Ukrainian Folk Music

Ukrainian folk music is the traditional music of Ukraine: a vast song culture of ritual calendar songs, laments, historical dumy sung by kobzar minstrels to the bandura, and village polyphony in which a lead voice and answering chorus weave independent melodic lines. Dance forms such as the hopak drive instrumental ensembles of violin, tsymbaly (hammered dulcimer), sopilka flute and drum. Preserved by state folk choirs under the Soviet system and by village singers outside it, the tradition was re-energised after 1991 by revival ensembles and by groups such as *DakhaBrakha*, who carry its polyphony to world stages.