukas Bärfuss and I began work on a production we named The Journey in 2018. We intended for it to span territories in Central and Eastern Europe, in search of untold stories. Meandering from the Ukraine to Lithuania, Poland to Romania, and Hungary to Switzerland, The Journey presents text from Lukas Bärfuss with songs lost and found, many of which I set or arranged with living composers, and that I play during performances. When I first read Lysenko’s Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes No. 2, Opus 18 Dumka-Shumka, its wistful opening theme immediately caught my attention. Following the sadness of the introduction, the music segues into a virtuosic solo cadenza, followed by the lively, joyful Shumka. I decided to programme Dumka-Shumka for The Journey. Composer Ákos Hoffmann and I arranged and edited it.
Mykola Lyssenko (1842-1912), Mikhail Sikard (1867-1937)
Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes No. 2, Opus 18 “Dumka-Shumka”
For Solo Violin and String Quintet
Arranged by Ákos Hoffmann
Edited by Gwendolyn Masin
Published by Ries & Erler – Berlin
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About this piece and the arrangement
“When we are dead, do we dream of being alive?” My five-year-old son’s question fills the air. I look at the score in my hand, and respond, “I'm not sure. But other people dream of us – that way a part of us stays alive.”
We breathe air into histories every time we play music created by composers. And when we interpret these works, our own life stories are woven into the tapestry of human expression.
Author Lukas Bärfuss and I began work on a production we named The Journey in 2018. We intended for it to span territories in Central and Eastern Europe, in search of untold stories. Meandering from the Ukraine to Lithuania, Poland to Romania, and Hungary to Switzerland, The Journey presents text from Lukas Bärfuss with songs lost and found, many of which I set or arranged with living composers, and that I play during performances. I researched barely documented music that give clues to the complex history of the 20th century. Visits to archives in Switzerland, Israel, Belgium and Hungary, resulted in uncovering handwritten scores of music from Bessarabia and Bucovina, Moldavia and Transylvania. In February of 2022, our narrative gained urgency and actuality as the Russian invasion of the Ukraine began.
Mykola Lysenko’s work played a pivotal role in the development and recognition of Ukraine’s musical culture. His Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes No. 2, Opus 18 Dumka-Shumka opens with a reflection of folk music in its wistful opening theme. As an ethnomusicologist, Lysenko consciously draws on harmonic patterns in folk music to inform his composition.
Ukrainian musical heritage has been so overshadowed by foreign rule and oppression that I discover that the dumky, something I most closely associated with composers such as Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, Sergei Prokofiev, or Pyotr Tchaikovky, is in fact a musical form coined by Lysenko. The dumky became popular after the publication of an ethnological study by Lysenko in 1873 and 1874. His was the first to specifically analyse the melodies and accompaniment played on the bandura or lira, instruments indigenous to the Ukraine. The term dumky or dumka in the Ukrainian language means “thought” and derives from the term duma which specifies an epic Ukrainian ballad, thoughtful or melancholic in manner.
Following the sadness of the introduction, the music segues into a virtuosic solo cadenza, followed by the Shumka. The Shumka is a lively, joyful stamping dance. This juxtaposition of contrasts is a key feature of the piece and reflects the broader tradition of Ukrainian folk music. To underline the showcasing of the variety of musical textures and moods that Dumka-Shumka unites, my bowings and fingerings reflect these to accentuate colours, and imitate, as closely as possible, the human voice.
Particularly in the Dumka, the exclamatory, yearning melody is infused with fingerings that enhance these feelings. The Shumka, on the other hand, aims to find fingerings that provide stability for the left hand, and consistency for the right. The stretta con fuoco marking at bar 181 borrows from the piano original. I have set up the section so that vertically, the ensemble’s bowings work in tandem. That idea is continued once the violin solo joins in at bar 207.
May your performance of this piece enjoy the same artistic satisfaction for you and your listeners as it has for me and my ensemble!
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Additional information
Project documentation The Journey: www.thejourneyproject.eu
