"Dudaryku (The Piper) was introduced to me by my friend Natalka Pavlovsky as 'the Ukrainian version of Der Leiermann' (The Organ Grinder). Like Schubert’s famous Lied, this Ukrainian folksong hauntingly evokes the song of the town musician using the simple drone of his instrument. Dudaryku pays homage to the beloved piper who once played for the townspeople. Several factors coalesced to create Dudaryku. I considered the many traditions of folksongs in western music: the simple folksong without a...