Sopilka (, uk, Cопiлка) is a name applied to a variety of

woodwind instrument Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and Reed ...

s of the

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

family used by

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

folk instrumentalists. ''Sopilka'' most commonly refers to a

fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

made of a variety of materials (but traditionally out of wood) and has six to ten finger holes. The term is also used to describe a related set of folk instruments similar to

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

, incorporating a

fipple The term fipple specifies a variety of end-blown flute that includes the flageolet, recorder, and tin whistle. The Hornbostel–Sachs system for classifying musical instruments places this group under the heading "Flutes with duct or duct flut ...

and having a constricted end. Sopilkas are used by a variety of Ukrainian

folkloric Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fro ...

ensembles recreating the traditional music of the various sub-ethnicities in western Ukraine, most notably that of the

Hutsuls The Hutsuls (sometimes the spelling variant: Gutsuls; uk, Гуцули, translit=Hutsuly; pl, Huculi, Hucułowie; ro, huțuli) are an ethnic group spanning parts of western Ukraine and Romania (i.e. parts of Bukovina and Maramureș). They ...

of the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

. Often employing several sopilkas in concert, a skilled performer can mimic a variety of sounds found in nature, including bird-calls and insects.

Modern usage

With the development of the 10 hole fingering instruments sopilkas became part of the music education system in Ukraine. Pop groups began to use the instrument in their performances. The first was the folk-rock group

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 ''kobz ...

. More recently, the sopilka has found its way into the music of

Ruslana Ruslana Stepanivna Lyzhychko ( uk, Руслана Степанівна Лижичко, ''Ruslana Lyzhychko''; born 24 May 1973), known mononymously as Ruslana, is a World Music Award and Eurovision Song Contest winning recording artist, holding ...

, Haydamaky, the

Kubasonics The Kubasonics are a Ukrainian-Canadian speed-folk band based in St. John's, Newfoundland. Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, The Kubasonics are honoured in the Ukrainian Canadian community for recreating traditional Ukrainian melodies, with a tw ...

and other contemporary bands like

Go_A Go_A ( uk, Ґоу_Ей) is a Ukrainian electro-folk band first formed in 2012 who were set to represent Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with the song " Solovey". Following the cancellation of the 2020 co ...

or Kalush which explore Ukrainian themes.

References

Ukrainian Folk Wind Instruments

Samples and Pictures of Ukrainian Instruments

Sopilka: Ukrainian Chromatic RecorderSopilka
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Sources

*Dverij, R. -
Shkola hry na khromatychnii sopiltsi
' - Lviv, 2008. - Part 1 - 72 pages, part 2 - 68 pages, part 3 - 64 pages. *Humeniuk, A. - ''Ukrainski narodni muzychni instrumenty'' - Kyiv:

Naukova dumka Naukova Dumka ( uk, Наукова Думка — literally "scientific thought") is a publishing house in Kyiv, Ukraine. It was established by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 1922, largely owing to the efforts of Ahatanhel Krymsky ...

, 1967 *Lander, N.S. -
Sopilka, Ukrainian Chromatic Recorder
' - Hobart, 2022. *Mizynec, V. - ''Ukrainian Folk Instruments'' - Melbourne: Bayda books, 1984 *Cherkaskyi, L. - ''Ukrainski narodni muzychni instrumenty'' - Tekhnika, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2003 - 262 pages. {{Authority control End-blown flutes Ukrainian musical instruments

Modern usage

See also

References