Verbytsky: National Anthem of Ukraine - clarinet quartet/quintet

Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy i slava, i volia
 
Mykhailo Verbytsky was born in Nadsiannia. Sources often differ as to the exact location of his birth, with some claiming he was born in Jawornik Ruski[1] and christened 8 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 Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland.) 

Verbytsky as born into the family of a priest. He was left an orphan at the age of ten, and was raised from then on by his father's brother, Bishop Ivan Snihurskiy. Snihurskiy took Mykhailo to live with him in Peremysl, where his uncle was very active: founding the city's first Ukrainian language printing press, published compilations of folklore and textbooks about the Ukrainian language. In 1818, Snihurskiy even founded a dyak-teaching institute in the city, and ten years later, a cathedral choir and music school. Verbystky was therefore placed in a very active and creative environment. 

In 1833, Verbytsky entered the Theological Seminary in Lviv. Here he became seriously engaged in music, learning to play the guitar, which became his favourite musical instrument. He eventually wrote a textbook teaching how to play the guitar and wrote pieces for the instrument. Because of financial problems, he twice had to leave the Seminary, but he eventually graduated and became a priest. 

He is best known as the composer of the Ukrainian national anthem by the words of Pavel Chubinsky Shche ne vmerla Ukrayiny (‘Ukraine has not Perished’), which in 1917 was adopted by the new Ukrainian republican government.