Artists

STARI KONI (Ukraine)

Stari Koni, Ukraine (Western Polesie, Obwód Rówieński)
The Song of Polesia

Director: Domynika Chekun
Performers: Antonina Kovtunovych, Nadiya Petrovets, Domynika Chekun, Natalia Chekun

60 minutes

The Stari Koni village is located in Western Polesie, near the Ukrainian border with Belarus. The group is composed of four women, including the great musical individuality of Dominika Czekun, who has a remarkable voice. Archaic melodies paired with performance on a professional level suggest a great variety of singing tradition in Polesie, and engage audiences.

Western Polesie in the Ukraine is a region where the archaic musical tradition, with its distinct manner of singing, was very well preserved. This includes old single voice ritual songs structured around variational polyphony: summer harvest, boric, Troicky, wedding, and old pre-Christian koliadki. In the lyrical works the second, higher voice, podgolosok, is often observable. The bass line is occasionally performed by individual singers. The repertoire of Christmas Carols from the Russian Orthodox Church is also split into two voices. The style of singing can be described as strong, loud, lead by metric tense sound with a slight vibration. Intricate melismatic results from the moves of the larynx and does not alter the timbre of sound.

The folk band from the Stari Koni village is a colorful example of how traditional song from the region of the Ukrainian-Belarusian border is cultivated. The band is well known in the Rówieński District, in the Ukraine and abroad. The elder ladies, since 1982, have popularized the Polesie singing style from the region of the Rówieński District.

In 1990 the group was awarded with “National Amateur Group” title. The leader of the band, Danja Czekun has been running it since the group’s inception. “The group’s musical repertoire, characteristic of that region, possesses qualities of the archaic tradition (this is especially clear in the musical structure of summer songs that relate to harvest and collecting berries in the wood, songs sung in the spring and around Kupala’s night). All of them are performed in a narrow ambit, they are heterophonic and are sung in quite a high voice. This repertoire of old songs is complimented by wedding songs and wishing carols, called szczedriwki." (Jagna Knittel, Muzyka z Drogi Band)