The idea of the preservation of kobzar music by means of

sound recording Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recordin ...

originated in 1901–02.

Kobzar A ''kobzar'' ( ua, кобзар, pl. kobzari ua, кобзарі) was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment, played on a multistringed bandura or kobza. Tradition Kobzars were often blind and became predominantly so b ...

s were itinerant Ukrainian folk musicians who sung ''dumas'' and folk songs to their own accompaniment of

kobza The kobza ( uk , кобза), also called bandurka ( uk , бандурка) 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 ''kob ...

bandura A bandura ( uk, банду́ра) is a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. It combines elements of the zither and lute and, up until the 1940s, was also often referred to by the term kobza. Early instruments (c. 1700) had 5 to 12 string ...

lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current currency of Turkey and also the local name of the currencies of Lebanon and of Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, including those of Italy, Malta and Israe ...

. The

12th Archeological Congress The XIIth Archeological Congress Kharkiv, 1902 was one of a number of Archeological Conferences known as Congresses held in Russian Empire. These Conferences were hosted by a different city of the Russian Empire every three years. The 1902 the XIIt ...

was held in

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.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 ...

, then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

. It was dedicated to

Ukrainian folk music Ukrainian folk music includes a number of varieties of traditional, folkloric, folk-inspired popular music, and folk-inspired European classical music traditions. In the 20th century numerous ethnographic and folkloric musical ensembles were e ...

. During its preparation, the committee discussed a letter from Russian ethnographer

Vsevolod Miller Vsevolod Fyodorovich Miller (russian: Все́волод Фёдорович Ми́ллер) (7 April ( N.S. 19 April) 1848, Moscow – 5 November (N.S. 18 November) 1913, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian philologist, folklorist, linguist, anthropol ...

with the suggestion to using recently invented

graphophone The Graphophone was the name and trademark of an improved version of the phonograph. It was invented at the Volta Laboratory established by Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, D.C., United States. Its trademark usage was acquired successively ...

( Alexander Bell's version of phonograph, which used wax-coated cylinders). However the suggestion was not accepted due to lack of money. Other people came with the same suggestion, both during the preparation and the sessions of the congress. A team of

Hnat Khotkevych Hnat Martynovych Khotkevych ( uk, Гнат Мартинович Хоткевич, also ''Gnat Khotkevich'' or ''Hnat Khotkevych'', born December 31, 1877 – died October 8, 1938) was a Ukrainians, Ukrainian writer, ethnographer, playwright, comp ...

(musicologist,

bandurist A banduryst ( uk, бандури́ст) is a person who plays the Ukrainian plucked string instrument known as the bandura. Types of performers There are a number of different types of bandurist who differ in their particular choice of instrum ...

, engineer, and ethnographer),

Oleksandr Borodai Oleksandr Ivanovych Borodai (1844–1919) ( uk, Олександр Іванович Бородай) was Ukrainian and American engineer, bandurist, Ukrainian political and cultural activist. Borodai was born in Poltava region (then Russian ...

(engineer and bandurist), and

Opanas Slastion Opanas Heorhiiovych Slastion ( uk, Опанас Георгійович Сластіон, – September 24, 1933) was a Ukrainian graphic artist, painter, and ethnographer. He was born in the port town of Berdiansk (now Ukraine) on the Berdyans ...

(artist and ethnographer), have eventually taken the job. Borodai bought several phonographs in America for his own money. The first records were taken for ''

duma A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were f ...

s'' of the noted kobzar

Mykhailo Kravchenko Mykhailo Stepanovych Kravchenko (1858-1917) was regarded as one of the most outstanding kobzars of Poltava province of the late 19th early 20th century. Biography Kravchenko was born in Velyki Sorochyntsi, Myrhorod county in 1858. At the age ...

. However due to the conflict between Borodai and Khotkevych their work stopped in 1904.Довгалюк Ірина. Причинки до історії проекту фонографування дум // Етномузика: збірка статей та матеріалів / упорядники Ірина Довгалюк, Юрій Рибак. – Львів, 2008. – Ч.5. – С.9-26. – (Наукові збірки Львівської національної музичної академії ім.М.Лисенка. – Вип.22)"Ученые оцифровали кобзарские песни, записанные 100 лет назад"
("Scientist Digitized Kobzar Songs Recorder 100 Years Ago"), ''Корреспондент'' (''Correspondent'' magazine), no. 34, August 29, 2014 The work was restarted by the initiative Kvitka family,

Kliment Kvitka Klyment Vasilyovich Kvitka ( uk, Климент Васильович Квітка; February 4, 1880 – September 19, 1953) was a Ukrainian and Soviet musicologist and ethnographer, and the husband of poet Lesya Ukrainka. The Kvitka family played ...

and poet

Lesya Ukrayinka Lesya Ukrainka ( uk, Леся Українка ; born Larysa Petrivna Kosach, uk, Лариса Петрівна Косач; – ) was one of Ukrainian literature's foremost writers, best known for her poems and plays. She was also an active ...

, who put their money into the project. In 1908 they invited Ukrainian ethnographer

Filaret Kolessa Filaret Mykhailovych Kolessa ( uk, Філарет Михайлович Колесса; 17 July 18713 March 1947) was a Ukrainian composer ethnographer, folklorist, musicologist and literary critic. He was a member of the Shevchenko Scientific So ...

to do the job."Леся Українка оплатила записи дум від кобзарів"
''gazeta.ua'', 14 липня 2011 In later times there were attempts to recast the phonograph records by

tape recording An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present- ...

the phonograph playback. With the breakthroughs in non-destructive reading of wax cylinders, there were renewed attempts. In 2013, a member of the

Wikimedia Ukraine Wikimedia Ukraine is the regional chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation in Ukraine. The chapter was created on May 31, 2009. On this day the First Annual Meeting was held and the Board was elected. On July 3, 2009, the Wikimedia Foundation appro ...

team Yuri Bulka and folklorist Irina Dovgalyuk (who did research on Kolessa's collection) used a Wikimedia grant to

digitize DigitizationTech Target. (2011, April). Definition: digitization. ''WhatIs.com''. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer- ...

56 cylinders and make the records available under the

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has releas ...

license. In 1910 and 1913 Kolessa published two books of music deciphered from the collected phonograms. They were re-issued in 1969 as a book ''Мелодії українських народних дум'' (''Tunes of the Ukrainian Folk Dumas''), now available in "crowd-digitized" form.Колесса Ф. М. Мелодiї Українських народних дум (1969) /pdf, djvu/ Оцифровано Гуртом
/ref>

References

{{reflist Ukrainian music Kobzarstvo