Cover of the recording “Chornobyl Songs Project: Living Culture from a Lost World.”
The CD “Chornobyl Songs Project: Living Culture from a Lost World” by Ensemble Hilka was released by the renowned Smithsonian Folkways label in April, almost 29 years to the date of the infamous event at the nuclear plant in Chornobyl. The album is the culmination of a mission that began in 2011, when noted ethnomusicologist, singer and musician Maria Sonevytsky produced the “Chornobyl Song Project,” featuring the vocal group Ensemble Hilka.
At that time, the ensemble performed a series of enthusiastically received concerts in New York, at Princeton University, in Washington and in Philadelphia. The concerts were accompanied by projected archival footage and photographs coordinated by director Virlana Tkacz and the Yara Arts Group. These concerts showcased village songs from the Chornobyl and Polissia regions that had been collected between 1979 and 1998 by ethnomusicologist Dr. Yevhen Yefremov.
A foremost Ukrainian expert in polyphonic singing styles of central and northern Ukraine, he created the legendary Drevo ensemble in Kyiv and has taught numerous master classes in women’s and men’s village singing style. Under his direction, the ensemble – consisting of Suzanna Denison, Brian Dolphin, Cherrymae Golston, J. R. Hankins, Julian Kytasty, Eva Salina Primack, Ethel Raim, Willa Roberts, Caitlin Romtvedt, Maria Sonevytsky, Nadia Tarnawsky, Shelley Thomas and Dr. Yefremov himself – spent several days in the studio recording the repertoire. The resulting album presents a song cycle of traditional and ritual songs vividly voiced by the extraordinary vocal talents of the ensemble.
The album opens with two songs from the winter cycle. The whole ensemble sings the koliada “Oi Pan Khaziayin, Chy Ye Ty Vdoma?” accompanied by fiddle. The men of the ensemble follow with a reverential rendition of the church carol “Oi na Richtsi, na Yordani.”
Segueing into the songs of springtime, the women sing “Oi Dai Bozhe Vesnu Pochat,” calling forth the spring, their sharp voices ensuring that everyone hears the song. “Strila” tells of a youth struck down by lightning, which only Domna approaches and carries to the church, where miraculous events take place. They follow with “Vasyl, Vasyl,” a song from Richytsia. “Kalyna-Malyna Nad Yarom Stoyala,” like many Ukrainian folk songs, uses images of natural objects to represent actual events: the kalyna has withered in the heat of the sun; the daughter is not recognized by her mother, her beauty worn away by a young child; there are also a cruel mother-in-law and a domineering husband.
The summer songs include “Oi Po Horke, Po Krutoi,” in which Messrs. Kytasty and Dolphin and the group sing this soldier’s song that has now become part of the village folk songs. In “Provedu Ya Rusalochky” from Vilshanka, the vibrant and resonant women’s voices direct the rusalky (water nymphs) away from the village. “Nasha Khata Na Pomosti,” a lyrical song from Korohod, has the brother telling his wife to hide the food and dishes, as his sister is coming to drink.
Ms. Primack sings the harvest song “Ne Kui, Ne Kui, Da Zezulko Rebaya” in a solo setting, her voice expressing the distraught feelings of the young woman who waited all night for her beloved only to be scorned. “Kalyna-Malyna Luhovaya” is another song where metaphors abound. Here, Ms. Roberts plaintively sings of the girl who learns that she will not be courted by her paramour, but that he will invite her to his wedding. “D’oi Ty Bereza Tonkaya, Kudravaya,” a summer field song from Novyi Myr, tells about the travails heaped on the poor daughter-in-law by her “mother.” The ensemble returns on “A v Chuzhoho Sokola,” in which they wish that frogs and fish crawl all over the head of their overbearing overseer.
The men’s voices lead the ensemble through “Oi z-za Dnoi Horki,” morality song from Lubianka that tells of the young woman who gives herself to a handsome boy and then has to be married off to a widower. The four men sing the Chumak song “Da Kosyv Kosar,” a repository of morals and teachings.
The wedding cycle begins with “Rozpletala Mene Diadina,” where the attending women are asked to take sticks and defend the young married woman from having her long hair unbraided and bound in a kerchief. With “Oi Shcho My Skhotily” the women of the ensemble announce that they have done what they wanted to do – transformed the young girl into a beautiful woman, – and that they can do much more, if they so desire.
Ms. Raim lovingly sings the song that will soon be sung soon after a wedding, the lullaby “Kotu, Kotu, Kotochku” promising a sweet honey cake for the sleeping child.
To complete the yearly cycle, the album finishes with a reprise of the opening song “Oi Pan Khaziayin.”
Listening to these songs, one is struck by the exotic and yet familiar sounds created by the stunning polyphony of the ensemble voices. These village songs are not sung only by women; the men of the ensemble are just as present with their voices adding depth to the women’s parts. Together, the Ensemble Hilka voices express the energy and the power of the songs, keeping alive the traditions that are often lost as the world gets smaller.
The album is a CD Extra and contains 19 songs as well as a printable 18-page book with extensive notes and information about the project. It is available through the Smithsonian Folkways http://www.folkways.si.edu/ website.