Dumka (musical genre)

dumy, "a Slavic (specifically Ukrainian) epic ballad … generally thoughtful or melancholic in character".

[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.

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.

[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.