Abstract
<jats:p>Osyp (Yosyp) Rozdolskyi (1872–1945), a classical philologist, educator, transla- tor, public figure, and distinguished music ethnographer, was a full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (1914), a member of the Ethnographic Commission of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (1929), a full member of the Ukrainian Scientific Society (1930), and one of the founders of Ukrainian ethnomusicology. Rozdolskyi made his first folklore recordings in the summer of 1891. However, until 1900 his collecting activity was limited to textual documentation of songs and folklore prose. He did not record melodies, as he lacked formal musical training. Recognizing the need for a comprehensive study of folk songs, he sought a method to overcome this limitation. The phonograph provided a solution. Its capabilities were well known in Galicia and were evidently discussed in local ethnographic societies in Lviv, including the Ethnographic Commission of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, of which Rozdolskyi had been a member since 1898. On 28–29 April 1900, having borrowed a phono- 34 graph, Rozdolskyi conducted a music-ethnographic expedition in the villages of Kot- suriv and Hryniv near Lviv, using the phonograph for the first time in Galicia to record folk melodies. Rozdolskyi’s meticulous preparation for the expedition is evident from both the quantity and quality of the material collected. Over two days, he recorded at least 51 folk melodies of various genres on approximately ten phonograph cylinders. With the support of the Ethnographic Commission of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, Rozdolskyi continued his phonographic research of Galician folk music. He was thus the first not only in Ukraine, but arguably in Europe and worldwide, to undertake large-scale phonographic documentation of folk music over a region as extensive as Galicia. The melodies later transcribed from Rozdolskyi’s cylinders by S. Liudkevych, including those from Kotsuriv and Hryniv, were published in the col- lection Galician-Ruthenian Folk Melodies (1906, 1908). Rozdolskyi’s phonographic initiative marked the beginning of a new era in mu- sic-ethnographic research in Ukraine. It is difficult to imagine how Ukrainian ethno- musicology might have developed – or whether it would have reached the heights we admire today – had it not been for Rozdolskyi’s pioneering work. The audio docu- ments of folk music from the early twentieth century, preserved thanks to Rozdolskyi, constitute an invaluable treasure, one that few nations in the world can claim. Keywords: Osyp Rozdolskyi’s music-ethnographic activity, phonographic re- cording of folk music, folk melodies, folk music heritage.</jats:p>