Ukraine, the land and its people : $b an introduction to its geographyRudnytskyi, Stepan
Science
Ukraine, the land and its people : $b an introduction to its geography
Rudnytskyi, Stepan
Ukraine; Ukrainians
Like their popular poetry, the popular music of the Ukrainians far surpasses the popular
music of the neighboring peoples, and differs from them very noticeably. Polish popular
music is just as poor as Polish popular poetry, and almost thruout possesses a cheerful
major character. Russian popular music has many minor elements in addition to the
major elements. But the Russian popular melodies are quite different from the Ukrainian.
They are either boisterously joyous or hopelessly sad. The differences in the character
of the melodies are so great that one need not be a specialist to be able to tell
at once whether a melody is Ukrainian or Russian.
Popular art, in our people, is entirely original and much more highly advanced than
in the neighboring peoples. The remains of the ancient popular painting are still
in existence in the left half of the Ukraine. Wood carving has developed to a highly
artistic form among the Hutzuls [202](there are the well-known peasant-artists Shkriblak, Mehedinyuk, and others). The chief field of Ukrainian popular art, however, is decoration. Two
fundamental types are used; a geometric pattern with the crossing of straight and
broken lines, and a natural pattern, which is modelled after parts of plants (as leaves,
flowers, etc.). In the embroideries, cloths and glass bead-work, we find such an esthetic
play of colors, that even tho each individual color is glaring, the whole has a very
picturesque and harmonious effect. The decorative art of the Russians is much lower.
It is based on animal motifs or entire objects, e.g., whole plants, houses, etc., and evinces an outspoken preference for glaring colors,
which are so combined, however, as to shock the eye. Among the Poles, the art of ornamentation
is very slightly developed. As for colors, they prefer the gaudy, not many at a time;
usually, blue is combined with bright red.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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