Kolomyika

Kolomyika

 

(name derived from the town of Kolomyia). (1) A short song resembling the chastushka; a genre of Ukrainian folk poetry. It consists of a rhymed couplet or quatrain; each line has 14 syllables, with the caesura after the eighth syllable.

Zaspivaly syni hory, zashumily riky;

Zakarpattia i Ukraina ziednalys’ naviky!

The kolomyika is sung throughout the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR. T. G. Shevchenko based his tonic verse on the kolomyika, and many Ukrainian poets used its rhythmic structure, notably I. P. Kotliarevskii, O. Iu. Fed’kovich, S. V. Rudanskii, and I. Ia. Franko.

(2) A Ukrainian Hutzul folk dance accompanied by a comic song and having a 2/4 meter and a lively tempo.

REFERENCES

Ukrains’ka radians’ka narodna pisnia. L’vov, 1950.
Hrinchenko, M. O., and V. H. Khomenko. “Kolomyiky i chastushky.” In Ukrains’ka narodna poetychna tvorchist’, vol. 1. Kiev, 1958.