Ukrainian Folk Dumy: Problems of Historical Development and Modern Performance

The Ukrainian dumy are late-stage heroic epics dating back to the 15th–17th centuries, reflecting significant historical events and figures closely related to Ukraine’s history. Dumy exhibit a unique poetic and musical structure, characterized by uneven syllabic lines, monorhymes, the absence of stanzas, as well as a particular musical composition, ornamented cadences, and musical formulas, and the chromatized Dorian or narrow range diatonic scale. Dumy were performed predominantly by men in a recitative style and were accompanied by instruments such as the kobza and bandura. An important condition for maintaining the duma tradition was the kobzar tsekh (guilds), which were associations of musicians playing the kobza, bandura, and wheel lyre. These musical unions where melodies were passed down orally existed until the early 20th century. After the establishment of Soviet rule in Ukraine, kobzar tsekh were destroyed. The proposed study is devoted to analyzing the ways of reviving kobzar tsekh in Ukraine and, along with them, the duma tradition as an important component of the spiritual legacy of the Ukrainian people. To highlight the role of performers in this process is also the purpose of this article. In 2024, the practices of kobza, bandura, and lyre playing were recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.