Cabinet of Musical Ethnography of All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and its contribution to study and preservation of national intangible heritage (1920s-1930s)

The purpose of this work is to highlight the activities of the Cabinet of Musical Ethnography of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in collecting, studying, and preserving the folk musical culture of Ukrainians in connection with the environment in which it existed, based on the documents from the Archival Scientific Fonds of Manuscripts and Sound Recordings of the M.T. Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics, and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The methodology of the research is based on the author’s use of the methods of historical-scientific analysis, chronological, as well as source methods of source analysis, which made it possible to determine its information potential. Scientific novelty. Numerous works have been written about the fruitful work of Ukrainian humanitarians in the 1920s—1930s. However, the activities of national academic ethnographic institutions have still been insufficiently studied, in particular the ethnographic component of the work of the Cabinet of Musical Ethnography as a subdivision of the Ethnographic Commission of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences has practically remained beyond the attention of domestic researchers. Thus, the scientific novelty of the presented article lies in bringing to the wider scientific and public audience a previously unpublished extensive documentary archive of the Cabinet of Musical Ethnography, which represents the national musical culture preserved to this day in its combination with ethnographic traditions. Conclusions. During such a difficult and tragic Russian-Ukrainian war, it is very important to demonstrate the value of our musical and song culture, customs, and rituals, which have preserved our national identity and resilience in the fight against the enemy. Among the active workers of the Cabinet of Musical Ethnography, who mostly worked on a voluntary basis, were qualified experts in musical culture. Despite party directives, they studied not only the everyday life of workers and recorded songs not only of a revolutionary nature but also tried to document masterpieces of folk art of Ukrainians as well as Bulgarians, Moldovans, Karaims, and other ethnic minorities in Ukraine.