Book collection MF Komarova (1844-1913)

‘Ukrainian Songs with Musical Notes’ is the third part of a valuable series of collections of Ukrainian folk songs compiled by the famous folklorist and musicologist Andriy Mykhailovych Konoshchenko (Hrabenko) (1857-1932). Published in Kyiv in 1906 at the expense of the publishing house “Vik”, the collection includes 100 songs recorded with notes, which is an example of a professional approach to the preservation of musical folklore. Among the variants of recording folk songs of the third hundred, already known and new ones that had not yet been published at that time, Konoshchenko included songs of a new cycle, probably composed in the 80s and 90s of the nineteenth century.

There is a dedication by the author on a separate sheet: ‘To my dear brother Y.K. Chykalenko and his family’.

Andriy Konoshchenko began collecting folklore in the second half of the nineteenth century, recording about 400 songs in the territories of the present-day Poltava, Kherson, Odesa, and Kirovohrad regions, which at that time remained poorly explored. His research is notable not only for its wide geography, but also for its deep professionalism: each song is accompanied by a detailed certification, an indication of the place of recording, and musical notes, which allows the melody to be reproduced.

The third collection, like the two previous ones (published in 1900 and 1902 in Odesa at the expense of Yurii Fesenko's printing house), represents a rich genre spectrum of Ukrainian folklore: historical, calendar and ceremonial, family and household, labour songs, etc. The fourth hundred songs, although compiled, remained unpublished.

The collection ‘Ukrainian Songs with Musical Notes’ not only serves as a valuable source for folklorists, ethnographers, performers and anyone interested in the cultural heritage of Ukraine, but also contributes to the preservation of the national musical tradition.

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