MYKOLA TOVKAYLO'S ROLE IN THE REVIVAL OF THE UNIQUE TRADITION OF KOBZAR AND LYR PLAYING IN UKRAINE

Abstract

Mykola Tovkaylo (born 1949) is a master of the Kyiv Kobzar Workshop, a master of making kobzar instruments, a performer of the kobzar repertoire, and a scholar and archaeologist. He was at the origins of the creation of the Kobzar School in Pereyaslav, where the main goal was to revive the ancient tradition of kobzar playing and kobzar workshops in Ukraine. Today in Ukraine there are three workshops: Kyiv and Kharkiv Kobzar Workshop and Lviv Lyrnik Workshop. Kyiv Kobzar Workshop was created in the 1980s. and at its origins stood G. K. Tkachenko (1898 – 1993) – a famous bandurist and artist. In the distant 20s of the XX century. he studied with the outstanding kobzar Petro Drevchenko, preserved and conveyed the kobzar science and passed it on to his students in the 80s of the XX century. The first master of the Kyiv Kobzar Workshop was Mykola Petrovich Budnyk (1953 – 2001). After Budnyk’s death, the Kyiv Kobzar Workshop has been headed by M. T. Tovkaylo to this day. All the brothers of the Kyiv Kobzar Workshop, headed by Mykola Tovkaylo, as well as the brothers of the Kharkiv Kobzar Workshop (master of the workshop Kost’ Cheremskyi) and the Lviv Lyrnik Workshop (master of the workshop Yaroslav Krysko) – have been doing great work for 40 years to return the folk diatonic bandura, Veresayev kobza, wheel lyre, torban, and lute to the musical space of Ukraine. As a result of this activity, at the initiative of G. K. Tkachenko, the employees of the Reserve, headed by M. I. Sikorsky, in 1989, the Museum of Kobzarism in Pereyaslav was solemnly opened (today it is part of the National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve "Pereyaslav"). The activities of the Kyiv Kobzarism Workshop – the workshop master M. T. Tovkaylo, together with the Museum of Kobzarism, carry out active educational activities among visitors to the institution, and in every possible way popularize the artificially destroyed traditional culture of Ukrainians – kobzarism and lyrnik playing. At the 19th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which took place on December 5, 2024 in Paraguay, the Ukrainian “Program for the Safeguarding of the Kobzar-Lyrny Tradition” was included in the Register of Good Practices for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the United Nations (UNESCO).