Introduction

Music has accompanied human existence for as long as we know. Initially, the first musical instrument was the voice, and it is thought that songs developed to accompany work and to put meaning into ritual. Gradually percussive instruments were introduced to beat time to make work more profitable and interesting.

Wind instruments, such as the blowing of sea shells and animal horns were introduced later: first as signals and later, with the discovery of how to change their pitch, into musical instruments.

In primitive society, with conflicts at one's doorstep at all times, the discovery that the taut string of a bow could make a sound when pressed to a hollow, may have led to the discovery of the first string instruments. Thus, from the world around them, humans discovered musical instruments and with these new discoveries and further experimentation, new tastes in music developed.

Musical instruments and the music they produce reflect the economic, technical and cultural environment in which people lived and their psychological makeup. Ukraine is rich in musical instruments and among these instruments are folk instruments many of which cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Some are variants that have gone through a long process of change to adapt to their new environment.

The first written sources that mention musical instruments in Ukraine date back to ancient Greek chronicles of the 6th century. Wandering Arab scholars paid great attention to the musical instruments used in Rus', but it was not until the 19th century that investigative studies were made into Ukrainian musical instruments. These included the publications of Mykola Lysenko - the father of Modern Ukrainian music.

Later work was done by Hnat Khotkevych, who in 1930 published his then-controversial book "Musical Instruments of the Ukrainian People," which included a wealth of material on Ukrainian folk instruments. In 1967 Andriy Humeniuk published a similar book called "Ukrainian Folk Instruments" which contained new material on some more recent developments and discoveries. Another interesting recent addition is the book "The Orchestra of Ukrainian Folk Instruments" by Perekop Ivanov published in 1981 that contains many of the latest developments to perfect Ukrainian folk instruments and to organize them into a well-defined orchestral group. Musical instruments are generally classified into several groups, each of which has specific subgroups, depending on how sound is produced.

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