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“Relya,” a musical instrument: string: friction: hurdy-gurdy. Ukranians

Title:

“Relya,” a musical instrument: string: friction: hurdy-gurdy

Ethnic groups:

Ukranians

Territory:

Russian Empire, Yekaterinoslav province, Novomoskovsky district, village Pereschepino

Date:

late 19th - early 20th century

Material:

Wood; leather; metal; paint

Dimensions:

length 50.0; width 30.0; height 9.0

Number:

РЭМ 13265-1

Annotation:

The core of a Belorussian, Ukrainian, and Moldovan orchestra was strings (violin, dulcimers, and sometimes double bass) and membranophones (tambourine and/or drum). A. M. Listopadov wrote about the traditional music of the Don Cossacks in the early 20th century, “The instrumental music on the Don cannot boast the number of instruments used among the Cossacks, and does not add anything new to those known to be used by the Great Russians. The most popular of them is the squeeze-box that has won firm recognition everywhere in Russia. The balalaika can often be heard, violin among young people, tambourine, some of the military band instruments such as clarinet, flute, and even brass, since a certain number of Cossacks in military service are buglers and musicians in regiment bands, from which they bring their instruments home to the Don. Thus, the only original representative of the folk instruments family is the Don hurdy-gurdy, “ryleh” or “gudok” in the local vernacular.” Generalizing the collected data, the author found noticeable differences of the Don hurdy-gurdy from the Ukrainian one, and suggested its kinship to the West European organistrum. On the basis of verbal evidence, the researcher reconstructed the history of the instrument’s spread in the Donets river area from about 1824, recovered the names of three generations of hurdy-gurdy players, and identified the repertoire (which was strictly laic). The collector acquired three of the eight identified gudoks for two museums, the Don Museum in Novocherkassk and the Dashkov Museum of Ethnography in Moscow (the latter are currently kept at the Russian Museum of Ethnography). Among the Belarusians and Ukrainians, the hurdy-gurdy was an instrument of old beggars, blind for the most part. Vasiliy A. Babenko tells, “Gurdy players and bandura players in Yekaterinoslav Province are seldom met, and then most often coming from other, neighboring provinces, like Poltava or Kharkov. Gurdy players can always be seen at the fairs. They mostly play songs of a moral and spiritual content, such as Lazarus, Alexis the Man of God etc. They receive free-will donations for playing from the audience.” The Belarusians’ and Ukrainians’ hurdy-gurdy was usually three-stringed, with one melody string and two bourdon ones (which do not alter the sound’s pitch). Just such hurdy-gurdies were captured in the photos taken by the collector. However, from the expedition he brought a hurdy-gurdy provided with only two melody strings, which has no analogs.