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Re: Response to "Music Therapy in the Ukraine"

Re: Response to "Music Therapy in the Ukraine"
Thu, 12/15/2005 - 00:00 — Ivannikova, Mariya
By: 
Ivannikova, Mariya

Can Folk Music Instruments of Russia, Ukraine and Byelorussia be of Interest for Active Music Therapy?

By Mariya A. Ivannikova, MA, Dipl.-Psych., made her guest study at the Department for Music Therapy at University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal /Germany/ from April 1999 to July 2000. From 2000 to 2003 took part at caring out of a new collaborative project between State University Zaporizhzhia and University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal "Social psychological rehabilitation with music" /Music Therapy/. From 2002 to 2004 worked as a Lecturer for Psychology and Languages at the Department of Social Pedagogy and Psychology at State University Zaporizhzhia /Ukraine/. She currently studies in Norway to complete her music therapeutical education. Email: mariya_ivannikova@hotmail.com

Abstract

This writing contents wonderings around folk music instruments of Russia, Ukraine and partial Byelorussia and their usefulness for active music therapy, contact addresses of folk instrument makers and references with explanations how to build this kind of instrument.

Introduction

Can Folk Music Instruments of Russia and Ukraine be of Interest for Active Music Therapy? This question became especially important for me after "A Perspective of Using Self-Made Instruments in Sessions of Music Therapy" was published. I felt a need to find out whether any authentic instrument could be used instead of or additionally to famous Orff-instruments, which for many years have been known and applied in Music Pedagogy and Music Therapy in more than thirty countries of the world. I thought that it would be good to find them not only because it would be so expensive to import them from other countries.

As Even Ruud formulated it in "Music therapy: improvisation, communication and culture" (1998):

...Music can not mechanically depict identities, social formations, ideologies, or private value systems, but it may encode such dimensions (Ruud, 1998, p. 37).

So I thought that in the same way it could be useful to have authentic instruments to give clients and/or patients supplementary impulses "to encode such dimensions". In the case when people would not exactly remember names of instruments, these instruments still could bring back memories and associations:

Because significant people and situations are often embedded in musical experiences, using music [here: authentic instruments] to create memories about significant events may heighten the potential for therapeutic work in the music therapy session (Ruud, 1998, p. 47).

While wonderings I had in my mind the theory of Music Therapy after Christoph Schwabe with his understanding of Music Therapy as "an implicitly resource-oriented psychotherapeutic conception" (Schwabe, 2005, p. 50).

So in the paper I would like to illustrate how all this worked with me when I was looking for authentic instruments for music therapy sessions. I tried to use every possibility I had last summer visiting Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Moscow and Chelyabinsk. I talked to people, took photos, made copies of publications, printed out more and more pages with pictures, drawings and texts.

Reflections and observations

First of all I had to recall memories about instruments used by our people in general. I remembered garmony, an instrument like an accordion. I heard from my grandparents that it was very popular when they were young. Could a man play it, he became "the first guy in the village" [ первый парень на деревне], he was always welcome at weddings, celebrations and other activities of his place. People gathered around him, sang songs, danced or just listened to him. Both in films and cartoons I saw the following picture: a garmonist playing while he walked around was surrounded by other men and girls. I remembered my parents telling us that they dreamt about learning to play this instrument as well, but they were not able to do it. So one of my brothers once was given an honour to learn it and he even received a famous instrument from Tula (a city in Russia where these instruments are produced) to practice on. But the time when young people dreamed about learning to play this instrument was mostly over.

When our parents were young guitar was on. I wanted to learn to play it too. People gathered around a camp-fire with a guitar or on the benches in the yards of blocks of flats. If they knew three chords they were considered to be good players. So as soon as I learned five chords, I became a very good player both for my family and our friends. Could the garmony and the guitar be used instead of Orff-instruments?

I went on with my recollections. Balalaika was the next instrument I remembered. Here I got an association with Russian folk dances and performances. I remembered fairytales with balalaika music in the background as well. The balalaika player told stories and accompanied them on the instrument. When there was something special in a story, something was going to happen; he showed it by changing the tempo or volume of his play. It gave space for fantasy and emotions and made us, children, listen to them again and again.

I remembered kobsa, a Ukrainian folk instrument, and kobsa players [кобзари]. They were mostly blind old men who went from one place to another playing kobsa and singing songs about Kazaks[1]. We learned at school that sometimes there was a young boy with a Kobsary and helped him to find the way. This memory came especially intensive when I looked at the monument in Kyiv which represented a Kazak playing a kobsa.

Photo 1: A Kazak with a kobsa in Kyiv.

There was one more Ukrainian folk instrument which I associated with school. Some of my classmates were in a folk ensemble and played banduras singing folk songs. These instruments were extremely heavy to carry, especially for kids, but they were fascinating to play and listen too. So in Kyiv, I saw some Bandurinsts as well and enjoyed for a while their singing and playing taking them for authentic street musicians.

Photo 2: A Bandurist in Kyiv.

Could balalayka, kobsa and/or bandura be used instead of Orff-instruments in sessions of music therapy?

My next recollection was about gusli. This instrument was played to accompany byliny stories[2]. The player touched strings with the fingers and recite byliny. Gusli existed already in the time of Kiev Russ, before Russian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian nations began their development. It made me wondering whether there were any other similar and/or common instruments to find in these three countries because of common history. This question seemed to be very interesting to have in the focus of my research too.

Searching more deep in my memory I recalled coloured wood lozhki [spoons]. When my brother and I were little, we liked to eat with them at our grandparents' place. There were very unusual to eat with and almost made the food tastier. Similar spoons were used as rhythmic instruments in folk ensembles. So we were one day at a performance by a children folk dance ensemble. The boys danced with spoons and banged with them on their shoulders and knees. I thought that it would not be easy to play with them like they did. But this instrument still attracted my attention. I went to a souvenir store in Zaporizhzhia and made a photo of them.

Photo 3: Lozhki.

Thinking further about folk ensembles I remembered some other rhythmic folk instruments, but I had no idea what they were called and whether they could be used in sessions.

Meetings with books, people and instruments

On a base of recollections and observations I started a search in a library. Every book I could find had special things of interest. For example, in "Atlas of Musical Instruments of the Peoples Inhabiting the USSR" (1975) by K.Vertkov, G. Blagodatov & E. Yazovitskaya authors presented instruments of all the Republics of Former Soviet Union. There were a lot of pictures of described instruments and records to illustrate their sound as well. Written in a scientific way, it seemed to be the only one of this kind in the Region Scientific Library of Zaporizhzhia which was the reason why I could not borrow it. I was neither successful in Moscow trying to find out whether a new edition of this book existed and could be bought.

One more book I found in the Region Scientific Library was published a year later. It was written in a narrative way by Y.Vasilyev and A.Shirokov and contained different stories about instruments. I was surprised to find there not only a history of instruments of Russia, but also some examples on building them. A bit later I discovered a web version of these "Stories..." And I was surprised once more: there was even information about folk orchestras and notes with folk instrumental melodies as well. Pictures and materials were free to use: "Every use of materials of the link for good purposes is welcome". Reading this sentence made me smile. It showed that people knew that it was not as easy to find such information and were ready to share it with others.

My next luck in the library was to hold in my hands Vasiliy Bychkov's "Music Instruments: Bases of Art Craft" (2000). This publication also contained a history of folk instruments of Russia. The difference here was that it described ways to build and play, not just for some, but for every one instrument. In the summer I even met a person in Chelyabinsk (Russia) who used this book for making instruments. It was one more surprise for me especially coming from Ukraine just for a couple of days to see my people. We talked about growing interest for folk music generally, folk instruments, about his band and their musical meetings after their work. Together we visited some music stores in Chelyabinsk and a museum of folk instruments. I noticed so much joy in his eyes when he was sharing "his findings" with me!

It was time of holidays and when we entered the museum; its assistant was occupied with paper work. He asked us about the aim of our visit looking seriously at us. As soon as he heard that I was going to write an article about Russian and Ukrainian folk instruments, he loosened up. He showed everything that was of interest to us, answered questions, and played instruments to demonstrate possibilities to produce sound. We were even allowed to take pictures. It was really a great experience for me. Music brought together people who met each other just for a couple of hours! In the museum I learned about more instruments, recognized some that I already knew. Now I wondered whether they also existed in smaller sizes.

Visiting music stores in Chelyabinsk we could see not only "guitars and strings" as it had been some years ago in Zaporizhzhia, but also Carl Orffs' instruments, drums of different sizes and so on. Searching for Russian folk instruments, we entered a music college. The first we saw there was a fairytale picture on the wall with folk instruments.

Photo 4: Flying carpet.

I grasped my camera and heard behind my back a strong voice saying that I was not allowed to take photos of this picture. It turned to be a security man. He noticed my reaction and started laughing loudly. It was just a joke, and I could both take a photo and get further information about where to look for. We went to the next building. There was a music store with Russian folk instruments there. It was closed because of holidays, but I could see in the window small (!) instruments which would be amazingly good for active Music Therapy. I could not describe how glad I became because I realized that somebody was working on making them!

My days in Chelyabinsk passed away very fast. Making one more short stay in Moscow on the way home, I visited two music stores to compare the variety of instruments there. The stores I found were not the biggest ones, probably therefore there were not as many different instruments as they were in the stores I visited in Chelyabinsk. I also noticed that the prices in Moscow were higher than they were in Chelyabinsk.

Searching on the web

Summer holidays were over very soon as well. I returned to my studies in Norway. Impressions I had got through reflections, observations, meetings with people, books and instruments helped me to continue with a web search. I did already know what to look for and found rather quickly three links devoted to:

  • Folk instruments of Ukraine;
  • Russian instruments and
  • Belarusian Folk Musical Instruments and Folk Music.

The booklet by Viktor Mishalow "Folk instruments of Ukraine" (1996) was meant as an introduction to the folk instruments of the country and contained description of forty six original Ukrainian instruments and ten recently introduced foreign ones. Among the foreign instruments there were the bayan-accordion and guitar adopted from Russia.

The next link was devoted to Russian instruments (2003) (http://folkinst.narod.ru/). Both history and pictures of twelve the most famous instruments of the country were presented here. Music collection with examples of sound of some of them and a collection of links were supplementary added as well.

The link to Belarusian Folk Musical Instruments and Folk Music (1994) (http://www.belarusguide.com/culture1/music/Instruments.html) introduced about twenty Belarusian folk musical instruments with pictures and notes of melodies to play.

Narrowing the search

I came slowly to the point where I began to feel lost in all the information I had found. I began to get new focuses, as for example the history of folk instruments. It was interesting too, but I had to narrow my search according to the task. To make it work I developed some criteria for a choice. So an instrument had to be:

  • authentic for one or all of three countries,
  • easy to play without schooled skills,
  • not too big and not too heavy,
  • rather stabile so that it does not break easily,
  • easy to build, does not need many or unusual material to be made of if an instrument must be ordered from an instrument maker,
  • as inexpensive as possible.

The last criterion was one of the most difficult ones. And in some cases I just had to forget about it when all the others were working well.

I also wanted to find both melody and rhythm instruments. The garmony/ bayan-accordion, guitar, balalayka, kobsa and bandura seemed not to correspond to the most of my criteria. I also tried to avoid wind instruments as well. And it turned out to be that not many were left. Gusli was just the only one! And I felt that I needed to find a bit more information about it especially because of that.

So I learned that in the times of Kiev Russ, the word gusli was the generic word for a string psaltery-like musical instrument. According to Victor Mishalow it continued to be played in Russia, but it was no longer used in Ukraine (Mishalow, 1996). The gusli were originally used "to play folk songs and dance tunes and to accompany one's singing..." (Vertkov& Blagodatov & Yazovitskaya, 1975: 202). This instrument had 11 to 36 gut or metal diatonically tuned strings and was made in various sizes. That was why I thought that it could be of special interest for music therapy sessions. Even when the instrument was no longer used for making music, I supposed that memories about it were still alive.

Photo 5: A gusli from a museum.

Fortunately it turned to be much easier with percussion instruments than it was with melody instruments. There were a lot of different ones. Here I tried to combine the results of reflections, observations, and meetings with people, books, the museum and the web search.

This way I found out that Rubel (Russain) or Zatula, Rubal, Kuchelka, Kachanka, Kachalka, Rebra (Ukrainian) was common both for Russia and Ukraine. It was a household item for washing and ironing clothes, used as a percussion instrument as well. It sounded like a guiro. In the museum I saw both Rubels as household items and as music instruments. It could probably be seen on these photos that there was a difference between them.

Photo 6: A rubel as a household item.

Photo 7: A rubel as a music instrument: the instrument on the right.

The first type of a Rubel was much bigger and did not have any resonance slit. Therefore the sound produced with it was not as clear, as it was by the other one.

Two further instruments in the middle of the picture attracted my attention too. One of them, the Russian Buben [tambourine], was generally widely known. I just supposed that the difference could be that this one had a bit narrower and thick frame. Comparing pictures with the Byelorussian Buben, I saw some more difference (A picture of it can be seen at Virtual Guide to Belarus).

In Ukrainia this instrument was called the Bubon, Resheto or Taraban. This one also could have a membran over one or both sides as well and was a popular instrument among the Ukrainian Kazaks. Looking at these pictures I supposed that different tambourines could probably exist in all three countries and that those pictures did not show how all of them looked earlier.

Trezhotki in Russian or Kliashchotki in Byelorussian [rattle] was the name of another instrument on the photo. I found following description of them in the "Atlas...": "Rattle – set of wooden plates (up to 20) on a string or a leather strap; when the ends of the string (leather strap) are alternately jerked, the plates strike against one another producing sharp ratting sounds. Rattles were played by women at weddings when songs in honour of the newlyweds were sung" (Vertkov& Blagodatov & Yazovitskaya, 1975, p. 203).

My next idea was to continue the list with further percussion instruments made of wood. So I scanned a picture of Drova [firewood] from "Stories..." It was a kind of xylophone in Russia. The pieces of wood were cut according to the scale, so that they could be used to play melodies. These instruments were easy to roll up and to carry. A similar instrument in Byelorussia was called "Cymbalki". (A picture of it can be seen at Virtual Guide to Belarus).

I had had no memories about this instrument before. Learning about it I felt very exited to try the sound of ordinary firewood which was not made up according to the scale. It turned out that even without any "special cutting and tuning" they sounded differently. I also heard that the sound had to be different according to different kinds of the wood as well.

Photo 8: Firewood.

One more wood percussion instrument I noticed in several books was a Korobochka [a wood block]. A similar instrument of Byelorussia was called "Kliakotki". And it was a bit strange to discover almost the same instrument which was among Orff-instruments.

Pogremushki or pobryakushki [maracas] were presented very detailed in "Music Instruments: Bases of Art Craft" (2000) by Vasiliy Bychkov. Here I could find descriptions of maracas made for example of wood and birch bark. One of such maracas made of wood I had seen in the museum in Chelyabinsk.

Photo 9: Pogremushki made of wood.

Kolotushka or kokoshnik was the next Russian folk instrument I had seen both in the museum and books and wanted to add to the list. It was made of wood and had some bells inside. In English it could be probably called a wood drum because of a small hanging ball which clapped on the wood sides of the kolotushka when it was turned from one side to another.

Photo 10: Kolotushka.

Bubenzi [jingle-bells] were generally very popular. They were fastened on a collar of a Troika, a team of three horses in Russia. This way it could be heard from a long distance what created in a way a holiday mood. Later bubenzi were used in folk orchestras to imitate troikas (Vasilyev & Shirokov, 1976). At this point I remembered a Russian song which started with words about a troika and bubenzi ["Ехали на тройке с бубенцами, а вокруг мелькали огоньки..."]. I compared the English text of it with the Russian one and found neither mention about the bubenzi, nor about a seven string guitar which also was in our version of the song. Instead of it there was a line "Once upon a time there was a tavern..." (text by Gene Raskin). So I thought that it would be not as easy for someone to work with English versions of Russian and Ukrainian songs.

I was surprised to see in books some lozhki [spoons] with bells. It looked like it could make the sound of this percussion instrument even more authentic. Coming back to them I also found out that it was not obligatory to play them by baging with them on the palm, knee and shoulder. It was possible to take different sizes of them and clap with one lozhka on another. I also noticed that there were some unpainted lozhki, which meant that they had to be less expensive than painted ones.

One more unusual instrument came this time from Ukraine. It was the Batih, described in "Folk instruments of Ukraine" by Victor Mishalow. The Batih was a thick stick that is rhythmically tapped on the floor. According to him it was popular among Kazaks from the Zaporozhian region. They sang, made music and danced to the rhythm of it. Sometimes pieces of metal or bottle-caps hang on this stick (Mishalow, 1996). Nowadays, wondering about the simplest ways to make instruments, we can take a handle of a spade and it will turn, with a bit of imagination, to a batih.

I was especially excited reading about one more instrument described by Victor Mishalow. It was a steel Horseshoe used as triangle. So he wrote that in some folk instrument ensembles it "dangles from the end of a gut string and is struck with a piece of metal wire" (Mishalow, 1996).

Photo 11: Horseshoe.

Other instruments as for example Drum with two heads, Baraban [primitive drum], the Tarilky [Cymbals] and Lytavry, Tulumbasy [The Kettle Drums] did not impress me as much as the instruments described above. I just noticed that the last two of them were used in Ukraine from the times of the Kazaks which meant that they also were authentic.

Summary

My search for authentic instruments of Russia, Ukraine and Byelorussia to apply in Active Music Therapy was over. I went once more through the list of instruments. There were similar and common ones for Russia, Ukraine and Byelorussia and even instruments similar with Orff-instruments.

I remembered that it had been important for me to compare different sources to come to my own understanding and choice. Therefore I would like not to generalize it. Especially because I noticed that some of Ukrainian percussion instruments I added to the list were connected with Kazaks. I supposed that associations I had got here with Zaporizhzhia region could had been one of possible reasons of my choice. I also underlined the Russian name for instruments which were common for all three countries, when I had a strong association exactly with Russia. Besides that I did not get a possibility for a solid study of Byelorussian instruments, and could just hope that some glimpses presented in this paper were able to give a slight idea about some of them.

During this search I felt a need to learn more about different drums to have a brighter choice. It could probably work to look for them and/or some further instruments in other former Republics of Soviet Union as well. There is no Soviet Union any longer, but our countries are mostly still multinational. So it would probably make sense to have also other authentic instruments.

One of ideas I had had was to make not only a list of instruments, to present references with descriptions to make them, but also to find some contact addresses of instrument makers in all three countries. This information is not absolutely complete, but I still hope that it can be of certain use.

It was a pleasure for me to work on this writing and I hope that even having its limitations it can give you some new ideas.

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank all the people I met last summer for warm discussions about folk music and folk instruments, my family and relatives for their acceptance and assistance during this search. I appreciate a lot the support in English offered by Sally Gloppestad.

Notes


[1] The Kazaks were the freedom fighters in Ukraine originally living in Zaporizhzhia region. In the time of the Russian Empire they were rebels and military reserve units at the same time, always more or less independent and rebellious.


[2] Byliny are oral heroic poems or legends from 1200-1860.

References

[Bychkov, Vasiliy (2000). Music Instruments: Bases of Art Craft. Moscow: AST-Press] Бычков, Василий. Музыкальные инструменты: Основы художественного ремесла. - Москва: АСТ-Пресс. – 2000. - 175с.

Dowdy, Paula (2005). Contribution to Ukrainian Music Therapy - Does It Have a Chance to Exist? [Contribution to Moderated Discussions] Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved December 3, 2005, from http://voices.no/?q=content/response-music-therapy-ukraine#comment-606

Ivannikova, Mariya (2004). Ukrainian Music Therapy - Does It Have a Chance to Exist?. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved December 11, 2005, from https://normt.uib.no/index.php/voices/article/view/188/147

Ivannikova, Mariya A. (2005). A Perspective of Using Self-Made Instruments in Sessions of Music Therapy [Contribution to Moderated Discussions] Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved December 11, 2005, from http://www.voices.no/discussions/discm10_09.html

[Levasheva, Olga & Keldish, Yuriy & Kandinskiy, Alexey (1973). History of Russian Music. - Volume 1. – From the Ancient Times to the middle of the 19th century. –Second Edition. Moscow: State Publishers "Music"] Левашева, Ольга & Келдыш, Юрий & Кандинский, Алексей. История русской музыки. – Т.1. – От древнейших времен до середины XIX в.- изд.2-е. - Москва: издательство Музыка. – 1973. - 596с.

[Micheeva, Ludmila (2005). Dictionary of a Young Musician. Moscow: AST, Saint-Petersburg: Sova] Михеева, Людмила. Словарь юного музыканта. - Москва: АСТ, Санкт-Петербург: Сова. – 2005. - 333с.

Mishalow, Victor (1996). Folk Instruments of Ukraine. Retrieved from http://home.att.net/~bandura.ca/VMfolkBook/index2.html

[Ritov, D.A. (2001) Traditions of Folk Culture in Musical Education of Children: Russain Folk Instruments. Moscow: Vlados.] Рытов Д.А. Традиции народной культуры в музыкальном воспитании детей : Русские народные инструменты: Учебно-методическое пособие .- Москва.: Владос. - 2001. - 384 с.

[Russian Instruments (2003)]Русские инструменты (2003), Retrieved from http://folkinst.narod.ru/

Ruud, Even (1998). Music Therapy: Improvisation, Communication and Culture. Gilsum: Barcelona Publishers. pp. 32-47

Schwabe, Christoph (2005). Resource-Oriented Music Therapy – The Development of a Concept. Nordic Journal of Music Therapy.14(1), 49-56.

Schwabe, Christoph (1991). Aktive Gruppenmusiktherapie für erwachsene Patienten. 2.überarb.Aufl. [1.Aufl. 1983]. Leipzig, Stuttgart: Georg Thieme

Schwabe, Christoph &Haase, Ulrike (1998). Die Sozialmusiktherapie (SMT). Crossener Schriften zur Musiktherapie, Bd. VII. Akademie für angewandte Musiktherapie Crossen

Schwabe, C. & Rudloff, H. (Eds) (1997). Die Musikalische Elementarerziehung. 2Aufl. Crossener Schriften zur Musiktherapie, Bd.I. Akademie für angewandte Musiktherapie Crossen

[Vasilyev, Y. & Shirokov, A (1976). Stories about Russian Folk Instruments. Moscow: Soviet Composer] Васильев Ю., Широков А. Рассказы о русских народных инструментах, - Москва: Советский композитор. – 1976. – 95 с.

[Vasilyev, Y. & Shirokov, A Stories about Russian Folk Instruments] Васильев Ю., Широков А. Рассказы о русских народных инструментах. Retrieved from http://rm.hoha.ru/?dir=rus_instr&id=0

[Vertkov, K. & Blagodatov, G. & Yazovitskaya, E. (1975). Atlas of Musical Instruments of the Peoples Inhabiting the USSR. Moscow: State Publishers "Music"] Вертков К., Благодатов Г., Язовицкая Э. Атлас музыкальных инструментов народов СССР. - Москва: издательство Музыка. – 1975.

Virtual Guide to Belarus (n.d.) Belarusian Folk Musical Instruments and Folk Music. Retrieved from http://www.belarusguide.com/culture1/music/Instruments.html

Additional links

Web Sites

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