Duma (epic)

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A Duma (Ukrainian: Дума) (dumy - plural) is a sung epic poem which originated in Ukraine during the Hetmanate Era around the sixteenth century, possibly based on earlier Kievan epic forms. Historically, dumy were performed by itinerant Cossack bards called kobzari, who accompanied themselves with a kobza or a torban, but after the abolition of Hetmanate by the Empress Katherine of Russia it became the domain of blind itinerant musicians who retained the kobzar apellation and accompanied their singing by playing a bandura (rarely a kobza) or a relya/lira (a Ukrainian variety of hurdy-gurdy). Dumas are sung in recitative, in the so-called "duma mode", a variety of Dorian mode with raised fourth degree.

Dumy were songs concerned with historical events, many dealing with the military in some fashion (Clegg, p. 247). Embedded in these historical events were religious content. There is content about the struggle of the Cossacks against enemies of a different faith or the event occurring on religious holidays. The story of the dumy mainly revolves around war, but the dumy itself does not promote courage in battle^[1]. The dumy imparts a moral message that one should perform the proper behavior toward the relationships with the family, the community, and the church^[2]. However, the kobzari did not play only religious songs and dumy. They also played “satirical songs; dance melodies; either with or without words; lyric songs; and historical songs”^[3].

The relationship between the military and religion with dumy originated because of the Cossack rebellion of 1648. The Ukraine fell under the power of the Roman Catholic Church, and forced the disbandment of the Eastern Orthodox Church. This revolution was followed by “partition and eventual subjugation of the Ukrainian lands and the Ukrainian church^[4]. The Cossacks rebelled due to the religious oppression and the lands were eventually taken. This causes a great dilemma in church because the Cossacks were defenders of the faith, and since they lost, and the faith is infallible, the Cossacks themselves must have done something sinful^[5]. This is why dumy has a great religious undertone and is a song that tells of death and defeat, not of victory.^[6].

Contents 1 Textual characteristic 2 Linguistic characteristics 3 Musical charateristics 3.1 Melodic characteristics 3.2 Accompanment 4 See also 5 Works Cited 6 References

[edit] Textual characteristic

Dumy, as an epic, in comparison to other epic forms do not contain elements of fantasy.

[edit] Linguistic characteristics

The dominant element of dumy is language. Rhythm is rhetorical, often falling on a verb placed at the end. The use of parallelisms is widespread, epitets are standard, the use of specific numbers is also widespread. The use of archaic forms of language are also popular as is the use of retardation.

[edit] Musical charateristics

[edit] Melodic characteristics

The melodies of dumy consist of

• repetitive recitative-like passages on one note, changing to a different tone with lingual accent, usually stepwise and occasionally by a 4th
• melodic recitative-like with a falling scallic passages
• melodic closed and semi-closed cadences with characteristic melizma
• a zaplachka based on the word "hey" often very ornate with many melizmatic features paralleling the stylistic features of the melody.
• a slavnoslovia (verbal glorification) at the end of the piece. A summation of the work which in some regions is spoken rather than sung.

Almost all traditional dumy from the Poltava and Slobozhan traditions use a dorian mode with occasionally raised 4th degrees and subseptatonium. The raised 4th often is used as a secondary leading note to the dominant. The appearance of the augmented 2nd between the 3rd and 4th degrees gives the duma an eastern sounding flavour and is used by the performer to add "zhal'" (pity) to the work.

[edit] Accompanment

Dumy are traditionally sung to an instrumental accompaniment, usually that of a bandura, kobza or lira.

In the Slobozhan tradition the bandura would play most of the notes of the melody with the voice apart from chromatic accidentals and melizma with occasional chords on I, IV and V degrees of the Dorian mode. The instrument would also be used for instrumental preludes, interludes and postludes.

In the Poltava tradition the instrumental accompaniment is much sparser with the player not playing the melody but rather occasional chords based on the tonic and dominant of the Dorian.

In lira accompaniment from Poltava, no melodies are played with the voice during the performance of the duma. Melodic instrumental playing is confined to preludes, interludes and postludes.

No transcriptions or recordings of authentic duma performance by members of the Chernihiv tradition have come down to us.

Discussion regarding other traditions of duma recitations have shown a significant amount of contamination in the 20th century from non-traditional sources which has rendered many of there recordings untypical and unauthentic according to the traditional style in which the kobzari performed dumy.

[edit] See also

• Duma at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine.
• [1]- A "History of Music in Ukraine during the Hetmanate Era" with many audio files.

[edit] Works Cited

• Clegg, D. “Philaret Kolessa’s Classification of the Ukrainian Recitative Songs” Studia

Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 7 (1965): 247-251.

• Kononenko, Natalie O. “The Influence of the Orthodox Church on Ukrainian Dumy.”

Slavic Review 50 (1991): 566-575.

[edit] References