Last year, Folkways Reporter Clara Haizlett met with Ukrainian tsymbalist Vsevolod Sadovyj over Zoom to understand the connection between the Appalachian hammer dulcimer and a Ukrainian folk instrument called the tsymbaly. At the time they met, it was just a few months after the war in Ukraine started. Haizlett caught up with him again this year to see how he and his family are doing.
This story originally aired in the July 23, 2023 episode of Inside Appalachia.
In a story from Inside Appalachia that aired last year, Folkways Reporter Clara Haizlett explored the connection between the Appalachian hammer dulcimer and a Ukrainian folk instrument called the tsymbaly. Over the course of her research, she met Ukrainian tsymbalist Vsevolod Sadovyj over Zoom.
When Haizlett spoke with Sadovyj in May of last year, it was just a few months after the war in Ukraine started. At the time, Sadovyj was living in his hometown of Lviv. Now, Sadovyj is in Ireland.
Sadovyj and his family are among the millions of Ukrainians who have left their homes since the start of the war. It’s caused Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, displacing people within Ukraine, across Europe and around the world.
Just days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sadovyj’s wife and children crossed the border into Poland, eventually making their way to Ireland. Sadovyj helped them with the move, but then returned to Lviv, alone.
Ukrainian Tsymbalist Vsevolod Sadovyj (left) and his family.
Courtesy of Vsevolod Sadovyj
“Then I had to go back to Ukraine, because we had still some concerts and touring and recordings to do,” he said.
Sadovyj was separated from his family for almost a year.
“So all the year, we were speaking in the messengers and video calls, and mostly I’ve been living alone,” he said.
During that time, his work as a professional musician and music teacher was actually thriving. With the onset of the war, COVID-19 took a backseat. People began gathering again, organizing benefit concerts to support troops on the front lines — some of whom were musicians prior to joining the armed forces.
“So we gathered a lot of funds to support them in the special needs, which are not covered by the government,” he said.
Things like night vision scopes and drones.
“The concerts were even more soulful,” he said. “Because it’s not about only the entertainment, but the point was to support our friends and our relatives.”
Sadovyj says it was a critical moment to be a part of his community — but at the same time, he was separated from his family.
“I was at a crossroads of some sort…should I stay or should I go?” he said. “I missed all the year of my little son growing up, which is like something which will never turn back.”
He decided to go, leaving behind students and bandmates and a thriving career. He joined his family in Galway, Ireland. It’s a colorful coastal city known for folk music.
Ukrainian Tsymbalist Vsevolod Sadovyj now lives in Galway, Ireland.
Courtesy of Vsevolod Sadovyj
“Galway is a really good place to play on the streets and I saw a lot of musicians,” he said. “A lot of guys with guitars are singing songs. A lot of guys are playing traditional [music].”
Sadovyj says he’s always felt a strong connection to Irish folk music. It was actually one of the reasons he and his wife decided on Ireland instead of another European country.
“In Ukraine, we were really fond of Western European folklore, and especially northern folklore,” he said. “Irish was this special one from the favorite lists.”
Since moving there, Sadovyj has started playing the mandolin.
“My wife’s mandolin, which I never touched before, it’s so well fit to Irish music,” he said.
He brought his own instruments from Ukraine, too. He’s been busking on the streets, playing tsymbaly and sharing Ukrainian folk music with passersby.
“I’ve decided also to share something because I have this instrument, which would be interesting for people to see,” he said.
There is an Irish version of the hammer dulcimer, but it’s not common in traditional Irish music.
“It was something really unusual [for a street instrument], and a lot of people were just staying for a while just to see, just to hear,” he said.
It’s not the first time Sadovyj has introduced Ukrainian folk music to people outside of Ukraine. He’s traveled extensively, sharing his music and culture on tour in the U.S. and other parts of Europe.
“It’s something natural for me but the difference probably is that I change the point of where the home is,” he said.
Now home is Ireland. He’s met several people while playing tsymbaly on the streets in Galway, including a couple from Appalachia and a woman from Iran.
“I met the woman from Iran and she said it reminds her of her motherland,” he said. “Because they have a very similar instrument in Iran which is traditional for them, the santur…that means ‘the sound of sea waves.’”
Well before the hammer dulcimer arrived in Appalachia or the tsymbaly found its way to Ukraine, it was called the santur. It’s thought to have originated in what is now Iran, where it then made its way around the world.
Sadovyj is now part of this process: of people coming and going, leaving behind and starting anew — with instruments in tow and music stored within.
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This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council.
The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.
This week on Inside Appalachia, a Ukrainian musician reflects on what music means during wartime. And there’s a growing number of a certain kind of blood-sucking arachnid — and diseases that come with it. We also sit in on one of the natural wonders of the Great Smoky Mountains.
This week, a Ukrainian musician reflects on what music means during wartime.
And there’s a growing number of a certain kind of blood-sucking arachnid — and diseases that come with it.
We also sit in on one of the natural wonders of the Great Smoky Mountains.
You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
Last year, Folkways Reporter Clara Haizlett reported about the Appalachian hammered dulcimer, and its Ukrainian relative, the tsymbaly. Along the way, we met Ukrainian musician Vsevolod Sadovyj, who was in Ukraine as the country fought against the Russian invasion.
Haizlett recently caught up with the tsymbaly player over Zoom and brought us an update.
Ticking Off The Trouble Of Ticks
Warm weather sends more people outside. But enjoying nature has it’s inherent risks, including ticks which can cause disease. Pictured is the black-legged tick, or deer tick, which can spread Lyme disease.
Credit: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
With the exception of a cold snap on Christmas Eve, Appalachia had a mild winter. And now we’re paying the price, with a surge of ticks. Appalachian social media has seen a steady stream of complaints about the arachnids, Lyme disease and alpha-gal syndrome.
Producer Bill Lynch reached out to regional epidemiologist Daniel Barker-Gumm and Steven Eshenaur, the health officer for the Kanawha County Health Department, to learn more.
Firefly Magic In The Great Smoky Mountains
Not all bug stories are bad stories. Jacqui Sieber from WUOT takes us deep into the Smoky Mountains to watch lightning bugs, also called fireflies.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Patrick Couch and Kay, Frank Hutchinsen, Jean Ritchie, Hazel Dickens, Paul Loomis, and Tyler Childers.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
You might be familiar with a traditional instrument called the mountain or lap dulcimer. But there’s another, lesser-known dulcimer in Appalachia called the hammer dulcimer. It’s a bigger, stationary instrument that isn’t related to the lap dulcimer at all. In fact, it’s a relative of a Ukrainian instrument called the tsymbaly.
You might be familiar with a traditional instrument called the mountain or lap dulcimer. But there’s another, lesser-known dulcimer in Appalachia called the hammer dulcimer. It’s a bigger, stationary instrument that isn’t related to the lap dulcimer at all. In fact, it’s a relative of a Ukrainian instrument called the tsymbaly.
The Hammer Dulcimer And Its Ukrainian Relative
When I first learned about the connection between the Appalachian hammer dulcimer and the Ukrainian tsymbaly, I was intrigued. With just a quick glance at the two instruments, there’s no doubt they are related. But how? With 5,000 miles of ocean and a land mass in between, where was the link?
To start my investigation, I talked with Lynette Swiger, a hammer dulcimer player from Fairmont, West Virginia. She’s a retired elementary school teacher and adjunct professor at Fairmont State University’s West Virginia Folklife Center.
I visited Swiger at her farmhouse in Marion County. She sat on a stool behind a large wooden board laced with exposed strings. The afternoon sunlight illuminated her hands as they moved across the board, gently drumming the strings with wooden hammers that resemble little skis. The music rippled and rolled, resounding into the air.
Clara Haizlett
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Lynette Swiger is a hammer dulcimer player from Marion County, West Virginia.
Swiger was introduced to the hammer dulcimer when she was a teenager.
“My mother was the local 4-H leader and there was a man from Manninton called Russel Fluharty,” she said.
At the time, the hammer dulcimer tradition in north central West Virginia was beginning to fade away. According to Swiger, Fluharty single-handedly kept it alive. He was called “the dulcimer man.” When Russell played for Swiger’s 4-H group, it was the first time she had ever heard the hammer dulcimer.
“And when he left, I wanted to play that instrument,” she recalled.
Swiger had her eye on a dulcimer made by a local woodworker, which cost $125. She said she got down to pennies to make up that $125.
“I remember I poured it all into a brown paper lunch bag and tied it at the top with a piece of string and took it to Ralph Campbell’s house and plunked it down on his coffee table,” she said.
A Common Ancestor
Swiger learned to play hammer dulcimer in the traditional West Virginia style. And although the approach is unique to the region, many versions of the instrument are played across the world. Swiger told me our hammer dulcimer is a descendant of the hawkbrett, an old German instrument.
“Hawkbrett means chopping block, so you would chop with your little hammers,” she said.
As people migrated, the hawkbrett did, too. It made its way west, through Great Britain, Ireland and eventually to Appalachia, where it became known as the hammer dulcimer. It also migrated to the east, taking root along the way, including in the mountains of Ukraine. There it was known as the tsymbaly.
When European immigrants came to work in the Appalachian coal fields, they each brought their own version of the hawkbrett — the tsymbaly and the hammer dulcimer.
“The two instruments existed, side by side, right here in Marion County, West Virginia and really never crossed over for a variety of reasons,” Swiger explained.
As a musician and teacher of folklore, Swiger wanted to figure out why. Through her research, she found that the hammer dulcimer is a simpler instrument, while the tsymbaly evolved to be larger, more elaborate and ornate. The isolation of the mountains and the ethnic separation in coal camps also impeded cross pollination between the two.
Appalachian Music Makes Its Debut In Western Ukraine
In 2013, Swiger presented her research about the differences and similarities between the tsymbaly and hammer dulcimer at a conference in western Ukraine. So, of course, she packed her dulcimer.
“So I’m going down the Pittsburgh Airport, wheeling this trapezoid on a wooden box, it’s half as big as me, and people are giving me the oddest looks,” she said. “And then I’m telling the airport workers, ‘please be careful with it’ … I have ‘fragile’ written all over it. And they’re saying ‘what is it?’”
But when she got to Ukraine, it was a different story.
“I get it off the luggage rack and one of the handlers hands it to me. And he says ‘tsymbaly!’ And I said, ‘Yes! Yes!’ And I’m wheeling it down the airport and people are saying ‘tsymbaly, tsymbaly!’ … They knew exactly what it was,” she said.
Swiger recalled that she felt right at home in the mountains of Ukraine.
“When we walked into the mountains, the people were just common mountain people, just like they are here. People would come out of their house and wave to us…their laundry was hanging on the lines,” she said. “I mean it was just like being at home.”
At the opening session of the conference, Swiger and her hammer dulcimer took center stage.
“Everyone was there,” she said. “And it was very hushed and quiet. I sat down with that instrument, and they really wanted to hear Appalachian music played on their national instrument.”
The hammer dulcimer community is still active in Appalachia, but the presence of tsymbaly has largely faded away. And since I couldn’t find a tsymbalist here in Appalachia, I decided to look to the source. After some intense internet sleuthing, I found my guy.
Vsevolod Sadovyj is a classically educated musician and multi-instrumentalist from Lviv, Ukraine. I met Sadovyj over Zoom, in typical millennial fashion. He wore a hoodie and hipster glasses. A drum set filled the screen behind him, speakers lined the shelves and I spotted a keyboard peaking into the frame. It was the home of a musician.
Sadovyj’s tsymbaly was much more ornate than Swiger’s hammer dulcimer.
“It’s decorated in the mountain style, with a lot of colored glass [decorations],” he said. “It’s got a lot of wooden elements…steel strings.”
Sadovyj lives near the Carpathian mountains of western Ukraine, a terrain which has greatly influenced the traditional music of the region.
“The scale and the tempo is precisely matched to the landscape,” he said. “And you’re always going down and going up and going down and going up. It’s 90 percent instrumental music, really fast and highly decorated melodies, fast tempos and rich in ornaments.”
Sadovyj said nowadays not many people play tsymbaly. It’s heavy and hard to tune.
“There is a joke, it says that the tsymbalist…half of his life, he’s tuning his tsymbaly. And the other part of his life he’s playing on an untuned one,” he said with a laugh.
But Sadovyj has taught himself how to play, drawing inspiration from traditional music and blending it with his classical training and contemporary interests.
“I think one life is not enough for going through all the traditions of tsymbaly just in our mountains,” he said.
Sadovyj is a full-time musician and music teacher. He plays in a group called “Lemko Bluegrass Band,” whose style blends traditional Ukrainian music with bluegrass. In the past several months, he and his fellow musicians have been playing gigs to raise money in support of Ukrainian troops. Lviv, the city where Sadovyj lives, has been mostly spared from the violence in eastern parts of the country.
Sadovyj said there’s a growing trend of young people like him who are interested in preserving traditional music and Ukrainian culture, an act which feels significant, especially amidst the current circumstances.
“The traditional arts, the folk music, the dances…it all matters,” he said. “We have treasures we see around us. I want to listen to it [traditional music]. I want to share it with my friends.”
A Meeting Of The Musicians
Clara Haizlett
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Hammer dulcimer player Lynette Swiger and tsymbalist Vsevolod Sadovyj meet over Zoom.
Sadovyj’s passion for the tsymbaly and folk music of Ukraine felt so similar to Swiger’s commitment to the hammer dulcimer and folk music of Appalachia. And after talking to them both, I found it puzzling that both instruments originated from a common source, centuries later nearly collided right here in West Virginia, but then promptly went their separate ways. They were like magnets of the same pole, repelling each other when they got too close.
So I decided to interfere. I set up a Zoom call to bring Swiger and Sadovyj together, along with their instruments.
Swiger was in her farmhouse in Fairmont.
“I live in the mountains on a farm,” she described to Sadovyj. “If you go to your mountains, the Carpathian Mountains, if you go there and look around, that’s what it looks like here.”
Sadovyj was in his home on the outskirts of Lviv.
“I’m now in my place, in my home. It is a small house, a tiny house and outside there is a small village outside the city,” Sadovyj said.
From there, the conversation took off, talking about tuning and melodies and musical terms that went right over my head.
Sadovyj played his tsymbaly for us, cell phone in one hand, and hammer in the other.
We had just a 40 minute time limit on Zoom, which quickly timed out. The next 40 minute call also maxed out. And as we talked, they exchanged knowing smiles, united as insiders with this instrument that has transcended time and place.
“Folk traditions are only by ear,” Sadovyj explained. “We had an attempt to write down the songs, but it is a very interesting quest, because every word, every verse is different. There is some core, and we learn the core. You understand me?”
“Yes! We do the same here… exactly!” Swiger exclaimed in agreement.
‘We Are Playing Who We Are As People’
Throughout my conversations with Sadovyj and Swiger, they both expressed a deep commitment to preserving the heritage of their people through music.
“In Ukraine, we have really deep, deep roots. And we still have evidence in a village,” Sadovyj said. “The grannies are singing in the 9th or 10th century style. It’s really a treasure.”
“This traditional Appalachian music, it’s our roots,” Swiger said. “If you look at the titles, they are named after specific people…events in the area, places, creeks. So when we play those tunes, we’re playing our history. We may not know it, but we are playing our history. And we are playing who we are as people.”
And that, I learned, is what links the hammer dulcimer and the tsymbaly. In both western Ukraine and in Appalachia, these instruments are vessels, holding a history and culture that is so specific yet altogether universal.
As we wrapped up the Zoom meeting, Sadovyj proposed they call again.
“Maybe we will meet once more and you will show me your dulcimer,” he suggested.
Swiger agreed. She’d have her dulcimer ready to go.
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This story originally aired in the July 29, 2022 episode of Inside Appalachia.
This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, which is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation.
Subscribe to Inside Appalachia to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts, and culture.
Musician and folk personality Russ Fluharty died on March 29, 1989, at age 82. A lifelong resident of the Mannington area in Marion County, Fluharty learned to sing and play several instruments from his large extended family.
In 1928, an uncle gave him an antique hammered dulcimer—an ancient instrument with many strings stretched across a box and played with small mallets. Locally, the instrument was nearly unknown, so Fluharty developed a unique playing style and taught himself to play his favorite hymns, patriotic tunes, and familiar old songs.
He was a naturally charming man, and audiences responded to his sincere, quaint manner. As interest in authentic folk music grew during the 1960s and ’70s, Fluharty—known as the “dulcimer man”—was much in demand at schools, churches, and public events.
He appeared at several national events, and the state Commerce Department sent him to other states as an “ambassador of goodwill.” He also founded the Mountaineer Dulcimer Club, which remains active.
Russ Fluharty energetically promoted West Virginia music and culture and was a key figure in the state’s folk arts revival.
