The Creative Style of the Wandering Singer Andriyan Danylyuk
Authors:   Lviv National Music Academy named after Mykola Lysenko, Rybak Yuriy 
Published: December 2024

One of the most outstanding wandering singer-instrumentalists in the Western

Ukrainian Polissya region was Andriyan Danylyuk (1929–2005), a native of the vil-
lage of Hirnyky in the Volyn region. Equipped first with a reel tape recorder and later

with a cassette recorder, he devoted significant effort to recording his repertoire, as
well as collecting materials from his colleagues. In this capacity, he proved to be like
a diligent and productive folklorist, whose primary professional goal was to compile

and maintain a working collection of materials. As a result, his efforts left an invalu-
able legacy of numerous audio recordings and a few handwritten notebooks.

Andriyan Danylyuk himself was a remarkable wandering performer, distin-
guished by his vocal skill and mastery of the harmonica. His personal collection com-
prises 46 cassettes and 32 reels of various durations, primarily featuring religious and

moralistic psalms, alongside occasional folk songs. Of these recordings, 212 pieces
were performed by Danylyuk himself, while 44 were performed by other singers,

including some prose genres. Particularly notable are his six meticulously filled note-
books, created with the assistance of his wife and children. These notebooks contain

predominantly devotional texts drawn from the Holy Scriptures, which he used as a

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basis for crafting his repertoire, along with already composed psalms and prayers. The
total number of works in these notebooks approaches 300.
Danylyuk’s repertoire can be categorized into several genre groups, with a with

an emphasis on religious and moralistic themes: (1) church psalms and songs – re-
flecting biblical and devotional themes, including narratives about Jesus Christ, the

Virgin Mary, saints, Christian virtues, and warnings about the Last Judgment and the
afterlife; (2) christian carols (koliady) and New Year songs (shchedry); (3) folk

ballads and songs – addressing themes such as family relationships, condemning im-
moral actions, and reflecting on war; (4) prayers.

At every level of his musical and poetic creativity, Danylyuk excelled. He ab-
sorbed the repertoire of his predecessors, the traditional hurdy-gurdy players, while

preserving many stylistic traits in his musical manner. His song plots are highly de-
veloped and align with classical dramaturgical structures, with texts often spanning

40–80 stanzas. His singing and harmonica accompaniment are imbued with original

qualities, marked by improvisation, rhythmic freedom, harmonic richness, and vir-
tuoso interplay between the instrumental and vocal parts.

Based on the information provided about Andriyan Danylyuk’s creative style,
one can appreciate the value and uniqueness of his artistic legacy. His performances

skillfully combined individual and regional traits, evident in the masterful composi-
tion and nuanced interpretation of both traditional and innovative songs. Unfortu-
nately, comparing him with other bearers of the same tradition is difficult, as evidence

of such parallels is scarce today. For this reason, the name and work of this Polissyan

harmonist deserve wider dissemination and recognition among scholars and enthusi-
asts of Ukrainian folklore.