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The kolomyika (, ; also spelled kolomeyka or kolomeike) is a Hutsuls (Ukrainians) music genre that combines a fast-paced folk dance and comedic rhymed verses (танець-приспівка). It includes a type of performance dance developed by the Ukrainian diaspora in North America.
It is named after the town of Kolomyia, in the Hutsuls of Eastern Galicia, in what is now part of western Ukraine. It was historically popular among the Ukrainians and Polish people, and is also known (as the kalamajka) in north-eastern Slovakia where some Ukrainians settled in Austro-Hungarian times.Baš, Angelos. 1980. Slovensko ljudsko izročilo: pregled etnologije Slovencev. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, p. 228.
Kolomyikas are still danced in Ukraine and Poland as a tradition on certain holidays, during festivities, or simply for fun. In Ukraine's west, they are popular dances for .
The kolomyika can be a combination of tune, song, and dance with some recordings having a line of singing alternating with a line of instrumental melody, whilst others are purely instrumental. The text tends to be in rhyming couplets and is a humorous commentary on everyday life. Its simple 2/4 rhythm and structures make the kolomyika very adaptable, and the text and melodies of thousands of different versions have been annotated. One collection done by Volodymyr Shukhevych in 1905, contains more than 8,000. Although a very old form they continue to be popular due to their fast, energetic, and exciting melodies, often with syncopation.
The kolomyika-style verse of the song is syllabic, consisting of two lines of 14 syllables (or of four lines: 8 + 6 + 8 + 6). This is typical not only for a kolomyika, but also for historical, everyday, ballad, and other Ukrainian folk songs. It was very often used by Taras Shevchenko.
The National Anthem of Ukraine was also written in kolomyika verse.
A dance similar to kolomyika is hutsulka. Hutsulkas have a faster rhythm than kolomyikas and originated later, approximately in 16th century. Hutsulka or kozachok often constitutes the final phase of a dance, after the kolomyika has reached its climax. Гуцулка in Українська музична енциклопедія. vol. 1, p.562
Kolomyika is originally a dance song, which is still sung before dancing, and has become a favorite form of lyric song in Western Ukraine, especially in Pokut, where it has gradually supplanted other song forms. It has a dance character and a free combination of stanzas of common or related content, sometimes based only on a closer or further association of thoughts and poetic images."
Its name indicates the place of fixation: the city of Kolomyia, Stanisławów, now Ivano-Frankivsk region in the vicinity of Hutsul-populated areas of the Carpathians. Kolomyia has been historically popular among Polish people, Ukrainians and is also known (dance) in northeastern Slovenia (as kalamajka).
The size of the kolomyika (only two lines in which the words should be placed so that each line had fourteen syllables) contributed to the development of conciseness, stable poetic formulas, economic and accurate use of tropes.
Kolomyikas have a two-dimensional structure: the image of nature of the first line by analogy or contrast enhances the semantic and emotional meaning of the thought expressed in the second line. Sometimes the first line acts as a traditional spice, the content of which is not always related to the next line. Most often it is the beginning "Oh, the cuckoo flew (peacock, swallow)", "On a high wormwood", "Oh, green oak" and others.
Hnatyuk advised writers to learn to create highly artistic images in Kolomyia, using the vernacular, its characteristic inversions, comparisons. Ideological and aesthetic qualities of kolomyikas were highly appreciated by Lesya Ukrainka and M. Kotsyubynsky. Kolomyikas inspired themes, images, motives for many literary works. They are especially organic in the stories and novels of Ivan Franko, L. Martovych, P. Kozlanyuk.
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