Yevhen Oleksandrovych Adamtsevych (19 December 19041 January 1972) was a prominent blind Ukrainian
bandurist
A banduryst ( uk, бандури́ст) is a person who plays the Ukrainian plucked string instrument known as the bandura.
Types of performers
There are a number of different types of bandurist who differ in their particular choice of instrumen ...
.
Biography
Yevhen Oleksandrovych Adamtsevych was born in the village of Solonytsia on 1 January 1904, not far from the town of
Lubny
Lubny ( uk, Лубни́, ), is a city in Poltava Oblast (province) of central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Lubny Raion (district), the city itself is administratively incorporated as a city of oblast significance and does n ...
, in
Poltava
Poltava (, ; uk, Полтава ) is a city located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the capital city of the Poltava Oblast (province) and of the surrounding Poltava Raion (district) of the oblast. Poltava is administratively ...
oblast.
His father, who came from
Snovsk
Snovsk ( uk, Сновськ ) is a city in Koriukivka Raion, Chernihiv Oblast (oblast, province) of Ukraine. Population: It hosts the administration of Snovsk urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. The population was 12,315 in 2001.
Name ...
, worked at one time at the railway station at , possibly as the
station master
The station master (or stationmaster) is the person in charge of a railway station, particularly in the United Kingdom and many other countries outside North America. In the United Kingdom, where the term originated, it is now largely historical ...
. His mother was Maria Mykhailivna (
née Bilan), the middle class daughter of a tailor whose five children were all educated at home.
Yevhen became blind at the age of two.
He was educated at a school for the blind in Kyiv. He lived in
Romny
Romny ( uk, Ромни́, ) is a city in northern Ukraine, Ukrainian Sumy Oblast. It is located on the Romen (river), Romen River. Romny serves as the administrative centre of Romny Raion. It is administratively incorporated as a City of region ...
where from 1925 he was
apprentice
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
d to the
kobzar
A ''kobzar'' ( ua, кобзар, pl. kobzari ua, кобзарі) was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment, played on a multistringed bandura or kobza.
Tradition
Kobzars were often blind and became predominantly so by ...
, who taught him to play the bandura.
Adamtsevych began to perform as a soloist in 1927, where he led a group of bandurists.
In 1927 he married Lidia Dmytrivna Paradis; her relatives did not approve of this marriage and were only reconciled years later.
During the 1930s, he was a travelling kobzar.
In 1939 he participated in the conference of
kobzar
A ''kobzar'' ( ua, кобзар, pl. kobzari ua, кобзарі) was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment, played on a multistringed bandura or kobza.
Tradition
Kobzars were often blind and became predominantly so by ...
s which took place in
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
, and he participated in a 1940 conference on folk singers in Moscow.
During the Second World War, Adamtsevych travelled around Ukraine, performing patriotic songs, including his own composition, the song ''Unwillingly''. During the 1950s and 1960s, he and other bandurists gave concerts in Ukraine and Russia.
In October 1972, Adamtsevych and his wife moved to live with their daughter in the village of Kholmivka, Bakhchysaray District,
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
. Three weeks later, he was hospitalized with acute pain caused by a stone in his
gall bladder
In vertebrates, the gallbladder, also known as the cholecyst, is a small hollow organ where bile is stored and concentrated before it is released into the small intestine. In humans, the pear-shaped gallbladder lies beneath the liver, although ...
), but died during the early hours of 20 November whilst on the operating table.
He bequeathed his bandura to the in
Kaniv
Kaniv ( uk, Канів, ) city located in Cherkasy Raion, Cherkasy Oblast (province) in central Ukraine. The city rests on the Dnieper River, and is also one of the main inland river ports on the Dnieper. It hosts the administration of Kaniv urb ...
.
Playing and singing style
Adamtsevych acted as a bearer of the national Ukrainian traditions of singing and playing the bandura, which he learned his repertoire directly through oral transmission. A characteristic feature of Adamtsevych's singing style was his ability to highlight syllables or words; the range of his voice covered two
octave
In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
s. he was known for being able to easily memorize the music and lyrics of any songs that he listened to.
Personality
Adamtsevych's daughter recalled her father as being was energetic, cheerful, and neat. He did not have a haircut, but shaved his head "according to Kotovskyi". According to his daughter, "He did everything himself: he sawed and chopped firewood, repaired the house, built it, even roofed the house himself with iron, dug cellars and covered it with bricks."
Adamtsevich attempted unsuccessfully to teach his daughter Tetyana to play the bandura.
Repertoire
Adamtsevych's repertoire included many historic
Ukrainian folk songs
Ukrainian folk music includes a number of varieties of traditional, folkloric, folk-inspired popular music, and folk-inspired European classical music traditions.
In the 20th century numerous ethnographic and folkloric musical ensembles were ...
, but lacked any authentic ''
dumy'' (sung epic poems). ''Yevshan-Zillia'', the single epic work in his repertoire, was structured like a ''duma''.
Adamtsevych composed the "
Zaporizhian March
Zaporizhian March ( uk, Запорозький марш) is an expressive Ukrainian folk music, Ukrainian folk musical art that was preserved and revived by bandurist Yevhen Adamtsevych. The March (music), march became more famous after its arrang ...
",
which was
orchestrated
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...
by .
The march was played regularly by the
Ukrainian State Orchestra of Ukrainian Folk Instruments in Kyiv. Other compositions include the songs "In Captivity" (1941), and "Thoughts about I.F. Fedka" (1966).
Notes
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Adamtsevych, Yevhen
Bandurists
Kobzarstvo
People from Poltava Oblast
Ukrainian composers
1904 births
1972 deaths
Blind musicians
Soviet composers