The Song-Requiem “A Duckling Swims in the Tisza”: On the Issue of the Genesis and the Peculiarities of Modern Existence of the Folklore Work
Authors: Chebaniuk Olena 
Published: December 2024

The song “A Duckling Swims in the Tisza” has a special place in the modern song repertoire of Ukrainians. It is performed nowadays during the memorial service for the heroes who died in the Russian–Ukrainian war. The tradition has arisen recently. The song has accompanied the farewell to those who died during the Revolution of Dignity in January and February 2014. Everyone in Ukraine knows the song. Folklorists, linguists, journalists have devoted numerous investigations to the study of its genesis, language features, specificity of imagery, originality of living and performance. The song “A Duckling Swims in the Tisza” has been considered as Lemky folk song, a ballad, a song of literary origin, a song of the First World War, and of the Ukrainian partisans of the period of the Second World War. Analysis of the printed sources shows that the first recording of the song as a folklore work has been made by the composer Dezső Zádor in the village of Volovets in Mukachevo district of Trancarpathia in 1938, published in a collection in 1944. The text of the song is a monologue of a son who leaves his mother and goes to a foreign land. Dezső Zádor has considered it a folk work, included it to Ukrainian social songs. In 1961, musicologist Volodymyr Hoshovskyi has recorded the text and melody of the song “A Duckling Swims in the Tisza” in the village of Berezovo in Khust district of Transcarpathia region, and attributed it to «traveling». Vira Bahanych, a soloist of the Zakarpattian People’s Choir, performed it a cappella for the first time from the stage in the early 1960s. The recording of the song on a record has appeared in 1972, and since then the song in original arrangements has entered the repertoire of many pop bands. The song is performed polyphonically by the group “Pikkardian Tertsiia”. It has become the version that is a requiem for those who died for Ukraine. Folklorist Vasyl Sokil has put forward the hypothesis that the text of the song belongs to Zakarpattian writer Vasyl Grendzha-Donskyi. It has been performed by Ukrainian Insurgent Army soldiers during the Second World War and during the liberation struggles. Well-known linguist Vasyl Nimchuk disagrees with this version. He has conducted a thorough analysis of the vocabulary and song text variants, compared it with Zakarpattian songs of other genres. The scientist has concluded that “A Duckling Swims in the Tisza” is a folk song, the text of Vasyl Grendzha-Donskyi is its literary adaptation. Fixed formulas, loci communes, clichés, images are used in the folk text “A Duckling Swims in the Tisza”. They are present in many genres of Zakarpattian and Ukrainian folklore in general. The motifs of water, which connects the world of people and the world beyond, the parallelism of a water fowl and the hero of the work have Indo-European roots. The theory of the formulaic nature of folklore epic texts, developed by A. Lord and M. Perry, is supplemented by the works of the Ukrainian folklorist F. Kolessa. A comparative analysis of various folklore works with motifs, clichés, loci communes used in folklore variants of the “A Duckling Swims in the Tisza” is a confirmation of the Lord-Perry-Kolessa theory. The popularity of the song among Ukrainian musicians is facilitated by its recording performed by Vira Baganych on a record (1972). Since that time, the song “A Duckling Swims in the Tisza” has been performed by many Ukrainian musicians. The group “Pikkardian Tertsiia” has submitted a polyphonic treatment of a folk text. This version has been spread in 2014 and started to be performed as a funeral song. The history of recording, performance and research of the song “A Duckling Swims in the Tisza”, the analysis of folklore and author’s texts, variants and versions by various scientists and specialists with different approaches to analysis, methods and methodologies of research make it possible to compile a complete picture of the emergence and functioning of the latest folklore and folklorized works. The history of the song “A Duckling Swims in the Tisza” makes it possible to trace the mechanisms that influence the creation of new versions and new versions of songs under new circumstances today.