Ukrainian Music

Under the musical direction of Yevhen Yefremov, an ethnomusicologist and singer whose field expeditions into Kyivan Polissia (“the Chornobyl Zone”) began in the 1970s and have continued to the present day, Ensemble Hilka presents the sketch of a ritual year as a song cycle that may have been performed in a typical Polissian village for centuries leading up to the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

This 1957 release from Monitor Records presents a variety of traditional Ukrainian folk music: joyous and boisterous dance music (“Hutsulka”), moody and contemplative Cossack ballads (“The Cossacks Are Whistling”), and songs reflecting traditional life. The musical ensembles, recorded in Ukraine, play a variety of Ukrainian folk instruments, including Ukraine’s national instrument, the bandura, a zither with 31–68 strings. Liner notes include brief descriptions of the songs and a set of lyrics in Ukrainian.

In Slavic folklore, Rusalki are the restless spirits of women who have died unjust, untimely or unnatural deaths. They inhabit the waters, forests, and fields, luring people to them with their mesmerizing songs and wild laughter. Performed by the eight powerful vocalists of Kitka, The Rusalka Cycle is a riveting dream-like journey that weaves traditional Eastern European folk song together with original music by Mariana Sadovska.

Modern-day Ukraine is the largest country entirely within Europe, bordering Russia to the east, Moldova and Romania to the southwest, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west, Belarus to the north, and the Black Sea to the south. Its varied terrain and interaction with neighbors have defined the specific regional characteristics of Ukraine’s folklore.
Traditional Ukrainian music fits into one of two broad categories: ritual and non-ritual. Ritual folk songs are generally older and include incantations, lamentations, calendar songs, and wedding songs. Non-ritual songs include dumy, or historical and political songs, and lyric songs of love, family life, and lullabies. This collection of 34 folk songs was recorded prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union and the subsequent independence of Ukraine in 1991.