Tsymbaly / цимбали

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Tsymbaly is an ancient musical instrument consisting of a trapezoidal wooden body and metal strings, which are played by striking with special sticks. The tsymbaly is a stringed musical instrument. It consists of a wooden body, rectangular, often trapezoidal, with strings stretched over it. The upper deck is made of spruce or fir, and the lower deck is made of sycamore. The tsymbaly is a stringed instrument with a magical, crystal metallic sound. It is not easy to learn to play, but efforts and perseverance pay off many times over the sound of the tsymbaly is extremely imaginative and multidimensional, and the performer communicates with the audience on an emotional level, conveying images and mood through the melody.It is impossible to imagine Ukrainian folk music without tsymbaly. This ancient stringed instrument was an important element of weddings and other social events, and folk ensembles always had a tsymbaly player in their lineup (ukrainer.net).

Tsymbaly has an ancient history, is believed that tsymbaly came to Europe with the Romani people, who in their homeland belonged to the musical caste of dom. After the Romani left India, the cymbals spread throughout Europe: Belarus, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, etc. In Ukraine, the cymbals are related to the kobza and bandura, in Central Asia to the Uzbek chang cymbals, and in Russia to the gusli.

This musical instrument is most widespread in Ukraine. There are three exclusively Ukrainian varieties of cymbals:

Boikos (the size of the soundboard is 35-45 cm, or 13.78 - 17.72 inches, played standing up);

Hutsul cymbals (soundboard size 60-90 cm, 23.62 x 35.43 inches, played sitting or standing, hanging the instrument on a belt);

Podillia (deck size 50-60 cm, or 19.69 x 23.62 inches) (folk-orchestra.kharkiv.ua).

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Hutsul Tsymbaly

Hutsul tsymbaly played by famous Hutsul musician Roman Kumlyk at Verkhovyna, Dec 2012.

Ukraine's Got Talent

Ruslana, Eurovision winner 2004, got amazed by the band performance on tsymbaly

Overview of tsymbaly

Brandon Hachkowski has been playing the tsymbaly, the Ukrainian version of the hammer dulcimer, for nearly a decade. He picked up the instrument when he was seven and was taught and inspired by his father.

U Multicultural Channel

Crafting tsymbaly

Craftsmen from the Carpathian village of Kosmach preserve and recreate the ancient art and crafts of the Hutsuls. Here, they still weave spare tires and make bast shoes by hand. People from different regions of Ukraine come here to buy these and other products and order them from abroad.