Isidor Worobkiewicz

Isidor Worobkiewicz

Sydir Vorobkevych ( Ukrainian Сидір Воробкевич , Romanian : Isidor Vorobchievici , * 5. May 1836 in Czernowitz , Empire of Austria ; † 19th September 1903 in Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary ) was an Austrian writer , composer , educator , folklorist and ethnographer of Bucovina . For Ivan Franko he was "one of the first larks of the Ukrainian renaissance" .

life and work

As the son of a Greek Orthodox priest and theology teacher , orphaned at an early age , Worobkiewicz was raised by his grandparents in the northern Bukovinian town of Kotzman . After primary school there, he went to the Imperial and Royal Higher School in Chernivtsi and a seminary in Chernivtsi. Ordained a priest, he worked for almost seven years as a pastor in the Bukovinian villages of Davideny and Moldowitza. He published his first poems under the pseudonym Danylo Mlaka in the Lviv almanac "Galèanzyn" ( The Galician ). After that he published a lot in various literary magazines in Galicia and Bukovina. His only volume of poetry, “Am Pruth” , with a foreword by Iwan Franko, did not appear until 1901, two years before his death.

Music in Chernivtsi

In 1867 Worobkiewicz settled in Chernivtsi, where he taught music and singing at the German high school and secondary school for many years. In 1868 he took a few months of private composition lessons from Franz Krenn at the Vienna Conservatory . After the founding of Franz Joseph's University Chernivtsi appointed him the theological faculty to professor for liturgical chant. As a music teacher , he published several textbooks in German and Ukrainian : “Textbook for Music Harmony” , “General Music Textbook ” and song collections for elementary schools and grammar schools. His collection of Bukovinian folk songs includes the country's Romanian , Ruthenian , German and Jewish songs and prompted Johannes Brahms to correspond with Worobkiewicz.

Worobkiewicz composed a lot of secular and sacred music ( hymns , liturgical choirs , psalms ) and set many German, Romanian and Ukrainian texts to music . He also translated Ukrainian folk songs into German .

Bukovina singer

Worobkiewicz developed the most intensive public and cultural activity in the last third of the 19th century . He published many poems, songs, heroic songs, stories and dramas . In his poetry he sings about Bukovina: “Homeland” , “This is my Bukovina” , “Mother tongue” , “Am Pruth” , “ Huzulenschicksal ” and others. In the narratives and in the epic poetry he preferred historical material of the Ukraine ( "Turkish prisoners" , "Netschaj" ) or local stories from peasant life ( "A gypsy" , "Who's to blame" ). Of his plays were "Hnat Prybluda" , "The new Vogt" and "The Bride of Bosnia" on several popular platforms listed. His operettas “Kaspar Rumpelmayer” (German) and “Der goldene Mops” (Ukrainian) were also successful . His humorous stories about the fictional town Bergluzdiv (about fools City ) were popular among the people milieu.

Worobkiewicz was one of the founders of the Ukrainian cultural association Ruska Besida and was chairman of the Ruthenian literary-dramatic association . He did a lot of educational work and was involved in press organs ( Bukowynska Zorja , Bukowynskyj Kalendar ). He published the first Ukrainian almanac “Ruska chata” ( Ruthenian room , 1877), which was based on genuine popular sources in terms of content and language.

Aftertaste

Worobkiewicz's dramas “Hnat Prybluda” and “Der Herr Mandatar” are still part of the repertoire of the Chernivtsi City Theater. His best poems have found their way into school books . The Chernivtsi Music Academy bears his name today. Every year a Worobkiewicz Prize is awarded to Bukovinian educators and artists. His house in the former Franzensgasse (today vul. 28. èervnja) bears a memorial plaque .

source

• Peter Rychlo , Oleg Liubkivskyj: Czernowitz City of Literature , 2nd, improved edition. Chernivtsi 2009, pp. 45–49

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Worobkiewicz, Isidor . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 58th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1889, p. 116 ( digitized version ).