Tag Archives | Ukraine

Here comes the Hutsulka

In class this week we enjoy a Hutsul dance — our version of the Hutsulka, a dance of one of Ukraine’s most distinct minorities.

The origin of the Hutsul people is not clear; there are Hutsuls, or people related to the Hutsuls, sprinkled among the Carpathian mountains and in parts of Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic. As we see in this video, the “Hutsulka” is a lively dance that embodies the vibrant spirit often ascribed to the Hutsul people. Dancers wear traditional red and white costumes and prance, bounce and spin exuberantly around the dance floor.

Vesnianka — We Will Greet the First of Spring

We first heard the Ukrainian song “Vesnianka” on a Smithsonian Folkways album by the Kobzari Ukrainian Folk Ensemble, a traditional Ukrainian choir composed of musicians in their teens and twenties that formed in Nebraska in 1972 to celebrate traditional Ukrainian music.

In this video watch Ukraine’s Kalyna State Ensemble dance to this springtime song. At about four minutes into the video, the melody of our version of the song, “Vesno Krasna” will float by. We are singing “Vesno Krasna” in class this season, but certainly not with as much verve as even your common workaday Nebraskan Ukrainian choir.

Keeping the Kobzars Alive

The primary musical figures of Ukraine have always been the “kobzars,” the itinerant musician who has traditionally played “bandura” (zither) and spread folk music and poetry.

Kobzars were such an important part of Ukraine’s national identity at the beginning of the Soviet period that Stalin invited the nation’s kobzars to a conference, arrested them and…worse. The Soviets replaced independent, multicultural Ukrainian music with sterile, state-sponsored orchestras and effectively prohibited musical expression.

After the Soviet Union collapsed a new crop of musicians rose to revive the folk traditions of Ukraine, though with the ascendance of modern music like rock, pop and hip hop, a legitimate kobzar is hard to find. Enjoy this short documentary tribute to “the last kobzar,” Ostap Kindrachuk.

Ukraine, Russia, and a Cheat

This week in our online class for kids we ventured to Ukraine, an inspiring Eastern European nation that has endured centuries of complicated territorial shifts — ruled at points by Lithuania, the Ottoman Empire, Poland, Austria-Hungry and, most prominently throughout the 20th century, Russia. Ukraine endured devastating famine and forced “Russification” under Joseph Stalin’s rule. After becoming independent from the USSR in 1991 Ukraine went back and forth between aligning more closely with Russia and then, after the “Orange Revolution,” with the West. The country continues its tempestuous relationship with Russia, in particular in a tense conflict over the Crimean peninsula.

As you’ll note in the map above, we cheated. Rather than committing to disputed Crimea matching the color of Ukraine or Russia, we cropped the map to avoid making a choice. Tricky! Elsewhere on the All Around This World site you’ll see our map of Eastern Europe with Crimea colored a mix of green and yellow.

Klezmer Still Lives in Ukraine

Konsonans Retro is a family brass band from Ukraine that performs klezmer music in the secular tradition of the once-thriving Odessa Jewish community.
Klezmer music is functionally the instrumental music of Eastern and Central Europe’s Ashkenazic Jews, but in essence, since the Nazis obliterated Eastern and Central Europe’s Jewish population in the Holocaust, it has become much more. Today, musicians who play klezmer are not only embracing one of the world’s most inspiring bittersweet musical styles, but with each performance they’re also rebuilding lost Jewish culture, striking a note by note blow against the Nazis who tried to wipe it from the face of the earth. Enjoy this video of Konsonans Retro keeping klezmer history alive.

Ruslana’s Wild Dance

We end our week in Ukraine with some really “wild dancing.” In 2004 Ruslana, a singer from the Hutsul ethno-cultural group, won the continent’s Eurovision Song Contest while representing Ukraine — a really big deal. Her song, “Wild Dances,” was inspired by the Hutsulka and other Hutsul dances, albeit with non-traditional costumes and quite non-traditional moves. That’s okay. We’re proud of Ukraine. If that means dancing wildly, we dance!

Vesno Krasna — Ukraine Loves the Spring

Winter can’t last forever! “Vesno Krasna,” our version of melody found in the song “Vesnianka,” which we met yesterday, is a Ukrainian song to celebrate the well-earned coming of spring. Here are the lyrics of the All Around This World version:

Pretty pretty vesno krasna, we will greet the first of spring
Flowers bloom and grass is growing, hearts so full we have to sing
Bum ba ba ba
Pretty pretty vesno krasna, we will greet the first of spring
We have braved a bitter winter, we can conquer anything
Bum ba ba ba

Ukrainian Roma Singing in the Street

What better reason to travel to Bilky, Ukraine, than to sing in the street with this Ukrainian Roma band?

Beyond a robust minority of Russians, who compose approximately 20% of the population, Ukraine boasts a diversity of people, cultures and music that may be surprising to those who equate the nation with its rapidly modernizing, increasingly European capital of Kiev. For example Ukraine is home to a variety of mountain-dwelling ethnic groups, such as the Boikians, Lemkians and Hutsuls (who we’ll meet later this week). There is also a small but active population of Romani, such as the Ukrainian Roma members of the band in this video.