earlier. Choral music has a special significance for Ukrainian culture; according to the musicologist Yurii Chekan, "choral music embodies Ukrainian national mentality, and the soul of the people". Ukrainian choral music changed during the Baroque era; passion and emotion, contrasting dynamics, timbre and musical texture were introduced, and monody was replaced by polyphony. The new polychoral culture became known as the ("singing in parts") style. During the 19th century, Znamenny chants were gradually superseded by newer ones, such as the Kyiv chant, which in their turn, were replaced by music that was closer to recitative. Most Znamenny melodies gradually become lost or forgotten. In the early 19th century, music in West-European was making the transition from classical to predominantly Romantic, having earlier shifted away from the Baroque style. The tradition of Russian church music can be traced back to Dmitry Bortniansky, who revered the Russian liturgical musical tradition. The early part of the 19th century was a period that marked a low ebb in the fortunes of traditional Russian music. Bortniansky studied in Venice before eventually becoming the director of music at the court chapel in St Petersburg in 1801. Composing in an era when attempts were being made to suppress the Russian Empire's cultural heritage, Bortniansky's choral concertos, set to texts in Russian, were modelled on counterpoint, the concerto grosso and Italian instrumental music. Under him, the Imperial Court Chapel expanded its role so it influenced, and eventually controlled, church choral singing throughout the Russian Empire. Vedel followed Bortniansky in combining the Italian Baroque style to ancient Russian hymnody, at a time when classical influences were being introduced into Ukrainian choral music, such as four-voice polyphony, the soloist and the choir singing at different alternative times, and the employment of three or four sections in a work. Sources The original biographical sources for Vedel are a biography about his pupil, the composer , and an article about Vedel by the historian Viktor Askochensky. Askochensky based his information on verbal accounts by Vedel's contemporaries and a biography written by Vedel's pupil Vasyl Zubovsky. The composer 's biography of Vedel, published in 1901, used similar sources. Documents relating to Vedel were accidentally discovered in 1967 by the Ukrainian nationalist Vasyl Kuk when he was researching the Moscow military archives about NKVD operations against the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Today, advocates of Vedel such as Mykola Hobdych, the director of the Kyiv Chamber