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A Duma (Ukrainian: Дума) (dumy - plural) is a sung epic poem which originated in Ukraine during the Hetmanate Era around the sixteenth century, possibly based on earlier Kievan epic forms. Historically, dumy were performed by itinerant Cossack bards called kobzari, who accompanied themselves with a kobza or a torban, but after the abolition of Hetmanate by the Empress Katherine of Russia it became the domain of blind itinerant musicians who retained the kobzar apellation and accompanied their singing by playing a bandura (rarely a kobza) or a relya/lira (a Ukrainian variety of hurdy-gurdy). Dumas are sung in recitative, in the so-called "duma mode", a variety of Dorian mode with raised fourth degree.
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