A Song as a Musical Key to Cultural Memory of Ukrainians

Abstract The article explores song preferences in stressful conditions. Favourite songs, embedded in a familiar songscape, resonate with cultural memory and the sense of belonging. Both individual and collective memories through a shared culture of hearing are based on “acoustic citizenship” (M. Sonevytsky), but challenged by war. How a disquieting tonality of war-stress and displacement influenced situational musical tastes of Ukrainians is the focus of this research. By analysing 13 interviews conducted in the Prisma Ukraїna: War, Migration, Memory project in 2022 I found out that 16 Ukrainian songs mentioned as favorites by Ukrainians displaced to Berlin due to the Russian-Ukrainian war included four groups: 1) Ukrainian folklore; 2) Ukrainian liberation-patriotic songs of the early 20th century; 3) Ukrainian hits of the Soviet period; 4) Ukrainian contemporary pop songs. While 3 short-term favorites ( Shchedryk, Chervona Kalyna, Stefaniya ) are also known to foreigners. Resonating with Ukrainians’ long-term memories through their native melos these short-term favorite songs are emotionally anchored in a familiar songscape. Against the background of anxiety, some Ukrainians followed a musical diet. The song keys unlock not only the respondents’ desired mood, their entangled belonging, shared Ukrainian-European song-spaces, polyphonic reasons of preference, but also the tonal palimpsests of tradition.