A Duma (, plural ''dumy'') is a oral

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

poem which originated in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

during the

Cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...

Era in the sixteenth century, possibly based on earlier Kyivan epic forms. Historically, ''dumy'' were performed by itinerant

bards called

kobzar A ''kobzar'' ( ; ) was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment, played on a multistringed kobza or bandura. Tradition The professional kobzar tradition was established during the Hetmanate Era around the sixteenth cen ...

i, who accompanied themselves on a

kobza The kobza (), also called bandura () is a Ukrainian folk music instrument of the lute family (Hornbostel-Sachs classification number 321.321-5+6), a relative of the Central European mandora. The term ''kobza'' however, has also been applied to ...

or a

bandura A bandura ( ) is a Ukrainians, Ukrainian plucked string instrument, plucked-string folk-instrument. It combines elements of the zither and lute and, up until the 1940s, was also often called a kobza. Early instruments () had 5 to 12 strings and ...

, who were often (blind) itinerant musicians who retained the kobzar appellation and accompanied their singing by playing a

(rarely a kobza) or a relya/

lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current Turkish lira, currency of Turkey and also the local name of the Lebanese pound, currencies of Lebanon and of Syrian pound, Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, ...

(a Ukrainian variety of

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar ...

). Dumas are sung in recitative, in the so-called " duma mode", a variety of the

Dorian mode The Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different but interrelated subjects: one of the Ancient Greek music, Ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' (characteristic melodic behaviour, or the scale structure associated with it); one of the mediev ...

with a raised fourth degree. ''Dumy'' were vocal works built around historical events, many dealing with military action in some forms. Embedded in these historical events were religious and moralistic elements. There are themes of the struggle of the Cossacks against enemies of different faiths or events occurring on religious feast-days. Although the narratives of the ''dumy'' mainly revolve around war, the ''dumy'' themselves do not promote courage in battle.Kononenko, Natalie O. “The Influence of the Orthodox Church on Ukrainian Dumy.”

Slavic Review The ''Slavic Review'' is a major peer-reviewed academic journal publishing scholarly studies, book and film reviews, and review essays in all disciplines concerned with "Eastern Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, past and present". ...

50 (1991): 566–575. The ''dumy'' rather impart a moral message on how one should conduct oneself properly in the relationships with family, community, and church. However, the kobzari did not play only religious songs and dumy. They also played "satirical songs (sometimes openly scabrous); dance melodies; either with or without words; lyric songs; and historical songs".

Origin

First mention of the term "Duma" in the meaning of epic song comes from a Polish translation of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

published in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

in 1561. Dumas as a popular element of Ukrainian folklore are mentioned by several Polish writers of that era, including

Mikołaj Rej Mikołaj Rej or Mikołaj Rey of Nagłowice (4 February 1505 – between 8 September/5 October 1569) was a Polish poet and prose writer of the emerging Renaissance in Poland as it succeeded the Middle Ages in Poland, Middle Ages, as well as a po ...

. The relationship between the military and the religion with dumy originated in the times of the Cossack rebellion of 1648. Ukraine fell under the control of the Catholic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, that imposed discriminatory measures on the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

. This rebellion was followed by “partition and eventual subjugation of the Ukrainian lands and the Ukrainian church. The Cossacks rebelled against the religious oppression and their lands were eventually lost to the oppressor. This causes a great dilemma in the church because the Cossacks were defenders of the faith, and since they lost, and the faith is infallible, the Cossacks themselves must have done something sinful. This is why a duma has a great religious undertone and is a song that tells of death and defeat, not of victory. Pavlo Zhytetsky suggested that the style of ''duma's'' evolved as a unique combination of folk and educated cultures.

Notable Dumas

*''Duma of Cossack Holota'' () - earliest fully recorded Ukrainian duma, whose text was published in 1684 *''Duma of Marusia Bohuslavka'' *''Duma of Samiylo Kishka''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duma Epic poetry Kobzarstvo Ukrainian literature Music of Ukraine Oral literature

Origin

Notable Dumas

See also

References