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Vb. THE TORBANISTS: XXth century
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CHAPTER I
In the early 20th century,
only a handful of torbanists still played on. After the Revolution
it altogether fell out of favor with the new order. Because of
it's associations with the upper classes/nobility/gentry, with
Hetman Ivan Mazepa (whom Soviet era Scholars treat
as a traitor for siding with the Swedes), and the "foreign"
Polish nobility, it was discouraged as an instrument of insufficiently
"proletarian" provenance.
Vasyl' Shevchenko was of the last remaining torbanists (born in Kuban regionm he worked as a stage hand at the Bolshoi Theater, and later was a schoolteacher). His group in Moscow ca.1912 included another torbanist whose name is now unknown. Vasyl' Shevchenko's own torban made by luthier Krasnoshchekov is preserved at the Glinka museum.
An unknown torbanist in a postcard from 1908 (note the lutenistic playing position):
Another postcard from the same era, depicting the SAME trio (the instrument seems to have lost the upper pegbox, unless the previous illustration shows it restored. Note the lutenistic playing position):
During this period many old torbans seem to have found new uses as banduras, frets removed, using bandura technique, as fewer and fewer people knew what torbans were, and what techniques were appropriate on them.
The last known TORBAN virtuoso during the first half of the 20th Century was Vassily Svarog, also known as a guitarist-composer as well as a major realist painter. Here he is pictured in a 1911 self-portrait with his TORBAN (Note the presence of glued bodyfrets! unusual on Torbans).
In recent times attempts have been made to revive the original fretted kobza and the torban. In the beginning this has met with only limited success, but there are a few individuals that are working to preserve the authentic kobza tradition. They call themselves Kobzarsky Tsekh (i.e. Kobzar Guild). It is led by Volodymyr Kushpet, Taras Kompanichenko, Eduard Drach inter alia.
Volodymyr Kushpet teaches Kobza at the Folk Music Department of Kiev Conservatory and has some students too.....
Currently the only known Torbanists are Volodymyr Kushpet and Taras Kompanichenko of Kyiv, Ukraine, and both were singers-kobzars and bandurists who only started to play the torban recently. Theis instruments were made by Mykola Budnyk "based" on instruments in the musuems in Kyiv, although it looks rather crude and "modernized" in the photograph below.
Anatoly Shpakov is a lutenist that has been also playing torban, although he no longer owns one. Here he is pictured with the Lysenko museum Torban:
Eduard Drach is great singer and kobza player, as well as a composer and a poet. The CD that includes 3 of his finest performances is available at OBERIG Accociation, 32 Pushkinska St, Kiev, Ukraine. Tel: (38-044)235-5039, or directly from the ARTIST.
Mykola Budnyk, fine singer, kobzar, musicologist and luthier died before reaching the age of 50 in 2001. Recordings of his performances of dumas with kobza accompaniment were collected on a CD that has been available in MP3 format.
To go to the his MP3 page (cyrillic required): click on the photo...
Taras Kompanichenko is now one of the most prominent members of the Kobzar Guild. His CD is available here (click on the photo):
Likewise Volodymyr Kushpet, his 2-CD set is available here:
Marjana Sadovska is not a torbanist but a brilliant singer and musician (and not only of Ukrainian folk-songs) and a truly original ultra-avangarde artist (click on her photo):
This writer has his own web-site. Click on the portrait:
