Dallais, P; Weber, S; Briner, C; Liegme, J (2002). The drymba among the Hutsul in the Ukrainian Carpathians: a recent ethnomusicological survey. VIM Vierundzwanzigsteljahrsschrift der Internationalen Maultrommelvirtuosengenossenschaft, 10:8-29. Postprint available at: http://www.zora.uzh.ch University of Zurich Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich. Zurich Open Repository and Archive http://www.zora.uzh.ch Originally published at: Dallais, P; Weber, S; Briner, C; Liegme, J (2002). The drymba among the Hutsul in the Ukrainian Carpathians: a Winterthurerstr. 190 recent ethnomusicological survey. VIM Vierundzwanzigsteljahrsschrift der Internationalen CH-8057 Zurich Maultrommelvirtuosengenossenschaft, 10:8-29. http://www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2002 The drymba among the Hutsul in the Ukrainian Carpathians: a recent ethnomusicological survey Dallais, P; Weber, S; Briner, C; Liegme, J Dallais, P; Weber, S; Briner, C; Liegme, J (2002). The drymba among the Hutsul in the Ukrainian Carpathians: a recent ethnomusicological survey. VIM Vierundzwanzigsteljahrsschrift der Internationalen Maultrommelvirtuosengenossenschaft, 10:8-29. Postprint available at: http://www.zora.uzh.ch Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich. http://www.zora.uzh.ch Originally published at: Dallais, P; Weber, S; Briner, C; Liegme, J (2002). The drymba among the Hutsul in the Ukrainian Carpathians: a recent ethnomusicological survey. VIM Vierundzwanzigsteljahrsschrift der Internationalen Maultrommelvirtuosengenossenschaft, 10:8-29. THE DRYMBA AMONG THE HUTSUL DALLAIS Philippe, Stefan WEBER, Caroline BRINER, Joel LIENGME. 2002 "The Drymba among the Hutsul in the Ukrainian Carpathians. A recent ethnomusicological survey", VIM (Mt Pleasant, Iowa) 10 : 8-29. A revised and multimedia French version of this article is available online at : http://www.ethnographiques.org/2002/Dallais,et-al.html Contact : [email protected] Philippe Dallais, Stefan Weber, Caroline Briner, Joel Liengme, La guimbarde chez les Hutsuls : investigations ethnomusicologiques sur la drymba dans les Carpates ukrainiennes. ethnographiques.org [en ligne] n°2 (novembre 2002). http://www.ethnographiques.org/2002/Dallais,et-al.html 8 9 THE DRYMBA AMONG by Philippe Dallais THE HUTSUL Stefan Weber Caroline Briner IN THE Joël Liegme Neuchâtel University UKRAINIAN Institute of Ethnology CARPATHIANS: Switzerland A RECENT ETHNOMUSICOLOGICAL SURVEY (In this article, we will follow VIM’s practice, and use Moors: The Hutsuls Today, freshly deposited on a shelf the word trump when we refer to the instrument in of the Library of the Neuchâtel University Institute of general, and drymba when we refer to the Hutsul in- Ethnology. When he saw the photograph of a man play- strument.) ing trump (fig. 1) he immediately felt he had to contact Mr. Polec, who soon responded and confirmed the sur- In Search of Ivan and Marichka vival of a local and traditional trump fabrication in the HIS RESEARCH PROJECT basically emerged from Ukrainian Carpathians. Furthermore, Polec also enthu- a single photograph that Philippe Dallais siastically suggested that we visit the Hutsul people and discovered by chance in spring 1999 when he meet some trump makers. For the general reader of T was glancing through the book of the Polish Polec’s book this photograph may seem unimposing, photographer Andrzej Polec (1997), Distant Glens and but for the trump researcher it brings an unusual con- firmation of the very few mentions in the literature that the Hutsul shepherds in the Carpathians were still Fig. 1 opposite: Village of Kosmach—Dmytro Shatruk making and playing the trump, so-called drymba, in selling drymbas in front of the church. Dmytro (1931– the 20th century. Invited as a guest lecturer to present 1997) was the elder brother of the drymba maker Vasyl the trump at Professor F. Borel’s ethnomusicology Shatruk. Photo: Andrzej Polec 1997, with permission. course, Philippe proposed to create a small team in 10 order to verify what place tors (Wild Horses of the drymba had in con- Fire) (1964) inspired by temporary Hutsul soci- a novel of Mikhaïl Kot- ety. With the strong sup- soubinski. In this Carpa- port of the Neuchâtel In- thian Romeo and Juliet, stitute of Ethnology and Paradzhanov shows with Museum of Ethnography, an ethnographical accu- we started to organize our racy the daily life, rites, research on the Hutsuls and processions of the and their region. 19th-century Hutsul so- Soon, we realised ciety, telling the story of that recent documents Ivan and Marichka, related to the Hutsul were punctuated by several scarce, and that sources drymba tunes. The mys- on Ukrainian history tical atmosphere in the were not very informative film excited our imagina- on this minority. The tion and we became im- ethnonym Hutsul already patient to leave for leads to some confusion Hutsulshchyna. depending on the sources’ Fig. 2. Map of the area. The dotted line shows the Thanks to the help of language, as they are general location of Hutsulshchyna. Polec and his Hutsul called Houtsoules or friends who contacted Goutzouls in French, Huculi in Polish, Hutsuly in the drymba makers and musicians in advance, we could Ukrainian, Gutsuly in Russian, and they are moreover plan to stay for a short time and to prepare carefully often referred to only with the more general terms of our schedule, ten days from May 19 to 29 2001, as a Rusyns, Carpatho-Rusyns or Ruthenes that define the first prospecting ethnomusicological fieldwork around three Carpathian ethnic groups the Hutsuls, the Boikos, the town of Kosiv. We rejoined Polec in Poland and and the Lemkos. In fact, most of the research on the then went by car to the Polish-Ukrainian frontier, which Hutsuls was made by Polish scholars between the two we had to cross with a special bus. As soon as we were World Wars, during the short time this region became on the other side of the border, Yllan, the Ukrainian a Polish province (Galicia). Subsequently, the Hutsul assistant of Polec, drove us to the suburb of Lviv, the region (Hutsulshchyna) belonged to Ukraine and partly capital of the Western part of Ukraine, where we met to Rumania (fig. 2). In Ukraine, during the Soviet Union our host Ivan. The roads got worse and worse as we period, no foreigners were in principle allowed to visit approached the Carpathians. What was our surprise this remote Carpathian periphery. As is still the case as we arrived in the small town of Kosiv when Ivan in- nowadays, the Hutsul were not recognised as a minor- troduced us to his wife, Marichka. This auspicious co- ity, but after the independence of Ukraine in 1991, they incidence was just the first step of our full, neverthe- were able to claim their identity as did other minori- less too short immersion into the Carpathian contem- ties, which leads to very complex Transcarpathian porary world. ethno-nationalist issues. Overcoming the geopolitical complexity, we started From Shepherds to Unrecognised to decipher the Hutsul history and culture, asking our- Ethno-National Minority selves why and how the drymba was still found among LONG WITH THE BOIKOS AND THE LEMKOS, the Hutsul the Hutsul and not among their neighbours, according Aare considered to belong to the Carpatho-Rusyn to sources. We assumed that it was important to inves- ethnic group, somehow descendants from Galician and tigate the musical practices, to identify the Hutsul Bukovinian Rusyn who are believed to have colonized drymba types and the fabrication process in order to the Carpathian mountains beginning in the 6th cen- question the origin of the Hutsul drymba, and to con- tury. Nowadays, the Carpatho-Rusyn ethnic group is firm if the drymba had become an ethnic identity em- widespread in the Carpathians in the border area cross- blem as for the Yakut in Siberia or the Ainu of Japan, ing the Polish, Slovakian, and Ukrainian boundaries, or if it was an old ancestral tradition on the verge of but communities are to be found in the surrounding disappearance. The area we were going to visit was pre- countries as well as in the United States where a Rusyn cisely where Sergei Paradzhanov (Crane 1997: 132) community larger than half a million people settled, made his famous film Shadows of Forgotten Ances- approximately half of the total Rusyn population on 11 the continent. gypsies. These “oprysken” were another peculiarity of Between Rusyns—Hutsuls, Lemkos, and Boikos— Hutsulshchyna that enriched folk songs and tales. They differences are firstly linguistic and then resulting from were organized bands of various origins that plundered the various cultural influences through their history. nobles, making incursions into the plains and taking Their small population size, the lack of a state of their refuge in the mountains; some of them became legend- own, and their geographic isolation contributed to the ary heroes. fact that they are still very little known. Their history, Thanks to its isolation, Hutsulshchyna remained origins, and identification are still subject to contro- a closed pastoral territory away from the world until versy. Peasant peoples, without any codified language, the middle of the 19th century. Then, industrialization political power or local intelligentsia able to express a and agricultural development led to social and cultural national identity, the process of constructing their na- mutation. By the end of the 19th century, the deterio- tional consciousness was particularly complex, and ration of the economic situation and