MYKHAYLO DRAY-KHMARA: MUSICALITY OF LIFE AND POETIC CREATIVITY

Abstract

The article is devoted to the musicals of the outstanding Ukrainian poet and scholar of the Executed Renaissance Mykhailo Dray-Khmara (1889–1939). A tragic fate be fell not only the artist, but also his legacy, which was destroyed and partially lost, or was taken to America and for many years was studied only by the diaspora. Known as a “Kyivneoclassicist” and an academic scholar of the humanities, Dray-Khmara belonged to the Ukrainian intellectualelite, which was destroyed by the Bolshevik regime in the late 1930s. Despite the active study of the archive sof the scientist and poet since the early 2000s, intensified after their return to Ukraine, the musicals of the outstanding figure still remained a “blankspot”. Meanwhile, the analysis of his epistolary and poeticheritage, as well as the memoirs of his contemporaries, prove that music occupied a large place in the artist’s life and work. As a musically gifted person, Dray-Khmara from childhood reacted sensitively to manifestations of musical creativity in various forms, and later music became an element of his poetic style. An important role in the poet’s constant contact with music was also played by the priestly environment, to which the family of his wife Nina Dlugopolska belonged. (One of its representative swas Mykola Leontovych).