Ukrainian folk music includes a number of varieties of ethnic (traditional), folkloric, folk inspired popular and folk inspired classical traditions.
In the 20th century numerous ethnographic and folkloric ensembles were established in Ukraine and gained popularity.
During the Soviet era, music was tightly controlled commodity and was used as a tool for the ideological shaping of the population. As a result the repertoire of Ukrainian folk music performers and ensembles was tightly controlled and restricted.
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Ukrainians, particularly in the Eastern Ukraine have fostered a peculiar style of singing which they call "bilyj holos" (literally - "white voice"). This type of singing primarily exploits the chest register and is akin to controlled screaming. The vocal range is restrictive and in a lower tessitura. In recent times vocal courses have been established to study this particular form of singing. Among the most popular exponents of traditional Ukrainian folk singing in the modern era are Nina Matvienko and Raissa Kyrychenko.
Ensemble singing in 3 and occasionally 4 part harmony was one of the features of traditional village music in Ukraine. The multi-part singing used in Central Ukraine was thought to have been unique at the turn of the 19th century. Numerous folk choirs were established Okhmatinsky choir and studies published of the style of choral singing.
It was supported in the Soviet period in opposition to church music, as village song was viewed by the authorities as being more proletarian.
In recent times (post 1980s) there is a movement toward authentic ensemble singing particularly in eastern Ukraine with the establishment of various ensembles and festivals there focusing on this style of music. Notable groups who perform in this tradition are Zoloti kliuchi, Drevo and Muravsky shliakh.
The first such ensemble in Ukraine was the Okhmatynsky village folk choir organized by Dr Mykola Demutsky in 1889. Ethnographic ensembles became popular in the 20th century. These were often choirs often with orchestral accompaniment and sometimes a group of dancers. They originally performed works based on the ethnic folk music of the area, however over the past 40 years have become more academic regarding their performance style and material.
The most prominent professional groups are:
Regional groups include:
Characteristics of these choirs was the use of chest register singing (particularly in Eastern Ukraine) and the use of Ukrainian folk instruments in the accompanying orchestras.
In the 20th century, popular operatic singers like Modest Mencinsky and Solomea Krushelnycki included Ukrainian folk songs in their concert performances. Other prominent Ukrainian singers include Ivan Kozlovsky, Borys Hmyria, Anatoliy Solovianenko have also propagated the singing of Ukrainian folk songs and romances. In the United States Kvitka Cisyk also promoted art song.
Choral singing has a rich tradition in Ukraine. While the Catholic West developing sophisticated vocal instrumental works, the Orthodox church frowned on the use musical instruments in sacred music and a cappella choral music was the only genre that was actively supported. As a result sacred choral music flowered in Ukraine and it became a prime provider of singers for the Russian courts and Russian orthodox cathedral choirs.
In the 20th century notable Ukrainian a cappella choirs have included the Ukrainian National Choir choir, Dumka (choir), Kiev frescoes and Boyan which is the touring choir of the L. Revutsky Capella of Ukraine.
Notable choral conductors include Olexander Koshetz, Wolodymyr Kolesnyk, Nestor Horodovenko, Dmytro Kotko.
In Ukraine there existed a class of professional musician who sang to their own accompaniment. These professional musicians were often known as kobzari or lirnyky. This category also includes players of the torban and bandura. The repertoire of these itinerant musicians differed considerably from that sung by the folk including the performance of dumy (sung epic poems).
In the 20th century the vocal-instrumental tradition has grown into a movement where ensembles and whole choirs sing to their own accompaniment on these instruments. Notable examples include the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus, The Canadian Bandurist Capella and the Kiev Bandurist Capella.
Ukrainians have a wealth of folk instruments and a well-developed tradition of instrumental music. This is particularly because the Soviet government strongly discouraged the population away for Religious music and encouraged "Proletarian" forms of musical performance.
The bulk of the ethnic Ukrainian population lived in village setting and did not share the urban culture of the city based elite that controlled the country. As a result traditional music village music encouraged and fostered.
The first significant scholarship dealing with authentic Ukrainian folk instrumental music traditions is ascribed to the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko and his publications starting in 1874 dealing with the bandura and other Ukrainian folk instruments.
Further scholarship was undertaken in the early 20th century by enthno-musicologist Filaret Kolessa and Klyment Kvitka. Publications in the new science of organology were undertaken by Hnat Khotkevych with his 1930 monograph "Musical instruments of the Ukrainian people" was banned by the Soviet authorities in 1934 because of it studied the phenomena of folk instruments from a national perspective.
After WWII scholarship was continued by Andriy Humeniuk who began the trend of mixing Soviet innovations in instrument construction and training with authentic instrumental music. This tendency was avoided by Sofia Hrytsa but became a feature of the publications of Victor Hutsal, Victor Mishalow and the bulk of Soviet and post-Soviet scholarship.
In recent times this trend has taken an about-face with the publications by the ethomusicologist Mykhailo Khai of the early 21st century has clearly separated Ukrainian instrumental music into authentic and fakeloric instrumental music traditions.
Significant contributions to the study of Ukrainian organology and performance have been done by both Russian and Polish ethno-musicologists as Alexander Famintsyn and Stanislaw Mzrekowski.
Ukrainian folk music has made a significant influence in the music of neighbouring peoples. Many Ukrainian melodies have become popular in Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Russia, Romania and Moldova. Through the interaction with the Eastern European Jewish community, Ukrainian folk songs such as "Oi ne khody Hrytsiu" composed by songstress Marusia Churai have been introduced into North American culture as "Yes my darling daughter" (sung by Dinah Shaw).
The traditional music of the kobzari inspired the dumky composed by various Slavic composers such as Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Dvořák.
The use of folk melodies is especially encouraged in ballet and opera. Among the Ukrainian composers who often included Ukrainian folk themes in their music were Mykola Lysenko, Lev Revutsky, Mykola Dremliuha, Yevhen Stankovych, Myroslav Skoryk.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s Ukrainian folk songs and folk song elements began to be included in pop and rock music in the rock-oriented Kobza ensemble, Smerichka, Opryshky Medikus and many of the other ensembles. This was driven by the lack of Ukrainian pop songs of the time. In time the genre of folk inspired pop music became significant, particularly inspired by the popularity of the Byelarusian group known as Piesnari.
Of the Ukrainian groups the longest surviving and most significant was the group known as Kobza.
Where Have All the Flowers Gone? is a folk song of the 1960s written by Pete Seeger and Joe Hickerson. Seeger found inspiration for the song while on his way to a concert. Leafing through his notebook he saw the passage, "Where are the flowers, the girls have plucked them. Where are the girls, they've all taken husbands. Where are the men, they're all in the army." These lines were from a Ukrainian and Cossack folk song referenced in a novel by Mikhail Sholokhov, And Quiet Flows the Don. Seeger adapted it to a tune, a lumberjack version of "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill". With only three verses, he recorded it once in a medley on a Rainbow Quest album and forgot about it. Joe Hickerson later added verses four and five.
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