Art Music

The early history of music in Ukraine is legendary, owed to irreparable loss of life and material culture during the Mongol invasions. Kievan Rus', its capital Kiev, and thus Ukraine, fell in political importance in the 13th and14th centuries, and between the 14th and 17th centuries the principal purveyorsof formal music instruction were the church brotherhoods, who were particularlyactive in Lwów (now L'viv), Peremyshl (now Przemyśl), Ostrog (now Ostrih) andLuzk (now Lutsk), as well as Kiev. Although set up primarily for religiouseducation, music instruction was a significant part of the curriculum.

Animportant development in music occurred when the Polish-Lithuanian union of 1569(Union of Ljublin) brought the Ukrainian Church on the Right Bank of the river Dnieper under Western influence. Western musical theoriesand polyphony were adapted at the Mohyla Academy (Kyevo-Moghyljanska Akademija, 1615–1915) in Kiev, thecentral institution of higher learning in 17th-century that served eastern and southern Slavdom. By thesecond half of the 16th century neumatic notation had been replaced with thefive-staff system called kyivs'ke znamya ("Kievan banner").

The intellectual revolution of the1600s was given a decisive impetus by the first important Ukrainian composer andtheorist- Mykola Dilets'ky. He was well suited for the task of WesternizingUkrainian music, since he had received an excellent education at the Jesuitacademy in Vilnius and was familiar with new developments in Polish music. Oneof the most prolific composers in eastern Europe, Diletsky wrote the first workon the new music theory to issue from eastern Europe ("Grammatika peniyamusikiyskago", published in various editions between 1677 and 1681). Dilets'ky(and by extension the Mohyla Academy and the Glukhov school, which trained later composers such as Danylo Tuptalo (or Tuptalenko, aka St. Dimitry of Rostov), Dmytro Javors'ky, F.Ternopil's'ky, Y. Zahvoys'ky, Hryhory Skovoroda (poet-songwriter ans philosopher (1722–94), Dmytro Bortnyansky, Maxym Berezovs'ky (1745–77), H.Rachyns'ky (1777–1843), and Artemy Vedel (1767–1808), determined the course ofthe development of music in the Russian Empire which at the time encompassed Ukraine,Belorussia, and Lithuania.

For this new style of multi-voiced choralcompositions, known as partesniy spiv (‘part singing’), Dilets'ky provided thetheoretical and practical foundation. This resulted in the prevalence of thepolyphonic style in Kiev and led to the development of the genre of the‘partesniy’ (‘choral’) kontsert (concerto). This particularly slavonic mixture of Baroque,and later Classical, styles became firmly established in Kiev and other parts ofUkraine and was passed to St.Petersburg and Moscow via Ukrainian singers and composers whoworked there. The popularity and importance of the ‘partesniy’ concerto isattested by the fact that in 1697 two music registers belonging to the L'vivDormition Brotherhood record 398 works by Ukrainian composers for three to 12voices (the majority, 120, for eight voices). In 1738 the Hlukhiv (Glukhov) Singing Schoolwas founded.

As Ukraine began to reach its musical maturity in the 18th century, itsaccomplishments started to serve, and be absorbed by, Russia's musicaldevelopment, so that in the early 19th century Kiev lost its musical primacy toMoscow. More and more musicians were being engaged in Russia and forced todevelop a musical life there. This trend had already started at the end of the17th century when the tsar summoned Diletsky to Moscow to teach the rudiments ofpolyphonic style, and continued with the appointment in the early 18th centuryof I. Popovsky as the precentor of the imperial court choir and the recruitmentof singers from Ukraine. It became more pronounced when the Rozumovs'ky(Razumovsky) family (which produced the last hetman of Ukraine, to 1764)established itself in St Petersburg and began hiring gifted musicians fromUkraine (e.g. M. Poltorats'ky). The flowering of the Ukrainian school canclearly be seen in the work of three masters: Artemy Vedel, Maxym Berezovs'ky andDmytro Bortnyans'ky. The last two also studied elsewhere in Italy with Galuppi and Martini, and upontheir return were to remain in St Petersburg: Berezovs'ky, very briefly beforehis suicide, and Bortnyans'ky for the rest of his long and productive life. In their bestand most original work, notably in the genre of the a cappella choral concerto,the two styles of Baroque and Classical are synthesized into a choral style ofsymphonic proportion and dramaturgy.

Traditional music

Much of Ukrainian music isinfluenced by the country's geographical position, lying between eastern Europeand western Asia, with both Slav and non-Slav neighbours. Its musical life isrecorded in a number of historical sources. The 11th-century frescoes in thecathedral of St Sofia in Kiev depict musicians playing many instruments(including lutes). They also show theskomorokhi dance and theatrical performances. The Chronicle of Volïnsk (1241)mentions Mitusa, a ‘renowned’ singer from Galicia, and documents of the 14th and15th centuries record Ukrainian lira (hurdy-gurdy) players at the Polish court,and the kobza-bandura performer Churilo. The Kiev znamennïy chant is thought to havebeen developed from non-liturgical vocal music in the second half of the 11thcentury.

Ukrainian vocal musics exhibit a wide variety of forms – monodic,heterophonic, homophonic, harmonic and polyphonic (from the 16th century) –often reflecting the instrumental accompaniment with which they are associated.Common traditional instruments include: the kobza (lute), Bandura, torban (basslute), violin, basolya (3-string cello), the relya (or lyra, a hurdy-gurdy) and the cimbalom; the sopilka (duct flute), floyara (open, end-blownflute), trembyta (long wooden trumpet), fife and koza (bagpipes); andthe buben (frame drum), tulumbas (kettledrum, played by Cossack regimentalmusicians), resheto (tambourine) and drymba (jew's harp). Traditionalinstrumental ensembles are often known as troïstï muzyki (from the ‘threemusicians’ that typically make up the ensemble, e.g. violin, sopilka and buben;violin, cimbalom and buben. When performing dancemelodies instrumental performance always includes improvisation.

Melodies may be broadly classified in four ways: formulaic recitative with anarrow pitch range, common in ritual, ceremonial and epic genres; declamatoryrecitative with a non-strophic structure, used for dumy; rospivno-protyazhnïymelodies with two- or three-line stanzas (AB, AAB, ABB), followed by a modifiedreprise, typical of domestic and social texts; and melodies based on dancerhythms characteristic of games, epigrammatic refrains and short and cyclicalinstrumental forms. Although West Asian melodic characteristics can bediscerned, traditional musics have been greatly influenced by the Westernmajor-minor system since the 17th century. Rospiv (chant) melodies and melodies based on dance rhythmscome close to Western diatonic and functional-harmonic models.

Among the traditional dances of Ukraine are: (see BALLI) the kozak, hopak, kolomïyka andhutsulka in duple time; and the metelitsya, shumka, arkan and chabarashka.Dances originating outside the region but which have been widely adoptedinclude: the mantovana, polka, mazurka, krakowiak, csárdás, waltz, barynya and tropak.Vocal and instrumental genres of dance melodies are found; both display acharacteristic acceleration of tempo during performance. Dance melodies forvocal performance form a ‘template’ to which a great number of often short,different lyrical texts may be sung. The opposition of accents in the textagainst those of rhythm and metre is a characteristic feature of dance melodies.Ukrainian instrumental and dance music was also influenced by Jewish and Gypsykorchmar (‘tavern’) ensembles.

Vocal music

Calendrical, ritual and celebratory musics. Kolyadki(‘carols’) and shchedrivki are sung at Christmas and New Year respectively. Thetexts of these songs refer to agriculture and domestic life. Sung antiphonally,they consist of a verse and refrain of blessings (e.g. oy day Bozhe, ‘may Godgrant you’, dobriy vecher, ‘good evening’), often with lines of 5+5 syllables.They have a limited pitch range and are usually in a diatonic major or minormode. The singers are accompanied by players who portray characters known as‘the goat’ and ‘Malanka’. Carols from church traditions are also sung.

Vesnyanki are songs performed by women to celebrate the coming of spring.They have a characteristic exclamation, ‘gu’, which is sung as a glissando atthe end of each stanza (ex.1). There are round-dance and game variants ofvesnyanki (e.g. proso, ‘millet’, kryviy tanets, ‘the crooked dance’, andvorotar, ‘the gate-keeper’), which have become children's game-songs. Texts havevarious forms but each stanza usually has two lines. Kupal'skiye songs whichwere performed during the summer solstice, have now been appropriated for thefestival of the birth of John the Baptist. Associated with these songs are thepetrivochnïye, which were sung from Trinity Sunday to St Peter's day (12 July).The texts of both types of song refer to love and match-making. Harvest ismarked by obzhinochnïye songs, which accompany the weaving of garlands from earsof wheat and rye, and by a procession of reapers.

All calendrical and ritual songs are performed by a group, who partly singantiphonally. The melodies have a narrow pitch and are variants of basicformulae. They consist of one or two lines with refrains (less frequently theycan be of three lines with a repetition of the second half) and are both sung inunison and with heterophony.

Of celebratory ritual songs – vesilnï (wedding), krestyl'nï (baptismal) andpomynal'nï (funerary) – the largest number are wedding songs. Indispensable at aUkrainian wedding are the ritual songs ladkannya, sung by a chorus, oftenantiphonally between men and women. They comment on and describe the weddingrituals, for example decorating the wedding sapling (gil'tse), untying thebride's tress and covering the head of the bride with a cap. The singing usesboth unison and heterophonic textures, with the voices often in parallel 3rds. Asinger using a high falsetto (tonchik) sings above the chorus (ex.2). Theladkannya texts have lines of 5+3, 6+3 and 7+3 syllables. The melodies areformulaic, use ornamentation and a slight slowing of the tempo to delay themovement from note to note, particularly when in the Western major mode and whensounding the first degree. In the western parts of Ukraine ladkannya are recitedin unison on the tonic, or in 3rds (gymel).

Polyphonic and heterophonic song

During the second half of the 17thcentury Ukraine was divided into the dneprovskoye levoberezh'ye (left bank ofthe Dnieper), which was Orthodox, and the pravoberezh'ye (right bank), which wasGreco-Catholic. A widespread genre on the levoberezh'ye was the polyphonicsinging of ‘street’ long songs (protyazhnïy).

In these the second, supporting, part was sung with a belïy (‘white’) chestsound in a low to medium register. The pitch was set by the leader and was takenup by the chorus from which an upper voice (govryak) stood out. The melodiclines were similar to rospiv (chant) melodies on which the singers couldimprovise. Characteristic features included frequent changes of metre, andrepetition of the preceding musical line for the first line of a new stanza.This style was used for love songs, domestic songs, songs sung by ox-cartdrivers (chumaki) who carried salt from the mines, and in Cossack songs.

In north and north-western Ukraine (Poles'ye and Volïn') a form ofheterophony is found of falsetto singing with glissandi over a tonic drone, thetop line having an ambitus of a 4th or 5th. The style is found in ritual songs,for example vesnyanki (spring songs), troitskiye (songs for the Trinity),obzhyiskovi (reaping songs) and vesilnï (wedding songs). The ends of the stanzasare characterized by long pauses on the last accented syllable of the stanza,and a shortening of the last unaccented one.

Music of the Carpathians.

The three peoples who live in the Carpathianregion – Boykos, Hutsuls and Lemkos/Rusyns – possess distinct musics influenced bytheir pastoral and agrarian economy. The most common genres are solo songs,performed in a parlando rubato style; group songs are performed in unison.Melodies often consist of microtonal descending lines, with a glissando at theend of the stanza; they are similar to shepherds’ tunes played on the sopilka ordrymba.

Ghukannya are solo songs used to exchange messages between shepherds, in astyle similar to yodelling. These are found in the foothills of the Carpathiansand also in parts of Slovakia and Romania. Another widespread genre of thisregion is the recitative-like holosinnya (lament) for the dead. They were oncefound throughout Ukraine and are associated with the long, chanted epicchronicles (oprïshkov and gayduk) which recount the deeds of historicalliberators of Ukraine, and contemporary unusual events in the people'slives.

The music of Hutsulys is greatly influenced by the kolomïyka couplet (withlines of 4+4+6 syllables), particularly the slow protyazhnïy songs. Boykys andHutsulys also have rapid tunes of the kolomïyka-type, which provide the basisfor thousands of short texts of an epigrammatic character. They are performedsolo with instrumental accompaniment, including troïstï muzyki ensembles atweddings and during leisure-time activities. A characteristic mode of theHutsulys has a lowered third and sharpened fourth and seventh degrees, and isknown as the ‘Hutsuly mode’ Hutsuly vocal music may also be pentatonic.Ukrainian Lemkïs, who live in the extreme west of the country, have musics thathave characteristically swift tempos and are based on dance rhythms.

Epics & Dumy.

A genre of Ukrainian performed epic poetry, dumy aremainly found in central and eastern regions. They have recitative-like,declamatory melodies, not arranged in stanzas, often accompanied by the kobza,bandura or lira. Large-scale works, which can total more than 300 lines or moreof poetry, are linked to the epics of old Kiev, the byliny and Slovo o polkoIgoreve (‘The lay of Igor's campaign’).

Dumy are first mentioned in the annals of the Polish chronicler S. Sarnitski(1567), and were first written down in 1693 as Kozak Holota (Cossack Holota).Some 50 tales, in a large number of variants, have been documented, which werecomposed by soldiers in Cossack campaigns and later were cultivated byprofessional players who specialized in playing the kobza and lira. Many ofthese performers were blind and were formed into guilds.

To gain recognition as players of the kobza and lira, musicians had to spendthree to six years studying under a master of the guild. During this time theywould learn the epic repertory, study the dumy melodies, gain proficiency inplaying the instruments, learn Levian (the language of the guild) and theguild's etiquette, and pass an examination, known as vizvilka or otklinshchini.The schools and guilds, which were organized on a territorial basis andprotected the rights of the musicians, existed until the beginning of the 20thcentury. Outstanding performers of dumy include O. Veresay, A. Shut, M.Kravchenko, G. Goncharenko, I. Skubiy, M. Dubina, E. Movchan, G. Tkachenko andA. Hrebin.

The lines of dumy are not equisyllabic, extending over 6–16–18 syllablesgrouped together in irregular declamatory groups (ustupy). A performance beginswith a rhetorical exclamation, ‘oy’ or ‘hey’ sung to a descending musicalphrase, known as zaplachka (‘weeping’). This phrase contains the basic motifthat is varied by the kobza or lira throughout the performance. A characteristicfeature of traditional performance is the ornamented cadences performed at theend of each ustupy. Motifs in the texts often are embellished with rhymingfigures of speech (e.g. dumaye-hadaye, plache-rydaye) and phrases such asnevolya turets'kaya (‘Turkish captivity’) or slava kozats'ka (‘Cossack glory’),and conclude with a ‘glory’ section, slava ne umre, ne polyazhe, bude slavaslavnaya pomezh kozkami, pomezh druz'yami, pomezh rytsaryami (‘let not glorydie, let it not perish, let there be resplendent glory among Cossacks, amongfriends, among knights’).

Other traditions

In addition to the dumy, traditions of epicperformance in Ukraine included the Kievan byliny (after the collapse of theKievan state, 882–1054, the performers of byliny migrated north), ‘historical’songs, ballads and spivanki-khroniki (‘sung chronicles’). These ‘chronicles’took the form of performed short stanzas of epic poetry. They were performed inboth urban and rural contexts, assimilating many regional styles, in particularurban kant melodies.

The earliest records, both texts and music, of historical songs date from thelate 17th century (Hoy na hori zhentsi zhnut, ‘Hoy, the Reapers are Reaping onthe Hill’, and Oy bida, bida tiy chaytsi nebozi, ‘Oh Woe, Woe Poor Lapwing’).The text of the ballad Dunayu, Dunayu, chemu smuten techesh? (‘Danube, Danube,Why do you Flow so Sadly?’) was recorded in the grammar book of the Czechscholar Jan Blagoslav (1550–60). Large cycles of songs in rhymed syllabic verseabout national heroes, such as Morozenko, Nechay and Khmel'nitsky, havesurvived in manuscripts dating from the 19th and 20th centuries.

During the 17th and 18th centuries Cossacks, members of the lower middleclass and those in training for the priesthood were taught singing, alongsideother subjects, in ‘schools of the brotherhood’ set up in important urbancentres (for example those in Lvov, founded 1585, Kiev, 1615, and Lutsk, 1617).These schools introduced elements of written tradition and the major-minorsystem into epic performance. Historical songs and ballads have melodies inmarch rhythms that reflect underlying harmonic progressions and cadences inwhich a leading note resolves onto the tonic.

The growing importance of written traditions in the growth of the romanceduring the 18th and 19th centuries was a result of interaction betweentraditional and urban musics. Especially popular romances include Yikhav kozakza Dunay (‘The Cossack Went beyond the Danube’), text by S. Klimovsky, Chorniïbrovy, kariï ochi (‘Black Brows, Brown Eyes’), text by K. Dumitrashko, andStoit' hora visokaya (‘There Stands a High Mountain’), text by L.Glibov.