51 Facts About Artemy Vedel

Artemy Vedel produced works based on Ukrainian folk melodies, and made an important contribution in the music history of Ukraine.

Together with Maxim Berezovsky and Dmitry Bortniansky, Vedel is recognised by musicologists as one of the "Golden Three" composers of 18th century Ukrainian classical music, and one of Russia's greatest choral composers.

Artemy Vedel was born in Kyiv, the son of a wealthy wood carver.

Artemy Vedel studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy until 1787, after which he was appointed to conduct the academy's choir and orchestra.

Artemy Vedel moved with Levanidov to the Kharkov Governorate, where he organised a new choir and orchestra, and taught at the Kharkiv Collegium.

Artemy Vedel's fortunes declined when the cultural life of Kharkiv was affected by decrees issued by Tsar Paul I of Russia.

The monastery's authorities discovered handwritten threats towards the Russian royal family, and accused Artemy Vedel of writing them.

Artemy Vedel was incarcerated as a mental patient, and forbidden to compose.

Artemy Vedel's music was censored during the period that Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.

The style of Artemy Vedel's compositions reflects the changes taking place in classical music during his lifetime; he was influenced by Ukrainian Baroque traditions, but by new Western European operatic and instrumental styles.

Artemy Vedel followed Bortniansky in combining the Italian Baroque style to ancient Russian hymnody, at a time when classical influences were being introduced into Ukrainian choral music, such as four-voice polyphony, the soloist and the choir singing at different alternative times, and the employment of three or four sections in a work.

The composer Vasyl Petrushevsky's biography of Artemy Vedel, published in 1901, used similar sources.

Documents relating to Artemy Vedel were accidentally discovered in 1967 by the Ukrainian nationalist Vasyl Kuk when he was researching the Moscow military archives about NKVD operations against the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

Artemy Vedel was the only son of Lukyan Vlasovych Vedelsky and his wife Elena or Olena Hryhorivna Vedelsky.

Artemy Vedel was a boy chorister in the Eparchial choir in Kyiv.

Artemy Vedel studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, where his teachers included the Italian Giuseppe Sarti, who spent 18 years as an operatic composer in the Russian Empire.

Artemy Vedel studied the academy's theoretical books on music, and became acquainted with the religious works composed by the academy's students, as well as the spiritual concerts of Andriy Rachynsky, and perhaps those of Sarti and Maxim Berezovsky.

Artemy Vedel probably continued his musical studies at the university.

Artemy Vedel did not stay in Moscow for long and, resigning his position, he returned home to Kyiv in the early 1790s.

In Kyiv, Artemy Vedel returned to leading the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy choir.

In Kharkov Artemy Vedel organised a new gubernia choir and orchestra, and taught singing and music at the Kharkiv Collegium, which was second only to the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in terms of its curriculum.

Artemy Vedel worked as a musician for the governor of the new province, Aleksey Teplov.

The loss of Levanidov's support caused Artemy Vedel to become deeply depressed.

Artemy Vedel distributed his belongings, and the end of the summer of 1798 he returned to live at his parents' house in Kyiv.

Early in 1799, frustrated by the lack of opportunities to compose and teach and possibly suffering from a form of mental illness, Artemy Vedel enrolled as a novice monk at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.

Artemy Vedel was an active member of the community and was respected by the monks for his asceticism.

Artemy Vedel was arrested in Okhtyrka, pronounced insane, and returned to Kyiv.

Artemy Vedel returned to live with his father in an attempt to regain his mental health.

Artemy Vedel's case was referred in turn from the governor of Kyiv to the governor of Ukraine Alexander Bekleshov, the Attorney General of Russia, and to the tsar.

Artemy Vedel was found guilty, and was incarcerated at the asylum of St Cyril's Monastery, Kyiv, for an indefinite period.

In 1808, after nine years' imprisonment, and by now mortally ill, Artemy Vedel was allowed to return home to his father's house in Kyiv.

Many mourners attended Artemy Vedel's funeral, including students from the Academy.

Artemy Vedel was almost entirely a liturgical composer of the a cappella choral music sung in Orthodox churches.

An edition of Artemy Vedel's works was published by Mykola Hodbych and Tetiana Husarchuk in 2007.

The ink varies in colour, which suggests that Artemy Vedel worked on the compositions at different times.

The musicologists Ihor Sonevytsky and Marko Robert Stech consider Artemy Vedel to be the archetypal composer of Ukrainian music from the Baroque era.

Artemy Vedel helped to raise the standard of choral singing in Ukraine to previously unknown levels.

Artemy Vedel was considered during his lifetime to be a traditional and conservative composer, in contrast to his older contemporaries Berezovsky and Bortniansky.

Artemy Vedel was a famous violinist, but no music by Vedel for the violin is documented.

Artemy Vedel's music was written at a time when Western music had largely emerged from the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

Artemy Vedel was strongly influenced by the baroque traditions of the Ukrainian hetman culture, with its religious-mystical music linked with ideas about spiritual enlightenment, but was influenced by developments in new operatic and instrumental styles emerging from Western Europe at that time.

Performances of Artemy Vedel's music were censored and the publication of his scores was prohibited during most of the 19th century.

Hand-written variations of Artemy Vedel's music appeared, but conductors amended scores to make them more suitable for unauthorised performances.

The hand copying of Artemy Vedel's music led to the creation of versions that were notably different from his original scores.

Artemy Vedel's compositions were rediscovered during the early 20th century by the conductor and composer Alexander Koshetz, at that time the leader of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy's student choir, and himself a student.

Koshetz's revival of Artemy Vedel's music was banned by the Soviets after Ukraine was absorbed into the Soviet Union in 1922.

The gap of nearly two centuries when Artemy Vedel's music was forgotten adversely affected the development of Ukrainian church music.

Artemy Vedel made an important contribution to late 18th-century music, but his accomplishments were largely undocumented and so were not realised.

The most important studies about Artemy Vedel produced in 19th and early 20th centuries belonged to musicologists as Askochensky, Vasily Metalov, Vladimir Stasov, and Pyotr Turchaninov.

Artemy Vedel made an important contribution in the music history of Ukraine, and musicologists consider him to the archetypal composer of the baroque style in Ukrainian music.

Koshetz stated that Artemy Vedel should be seen as "the first and greatest spokesperson of the national substance in Ukrainian church music".