Leonid Hrabovsky


Leonid Oleksandrovych Hrabovsky is a contemporary Ukrainian composer, now living in the United States.

Biography

Leonid Hrabovsky is one of the group of Ukrainian composers whose works indicated the opening of the modernist era in Ukrainian music of the late 20 century.
Hrabovsky studied economics at Kiev University, and from 1954 composition under Boris Lyatoshynsky and Lev Revutsky at Kiev Conservatory which he graduated in 1959. His diploma work "Four Ukrainian Songs" for chorus and orchestra which won first prize in an all-union competition. Shostakovich wrote about this: 'the Ukrainian Songs by Hrabovsky pleased me immensely—his arrangements attracted me by the freedom of treatment and good choral writing'.
In the early 1960s Hrabovsky taught theory and composition at the Kiev Conservatory. He belonged to group of the so-called Kiev avant-garde. Leonid was active as a composer, editor, and translator. He was one of the first Soviet composers to adopt minimalism. His works include Dramatic, Orchestral, Chamber, Vocal Music and music for solo instruments. Hrabovsky's works show Asian influences.
In 1981 he moved to Moscow. In 1987 he worked as an editor for "Sovetskaya muzika" magazine. In 1990 he moved to the US at the invitation of the Ukrainian Music Society. He settled in Brooklyn. Since 1990 to 1994 he was composer-in-residence at the Ukrainian Institute of America.

Works

Operas

&

Chamber/instrumental

  • Sonata Op.8, 1959.
  • Four Two-Part Inventions Op.11a, 1962.
  • Five Character Pieces Op.11b, 1962
  • Trio for Violin, Contrabass and Piano
  • Microstructures, 1964.
  • Constants, 1964
  • Homoeomorphies I-III, 1968–9.
  • Ornaments, 1969.
  • Bucolic Strophes, 1976.
  • Concorsuono, 1977.
  • Concerto misterioso, 1977.
  • Fuer Elise, 1988.
  • Hlas I, 1990.
  • And It Will Be, premiered 1993.
  • Hlas II, 1994.
  • Visions fugitives, 2015.
  • 12 Two-Part Inventions for Harpsichord,
  • “Tetragon” – Symphony-Capriccio for 4 Guitars & Strings,
  • “EQVIN” for Violin & Piano
  • “STR-O-r-GAN for Organ

    Vocal/choral

  • Four Ukrainian Songs Op.6 1959.
  • Five Poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky Op/9 1962
  • Two A Cappela Choruses 1964
  • Pastels 1964, revised 1975.
  • From Japanese Haiku 1964, revised 1975.
  • La Mer/The Sea 1966–70.
  • Marginalia on Heissenbuettel 1967, revised 1975.
  • Kogda 1987.
  • Temnere mortem for 4-part mixed chamber chorus a cappella, 1991
  • I Bude Tak/And It Will Be, 1993.

    Music for guitar

  • The Night Blues
  • Tango & Foxtrot
  • Homages
  • 3 Pieces in an Old Style

    By Hrabovsky

  • "On My Teacher", memoir on Boris Liatoshinsky) in Sovetskaya Muzyka, 2, 1969;
  • "Splendor and a Bit of Misery", in Sovietskaya Muzyka, 10, 1988;
  • "Zauber der ukrainischen Musik", in Die Musik, 1, 1989.

    Articles on Hrabovsky

  • Grigori Golovinski, "Bold and Original", in Sovietskaya Muzyka, 10, 1962;
  • Yuli Malyshev, "Symphonic Frescoes by L. H. " in "Ukrainian Musicology", Kiev, 1968;
  • V. Baley: 'Die Avantgarde von Kiew: ein Retrospektive auf halbem Weg', Melos/NZM, ii, 185–92
  • Hannelore Gerlach, "Portrat—L. H. ", in MuG, 12, 1977.
  • V. Tsenova and V. Barsky, ed.: Muzïka s bïvshego SSSR