Query about psal'my

[nataliek]

Dear Seelangs list members,

I need some help.  I'm working on Ukrainian funerary poetry and I'm having a
hard time getting information on psal'my, not the ones of David in the
Psaltyr, but the kind that babtsi sing over the deceased. Sventsits'kyi says
that they originate in the hymns of Ephraem of Syria and that they were part
of the church's attempt to counter-balance the rather pagan elements found in
laments. My guess is that they are of seminary origin and then swallowed by
the folk milieu.  I have found one reference that says you could hire a
seminarian to write a psalm for your dead relatives on
Provody/Radunytsia/Fomina Nedilia.

I'm not so much interested in origins.  Frankly, any sort of information would
do.  I was hoping to get some information on psal'my in the context of classic
descriptions of funerals from the 19th, early 20th centuries.  I have the
description by Hnatiuk and Sventsits'ky.  I have Chubyns'kyi's work.  Both
have lots of stuff on laments; nothing on psal'my.  Would that mean the
psal'my weren't performed then?  I don't think so.  I think they were simply
not recorded because they were not considered folk.  I could be wrong, of
course.  For one thing, somehow all of these classic scholars got people to
dictate lament texts.  It is impossible to get people to dictate now, even
though people do lament in rural Ukraine and can go on for hours.  Perhaps our
classic scholars wrote the laments from memory rather than from dictation.  I
could do this.  They probably could have also.

In any case, all guidance and suggestions are welcome.

Natalie Kononenko
Kule Chair of Ukrainian Ethnography
University of Alberta
Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
441C Arts Building
Edmonton, AB Canada T6G 2E6
http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/uvp/
Phone: 780-492-6810

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