Musical instruments and songs

Music and songs in the life of peasants

For a long time there was an idea of Siberia as "songless". Scientists seriously said that Siberians do not have their own songs. However, in the 19th century Siberian researchers refuted this idea and proved that Russian old-timers can not only "reproduce" Russian songs, but they have their own songs, legends, and fairy tales. Siberians also have their own epic songs. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Tyumen folklorist P.A. Gorodtsov, traveling through the Tavda region, in the villages of Artamonovo, Dubrava and Plekhanovo of the Tyumen district, found folk storytellers Dmitry Nikiforovich Plekhanov, Luka Leontievich Zayakin and Fedor Larionovich Sozonov. These were elderly people who enjoyed the honor and respect of their fellow villagers. Gorodtsov recorded ancient epics from them, which can still be found in collections.

Another researcher, M.N. Kostyurina, collected peasant songs in the vicinity of Tobolsk. She noted: "In a Siberian village … songs are sung at every opportunity — in round dances, at "evenings", at a wedding, on holidays and weekdays, in the field, at home, dear. In 1894, she recorded a number of songs in the Tobolsk district, dividing them into round dances, drawls, and voices. The folk songs that were sung "on the voices" were the oldest type of Siberian songs. They sang, for example, about Ermak Timofeevich, about Cossack valor. Round dance songs were often performed to the accompaniment of musical instruments — balalaika, and later accordion. The peasants sang mischievous ditties to the accordion. Guitar, accordion and accordion are signs of the Soviet era.

The tradition of singing long and drawn-out songs persisted throughout the twentieth century and was an obligatory part of the peasant feast.

Folk song

The folk song reflects the character of the people, their traditions, and historical events. The main feature of a folk song is its connection with work and everyday life. Peasant women sang songs when they were weaving canvas, spinning wool, weeding beds, etc. Burlak songs and coachmen songs are also known. Ritual songs accompanied family and calendar rituals — weddings, carols, games. They cradled the child with lullabies, and accompanied the deceased with funeral lamentations. The oldest songs, some of which have survived to the present day, are "voted" (performed "on the voices"). They tell about the Cossack glory and Ermak’s campaign. Unfortunately, not all the songs have been preserved, many have been forgotten. Most of the ancient songs that have come down to us date back to the beginning of the XIX century. At the beginning of the twentieth century, many of them had already been redone, in accordance with local needs and tastes. Dance, wedding and drawl songs were often shortened, supplemented with new words or rewritten.

The creation of a new Soviet culture also affected the song genre. In the 1920s, mass song was developing everywhere, reflecting main topics: "Steam Locomotive" based on poems by A.I. Bezymensky, "Rise up with bonfires, blue nights" based on poems by A. Zharov. One of the most famous was the song "Through the valleys and through the hills", edited by A.A. Alexandrov, which embodied the intonation of the song lyrics.

In the creative legacy of the 1930s and 1940s, pompous and monumental hymn songs glorifying the Communist Party and the "people of socialism" occupied the place. A mass song filled with life pathos and faith in a "bright future" began to be considered in high circles as a standard of folk song. Therefore, in musical creativity, only "songfulness" was appreciated, the quality "created for the people" and "understandable to the people".

In the 1950s and 1960s, songs from Soviet films went to the people, for example, from the film "Kuban Cossacks" (1950, directed by I. Pyriev, music by I. Dunaevsky). They were performed by choral groups in rural clubs and simple rural workers in the family circle at the table.

The appearance of popular culture at a later time could not outlast the folk song. It still exists today.

Ditties

Ditties appeared in the second half of the XIX century. The word "chastushka"(ditties) comes from the name of this folklore genre — it is a short or "frequent" song. The novelty of the ditties was that they reflected all the events taking place in the country. Ditties were sung in 1914 at the beginning of the "German" war, in the 1920s and 1930s, during the Great Patriotic War, and in the postwar years.

Ditties are the main genre of peasant lyrical poetry, the world in them is depicted from the point of view of a village person. The characters of the ditties plow, harrow and sow, mow and reap, thresh, fish, build huts, drive for firewood, go to visit. The peasant world of ditties is very simple: here is the street along which we walk; a crane well on the outskirts; a window with carved architraves and a geranium on the windowsill. Beyond the village is a field, meadow, forest, river, and a bridge across it. In the hut there is a stove and a floor, all household utensils (hooks, frying pans, pots, tubs, etc.), a table, benches and benches. Here they spin and weave, sew and embroider.

Ditties are the only folklore genre that began to be collected and studied immediately after its appearance. Already at the beginning of the twentieth century, the first collections of ditties were released. Currently, numerous cultural institutions, amateur and professional groups collect ditties for their performance on stage.

Musical folk instruments

The most ancient musical instruments of our ancestors were the pipe and horn. Then came a psaltery, a balalaika and spoons. The pipe is similar to a flute — it is a very simple instrument in its structure. In Russia, shepherds played it, so the instrument was often called "pastoral". The horn is also an ancient pastoral instrument. Zhaleika (sipovka) was made in the form of a double pipe. Its sound is hoarse, which is why the name. The horn was used in hunting. Gusli are known to us from Russian epics.

The balalaika is a favorite musical instrument of Russians. In the old days, no holiday, no free evening was complete without her. The balalaika player himself played and danced. Fans of fun, hearing the sounds of the balalaika, immediately gathered and began a merry dance.

The spoons looked like ordinary wooden spoons for eating, but in the old days they were hung with metal balls. The musicians not only beat the spoon against the spoon, but also shook them, and the balls produced different sounds, more pleasant than those of a tambourine.

In the XVIII century, a guitar came to Russia from Spain. It has been used for a long time as an instrument for music and songs. But then she was expelled from high society. Many self-taught people played the guitar while singing folk songs.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the accordion appeared. Two types of harmony gradually developed. In the harmonies "khromka", "Russian wreath", "livenka", one pitch of sound is preserved during stretching and compression. In Tula, Vyatka accordion, "talanka", "turtle" bellows, you can change the pitch of the sound. The accordion, accordion and harmonica may have registers, switching which allows you to change the timbre and volume of the sound.