Dumka (
Ukrainian: думка, dúmka, plural думки, dúmky) is a musical term introduced from the
Ukrainian language, with
cognates in other
Slavic languages. The word dumka literally means "thought". Originally, it was the
diminutive form of the Ukrainian term duma, pl. dumy, "a Slavic (specifically Ukrainian) epic ballad … generally thoughtful or melancholic in character".[1] Classical composers drew on the
harmonic patterns in the
folk music to inform their more formal classical
compositions.[citation needed]
The composition of dumky became popular after the publication of an
ethnological study and analysis and a number of illustrated lectures made by the Ukrainian composer
Mykola Lysenko in 1873 and 1874 in
Kyiv and
Saint Petersburg. They were illustrated by live performances by the blind
kobzarOstap Veresai, who performed a number of dumky, singing and accompanying himself on the
bandura. Lysenko's study was the first to specifically analyse the melodies and the accompaniment played on the bandura,
kobza or
lira of the epic dumy.[citation needed]
A natural part of the process of transferring the traditional folk form to a formal classical milieu was the appropriation of the dumka form by Slavic composers, most especially by the Czech composer
Antonín Dvořák. Thus, in classical music, dumka came to mean "a type of instrumental music involving sudden changes from melancholy to exuberance".[1] Though dumky are generally characterized by a gently plodding, dreamy duple rhythm, many examples are in
triple metre, including Dvořák's
Slavonic dance (Op. 72 No. 4). His last and best-known
piano trio,
No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90, has six movements, each of which is a dumka; the work is often referred to by its subtitle, Dumky Trio.[2]
Examples
Major examples in the classical repertoire include:
S. I. Gritsa (Hrytsa) Dumi vidayushcheyesya dostoyaniye ukrainskoy kulturi (Dumy a remarkable product of Ukrainian culture) Musica anticqua Europae orientalis II Bydgosz, 1969.(In Russian)