Kobzar

The kobzar was a Ukrainian folk singer-musician who performed dumas, historical songs, psalms, and satirical songs to the accompaniment of the kobza or bandura. Kobzars, often blind, united in guild-brotherhoods with their own statute, a secret 'lebiy language,' and an initiation rite for apprentices; they were the bearers and guardians of folk historical memory. The most famous kobzars were Ostap Veresai, whom Mykola Lysenko heard and transcribed, Ivan Kriukovsky, Hnat Honcharenko, and Mykhailo Kravchenko. In the 1930s the Soviet authorities destroyed the tradition, repressing the kobzars. The word 'Kobzar' became the title of Taras Shevchenko's programmatic collection (1840), a symbol of all Ukrainian poetry. The art of modern kobzarstvo is being revived in bandurist ensembles and is part of the UNESCO heritage.