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Musical tributes have been played and sung at concerts around the world in solidarity with Ukraine as it battles for its very existence against the on-going Russian invasion. Most appropriately, several of those works are close to the heart of the Ukrainian people. Here is a list of the top half dozen such works which you may expect to hear being performed, some perhaps rather more familiar than you might have expected\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Composer: Mykhailo Verbytsky (1815-70)<\/strong><\/p>\n The Ukrainian national anthem<\/a><\/strong> as sung these days is based on a hymn<\/a><\/strong> composed by the otherwise little-known composer Mykhailo Verbytsky, the original text, taken from a patriotic poem written by Pavlo Chubynsky (1839-84), replaced by a modern adaptation of the opening stanza.<\/p>\n Chubynsky was apparently inspired by Serbian students singing a rousing anthem at a political gathering at an apartment in Kyiv \u2013 probably \u2018Hey Slavs!\u2019, a nationalist hymn inspired by the Polish National Anthem \u2018Poland is not yet lost<\/a><\/strong>\u2019; this would explain the similarities between the text of that earlier song and Chubynsky\u2019a nationalist anthem, which he wrote in 1862. Not long afterwards, Chubynsky was arrested and sent by the Russian authorities into exile to the Arkhangelsk province, having been deemed \u2018a dangerous influence on the minds of commoners\u2019. In Chubynsky\u2019s absence, the poem was published the following year, mistakenly (or perhaps deliberately) attributed to the celebrated Ukrainian poet and folklorist who had recently died, Taras Shevchenko (1814-61). This misattribution only added to the poem\u2019s rapid popularity among Ukrainian nationalists.<\/p>\n Chubynsky\u2019s poem caught the attention of the Ukrainian priest and composer Mykhailo Verbytsky, who first set it for solo voice, then made a choral version first performed in 1864 at the Ukraine Theatre in Lviv. In 1917, Verbytsky\u2019s setting was adopted as a state anthem, Ukraine having suddenly gained independence following Russia\u2019s February Revolution (though after the October Revolution then followed the brutal Civil War, largely fought within Ukraine). The Ukrainian Republic existed until 1922, when the new nation became part of the USSR and the anthem banned from performance. When Ukraine regained its independence in 1991, the anthem was revived by the following year, though initially only Verbytsky\u2019s music was performed; Chubynsky\u2019s lyrics \u2013 thought to be outdated \u2013 were not sung until 2003, when Ukraine\u2019s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, officially adopted by vote a modified version, based on the opening stanza and refrain of Chubynsky\u2019s poem, but suitably updated to reflect Ukraine\u2019s now established independence.<\/p>\nUkrainian National Anthem, \u2018Shche ne vmerla Ukrayiny, nis lava, ni volya\u2019 (1863) <\/strong><\/h3>\n