I see wonderful freedom,
I see fields and fields...
This is Russian expanse,
This is Russian land!
F.P.Savinov
1. Russian philosophers and writers about folk songs
The study of Russian national character will always be incomplete, truncated without reference to Russian folk song. The laconic formula: “Song is the soul of the people” directly and directly expresses the meaning of a folk song. The song reveals such depths, such secrets of the Russian character that are inexpressible, incomprehensible in other life situations. Russian people sang and sing almost always - on a hike, in short moments of rest, in sorrow and joy, on weekdays and holidays, in youth, adulthood and old age. The song so fully expresses the features of the national character that this was noted by many Russian thinkers. “Show me how you believe and pray; how kindness, heroism, a sense of honor and duty awaken in you; how you sing, dance and read poetry,” said I.A. Ilyin, “tell me all this, and I will tell you what nation you are the son of.”
Folk song is the most democratic form of participation in musical creativity, accessible to everyone. Where, if not in a song, can one comprehend the character of a people: its immeasurable breadth, kindness and generosity, native character, daring and youthful enthusiasm. In a song, as in a prayer, there is a purification of the soul, catharsis, as the ancient Greek sages said. Unfortunately, today, in the conditions of universal globalization, we are observing negative trends in the development of Russian culture, including the oblivion of Russian folk songs and their displacement by pop music. For modern mass media, the Russian song turned out to be “outside the format.” It turns out that the format of media and TV corresponds to graduates of the “star factory” incubator, numerous rock ensembles and inveterate funnymen.
As my personal teaching experience shows, students of the last two decades actually do not know Russian folk songs. Let us imagine for a moment the following situation: in a youth student camp, where students from different countries have gathered, a concert is held in which folk songs are performed. Each of the participants in this impromptu concert performs songs of their homeland with fervor and genuine pathos. And only a Russian student, whose folk songs have been erased from his memory, can only throw up his hands or mutter something in bad English, which many people do today.
All this is a great misfortune, which was the result of the erasure of the deep foundations of Russian national identity at the present stage. As the artistic director of the Academic Chapel says. M.I. Glinka, People's Artist of the USSR V. Chernushenko, a song is the repository of the people's soul, and without a soul there will be no people. In a choral singing ensemble, for which Russia has always been famous, souls and hearts are united in harmony, and if the people stop singing their songs, then they will cease to exist as a nation. In choral singing, conciliarity is expressed to the maximum extent, as the most important feature of the Russian national character. Today we are faced with a vital dilemma: will we be the heirs of the great Russian culture, including song creativity, or will we become Ivans who do not remember our kinship.
It is very difficult, almost impossible, to make a folk song an object of reflection. Singing, the very act of performing a song, is more likely associated with emotional experience than with rational comprehension. Therefore, in the study of this topic, we will have to turn to Russian fiction and Russian philosophy, where we find precious deposits testifying to Russian song, its significance for understanding the uniqueness and originality of the Russian national character. Another way of analysis is to turn to the work of outstanding experts on Russian folk music songs from Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin to modern performers.
Russian folk song is the main type of musical creativity of the Russian people - from ancient times; sung solo, ensemble, choir (“One cannot sing alone, it’s easier with an artel”). Closely connected with life and everyday life, passed down orally from generation to generation, it is polished in the process of execution in all layers of the people. Folk songs are rich in various genres: work songs, ritual songs, calendar songs, wedding songs, choir songs, games songs, dance songs, historical songs and spiritual poems, romances, lyrical lingering songs, ditties, etc. The ancient peasant song is characterized by a polyphonic structure in the form of subvocal polyphony, modalism, rhythmic freedom, and singing without musical accompaniment. Urban songs have their own specificity, varied in content and style, created by various social groups (workers, soldiers, students, petty bourgeois). These songs are distinguished by their harmonic structure, alternation and combination of major and minor intonations.
Since the end of the 18th century, Russian folk songs have been recorded and published; she played a significant role in the development of the Russian school of composition. Choral folk song has long been a favorite type of everyday music-making. The song has always been an organic combination of words (text) and music. Russian folk song found a new life in Soviet times, thanks to its wide dissemination (amateur choirs, professional groups, radio broadcasts, gramophone records and tape recorders), the study of the song heritage and the emergence of new songs that began to be considered folk (“Katyusha”, etc.).
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Russian folk song in the formation of national self-awareness and national character, what is today called the mentality characteristic of the Russian people. According to I.A. Ilyin, a child should hear a Russian song even in the cradle. Singing brings him the first spiritual sigh and the first spiritual groan: they must be Russian. Singing will teach him the first spiritualization of spiritual nature - in Russian; singing will give him his first “non-animal” happiness - in Russian. “Russian song,” he wrote, “is deep, like human suffering, sincere, like prayer, sweet, like love and consolation; in our dark days, as under the yoke of the Tatars, it will give a child’s soul an escape from the threatening embitterment and petrification.”
In life, Russians sing at every step, especially peasant girls, during and after work, walking workers, soldiers on the march, students at the first opportunity, and all strata of society during some hard and boring work. Ilyin gives the point of view of a person of a different nationality. In 1879, Russian German prof. Westphal from Yuriev (Dorpat) published a wonderful work on Russian folk song. Based on the research of Yu.N. Melgunov, he established that Russian folk song occupies a unique place in world music. It is sung in an extremely unique tonality, which is reminiscent of Greek, but not identical to it. These songs are distinguished by the originality of harmony, voice guidance and cadence, which sound beautiful, but do not correspond to European music theory, the doctrine of harmony and compositional practice. They are performed by a peasant choir without any musical training, without a tuning fork or conductor, without accompaniment, a capella; this is a four-voice, in which there is never a bad and boring unison, and hence there are free variations and mobile sub-voices, which from time to time improvise, based directly on inner feelings, hearing and taste. The richness of these songs is inexhaustible, their age sometimes cannot be determined, their melody, rhythm and expressiveness are simply captivating, especially when performing ancient diverse wedding songs, sometimes plaintively sounding, sometimes thoughtfully blessing.
Russian people, according to I.A. Ilyin, have lived for centuries in an oscillating rhythm: burning or calm, concentration or relaxation, swiftness or drowsiness, jubilant or twilight, passionate or indifferent, “joyful to heaven - sad to death.” It is like a flame that has gone out for the time being, a weakened composure and a drowsy intensity that can be found in the sparkle of the eyes, in the smile, in the song and in the dance.
Anyone who wants to get to know the Russian soul better should get acquainted with Russian song. “When, for example, after an exercise, soldiers return to the barracks in formation, or especially when, after a successfully completed review, the command is given to the troops: “Singers, forward!” - then the choir marches ahead, singing folk songs, and the singer begins, and the choir joins in every second or third stanza of the song. You need to hear this enthusiasm, this passion filled with humor. This freely syncopated rhythm, this suddenly exploding sharp whistle, these pickups, these frets in full swing. You will never hear unison, you will never hear false voices, the song will never become a choral recitative. Everyone stands there, captivated by this, and can’t stop listening.”
Russian classical literature of the 19th century contains numerous evidence of the originality, spiritual structure and emotional depth of Russian folk song. The amazing, enchanting power of folk song was captured by N.V. Gogol in “Dead Souls”: “Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful distance I see you: poorly scattered and uncomfortable in you... But what incomprehensible, secret force attracts me to you? Why is your melancholy song, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea, heard and heard incessantly in your ears? What's in it, in this song? What calls and cries and grabs your heart? What sounds painfully kiss and strive into the soul, and curl around my heart? .
L.N. Tolstoy has a story “Songs in the Village”. But, perhaps, the story “Singers” in “Notes of a Hunter” by I.S. Turgenev makes the most powerful impression. This story is about a competition between two singers, which takes place in the Prytynny tavern. This competition is a kind of competition in which two heroes of Turgenev’s story take part: the rower and Yakov the Turk. The rower was the first to perform a cheerful dance song with dashing prowess, and everyone present decided that he had won. But it was Yakov the Turk’s turn to sing his song. I.S. Turgenev describes in detail how the singer “enters the character” and adjusts himself psychologically. “He took a deep breath and sang... “There was more than one path in the field,” he sang, and we all felt sweet and creepy. I admit, I have rarely heard such a voice: it was slightly broken and rang as if cracked; at first he even responded with something painful; but there was also genuine deep passion in him, and youth, and strength, and sweetness, and some kind of fascinatingly carefree, sad grief. The Russian, truthful, ardent soul sounded and breathed in him and so grabbed you by the heart, grabbed you right by its Russian strings! The song grew and spread. Yakov, apparently, was overcome by rapture: he was no longer timid, he surrendered himself entirely to his happiness; his voice no longer trembled - it trembled, but with that barely noticeable inner trembling of passion that pierces like an arrow into the soul of the listener, and incessantly grew stronger, hardened and expanded.
Turgenev repeatedly uses phrases - “Russian soul”, “Russian heart strings”, “Russian people”, “Russian people”, thereby emphasizing that such song creativity is fully an expression of Russian national identity and Russian character. “He sang, and from every sound of his voice there was a breath of something familiar and vastly wide, as if the familiar steppe was opening up before you, going into an endless distance. I felt tears boiling in my heart and rising to my eyes; dull, restrained sobs suddenly struck me... I looked around - the kisser’s wife was crying, leaning her chest against the window... I don’t know how the general yearning would have been resolved if Yakov had not suddenly come to a high, unusually subtle sound - like his voice broke off. No one shouted, no one even moved; everyone seemed to be waiting to see if he would sing again; but he opened his eyes, as if surprised by our silence, looked around everyone with a questioning gaze and saw that the victory was his...”
The very lengthy fragment I cited from the story “Singers” clearly represents one of the many Russian nuggets nurtured in the very thick of people’s life. Precisely those who are characterized by the immeasurable breadth of the Russian soul, talent and ability for higher forms of experience. Turgenev, known among us as a Western writer, was able to use unusually expressive artistic means to show the uniqueness of the Russian national character in song creativity.
Russian folk song has always been and, I hope, will be the embodiment of the life of the people and their culture, their memory, their historical existence, their everyday everyday life: work and rest, joy and grief, love and separation. The Russian person in the song personifies the world of nature, projects his spiritual properties and experiences onto it: “What is clouded, the clear dawn...”, “A centuries-old linden tree stands above the river...”, “Kalinka...”. We comprehend this personification of nature with some special heart-aching sadness in “Thin Rowan”:
Why are you standing there, swaying?
Thin rowan,
Bowing my head
All the way to the tyn?
According to the famous Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky, the direct existence of the Russian people is a river and a forest, a steppe and a field, thereby affirming the fusion of man with nature, rootedness in it. And in the Russian song the immeasurable breadth of the Russian character is affirmed, corresponding to the immensity of the Russian vast expanses: “Oh, you, wide steppe ...”, “Down along Mother, along the Volga ...”, “I have traveled all over the universe ...” . The image of the Motherland is insightfully captured in the song “Native” based on the poem by F.P. Savinov:
I hear the lark's songs,
I hear the trill of a nightingale.
This is the Russian side,
This is my homeland!
Lidia Ruslanova, speaking at a rally of coachmen in the late 20s. last century, said that there are more than 80 songs about coachmen, and she herself performed about 30 of them. In each of these songs, the immeasurable Russian expanses and equally immeasurable passions and emotional impulses are fused together. In Russian folk songs, Altai and Valdai, the Urals and Siberia, the Quiet Don and Volga, Baikal and the Russian North are sung: “On the wild shore of the Irtysh...”, “The glorious sea is the sacred Baikal...”, “Zhiguli”, “Po A young Cossack is walking along the Don..." Even when the action of the song unfolds within the confines of the capital Moscow, and there is an immeasurable breadth of the Russian soul: “Golden-domed Moscow” and “Along the St. Petersburg...” - a song performed by the great Russian singer Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin.
Russian folk songs reflect both generalized and specific images of dear, especially revered, sacred natural phenomena for Russian people - one of the diverse faces of Holy Rus'. The Russian person communicates with them, speaks as if they were alive, personifies, personifies them, endowing them with their own properties, inherent only to humans. Particularly well known are songs in which they sing about more revered natural phenomena - the Volga, Don, and sacred Baikal. All of Russia knew these songs. Some of them are joyful, others are sad, but in all the songs the rivers or lakes, as if alive, “their lives” and the fate of the Russian people - the heroes of the song - are merged together. With such songs, of course, the revered natural phenomena of the Russian land are permanently fixed in people’s memory.
Folk songs are of no small importance in school education and upbringing. Among the many components that form the basis of the national character, the famous teacher of the early 20th century. V.N. Soroka-Rosinsky calls a folk song. Such a song goes back to the archetypes of our ancestors, through it the participation of new generations of Russian people in national shrines and moral values is realized. “It is necessary,” he wrote, “for a schoolchild to hear his native song from an early age and get used to being inspired by the sounds of it and to feel within himself the blood of his people and everything heroic and lofty that lurks in the people’s soul; it is necessary that the national song accompanies all the solemn moments of a schoolchild’s life, so that he feels the need to express his feelings in those moments when the soul is full, as any normally developing people do - in a folk song performed by a choir, by the whole world.”
2.Outstanding performers of Russian folk songs
Russian folk song is becoming even more famous and popular thanks to the great Russian performers, among whom the first places were and are occupied by Fyodor Chaliapin, Nadezhda Plevitskaya, Lydia Ruslanova, Boris Shtokolov, Lyudmila Zykina, Dmitry Hvorostovsky and many others.
A special place in this list is occupied by F.I. Chaliapin(1873-1938), who, being an opera singer, constantly gave concerts and performed Russian folk songs. In his autobiographical book “Mask and Soul. My forty years of life in the theater,” he repeatedly noted the importance of Russian folk song for his development as an opera singer. According to his conviction, mathematical fidelity in music and the best voice are dead until mathematics and sound are inspired by feeling. Chaliapin absorbed this lofty spirit from folk songs. A song is not a random combination of sounds, but the result of a creative act of the people. “I consider it significant,” he wrote, “and highly typical for Russian life, that simple Russian craftsmen encouraged me to sing. Russian people have been singing songs since birth. This is how it was in the days of my adolescence. The people who suffered in the dark depths of life sang painful and despairingly cheerful songs. And how well they sang! They sang in the field, sang in the haylofts, on rivers, by streams, in forests and behind a splinter. From nature, from everyday life, the Russian song is from love. After all, love is a song."
Chaliapin studied singing in a church choir, like many singers from the people of that time. Thanks to his natural abilities, and Chaliapin had a heroic physique, he was a true hare; he was characterized by immeasurable talent and some kind of special robber prowess. He embodied a certain standard of a Russian person on stage. Nevertheless, he always emphasized that the spiritual beginning, the state of the soul must be in every word, in every musical phrase, and they are impossible without imagination. The actor’s imagination must come into contact with the author’s imagination and grasp the essential note of the character’s plastic existence. Nothing can save a singer who has no imagination from creative sterility - neither a good voice, nor stage practice, nor a spectacular figure.
Chaliapin illustrates this thesis by sharing his experience of performing the folk song “I remember, I was still young.” “The singer must imagine what kind of village it was, what kind of Russia it was, what kind of life it was in these villages, and what kind of heart beats in this song.” You have to feel all this so that the singer will feel pain if he imagines how they worked in the village, how they got up before dawn, in what dry conditions the young heart awakened. These Chaliapin thoughts were repeatedly confirmed in practice; he tells how they performed “Luchina” together in nature with the miller Nikon Osipovich, what nuances, what subtleties he borrowed and was able to implement in his concert activities. Thanks to sound recording, we can still listen to the sound of Chaliapin’s voice as he sang “From behind the island to the core...”, “Dubinushka” and many other songs. The crowning number in every Chaliapin concert, undoubtedly, was the well-known song:
Eh, along Piterskaya,
Along Tverskaya-Yamskaya,
Along Tverskaya-Yamskaya, yes
With a bell...
I.A. Ilyin in his article “Chaliapin’s artistic vocation” analyzes the influences under the influence of which the artist’s talent awakened, grew and strengthened. This is, first of all, a Russian folk song that has been flowing throughout Russia from end to end for many hundreds of years. Her sincerity and emotionality, her expressiveness made Chaliapin, as a national phenomenon, possible. We know that Chaliapin listened to her enough and moved away from her. There is no doubt that the gypsy song also gave Chaliapin its own. Church Orthodox chant influenced Chaliapin. Only in the best prayer places of his roles can one trace some tradition of spiritual chants. It was these influences that laid the foundation for Chaliapin's creative path. “Chaliapin did not just sing, but breathed into your soul with his sound: in his massive, bell-like deep sound, the breath trembled, and in the breath the soul trembled; his voice had the power to take the listener and bring him immediately to suggestive submission; in order to make him sing with himself, breathe with himself and tremble with himself; breathing and breathing gave life to sound; the sound ceased to be a ringing, but became a groan: you heard in it the rising and falling, thickening and thinning line of feeling - and your soul floated in it and lived by it; the result was a sound extremely saturated with animation, commandingly enveloping the listener’s soul.”
However, I.A. Ilyin, to some extent and rightly, points out the negative traits of his character. All this led to the fact that Chaliapin did not create or leave behind a school, like the school of K. Stanislavsky, in which it would be worth embodying the method of his creativity and a living school of new operatic art. Chaliapin's song legacy has always been a kind of tuning fork and model for many generations of professional singers and lovers of Russian folk song.
An outstanding performer of Russian folk songs was Nadezhda Plevitskaya(Vinnikova) (1884-1941). A natural singer, Plevitskaya was born in the village of Vinnikovo near Kursk into a simple peasant family. Her love for singing led her to the church choir of the Trinity Monastery in Kursk, where she was a student for more than two years. Her first great success came on tour in Nizhny Novgorod in 1909 at a charity concert during the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, where she performed at the invitation of L.V. Sobinov. A year later, Plevitskaya was already singing triumphantly in Moscow and St. Petersburg. She was greeted very warmly by F. Chaliapin, who after the concert gave a fatherly farewell to the singer: “God help you, dear Nadyusha. Sing your songs that you brought from the earth, I don’t have those - I’m a Sloboda resident, not a villager.” All her life, Plevitskaya kept a photograph of Chaliapin with a dedicatory inscription: “To my dear Lark Nadezhda Vasilyevna Plevitskaya, F. Chaliapin, who loves her dearly.”
About how Plevitskaya sang, there is evidence from an admirer of her talent, journalist A. Kugel: “She sang... I don’t know, maybe she didn’t sing, but spoke. The eyes changed expression, but with some artificiality. But the movements of the mouth and nostrils were like an open book. Plevitskaya's dialect is the purest, most sonorous, most charming Russian dialect. She wrings her fingers, clasping her hands, and these fingers live, speak, suffer, joke, laugh.” Many experts noted her rare musicality, her naturally flexible and rich voice - a mezzo-soprano with a wide range.
Plevitskaya's repertoire was enormous. She performed well-known Russian folk songs: “Peddlers”, “Ukhar-merchant”, “Troika”, “Stenka Razin”, “On the Murom Path”, “Among the Flat Valley”, “Across the Wild Steppes of Transbaikalia” and many others. She sang at the evening of K.S. Stanislavsky in the presence of Russian masters of the Art Theater. In 1910, Plevitskaya received an invitation to Tsarskoye Selo, where she successfully performed in front of Emperor Nicholas II and his family. The Emperor liked Plevitskaya’s singing so much that she subsequently performed repeatedly before the Tsar, the Grand Dukes and the highest officials of the Russian Empire. During the First World War, Plevitskaya performed in concerts in front of Russian soldiers, and during the Civil War - in front of soldiers of the Red Army.
Subsequently, Plevitskaya’s fate was very tragic. The outstanding singer ended up in exile. In 1937, she was arrested by the French government in connection with the kidnapping of General E.K. Miller. Despite the lack of direct evidence, the court sentenced Plevitskaya to 20 years in hard labor prison, where she died in 1941. The name of Plevitskaya still lives in Russia in legends, songs and romances.
Great Russian singer Lidiya Andreevna Ruslanova(1900-1973) was born in the village of Chernavka, Saratov province (real name - Agafya Leikina). Throughout the 20th century, she was one of the most popular performers, and her performance of Russian folk songs is considered to be the standard. Ruslanova had a beautiful and strong voice with a wide range. She created her own style of performing folk songs, which she collected all her life. Among her most popular songs are “Steppe, and steppe all around”, “Golden Mountains”, “The Moon Is Painted with Crimson”, “The Moon Is Shining”, “Valenki”, “Century Linden Tree” and many others. She was one of the first to perform “Katyusha” by M. Isakovsky. For some time, thanks to the help of teacher M. Medvedev, Ruslanova studied at the Saratov Conservatory, but then decided that her life should be connected with folk song: “I realized that I could not be an academic singer. My whole strength was in spontaneity, in natural feeling, in unity with the world where the song was born.”
During the First World War, Ruslanova was at the front as a nurse. In the 20s, her style in performance, behavior on stage, and selection of concert costumes was finally formed. These were peasant sundresses, colored scarves and shawls. In the 30s, the singer toured throughout the Soviet Union. Her voice had great strength and endurance, and she often took part in 4-5 concerts in one evening. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Ruslanova went to the front as part of one of the best concert teams. Once, in 17 days, this brigade gave 51 concerts. The song “Valenki” became the “calling card” of the popularly beloved singer. They had to perform in the open air, in trenches, in dugouts, and in hospitals. With her songs, Ruslanova poured the elixir of life into the souls of the soldiers - the Russian national spirit. Using her funds earned while touring the country in the pre-war years, Lidia Ruslanova purchased two batteries of Katyusha guard mortars, which were sent to the First Belorussian Front.
Ruslanova sang on the front line, under fire, in the back of a truck, wearing a bright Russian national costume. She sang about Russia, about the Volga, about the Motherland, reminding someone of her mother, someone of her wife, someone of her sister. And after the concert the soldiers went into battle. Once on the front line, Ruslanova gave a three-hour concert, which was broadcast on the radio through amplifiers. For three hours there was not a single shot fired from either side of the front. During these three hours, the redeployment of our troops was carried out, and preparations for the counter-offensive were completed. And in defeated Berlin, several concerts of Lydia Ruslanova took place - at the Reichstag building and at the Brandenburg Gate. In total, she gave more than 1,120 concerts on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. For all these achievements, Ruslanova was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Ruslanova's performing style goes back to the singing traditions of the peasants of the Volga region. She had a deep, chesty voice (lyric soprano, turning into a dramatic one, but of a “folk nature”) of a large range and could move from contralto to the upper notes of a soprano sound. Possessing perfect pitch and excellent musical memory, Ruslanova did not strive to perform the same repertoire all the time, collecting Russian folk songs. She knew so many songs - Volga region, Central Russian, northern, Siberian, Cossack - that she could surprise even experienced folklorists. She performed memorable, heroic, brave, robber, drawn-out, mournful, cheerful, game, circular, round dance, dance, joke, barge hauler, buffoon, ritual, wedding, ghoul, sub-bowl, woman's, gathering songs, as well as epics, laments, patches and thoughts. Each song became a small performance.
The ease with which Ruslanova performed folk songs was achieved through hard work. She said more than once: “Singing well is very difficult. You will be exhausted until you comprehend the soul of the song, until you unravel its riddle. I don't sing the song, I play it. It’s a whole play with multiple roles.” Ruslanova was rightly called the “Queen of Russian Song” and the “Singer of the Guard” during the Great Patriotic War. And today, in a number of Russian cities, folk song competitions named after Lydia Ruslanova are held (Saratov, Volgograd, Penza, Kozelsk, etc.). In her work, Ruslanova fully embodied the best features of the Russian national character - spiritual generosity, immensity, passion, talent, conciliarity and patriotism.
Such talented Russian nuggets as Fyodor Chaliapin, Nadezhda Plevitskaya, Lydia Ruslanova - flesh of flesh, blood of the blood of the Russian people - expressed in their work the best properties of the Russian national character. A song is the embodiment of the life of a people, its culture; is and has always been an expression of the sincerity, emotionality, and expressiveness of the people's soul. And as soon as you sing the song, hard work is not a burden, and grief is not grief, and trouble is not trouble. For a Russian person, singing is like a prayer: in song you will cry, and repent, and submit, and lighten your soul, and the weight will fall off your soul like a stone. Famous opera singers - Sergei Lemeshev, Ivan Kozlovsky, Boris Shtokolov, Alexander Vedernikov, Yuri Gulyaev, Elena Obraztsova, Dmitry Hvorostovsky - made a huge contribution to the popularization of Russian folk song. In the second half of the 20th century, Russian songs were constantly heard in the concerts of Lyudmila Zykina, Claudia Shulzhenko, Valentina Tolkunova, Vladimir Troshin and many other performers.
3. “Shine, burn, my star...”
Romance is another and very important component of the treasury of Russian song creativity. According to People's Artist of Russia Isabella Yurieva, romance is an amazing phenomenon in our song culture. Romance is a purely Russian phenomenon. In the Russian romance, as well as in the ancient Russian song, the soul of our people was expressed with its subtle lyricism, with its inescapable melancholy and dreaminess; with her cheerful daring and desperate recklessness.
What is the difference between Russian romance and other genres, other vocal forms? What specific features are inherent in romance? First of all, it's a simple plot. The space of romance plots is limited by the sphere of human experiences: first meeting, love, betrayal, separation, loneliness, death of a beloved (beloved) - what is understandable to every person. To this we must add simplicity and accessibility of forms; if the method of expression becomes more complicated, the language of the romance ceases to be understandable. All feelings are expressed directly, in open text. The content of the romance is rich in word-symbols, each of which hides a real story:
It was all just lies and deceit
Goodbye to dreams and peace,
But the pain of unclosed wounds
Will stay with me.
Sensitivity, the ability to evoke human feelings is another mandatory feature of Russian romance. The more sentimental the romance, the higher its popularity. The most important thing in a romance is intonation, confidential, but not familiar in relation to the listener. This is another advantage of Russian romance. It is in intonation that the elusive charm of the romance lies, which gives it genuine depth, sincerity of the feelings experienced, an elegiac mood, and light sadness. A distinctive feature of Russian romance is its specific language, in which there are quite a lot of Slavicisms, giving the romance a high style:
I'll cover you with kisses
Mouth, and eyes, and forehead.
Replace these words with modern ones and all the aroma and charm of the romance will crumble and disappear.
The most valuable thing in Russian romance music is its rich and expressive melody. The wide chanting, flexibility and plasticity of the romance are inherited from Russian folk songs. It should be noted that some romances, far removed from their folk song origins, never lose touch with them. Russian romances were often performed by gypsy choirs, which led to increased melodramatic moments and exalted the melody pattern. And then the Russian romance allegedly became gypsy. In this case, the Russian origin of the romance is forgotten (“Oh, at least talk to me, seven-string friend” by A. Grigoriev, “Black Eyes” by E. Grebenka.)
The romance-elegy became the artistic epicenter of Russian musical and poetic culture in the 19th century. Romance has always been a synthetic art - a unity of word and sound. On the poetry side, the development of romance was deeply influenced by the work of the great Russian poets - A.S. Pushkin, F.I. Tyutchev, A.A. Fet, A.K. Tolstoy. At the same time, talented composers - M.I. Glinka, A.A. Alyabyev, A.N. Verstovsky, P.P. Bulakhov, A.L. Gurilev, A.E. Varlamov and many others gave the romance diverse and amazing musical forms. And today, classic romances are considered to be works based on Pushkin’s poems “I remember a wonderful moment...”, Tyutchev’s poems “I met you...”, A.K. Tolstoy’s poems “Among a noisy ball...”. To this should be added numerous texts of poems by M.Yu. Lermontov, E.A. Boratynsky, A.V. Koltsov, A.A. Blok, S.A. Yesenin, which became the basis of romances. The pinnacle of romance creativity are the works of P.I. Tchaikovsky (“Does the day reign...", “I won’t tell you anything...”), in which the expressiveness of the music corresponds to the mood of the text. But this type of romance resonates with a select, not a mass, audience. Classic romance becomes intellectual, while losing its lightness and simplicity.
At the beginning of the 20th century, romance became more of a performing art than a compositional and poetic art. We can judge this by comparing the various performing styles of that time, thanks to the surviving recordings. These performers are the stars of urban romance - A. Vyaltseva, V. Panina, N. Plevitskaya, A. Davydov, N. Dulkevich; somewhat later - A. Vertinsky, P. Leshchenko, I. Yuryeva, A. Bayanova and others. The popularization of the romance was facilitated by the appearance of the gramophone and records. The performance of romances was enthusiastically received not only by restaurant regulars, but also by visitors to concert halls and outstanding artists. The performance of a romance always presupposes a coincidence, a consonance of the emotional impulse, the internal mood of the performer and the listener, the artist and the audience. The listener is most often a person who has felt and suffered a lot, who has heart wounds and unhealed scars. Only such a listener can fully comprehend the enchanting power of romance.
A documentary report by the famous Russian journalist of the early 20th century, Vlas Doroshevich, about Sasha Davydov’s performance in the operetta “Gypsy Songs and Romances in Persons...” has been preserved:
“I remember the performance in the Hermitage by Lentovsky.
It was fun, crowded, chic.
"Gypsy Songs" were playing.
Davydov sang “Cry” and “Night”.
And so he approached the ramp.
The face became stern and solemn.
A pair of bay horses harnessed to the dawn...
First performance of the new romance.
And from the second, from the third verse, the theater stopped breathing.
Where now, in what new goddess
Are they looking for their ideals?
Actress E. Hildebrandt swayed. She was taken off stage.
Raisova - Stesha - leaned towards the table and began to cry.
The beautiful chorus girls wiped away their tears.
There were sobs in the hall.
The sobs grew.
Someone was carried out unconscious.
Someone ran out of the box crying loudly.
I looked to my left.
In the box sat the opera artist Tilda, from the French opera of Gunzburg, which was then touring in the Hermitage.
Large tears flowed down her cheeks.
She didn't understand the words.
But I understood the tears with which the artist sang.
The French writer Armand Sylvester, a light-hearted, pleasant writer, a fat, cheerful bourgeois, who was visiting the theater in Moscow, threw up his hands during intermission:
Amazing country! An incomprehensible country! They cry in the operetta.
You, only you, are faithful to her to this day,
A pair of bays... a pair of bays...
Davydov finished with his face covered in tears.
Under some general sobbing.
I have only seen such a performance once more in my life...”
Such a demanding judge as K.S. Stanislavsky, who was very far from the stage, wrote, assessing the work of A. Davydov: “He showed high art of speech in the amateurish field of gypsy singing and made us think about the secret of declamation and expressiveness that was known to him." It is not surprising that the enthusiastic audience often literally carried out their favorite performers of Russian romances in their arms after the concert.
We find similar judgments from the famous Russian writer A. Kuprin, who attended the concert of Nina Dulkevich (Baburina): “I will never forget this sudden, strong, passionate and sweet impression. It was as if the scent of some wild flower suddenly wafted into the room, which smelled of fashionable perfume. I heard how the captivated spectators gradually became silent, and for a long time not a single sound or rustle was heard in the huge hall, except for that sweet, yearning and fiery motif... You listen to it - and you listen not with just your ears, but with all your nerves, all your blood and with all my soul." N. Dulkevich often performed 30, 40 and even 50 romances and songs during one concert! And this is without a microphone or other sound-amplifying equipment. It is unlikely that a “foreign” ear and another soul can understand all the depth, passion and magical power of Russian romance. But all this is open to the Russian soul, which, according to cultural genetics, is capable of harmoniously merging in the artist’s performance and the listener’s perception.
Russian romance has come a long way - through high society salons, noisy hussar and student gatherings, soldiers' rest stops - it has reached our time, continuing to excite people's hearts today with its soft lyricism and sincere sentimentality. Russian romance - simple and touching - has absorbed the whole gamut of human feelings: sublime love and fatal passions, inescapable sadness and cheerful daring, desperate recklessness and sentimental dreaminess. Russian romance is eternal, just as the loving and suffering soul of a person is eternal.
4. Songs of our Victory
Songs of the Great Patriotic War occupy a special place in the songwriting of the Russian people. Songs of the Great Patriotic War... And immediately “Dugout”, “Dark Night”, “Nightingales” come to mind. Why, despite the repeated changes in fashion in pop songs, does a warm, reverent attitude towards the songs of the Great Patriotic War remain? Probably because they are simple, like the life of a soldier, and sincere, like the memory of a loved one. They are surprisingly melodic and easy to remember. They are distinguished by optimism, inexhaustible faith in friendship and love, all the best for which they had to fight and win.
And today, more than half a century after the end of the Great Patriotic War, the heart of a Russian person skips a beat and the soul trembles when a soft chant is heard:
The fire is beating in the small stove,
There is resin on the logs, like a tear.
And the accordion sings to me in the dugout
About your smile and eyes.
The song of the Great Patriotic War is a layer of the spiritual life of our country, our people. They are akin to Russian folk songs. My personal attitude to military songs is the attitude of a person belonging to a generation whose fathers died at the front. Therefore, the words from the song - “it’s not easy for me to get to you, but there are four steps to death” - are perceived by me not as a poetic device, but as a line from my father’s last letter from the front. Therefore, I have always perceived and perceive the victory of our army, our country, as my personal victory.
The song of the Great Patriotic War reflected the events of the war and became its musical chronicle. The themes, images, and content of the song exclusively convey the emotional atmosphere of wartime. It presents all the shades of heroism and lyricism of the war years: high civic position and patriotism (“Holy War”); spirit of courage and struggle (“Treasured Stone”); soldier's friendship and front-line brotherhood (“Two Friends”); love for home and woman (“Wait for me”); a joke song that creates an atmosphere of youthful enthusiasm and fun (“Vasya-Cornflower”); a front-line ditty written on the topic of the day.
The English military journalist A. Werth, who was on the Eastern Front, said that the psychological state of the Red Army could be determined from the song. If “Dugout,” he wrote, reflected the extreme degree of psychological breakdown in 1941, then “Dark Night” became an expression of faith and hope. The love for song, the awareness that song alleviates physical and mental suffering, is extremely clearly expressed in the poetic lines:
After the battle the heart asks
Music doubly so.
A person, even in wartime conditions, cannot remain indefinitely in a state of constant anxiety and mental discomfort. With the greatest insight, this situation was reflected by A. Tvardovsky in the poem “Vasily Terkin”:
And the accordion is calling somewhere,
It's far away, it leads easily...
No, what are you guys like?
Amazing people(...)
The memory of a military song is the memory of its authors and performers. These are composers A. Alexandrov, V. Solovyov-Sedoy - author of the songs “Evening on the roadstead”, “Nightingales”, “On a sunny clearing”; N. Bogoslovsky - author of the song “Dark Night”; T. Khrennikov, M. Blanter, I. Dunaevsky. These are the poets A. Surkov, M. Isakovsky, A. Fatyanov, E. Dolmatovsky, V. Lebedev-Kumach, N. Bukin. These are famous performers L. Utesov, G. Vinogradov, K. Shulzhenko, M. Bernes, L. Ruslanova, V. Bunchikov and V. Nechaev. These are, finally, artists from front-line concert brigades, unknown authors and performers.
More than a thousand songs were written by professional poets and composers alone in the first two months of the war. Not all of them received recognition and popularity, but one thing is certain: the song arsenal of war is extremely large. Front-line song creativity gave rise to numerous arrangements of well-known motifs: “The Sea Spreads Wide,” “Katyusha,” “Eh, Apple,” “Ogonyok” and many others.
There are amazing collections of songs preserved for us by devotees of the art of song: songs of the Battle of Stalingrad, songs of the Southern Front, songs of the Karelian Front, etc. Once published in military newspapers, they testify to the scale of folk song creativity. They reflect the motives of front-line life. Their heroes are the defenders of our Motherland. Therefore, even today, large and painstaking folklore-gathering work is needed.
Credit must be given to the most popular war songs written after the war. These are “Victory Day” (authors V. Kharitonov and D. Tukhmanov), “Cranes” (R. Gamzatov and Y. Frenkel), “He did not return from the battle”, “Mass Graves” (V. Vysotsky). These songs are perceived by us today as front-line songs. One thing is clear: there is a huge song heritage that tells about the tragic and at the same time heroic pages of our history. Much has been forgotten, lost, erased by time, supplanted by fashionable modern rhythms. Preserving this heritage is like creating a Red Book in which disappearing spiritual values will be listed. We should preserve them and not lose them in vanity and bitterness. Perhaps the songs of the war years will help us overcome the shocks and adversities that befall us today.
On every Victory Day, may the road lead us to mass graves, where “there is not a single personal fate - all destinies are merged into one.” Eternal memory to the defenders of our Motherland! Let our path lead us to the temple, where a prayer service will be served for the fallen soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. May the few veterans of the Great Patriotic War who have survived to this day constantly feel our attention and care.
One thing is certain - the songs of the Great Patriotic War formed and today form the properties of the Russian national character - patriotism, heroism, national fortitude, brotherhood, inexhaustible patience and a sense of unity. Today, in post-Soviet Russia, there is a shortage of these qualities. How necessary they are for new generations of Russian people.
5. “I love you, Russia...”
A huge layer of Russian song creativity is represented by songs of the Soviet era, coinciding chronologically with the second half of the 20th century. They continue the traditions of classical Russian national songs - in content, intonation, and genre diversity. But most importantly, they have cultural genetics identical to Russian folk songs and express the basic features of the Russian national character. Among the diverse themes, plots and motives of these songs, I would like to dwell on two main themes.
The first topic is Russia, the Motherland, Russian nature, the existence of the Russian people. Songs on this topic are characterized by immeasurable breadth, melodiousness, boundless freedom and deep patriotic feeling. This is “Moscow Evenings” by M. Matusovsky; “The Volga is flowing” - L. Oshanina, “Russia is my Motherland!” - V. Kharitonova, “Russian Field” - I. Goff, “My Village” - V. Gundareva, “My Quiet Homeland” - N. Rubtsova, “Grass at the House” - A. Poperechny, “Nadezhda” - N. Dobronravova , “Russia” - I. Talkova.
The boundlessness of Russia and the equally boundless love for the Motherland are insightfully expressed in the song “Russia” by M. Nozhkin:
I love you, Russia,
Our dear Rus',
Unspent power
Unsolved sadness.
You are immense in scope,
There is no end to anything for you,
You have been incomprehensible for centuries
To foreign sages.
The second theme is Russian songs of the lyrical genre, which tell about love and separation, joy and sorrow, hopes and disappointments. They, like folk songs, are unusually melodic, sometimes sentimental, but in each of them a loving and suffering Russian soul trembles. The following popular songs can be attributed to this theme: “Orenburg downy scarf” with poetry. V. Bokova, “Where can I get such a song” - M. Agashina, “Look at the dawn in the river” - O. Fokina, “A snow-white cherry blossomed under the window” - A. Burygina, “I’m standing at a stop” - M. Ancharova, “Ural mountain ash” - M. Pilipenko, “White birch friend” - A. Ovsyannikova, “What a song without a button accordion” - O. Anofrieva. The list of these songs can be continued endlessly.
During this period in the history of our song culture, many poems by S. Yesenin, N. Zabolotsky, N. Rubtsov were set to music. A. Safronov, V. Soloukhin and many other Russian poets. The popularity of Russian songs of this era became possible thanks to famous songwriters - A. Pakhmutova, E. Rodygin, G. Ponomarenko, as well as performers - Lyudmila Zykina, Vladimir Troshin, Maria Mordasova, Alexandra Strelchenko, Oleg Anofriev, Valentina Tolkunova, Nadezhda Babkina and many others.
Unfortunately, today you can rarely hear a Russian folk song. The “format” of the mass media today is suitable for various imported and home-grown hits and hits that have nothing in common with our song culture.
However, Russian folk songs, Russian romances and songs of the Soviet period are quite widely in demand outside our homeland. On the stage of many foreign countries, “Black Eyes” (E. Grebenka), “Two Guitars” (S. Makarov), “A Pair of Bays” (A. Apukhtin), songs of the Soviet era - “Katyusha” and "Moscow Nights". But, perhaps, K. Podrevsky’s romance “The Long Road,” to the music of B. Fomin, is still the most successful. This romance has been translated into many languages. It was performed many times in French and Italian by the French film star Dalida. This romance was performed by the famous trio of opera singers - P. Domingo, L. Pavarotti, J. Carreras, and they performed one verse in Russian. Russian songs and romances were performed for many years by Boris Rubashkin, a descendant of the first wave of Russian emigrants. The Yale University Choir (USA) has long been performing Russian folk songs - “Kalinka”, “Oh, you are our Russian expanse”. These songs were performed even during the Cold War on Red Square in Moscow in 1958.
Valery Ganichev, chairman of the Union of Writers of Russia, says with deep regret that today Russian folk song has disappeared, they don’t know it, they don’t sing it. “And Russian song is also our great Russian shrine. They fought against it in the same way as Emelyan Yaroslavsky fought against the church, they destroyed it, distorted it, and replaced it. The country was flooded with hasty, cheerful marches, and only the Great Patriotic War again brought Russian song to life. The ingenious amulet song “Holy War” gave birth to new spiritually sublime, dramatic-heroic, lyrical-romantic songs... The Alexandrov Choir, Pyatnitsky Choir, “Berezka” were known throughout the world, the Arkhangelsk, Voronezh, and Ural choirs were the standard of song culture. The country sang its songs. Every evening at 19:15 throughout the Soviet Union, folk songs, songs of the Great Patriotic War, were learned on all radio stations. And suddenly everything collapsed... On Vasilievsky Spusk, visiting rock musicians sing, and all sorts of pop music sounds; there was only one broadcast of the folk song “Play, Harmony!” Only Victor Zakharchenko, completely wounded by many years of struggle, breaks through with his outstanding Kuban Folk Choir to the main concert venue of the country - the Palace of Congresses. The departure of folk songs from the life of the country deprived it of the spiritual oxygen of tradition and self-awareness, eternal sound and movement. The cells of our young man’s consciousness and soul were filled with the rhythms of Florida and Texas, the melodies of the London suburbs, and the discos of Amsterdam and Hamburg. He ceases to be Russian and Russian, he does not know our songs, he does not know how to sing them.”
V. Ganichev talks about one trip of a youth delegation to America. There we were asked to sing our songs. The guys from Armenia began to sing their tune, two Ukrainians and I sang “Poviy Vitru na Vkrainu”, but the Muscovites and St. Petersburg residents didn’t remember anything. The American owners suggested: “Kalinka” - the guys didn’t know, “Black Eyes” - too. Let’s at least have “Moscow Evenings,” I suggested angrily. Without the support of the entire delegation they would not have sung. Good compatriots. And are they compatriots? So, second class citizens of the world.
Tanya Petrova said that in Japan, in music schools, a mandatory rule is the knowledge of ten Russian songs, as the most perfect melodic and harmonic examples. Can we boast of such knowledge? Does our student know ten folk songs and can he perform them? Clearly not. A great black hole has formed in the musical image of Russia... Either we sing our songs, or our people will dissolve in an alien melody, and therefore in alien thoughts and spirit... .
The outstanding director of the Moscow Chamber Choir, Vladimir Minin, complains that in Rus' they no longer sing at all. He sees a way out in the musical education of children, who could absorb the authentic traditions of national polyphony that are still preserved in some places. The famous bass, People's Artist of the USSR Yevgeny Nesterenko said that we Russians are a singing nation by nature.
But ascetics and performers of Russian songs have not yet disappeared from Rus'. Alexander Vasin-Makarov, creator of the Nadezhda trio, says: “We have taken upon ourselves the task of combining all types of Russian songs - folk, Soviet and original. In Russia it is impossible not to sing, they sing over a newborn, they sing at the apogee of its development, at a wedding, they also sing at its burial; they sing while leaving a hard day's work, soldiers sing when returning from a hot exercise, and sometimes when going on an assault. He notes that over the past 20 years, 150 melodies have been composed based on N. Rubtsov’s poems! For poems by M. Lermontov - 450! The Nadezhda trio performs songs based on poems by Tyutchev, Apukhtin, Fet, Blok, Rubtsov, Peredreev, Tryapkin, as well as Vasin-Makarov’s own poems, set to music he composed.
The sincerity, emotionality and expressiveness of Russian folk song, with particular force, presented by I.A. Ilyin in his book “The Singing Heart. A book of quiet contemplations." According to Ilyin, the human heart sees the Divine in everything, rejoices and sings, the heart shines from that depth where the human-personal merges with the superhuman-divine to the point of indistinguishability: for God's rays pierce man, and man becomes God's lamp. The heart sings at the sight of a child’s trusting, affectionate and helpless smile. The heart sings when it sees human kindness. The heart sings at the sight of the mysteries, miracles and beauties of God's world. The heart sings during inspired prayer, which is a person’s concentrated turning to God. The heart sings when we contemplate a true shrine in art, when we hear the voices of angels in the melody of earthly music. “We need to see and recognize and be convinced that it is the divine moments of life that constitute the true substance of the world; and that a man with a singing heart is the island of God - His lighthouse. His mediator."
Russian folk song has always been and will be an expression of Russian national identity and Russian character. The traditions coming from Chaliapin, Plevitskaya, Ruslanova and other outstanding performers of Russian folk song are continued today by Tatyana Petrova, Svetlana Kopylova, Elena Sapogova, our fellow countryman Evgeny Buntov and many performers who carefully preserve the traditions of Russian folk song, which truly is the embodiment of the soul of the people, an integral element of our spiritual substance.
Vitaly Ilyich Kopalov , professor, doctor of philosophy. Sciences, URIB im. I. A. Ilyina, Ekaterinburg
1. Ilyin I.A. The path of spiritual renewal // Ilyin I.A. Collection op. : in 10 volumes - M., 1993. - T. 1. - P.202.
2. Ibid. P. 203.
3. See: Ilyin I.A. The essence and originality of Russian culture // Ilyin I.A. Collected works: in 10 volumes. M., 1996. T.6, book. II. P.389.
Gurenkova Alena. 6th grade student.
Essay "Russian folk song - a reflection of the Russian soul"
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Russian folk song - a reflection of the Russian soul
There is no literature like ours anywhere,
from the Russians. What about folk songs?...
Such songs could only be born in
people of great soul...
M. Gorky
Word, people, goodness, family, relatives, Motherland... These words have lived on Earth for many centuries. In the old days, people learned to read from them. Almost every letter of the alphabet began the most important word in every person’s life... and song
“Song is the soul of the people” directly and directly expresses the meaning of folk song. She reveals such depths, such secrets of the Russian character that are inexpressible, incomprehensible in other life situations. The Russian sang and sings almost always - in sorrow and joy, on weekdays and holidays. The song so fully expresses the features of the national character that it was noted by Russian thinkers “Show me how you believe and pray; how you sing, dance and read poetry,” said I.A. Ilyin, “tell me all this, and I will tell you.” you, what nation are you the son of?
Folk song is the most accessible form of introduction to musical creativity for everyone. Where, if not in song, can one comprehend the character of a people: its immeasurable breadth, kindness and generosity, daring and youthful enthusiasm. In a song, as in a prayer, the purification of the soul occurs, as the ancient Greek sages said.
A song is the repository of the people's soul, and without the soul there will be no people. If the Russian people stop singing their songs, then they will stop existing as a nation.
Russian folk song is the main type of musical creativity of the Russian people - from ancient times; it is sung solo, by an ensemble, by a choir (“it’s impossible to sing alone, it’s easier with a team”). Closely connected with life and everyday life, passed down orally from generation to generation, it is polished in the process of performance. Folk song is rich in various genres: songs, work songs, ritual songs, calendar songs, wedding songs, choral songs, historical songs and spiritual poems, romances, ditties and others. The ancient peasant song is characterized by polyphony, harmony, rhythmic freedom, and singing without musical accompaniment. Urban songs also have their own specificity, varying in content and style.
A person's whole life is connected with work. This theme is widely reflected in Russian folk songs. Labor songs made hard work easier, united people, and songs made work more friendly, more organized, and more fun. Labor songs often passed from one artel to another, and the words could change depending on the work being performed (“Oh, let’s whoop,” “You guys, take it together,” “Dubinushka.”)
The midday heat scorched him.
And sweat poured from him in streams.
And he fell and got up again,
Wheezing, “Dubinushka” moaned...
Usually in such songs one person sang, coming up with words, and the team picked up the chorus, while simultaneously doing some common work.
Ancient rituals were also accompanied by songs, which give us the opportunity to learn about the life and niches of our ancestors. Among the ritual songs, there are calendar songs and family songs associated with the most important events in the life of a family: weddings, funerals, seeing off soldiers. The wedding was particularly pompous. The most honored guests at the wedding were singers and musicians. No wonder they used to say “play a wedding.” In the old days, at weddings, along with cheerful songs, sad ones, similar to laments, were also sung.
After all, a girl was often married off against her will. Often these laments were performed for specially invited “mourners.” (“The grapes are blooming in the garden”, “You are a river, my little river.”)
In the old days, girls had a custom of guessing about their fate. They told fortunes twice a year - in winter and summer. In winter they told fortunes in the evenings. In the summer they gathered in the meadow or in the forest, danced in circles accompanied by songs, wove wreaths and threw them into the water. One of the songs of this ritual is “Like on a river, on a meadow.”
Lyrical songs constitute the largest group of folk songs. They are distinguished by the richness and variety of musical language, revealing a person’s state of mind, his experiences, feelings, and moods. (“Luchinushka”, “Oh, you, Kalinushka”, “You, my winds”, “Not only one path has laid in the field”, etc.)
Historical songs and their long life testify to the interest of the Russian people in their past and present. Historical songs are varied in the nature of the melody: drawn-out, melodious, similar to epics; some are cheerful and marching.
Since the end of the 18th century, Russian folk songs have been recorded and published; she played a significant role in the development of the Russian school of composition. Choral folk song has long been a favorite type of everyday music-making.
Russian folk song found new life in Soviet times, thanks to its wide dissemination.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Russian folk song in the formation of national identity and character characteristic of the Russian people. The child should hear a Russian song in the cradle. Singing brings him the first spiritual sigh and the first spiritual groan: they must be Russian. “The Russian song,” wrote I.A. Ilyin, is deep, like human suffering, sincere, like prayer, it gives a child’s soul an escape from impending embitterment and stoniness.”
Russian classical literature of the 19th century contains numerous evidence of the originality, spiritual structure and emotional depth of Russian folk song. The amazing power of folk song was captured by N.V. Gogol in “Dead Souls”: “Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful distance I see you: .. Why is your melancholy song heard and heard in your ears, carrying throughout your entire length and width, from sea to sea? What's in it, in this song? What calls, and sobs, and grabs the heart?..."
L.N. Tolstoy has a story “Songs in the Village”. But the most powerful impression is made by the story “Singers” in “Notes of a Hunter” by I.S. Turgenev. This story is about a competition between two singers. This competition is a kind of competition in which two heroes take part: the rower and Yakov - the Turk. The rower was the first to perform a cheerful dance song with daring, and everyone decided that he had won. But it was Yakov the Turk’s turn to sing his song. I. Turgenev describes in detail how the singer “enters the character,” “He took a deep breath and sang...” “More than one path lay in the field,” he sang, and everyone felt sweet and terrified. » The Russian, truthful, ardent soul sounded and breathed in him and grabbed his heart, grabbed it right by its Russian strings! The song grew and spread...
I. Turgenev was able to use unusually expressive artistic means to show the originality of the Russian national character in song creativity.
Russian folk song has always been and will be the embodiment of the life of the people and their culture, their memory, their historical existence, their everyday everyday life: work and rest, joy and grief, love and separation. The Russian man in the song personifies the world of nature: “What is clouded, the clear dawn”, “The centuries-old linden tree stands above the river”, “Kalinka”.
The existence of the Russian people is a river and a forest, a song and a field; there is a merging of man with nature. And the Russian song affirms “the breadth of the Russian character: “Oh, you, the wide steppe ...”, “Down along Mother, along the Volga,” etc. The image of the Motherland is captured in the song “Native” based on a poem by F.P. Savinov
I hear the lark's songs,
I hear the trill of a nightingale.
This is the Russian side,
This is my homeland!
Altai and Valdai, the Urals and Siberia, Baikal and the Russian North are sung in Russian folk songs.
Russian folk songs reflect both generalized and specific images of dear, revered natural phenomena that are sacred to Russian people - one of the diverse faces of Holy Rus'. A Russian person communicates with them, talks as if they were alive, personifies them. Songs are widely known in which they sing about natural phenomena - the Volga, the Don, the sacred Baikal. All of Russia knows these songs. Some of them are joyful, others are sad, but in all the songs the rivers or lakes, as if alive, “their lives” and the fate of the Russian people - the heroes of the song - are merged together.
Progressive people of Russia, trying to preserve the great wealth of oral folk art for the future, began to record songs. The first collections of songs appeared in the 18th century. Later, folk songs were collected and recorded by composers M. Glinka, Balakirev, Rimsky - Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Lyadov, writers Turgenev, L. Tolstoy, Pushkin, Gogol.
Folk songs provided such an expressive picture of Russian life that, to create artistic authenticity, they were introduced into literary works, sometimes with elements of ritual. The wedding song “Svatushka” is heard in A. Pushkin’s poem “Rusalka” and in A. Dargomyzhsky’s opera, created on the basis of this work. The children's game "Burn-burn clearly" is given by P. Tchaikovsky in Act I of the opera "The Queen of Spades", the folk ritual of Maslenitsa in the prologue of the opera "The Snow Maiden" by N. Rimsky-Korsakov.
The use of folk songs gives musical works a special flavor, since their words and intonation structure capture the image of time and the deep originality of folk culture. Folk songwriting is a holistic image of the country, its nature, and way of life.
The names of talented storytellers - singers Irina Fedosova, Marfa Kryukova, and the Ryabinins - became famous. Russian folk song is becoming even more famous and popular thanks to the great Russian performers, among whom the first places were and are occupied by F. Chaliapin, N. Plevitskaya, L. Ruslanova, L. Zykina, D. Hvorostovsky and many others. They expressed in their creativity the best properties of the Russian national character.
Songs are the embodiment of the life of a people, their culture; is and has always been an expression of the sincerity, emotionality, and expressiveness of the people's soul. And as soon as you sing the song, hard work is not a burden, and grief is not grief, and trouble is not trouble. For a Russian person, singing is like a prayer: in song you will dance, and repent, and obey, and you will lighten your soul, and the burden will fall off your soul like a stone.
Russian folk song has always been and will be an expression of Russian national identity and Russian character. Russian song – Russian history.
Literature question 8th grade. URGENTLY!!!
Why does a story about a folk song become a work glorifying goodness and poetry?
This is folk, hard-won. no falsehood...
song “Allow me\ From my weak strength\ To sing in response\ To what you said.”\ I sang the song,\ I sang and became sad. \\ I looked -\ And everyone was full of sadness. Du Fu. Translation by A. I. Gitovich 757
SONG “I want my song to sound, \ Captivate the hearts of others. \ And let it not have a beginning, \ and let it have no end!” Sergey Bokhantsev 1979 BARDS RU I want my song to sound
SONG (to Jack.) \This is not about myself and about you, - \So, so as not to cry from the rain, \Yes, not to sit on the throne idle. \My grandmother sang this song to me, - \Where everyone sings. - In my land... I don’t dare sing in front of the king. Marina Tsvetaeva 1918 JACK OF CHARTS\Play
song...so that the people make a song about us, \ it’s better to be not a cone out of the blue, \ but the very place where for a long time\ a Christmas tree sprouts from a fir cone... \ ...the tree is turned on by my uncle, lined in places with cotton wool ,\ depicting the holiday with a guilty smile,\ the holiday is like the sea, but it is more difficult to drown\ due to the fact that the morning is wiser than the evening... Evgeniy Bunimovich From the collection “Natural Selection” 2000 A PLACE IN THE SUN
song... you throw the words out of the song into some dictionary. And the grass no longer grows, and the bell rings no more. Only January stumbles, \ gullies of silver. \ And \ in heaven the creature \ who loved you yearns. Alexander Kabanov
SONG...That my song will be found in my heart. PHEASAAN CHICKEN (embracing him with her wings). \Oh, you will find her! \CHANTICLEER. Yes, speak, it’s sweet for me to listen to your words. You give me strength. \You believe in me, right? Tell me! \PHEASAAN CHICKEN. You're good! Edmond Rostand. Translation by T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik 1910 CHANTECLEUR
SONG Where am I, where is my song? \ It means that there is a house somewhere. \ There are relatives sitting by the fire, \ Relatives are sitting and waiting for me. Leonid Sergeev BARDS RU Rodnya
song And then the song started... \ Ah, it dragged on, curled up\ with transparent grass... \ Yes, gray geese flew in, \ They muddied the fresh water, \ Plucked out the grass, \ And the song was released\ From the porch - along a path\ Crooked. Vyacheslav Kiktenko
Song And I’ll sing about whether in the garden\ when I come home from the hill\ I waited a long time for a letter\ and a bullet\ and here is braid and fringe\ and a child’s dress on a chair\ and even with the month they cheated\ it’s winter again. Demyan Kudryavtsev From the book “PRACTICE OF RUSSIAN VERSE” 2002 PALINDROM 2002
song A good song so many times\ The soul, wandering, started up,\ Breaking into the late sunshine\ Into the untracked snows,\ They stung the eyes with gold\ Where the candles are the sun's oil\ And with the sky the beloved AAANGEL\ Taught by the burning sunset... Alexander Radashkevich ROMANCES AND ARIES TO SERGEY LEMESHEV
SONG To my native land, where there is silence in the forest, \ In my cold, winter discomfort... \ I am stubborn, I will still find out, \ I will hear them sing. Nikolay Mikheev “Siberian Lights” 2008, No. 5 DROSDS
song It contains a gentle caress of participation, \ Vows of love without end... \ A smile of contentment and happiness\ Daria does not leave her face. Nikolay Nekrasov. Frost, Red Nose 1863
Merry song.. \\\ Why are you singing so loudly, ringing nightingale, \ And who are you teasing with your song? \ There is bad weather outside, grief and war - \ Do your songs matter in our times? Julius Kim, Jerusalem Magazine No. 6, 2002 THREE SONGS
song The whole world of the nightingale is stitched with song: \ Then a pipe is heard somewhere, \ Then
Regional scientific and practical conference of students
Section “The world of my hobbies”
Topic: “Folk song is a mirror of folk life”
I've done the work
Ivanova Elizaveta,
4th grade student "B"
MBOU "Secondary School No. 56"
Scientific adviser:
Lychenkova Irina Vitalievna,
music teacher
MBOU "Secondary School No. 56"
Novokuznetsk 2015
Table of contents
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………3-4
Main part…………………………………………………………………………………..5-11
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………...11-13
List of references………………………………………………………..13
Introduction
Today we are beginning to look at many things differently, we are rediscovering many things for ourselves. This also applies to the past of our people. How Russian people lived, how they worked, how they rested. What customs and traditions did they observe? To answer this question means to restore the connection of time, to return lost values. Folk musical works unobtrusively, often in a fun, playful way introduce us to the customs and way of life of the Russian people, work, respect for nature, and love of life. N.V. Gogol figuratively called folk music “sounding history”, “resonant living chronicles”. Songs are the most popular and widespread genre of folklore. They are sung by all the people, from young to old. Truly, song is the soul of the people. The eternal folk aspirations for goodness and beauty found in it a deeply emotional and highly artistic expression. Songs spiritually unite people, educate entire generations in the spirit of the people's moral and aesthetic ideal. Thanks to its sincerity and sincerity, folk songwriting has a profound impact on the emotional world of children.
Among the 4th grade students of MBOU "Secondary School No. 56" I conducted a survey on the topic: "Russian folk song." (Slide 2) The following questions were asked: Do we need a folk song? What recordings of Russian folk songs do you have at home? Which Russian folk songs do you like best and why?What is sung about in Russian folk songs? What folk groups of our city do you know?
Analysis of diagnostic results.
130 students were surveyed. Based on the results of the questionnaires, it turned out that 87% of students answered the question “Is a folk song necessary?” that it is. The song is needed to find out how Russian people lived, how they worked, how they rested, what customs and traditions they observed. There was also this answer: to give joy to lovers of Russian folk songs. 13% answered that the song was not needed.
When asked, “What recordings of Russian folk songs do you have at home,” 93% noted recordings of Nadezhda Babkina’s concerts, 23% - Nadezhda Kadysheva, 12% - Lyudmila Zykina and 7% answered that they do not have recordings of Russian folk songs.
To the question, “Which of the Russian folk songs do you like best and why?” the students highlighted the songs that were covered in the lesson: “Soldiers, Bravo Children,” “The Moon Is Shining,” “Ditties,” “Oh, Frost,” “Kalinka.”
“What is sung about in Russian folk songs?” 93% answered that it was about love and the difficult lot of women in Rus'. 7% - about what the person lived and sang about.
When asked “which folk groups of our city do you know,” 97% noted the ensemble “Romashka” and 3% answered - I don’t know.
While researching the works, I came to the conclusion that at present many children know little folk songs and are little familiar with Russian folklore; many are not interested in Russian folk art. (Slide 3)
Goal of the work: to attract the attention of my peers to Russian folk songs.
Tasks:
1. Find out how well we know the culture of our people.
2. Analysis of the Russian folk song “Mother, Mother, it’s dusty in the field...”
3. Study, analyze and systematize material on the chosen topic.
Object of my research: Russian folk song.
Subject of study: a drawn-out lyrical Russian folk song.
As a hypothesis I assume the following: Russian folk song will live as long as the Russian people live.
Main part
The song was always there in both joy and sorrow. From birth to death.Russian folk song - , words andwhich arose historically during the development. A folk song has no specific author or the author is unknown. Russian folk song is original, colorful, its melody deeply reveals the plot, creates a single, complete artistic image. In music lessons, we highlighted the features of Russian folk songs: (Slide 4)
1.Ancient words;
2. Intrasyllabic chants;
3.Solo and pick-up;
4.Ak cappella;
5.Melodiousness, drawl;
6.The name is equal to the beginning.
A folk song, like a sounding chronicle, reveals the history of our people. Whatever a person did: reaping, mowing hay, rafting timber, or pulling a huge barge behind him, song helped him everywhere. They also sang while doing needlework, singing about the hard lot of women. The song appeared a long time ago. At that time, there was no actual division between storytelling and singing. Buffoons roamed the world - jacks of all trades: they could sing and dance and tell a fairy tale. Russian folk songs are divided into genres and types. I found the most detailed classification on the Internet site Wikipedia. (Slide 5)
Epic folk songs:
1.Epics
2.Historical songs
3.Ballads
Ritual folk songs:
1.Songs of the calendar circle
2. Ritual and everyday (wedding, funeral, laments - lamentations, lullabies, etc.)
Round dance, game, dance songs:
1.Lyrical round dances (circular round dances of the procession)
2. Comedy - humorous
3.Fast round dances
4. Daring fellows
5. Conversation, guest, etc.
Labor folk songs:
1.Rural (sowing, harvesting)
2.Factory
3. Burlatsky (artel, etc.)
Songs of revolutionary struggle:
1 Revolutionary songs of struggle and protest
3.Patriotic songs, etc.
Urban folk songs. Ditties:
1.Russian song
2.City song
3. Choruses, dances
4.Suffering, etc.
Lingering lyrical songs:
1. Women's lyrical (family, everyday, love)
2.Men's lyrical (love, coachman, recruit, soldier)
3.General lyrical, etc.
Those songs in which there is a conversation about the fate of each person: about what is dear to him, what he loves, what he grieves about, what he dreams about, are called lyrical. It is to lyrical songs that I want to dedicate my work. They are characterized by smooth melodies with wide breathing, singing several sounds per syllable. Therefore, these songs are also called drawn-out. The feelings of people or events described in a song are often first experienced in nature:
It was not the rain that made the white face fall silent -
The white face was wet with tears.
It was not the frost that zealously shivered -
Loved my heart melancholy and sadness.
Songs-reflections, songs-dreams, songs-stories about experiences. The melodies of these songs are soulful, with frequent sighs of “ah”, “oh”, the tempo is unhurried, unhurried.
People have many songs about their home, about separation from it. After all, in peasant families, every child was an extra mouth, and they tried to give him “to the people,” i.e. to workers. Girls were married off, forever into someone else's family, and boys were recruited (for a service that lasted 25 years). The man yearned for his relatives, father and mother, and poured out this longing in songs. A wounded soldier dies in an open field, in the last hour of his thoughts about his home. A person is happy when he feels free, free, when dear, close relatives are next to him. And at the last hour, a person’s thoughts turn to his home.
A person cannot live without love. And people wrote the largest number of songs about this. They are about happy love, when a good fellow and a red maiden, like a dove and a darling, are side by side and can’t stop looking at each other. And people all admire them and envy their joy. But there are few such songs.
More often than not, the good fellow and the beautiful maiden are separated because the “clear falcon” has a long journey ahead of him, or because the good fellow loved and loved the maiden, but “dismissed”:
Vanechka, you are my dear friend,
Where are you going, little falcon?
Who are you putting me on?
I'm left alone in grief,
In tears, like in the sea.
Separation is especially difficult when the girl is married off to someone else. And the good fellow sings: “Farewell, joy, my life!”
In Rus', weddings have been played for a long time. Each locality had its own set of wedding ritual actions, lamentations, songs, and sentences. Depending on the specific circumstances, the wedding could be “rich” - “two tables” (in both the bride’s house and the groom’s house), “poor” - “one table” (only in the groom’s house), “widow’s”, “orphan’s” " In a word, there could not be two identical weddings, and everyone who got married had their own, one-of-a-kind, wedding in their memory. But with all the endless variety, weddings were played according to the same laws. Matchmaking, collusion, farewell of the bride to her parents' house, wedding in the bride's house, wedding in the groom's house - these are the successive stages along which the wedding action developed.
During the course of the wedding, many wedding rituals were “retold”, “commented on”, “sung” in songs, lamentations, and sentences. The poetic reality of the wedding is different from what actually happened, so to speak, from the real reality. In this magical world, the bride is always a white swan, a primeval princess; the groom is a clear falcon, a young prince; mother-in-law is a fierce snake; the other side (the groom’s house) is “watered with tears”... Everything is like in a fairy tale.
In Rus', young people got married at the age of 13-15 years. Anyone who stayed as a bride or groom for up to 20 years caused fear among neighbors and acquaintances. Parents tried to find a suitable match for their child when he was just starting to walk and talk. The opinion of the children themselves was almost never taken into account, since the older generation was more experienced and knowledgeable. This is where the sayings come from: “If you endure it, you will fall in love,” “Don’t drink water off your face,” and many others.
This state of affairs could not help but be reflected in Russian song.
LISTENING: Russian folk song “Mother, Mother, It’s Dusty in the Field” performed by Lyudmila Zykina. (Slide 6)
The song “Mother, mother, it’s dusty in the field...” is built in the form of a dialogue between a girl and her mother. Looking at the sheet music, you can see the Daughter's Theme and the Mother's Theme.
The daughter's excited address is built on repeated descending and rising intonations that are never completed. Confusion, anxiety, worry, dramatic intensity of feelings. The mother's soothing responses are built on a leisurely, gradually descending melody, which leads to the foundation (sustained sound in the tonic). Submission, resignation to a hopeless situation.
The song sounds intense, in a minor key. Why is the heroine of the song so alarmed?
The works of artists will help you understand the meaning of the song and everything that happens in it.
Look at the paintings “Preparing the Bride for the Crown” by V. Feklistov, (Slide 7) by V.V. Pukirev, “Unequal Marriage” (Slide 8), (Slide 9) “Matchmaking of a Major” by Pavel Fedotov.
What emotions do the heroines of these paintings experience? Confusion, anxiety or resignation to your lot? Are these experiences similar to the mood of the heroine of the song “Mother...”?
Wedding songs attract us with their clarity of form, harmonious combination of words and music, and crystallized intonations. Family relationships and the plight of women in a patriarchal family are most vividly captured in these songs.
...You beat me up, dear father, one evening.
You wanted me, dear mother, to put me in the tower.
My dear mother put me in sadness and sadness.
Today, hardly anyone follows all the rules for holding a wedding. Probably, the only thing left from the traditional ritual is the bride price. And no one sings ritual songs at weddings anymore.
There are some points that unite all folk songs - these are symbols.
Bitter wormwood in Russian folk poetry is a symbol of melancholy and sadness. The life of the people of enslaved Rus' was dreary and sad.
... Well, the wife, the worker,
From Rus', Russian Polonyanochka...
Polonyanochka, Russian from Rus',
She watches over swans with her eyes,
And with his hands he spins a tow,
And the cradle sways with its legs...
Such images as the month - a symbol of the father, the sun - the mother and the stars - the children, as well as the month-well done (husband) and the dawn girl (wife).
Quite widely in folk lyrical songs, various birds act as symbols. So, the symbol of a young man in them is most often a nightingale, a falcon, a drake and a dove. The symbol of the girl in them is a white swan, a gray duck, a peahen and a gray dove. The symbol of a sad girl or a woman’s bitter fate, as a rule, in songs is the gray cuckoo.
Even more widely than from the world of birds and animals, in traditional lyrical songs objects of the plant world act as symbols. For example, very often the symbol of a girl in them is white birch, viburnum, raspberries and sweet cherries. A bird pecks a cherry - a good guy wooes a girl, etc.
The symbol of a woman in folk lyrical songs, as a rule, is a pear, pine, rowan and aspen.
The symbol of a young man in folk songs is most often oak, and sometimes hops or grapes.
Wedding songs were both funny (for the guests) and sad (they mourned the bride).
Conclusion
In a friendly circle, alone and in a noisy company, in moments of joy and sadness - the song is with us everywhere. Ancient and modern, soulful and sing-song, perky and mischievous - they are all in our hearts. The poetic content of the songs reflects various aspects of life, family and social relationships, thoughts and feelings of the Russian people. The Russian people treated the song with special respect, and not only because it accompanied him from birth to death, but also, probably, because singing the song required a special, elevated state of mind. The folk song both healed and consoled, educated and taught, warned and amused, amused and ridiculed. “Veselukha”, “It’s Saturday today”, “Malanya scattered beans...”.
You shouldn’t be surprised why our people are so sensitive to singing and song. Song, in all its manifestations, was a natural need for self-expression. Only a spiritually rich and talented people could create, appreciate and constantly recreate such masterpieces. It is not for nothing that they say that song is the soul of the people.
Studying Russian folk song, you realize with admiration how rich, generous, talented, sincere, and pure it is. The song reflected and kept in the memory of generations the history of our Motherland!
The songs reveal the fate of the people, the unique national character in all its richness of thoughts and feelings.
Like a kind and wise mentor, the song instills in us a love for the legends and customs of our native land, for its heroes and masters. The song teaches to live according to the laws of justice, to help others in difficult times, not to be afraid of suffering, defending the truth and one’s human dignity.
Like a free bird, the song does not recognize state borders and flies freely from one country to another. The folk song has an enviable fate. Fashionable “hits” and “hits” that were fashionable for one season disappear without a trace from memory. And folk song breaks out of the captivity of oblivion and again sounds pure and fresh in the mouths of people of a different era.
During the festivities, you can hear a cheerful ditty or folk song. And the guys pass on riddles, counting rhymes, and teases from generation to generation, without thinking that they are the keepers of folk musical wisdom.
It is in this immortality that lies the great secret of the national character of folk song. In today's social situation in our country, when state policy is aimed at reviving spiritual values, the promotion of folk art takes on greater importance. Isn’t folk art, honed over centuries and preserved through hundreds of generations, one of the highest spiritual values of the Russian people?
The work material can be used in music lessons, world artistic culture, and for classroom discussions.
Literature
Alekseeva O.I. Russian folk song as an ethnocultural concept: Belgorod, 2006
Knyzeva D.V. The origins and formation of Russian comic opera in the last third of the 18th century in close connection with the study of folk song. 2011
Shchurov V. M. Song, tradition, memory. - M.: State Musical Publishing House, 1987.
A huge number of musical and poetic works are passed down from generation to generation. Their totality constitutes what is commonly called folk music, otherwise called folk music or musical folklore.
Folk music is part of folklore and is traditionally transmitted “orally”, that is, it does not have a written form. In this case, one should take into account the fact that folk music is characteristic not only of oral, but also of written socio-historical formations. Therefore, it is advisable to consider folk music as a significant part of musical art as a whole, contrasted with academic and popular music.
Formation of folk music
It is believed that folk music took shape in the pre-literate period. In other words, until it became possible to record musical works on paper, the entire existing musical tradition was transmitted orally, and therefore had the main feature of folk music.
During this period, the main characteristic features of folk music were formed. Researching them is very difficult due to the lack of written sources. You can go by searching for analogies in related areas of human activity or analyze the few available written or material sources (in particular chronicles, found ancient musical works...). Another way is to analyze modern folk music, which largely inherited the principles of its ancient forms.
Religious origins of folk music
The issue of the relationship between folk and spiritual music is acute to this day. On the one hand, religious songs, gaining popularity among the people, gradually moved into the category of folk musical tradition. In particular, this happened with religious Christmas songs in Poland, France, England and Germany, which over time began to be considered folk (carols, carols, noels...). On the other hand, folk music often developed in opposition to religious canons.
Stages of the evolution of folk music
Music historians distinguish three stages in the development of musical folklore.
The first stage concerns the history of society, which is usually limited to the moment of the first mention of the tribe, on the one hand, and the period of the official adoption of a single state religion in the society that grew out of this tribe, on the other.
The second stage in the development of folk music is when individual nationalities finally took shape and folklore appeared in its classical form. In Europe, folklore of this period was represented by oral works of so-called peasant music.
The third era concerns modernity, or rather modern and recent history. Its main feature is diversity. In most countries, this is primarily the transition to a capitalist system and the development of urban culture. Folk music of the modern period is characterized by a change in traditions and the emergence of new forms.
However, due to the differences in socio-historical characteristics, folk music in different countries at the present stage is developing differently. In particular, in eastern countries there is no such division of folk music into peasant and urban traditions, as in Europe.
If we consider European folk music, then all three stages of development outlined above are clearly visible in it. Thus, the most ancient forms of epic and ritual folklore passed into the period of lyrical genres in the Middle Ages, and at the present stage acquired a written form and dance accompaniment.
Composition
For a long time, people have been composing songs about their lives and important events. Over time, these events become a thing of the past, and their participants die. The songs themselves become old, but they are not forgotten - people continue to sing them.
Songs that depict important events and prominent personalities of the past are called historical songs.
Ancient historical songs tell about the heroic struggle of the people against foreign conquerors and enslavers. They are distinguished by a high spirit of patriotism. They sing about glorious campaigns and brilliant victories, difficult roads of military glory. They also revealed people's dreams and hopes, and they also reflected the character of the Russian people, their kindness, generosity, and sincerity.
There is probably no place that would not exist one way or another
captured in oral folk art. Thus, historical songs mention Mother Volga, Rostov Father, Novgorod, the Kerzhinka River, and the “glorious city of Kostroma”; These songs tell about folk heroes: about the good fellow Emelyan the Cossack (Pugachev), Stepan Razin, about Ermak and their heroic death.
The songs of the Razin cycle, unlike other historical songs, are not only epic, but also lyrical. These songs cannot be called a simple chronicle of events. Their meaning is broader. They not only contain an objective narrative of what is happening, but, first of all, they are an expression of popular sympathy for the uprising and its leader. Truthfully expressing the attitude of the people towards the Razin movement, they idealize the image of Razin and poeticize the activities of the Razinites. Pictures of their exploits, training camps, clashes with the tsarist troops, and their dramatic fate are covered in poetry. So, for example, addressing his “brothers” - brave, good fellows, Razin says:
Oh, how can we get to quiet places,
As for that Chervonyi groove,
Like the glorious Kavalersky Island.
Oh, is there a place for us, brothers, to share a duvan,
Satin and velvet are one size fits all for us,
Cloth of gold according to its merits,
Pearls for youth,
And as much gold treasury as you need.
The main idea of such songs is to express the desire for freedom. They reflect the innermost thoughts and aspirations of the serf peasantry from the 17th century until the reform of 1861.
In the XVIII - first half of the XIX centuries. A large number of so-called soldiers' songs arose, original in their content. They reflected the most important military events of those years. These are songs about the Seven Years' War (1756-1761), about Suvorov's campaigns (1799) and the Patriotic War of 1812, about the hardships of long military transitions. Historical songs of this time truthfully reflect the daily life of soldiers “in a distant foreign land,” difficult training, longing for their homeland and family. Soldiers' songs of that time replenished the folk song repertoire with works of new themes, new images, thoughts, and feelings.
The Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 was also reflected in historical songs. This war in the songs is considered as a war for the national independence of the Slavs.
Many songs have been created about the First World War. They talked about the endurance, courage and patriotism of Russian soldiers. And the main genre of songs of that time was the genre of song-story of a participant or eyewitness to certain events. All these songs are sad in content, with a touch of tragedy.
The main thing in folk songs is to express the attitude of the people to various life phenomena. And historical songs reflect the attitude of ordinary people to the most important events of history, from ancient times to the present day.
I see wonderful freedom,
I see fields and fields...
This is Russian expanse,
This is Russian land!
F.P.Savinov
1. Russian philosophers and writers about folk songs
The study of Russian national character will always be incomplete, truncated without reference to Russian folk song. The laconic formula: “Song is the soul of the people” directly and directly expresses the meaning of a folk song. The song reveals such depths, such secrets of the Russian character that are inexpressible, incomprehensible in other life situations. Russian people sang and sing almost always - on a hike, in short moments of rest, in sorrow and joy, on weekdays and holidays, in youth, adulthood and old age. The song so fully expresses the features of the national character that this was noted by many Russian thinkers. “Show me how you believe and pray; how kindness, heroism, a sense of honor and duty awaken in you; how you sing, dance and read poetry,” said I.A. Ilyin, “tell me all this, and I will tell you what nation you are the son of.”
Folk song is the most democratic form of participation in musical creativity, accessible to everyone. Where, if not in a song, can one comprehend the character of a people: its immeasurable breadth, kindness and generosity, native character, daring and youthful enthusiasm. In a song, as in a prayer, there is a purification of the soul, catharsis, as the ancient Greek sages said. Unfortunately, today, in the conditions of universal globalization, we are observing negative trends in the development of Russian culture, including the oblivion of Russian folk songs and their displacement by pop music. For modern mass media, the Russian song turned out to be “outside the format.” It turns out that the format of media and TV corresponds to graduates of the “star factory” incubator, numerous rock ensembles and inveterate funnymen.
As my personal teaching experience shows, students of the last two decades actually do not know Russian folk songs. Let us imagine for a moment the following situation: in a youth student camp, where students from different countries have gathered, a concert is held in which folk songs are performed. Each of the participants in this impromptu concert performs songs of their homeland with fervor and genuine pathos. And only a Russian student, whose folk songs have been erased from his memory, can only throw up his hands or mutter something in bad English, which many people do today.
All this is a great misfortune, which was the result of the erasure of the deep foundations of Russian national identity at the present stage. As the artistic director of the Academic Chapel says. M.I. Glinka, People's Artist of the USSR V. Chernushenko, a song is the repository of the people's soul, and without a soul there will be no people. In a choral singing ensemble, for which Russia has always been famous, souls and hearts are united in harmony, and if the people stop singing their songs, then they will cease to exist as a nation. In choral singing, conciliarity is expressed to the maximum extent, as the most important feature of the Russian national character. Today we are faced with a vital dilemma: will we be the heirs of the great Russian culture, including song creativity, or will we become Ivans who do not remember our kinship.
It is very difficult, almost impossible, to make a folk song an object of reflection. Singing, the very act of performing a song, is more likely associated with emotional experience than with rational comprehension. Therefore, in the study of this topic, we will have to turn to Russian fiction and Russian philosophy, where we find precious deposits testifying to Russian song, its significance for understanding the uniqueness and originality of the Russian national character. Another way of analysis is to turn to the work of outstanding experts on Russian folk music songs from Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin to modern performers.
Russian folk song is the main type of musical creativity of the Russian people - from ancient times; sung solo, ensemble, choir (“One cannot sing alone, it’s easier with an artel”). Closely connected with life and everyday life, passed down orally from generation to generation, it is polished in the process of execution in all layers of the people. Folk songs are rich in various genres: work songs, ritual songs, calendar songs, wedding songs, choir songs, games songs, dance songs, historical songs and spiritual poems, romances, lyrical lingering songs, ditties, etc. The ancient peasant song is characterized by a polyphonic structure in the form of subvocal polyphony, modalism, rhythmic freedom, and singing without musical accompaniment. Urban songs have their own specificity, varied in content and style, created by various social groups (workers, soldiers, students, petty bourgeois). These songs are distinguished by their harmonic structure, alternation and combination of major and minor intonations.
Since the end of the 18th century, Russian folk songs have been recorded and published; she played a significant role in the development of the Russian school of composition. Choral folk song has long been a favorite type of everyday music-making. The song has always been an organic combination of words (text) and music. Russian folk song found a new life in Soviet times, thanks to its wide dissemination (amateur choirs, professional groups, radio broadcasts, gramophone records and tape recorders), the study of the song heritage and the emergence of new songs that began to be considered folk (“Katyusha”, etc.).
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Russian folk song in the formation of national self-awareness and national character, what is today called the mentality characteristic of the Russian people. According to I.A. Ilyin, a child should hear a Russian song even in the cradle. Singing brings him the first spiritual sigh and the first spiritual groan: they must be Russian. Singing will teach him the first spiritualization of spiritual nature - in Russian; singing will give him his first “non-animal” happiness - in Russian. “Russian song,” he wrote, “is deep, like human suffering, sincere, like prayer, sweet, like love and consolation; in our dark days, as under the yoke of the Tatars, it will give a child’s soul an escape from the threatening embitterment and petrification.”
In life, Russians sing at every step, especially peasant girls, during and after work, walking workers, soldiers on the march, students at the first opportunity, and all strata of society during some hard and boring work. Ilyin gives the point of view of a person of a different nationality. In 1879, Russian German prof. Westphal from Yuriev (Dorpat) published a wonderful work on Russian folk song. Based on the research of Yu.N. Melgunov, he established that Russian folk song occupies a unique place in world music. It is sung in an extremely unique tonality, which is reminiscent of Greek, but not identical to it. These songs are distinguished by the originality of harmony, voice guidance and cadence, which sound beautiful, but do not correspond to European music theory, the doctrine of harmony and compositional practice. They are performed by a peasant choir without any musical training, without a tuning fork or conductor, without accompaniment, a capella; this is a four-voice, in which there is never a bad and boring unison, and hence there are free variations and mobile sub-voices, which from time to time improvise, based directly on inner feelings, hearing and taste. The richness of these songs is inexhaustible, their age is sometimes impossible to determine, their melody, rhythm and expressiveness are simply captivating, especially when performing ancient diverse wedding songs, sometimes plaintively sounding, sometimes thoughtfully blessing.
Russian people, according to I.A. Ilyin, have lived for centuries in an oscillating rhythm: burning or calm, concentration or relaxation, swiftness or drowsiness, jubilant or twilight, passionate or indifferent, “joyful to heaven - sad to death.” It is like a flame that has gone out for the time being, a weakened composure and a drowsy intensity that can be found in the sparkle of the eyes, in the smile, in the song and in the dance.
Anyone who wants to get to know the Russian soul better should get acquainted with Russian song. “When, for example, after an exercise, soldiers return to the barracks in formation, or especially when, after a successfully completed review, the command is given to the troops: “Singers, forward!” - then the choir marches ahead, singing folk songs, and the singer begins, and the choir joins in every second or third stanza of the song. You need to hear this enthusiasm, this passion filled with humor. This freely syncopated rhythm, this suddenly exploding sharp whistle, these pickups, these frets in full swing. You will never hear unison, you will never hear false voices, the song will never become a choral recitative. Everyone stands there, captivated by this, and can’t stop listening.”
Russian classical literature of the 19th century contains numerous evidence of the originality, spiritual structure and emotional depth of Russian folk song. The amazing, enchanting power of folk song was captured by N.V. Gogol in “Dead Souls”: “Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful distance I see you: poorly scattered and uncomfortable in you... But what incomprehensible, secret force attracts me to you? Why is your melancholy song, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea, heard and heard incessantly in your ears? What's in it, in this song? What calls and cries and grabs your heart? What sounds painfully kiss and strive into the soul, and curl around my heart? .
L.N. Tolstoy has a story “Songs in the Village”. But, perhaps, the story “Singers” in “Notes of a Hunter” by I.S. Turgenev makes the most powerful impression. This story is about a competition between two singers, which takes place in the Prytynny tavern. This competition is a kind of competition in which two heroes of Turgenev’s story take part: the rower and Yakov the Turk. The rower was the first to perform a cheerful dance song with dashing prowess, and everyone present decided that he had won. But it was Yakov the Turk’s turn to sing his song. I.S. Turgenev describes in detail how the singer “enters the character” and adjusts himself psychologically. “He took a deep breath and sang... “There was more than one path in the field,” he sang, and we all felt sweet and creepy. I admit, I have rarely heard such a voice: it was slightly broken and rang as if cracked; at first he even responded with something painful; but there was also genuine deep passion in him, and youth, and strength, and sweetness, and some kind of fascinatingly carefree, sad grief. The Russian, truthful, ardent soul sounded and breathed in him and so grabbed you by the heart, grabbed you right by its Russian strings! The song grew and spread. Yakov, apparently, was overcome by rapture: he was no longer timid, he surrendered himself entirely to his happiness; his voice no longer trembled - it trembled, but with that barely noticeable inner trembling of passion that pierces like an arrow into the soul of the listener, and incessantly grew stronger, hardened and expanded.
Turgenev repeatedly uses phrases - “Russian soul”, “Russian heart strings”, “Russian people”, “Russian people”, thereby emphasizing that such song creativity is fully an expression of Russian national identity and Russian character. “He sang, and from every sound of his voice there was a breath of something familiar and vastly wide, as if the familiar steppe was opening up before you, going into an endless distance. I felt tears boiling in my heart and rising to my eyes; dull, restrained sobs suddenly struck me... I looked around - the kisser’s wife was crying, leaning her chest against the window... I don’t know how the general yearning would have been resolved if Yakov had not suddenly come to a high, unusually subtle sound - like his voice broke off. No one shouted, no one even moved; everyone seemed to be waiting to see if he would sing again; but he opened his eyes, as if surprised by our silence, looked around everyone with a questioning gaze and saw that the victory was his...”
The very lengthy fragment I cited from the story “Singers” clearly represents one of the many Russian nuggets nurtured in the very thick of people’s life. Precisely those who are characterized by the immeasurable breadth of the Russian soul, talent and ability for higher forms of experience. Turgenev, known among us as a Western writer, was able to use unusually expressive artistic means to show the uniqueness of the Russian national character in song creativity.
Russian folk song has always been and, I hope, will be the embodiment of the life of the people and their culture, their memory, their historical existence, their everyday everyday life: work and rest, joy and grief, love and separation. The Russian person in the song personifies the world of nature, projects his spiritual properties and experiences onto it: “What is clouded, the clear dawn...”, “A centuries-old linden tree stands above the river...”, “Kalinka...”. We comprehend this personification of nature with some special heart-aching sadness in “Thin Rowan”:
Why are you standing there, swaying?
Thin rowan,
Bowing my head
All the way to the tyn?
According to the famous Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky, the direct existence of the Russian people is a river and a forest, a steppe and a field, thereby affirming the fusion of man with nature, rootedness in it. And in the Russian song the immeasurable breadth of the Russian character is affirmed, corresponding to the immensity of the Russian vast expanses: “Oh, you, wide steppe ...”, “Down along Mother, along the Volga ...”, “I have traveled all over the universe ...” . The image of the Motherland is insightfully captured in the song “Native” based on the poem by F.P. Savinov:
I hear the lark's songs,
I hear the trill of a nightingale.
This is the Russian side,
This is my homeland!
Lidia Ruslanova, speaking at a rally of coachmen in the late 20s. last century, said that there are more than 80 songs about coachmen, and she herself performed about 30 of them. In each of these songs, the immeasurable Russian expanses and equally immeasurable passions and emotional impulses are fused together. In Russian folk songs, Altai and Valdai, the Urals and Siberia, the Quiet Don and Volga, Baikal and the Russian North are sung: “On the wild shore of the Irtysh...”, “The glorious sea is the sacred Baikal...”, “Zhiguli”, “Po A young Cossack is walking along the Don..." Even when the action of the song unfolds within the confines of the capital Moscow, and there is an immeasurable breadth of the Russian soul: “Golden-domed Moscow” and “Along the St. Petersburg...” - a song performed by the great Russian singer Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin.
Russian folk songs reflect both generalized and specific images of dear, especially revered, sacred natural phenomena for Russian people - one of the diverse faces of Holy Rus'. The Russian person communicates with them, speaks as if they were alive, personifies, personifies them, endowing them with their own properties, inherent only to humans. Particularly well known are songs in which they sing about more revered natural phenomena - the Volga, Don, and sacred Baikal. All of Russia knew these songs. Some of them are joyful, others are sad, but in all the songs the rivers or lakes, as if alive, “their lives” and the fate of the Russian people - the heroes of the song - are merged together. With such songs, of course, the revered natural phenomena of the Russian land are permanently fixed in people’s memory.
Folk songs are of no small importance in school education and upbringing. Among the many components that form the basis of the national character, the famous teacher of the early 20th century. V.N. Soroka-Rosinsky calls a folk song. Such a song goes back to the archetypes of our ancestors, through it the participation of new generations of Russian people in national shrines and moral values is realized. “It is necessary,” he wrote, “for a schoolchild to hear his native song from an early age and get used to being inspired by the sounds of it and to feel within himself the blood of his people and everything heroic and lofty that lurks in the people’s soul; it is necessary that the national song accompanies all the solemn moments of a schoolchild’s life, so that he feels the need to express his feelings in those moments when the soul is full, as any normally developing people do - in a folk song performed by a choir, by the whole world.”
2.Outstanding performers of Russian folk songs
Russian folk song is becoming even more famous and popular thanks to the great Russian performers, among whom the first places were and are occupied by Fyodor Chaliapin, Nadezhda Plevitskaya, Lydia Ruslanova, Boris Shtokolov, Lyudmila Zykina, Dmitry Hvorostovsky and many others.
A special place in this list is occupied by F.I. Chaliapin(1873-1938), who, being an opera singer, constantly gave concerts and performed Russian folk songs. In his autobiographical book “Mask and Soul. My forty years of life in the theater,” he repeatedly noted the importance of Russian folk song for his development as an opera singer. According to his conviction, mathematical fidelity in music and the best voice are dead until mathematics and sound are inspired by feeling. Chaliapin absorbed this lofty spirit from folk songs. A song is not a random combination of sounds, but the result of a creative act of the people. “I consider it significant,” he wrote, “and highly typical for Russian life, that simple Russian craftsmen encouraged me to sing. Russian people have been singing songs since birth. This is how it was in the days of my adolescence. The people who suffered in the dark depths of life sang painful and despairingly cheerful songs. And how well they sang! They sang in the field, sang in the haylofts, on rivers, by streams, in forests and behind a splinter. From nature, from everyday life, the Russian song is from love. After all, love is a song."
Chaliapin studied singing in a church choir, like many singers from the people of that time. Thanks to his natural abilities, and Chaliapin had a heroic physique, he was a true hare; he was characterized by immeasurable talent and some kind of special robber prowess. He embodied a certain standard of a Russian person on stage. Nevertheless, he always emphasized that the spiritual beginning, the state of the soul must be in every word, in every musical phrase, and they are impossible without imagination. The actor’s imagination must come into contact with the author’s imagination and grasp the essential note of the character’s plastic existence. Nothing can save a singer who has no imagination from creative sterility - neither a good voice, nor stage practice, nor a spectacular figure.
Chaliapin illustrates this thesis by sharing his experience of performing the folk song “I remember, I was still young.” “The singer must imagine what kind of village it was, what kind of Russia it was, what kind of life it was in these villages, and what kind of heart beats in this song.” You have to feel all this so that the singer will feel pain if he imagines how they worked in the village, how they got up before dawn, in what dry conditions the young heart awakened. These Chaliapin thoughts were repeatedly confirmed in practice; he tells how they performed “Luchina” together in nature with the miller Nikon Osipovich, what nuances, what subtleties he borrowed and was able to implement in his concert activities. Thanks to sound recording, we can still listen to the sound of Chaliapin’s voice as he sang “From behind the island to the core...”, “Dubinushka” and many other songs. The crowning number in every Chaliapin concert, undoubtedly, was the well-known song:
Eh, along Piterskaya,
Along Tverskaya-Yamskaya,
Along Tverskaya-Yamskaya, yes
With a bell...
I.A. Ilyin in his article “Chaliapin’s artistic vocation” analyzes the influences under the influence of which the artist’s talent awakened, grew and strengthened. This is, first of all, a Russian folk song that has been flowing throughout Russia from end to end for many hundreds of years. Her sincerity and emotionality, her expressiveness made Chaliapin, as a national phenomenon, possible. We know that Chaliapin listened to her enough and moved away from her. There is no doubt that the gypsy song also gave Chaliapin its own. Church Orthodox chant influenced Chaliapin. Only in the best prayer places of his roles can one trace some tradition of spiritual chants. It was these influences that laid the foundation for Chaliapin's creative path. “Chaliapin did not just sing, but breathed into your soul with his sound: in his massive, bell-like deep sound, the breath trembled, and in the breath the soul trembled; his voice had the power to take the listener and bring him immediately to suggestive submission; in order to make him sing with himself, breathe with himself and tremble with himself; breathing and breathing gave life to sound; the sound ceased to be a ringing, but became a groan: you heard in it the rising and falling, thickening and thinning line of feeling - and your soul floated in it and lived by it; the result was a sound extremely saturated with animation, commandingly enveloping the listener’s soul.”
However, I.A. Ilyin, to some extent and rightly, points out the negative traits of his character. All this led to the fact that Chaliapin did not create or leave behind a school, like the school of K. Stanislavsky, in which it would be worth embodying the method of his creativity and a living school of new operatic art. Chaliapin's song legacy has always been a kind of tuning fork and model for many generations of professional singers and lovers of Russian folk song.
An outstanding performer of Russian folk songs was Nadezhda Plevitskaya(Vinnikova) (1884-1941). A natural singer, Plevitskaya was born in the village of Vinnikovo near Kursk into a simple peasant family. Her love for singing led her to the church choir of the Trinity Monastery in Kursk, where she was a student for more than two years. Her first great success came on tour in Nizhny Novgorod in 1909 at a charity concert during the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, where she performed at the invitation of L.V. Sobinov. A year later, Plevitskaya was already singing triumphantly in Moscow and St. Petersburg. She was greeted very warmly by F. Chaliapin, who after the concert gave a fatherly farewell to the singer: “God help you, dear Nadyusha. Sing your songs that you brought from the earth, I don’t have those - I’m a Sloboda resident, not a villager.” All her life, Plevitskaya kept a photograph of Chaliapin with a dedicatory inscription: “To my dear Lark Nadezhda Vasilyevna Plevitskaya, F. Chaliapin, who loves her dearly.”
About how Plevitskaya sang, there is evidence from an admirer of her talent, journalist A. Kugel: “She sang... I don’t know, maybe she didn’t sing, but spoke. The eyes changed expression, but with some artificiality. But the movements of the mouth and nostrils were like an open book. Plevitskaya's dialect is the purest, most sonorous, most charming Russian dialect. She wrings her fingers, clasping her hands, and these fingers live, speak, suffer, joke, laugh.” Many experts noted her rare musicality, her naturally flexible and rich voice - a mezzo-soprano with a wide range.
Plevitskaya's repertoire was enormous. She performed well-known Russian folk songs: “Peddlers”, “Ukhar-merchant”, “Troika”, “Stenka Razin”, “On the Murom Path”, “Among the Flat Valley”, “Across the Wild Steppes of Transbaikalia” and many others. She sang at the evening of K.S. Stanislavsky in the presence of Russian masters of the Art Theater. In 1910, Plevitskaya received an invitation to Tsarskoye Selo, where she successfully performed in front of Emperor Nicholas II and his family. The Emperor liked Plevitskaya’s singing so much that she subsequently performed repeatedly before the Tsar, the Grand Dukes and the highest officials of the Russian Empire. During the First World War, Plevitskaya performed in concerts in front of Russian soldiers, and during the Civil War - in front of soldiers of the Red Army.
Subsequently, Plevitskaya’s fate was very tragic. The outstanding singer ended up in exile. In 1937, she was arrested by the French government in connection with the kidnapping of General E.K. Miller. Despite the lack of direct evidence, the court sentenced Plevitskaya to 20 years in hard labor prison, where she died in 1941. The name of Plevitskaya still lives in Russia in legends, songs and romances.
Great Russian singer Lidiya Andreevna Ruslanova(1900-1973) was born in the village of Chernavka, Saratov province (real name - Agafya Leikina). Throughout the 20th century, she was one of the most popular performers, and her performance of Russian folk songs is considered to be the standard. Ruslanova had a beautiful and strong voice with a wide range. She created her own style of performing folk songs, which she collected all her life. Among her most popular songs are “Steppe, and steppe all around”, “Golden Mountains”, “The Moon Is Painted with Crimson”, “The Moon Is Shining”, “Valenki”, “Century Linden Tree” and many others. She was one of the first to perform “Katyusha” by M. Isakovsky. For some time, thanks to the help of teacher M. Medvedev, Ruslanova studied at the Saratov Conservatory, but then decided that her life should be connected with folk song: “I realized that I could not be an academic singer. My whole strength was in spontaneity, in natural feeling, in unity with the world where the song was born.”
During the First World War, Ruslanova was at the front as a nurse. In the 20s, her style in performance, behavior on stage, and selection of concert costumes was finally formed. These were peasant sundresses, colored scarves and shawls. In the 30s, the singer toured throughout the Soviet Union. Her voice had great strength and endurance, and she often took part in 4-5 concerts in one evening. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Ruslanova went to the front as part of one of the best concert teams. Once, in 17 days, this brigade gave 51 concerts. The song “Valenki” became the “calling card” of the popularly beloved singer. They had to perform in the open air, in trenches, in dugouts, and in hospitals. With her songs, Ruslanova poured the elixir of life into the souls of the soldiers - the Russian national spirit. Using her funds earned while touring the country in the pre-war years, Lidia Ruslanova purchased two batteries of Katyusha guard mortars, which were sent to the First Belorussian Front.
Ruslanova sang on the front line, under fire, in the back of a truck, wearing a bright Russian national costume. She sang about Russia, about the Volga, about the Motherland, reminding someone of her mother, someone of her wife, someone of her sister. And after the concert the soldiers went into battle. Once on the front line, Ruslanova gave a three-hour concert, which was broadcast on the radio through amplifiers. For three hours there was not a single shot fired from either side of the front. During these three hours, the redeployment of our troops was carried out, and preparations for the counter-offensive were completed. And in defeated Berlin, several concerts of Lydia Ruslanova took place - at the Reichstag building and at the Brandenburg Gate. In total, she gave more than 1,120 concerts on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. For all these achievements, Ruslanova was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Ruslanova's performing style goes back to the singing traditions of the peasants of the Volga region. She had a deep, chesty voice (lyric soprano, turning into a dramatic one, but of a “folk nature”) of a large range and could move from contralto to the upper notes of a soprano sound. Possessing perfect pitch and excellent musical memory, Ruslanova did not strive to perform the same repertoire all the time, collecting Russian folk songs. She knew so many songs - Volga region, Central Russian, northern, Siberian, Cossack - that she could surprise even experienced folklorists. She performed memorable, heroic, brave, robber, drawn-out, mournful, cheerful, game, circular, round dance, dance, joke, barge hauler, buffoon, ritual, wedding, ghoul, sub-bowl, woman's, gathering songs, as well as epics, laments, patches and thoughts. Each song became a small performance.
The ease with which Ruslanova performed folk songs was achieved through hard work. She said more than once: “Singing well is very difficult. You will be exhausted until you comprehend the soul of the song, until you unravel its riddle. I don't sing the song, I play it. It’s a whole play with multiple roles.” Ruslanova was rightly called the “Queen of Russian Song” and the “Singer of the Guard” during the Great Patriotic War. And today, in a number of Russian cities, folk song competitions named after Lydia Ruslanova are held (Saratov, Volgograd, Penza, Kozelsk, etc.). In her work, Ruslanova fully embodied the best features of the Russian national character - spiritual generosity, immensity, passion, talent, conciliarity and patriotism.
Such talented Russian nuggets as Fyodor Chaliapin, Nadezhda Plevitskaya, Lydia Ruslanova - flesh of flesh, blood of the blood of the Russian people - expressed in their work the best properties of the Russian national character. A song is the embodiment of the life of a people, its culture; is and has always been an expression of the sincerity, emotionality, and expressiveness of the people's soul. And as soon as you sing the song, hard work is not a burden, and grief is not grief, and trouble is not trouble. For a Russian person, singing is like a prayer: in song you will cry, and repent, and submit, and lighten your soul, and the weight will fall off your soul like a stone. Famous opera singers - Sergei Lemeshev, Ivan Kozlovsky, Boris Shtokolov, Alexander Vedernikov, Yuri Gulyaev, Elena Obraztsova, Dmitry Hvorostovsky - made a huge contribution to the popularization of Russian folk song. In the second half of the 20th century, Russian songs were constantly heard in the concerts of Lyudmila Zykina, Claudia Shulzhenko, Valentina Tolkunova, Vladimir Troshin and many other performers.
3. “Shine, burn, my star...”
Romance is another and very important component of the treasury of Russian song creativity. According to People's Artist of Russia Isabella Yurieva, romance is an amazing phenomenon in our song culture. Romance is a purely Russian phenomenon. In the Russian romance, as well as in the ancient Russian song, the soul of our people was expressed with its subtle lyricism, with its inescapable melancholy and dreaminess; with her cheerful daring and desperate recklessness.
What is the difference between Russian romance and other genres, other vocal forms? What specific features are inherent in romance? First of all, it's a simple plot. The space of romance plots is limited by the sphere of human experiences: first meeting, love, betrayal, separation, loneliness, death of a beloved (beloved) - what is understandable to every person. To this we must add simplicity and accessibility of forms; if the method of expression becomes more complicated, the language of the romance ceases to be understandable. All feelings are expressed directly, in open text. The content of the romance is rich in word-symbols, each of which hides a real story:
It was all just lies and deceit
Goodbye to dreams and peace,
But the pain of unclosed wounds
Will stay with me.
Sensitivity, the ability to evoke human feelings is another mandatory feature of Russian romance. The more sentimental the romance, the higher its popularity. The most important thing in a romance is intonation, confidential, but not familiar in relation to the listener. This is another advantage of Russian romance. It is in intonation that the elusive charm of the romance lies, which gives it genuine depth, sincerity of the feelings experienced, an elegiac mood, and light sadness. A distinctive feature of Russian romance is its specific language, in which there are quite a lot of Slavicisms, giving the romance a high style:
I'll cover you with kisses
Mouth, and eyes, and forehead.
Replace these words with modern ones and all the aroma and charm of the romance will crumble and disappear.
The most valuable thing in Russian romance music is its rich and expressive melody. The wide chanting, flexibility and plasticity of the romance are inherited from Russian folk songs. It should be noted that some romances, far removed from their folk song origins, never lose touch with them. Russian romances were often performed by gypsy choirs, which led to increased melodramatic moments and exalted the melody pattern. And then the Russian romance allegedly became gypsy. In this case, the Russian origin of the romance is forgotten (“Oh, at least talk to me, seven-string friend” by A. Grigoriev, “Black Eyes” by E. Grebenka.)
The romance-elegy became the artistic epicenter of Russian musical and poetic culture in the 19th century. Romance has always been a synthetic art - a unity of word and sound. On the poetry side, the development of romance was deeply influenced by the work of the great Russian poets - A.S. Pushkin, F.I. Tyutchev, A.A. Fet, A.K. Tolstoy. At the same time, talented composers - M.I. Glinka, A.A. Alyabyev, A.N. Verstovsky, P.P. Bulakhov, A.L. Gurilev, A.E. Varlamov and many others gave the romance diverse and amazing musical forms. And today, classic romances are considered to be works based on Pushkin’s poems “I remember a wonderful moment...”, Tyutchev’s poems “I met you...”, A.K. Tolstoy’s poems “Among a noisy ball...”. To this should be added numerous texts of poems by M.Yu. Lermontov, E.A. Boratynsky, A.V. Koltsov, A.A. Blok, S.A. Yesenin, which became the basis of romances. The pinnacle of romance creativity are the works of P.I. Tchaikovsky (“Does the day reign...", “I won’t tell you anything...”), in which the expressiveness of the music corresponds to the mood of the text. But this type of romance resonates with a select, not a mass, audience. Classic romance becomes intellectual, while losing its lightness and simplicity.
At the beginning of the 20th century, romance became more of a performing art than a compositional and poetic art. We can judge this by comparing the various performing styles of that time, thanks to the surviving recordings. These performers are the stars of urban romance - A. Vyaltseva, V. Panina, N. Plevitskaya, A. Davydov, N. Dulkevich; somewhat later - A. Vertinsky, P. Leshchenko, I. Yuryeva, A. Bayanova and others. The popularization of the romance was facilitated by the appearance of the gramophone and records. The performance of romances was enthusiastically received not only by restaurant regulars, but also by visitors to concert halls and outstanding artists. The performance of a romance always presupposes a coincidence, a consonance of the emotional impulse, the internal mood of the performer and the listener, the artist and the audience. The listener is most often a person who has felt and suffered a lot, who has heart wounds and unhealed scars. Only such a listener can fully comprehend the enchanting power of romance.
A documentary report by the famous Russian journalist of the early 20th century, Vlas Doroshevich, about Sasha Davydov’s performance in the operetta “Gypsy Songs and Romances in Persons...” has been preserved:
“I remember the performance in the Hermitage by Lentovsky.
It was fun, crowded, chic.
"Gypsy Songs" were playing.
Davydov sang “Cry” and “Night”.
And so he approached the ramp.
The face became stern and solemn.
A pair of bay horses harnessed to the dawn...
First performance of the new romance.
And from the second, from the third verse, the theater stopped breathing.
Where now, in what new goddess
Are they looking for their ideals?
Actress E. Hildebrandt swayed. She was taken off stage.
Raisova - Stesha - leaned towards the table and began to cry.
The beautiful chorus girls wiped away their tears.
There were sobs in the hall.
The sobs grew.
Someone was carried out unconscious.
Someone ran out of the box crying loudly.
I looked to my left.
In the box sat the opera artist Tilda, from the French opera of Gunzburg, which was then touring in the Hermitage.
Large tears flowed down her cheeks.
She didn't understand the words.
But I understood the tears with which the artist sang.
The French writer Armand Sylvester, a light-hearted, pleasant writer, a fat, cheerful bourgeois, who was visiting the theater in Moscow, threw up his hands during intermission:
Amazing country! An incomprehensible country! They cry in the operetta.
You, only you, are faithful to her to this day,
A pair of bays... a pair of bays...
Davydov finished with his face covered in tears.
Under some general sobbing.
I have only seen such a performance once more in my life...”
Such a demanding judge as K.S. Stanislavsky, who was very far from the stage, wrote, assessing the work of A. Davydov: “He showed high art of speech in the amateurish field of gypsy singing and made us think about the secret of declamation and expressiveness that was known to him." It is not surprising that the enthusiastic audience often literally carried out their favorite performers of Russian romances in their arms after the concert.
We find similar judgments from the famous Russian writer A. Kuprin, who attended the concert of Nina Dulkevich (Baburina): “I will never forget this sudden, strong, passionate and sweet impression. It was as if the scent of some wild flower suddenly wafted into the room, which smelled of fashionable perfume. I heard how the captivated spectators gradually became silent, and for a long time not a single sound or rustle was heard in the huge hall, except for that sweet, yearning and fiery motif... You listen to it - and you listen not with just your ears, but with all your nerves, all your blood and with all my soul." N. Dulkevich often performed 30, 40 and even 50 romances and songs during one concert! And this is without a microphone or other sound-amplifying equipment. It is unlikely that a “foreign” ear and another soul can understand all the depth, passion and magical power of Russian romance. But all this is open to the Russian soul, which, according to cultural genetics, is capable of harmoniously merging in the artist’s performance and the listener’s perception.
Russian romance has come a long way - through high society salons, noisy hussar and student gatherings, soldiers' rest stops - it has reached our time, continuing to excite people's hearts today with its soft lyricism and sincere sentimentality. Russian romance - simple and touching - has absorbed the whole gamut of human feelings: sublime love and fatal passions, inescapable sadness and cheerful daring, desperate recklessness and sentimental dreaminess. Russian romance is eternal, just as the loving and suffering soul of a person is eternal.
4. Songs of our Victory
Songs of the Great Patriotic War occupy a special place in the songwriting of the Russian people. Songs of the Great Patriotic War... And immediately “Dugout”, “Dark Night”, “Nightingales” come to mind. Why, despite the repeated changes in fashion in pop songs, does a warm, reverent attitude towards the songs of the Great Patriotic War remain? Probably because they are simple, like the life of a soldier, and sincere, like the memory of a loved one. They are surprisingly melodic and easy to remember. They are distinguished by optimism, inexhaustible faith in friendship and love, all the best for which they had to fight and win.
And today, more than half a century after the end of the Great Patriotic War, the heart of a Russian person skips a beat and the soul trembles when a soft chant is heard:
The fire is beating in the small stove,
There is resin on the logs, like a tear.
And the accordion sings to me in the dugout
About your smile and eyes.
The song of the Great Patriotic War is a layer of the spiritual life of our country, our people. They are akin to Russian folk songs. My personal attitude to military songs is the attitude of a person belonging to a generation whose fathers died at the front. Therefore, the words from the song - “it’s not easy for me to get to you, but there are four steps to death” - are perceived by me not as a poetic device, but as a line from my father’s last letter from the front. Therefore, I have always perceived and perceive the victory of our army, our country, as my personal victory.
The song of the Great Patriotic War reflected the events of the war and became its musical chronicle. The themes, images, and content of the song exclusively convey the emotional atmosphere of wartime. It presents all the shades of heroism and lyricism of the war years: high civic position and patriotism (“Holy War”); spirit of courage and struggle (“Treasured Stone”); soldier's friendship and front-line brotherhood (“Two Friends”); love for home and woman (“Wait for me”); a joke song that creates an atmosphere of youthful enthusiasm and fun (“Vasya-Cornflower”); a front-line ditty written on the topic of the day.
The English military journalist A. Werth, who was on the Eastern Front, said that the psychological state of the Red Army could be determined from the song. If “Dugout,” he wrote, reflected the extreme degree of psychological breakdown in 1941, then “Dark Night” became an expression of faith and hope. The love for song, the awareness that song alleviates physical and mental suffering, is extremely clearly expressed in the poetic lines:
After the battle the heart asks
Music doubly so.
A person, even in wartime conditions, cannot remain indefinitely in a state of constant anxiety and mental discomfort. With the greatest insight, this situation was reflected by A. Tvardovsky in the poem “Vasily Terkin”:
And the accordion is calling somewhere,
It's far away, it leads easily...
No, what are you guys like?
Amazing people(...)
The memory of a military song is the memory of its authors and performers. These are composers A. Alexandrov, V. Solovyov-Sedoy - author of the songs “Evening on the roadstead”, “Nightingales”, “On a sunny clearing”; N. Bogoslovsky - author of the song “Dark Night”; T. Khrennikov, M. Blanter, I. Dunaevsky. These are the poets A. Surkov, M. Isakovsky, A. Fatyanov, E. Dolmatovsky, V. Lebedev-Kumach, N. Bukin. These are famous performers L. Utesov, G. Vinogradov, K. Shulzhenko, M. Bernes, L. Ruslanova, V. Bunchikov and V. Nechaev. These are, finally, artists from front-line concert brigades, unknown authors and performers.
More than a thousand songs were written by professional poets and composers alone in the first two months of the war. Not all of them received recognition and popularity, but one thing is certain: the song arsenal of war is extremely large. Front-line song creativity gave rise to numerous arrangements of well-known motifs: “The Sea Spreads Wide,” “Katyusha,” “Eh, Apple,” “Ogonyok” and many others.
There are amazing collections of songs preserved for us by devotees of the art of song: songs of the Battle of Stalingrad, songs of the Southern Front, songs of the Karelian Front, etc. Once published in military newspapers, they testify to the scale of folk song creativity. They reflect the motives of front-line life. Their heroes are the defenders of our Motherland. Therefore, even today, large and painstaking folklore-gathering work is needed.
Credit must be given to the most popular war songs written after the war. These are “Victory Day” (authors V. Kharitonov and D. Tukhmanov), “Cranes” (R. Gamzatov and Y. Frenkel), “He did not return from the battle”, “Mass Graves” (V. Vysotsky). These songs are perceived by us today as front-line songs. One thing is clear: there is a huge song heritage that tells about the tragic and at the same time heroic pages of our history. Much has been forgotten, lost, erased by time, supplanted by fashionable modern rhythms. Preserving this heritage is like creating a Red Book in which disappearing spiritual values will be listed. We should preserve them and not lose them in vanity and bitterness. Perhaps the songs of the war years will help us overcome the shocks and adversities that befall us today.
On every Victory Day, may the road lead us to mass graves, where “there is not a single personal fate - all destinies are merged into one.” Eternal memory to the defenders of our Motherland! Let our path lead us to the temple, where a prayer service will be served for the fallen soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. May the few veterans of the Great Patriotic War who have survived to this day constantly feel our attention and care.
One thing is certain - the songs of the Great Patriotic War formed and today form the properties of the Russian national character - patriotism, heroism, national fortitude, brotherhood, inexhaustible patience and a sense of unity. Today, in post-Soviet Russia, there is a shortage of these qualities. How necessary they are for new generations of Russian people.
5. “I love you, Russia...”
A huge layer of Russian song creativity is represented by songs of the Soviet era, coinciding chronologically with the second half of the 20th century. They continue the traditions of classical Russian national songs - in content, intonation, and genre diversity. But most importantly, they have cultural genetics identical to Russian folk songs and express the basic features of the Russian national character. Among the diverse themes, plots and motives of these songs, I would like to dwell on two main themes.
The first topic is Russia, the Motherland, Russian nature, the existence of the Russian people. Songs on this topic are characterized by immeasurable breadth, melodiousness, boundless freedom and deep patriotic feeling. This is “Moscow Evenings” by M. Matusovsky; “The Volga is flowing” - L. Oshanina, “Russia is my Motherland!” - V. Kharitonova, “Russian Field” - I. Goff, “My Village” - V. Gundareva, “My Quiet Homeland” - N. Rubtsova, “Grass at the House” - A. Poperechny, “Nadezhda” - N. Dobronravova , “Russia” - I. Talkova.
The boundlessness of Russia and the equally boundless love for the Motherland are insightfully expressed in the song “Russia” by M. Nozhkin:
I love you, Russia,
Our dear Rus',
Unspent power
Unsolved sadness.
You are immense in scope,
There is no end to anything for you,
You have been incomprehensible for centuries
To foreign sages.
The second theme is Russian songs of the lyrical genre, which tell about love and separation, joy and sorrow, hopes and disappointments. They, like folk songs, are unusually melodic, sometimes sentimental, but in each of them a loving and suffering Russian soul trembles. The following popular songs can be attributed to this theme: “Orenburg downy scarf” with poetry. V. Bokova, “Where can I get such a song” - M. Agashina, “Look at the dawn in the river” - O. Fokina, “A snow-white cherry blossomed under the window” - A. Burygina, “I’m standing at a stop” - M. Ancharova, “Ural mountain ash” - M. Pilipenko, “White birch friend” - A. Ovsyannikova, “What a song without a button accordion” - O. Anofrieva. The list of these songs can be continued endlessly.
During this period in the history of our song culture, many poems by S. Yesenin, N. Zabolotsky, N. Rubtsov were set to music. A. Safronov, V. Soloukhin and many other Russian poets. The popularity of Russian songs of this era became possible thanks to famous songwriters - A. Pakhmutova, E. Rodygin, G. Ponomarenko, as well as performers - Lyudmila Zykina, Vladimir Troshin, Maria Mordasova, Alexandra Strelchenko, Oleg Anofriev, Valentina Tolkunova, Nadezhda Babkina and many others.
Unfortunately, today you can rarely hear a Russian folk song. The “format” of the mass media today is suitable for various imported and home-grown hits and hits that have nothing in common with our song culture.
However, Russian folk songs, Russian romances and songs of the Soviet period are quite widely in demand outside our homeland. On the stage of many foreign countries, “Black Eyes” (E. Grebenka), “Two Guitars” (S. Makarov), “A Pair of Bays” (A. Apukhtin), songs of the Soviet era - “Katyusha” and "Moscow Nights". But, perhaps, K. Podrevsky’s romance “The Long Road,” to the music of B. Fomin, is still the most successful. This romance has been translated into many languages. It was performed many times in French and Italian by the French film star Dalida. This romance was performed by the famous trio of opera singers - P. Domingo, L. Pavarotti, J. Carreras, and they performed one verse in Russian. Russian songs and romances were performed for many years by Boris Rubashkin, a descendant of the first wave of Russian emigrants. The Yale University Choir (USA) has long been performing Russian folk songs - “Kalinka”, “Oh, you are our Russian expanse”. These songs were performed even during the Cold War on Red Square in Moscow in 1958.
Valery Ganichev, chairman of the Union of Writers of Russia, says with deep regret that today Russian folk song has disappeared, they don’t know it, they don’t sing it. “And Russian song is also our great Russian shrine. They fought against it in the same way as Emelyan Yaroslavsky fought against the church, they destroyed it, distorted it, and replaced it. The country was flooded with hasty, cheerful marches, and only the Great Patriotic War again brought Russian song to life. The ingenious amulet song “Holy War” gave birth to new spiritually sublime, dramatic-heroic, lyrical-romantic songs... The Alexandrov Choir, Pyatnitsky Choir, “Berezka” were known throughout the world, the Arkhangelsk, Voronezh, and Ural choirs were the standard of song culture. The country sang its songs. Every evening at 19:15 throughout the Soviet Union, folk songs, songs of the Great Patriotic War, were learned on all radio stations. And suddenly everything collapsed... On Vasilievsky Spusk, visiting rock musicians sing, and all sorts of pop music sounds; there was only one broadcast of the folk song “Play, Harmony!” Only Victor Zakharchenko, completely wounded by many years of struggle, breaks through with his outstanding Kuban Folk Choir to the main concert venue of the country - the Palace of Congresses. The departure of folk songs from the life of the country deprived it of the spiritual oxygen of tradition and self-awareness, eternal sound and movement. The cells of our young man’s consciousness and soul were filled with the rhythms of Florida and Texas, the melodies of the London suburbs, and the discos of Amsterdam and Hamburg. He ceases to be Russian and Russian, he does not know our songs, he does not know how to sing them.”
V. Ganichev talks about one trip of a youth delegation to America. There we were asked to sing our songs. The guys from Armenia began to sing their tune, two Ukrainians and I sang “Poviy Vitru na Vkrainu”, but the Muscovites and St. Petersburg residents didn’t remember anything. The American owners suggested: “Kalinka” - the guys didn’t know, “Black Eyes” - too. Let’s at least have “Moscow Evenings,” I suggested angrily. Without the support of the entire delegation they would not have sung. Good compatriots. And are they compatriots? So, second class citizens of the world.
Tanya Petrova said that in Japan, in music schools, a mandatory rule is the knowledge of ten Russian songs, as the most perfect melodic and harmonic examples. Can we boast of such knowledge? Does our student know ten folk songs and can he perform them? Clearly not. A great black hole has formed in the musical image of Russia... Either we sing our songs, or our people will dissolve in an alien melody, and therefore in alien thoughts and spirit... .
The outstanding director of the Moscow Chamber Choir, Vladimir Minin, complains that in Rus' they no longer sing at all. He sees a way out in the musical education of children, who could absorb the authentic traditions of national polyphony that are still preserved in some places. The famous bass, People's Artist of the USSR Yevgeny Nesterenko said that we Russians are a singing nation by nature.
But ascetics and performers of Russian songs have not yet disappeared from Rus'. Alexander Vasin-Makarov, creator of the Nadezhda trio, says: “We have taken upon ourselves the task of combining all types of Russian songs - folk, Soviet and original. In Russia it is impossible not to sing, they sing over a newborn, they sing at the apogee of its development, at a wedding, they also sing at its burial; they sing while leaving a hard day's work, soldiers sing when returning from a hot exercise, and sometimes when going on an assault. He notes that over the past 20 years, 150 melodies have been composed based on N. Rubtsov’s poems! For poems by M. Lermontov - 450! The Nadezhda trio performs songs based on poems by Tyutchev, Apukhtin, Fet, Blok, Rubtsov, Peredreev, Tryapkin, as well as Vasin-Makarov’s own poems, set to music he composed.
The sincerity, emotionality and expressiveness of Russian folk song, with particular force, presented by I.A. Ilyin in his book “The Singing Heart. A book of quiet contemplations." According to Ilyin, the human heart sees the Divine in everything, rejoices and sings, the heart shines from that depth where the human-personal merges with the superhuman-divine to the point of indistinguishability: for God's rays pierce man, and man becomes God's lamp. The heart sings at the sight of a child’s trusting, affectionate and helpless smile. The heart sings when it sees human kindness. The heart sings at the sight of the mysteries, miracles and beauties of God's world. The heart sings during inspired prayer, which is a person’s concentrated turning to God. The heart sings when we contemplate a true shrine in art, when we hear the voices of angels in the melody of earthly music. “We need to see and recognize and be convinced that it is the divine moments of life that constitute the true substance of the world; and that a man with a singing heart is the island of God - His lighthouse. His mediator."
Russian folk song has always been and will be an expression of Russian national identity and Russian character. The traditions coming from Chaliapin, Plevitskaya, Ruslanova and other outstanding performers of Russian folk song are continued today by Tatyana Petrova, Svetlana Kopylova, Elena Sapogova, our fellow countryman Evgeny Buntov and many performers who carefully preserve the traditions of Russian folk song, which truly is the embodiment of the soul of the people, an integral element of our spiritual substance.
Vitaly Ilyich Kopalov , professor, doctor of philosophy. Sciences, URIB im. I. A. Ilyina, Ekaterinburg
1. Ilyin I.A. The path of spiritual renewal // Ilyin I.A. Collection op. : in 10 volumes - M., 1993. - T. 1. - P.202.
2. Ibid. P. 203.
3. See: Ilyin I.A. The essence and originality of Russian culture // Ilyin I.A. Collected works: in 10 volumes. M., 1996. T.6, book. II. P.389.
Russian song - Russian history.
A. M. Gorky
Having been created over many centuries, the songs have become a genuine artistic encyclopedia of the working and social life of the people, their way of life, psychology and ideology. Poetically charming and sincere, deeply revealing in their content the inner world of a person, folk songs are evidence of the high talent of the Russian people, both poetically and musically.
They clearly reflected the best features of the Russian national character: perseverance in the trials of life, willpower and courage, a sense of human dignity, daring, bravery and ardent love for the homeland and freedom.
So what is a Russian folk song? This is a natural need for self-expression.
Studying Russian folk song, you realize with admiration how rich, generous, talented, sincere, and pure it is. The song reflected and kept in the memory of generations the history of our Motherland.
The songs reveal the fate of the people, the unique national character in all its richness of thoughts and feelings.
Round dance and wedding songs attract us with their clarity of form, harmonious combination of words and music, and crystallized intonations. Family relationships and the plight of women in a patriarchal family are most vividly captured in these songs.
“...You beat me, dear father,
One evening.
You wanted me, dear mother,
Plant them in the tower.
My dear mother put me in jail,
In sadness - sadness."
The enormous power of song to influence others instilled in our ancestors many centuries ago the confidence that singing can communicate and influence the forces of nature. This is how rituals and calendar ritual songs, amazing in their unique simplicity and brevity, arose. The poetry of ancient calendar agricultural songs had enormous attractive power.
They contain motives related to the labor activity of the peasant. The theme of labor is also reflected in round dance lyrical songs. It’s not for nothing that people said: “Conversation whiles away the journey, but song whiles away the work.”
In children's carols there was a sense of spontaneity, cheerfulness, sparkling with fun and humor in the folk “Avsenki”, “Tausenkmi”.
“Tausenki, tausenki!
Grandma cooks jelly
On the hill
In the skull..."
Lullabies conveyed a clear image of the child’s world; one could feel the warmth and depth of the mother’s affection, and her tender affection for the child’s peace.
“And bye, bye, bye...
Oh, sleep, angel, rest,
Close your eyes."
Tender feelings of love, longing for a loved one, the severity of separation are captured in lyrical songs.
And the lamentations! How much feeling, expression, bright poetic talent the screamers put into it, trying to throw out their grief in the momentarily stingy, but unusually capacious words coming from the depths of the soul - intonations.
L.A. Ruslanova, as a girl, heard her grandmother screaming when her father was taken away to become a soldier: “To whom have you abandoned us, bright falcon?” Then she often asked her grandmother: “Scream, woman for your little brother!”
That is why a song performed sincerely, unselfishly, touches the heartstrings, makes you think, excites.
The Russian people treated the song with special respect, and not only because it accompanied him from birth to death, but also, probably, because singing the song required a special, elevated state of mind.
The soul of today's man, who sings the songs of his ancestors or at least listens to them, comes into contact with the harsh thoughts of Ermak, with the robber prowess of Stenka Razin, with the quiet sadness of a spinner in a low light, with the bitter fate of a coachman frozen in the steppe, with the difficult service of little soldiers. , with the enviable love of a person who is ready to give mountains of gold for “caresses and glances.”
Like a kind and wise mentor, the song instills in us a love for the legends and customs of our native land, for its heroes and masters.
The folk song has an enviable fate. Fashionable “hits” and “hits” that were fashionable for one season disappear without a trace from memory. And folk song breaks out of the captivity of oblivion and again sounds pure and fresh in the mouths of people of a different era.
During the festivities, you can hear a cheerful ditty or folk song. And the guys pass on riddles, counting rhymes, and teases from generation to generation, without thinking that they are the keepers of folk musical wisdom.
It is in this immortality that lies the great secret of the national character of folk song.
“The Russian song is not naked,
Not rowdy, not hysterical chest,
Sit next to me and look into my eyes.”
“Glorious Russian Song” V. Bokov.
Historical songs, without exaggeration, are a continuation of the epic creativity of the people at the new stage of state development of Rus'. All of them are dedicated to various historical events and persons and express popular interests and ideals.
They are smaller in volume than epics. Usually the plot of historical songs is reduced to one single episode. The characters of historical songs are well-known historical figures (Ivan the Terrible, Ermak, Razin, Peter I, Pugachev, Suvorov, Alexander I, Kutuzov), as well as representatives, so to speak, of the people: gunner, gunner, soldiers, Cossacks. Older historical songs of the 13th–16th centuries. already a little closer to epics by the presence of a clearly traceable detailed plot, and most importantly, stylistics, and the younger ones are from the 18th-19th centuries. begin to experience more and more influence from lyrical songs and gradually turn into soldier songs with a lyrical sound. About a quarter of the historical songs known to science are published in this section of the site.
As for the time of origin of historical songs, there are serious disagreements among authoritative folklorists. St. Petersburg scientist S. N. Azbelev claims that such songs existed long before the formation of the Old Russian state. In his reasoning, S. N. Azbelev relies mainly on the opinion of such authoritative scientists as F. I. Buslaev, A. N. Veselovsky, V. F. Miller, as well as on the testimony of Byzantine historians. From another point of view (Yu. M. Sokolova, B. N. Putilova, F. M. Selivanov, V. P. Anikina), historical songs arose during the Mongol or Horde invasion - in the middle of the 13th century.
Handouts for group work.
Historical songs
Historical songs are epic and some lyric-epic works that tell about historical events and episodes from the lives of historical figures. Historical songs are the continuation and development of the epic folk epic. The epic glorifies the exploits of heroes. Their exaggerated images embody popular ideas about Russian strength, power, and readiness to defend the Motherland. The enemy force appears in the epic as a fantastic, fairy-tale creature that does not have an unambiguous historical prototype. Historical events of hoary antiquity in epics lose their features of reality. In historical songs, on the contrary, very specific historical events are mentioned and specific historical figures are named. Only outstanding events and outstanding historical figures are honored with people's memory: these are Tsars Peter I, Ivan IV (the Terrible), these are the people's intercessors - the leaders of the peasant uprisings Stepan Razin, Emelyan Pugachev, this is the free Cossack, the brave conqueror of Siberia Ermak Timofeevich. Historical songs expressed the feelings of nameless authors in connection with wars, campaigns, and popular uprisings. This is a popular assessment of history, its creators, an expression of the soul of the people.
In the 16th century, song cycles developed around Ivan the Terrible and the hero nominated by the people, Ermak. From the folk songs it is clear why the king received his nickname. The Tsar is great, his merits are undeniable. At the same time, Ivan the Terrible, at the slightest suspicion, is ready to “execute and hang” his gunners, during punitive campaigns he destroys entire cities, and in anger sends his son to execution:
“Oh, you, my faithful servants,
The executioners are merciless spendthrifts!1
Take my royal son,
Is it the same Fyodor Ivanov,
For him, for the white hands,
For him, for the rings, for the gold ones,
Take me to the field in Kulikovo,
For this, to a place for trade,
Just chop off his wild little head
A great betrayal for him!”
The second half of the 17th century was marked by a major event - a peasant uprising led by Stepan Razin. At this time, the peasants realized themselves as an independent force. The main theme was social protest:
“My sirs, brothers, the tavern’s pride,
Let's go, brothers, for a walk on the blue sea,
Let us, brothers, destroy the foolish ships,
We, brothers, will take as much treasury as we need,
Let's go, brothers, to stone Moscow..."
Pugachev's cycle of historical songs is a continuation of Razin's cycle. These song cycles share common motives and moods.
For several centuries, historical songs have been one of the main sources of knowledge about their past for the people.
Calendar ritual songs
Rituals are actions and chants established by custom that reflect the beliefs of peoples. With the adoption of Christianity, a new meaning began to be invested in traditional folk rituals, preserved from pagan antiquity. The fusion of Christianity with pagan beliefs is noticeable in ritual songs, which are considered the most ancient works of folklore.
New Year's rituals, fortune-telling and songs that bring about the harvest, the offspring of livestock, family well-being, a happy marriage and wealth, were originally associated with the celebration of the birth of the young sun, when the day began to increase. Boys and girls dressed up walked around the courtyards, glorifying Kolyada - the young sun, giving blessings to everyone, and demanded a gift. With the establishment of Christianity, this celebration began to increasingly shift to Christmas Eve and Epiphany evening. Christmastide - the popular name for the period from Christmas to Epiphany1 - became the most favorite winter holiday. In every house, for the holiday of the Nativity of Christ, pies were baked, loaves symbolizing fertility, ritual cookies were prepared: bagels, figures depicting small cows, bulls, sheep and other animals and shepherds. Such figures were placed on windows and tables and sent as gifts to relatives. The floor in the hut was covered with straw, and grains of wheat were scattered throughout the house. The whole family sat down to eat at the table, remembered their deceased parents and asked them for help. Christmastide was celebrated by everyone, but most of all by young people. Games, songs, gatherings, and fortune telling filled the two-week Yuletide celebration. As in the most ancient times, boys and girls walked from hut to hut, but now with the image of a star that announced the birth of Christ, and sang majestic, that is, congratulatory songs, which were called carols.
- The carol has arrived
It's Christmas Eve!
Give me the cow -
I'm oiling the head!
And God forbid that
Who's in this house:
The rye is thick for him,
Dinner rye!
* * * * * * * * * *
Here we go, shepherds,
All our sins are forgiven.
We make our way to home,
We glorify Christ God.
Hello, treats
Please accept congratulations!
The Lord would grant you
And living and being,
And wealth in everything!
The owners of the house presented the carolers with cookies depicting various animals, sweets, and gingerbread.
The last winter and first spring holiday was Maslenitsa. On Maslenitsa they performed a ritual of seeing off winter, which was imagined as a living creature. A stuffed animal was made from straw, which, like the holiday, was called Maslenitsa. The effigy was dressed up, decorated and carried around the village accompanied by ritual songs, and then burned. Maslenitsa was called broad because it was a fun holiday: they rode sleighs from the mountains, rode horses through the village, played at taking the snowy town, held fairs, booths, and fist fights. On Maslenitsa it was customary to bake pancakes, reminiscent of the spring sun, which were then eaten. It was believed that the more pancakes you eat, the richer and more satisfying you will live in the coming year. No wonder they sang: “Like during Shrovetide, pancakes flew out of the oven...”
And we met Maslenitsa,
We met, soul, we met.
We visited the hill,
We've been, soul, we've been.
They lined the mountain with pancakes,
They laid it out, soul, they laid it out.
They filled the mountain with cheese,
They stuffed, soul, they stuffed.
They poured oil on the mountain.
The expulsion of winter and the burning of Maslenitsa did not yet mean the appearance of spring. Spring had to be invited, notified that it was eagerly awaited. The ceremony of invoking spring occurs in the middle of Lent.
– Spring, Red Spring!
Come to us with joy!
With great mercy!
With tall flax,
With deep roots,
With plenty of bread!
Lark on Pritalinka
Singing, singing,
He calls himself, he calls himself
Spring is red, spring is red.
This is how the children sang as they walked around their neighbors’ yards that day. The children were given a gift - a cross baked from Lenten dough. Cross cookies were perceived as harbingers of spring - larks. They were asked to fly in, to bring spring - and so they arrived. “Larks” were hung on trees, on fences, on special poles in the field, or simply thrown up, and then eaten. On this day, it was customary to release birds from their cages into the wild, and to be especially friendly towards children. Childhood is the beginning of life, spring is the awakening of nature, the beginning of its blossoming, they are related to each other.
Crosses, larks,
Fly to us from behind the curtain!
On Trinity (the 50th day after Easter), the girls took treats and went into the forest, collected herbs, flowers and wove wreaths, which they then threw into the water, making guesses about their future life and groom by the way they floated. There they chose a young birch tree and “curled” it, that is, decorated it, hung ribbons, wreaths, scarves on it and made a wish. If after three days the wreaths did not wither on the birch tree, then the wish should have come true. In the song “There was a birch tree in the field” it is sung: I’ll go, I’ll go for a walk
Twist the white birch...
Family ritual songs
Family ritual songs accompanied rituals associated with the most important events in a person’s life. Wedding songs were sung: bachelorette party songs; majestic songs of the wedding feast; wedding lamentations of the bride. Recruitment songs accompanied the ceremony of seeing off soldiers1. There were also funeral songs and lamentations.
The wedding ceremony was one of the most difficult. A folk wedding was divided into several stages: the pre-wedding cycle (matchmaking, conspiracy, marriage, bachelorette party), the wedding ceremonies themselves (getting ready for the bride, coming to pick up the bride, wedding, wedding feast) and post-wedding (retreats). Before the wedding, the bride was supposed to lament: to regret her free, girlish life. These are ritual lamentations:
Everything passed and rolled,
It's all over,
A virgin and a carefree life...
It was sung about the groom:
Here he comes, my destroyer,
Here he comes, my destroyer,
Here he is coming to undo his braid,
Here he comes - lose your beauty...
At the wedding, the bride and groom were called. Bride “Without whitewash... white, Without blush, scarlet cheeks, Without surmil, black eyebrows.” Groom
Sits on a horse
And the horse is having fun
Jumps down the street -
The whole street is shining.
Approaches the grove -
The grove began to rustle...
At the end of the wedding feast, corrugating songs were sung addressed to its participants. They were full of comic, parodic dignities:
Nice buddy
Handsome little friend.
Like a friend is wearing a caftan
Everything is put together by a thread...
The shoes are good
Only without soles.
Funeral lamentations and recruiting lamentations are similar in many ways. Seeing off for 25 years was tantamount to death, which is why there is so much pain and melancholy of relatives in the recruitment lamentations:
God forbid in this world and in this world
Already living in the formidable service of the sovereign:
As food for soldiers - crackers,
As a drink for them - water with rust...
Traditional lyrical songs
Songs were sung not only in connection with rituals, but also simply for pleasure: at gatherings, during everyday work. These songs have served the people for centuries to express experiences and feelings, which is why they are called lyrical. In song folklore, lyrical songs occupy a large part. These songs appeared later than ritual songs. All shades of the spiritual life of the people were embodied in them.
Love songs spoke about the first meetings of lovers, their love joy and longing, fidelity and betrayal. Family songs told about an unhappy wife and a strict or old husband; about a husband who did not marry for love and is now unhappy, all that remains for him to remember is his former love. The young people sang about harsh parents, the daughter-in-law about an unkind mother-in-law.
There were songs of robbers, prisons, soldiers, coachmen, barge haulers, songs about serf bondage - they helped to endure the hardships of life and alleviate mental anguish. Such songs healed the human soul. The singer felt that he was not alone in his grief, that such grief was experienced by many, many people. The people's sympathy for the suffering, which was heard in these songs, brought comfort. Here, for example, is the robber’s song “Don’t make noise, mother green oak tree, Don’t disturb me in my thoughts...”. It is sung by Vladimir Dubrovsky’s bandit group, and Pugachev sings it in A. S. Pushkin’s story “The Captain’s Daughter.” Although the robbers violated many laws, in the song one can hear sympathy for their unfortunate lot. It glorifies bravery and one hears sad thoughts about imminent death, the expectation of severe retribution.
These types of lyrical songs are also called drawn-out, “vocal”, “long”. All these definitions indicate the leisurely, sing-song nature of the song. The main thing in the song is the music. It is difficult to convey content without music, since there is practically no rhyme and the lyrics of the song are not perceived as poetry. The rhythmic pattern appears here only when singing; the singer inserts numerous repetitions, exclamations, and interjections into the text, which, on the one hand, enhances emotionality, and on the other, emphasizes the rhythm.
folk - it helps to build and to live...
Song Our song rejoiced in everyday life, - Well, take it with you into battle. \Start a song, \be the first to sing, And the shelves will be drawn behind you... Mikhail Svetlov
Song Don't trust the words of the sad song, I will burn you with scorching complaints with my speech. \But my fire in my chest will go out if\I don’t meet you. Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Translation by V. Kadenko
Song I don’t know where they sang, \Birds - sang and sang - \Birds that sang... Juan Ramon Jimenez. Translation by I. Polyakova-Sevostyanova SONG OF WINTER
Song I don’t know where their bliss sounds from, But Russian prowess beats and boils in them; Alexey K. Tolstoy
song I can’t figure it out, \Howl or crack, \Where should I put the song\In the end? \Or maybe, brothers, \The song ends\And falls into the ground\With a white face? Mikhail Ancharov ANTI-PETISH SONG (From the book "This Blue April")
Song Do not separate songs from the century... They are overtaken by shallowing, Like the depths of a river branch. Ages and opinions change, New words come. Georgy Leonidze. Translation by B. Pastternak OLD TAMMOMBER
Song I don’t hear the song of the nightingales of Baidar, I don’t hear the song of the maidens of Salgir - I dream of the sound of the Lithuanian forests, It’s more pleasant for me to trample wet moss than to marvel, The pineapple is like gold and the berry is red. Adam Mickiewicz. Translation by B. Romanov Wanderer
Song Isn't that how you sing for cold beauty? Come to your senses, O poet, what are you striving for? \She does not listen, does not feel the poet; \Look, it’s blooming; you call - there is no answer. Alexander Pushkin
Song He didn’t have time to finish this song - Shouts of “Vivat!” the hall was announced; \Only the king waved his hand, frowning: \They say, I’ve heard these songs! CASIMIR THE GREAT 1874 Dedicated. in memory of A.F. Hilferding
The song was not written in ink - \In red blood in hard times, \And it is not sung by birds in the clouds, \But by the people in battle with revolvers in their hands. Hirsch Glick. Translation by Y. Kandrora PARTISAN ANTHEM
Song A quiet song by the fire, a late tear... But it was the same before me. \And it will be after. Andrey Dementyev After us to A. Voznesensky
Song Ridiculous song\Abandoned years. \He loves her, \But she doesn’t love him. \ Naum Korzhavin 1962 From the collection "Times", Selected 1976 SAD SELF-PARODY
Song: There are a few of them. They are not glorious and not loud, \They will not pass on to centuries, my friend... \Neither contemporaries nor proud descendants\will bend their spellbound ears to them. Anatoly Alexandrov My songs 6 Aug. 1907, Nick. zhel. dor.
The song, oh my God, brought icy buckets from the eyes of the wells. \You hung in lake silks, \your hips sang like an amber violin? \You can’t throw a brilliant forest into the lands where the roofs are evil. \I'm drowning in the boulevards, covered in melancholy sands: \after all, this is your daughter -\my song\in a fishnet stocking\at coffee shops! Vladimir Mayakovsky
Song There is no swamp of art in my songs, There is neither music nor beauty in them; In them I poured out my youthful feelings, In them I poured out my dear dreams. Alexey Gmyrev
SongNo, don't expect a passionate song, These sounds are unclear nonsense. \The languid ringing of strings; But, full of dreary torment, These sounds evoke tender dreams. Afanasy Fet
SongNo, these days will not return to the world, Cry, soldier, our great shame! \Poet, break the silent lyre, \You will not create a song from this sorrow! \Now that the Teutonic troops\are on guard at all outposts - \Only one song will break through the barriers. \My friends! Let's sing from Beranger! Gustave Nadeau. Translation by A. Argo