Ethnomusicology of Ukraine at The Turn of XX–XXI Centuries (1991–2021):Centers, Pedagogy, Documentation
Authors: Dovhalyuk Iryna , Dobryanska Lina 
Published: December 2021

The restoration of Ukraine’s independence in 1991 created favorable conditions for the powerful development of domestic ethnomusicology. Ukrainian musical folklore research has a long tradition, but for a hundred years the research has been conducted in difficult historical and political realities. This did not contribute to the proper development of folk music research, especially in the Soviet period. The period 1991–2021 is quite interesting, although difficult and ambiguous. The revival of Ukrainian ethnomusicology began in the early 1990s. Unfortunately, not all initiatives have been continued. Many initiatives had to be stopped due to financial difficulties, political circumstances, lack of sufficient specialists and so on.

This article was inspired by the need to summarize everything that has been done in Ukrainian musical folklore over the past 30 years, to consider the achievements of Ukrainian ethnomusicology in 1991–2021. Previously, there was no general research on this topic, because various Ukrainian scientists have written about certain aspects of ethnomusicological work and about different time periods in the history of musical folkloristics of the period of independence. The research will be published in two parts: in this issue of the yearbook the main Ukrainian ethnomusicological centers will be presented, the state of domestic ethno-pedagogy will be discussed, documentation (field and archival) of folk music will be considered. The next issue will analyze the scientific, publishing, conference, promotional activities of Ukrainian researchers of folk music.

Kyiv and Lviv have been the main Ukrainian centers for the study of folk music since the early twentieth century. The same is true today: the basic Ukrainian ethnomusical centers are the Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology (IAFE) of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music of Ukraine and the Lysenko Lviv National Academy of Music. Research Scientific Laboratory of Music Ethnology and Departments of musical folklore were opened in both Academies in the early 1990s. Well-known scientists, doctors of science and PhD, and their junior colleagues work in these centers. Publishing activity is developing: encyclopedias, monographs, folklore collections, collections of articles, periodicals are published. Kyiv and Lviv higher music institutions publish the only in Ukraine purely ethnomusicological yearbooks of scientific articles and materials – «Problems of music ethnology» and «Ethnomusic». Regional ethnomusicological centers operate in many cities of Ukraine – Kharkiv, Odessa, Dnipro, Sumy, Rivne, Uzhgorod, etc.

During the period of Independence, ethnomusicological education was actively developing. The two main areas are the education of ethnomusicologists-theorists and ethnomusicologists-practitioners, leaders of folklore ensembles. The first ones are prepared mainly by Kyiv and Lviv Music academies, where various specialized disciplines are taught. The second is taught in higher educational institutions of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Rivne, Sumy.

An important area of activity of almost all Ukrainian ethnomusicological centers in the period of Independence was the documentation of folk music: the collection of musical folklore, transcription and archiving. Folk music was most actively collected in the early 1990s, but over time this work has slowed down, in part because authentic tradition is dying out and living in the passive memory of performers. Today the largest archives of folk music are in IAFE and Kyiv and Lviv Music academies. Archival collections are actively digitized, some materials can be found on the Internet – both on special sites-archives of folk music, and YouTube channels, which usually refer to the different ethnomusical centers. The main prospect of Ukrainian archivists engaged in musical folklore is the creation of the Central Electronic Archive of Ukrainian Folklore