Mykola Lysenko, composer, music folklorist, pianist, pedagogue and prominent public figure, was also the founder of the Ukrainian national school of music. A recognized leader among Eastern European ethnomusicologists and composers, Lysenko derived his creative inspiration from songs of his native land and was an ardent promoter of Ukrainian folk music.

As a composer he strove to break the prevalent sociocultural isolation of Ukraine, to give form to the self-sustaining values of creativity. Lysenko's ideas of the sovereignty of the individual were rooted in the popular mentality. The nation craved the right to determine its own cultural and political future independently. The truly elemental force of Lysenko's talent forged his works into a weapon of spiritual revolt. These are the works of self-sacrifice and foresight. They continue to speak to us now, they make possible for us to reach out in "a dialogue of epochs" and rise to a new level of understanding.

Lysenko became an agent of national revival for a creative tradition that originated a millennium ago. The literary works of Feofan Prokopovych, Ivan Kotlyarevs'ky, Hryhoriy Skovoroda, Taras Shevchenko, and Mykola Hohol' had sprung from it. The sublime vision of Mykola Dylets'ky, Maxym Berezovs'ky, Dmytro Bortnyans'ky and Artem Vedel' was deeply rooted in ancient Ukrainian musical culture. This source had nurtured the aesthetic patterns, tastes, and ideas of the nation and formed its - folk culture. It became an integral part of Lysenko's musical personality as well.

Lysenko's scholarly interests covered a vast area. His chosen path demanded intensive work and the utmost professionalism. His studies at Kyiv University and at the conservatories of Leipzig and St. Petersburg helped him to master the intricacies of his art. In time, he became the first among Slavic folklorists and musicologists to successfully describe the rhythmical, melodic, and modal-harmonic features specific to Ukrainian folk tunes. Having mastered the musical canon of Western Europe, Lysenko employed the structures of his native Ukrainian folklore in his work. The transition from classical to folk did not come easily to the composer but once achieved it resulted in seminal masterpieces. Lysenko's knowledge of folksong and folk instrumental music and his studies of church choral polyphony were vital to his work. The many elements of Lysenko's musical persona fused with folksong to create a new form of Ukrainian art music. Unquestionably, Ukrainian song in Lysenko's arrangement entered the sphere of art music.

Mykola Lysenko was well-read in the poetry of his time as attested by his settings of contemporary poets, such as Ivan Franko, Adam Mickiewicz, Panteleymon Kulish, Oleksandr Oles' (Kandyba), Mykola Vorony, and Volodymyr Samiylenko. His erudition yielded the lyrical choruses to texts by Lesya Ukrayinka (Kosach) and Osyp Makovey, the novel musical intonations of Yaroslavna in The Lay of the Warfare Waged by lhor, the ardent musical reading of Shakespeare's Hamlet, the subtle psychological insight in the Lyrical Intermezzo vocal cycle to the poems of Heinrich Heine. The prayer "Great and Only God," and the duet When Two are Parting gained such popularity that they have become folk tunes. When a composer's melodies are adopted by his nation into its treasury of songs, this proves that there is something true in his melodic patterns.

In the composer's lifetime the dominant Russian authorities deemed Ukrainian song utterly unsuitable to musical arrangement and formalization. Lysenko proved that all musical folklore is rooted in an original expressive system, and is capable of evolving dynamically. It enriches the vocabulary of a composer with fresh musical images, themes, structures and genres. Lysenko's cantatas and choral works, songs and piano rhapsodies merged a classical art music canon with Ukrainian folk culture. The influence of the national mentality, popular customs and rituals is evident in the opera-carol Christmas Night; the lyric fantasy opera The Drowned Maiden; the musical drama Taras Bul'ba based on the novels by Mykola Hohol', the composer's fellow-countryman; and the satiric opera Aeneid, based on the travesty by Ivan Kotlyarevs'ky.

Lysenko's creed was that his art ought to serve the interests of the nation. His efforts to raise the level of musical education in Ukraine were truly heroic. He appeared as composer, ethnomusicologist, pianist, choir conductor, and promoter. His opinion was sought out in the spheres of literature, archeology, theater, linguistics, fine art, folklore, pedagogy and book publishing, to name only a few.

from the Preface of The World of Mykola Lysenko