Guy de Picarda
(Havriil Pichura; Гай дэ Пікарда)
(July 20, 1931 - April 20, 2007)
Author, Musicologist, Librarian, Barrister
![[ Writer Guy de Picarda ]](../images/picarda-Ch97-sml.jpg)
Photo Credit: Charter 97 (23/04/2007)
Guy de Picarda(Havriil Pichura; Гай дэ Пікарда)(July 20, 1931 - April 20, 2007)Author, Musicologist, Librarian, Barrister |
Photo Credit: Charter 97 (23/04/2007) |
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from the Times Online (UK); May 21, 2007
Guy Picarda: Lawyer whose passion for Orthodox choral music led to a second career as a scholar of Belarusian music
Guy Picarda was a barrister who practised at the French, English and Irish bars, a former member of the Council of the Huguenot Society, and the founder and for many years chairman of the Anglo-Belarusian Society. He had a special interest in the choral music of Eastern Europe, and it would be no exaggeration to say that he effectively rediscovered Belarusian church music traditions for the Belarusians.
Guy Reginald Pierre Picarda was born in 1931 in North London to parents of French-Breton and Anglo-Irish background. His fatherwas avocat at the Court of Appeal in Paris and a Barrister of the Middle Temple in London. His mother served in the 1920s on the Interallied Rhineland High Commission.
Having been educated at schools in England and France, Picarda commenced his legal studies at the University of Grenoble in 1951 and continued them at Oxford, Paris and the London School of Economics. Periods of pupillage were spent in both London and Paris.
He was called to the Bar in 1959. Two years later he became an avocat at the Court of Appeal in Paris, and in 1977 Barrister at Law in the King’s Inns, Dublin. His practice centred on the family chambers in London and Paris. His international expertise was recognised by several appointments and co-options, including membership of the Overseas Relations Committee of the Bar Council from 1969 to 1980.
His French heritage naturally led Picarda to membership of the Huguenot Society of London, and to the presidency of the Union des Français de Grande Bretagne from 1962 to 1972.
Picarda’s musical interests had developed during his studies in Oxford and Paris, where he sang in the choir of the Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church. At Oxford he had been Secretary of the university branch of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR.
His growing interest in the countries of Eastern Europe, as well as in their church music, eventually brought him into contact with a young eastern rite Catholic priest from Belarus, Fr Sipovich (later a Bishop). Belarus, a region of mixed cultural heritage — Orthodox, Roman Catholic, eastern rite Catholic, Jewish and Tatar — exerted a powerful attraction.
Belarus was then, and to some extent remains, a terra incognita. In order to make the area better known, Picarda, along with Auberon Herbert, founded the Anglo-Belarusian Society in 1954.
In regular issues of his Belarusian Chronicle, Picarda continued until very recently to write about historical events and figures linking the UK and Belarus. From its inception in 1971 Picarda was a member, and for many years, secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Belarusian Library and Museum in Finchley.
Retirement from legal practice in 1991 brought him more time to devote to the study of church music from Belarus. He participated in several international conferences and joined the adjudication panel of the Festival of Orthodox Church music in Hajnówka (Poland) and the Festival of Church Music held annually in the eastern Belarusian city of Mahilou.
He produced several collections of Belarusian folk and church music, many with his own harmonies and translations into English. He became the music librarian of the Belarusian Library, where he looked after an impressive collection of music — manuscript, printed and recorded. He also maintained correspondence with scholars from a number of countries.
Picarda received several awards for services to Belarusian culture: the Medal of the Order of Francis Skaryna (2000); a Gold Medal from the Ministry of Culture of Belarus to mark the tenth anniversary of the Festival in Mahilou in 2003, and, in 2006, the award of a diploma from the UNESCO office in Belarus. Picarda had a waspish wit and a gift for stimulating conversation over a bottle of wine and excellent food, often prepared by him from what seemed to be the humblest of materials.
In 1964 he married Micheline Wojtal, with whom he had one son. The marriage was annulled and in 1972 he married Susan Fleming, with whom he had two daughters.
Guy Picarda, lawyer and musicologist, was born on July 20, 1931. He died on April 20, 2007, aged 75.
from Charter 97 11:55, 23/04/2007
Belarusian Culture Researcher Guy De Picarda Died in London
On Saturday in London a researcher of Belarusian history and culture Guy De Picarda died in London. A graduate of Oxford university and Sorbonne university, Picarda studied works of Belarusian composers, life and works of Francis Skaryna, worked on the history of Bible translations into Belarusian, on problems of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania history. The Charter’97 press-center grieves over the death of this wonderful man and offers condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Guy De Picarda.
Guy De Picarda was engaged in search of ancient Belarusian chants and their publishing. He published “Belarusian Church Songbook. Saint Liturgy”, “Belarusian Spiritual Songbook”, an educational book “Church music in Belarus. 989-1995”, created a corpus of Belarusian hymns “Golden Belarus”, and a guide about F. Skaryna Belarusian library in London. His works were published on pages of religious and conventional editions (“Bozhym Shlyakham”, “The Journal of Byelorussian Studies” and others).
“He was of English-French origin, and he had become close to us, Belarusians,” told Fr. Alyaksandr Nadsan, Apostolic Visitator for Belarusian Byzantine Catholics living outside Belarus. “When he was a student in Oxford, he looked for church music in London, and got interested not only in church music, but by Belarusian culture and history in general, in everything concerning Belarus. Since then he lived by this interest. He was a lawyer by trade, but most of all he was interested in music and in Belarus most of all.
He has done a lot: English-Belarusian Scientific Society, a magazine on Belarusian studies, special courses of lectures on Belarusian studies that had been taking place for almost 30 years, and his participation in international conferences where he brought up Belarusian topics.
For the last 18 years Guy lived in our Belarusian centre here, in London. It’s a loss of a very close person for me. It is too early to understand everything he had done for Belarus. But he had done a lot, and his work was really heartfelt and self-sacrificing”.
from Charter 97 10:18, 19/12/2007
Belarusian Language can Disappear from Universities
Administration of the Belarusian Language Society (TBM) speaks against the planning removal of course of Belarusian professional vocabulary from university curriculum and is going to resist it.
This problem was discussed on the session of the TBM Council in Minsk on 16 December. As Lyudmila Dzitsevich, deputy head of the TBM, noted, due to the efforts of the organisation teaching of Belarusian professional vocabulary in universities hasn’t been stopped this year. At the same time, according to her, in the connection of introduction new educational standards on social and humanitarian disciplines and possible 4-year period of education the course of professional Belarusian vocabulary can be excluded from education programmes.
TBM head Aleg Trusau emphasised that the removal of this course from university curriculum would lead to drastic reduction of range of use of Belarusian language, as its vocabulary of many professions is offered only in universities.
“So, future specialists can learn Belarusian terminology in archaeology, architecture and Further Mathematics only on special courses,” A. Trusau said. According to him, students have keen interest in this discipline, special dictionaries, guide-books and programmes were created for teaching it.
The TBM Council decided to put on a corresponding statement.
The TBM leaders has also supported the last will of Guy De Picarda, famous English-French researcher of old Belarusian church music, works of Belarusian composers, translations of the Bible into Belarusian and problems of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania history, companion of the Frantsysk Skaryna Medal, member of the international association of Belarusists – on his burial in the Minsk Church of Symon and Alena (the Red Church).
![[ Memorial to Guy de Picarda at Red Church, Miensk ]](../images/gdp-red-church-sml.jpg)
Memorial Plaque and Photograph at Red Church, Miensk |
English language version of following article: from Catholic.by 15.11.2008
Belarusian language version of following article: from Catholic.by 15.11.2008
Guy Picardas’s remains buried in the crypt of the St. Symon and Alena Church in Minsk
On November 15th, 2008, a ceremony of the laying of a capsule with the remains of Guy Picarda, the famous researcher of the history of Belarusian ecclesiastical music and a specialist about Belarus, took place in the crypt of the St. Symon and Alena Church in Minsk (aka the Red Church). The ceremony took place within the framework of the symposium "Word of God – Live and Effectual." The Holy Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, Metropolitan of Minsk and Mahilyow, together with Archimandrite Siarhei Hayek, an Apostolic visitator to the Greek Catholics of Belarus.
Guy de Picarda was a permanent member of the Jury of the international Christian festival of sacred music "God Almighty." Being a specialist about Belarus and a researcher of Belarusian culture he had been decorated with the Order of Frantsisk Skaryna.
Mr. Picarda, a great devotee of Belarusian language and poetry, wrote numerous articles devoted to Frantsisk Skaryna and the symbolism of his creations, as well as other articles and reviews that were published in the London quarterly magazine, The Journal of Byelorussian Studies, as well as other publications. Guy Picarda was also engaged in the publishing of a magazine about Belarusian culture The Byelorussian Chronicle. However, during the life of the researcher, his main work – the collection Golden Belarus – was not published.
In his testament, Guy Picarda expressed a wish to be buried in one of Minsk’s shrines.
Note: Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz's homily (in Belarusian) and photographs of the ceremony can be accessed at this link.
Minsk: A Historical Guide, (and Short Administrative, Professional and Commercial Directory); Guy Picarda; Technalohija Publishers, Mensk & London; 1993, 1994; 250 pages.
Belarusian Church Music: 985 - 1995 (Царкоўная Музыка на Беларусі: 985 - 1995), Guy de Picarda; Belaruskaya Kapela, Minsk; 1995; 66 pages, in Cyrillic Belarusian.
More than likely, the source of this text came from the booklet: The Francis Skaryna Byelorussian Library and Museum (London, 1971). Anglo-Byelorussian Historical Papers, no. 1, 11 p., 6 plates. ISBN 10: 0950190403; LCCN: 71878629; Dewey: 026/.9147/65; LC: Z792.F763; Subject: Skaryna, Frantsysk, ca. 1490-ca. 1535.
Link to PDF that includes article (section) by Guy de Picarda: Connections, pages 64-71 (PDF 1905KB)
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