Oskar Kolberg’s Study of the Musical Culture of the Hutsuls

Henryk Oskar Kolberg (1814–1890), a musician, composer, the greatest Polish ethnographer and one of the fathers of European ethnomusicology, collected over 20,000 folk songs, dances, and instrumental melodies from the territory of today’s Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and other Slavic countries. The musical culture of the Hutsuls was an object of Oskar Kolberg’s interest in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The research material related to this region was collected by Kolberg, similarly as in other regions, from two different types of sources. The core of his work consisted of field notes written down during his few trips to that region. Another way of collecting information for Kolberg’s publication included an extensive study of already published resources – historical and ethnographical works, collections of songs, short articles, etc. Kolberg’s study of the musical culture of the Hutsuls is a very valuable source for the history of the culture of this part of Europe.