Ukrainian Folk Songs

Ukrainian folk song creativity is a significant cultural heritage, a treasure of the Ukrainian people.

Ukrainian folk songs (singing) are a type of folk music that originated during the formation of Kyivan Rus. Evidence of this can be found in the frescoes of the Kyiv Sophia (11th century), depicting musicians playing various wind, percussion, and string instruments (similar to harps and lutes).

An interesting historical circumstance is that folklorists have calculated that over half a million Ukrainian folk songs have been recorded in total. However, only less than 10% of them have been published. The oldest recording of a Ukrainian folk song that has been fully preserved is the text “Dunayu, Dunayu, chemu smuten teches?” from the mid-16th century, known as the “Song about Voivode Stefan.” It was found in the 1571 manuscript grammar of Czech scholar Jan Blahoslav. (Source: uk.wikipedia.org)

In the heart of the Ukrainian people, the song has always lived – cheerful, playful, or melancholic. Through the song, they conveyed their mood, their love for their homeland. It expressed the highest feelings of the people.

Who has not been enchanted by the song, who does not ‘remember it as their life, transparent childhood, proud youth, their desire to be beautiful and tender, strong and brave?’
(O. Dovzhenko)