Kapelle

Kapelle (Ukrainian: kapelia). An ensemble of singers or instrumentalists or both. Kapellen originated in Ukraine in the 15th century as church-choir ensembles. In the16th and 17th centuries, choral-instrumental or purely instrumental kapellen, performing both sacred and secular music, appeared. From the 16th century on, choral kapellen were organized at the bursas and student residences of brotherhood schools and at metropolitans' cathedrals. Manor kapellen, primarily at the palaces of hetmans, arose in the 17th century. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, itinerant choral ensembles were organized by such composers and conductors as Mykola Lysenko, Ya. Kalishevsky, Hryhorii Davydovsky, and Kyrylo Stetsenko. Professional ensembles, which emerged later, included the Ukrainian Republican Kapelle (1919–21, conductor Oleksander Koshyts), the DUMKA Chorus (1919–), the Poltava Banduryst Kapelle (1925–35), the State Ukrainian Choir in Kharkiv (DUKh, 1920s), the Kyiv Banduryst Kapelle (1918–35), the State Banduryst Kapelle of Ukraine (1946–) in Kyiv, and the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus in Detroit. Among the best-known amateur ensembles are those of the Kyiv Polytechnical Institute and the Donets Railroad.