Between Modernism, Ukrainisation, and Soviet Ideology

Today, Borys Liatoshynsky (1895–1968) is considered one of the leading Ukrainian composers of the twentieth century. However, in the first half of the 1920s, the national musical community did not regard him as a Ukrainian composer. Only in the second half of the decade did he gradually assume leading positions as both a composer and a public figure in Ukraine. Liatoshynsky’s process of musical Ukrainisation—while his musical language combined late-Romantic and expressionist techniques—offers a revealing example of the direct influence of politics on a composer’s definition of his own musical identity.