Types of folk songs: examples. Types of Russian folk songs

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

The song has long accompanied man. His life was reflected and meaningful in it. By the way, this can be judged by various folk proverbs: “Whose mind you live, you will sing a song”, “A conversation shortens the journey, but a song works” and, of course, the well-known “You can’t throw out a word from a song.”

Intro

Types of folk songs are diverse. They can be viewed from different angles: from the point of view of reflecting mythological ideas or, on the contrary, a real real picture, from the point of view of ritual lyrics and, of course, depending on the place, situation in which they are performed. Russian folk songs, their types are very diverse, and this once again emphasizes the uniqueness of the musical culture of Russia.

Origin of the song

The word itself comes from "sing", or "sing". Max Vasmer in his etymological dictionary notes that the root of this verb is Common Slavic. According to the opinion of most experts, as well as experienced researchers, the forms “sing” (to sing) and “sing” (to drink) do not coincide at all by chance. There is an opinion that this phenomenon is associated with a pagan sacrificial rite: to drink - to sing. Of course, the song comes from rituals. At the same time, in literarysources often indicate that it has some mythological overtones.

Any single nation, one might say, has evolved along with the music. Thanks to music, the song in particular, we can trace the development of the people, significant events of the period of any era. Thanks to this, it is possible to really pay attention to those motives in folk art that convey the whole depth of experiences (in lyrical songs, for example), joy, and so on. It is worth noting that in a folk song, it is the text, not the music, that is of paramount importance. It is this characteristic feature that distinguishes Russian musical culture.

Types of folk songs

Quite often, types of folk songs include musical works with a meaning aimed at a conspiracy, a love spell. The meaning of these songs is very diverse. One of the most popular was the use of walks by the water. According to some ancient sources, a trip to the water meant, first of all, a desire to find a betrothed in the near future. In such cases, instead of him, the songs often used the image of a fish, mainly a pike, which the girl had to catch. These types of folk songs end with something like an incantatory quatrain.

Often the images in folk songs contain absolutely incredible objects from the beliefs of the ancient Slavs. Quite interesting is the fact that many concepts in folk textsare related, that is, they come from one word, while they are expressed in images of fire, both internal and external. For example, the word "quench" is usually used as a phrase with the words "hunger", "sadness" and so on. But it takes its origin from the word "smolder", which is directly related to fire, of course. In turn, the fire symbolizes the very connection with Slavic mythology, because it was in it that the role of the deity, and especially light, was elevated to the limit. There are many other examples as well. The interpretation of the word "eat" can be especially interesting. It is associated with the word used for fire - "burn", and also probably comes from "burned".

A little bit about symbols

There are, of course, words and phrases that we already clearly associate with certain images. All kinds of Russian folk songs, examples of them, show us that grass, say, is a symbol of a girl, a lit candle is certainly sadness, longing, and pouring rain, of course, is associated with tears, crying. In the texts of calendar songs, green is very often used, and this, of course, is a symbol of beauty, youth, and spring. Researchers believe that in order to truly understand the meaning of the text of a folk song, it is necessary to unravel it by symbols. It is also obvious that over time the mythological influence on the folk song gradually weakens, it becomes more traditional, conveys a certain song image. Various types of folk songs. Examples of them are extremely interesting.

Songs of the Russian people

Different types of folk songs appear in Russia based on the folklore of the Slavic tribes. There is an opinion that for a long time several nationalities could live on the same territory, and this, in turn, greatly influenced the musical culture. Historical songs were the first to appear, reflecting, respectively, real historical events. Songs that spoke about specific events were called "epic". In the same period, lyrical folk songs also appeared, they often conveyed the emotional state of the character. As an accompaniment at that time, people used musical instruments unusual for us. These include a beep, a harp, a pity and, of course, the shepherd's instrument known to us - the horn. In our time, it is hardly possible to find originals, because during the Middle Ages, songwriters were severely punished, and their instruments were destroyed. However, there is a lot of information about these musical instruments in the literature.

Types of Russian folk songs. Wedding songs

This is one of the most interesting genres that opens the way for folk song. It should be noted that their character was mostly heterogeneous. These can be both songs directly about the wedding ceremony, and about the difficult fate of women. There were also songs-parables. Here it would be appropriate to mention other types of folk songs, their examples are varied (“Mashenka cried about a blond spit”). There are alsoand songs of a mixed nature, for the most part they are based on the opposition of two main lines. On the one hand, the bride is sad because she will have to leave her father's house. Here, the rites of a bachelorette party, braids, and so on can be transferred. On the other hand - joy, optimism, the beginning of a new life. The ending in such songs is most often joyful.

Symbolics

As for the symbolism, in wedding songs the image of a girl is usually expressed by a birch tree, and it is often compared with a swan; the image of a guy - a nightingale or a horse, for example. An interesting fact is that in the songs a married girl from a "snow-white swan" turned into a "gray goose", while implying the loss of girlish beauty and purity. The girl was characterized by very eloquent epithets, she was almost always described as white-faced, ruddy, with black eyebrows and clear eyes. Wedding songs are characterized by a melodic chant, a clear rhythmic pattern, and the obligatory presence of a chorus.

Magnificent and reproaches

The origin of praise songs is usually associated with mythology. This is not surprising, because such songs usually came from people's appeals to nature, natural phenomena. As for the little-known genre - reproachful songs - they are mainly aimed at deceiving evil spirits. Basically, in laudatory songs, life is idealized, while in corny songs, it is exactly the opposite - only real life is characterized. It should be noted that in the subtext of the wedding ceremonythe reproachful song becomes more humorous, a kind of mocking song. The types of folk songs are diverse: comic, lyrical. Grade 3 at school studies mostly comic songs, but reproaches are not included here, they are not so common in our time.

Most popular nowadays songs

Despite the fact that there is not too much information about folk songs, we can conclude that the types of Russian folk songs are very diverse. One of the types popular in our time is, of course, a lyrical drawling song. It can be attributed to one of the most important significant branches of Russian musical culture. Most often, the theme of such songs is based on the idea of love: they are mostly light, joyful tones. A girl and a guy are almost always idealized: he is smart, handsome, brave, she is independent, reasonable, incredibly beautiful. There are also lyrical songs about family life. In principle, grade 3 usually studies these types of folk songs in music lessons at school.

In general, we can say that at the moment, Russian musical culture, of course, has been modernized. Russian folk songs, their types, have been forgotten a little. In the folk song, the text, the semantic content, came to the fore, but now the dance component takes the lead. This does not mean at all that musical culture will decline over time, rather, it can be interpreted as the correspondence of music, songs, and the modern rhythm of life.