Kuban bandurists

A Kuban bandurists is a person who plays the Ukrainian plucked string instrument known as the bandura, who is from Kuban, a geographic region of southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River.

The tradition of the kobzar in Kuban migrated from central Ukraine. According to the historian and archivist Ivan Kyiashko the Kuban Cossacks played on the kobza, violin, jaw harp, hurdy-gurdy, basses, tsymbaly, and sopilka.

The Cossacks were especially respectful to itinerant blind singers who played the bandura or kobza. To them, the blind kobzar was a living reminder of their past. In previous eras they themselves were veterans of past battles and campaigns. Their repertoire retold the stories of past battles in the many epic ballads known as dumy (sung epic poems).

The first known bandurist of the Kuban was Antin Holovaty, who because of his fine the art of playing the bandura was able to gain the territories of the Kuban for the Black Sea Cossack Host. Songs created by him became popular folk songs which continue to be sung by the Cossacks there today. Some are considered hymns. The bandura became a popular instrument in the hands of Kyrylo Rosynsky who often played for the ataman of the Kuban host Yakiv Kukharenko.

Scholars point to some differences between the bandurist of the Kuban with their counterparts in Ukraine. In Ukraine where the feudal system and mentality had lasted well past its abolishment 1861, the art form survived in the hands of blind itinerant musicians who wandered from village to village with the aid of a young children. In the Kuban the bandura became a symbol and an element of Cossack pride, and as a result the cossack bandurist was usually a young person who had all his faculties. The Kuban bandurists however kept close quarters with itinerant kobzars from Ukraine such as Mykhailo Kravchenko, Hryhory Kozhushko, Ivan Zaporozhenko and others.

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