Itinerant Musicians of Western Polissia: Mykola Muravets

Abstract

The person and career of the outstanding traveling musician Mykola Muravets from Western Polissia were characterized in general terms on the basis of the newly acquired expedition materials. This notorious hurdy-gurdy player was born in 1906 on the Murava farm near the village of Shtun of the Volodymyr-Volyn District, Volyn Gubernia. At the age of 11, because of burns from a fired gas shell, he completely lost his sight. The boy was distinguished by his beautiful voice and had an excellent memory and musical ear, so the fellow villagers advised his parents to send him to study with an experienced and a well-known hurdy-gurdy player by the nickname "Matiya".
 Having quickly mastered the basics of the instrument, Mykola began his itinerant performance activity, which was quite prolific and, in certain periods, even highly paid during the time of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Besides house shows and street performances, he also performed at cathedrals, secular mass gatherings, and in fairs and markets.
 In 1944, the musician’s family could not avoid the calamity of the Second World War. During the events of the Volyn tragedy, the Poles burned down his house with his beloved hurdy-gurdy inside. Due to his family’s poverty, he would never manage to replace his hurdy-gurdy. However, in that moment, a new stage of his musicianship began with the transition to using another instrument - the bandonion – to continue his busking.
 Unlike the hurdy-gurdy playing period, when Muravets dealt mostly with invitations to holidays and celebrations, the following period encouraged the musician to do more busking. The peasants treated the busker with respect and took care of him. Whoever was richer invited him to their houses to eat, spend the night, sing songs, and gifted him with headscarves, fabric, and money. In addition to invitations to houses and street forms of busking, a very important part of Mykola’s busking was participating in religious feasts at churches and monasteries. Mykola Muravets sang akathists, prayed for the health of the living and peace of the deceased, and the offspring of livestock. His knowledge of the Psalter, the Divine Liturgy, and skill in reciting the Akathist led to the high authority of the busker and strengthened his position in the social hierarchy of the village, equating him to a clergyman. The main ritual duties consisted in mourning the deceased in his own and other villages.
 In addition to being honoured among the fellow villagers, Mykola Muravets was greatly respected among blind musicians, whom he repeatedly hosted at his own home for meetings. Particularly, the buskers of the entire district elected a blind man, Mikolay, as their leader.
 There is a genre palette in the repertoire of Mykola Muravets. At the beginning of his career, he mainly performed only religious and moralistic works, which he mainly learnt from his teacher – Matvyi Kovalchuk, and the rest later from other blind musicians during busking.Mykola Muravets died on May 22nd, 1995.