Ukrainian Folklore Sound Recordings

Folklore began with the study of words, or what is also called oral literature. In the last few years we have been able to record these spoken words, but, it has been difficult to present these recordings to researchers. Since 1998 I have been interviewing people in villages in Central Ukraine for my research on births, weddings, and funerals. The people have wonderful tales to tell, songs to sing, and valuable information on village life.

On this web page, there is a list of words. The topics listed are discussed somewhere in the 170 hours of recordings. When you CLICK on one topic, you will go to a web page where you will see a list of sub-topics. When one of these is CLICKED, you will go to a page listing the recordings in which that topic is discussed, or another page with sub-sub-topics. Each recording is named after the village where it was made. CLICK on a recording and you will go to a page showing the details of the whole interview and a sound player with the time, or times, when the villagers talked about that topic. CLICK on the TIME (in the green rectangle) and hear the sound; it may take some time to stream the segment and the sound may be broken until it is all downloaded. If you wish to hear another topic on that page, or any other portion of that interview, move the arrow on the sound player so that the appropriate counter time is displayed. Then CLICK the play button.

To return to the Ukrainian Traditional Folklore Website click here.

This project is built in partnership with TAPoR@University of Alberta