Hnat Honcharenko

Honcharenko had in his repertoire four dumy, epic poems set to music: He also sang numerous satirical-humorous songs and played instrumental dance melodies.

In the January edition of "Kievan Antiquities", in the article "About a new variant of Olexiy Popovych", Sumtsov wrote that Honcharenko had visited Kharkiv numerous times and was familiar with various sacred and humorous songs, including the dumy "The Escape of the Three Brothers from Oziv" and "The Poor Widow".

Tykhovsky noted that Honcharenko was quiet and unassuming, that he played very well and sang distinctly, and that "it would be very nice to record from him his melodies and the musical accompaniment of the dumy".

In 1908 Lesia Ukrainka, with her husband Klyment Kvitka, recorded on phonograph the singing of Hnat Honcharenko and these wax cylinders were sent to Filaret Kolessa in Lviv for transcription.

He sings dumy in a quick recitation, clearly defining the accents, generally in his singing musical declamation takes precedence over the melodic element, the ancient dorian mode, with two melodic centres, with fourth and fifth groupings of the melody, the ending of the melody on the second degree of the scale, these are archaic characteristics, that distinguish Honcharenko as a singer of the old school, the inheritor of the best kobzar traditions...

...Looking at the recordings of his recitations made on phonograph, with his mastery accompaniments, we have the basis to feel that both Ostap Veresai and Hnat Honcharenko were two of the greatest kobzars that we have known.