ТЕСТОВА

One of the most outstanding wandering singer-instrumentalists in the Western Ukrainian Polissya region was Andriyan Danylyuk (1929–2005), a native of the village of Hirnyky in the Volyn region. Equipped first with a reel tape recorder and later with a cassette recorder, he devoted significant effort to recording his repertoire, as well as collecting materials from his colleagues. In this capacity, he proved to be like a diligent and productive folklorist, whose primary professional goal was to compile and maintain a working collection of materials. As a result, his efforts left an invaluable legacy of numerous audio recordings and a few handwritten notebooks.

Andriyan Danylyuk himself was a remarkable wandering performer, distinguished by his vocal skill and mastery of the harmonica. His personal collection comprises 46 cassettes and 32 reels of various durations, primarily featuring religious and moralistic psalms, alongside occasional folk songs. Of these recordings, 212 pieces were performed by Danylyuk himself, while 44 were performed by other singers, including some prose genres. Particularly notable are his six meticulously filled notebooks, created with the assistance of his wife and children. These notebooks contain predominantly devotional texts drawn from the Holy Scriptures, which he used as a basis for crafting his repertoire, along with already composed psalms and prayers. The total number of works in these notebooks approaches 300.

Danylyuk’s repertoire can be categorized into several genre groups, with an emphasis on religious and moralistic themes: (1) church psalms and songs – reflecting biblical and devotional themes, including narratives about Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, saints, Christian virtues, and warnings about the Last Judgment and the afterlife; (2) christian carols (koliady) and New Year songs (shchedry); (3) folk ballads and songs – addressing themes such as family relationships, condemning immoral actions, and reflecting on war; (4) prayers.

At every level of his musical and poetic creativity, Danylyuk excelled. He absorbed the repertoire of his predecessors, the traditional hurdy-gurdy players, while preserving many stylistic traits in his musical manner. His song plots are highly developed and align with classical dramaturgical structures, with texts often spanning 40–80 stanzas. His singing and harmonica accompaniment are imbued with original qualities, marked by improvisation, rhythmic freedom, harmonic richness, and virtuoso interplay between the instrumental and vocal parts.
Based on the information provided about Andriyan Danylyuk’s creative style, one can appreciate the value and uniqueness of his artistic legacy. His performances skillfully combined individual and regional traits, evident in the masterful composition and nuanced interpretation of both traditional and innovative songs. Unfortunately, comparing him with other bearers of the same tradition is difficult, as evidence of such parallels is scarce today. For this reason, the name and work of this Polissyan harmonist deserve wider dissemination and recognition among scholars and enthusiasts of Ukrainian folklore.