There are about 15,500 songs in the UNESCO Fund of Ukraine. There are 500,000 of them in total
No nation in history has such a large number of songs as the Ukrainian people. UNESCO has collected an amazing sound library of folk songs from countries all over the world. There are about 15,500 songs in the fund of Ukraine. Italy is in second place with 6,000 folk songs.
Enthusiastic reviews of Ukrainian folk songs were expressed by well-known foreign figures of science and culture, in particular, the Germans J. Herder and F. Bodenstedt, the Englishman V. Morfil, the French A. Rambo, the Italian D. Ciampoli, the American T. Robinson (Talvi).
So, for example, in 1845, the German poet Friedrich Bodenstedt authoritatively stated in his ethnographic book "Poetic Ukraine": "In no country has the tree of folk poetry borne such majestic fruits, nowhere has the spirit of the people manifested itself in songs so vividly and truthfully as among Ukrainians. What a fascinating breath of longing, what deep, human feelings in the songs sung by a Cossack in a foreign land! What tenderness paired with manly strength permeates his love songs... Indeed, a people who could sing such songs and admire them could not stand on a low level of education. It is interesting that Ukrainian folk poetry is sometimes very similar in its form to the poetry of the most educated nations of Western Europe...".
And this is what the classic of Russian literature, Oleksiy Tolstoy, said about it: "No other nation has shown itself in songs as vividly and beautifully as the Ukrainian people." The same opinion is developed by the Pole Adam Mickiewicz: "The Ukrainian song is a holy tablet that the people protect like their hardened weapon." From this tablet, each generation draws the necessary spiritual values that have been the basis of morality for centuries."
For a Ukrainian, these words sound completely natural, there is no need to strain to understand what is being said. Despite the captivity in which the Ukrainian nation was for several centuries, due to the inexhaustibility of its spiritual primary sources, the song filled the public mood with the spiritual power of faith in a better life, mobilized the people's spirit for cardinal achievements.
Therefore, Academician Mykola Zhulynskyi was right when he said that "such harmony of text and melody, which is expressed by a Ukrainian folk song, is a planetary aesthetic rarity." What an expressive assessment! And then he expressed his admiration in the following words: "This testifies to the giftedness of Ukrainians - creators and bearers of unique folk melos."
By the way, few people know that the first song in the world that sounded in space was Ukrainian! On August 12, 1962, the first Ukrainian cosmonaut P. Popovych, at the request of designer Serhiy Korolev, sang the Ukrainian song "I look at the sky and think". Perhaps there was no time to look for a more appropriate song.
How many songs did our people create? A well-known admirer of Ukrainian folk songs, teacher Lyudmila Nestrugina from Cherkasy region believes that "at least 500,000". Their complete edition, according to her calculations, "would probably cover 200 volumes of 1,000 pages each." No other nation in the world can boast of such a large number of melodious, heartfelt, lyrical and heroic songs that are admired by the whole world, from which outstanding foreign composers, writers, poets are delighted. So it is not by chance that such well-known composers in the musical world as Bach, Brahms, Weber, Haydn, Glinka, Dvořák, Liszt, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Schubert and others turned to the origins of the Ukrainian folk song.-https://uamodna.com /articles/pisnya-dusha-naroda/
Having given humanity a folk song with such a rich ideological and spiritual potential, Ukrainians paved the way to its soul. There is so much emotional fire, imaginative brilliance, and charming melodiousness in Ukrainian songs that it simply captures the spirit. The thinnest and most tender strings of the human soul respond to such singing. In this way, Ukrainians made a significant contribution to enriching spirituality and improving the moral qualities of humanity.
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