Sopilka is a name applied to a variety of woodwind instrument

Woodwind instrument

A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...

s of the flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

 family used by Ukrainian

Ukrainians

Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...

 folk instrumentalists

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

. Sopilka most commonly refers to a fife

Fife (musical instrument)

A fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse flute that is similar to the piccolo, but louder and shriller due to its narrower bore. The fife originated in medieval Europe and is often used in military and marching bands. Someone who plays the fife is called a fifer...

 made of a variety of materials (but traditionally out of wood) and has six to ten finger holes. The term is also used to describe a related set of folk instruments similar to recorder

Recorder

The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...

, incorporating a fipple

Fipple

A fipple is a constricted mouthpiece common to many end-blown woodwind instruments, such as the tin whistle and the recorder. These instruments are known variously as fipple flutes, duct flutes, or tubular-ducted flutes.-How it works:...

 and having a constricted end.

Sopilkas are used by a variety of Ukrainian folkloric

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

 ensembles recreating the traditional music of the various sub-ethnicities in western Ukraine, most notably that of the Hutsuls

Hutsuls

Hutsuls are an ethno-cultural group of Ukrainian highlanders who for centuries have inhabited the Carpathian mountains, mainly in Ukraine, the northern extremity of Romania .-Etymology:...

 of the Carpathian Mountains

Carpathian Mountains

The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...

. Often employing several sopilkas in concert, a skilled performer can mimic a variety of sounds found in nature, including bird-calls and insects.

Modern usage

With the development of the 10 hole fingering instruments sopilkas became part of the music education system in Ukraine. Pop groups began to use the instrument in their performances. The first was the folk-rock group Kobza

Kobza

The kobza is a Ukrainian folk music instrument of the lute family , a relative of the Central European mandora...

. More recently, the sopilka has found its way into the music of Ruslana

Ruslana

Ruslana Stepanivna Lyzhychko is a World Music Award winning and MTV Europe Music Award nominated artist, and the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004....

, Haydamaky

Haydamaky

Haydamaky may refer to:* Haidamakas, an 18th-century Ukrainian rebellion against the Polish nobility* Haydamaky...

, the Kubasonics

Kubasonics

The Kubasonics are a band of Edmontonians honored in Alberta’s Ukrainian Canadian community for recreating traditional Ukrainian melodies, with a twist...

 and other contemporary bands which explore Ukrainian themes.

Sources

• Dverij, R. - Shkola hry na khromatychnii sopiltsi - Lviv, 2008. - Part 1 - 72 pages, part 2 - 68 pages, part 3 - 64 pages.
• Humeniuk, A. - Ukrainski narodni muzychni instrumenty - Kiev: Naukova dumka
  Naukova Dumka
  Naukova Dumka is a publishing house in Kiev, Ukraine.It was established by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 1922, and is one of the oldest scientific and academic publishing houses in the former USSR...
  
  , 1967
• Mizynec, V. - Ukrainian Folk Instruments - Melbourne: Bayda books, 1984
• Cherkasky, L. - Ukrainski narodni muzychni instrumenty // Tekhnika, Kiev, Ukraine, 2003 - 262 pages. ISBN 966-575-111-5