The floyarka () is a type of
sopilka, a traditional
Ukrainian flute. It is characterized as an open-ended
notched flute. The floyarka is a larger version of the
frilka.
The floyarka is a pipe of approximately a 30 cm in length, (approximately 10 cm longer than the
frilka). Traditionally, a floyarka had six holes, although now ten holes are also common. One end is sharpened and the breath is broken against one of the sides of the tube at the playing end. The mouthpiece is sharpened into a cone-like edge and the instrument produces a sound similar to that of the
flute
The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
.
The floyarka was often played at funerals in the
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...
.
Shepherds were also able to accompany themselves with glutteral humming which produced an ostinato tone or drone.
The floyarka is often called a
frilka or sometimes
zubivka in central Ukraine.
The name is rather a contaminant from a Greek-Romanian filiation (more spread is the Slavic sopilka).
See also
*
Ukrainian folk music
Sources
*Humeniuk, A. - ''Ukrainski narodni muzychni instrumenty'' - Kyiv: Naukova dumka, 1967
*Mizynec, V. - ''Ukrainian Folk Instruments'' - Melbourne: Bayda books, 1984
*Cherkaskyi, L. - ''Ukrainski narodni muzychni instrumenty'' // Tekhnika, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2003 - 262 pages. {{ISBN, 966-575-111-5
Ukrainian musical instruments
End-blown flutes