The telynka is a living museum piece. It is a simple tube of willow or elder, open at both ends, with no finger holes at all. Different notes are produced by varying breath pressure and by covering or uncovering the lower opening of the tube with a finger, drawing on the natural overtone series (as on a military bugle).
There are two playing techniques: the standard (a straight blow into the tube) and the “buzzing” style — in which the player simultaneously hums a low note, creating a drone background. These techniques have been preserved in the Carpathians, above all among the Hutsuls and Boykos. The telynka is a favorite of shepherds, tied to the melodies of pasivkas, kolomyikas, and hutsulkas.
The telynka belongs to the family of overtone (harmonic) flutes found across the Carpathian region. In the troïsti muzyky ensemble it complements the sopilka and the fiddle, and its “buzzing” has long been considered a mark of a shepherd's skill. Today the telynka is being revived by ethnographic groups, and it appears in contemporary projects that fuse Hutsul folklore with art and electronic music.
