Ukrainian Menestrels – Inclusive Literature Art-Book

Epic, traditional singers – the phenomenon is not only Ukrainian culture. Similar traditions existed in most countries of the world. These are akines, bards, meistersingers, minstrels and many, many others. The minstrels and bards are often mentioned in literature and poetry. Therefore, on the analogy, this book has such a name.

To the phenomenon of Ukrainian kobzar tradition, it is customary to enlist not only the actual blind bastards of traditional kobzars but also lyrics and sometimes sighted traditional performers on the kobza and Bandura.
Kobza and Bandura – similar instruments, and the names in antiquity were often parallel or interchangeable. To date, we call the lobster instrument with 12 strings (6 on the stamp and 6 sides) or even less. At the Kobza, they play with their fingers, pressing the strings to the neck, like on the violin.

• Bandura has 19-22 strings (4-5 on the stamp and 15-18 on the side).
• Play on it without fingers without squeezing, on open strings.
• In Soviet times, in factories began to produce another instrument, with the main design as a piano without keys, but the name also gave the “bandura”, so now there is a confusion.
• Such multi-tone factory tools for differentiation are called “concert”, “chromatic”, “soviet”, “Chernigov”, “Lviv bandura” or simply “basset”.

Today, the bandura again played by blind and sighted performers, reviving old traditions of kobzars, singing ancient songs, dramas.

We hope that this book will help you to get acquainted with the interesting world of Ukrainian Menestrels – kobzars.