Kobzar


Kobzar’

 

a Ukrainian folk singer who accompanies himself on the kobza (bandura), a type of plucked stringed instrument. The songs and dumy (epic-lyric songs) of the kobzari expressed the social aspirations of the toilers, primarily the peasantry, and glorified the heroes of the national struggle against foreign invaders. The art of the kobzar’ reached a high level in the 16th and 17th centuries. Famous kobzari of the 19th and 20th centuries included Andrei Shut (died 1873), Ostap Veresai (1803–90), Ivan Kriukovskii (1820–85), Fedor Kholodnyi (1832–1902), and Mikhail Kravchenko (1858–1917).