Ukrainian Ritual Songs: A Personal Journey

Winnipeg – “Art speaks to us through its subtleties”, was the opinion shared by Alexis Kochan with her audience during a unique interview style presentation on May 10, 2007 at Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre.  It marked the launching of a public lecture series jointly sponsored by Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre and the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies at the University of Manitoba. This collaborative project pulls together the resources of two Winnipeg based cultural institutions in order to address issues of culture, history, heritage, identity and community.

The ability to be keenly attuned to the nuances of Ukrainian Folk Music is what defines the art of Alexis Kochan. Noted for her series of CDs Tsarivna, Paris to Kyiv, Fragmenty, Alexis Kochan has been visiting and revisiting her roots – her musical roots – decoding and illuminating them in a particular way that resonates with Canadian audiences. Bohdana Bashuk, former broadcaster and executive assistant at Oseredok, guided Alexis through a conversation about that personal journey.

Coming from a city rich in Ukrainian culture and a strong choral tradition, Alexis spoke of her choral experience with the O. Koshetz Choir and its conductor, Walter Klymkiw. She acknowledged the incredible impact made by the choir’s trip to Ukraine in 1978 where she felt that she was literally “walking in the footsteps of my grandfather.” She stayed in Ukraine to study in an internship program connecting to the language and the music. While there, she spent time working with Anatolii Avdiyevsky, the renowned conductor of the Veryovka Choir and an eminent collector of Ukrainian Folk Songs. That experience launched her on an odyssey that shaped her future.

“I didn’t think it was possible to take the Ukrainian Folk Song and make a living of it in Canada,” stated Kochan. Abandoning graduate school in Psychology, she was determined to show that Ukrainian Folk Songs could ring true for others, not just Ukrainians.  Her timing was fortuitous as World Music was beginning to gain the interest of Canadian audiences. She started by collecting songs of the Seasons, delving into their symbolism and looking for a contemporary interpretation. Her collaboration on the seasonal song cycle with Arthur Polson, former First Violinist with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, resulted in the Tsarivna production. Her career was launched.

“Did they buy it?” inquired Bohdana Bashuk, referring to the Canadian audience.  “The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and its French counterpart RDI were supporters of independent music, as was university radio,” replied Kochan.  They became important marketing tools for her product. What was it about Ukrainian music that resonated with people? According to Alexis Kochan, it was the West meeting the East in a cool way (Paris to Kyiv) and the delight of people hearing what they have not heard before.  The contemporary musical language of the ancient songs connected with the audience.

“Most of my music comes from the feminine experience,” Alexis Kochan states. On one level, Ukrainian ritual songs reflect the important role women played in ancient ritual, for example as the greeters of Spring in hahilky, or the wedding chorus in the marriage ritual, or in performing laments in the funeral ritual, among others.  On another level, women assumed the role of keepers of the ritual song tradition and passed these songs down from generation to generation through an oral tradition. Alexis Kochan mines the depth of that oral tradition and gives it back in an oral way through radio, a contemporary oral medium.

Curiously, the musicians with whom Kochan collaborates are all male. She looks for a musician’s ability to reflect upon something called a Ukrainian Folk Song and to improvise. In a sense, it is a process of deconstruction followed by reconstruction. As she says, “They all have to get it at some level.  You start by hearing and seeing the thing and then you must be prepared for a never ending excavation of that something called Ukrainian.” So begins a search for nuance, the subtlety that will become art and will resonate with the timeless visceral emotion of ancient ritual song couched in a contemporary musical idiom.  Constantly “going back to the well”, listening, hearing, re-defining – that is Alexis Kochan’s personal journey. “My journey is exactly the way it should be”, she concludes.