README_eng.txt

# Martlet
Martlet carol

1. Martlet.txt file (https://taras-y.github.io/Martlet/Martlet.txt)
contains a new carol. Short title of this carol is "Martlet".
Full title of this carol is "Serinus birds meet Martlets".
Martlet is intended as a "close interpretation" of the Ukrainian folk chant "Shchedryk"
with music by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych and in memory of Mykola Leontovych.
After all, January 23, 2021 is a 100th anniversary since he was assassinated by a Soviet agent in 1921.
However, his music is alive and now it is widely performed along with a popular Christmas carol
(Carol of the Bells).

Copyright © 2020 Taras B. Yurkiv All rights reserved
Any unauthorized broadcasting, public performance,
copying or re-recording will constitute an infringement of copyright.
Permission is granted to reproduce for personal, educational and charity use only.
However, it may be used without prior written consent and
free of charge for any non-commercial purpose.
Selling without prior written consent is prohibited.
Commercial copying, hiring, rent (lease) and lending
(without prior written consent) are prohibited.
Obtain permission before redistributing.
An URL https://github.com/taras-y/Martlet.git must be directly mentioned as original
(primary) source of the "Martlet" carol lyrics.
In all cases this notice must remain intact.

2. Contact list (it may be changed and/or extended later).
Any useful and honest feedback is welcome. But please don't post off-topic comments or messages.

2.1 Telegram Channel "Martlet": t.me/martlet_carol_lyrics

3. Carol of the Bells ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_of_the_Bells ) is a popular Christmas carol,
with music by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914 and lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky.
This song is also based on the Ukrainian folk chant "Shchedryk" but (IMHO) it is a "pure remake of original lyrics".
Wilhousky's lyrics are under copyright protection (owned by Carl Fischer Music) but the music is in the public domain.

(eng) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serinus
(ukr) https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A9%D0%B5%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BA_(%D0%BF%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%85)

4. Historical background
Conductor of the Ukrainian Republic Choir Oleksander Koshyts (also spelled Alexander Koshetz)
commissioned Leontovych to create the song based on traditional Ukrainian folk chants,
and the resulting new work for choir, "Shchedryk", was based on four notes Leontovych found in an anthology.
The original folk story related in the song was associated with the coming New Year,
which, in pre-Christian Ukraine, was celebrated with the coming of spring in April.
The original Ukrainian title translates to "the generous one" or is perhaps derived from
the Ukrainian word for bountiful (shchedryj), and tells a tale of a swallow flying into a household
to proclaim the bountiful year that the family will have.
With the introduction of Christianity to Ukraine and the adoption of the Julian calendar,
the celebration of the New Year was moved from April to January,
and the holiday with which the chant was originally associated became Malanka
(Ukrainian: Щедрий вечір Shchedry vechir), the eve of the Julian New Year
(the night of January 13–14 in the Gregorian calendar).
The songs sung for this celebration are known as Shchedrivky.
The song was first performed by students at Kiev University in December 1916,
but the song lost popularity in Ukraine shortly after the Soviet Union took hold.
It was introduced to Western audiences by the Ukrainian National Chorus
during its 1919 concert tour of Europe and the Americas,
where it premiered in the United States on October 5, 1921 to a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall.
The original work was intended to be sung a cappella by mixed four-voice choir.
Two other settings of the composition were also created by Leontovych:
one for women's choir (unaccompanied) and another for children's choir with piano accompaniment.
These are rarely performed or recorded.