The music of Ukraine covers diverse and multiple component elements of Western and Eastern European music. It has indigenous Slavic and Christian elements.[1]
The Ukrainian lands were the musical heartland of the former Russian Empire. The empire's first professional music school, established in Ukraine during the mid-18th century, produced its early musicians and composers.[2]
Ukraine's geographical position at the crossroads of Asia and Europe is reflected by the region's folk music, which is a mixture of exotic melismatic singing (the songs include single syllables of text while moving between different successive notes) and harmony which does not always easily fit the harmonic rules of traditional Western European music. The most striking general characteristic of authentic Ukrainian folk music is the common use of minor keys containing augmented seconds, an indication that the tonality system developed in Western European music did not become as entrenched in Ukraine.
Ukrainian folk music rarely uses unusual time signatures, but compound metres are encountered. The music can be harmonically complex.Three- and four-part harmony spread from the central steppe regions of Ukraine, but had become less popular in the mountain regions by the late 19th century.
Ritual songs show the greatest tendency to preservation. They are frequently in recitative style, essentially monodic, based on notes in the range of a third or a fourth. An example of this style is the theme for the Shchedrivka "Shchedryk" known in the West as "Carol of the Bells".
A large group of Ukrainian ritual melodies fall within a perfect fourth with the main central tone as the lowest note. Many of the ritual Easter melodies known as Haivky fall into this category. The tetrachordal system is also found in wedding and harvest songs. Folk dances often have melodies based on two tetrachords fused together. The pentatonic scale in anhemitonic form is common in Vesnianka songs. The bulk of Ukrainian folk songs melodies are based on scales identical to medieval modes, but differ in melodic structure. The Mixolydian and Dorian modes are used more often than Ionian and Aeolian modes. This is a feature of traditional paraliturgical Koliadky. The augmented 2nd interval is found, as well as the raising of the fourth and seventh degree of the scale. It is often used for melodic expression. This melodic manner gives an effect that is described as adding severe tension or sadness in some Ukrainian songs. The phenomenon is not found in Russian folk songs and is thought to have been introduced or developed in the 17th century.
Vocal folk music
There are a number of different variations of Ukrainian folk singing styles:
Unaccompanied solo songs were mainly of a ritual type. They included holosinnya[uk] that would be sung at a Ukrainian wake. Solo singing with an instrumental accompaniment was performed by a kobzar or a lirnyky, who were professional itinerant musicians. The most highly developed form of this style of singing are dumy folk epics sung to the accompaniment of the bandura, kobza or lirnyk.Their origins stretch back to antiquity, but their repertoire and customs directly date to the 17th century and describe the conflicts between the Cossacks and their foreign oppressors. In many cases the musicians were blind. They organized themselves into regional professional guild-like structures, known as a Kobzars'kyj Tsekh. The Soviets killed almost all of the traditional kobzari during the purges of the 1930s, and their instruments were prohibited.
Under the inspiration of noted traditional bandurist Heorhiy Tkachenko a Kobzar Guild was re-established in 1991 in Kyiv by Mykola Budnyk in order to revive and foster the ancient kobzar traditions. The Guild unites many singer-musicians in Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora. Many of its members are not formally Conservatory trained.
Another style of singing involved a type of modala cappella, in which a musical phrase is sung by a soloist before being answered by the chorus in a harmonic phrase. It is medieval in character, with a distinctly Ukrainian characteristics such as parallel fifths, octaves, and types of plagal cadences. This type of music lost its dominance after 1650 to newer tonal types, but can still be heard in isolated villages. It is evident in Koliadka and Shchedrivki[uk].
Other vocal styles are more influenced by Western European music, the music of Dimitry of Rostov and his circle in the early 18th century, and urban music.
Traditional instruments
Soviet postage stamp depicting traditional Ukrainian musical instruments
Traditional Ukrainian folklore instruments include: the kobza, bandura, torban, violin, basolia, lyre, cimbalom, sopilka, floyara, trembita , fife, volynka, buben, resheto, and the drymba. Traditional instrumental ensembles are often known as troïstï muzyki (literally ‘three musicians’ that typically make up the ensemble, e.g. violin, sopilka and buben). When performing dance melodies instrumental performance usually includes improvisation.
With the establishment of the Soviet regime in Ukraine in the 1920s, a policy based on state atheism was instituted. This gradually developed into an intolerance towards organized religion, and religious music was purged by the regime. Much classical music was also denounced as being bourgeois and decadent.
During the 1920s, "proletarian songs"—music of the working people—emerged. When it was realised that this music did not cater for the rural population, their songs were included as being of working class origin, and "fakeloric" ensembles were created. After World War II, resources continued to be given to support this style of music, in order to counter the arrival of mass culture from the West.
Numerous folk choirs were established such as the Veriovka folk choir (directed by Hryhoriy Veryovka). A stylized dance troupe was established by Pavlo Virsky based on a synthesis of ethnographic dance and ballet. Particularly popular were the numerous Bandurist Capellas. These particular pseudo-folk forms blended ethnographic materials in an art setting have become popular in the Ukrainian diaspora in North America, where pseudo-folk or "reconstructive" bandurists such as Zinoviy Shtokalko, Hryhoriy Kytasty, Julian Kytasty, and Victor Mishalow have played a role in defining Ukrainian ethnicity in the New World, while fusing traditional musical material with new possibilities offered by contemporary instruments.
Many of the early performers of Russian folk instruments came from Ukraine, and they sometimes included Ukrainian melodies in their repertoire. The four-string Russian domra is played and taught in Ukraine, even though it has been replaced by the three-string version in Russia.
Polyphony Project
The Polyphony Project, which is funded in part by the Creative Europe program of the European Union, and which aims to "explore, preserve and present the living musical folklore of Ukrainian villages", has an online archive of Ukrainian folk music.[3]
During the Ukrainian Baroque period, music was an important discipline for those receiving a higher education. It had an important place in the curriculum of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Many of the nobility were skillful musicians, with Cossack leaders—including Ivan Mazepa, Semyon Paliy, and Ivan Sirko—being accomplished players of the kobza, bandura, or torban.
During the 18th century, imperial court musicians were typically trained at the music academy in Hlukhiv, and largely originated from Ukraine. Notable performers included Timofiy Bilohradsky, who studied the lute under Sylvius Leopold Weiss in Dresden, his niece the soprano Yelizaveta Belogradskaya, and the court bandurist Alexey Razumovsky. The first professional music academy in the Russian Empire was established in Ukraine in Hlukhiv in 1738, where students were taught to sing, and to play violin and the bandura. Many of Russia's earliest composers and performers were ethnically Ukrainian, having been born or educated in Hlukhiv.
During the 19th century, musical nationalism arose in Europe, characterized by an emphasis on national musical elements, and associated with the growth of national consciousness of European peoples. A Ukrainian nationalist movement in music appeared during the late 19th century, in which Ukrainian writers, poets, and professional musicians used folklore to arrange traditional folk songs. The opening of the first professional theatres in Kyiv (1803) and Odesa (1810), which staged works on national themes, played an important role in the formation of Ukrainian opera. the first of which was Zaporozhets za Dunayem by Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (1863).
In the period of the Ukrainian War of Independence, numerous Ukrainian artistic groups were created. The short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic took a consistent position in the field of cultural development, including music. In particular, by a decree of Pavlo Skoropadsky in 1918, the State Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the Ukrainian State Chapel, and the First and Second National Choirs were established. The Kyiv opera was named the Ukrainian Drama and Opera Theatre, and a number of world-famous operas were translated into Ukrainian. In 1918, the Kobzar Choir was founded, which would later be revived as the State Bandura Chapel.
The arrival of Soviet authorities in Ukraine was marked by a number of tragic events. In 1921, Mykola Leontovych was murdered by a Cheka agent; the society established in his memory soon afterwards was banned in 1928.
The 1960s and beyond have been marked by the breakthrough of the Ukrainian school of composition on the world stage, and the mastery by Ukrainian composers of the latest trends in European musical culture. An informal group of composers formed the Kyiv avant-garde. They included Valentyn Silvestrov, Leonid Grabovsky, Vitaliy Hodziatsky, and Volodymyr Huba, and were led by the conductor Ihor Blazhkov.The group was subjected to oppression by the authorities.
Ukrainian pop music revived in 1990s after Ukraine became independent. The Chervona Ruta Festival played an important role in popularisation and evolution of the Ukrainian pop music. In 2004, Ruslana won the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, Ukraine's first victory in the contest.
Weber – Nine Variations on Schöne Minka, op. 40 (1815)[15]
Decline of the Russian language in Ukrainian music
Until the Russo-Ukrainian War broke out in 2014, the Russian language was widely used by Ukrainian artists in order to also reach audiences outside Ukraine who could understand Russian.[16] Russian-language songs gradually lost popularity in Ukraine after 2014, while Ukrainian-language music experienced a surge; this trend accelerated when the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.[16] Muzvar music journalist Julian Novak stated in July 2022: 'Many popular artists have decided to switch to the Ukrainian language, and change their existing Russian-language repertoire to Ukrainian.'[16] The war became an increasingly prominent theme in songs, with lyrics about consolation in trying times of losing loved ones and having to flee one's home and country, but also the courage to go on.[16] New musical tracks from Ukraine also incorporated ever more elements of Ukrainian folklore, such as the remake of a traditional lullaby by Eurovision Song Contest 2022 winner "Stefania", and the use of the traditional flute.[16]
Kochan, Alexis; Kytasty, Julian (1999). "The Bandura Played On". In Broughton, Simon; Ellingham, Mark (eds.). World Music. Vol.1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East. London: Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN978-1-85828-636-5.
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