Kobza- and lyre playing tradition in Ukrainian Polissya

Kobza- and lyre playing belonged more to the town than to the village. The fact that singers focused their attention not only on peasants, but also on Cossacks as the ruling class of Ukrainian community, on lower middle classes, farmers, their needs, ideology, from the very beginning determined their world outlook, which was aimed not only at the patriarchal center, but also at wider world. It finally found its reflection in duma epos, the contents and style of which raise it above common songs and range it with the literature of those times. Epic tradition is more determined by creative individuality of the singer, skilled craftsman out of the run, than by his communal and clannish relation to a certain local center. Such an image appears before us from the history of kobza- and lyre playing in the persons of unordinary personalities: Andriy Shut , Ostap Veresay , Fedir Kholodny, Mykhaylo Kravchenko , Gnat Goncharenko , Anton Skorbota, Yegor Movchan , Yevgen Adamtsevych, Georgiy Tkachenko and others.
The oral way of folk epos existence, which is the main criterion distinguishing it from written literature, allows the performer to be not only an interpreter but also a participant of the act of creation, particularly in large-scale and expanded epic works, which requires great memory abilities, artistry, good ear for music and vocal talent, skill in playing musical instruments.
According to the hypothesis of historians and researchers of duma epos V.Antonovych, M.Dragomanov, P.Kulish, warriors blinded in fights with the Turks and the Tatars became kobza-players; they exchanged their weapons for folk instruments and composed their recitative narratives-dumas following the blazing scent of events. That version is in logical accord with the contents and character of the most ancient tragic-historical dumas leading to Prychornomorya, Pryazovya /areas near the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov/ - dumas about runaway of three brothers from the city of Azov, laments-appeals of captives about rescue from Turkish slavery, about the battle of Golota the Cossack with a Tatar on the Kyliyimske field, about heroic deeds of Samiylo Kishka, historical person of the latter being identified with the kosh ataman /a leader of a unit in Zaporizhska Sich/ Semen Skalozub, as well as other dumas about sea campaigns - about Oleksiy Popovych, about the gale on the Black Sea, about the Samara brothers etc.
Polissya, chiefly Chernigiv Polissya as well as Sumy Polissya are northern outskirts of localization of dumas and kobza- and lyre players' associations. Separated by a broad expanse from the area of their ancient spreading in the southern regions of Slobidska Ukraine, later it became the center of assimilation of kobza- and lyre-playing tradition, and as it is often the case with the periphery of a phenomenon, it catalyzed and restored that tradition. In the beginning of the XX century in Chernigiv Polissya there were over 30 kobza-players and lyre-players that sometimes knew how to play two instruments - both kobza and lyre. Among kobza-payers known at that time were P.Bratytsya, P.Zub, T.Parkhomenko, A.Beshko, I.Romanenko, M.Rygorenko, P.Dub, P.Gerasko, A.Goydenko, O.Rak, S.Kylyshko, in Sumy land - F.Zazirny, V.Garbuzov: lyre-players - A.Gomynyuk, Y.Okhrymenko, M.Dudka, Y.Mokroviz, A.Prykhodko and others3. The repertoire of the north-western center of kobza- and lyre-playing tradition had a much greater percentage of works with spiritual contents in comparison with the south-eastern one. It can be explained by the change of social condition in Ukraine in the XIX - at the beginning of the XX century and audience's demand for works performed by singers. Repertoire lists of the singers of the eastern Polissya center evidence that in addition to the ancient series of dumas about Turkish and Tatar attacks they profoundly knew new dumas - about the Khmelnychyna times4. It is not accidental that one of the most outstanding kobza-players of the past Andriy Shut from Sosnytsya of Chernigiv district in addition to well-known ancient dumas knew the fullest variants of presently known dumas about the Khmelnychyna times - "Bogdan Khmelnytsky and Barabash", "Bogdan Khmelnytsky and Vasyl Moldovsky", "Bogdan Khmelnytsky's death and election of the new getman", "Bila Tserkva piece and the new rebellion against the Poles". Activity of the Polissya's kobza-player A.Shut, who according to recognition of his contemporaries L.Zhemchuzhnykov, G.Bazilevych, P.Kulish was a person of no mean abilities and had an exceptional memory (he knew 12 dumas, Christmas services, humorous songs), is so typical for defining the notion "the bearer of Ukrainian epos", that it is worth giving here a description of his personality, which was recorded from own words of the kobza-player by P.Kulish in 1853. It was the first most full literary description of the figure of a blind Ukrainian bard and it also drew attention of scientists to the performer's personality. "It was a gray-haired aged man with a wedge-shaped small beard, dressed in a gray new svyta /outerwear/ and clean bast shoes, the bindings of which beautifully bound his legs wrapped into white onuchas /foot wrap (rag)/. His face was fresh, cheeks rosy, features regular, although slightly disfigured by smallpox, which made him loose his sight at the age of seventeen. He was noted for his vigorous looks, lively movements, which spoke of the person who is constantly working… Andriy Shut, just like people able to see, should pay state taxes and just like other people he considered it necessary to learn twisting ropes and making hemp harness. He got down to his craft so thoroughly and promptly that he always was not only righteous before the Cossack society (italicized by us - S.G.), to which he belonged, but also managed to spare some money and built himself a house… He married… He has a grown-up son, whom he educated at his own expense… From the poetical and philosophical point of view there is no one in the fraternity who can be compared to Andriy Shut. Sightlessness developed his inborn taste for songs and he, having a bright memory, learned everything he heard. His capacity for work and abilities made it easy for him to get himself a bandura and learn the art of playing it as the accompaniment to his singing. Very soon he became a favored musician and singer in the whole Sosnytsya district, and maybe even father, letting bandura out of his hands only during fasts… He spent the best hours of his life in the church, to which naturally sticks the soul of a person in his condition. Saying psalms and prayers, liturgucal chants, raised his soul above the hardships and miseries of life and directed him to eternity. Finally, he gave up bandura entirely, limiting his earnings to handicraft… He considered that the craft of the indigent is pleasing to God. In his opinion, poor man exists to remind people of God and benefactions. In that aged man," Kulish wrote, "I liked his credulity, freedom of behavior, which did not show any shadow of impudence… His manners and words showed no trace of the feeling, which is often to be met with people who consider themselves - God knows why - inferior creatures… Andriy Shut speaks depreciatingly of love, ritual songs etc., and reckons dumas only as oral narratives about events of the ancient times and keeps them deferentially in his memory. He readily dictated precious memorials of folk unwritten literature to me… about Ganzha Andyber, about Khmelnytsky and Barabash, about Khmelnytsky and Vasyl Moldavsky; about Bogdan's death and about Ivas Vdovychenko (Konovchenko). I put those six dumas in A.L.Metlynsky's book"5.
Unfortunately, we have no recordings of A.Shut's dumas accompanied by his music, which could confirm the evidence of his contemporaries that he was proficient in playing bandura and that his duma recitative was perfect. According to classical examples known to us from the most ancient dumas recorded by M.Zertelev, M.Maksymovych, P.Lukashevych, A.Metlynsky, P.Kulish, from recordings made by M.Lysenko, who was the first to give adequate fixations of dumas with music performed by the Poltava kobza-player O.Veresay and Nizhyn kobza-player P.Bratytsya, from works about dumas by F.Kolessa6, his dumas are majestic melodeclamation accompanied by kobza, bandura or lyre. It includes as many as two hundred and more verses and is performed like musical recitative. A typical feature of dumas is their non-equisyllable structure, mainly verbal rhyme, poetic representation abundantly ornamented in details with typically duma's stylistic means, namely phraseological epithets (голова козацька-молодецька, земля турецька-бусурменська, стрільці-булахівці, безвіддя-безхліб'я, піший-пішаниця, чужа-чужаниця), tautological structures (плаче-ридає, квилить-проквиляє, просить-благає та ін.), with poetic parallelisms that distinguish their epic style from among the rest of song folklore.
Similar in contents, poetics and form, numerous variations of one and the same duma in their language, way of narration and music bear the impress of local patoises, performing peculiarities of kobza- and lyre-playing schools. Here is a fragment from the duma "Nevolnyky" ("The captives"), recorded from A.Shut, which shows distinctive features of the Polissya dialect:
Як у недєлю рано-порано
Не голосниі дзвони задзвонілі,
Не сізопери орли защебеталі,
А не сивая зозуля заковала;
То бєдни невольники, сидя в неволи, заплакали.
Ей нєкому ж ім било поклонітіся.
Поклонімося хоч голубонькам сівенькім…
Полени ти у наші городи христіянські
До отців наших, до маток,
На подвір'єчку впади, жалібненько загуди,
Про нас, бєдних невольників, припом'яни 7.
/Early on Sunday it were not bells that rang, it were not gray-winged eagles that twittered and not a gray cuckoo that cried; it were poor captives, who start shedding tears sitting in captivity. They had no one whom to beg. Let's beg gray-winged doves… Fly to our Christian towns to our fathers and mothers, fall down to homestead, cry woefully and remember us, poor captives/.
Dumas are divided not into strophes as songs do but into tirades and greater ustups /fragments/. The size of both depends on logical caesuras in the duma's text and the individual melodeclamation manner of a kobza- or lyre player. Unlike the impartial narration, which is typical, for example, for north-Rus' bylynas /Rus' epic/, Estonian runes, performance of dumas is characterized by condition of emotional excitement.
A.Shut's apprentice was the kobza-player Andriy Beshko from the town of Meny of Sosnytsya district, from whom dumas were also recorded by P.Kulish, A.Metlynsky. A. Beshko's apprentice was the kobza-player Pavlo Bratytsya from the village of Tereshkivky of Nizhyn district, who is known to us owing to recordings of his dumas and psalms with melodies by M.Lysenko, particularly dumas about Khmelnytsky and Barabash. Another well-known personality from Chernigiv Polissya was the kobza-player Tereshko Parkhomenko (born in 1872 in the village of Voloshkivtsi of Sosnytsya district), he learned from the kobza-player A.Goydenko. From descriptions of M.Speransky, who dedicated to Parkhomenko special chapters of his book "The South-Rus' song and its contemporary bearers", as well as from other researchers - A.Malynka, G.Khotkevych, Tereshko, Parkhomenko was a talented bandura-player, a real craftsman. He knew eight dumas, historical songs about Morozenko, Sava Chaly, twenty eight spiritual verses and psalms, several satirical songs typical for kobza-playing repertoire - "Khoma and Yarema", "Dvoryanka" /Noblewoman/, "Mishchanka" /A woman from lower middle class/, "Teshcha" /Mother-in-law/, "Shchyglykove Vesillya" /Goldfinch's wedding/, dances "Kozachok" /Cossack/, "Duduchka" /Pipe/, "Tetyana". He had a high-pitched voice, expressly phrased his singing accompanied by bandura. According to existent description, his bandura had 6 metal covered basses on the finger-board and 14 strings of the sounding board. He played in a so-called Chernigiv manner, which can be described as the following technique: left hand is used exclusively to play bunts /basses/, the bandura is placed between the knees perpendicularly to the torso, right hand plays exclusively on strings of the sounding board, two fingers being mainly used - forefinger and middle finger. The singer also knew how to play the lyre. Parkhomenko, as he himself admitted, did not keep away from printed literature. For example, things performed by him "Nevolnytsky plach" /The captives' lament/, "Fedir Bezrodny" /Fedir of no family/, "Kozak Golota" /Golota the Cossack/, "Bogdan Khmennytsky's death", "Duma about the sister and the brother" were taken over by him from B.Grinchenko's edition "Dumas of kobza-players" (Chernigiv, 1887). He was acquainted with M.Lysenko, from whom he took over "Pochayiv psalm" recorded by the composer. Other work, for example, "To Mykolay", "Virgin Mary's dream", "Pochayiv miracle" he took from recordings made by P.Chubynsky and P.Bezsonov. The kobza-player interpreted the text freely. He permitted himself to make certain changes and mentioned that "everyone sings according to his temper"8. A well-known fragment of musical recitative by T.Parkhomenko, namely "Duma about Fedir of no family" is almost similar to the one that M.Lysenko recorded from the kobza-player Ostap Veresay9. The lyre-player Avram Grebin (1878 - 1961) from the village of Berzny of Chernigiv province , blind from the age of 16, learned from T.Parkhomenko. He was acquainted with kobza-players M.Kravchenko from Poltava land, P.Drevchenko, S.Goncharenko and S.Pasyuga from Kharkiv land, taking over from them dumas "Nevolnytsky plach" /The captives' lament/, "About the Azov brothers", "About Marusya Boguslavka", "About the Cossack - bandura-player" A.Grebin was reputed as a gifted and original performer of Cossack epos; his repertoire was recorded in the 50th of the XX century. We present an authentic example by Avram Grebin "Nevolnytsky plach" /The captives' lament/. It is one of the most ancient dumas about captured Cossacks, who being fettered to a Turkish galley, weary of hunger and hellish son, being lashed by whips of Turks-janissaries, ask God to rescue them from captivity that separated "brother from sister, husband from wife and father and mother from small children". Performance of dumas accompanied by lyre is quite specific, monotonous, mostly recitative, within a small melody range, as in this case, with prolonged phrase endings. Specific timbre coloring of duma sounding is created by the lyre. In contrast to minor vocal party it sounds in major key with continuous bourdon /continuously sounding 1-2 bass sounds/ and ponderous tunes that imitate the vocal party. It is interesting to compare it with the same duma accompanied by the bandura; we present its initial part performed by the kobza-player I.Rachok . He is a bandura-player, born in 1937, lives in the village of Lavirkove of Talayivsky district of Chernigiv oblast (he is a former railwayman); he is a gifted interpreter of duma epos. A well-known bandura-player Georgiy Tkachenko called A.Rachko a real kobza-player and a great Ukrainian patriot. Dumas performed by A.Rachko are an example of recitative in emotional excitement with a typical for dumas initial exclamation "hey-hey", the so-called high-pitched laments in the highest register and their expressive transitions to the lowest register in a typical for dumas Dorian scale against the background of expressive bandura sounding. Ornamentation peculiar to the poetic text of the duma is also typical for musical recitative. It is based on several melodic formulas, which are constantly varied by a kobza- or lyre-player. Thus duma's recitative is also a free improvisation interlaced with kobza, bandura or lyre instrumental tunes. Its expressiveness depends on the improvisation talent of a performer, his skill in articulating the text set to music, the text always having an utmost importance in an epic-narrative work. Irrespective of the plots of performed dumas, a singer recites them on the basis of one and the same melodic canvas, thus integrity is given to the repertoire of each singer. Such specific character of epos is not an exception also for dumas. In the course of their performance kobza- and lyre-players seldom permit themselves to change plots, means of poetic expression, which have a formula nature. Changes might occur with regard to making the text shorter or longer (depending on the needs of the audience), rearranging separate tirades or ustups in the course of improvised narrative. Musical recitative of an epic singer might in a certain way be affected by musical thinking of the school that he had learned, location where he lived or his own style of performance. In examples of heroic-didactic dumas about Ivas Konovchenko, about Gandzha Andyber, which were occasionally performed by lyre-players of Zhytomyr Polissya, the melody was different from expressive recitatives of dumas, which are customary for us (in Doric fret with chromatic scales), and approached monotonous recitatives of northern bylinas. Notation example.
From the Polissya area, from the town of Mena, there came to us the most full from presently known documents about establishment of kobza- and lyre-players' fraternities, about the ritual of admission of new members. Tereshko Parkhomenko, who is already known to us, described it in detail, as he himself was a member of a fraternity well-known in Chernigiv land, which was located in the former military town of Mena.
It is known that each kobza- or lyre-player before practicing the craft on his own was obliged to learn the craft from a craftsman, such study lasting three years. Usually blind boys aged 14-16 were taken for study. During the period of apprenticeship, according to the Fraternity Statute, they had to beg, giving the alms to the teacher - master, and also to take dumas, psalms, songs over from him, learn playing an instrument, master the Lebiyska language, the rules of conduct with fraternity brothers and people. Only on completion of the aforesaid, at the meeting of fraternity brothers, a group or craftsmen's guild the apprentice passed an examination and obtained a "vyzvilka" - blessing to work independently, also called "otklinshchyny" from "to make one's bow". The ritual was performed in the following way: the teacher together with his apprentice came to the meeting of elder craftsmen, and the following dialog took place in a house or outside:
The apprentice begins: "With the prayers of our holy fathers, Jesus Christ, our Lord…"
The teacher answers: "Amen!".
Apprentice: " I humbly thank you for the holy amen, for the word of the Gospel, for your teaching. I bow before you, my master, in a low bow with bread and salt and good health. God grant you health. We have the honor to congratulate you on the holy evening (or "morning", "day" - depending on the time, or "holiday" if the event takes place on holiday)".
The teacher takes bread given to him by the apprentice into his hands and says: "God grant it, just like this bread is honest and praised, for you to be honest and praised, for you to be honest and praised among the baptized people and among the fraternity brothers. May God bless you to the four winds".
Apprentice: "I humbly thank you for good word".
Then the apprentice comes to each of the three craftsmen and addresses each of them with the same words. It is called "to do honor". When "the honor is done", everyone sits at the table -elder people at first, younger ones take the rest of the places. The teacher says the prayer three times, after each prayer the people present say "Amen!".
After that the people present ask the teacher: "Was he (the apprentice) good to you, did he say "how do you do" to people, did he thanked for good deeds, didn't he learn any mean things?"
Teacher: "No, he was a good boy".
Everybody: "If he is nice, may God help him and people respect him".
The teacher serves up bread, fish, prepared by the apprentice in advance, and says three times: "With the prayers of the saints…", everybody answers: "Amen!".
Teacher: "Thank you for the holy amen, for the word of Gospel. Would you like to take a glass of gorilka /a Ukrainian name for vodka/?"
Everybody: "What was baked or cooked, will not stand…"
The teacher drinks, gives gorilka to the apprentice and everybody drinks too.
Apprentice: "With the prayers of the holy fathers…"
Everybody and the teacher: "Amen!"
Apprentice: "Thank you (addresses each craftsman present by name) for the holy amen, for the word of Gospel, for your teaching. In the name of honor and love, please take from my hands and drink a glass of vodka, as if it were from the hands of my master".
If the apprentice behaved himself well, everyone drinks; if he was known for some sins, they answer: "We don't want any vodka…", then they scold him a little, forgive him and drink.
Apprentice: "With the prayers of the holy fathers… Has everyone drunk, brothers, or maybe it has not been enough for someone? Are you pleased with bread and salt and the entertainment?"
Everyone: "We are pleased".
Apprentice: "Thank you".
Everyone: "Thank you".
After that the feast goes on, at the end of it everyone comes out from the table, stands in one row and prays to God; the prayer ends in singing, wishing long life to the fraternity, to all Orthodox Christians, commemorating the deceased teachers or teachers that left the craft.
Such was the ritual of admittance of a new member to the fraternity10.
In spite of certain slight local differences of the ritual, "apprenticeship" and "vyzvilka" in all the fraternities and guilds of "startsi" was very alike, as it is evidenced in particular by descriptions of I.Khodorovsky11, information from the lyre-player Zlatarsky from Ternopil land12 and data discovered by K.Kvitka in Zhytomyr land according to the special program "Professional folk singers and musicians in Ukraine" (1924). He got the following interesting details from Ivan Gumenyuk from Zhytomyr land (from the village of Beyzymivka): The apprentice never went to another teacher, the teacher never taught his apprentice all the songs that he knew himself, for the apprentice to know less songs than the teacher and learn them from others. The organization of lyre-players was called "fraternity", it was a secret organization and sighted persons were not admitted to it. The examination of the apprentice - "vyzvilka" - was conducted secretly, and the treating was organized at the expense of the teacher, not the apprentice. Strange lyre-players might wander through different territories but they were not entitled to take apprentices from the work area designated by a certain fraternity13.
Dumas and the art of kobza-playing, which reached its peak during the Cossack era, today also are of considerable interest for scientists as well as for connoisseurs of traditional musical and verbal culture. An attempt to preserve them - by way of audio recording of rare archive materials, or by way of written sources, is quite a natural phenomenon. The Cossack time, Cossack dumas, Cossack art are an organic part of national mentality. Irrespective of forms of their manifestation - spiritual or artistic ones, it is obvious that it is the evidence of imperishable belief in that historical reality, which will not recur, but nevertheless will be a matter of national pride for future generations. Although today there is no such social and cultural environment that fostered epic tradition, nevertheless the activities of individual enthusiasts convincingly prove the need to preserve Ukrainian epic tradition.

S.Grytsa,
Doctor of Science in Fine Arts

1. Lyre-player Avram Grebin.

2. Kobza-player Yegor Movchan.

3. Bandura-player Terentiy Parkhomenko.

4. Kobza-player Andriy Shut. From the drawing by P.Kulish and the engraving by L. Zhemchuzhnykov in "Picturesque Ukraine" 1861.

5. Kobza-playing tradition in Chernigiv land. Lyre-player A.Sholokh.

6. Kobza-players Mykhaylo Kravchenko, Tereshko Parkhomenko and Petro Drevchenko.

7. Kobza-player Ostap Veresay.

8. Bandura-player Georgiy Tkachenko.

9. Igor Rachok, folk bandura, village of Lavirkove, Chernigivshchyna.

Source:
http://www.ukrfolk.kiev.ua