Wytwycky, Wasyl

Wytwycky, Wasyl [Витвицький, Василь; Vytvyc’kyj, Vasyl’], b 16 October 1905 in Kolomyia, Galicia. Musicologist, composer, and teacher; full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society since 1960. He studied musicology at Cracow University (graduating in 1932) and music theory at the Cracow Conservatory before becoming a teacher and director of the Peremyshl branch of the Lysenko Higher Institute of Music. He was also active in the Union of Ukrainian Professional Musicians and its publication Ukraïns’ka muzyka as well as editor of Dyrygents’kyi poradnyk (The Conductor's Handbook) in Lviv. Following the Soviet occupation of Galicia he taught in Lviv, worked in the music section of Lviv Radio, and briefly (1939–41) held a position with the Institute of Ukrainian Folklore of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. Emigrating at the end of the Second World War, he lived in Germany, where he headed the Ukrainian Musicians' Alliance, and from 1949 in Detroit. Wytwycky has written extensively on various aspects of Ukrainian music for the periodical press in Ukraine, Germany, the United States, and Canada and has served as subject editor of music for Entsyklopediia ukraïnoznavstva and the Encyclopedia of Ukraine. His published works include monographs on Maksym Berezovsky (1974) and Mykhailo Haivoronsky (1954), as well as his own memoirs, Muzychnymy shliakhamy (Along Musical Paths, 1989). His compositions include Diptych for string orchestra; two string quartets; a piano trio; Suite for Youth for violin, cello, and piano; the piano Sonatina for four hands; music to the children's plays of Nataliia Zabila and N. Buryk; marches to the words of Hrytsko Chuprynka, Ivan Bahriany, and others; and arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs for choir.

Roman Savytsky Jr.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]