Ritual Song

The ritual song is a general term for songs genetically linked to folk rites of the calendar and family cycles, accompanying ritual actions and bearing a magical-incantatory function. Calendar-ritual songs are divided into winter (koliadkas, shchedrivkas), spring (vesniankas, hayivkas), summer (Kupala, harvest songs), and autumn ones. Family-ritual songs are wedding, christening, and funeral laments. The ritual song is the oldest stratum of folklore, in which pagan conceptions of nature, the cosmos, and fertility are preserved. A foundational study of calendar ritual was carried out by Oleksa Voropai in 'The Customs of Our People' (1958). Ritual song was also studied by Khvedir Vovk and Volodymyr Hnatiuk. Ritual melos inspired professional composers — Mykola Lysenko and Mykola Leontovych.