The cimbalom (; ) or concert cimbalom is a type of
chordophone
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the s ...
composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath. It was designed and created by V. Josef Schunda in 1874 in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, based on his modifications to the existing
Hammered dulcimer
The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion- stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more tra ...
instruments which were already present in Central and Eastern Europe.
Today the instrument is mainly played in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
,
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...
,
Moravia
Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
Th ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...
,
Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnist ...
, and
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...
.
The cimbalom is typically played by striking two sticks, often with cotton-wound tips, against the strings which are on the top of the instrument. The steel treble strings are arranged in groups of 4 and are tuned in unison. The bass strings which are over-spun with copper, are arranged in groups of 3 and are also tuned in unison. The
Hornbostel–Sachs
Hornbostel–Sachs or Sachs–Hornbostel is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the in 1914. An English translation was published in the '' Galpin Society ...
musical instrument classification
In organology, the study of musical instruments, many methods of classifying instruments exist. Most methods are specific to a particular cultural group and were developed to serve that culture's musical needs. Culture-based classification method ...
system registers the cimbalom with the number 314.122-4,5.
The name “cimbalom” is also sometimes used to describe other types of dulcimers, which may have different tuning systems and which may lack the dampers and heavy construction of the concert instrument. In other languages, the words for those other instruments and the concert cimbalom may be similar as well (such as in Romanian or tsymbaly">nowiki/>tsymbaly">tsymbaly.html" ;"title="nowiki/>tsymbaly">nowiki/>tsymbalyin Ukrainian language">Ukrainian).
History
The modern Hungarian concert cimbalom was designed and created by V. Josef Schunda in 1874 in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
based on his modifications to existing folk dulcimers. He demonstrated an early prototype with some improvements at the 1873 Vienna World's Fair, gaining praise from audiences and drawing the attention of highly-placed Hungarian politicians such as József Zichy, Gyula Andrássy, and Franz Joseph I of Austria, King Franz Joseph. He then continued to work to modify and improve his design. He extended the length of the strings and redesigned the position of the bridges to improve the tone and musical range. He added heavy dampers which would allow a greater degree of control over the ringing of the strings, and a metal brace inside the instrument which would increase its stability. Four detachable legs were added to support this much larger instrument; its folkloric predecessors had usually been played on a barrel or table.
Schunda began serial production of his concert cimbalom in 1874, manufacturing them in a piano shop located on Hajós utca, across the street from the Budapest Opera House in
Pest
Pest or The Pest may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Pest (organism), an animal or plant deemed to be detrimental to humans or human concerns
** Weed, a plant considered undesirable
* Infectious disease, an illness resulting from an infection
** ...
. He also started to develop a playing method and school to popularize his new instrument, eventually recruiting Géza Allaga, a prominent musician and pedagogue, to publish method books. Prominent Hungarian musicians such as
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
became increasingly interested in the instrument and its possibilities. The instrument quickly became popular among the Bourgeoisie as well as
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
* Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
musicians, and by 1906 Schunda had produced over ten thousand instruments.
Characteristics
Concert instruments from Schunda onward are fully chromatic. The Schunda tuning system established a standard pitch range of four
octave
In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
s plus a major 3rd; extending from C to e′′′ (
Helmholtz pitch notation
Helmholtz pitch notation is a system for naming musical notes of the Western chromatic scale. Fully described and normalized by the German scientist Hermann von Helmholtz, it uses a combination of upper and lower case letters (A to G), and the s ...
). The cimbalom has continued its development and modern concert instruments are often further expanded and have numerous refinements beyond Schunda's design. These instruments can now have a pitch range that extends five fully chromatic octaves from AA to a′′′.
Contemporary cimbalom makers also create smaller instruments. These run the gamut from less weighty versions of Schunda's original concert layout to truly portable fully chromatic cimbaloms (which use Schunda's signature tuning pattern and note layout but with reduced range in the bass). Modern makers also continue to craft new and traditional folk style instruments.
A smaller more portable version of the concert cimbalom was produced in
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...
from the 1950s to the 1980s that came with detachable legs and dampers, but could be carried more easily than the larger concert instrument. These instruments were produced by the
Chernihiv
Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within ...
factory and the Melnytso-Podilsk folk instruments workshop which also produced many types of other folk instruments.
Compositions for cimbalom
Classical and contemporary music
Many composers have written for the cimbalom.
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály (; hu, Kodály Zoltán, ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music ed ...
made extensive use of the instrument in his orchestral suite '' Háry János'' which helped make the cimbalom known outside
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, wh ...
.
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
was also an enthusiast. He owned a cimbalom which he purchased after hearing Aladár Rácz perform on the instrument. He included the cimbalom in his ballet '' Renard'' (1915–16), his ''Ragtime'' for eleven instruments, his original (1917) scoring for ''
Les Noces
''Les Noces'' (French for The Wedding; russian: Свадебка, ''Svadebka'') is a ballet and orchestral concert work composed by Igor Stravinsky for percussion, pianists, chorus, and vocal soloists. The composer gave it the descriptive title ...
'', and his ''Four Russian Songs''.
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
used the cimbalom in his ''Ungarischer Sturmmarsch'' (1876) and in the orchestral version of his ''
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 in D-flat major is the sixth work of the 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies composed by Franz Liszt. This work was dedicated to Count Antoine of Appony and uses the form of lassan and friska like many other of his rhapsodies. This p ...
''.
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hun ...
used it in his '' Rhapsody No. 1 for violin and orchestra'' (1928).
More recently, other composers including
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music.
Born in Mon ...
,
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music.
As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Mus ...
György Kurtág
György Kurtág (; born 19 February 1926) is a Hungarian classical composer and pianist. He was an academic teacher of piano at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from 1967, later also of chamber music, and taught until 1993.
Biography
György ...
Louis Andriessen
Louis Joseph Andriessen (; 6 June 1939 – 1 July 2021) was a Dutch composer, pianist and academic teacher. Considered the most influential Dutch composer of his generation, he was a central proponent of The Hague school of composition. Although ...
, and
Peter Machajdík
Peter Machajdík (born 1 June 1961) is a contemporary Slovakia, Slovak composer, sound and visual artist. He was born and grew up in Bratislava, Slovakia.
In the 1990s, he took part in seminars with Vinko Globokar, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Claren ...
have made a great use of cimbalom in their works.
Henri Dutilleux
Henri Paul Julien Dutilleux (; 22 January 1916 – 22 May 2013) was a French composer active mainly in the second half of the 20th century. His small body of published work, which garnered international acclaim, followed in the tradition of ...
used it extensively in ''Mystère de l'Instant'' for chamber orchestra, and ''L'arbre des songes'' for violin & orchestra.
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in 2020, and has twice been nom ...
's orchestral ballet score '' Il Sogno'' includes several extended cimbalom passages.
Harrison Birtwistle
Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include '' T ...
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
uses the instrument prominently in his large 2012 symphonic oratorio '' The Gospel According to the Other Mary'' as well as in his 2014 dramatic symphony '' Scheherazade.2''. Cimbalom is used in a popular arrangement of
Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...
's ''
La plus que lente
''La plus que lente'', L. 121 (, "The more than slow"), is a waltz for solo piano written by Claude Debussy in 1910, shortly after his publication of the Préludes, Book I. The piece debuted at the New Carlton Hotel in Paris, where it was tra ...
'' which the composer approved but did not actually score.
(''La plus que lente'' with cimbalom saw renewed popularity with its inclusion in world tours of the Hundred Gypsy Violins starting in 1985.)
Film and television
The cimbalom has occasionally been used in film scores, especially to introduce a "foreign" feel. The cimbalom appears in '' Christmas in Connecticut'' (1945) in a scene in Felix's (
S. Z. Sakall
Szőke Szakáll (born Jakab Grünwald, akas: Gärtner Sándor and Gerő Jenő; February 2, 1883 February 12, 1955), known in the English-speaking world as S. Z. Sakall, was a Hungarian-American stage and film character actor. He appeared in ...
) Hungarian restaurant in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa (; April 18, 1907 – July 27, 1995) was a Hungarian-American composer trained in Germany (1925–1931) and active in France (1931–1935), the United Kingdom (1935–1940), and the United States (1940–1995), with extens ...
used the cimbalom in the main theme and throughout the score for the science-fiction thriller '' The Power'' (1968). John Barry used it in the title theme for the film '' The Ipcress File'' (1965), as well as in the main theme of the ITC TV series ''
The Persuaders!
''The Persuaders!'' is an action-comedy series starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore, produced by ITC Entertainment, and initially broadcast on ITV and ABC in 1971. The show has been called 'the last major entry in the cycle of adventure se ...
'' (1971); in both examples the performer was John Leach.
James Horner
James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was an American composer. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements, and for his frequent use of motifs associated with Celtic music.
Horner's first film score was i ...
John Williams
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review '' WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...
has made less prominent use of the instrument in scores such as ''
Raiders of the Lost Ark
''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. It stars Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, R ...
'' (1981).
Howard Shore
Howard Leslie Shore (born October 18, 1946) is a Canadian composer and conductor noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Hobbit'' film trilogies. ...
used the cimbalom as well to express Gollum's sneaky nature in
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...
Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living ...
Alexandre Desplat
Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat (; born 23 August 1961) is a French film composer and conductor. He has won many awards, including two Academy Awards, for his musical scores to the films '' The Grand Budapest Hotel'' and ''The Shape of Water'' ...
The Grand Budapest Hotel
''The Grand Budapest Hotel'' is a 2014 comedy-drama film written and directed by Wes Anderson. Ralph Fiennes leads a seventeen-actor ensemble cast as Monsieur Gustave H., famed concierge of a twentieth-century mountainside resort in the ficti ...
'' (2014).
In television, composer
Lalo Schifrin
Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical eleme ...
made use of the cimbalom in several scores he wrote for the original '' Mission: Impossible'' television series, from which several cues were regularly recycled throughout the series' run.
Composer Debbie Wiseman used the cimbalom, played by Greg Knowles, in her score for the BBC television series 'Dickensian' (2015–16).
The cimbalom, played by John Leach, features prominently in the score of the BBC television drama serial from 1988, 'Babylon Bypassed' by Gareth Glyn.
Rock
The cimbalom was used by
Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons (born 20 December 1948) is an English audio engineer, songwriter, musician and record producer.
Parsons was involved with the production of several notable albums, including the Beatles' ''Abbey Road'' (1969) and '' Let It Be'' ...
on his "I Robot" and ''Tales of Mystery and Imagination'' albums and is included in the guest musician acknowledgments. The experimental rock group Mr. Bungle made use of the cimbalom on the ''Disco Volante'' and ''California'' albums. It is included in the guest musician acknowledgments. The experimental performance organization
Blue Man Group
Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed in 1987. It was purchased in July 2017 by the Canadian company Cirque du Soleil. Blue Man Group is known for its stage productions, which incorporate many kinds of music and art, b ...
has used a cimbalom in its productions. American progressive chamber group,
cordis The Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) is the European Commission's primary public repository and portal to disseminate information on all European Union (EU) funded research projects and their results in the broadest se ...
, uses electric and acoustic cimbalom as a centerpiece in their music. Romanian rock group
Spitalul de Urgență
Spitalul de Urgenţă, literally "Emergency Hospital", is a Romanian rock band, integrating elements of traditional Romanian music into a sometimes hard-edged rock sound,
has frequently used cimbalom, including a full-time player in some line-ups of the band. New York multi-instrumentalist Rob Burger used a cimbalom on the album ''L'Entredeux'' (2008) by Tucson chanteuse Marianne Dissard. Alternative rock band
Garbage
Garbage, trash, rubbish, or refuse is waste material that is discarded by humans, usually due to a perceived lack of utility. The term generally does not encompass bodily waste products, purely liquid or gaseous wastes, or toxic waste prod ...
incorporated cimbalom into their track "
The Trick Is to Keep Breathing
"The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" is a song by Garbage, released as the joint-fourth single from their platinum second album ''Version 2.0''. The single was released in a number of European countries including Germany, Austria, Italy, Portugal an ...
" from their 1998 album ''
Version 2.0
''Version 2.0'' is the second studio album by American rock band Garbage. It was released on May 11, 1998, by Mushroom Records worldwide, with the North American release on Almo Sounds the following day. With this album, the band aimed to impro ...
''.
Portishead have long been successful pioneers of the cimbalom or hammered dulcimer in their groundbreaking work since formation in 1991.
Schools of performance
Belarus
In
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
a cymbaly school was established in 1948 by J. Zynovych. The Belarusian cymbaly differs from the concert cimbalom in timbre and size—it is smaller and produces a sweeter, more mellow tone. Also, pedal dampers are not typically used. Instead, hands and fingers are used to damp the strings.
Croatia
The cimbal today is a rare instrument found in folk groups ( Međimurje and
Podravina
''Podravina'' (in Croatian) or ''Podravje'' (in Slovenian) are Slavic names for the Drava river basin in Croatia and Slovenia.
History
Between 1929 and 1941 a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia known as the ''Drava Banovina'' (Drava province) ...
regions - parts of northern Croatia near Hungarian border).
Moravia
The instrument is used foremost in the
historical region
Historical regions (or historical areas) are geographical regions which at some point in time had a cultural, ethnic, linguistic or political basis, regardless of latterday borders. They are used as delimitations for studying and analysing soci ...
Moravian Slovakia
Moravian Slovakia ( cs, Slovácko, older ''Moravské Slovensko'') or Slovácko is a cultural region in the southeastern part of the Czech Republic, Moravia on the border with Slovakia and Austria, known for its characteristic folklore, music, w ...
and
Moravian Wallachia
Moravian Wallachia ( cs, Moravské Valašsko, or simply ''Valašsko''; ro, Valahia Moravă) is a mountainous ethnoregion located in the easternmost part of Moravia in the Czech Republic, near the Slovak border, roughly centered on the cities V ...
.
France
Luigi Gaggero
Luigi Gaggero (born 1976) is an Italian percussionist, conductor and academic teacher who has worked internationally. He is the chief conductor of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, and cimbalon teacher at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg, the only pro ...
teaches since 2004 at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg and at the Académie Supérieure de Musique de Strasbourg. His teaching focuses on classical and on contemporary repertoire for cimbalom.Examen d’entrée 2021 / Cymbalum (in French) hear.fr 2021
Greece
In Athens, a cimbalom school was established in 2004 by M. Papadeas. The Greek musicians play on small portable folk style instruments.
Hungary
Besides the main cimbalom centre in Budapest, there is a very strong school of performance in Debrecen in Hungary.
Moldova
In 1952, cimbalom classes were opened at the Chişinău conservatory in
Moldova
Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnist ...
.
Romania
A strong performance school was established in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...
.
Toni Iordache
Toni Iordache (17 December 1942 – February 1988) was a Romani-Romanian '' lăutar'' and one of the most famous ''cimbalom'' (Romanian: ''ţambal'') players in the world. He was nicknamed ''the God of the Cimbalom'' and ''Paganini of the cimbalom' ...
, a
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
-Romanian '' lăutar'', was the most famous Romanian cimbalom player.
Slovakia
The cimbal is a very popular instrument found in all Slovak regions, as well as in the ethnically Slovak/Hungarian mixed southern regions and among Romani folk ensembles.
Oleksandr Nezovybatko
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
. In time it was replaced by 2 smaller-sized instruments in order to facilitate transportation. Music for the cimbalom has been published in Ukraine from 1930 on. With the serial manufacture of ''
tsymbaly
The tsymbaly ( uk, цимбали) is the Ukrainian version of the hammer dulcimer. It is a chordophone made up of a trapezoidal box with metal (steel or bronze) strings strung across it. The tsymbaly is played by striking two beaters against t ...
'' by the
Chernihiv Musical Instrument Factory
The Chernihiv musical instruments factory was a factory founded to make stringed instruments in Ukraine. It is named after Soviet politician Pavel Postyshev.
History
The Chernihiv musical instruments factory opened in 1933. Initially it made ba ...
cimbalom playing became popular in Eastern Ukraine in the post war years. Textbooks for the ''tsymbaly'' were published in 1966 by O. Nezovybatko, and initially players played on semi-concert instruments manufactured by the Chernihiv Musical Instrument Factory. In recent times most professional performers have switched over to the Schunda system of playing on concert-size instruments. Classes for the instrument exist in the
Lviv
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukra ...
,
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
and
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Roman Kumlyk was a famous player from Hutsul area. After his death, a museum was named for him and is now run by his family.