‘Carol of the Bells’ Once Filled the Air Here. Now It’s Only Bombs.

Mykola Leontovych, the Ukrainian composer of the famed festive song, lived in the eastern city of Pokrovsk. Months of Russian ...

‘Carol of the Bells’ was born in a Ukrainian city destroyed by Russia

The music school dedicated to the song’s Ukrainian composer, Mykola Leontovych, was destroyed in Pokrovsk but has been reborn ...
The Kyiv Independent on MSN

Carol of the Bells: The song that made the world speak about Ukraine

In early 1919, when Ukraine's pleas for recognition were falling on largely deaf ears, it dispatched not only diplomats to ...

Iconic Christmas song featured in ‘Home Alone’ has roots in Ukraine — and Russia has blown the composer’s hometown to pieces

That’s what Kevin McCallister said as he bolted his front door and began fortifying the home against invaders in one of the ...
National Catholic Register

How This Ukrainian Song Became a Christmas Carol You Know and Love

The well-known Christmas carol, “Carol of the Bells,” has quite a remarkable history. It’s difficult to believe that a Christmas carol with such a joyous tone originated more than a century ago in ...
Slate

Toll of the Bells

A group of men and women in traditional embroidered dress took the stage at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 5, 1922, for a performance that the New York Tribune dubbed “a marvel of technical skill.” The New ...
The Spokesman-Review

The ‘Carol of the Bells’ comes from Ukraine’s fight for independence

But it’s the historic repetition of that Ukrainian folk song over centuries - the one Americans know as “Carol of the Bells” that’s especially poignant and heartbreaking for a nation at war. “It’s ...
The New York Times

‘Carol of the Bells,’ a Christmas Staple From Ukraine, a Century Later

It started as “Shchedryk,” a song about a little bird that was first performed in the United States in 1922. Its enchanting melody has since been sung by Beyoncé and Barenaked Ladies. By Rob LeDonne ...