Kobzars
Kobzars were traditional Ukrainian itinerant bards and musicians who preserved and transmitted epic, religious, and historical song through performance. They typically played plucked instruments such as the kobza, bandura, or other lute-family instruments, and they often accompanied themselves with singing. Their repertoire centered on dumy, long epic poems about legendary heroes, battles, and Cossack history, as well as religious hymns and moral tales. The kobzar role was closely linked to oral culture and collective memory, serving as living archives in periods when written records and formal education were less accessible.
The tradition was historically passed down through communities and families, often by apprenticeships rather than formal
The kobzar tradition faced decline under political repression, social change, and modernization in the 18th–19th centuries,