Mykhailo Verbytsky

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Mykhailo (Mykhaylo, Michał, Michael) Verbytsky (Ukrainian: Михайло Михайлович Вербицький) (March 4, 1815 - December 7, 1870) was an Ukrainian composer, and a Greek Catholic priest. He is famous for composing an alternate melody to the song Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy (Ukraine's glory has not perished) which became the modern National Anthem of Ukraine.

[edit] Biography

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Mykhailo Verbytsky was born in the Lemkivshchyna. Sources often differ as to the exact location of his birth. he was however born in Jawornik Ruski[1] and christened 14 km away in Ulucz[2] (the site of the oldest wooden church in Poland where his father was the local priest. Both are now in Poland.)

Verbytsky was a prolific composer and wrote the music and orchestrations to hundreds of plays and musicals. His legacy was not studied by Soviet Ukrainian musicologists because of the his association with the creation of the Ukrainian National Hymn.

[edit] Commemoration

In 2005 the chapel-pantheon over the tomb of Mykhailo Verbytsky was opened to mark the 140th anniversary of Ukrainian national anthem and 190th anniversary of its composer.