Genres of Russian folk songs. Folk songs: ditties, lullabies, ritual

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The variety of genres of Russian folk songs reflects the multifaceted world of the soul of a Russian person. In it - prowess and lyrics, humor and heroics. The history of our people lies in the Russian song.

Genres of Russian folk songs

The song and the word were probably born at the same time. Gradually, with the development of his emotional and spiritual world, a person realized the beauty of the objects and phenomena surrounding him and wanted to express it with colors, sounds, and words. The melody was born from the soul. She fascinated, merged with the singing of birds, the murmur of water. The mother's magic voice soothed the child with a monotonous gentle song, a cheerful melody ignited a fire inside, awakened the joy of unrestrained fun, a lyrical song healed a disturbed soul, gave peace.

The genres of Russian folk songs reflect the versatility of the soul of our people. People have always sung songs, glorified heroes in them, described historical events, told about the beauty of their native land, about feelings, troubles and joys. Not every person could compose a song, sing it. But there were always enough talented people in Russia. Therefore, so many folk songs have come to us from the depths of centuries. Sometimes a tunewas born before the verse, but more often the meaning of the song, its text dictated the character, mode, tempo, timbre coloring of the music.

Song is the basis of folklore

A folk song is a song composed by a folk unknown author, which, being transmitted orally, has changed, improved, acquired new melodic and textual turns. In each province, the same song was sung in its own way, in a special dialect. Its character depended on what it said. So, the songs were comic, funny, sad, lyrical, serious. They touched the soul more than a long detailed account of the event. The songs were both comfort and joy.

So, the poet Ivan Surikov wrote: “How anyone in the world breathes, lives, such is the song he sings.”

The genres of Russian folk songs are diverse. They sing about everything that excites a person. The song depicts the life and way of life of a Russian person, customs and traditions. The heroes of the folk song are ordinary people, glorious defenders of the Motherland. Human life was closely connected with the natural cycle of the grain grower, with family church rites.

Ritual - calendar songs

Even in pre-Christian times, pagan calendar holidays were accompanied by songs in which farmers turned to the forces of nature, asking them to grant them good weather and a bountiful harvest. These were invocations, glorifications of the gods of the sun, wind, rain. Rituals of worship to them were accompanied by ritual songs, dances, and offerings of gifts. The days of the winter and summer equinoxes, the beginning of spring and the harvest are the main significantevents in the life of a farmer. They were accompanied by folk songs.

Pagan rites gradually lost their magical significance and became a thing of the past, while the traditions associated with them adapted to Christian holidays and continued to live. The calendar cycle began with the feast of the Nativity of Christ, Christmas time, the meeting of the New Year. They coincided with the day of the winter solstice according to the pagan calendar and were accompanied by songs corresponding to the day and the rite. For example, the rite of caroling was to glorify the generous owners, wishing them he alth, an increase in the family, a harvest and all the benefits that are important for a villager. During this ceremony, carols, noble, drag songs were sung. Russian composers used folk songs in operas and instrumental works. So, Kaleda-Maleda, recorded in the Saratov province, was used in the opera The Snow Maiden by Rimsky-Korsakov in the scene of seeing off Maslenitsa. During the Holy Week, girls and women used to tell fortunes about the events of the next year, accompanying fortune-telling with sing-along songs. They saw off the winter noisily, cheerfully, rejoicing at the imminent warmth. Maslenitsa week preceded Great Lent. Seeing Shrovetide turned into festivities with games. Meeting of spring - Larks, celebrated the arrival of the first birds. Housewives baked gingerbread in the form of larks and distributed them to children and guests. In the song "Oh, oystercatchers-larks", calls for spring sound recitatively.

The summer holidays of Ivan Kupala, the Mermaid Week, bear echoes of pagan rituals associated with witchcraft and divination. On the Kupala night they spenta rite of purification from diseases and filth, jumping over a fire. Unrestrained in daring and fun, similar to ritual pagan dances, they were accompanied by Kupala songs. Harvest festival was important in the village. Peasants in folk songs thanked the forces of nature for abundant gifts, rejoiced at the end of hard work. Songs of this period are called obzhinochnye. Merry fairs after the harvest were noisy with ditties and dances.

Calendar ritual songs - the closest to pagan, the most ancient. Their language is full of epithets and comparisons, symbols and metaphors. The melodies of these songs are simple and even primitive. They are like invocations, glorifications and prayers. The uneven rhythm is close to speech, not music.

Family ritual songs

Motherland, christening songs were sung to the child and parents by heart. They wished he alth and happiness to the baby. Family holidays were significant and joyful milestones in the life of a Russian person. They celebrated the birth, farewell to the army, wedding, and even feast. Each event was accompanied by a certain melodic accompaniment. Ritual songs have a special status in the genres of Russian folk songs. They were believed to have a magical meaning.

Wedding songs were very diverse. The wedding was a complex step-by-step ritual of matchmaking, bride, bachelorette party and the wedding celebration itself.

Dressing the newlywed to the crown (braiding) traditionally took place to the cry of the bride and the singing of sad songs that spoke of the lost girlish freedom and relocation to a strange family.

The wedding feast was preceded by the ransom of the bride from the parental home. The bridesmaids sang funny comic songs and ditties, teased the groom's friends. By the wedding, the young people were escorted to congratulatory laudatory songs (“In the upper room, in the room”). In them, the heroes of the occasion were compared with a white swan and a swan, with a prince and a princess. The wedding feast was cheerful, noisy, with dances and ditties. The second day was celebrated in the house of mother-in-law and father-in-law. The mother-in-law welcomed her son-in-law, treated her to pancakes. On the third day, the wedding was "extinguished". The holiday ended.

Not only joyful events happened in Russian families. After all, rituals were observed not only on holidays. After all, they are, in fact, certain magical rituals designed to protect, protect from trouble, damage, etc. For example, when a young man went to work, he was taken out of the house with his back forward so that his face looked into the house. Then, it was believed that he would return from the war or from the army alive and well. At the same time, prayers and special lamentations were read.

Crying and lamentations also accompanied the funerals of loved ones. In them, the deceased was mentioned as a worthy person, for whom the living mourn and grieve. His best qualities were listed, even if there were none. There were even special singers - mourners who were invited to accompany the funeral.

Family ceremonial songs are touching, sincere, deep meaning. They contain all life, human experiences.

Lullabies

There are numerous genres of Russian folk songs. Lullabies occupy a special place in them. They belong to familybut they are not ceremonial. These songs are the most tender, affectionate and simple. Mother's voice is the first thread connecting the baby with the world. In the lullaby, the mother determines his place, tells about the world into which he came. The monotonous soothing motifs of lullabies were passed down from generation to generation, being a family treasure. The first songs of the mother introduced the little one to the surrounding objects and images. They opened a big world for him, served as a kind of protection, a talisman for him. It was believed that lullabies drove away evil spirits from the baby.

Lyric songs

The lyrical genres of Russian folk songs are included in a large group. They are associated with emotional experiences of a person and have a bright emotional coloring. They sound themes of a difficult female fate, soldier's life, bondage. Lyrical songs can be divided into national and social. The first are songs about separation from the Motherland, about unhappy love, hard peasant life. Nature in the songs was animated. Her images were compared with human types. Thin rowan or white birch personified gentle female maiden images. A mighty lone oak is a hero, a support, a strong man. Often in songs there is a red sun as a symbol of warmth, hope, joy. Dark night, on the contrary, carries doubts, fears, emotional experiences. A burning torch is compared to a woman dying from overwork. Wind, oak forest, blue-sea - each image of nature carries its own hidden meaning, allegorically narrates about experiences.

Second group -coachman, recruit, robber songs. They mention other themes and images. Coachmen's songs depict dull fields, endless dusty roads and a lonely bell. These endless drawn-out songs are sung about the tragic fates of lonely cabbies, about dangerous roads. Robber songs are sung dashingly, widely, spaciously. The people did not always hate robbers, dashing people. After all, both Stenka Razin and Emelyan Pugachev were supported by bands of robbers. Yes, and they robbed, mainly, merchants and landlords, without touching the poor people. Therefore, the songs composed about them tell not so much about robberies as about heroic deeds. They tell about the history of the people, about strong brave people. Everything that the soul yearned for poured out in a lyrical song in a wide sing-song melody. The slow drawn-out motifs of lyrical songs were overgrown with polyphonic chants. They were sung during feasts, in chorus and solo.

Round dances are on the verge of lyrical and dance songs. The smooth flow makes them related to lyrical songs. But they sing with movement. Perhaps this is the most significant layer of folk songs in terms of the breadth of themes and images.

Labor songs

Exploring the genres of Russian folk songs, labor songs cannot be ignored. Difficult business was easier to argue with her, she set the rhythm of work. The famous "Dubinushka" is an example of a labor song. The chorus told about the hard life of the working people, and the chorus helped the coordinated actions of the entire artel. Burlatsky strapping songs had a measured rhythm (“Hey, let's go!”). Labor songs along withritual among all genres of Russian folk songs are the oldest, they served to facilitate the labor process. To cheer up the workers, many of the songs had humorous content.

Ditty, chorus

The most democratic, popular and enduring genre of Russian folk songs are Russian ditties. They combined all the wit, the talent of the people, the accuracy of the Russian word, the conciseness of the melodic accompaniment. A short well-aimed quatrain, like an arrow, shot into the very essence of meaning, a perky rhythmic melody, repeated many times, forced to pay attention to the verse, the content of the ditty. It was sung with dancing. More often it was performed solo, and the right to perform was transferred in a circle among the singers. Sometimes competitions were held to see who would last longer in the circle, performing ditties, who knows them more.

The Russian ditty was called differently: chorus, suffering, sbirushka, enticing, chattering, etc. According to the type of addition, the following types are distinguished: suffering - slow choruses on love themes, dance - cheerful endless comic chants ("Semyonovna").

Russian ditties ridiculed social and human vices, expressed the true mood and opinion of the people on political and public issues.

They were not politicized, but, on the contrary, expressed a skeptical attitude towards many "excesses" in public life.

Genres of Russian folk songs as a mirror reflect the life of the people, their mentality and spiritual essence. All life is simplea person from birth to death was reflected in the folk song. The heavy peasant lot, the disenfranchised existence of a woman, a soldier's lifelong burden, hard labor, hopeless labor - everything has a place in songs. But the strength of the spirit of the Russian people is manifested in rollicking dance, robbery remote songs, sharp ditties. The tenderness of an unhardened soul is reflected in lyrical and lullaby songs. To this day, lovers and connoisseurs of folk music carefully and lovingly collect these pearls of folk talent, because even now unrecorded folk songs heard from grandparents are sung in the depths of the Russian provinces.