DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2022.4.38875

Abstract: The article characterizes the musical tradition of Russian singers-wanderers, recorded by collectors in the north-western, northern and central provinces of Russia. For the first time, a comparative study is being carried out of the variants of memorial and zazdravny chants performed by the crossing kaliks and beggars. The study summarizes various sources – auditory recordings of the XIX century, publications of the XX century, unpublished folklore materials. The author draws attention to the little-known recordings of memorial and health chants recorded in the Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Tver, Pskov regions. The objectives of the article are to conduct a comparative study of the tunes of the "poor brethren", to identify their typological properties and intonational origins. The author considers the health and memorial chants as a special phenomenon of Russian folk music culture. The core of this tradition was a chant, which served as a musical formula, to which the calics of the transition sang various texts. On the basis of the facts given in the article, it can be concluded that the main version of the tune of the kalik of the transients is characterized by a one-verse composition and a 10-time basis of small-scale construction. In Russian folklore, the existence of this musical-structural type is limited only to the health and memorial songs of Kalik, spiritual poems and the ballad "Prince Mikhailo", and is not found in other genre spheres. However, the close intonation, rhythmic, compositional relationship of the tune with a wide range of folklore genres indicates that it was formed on the basis of compositional and melodic techniques developed in the practice of peasant song culture. The intonational affinity of the chant with church hymns, especially with the forms of liturgical reading, is an indicator of the closeness of the singing culture of the Kalik of the transients and the church musical tradition as a whole, and also reveals those properties that can be attributed to the category of universals of the Old Russian musical language based on speech intonations.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2022.2.37700

Abstract: The article for the first time carries out a comparative study of variants of the Russian folk ballad "Prince Mikhailo" about the mother-in-law-destroyer. The study summarizes various sources of folk tunes – auditory recordings of the XIX century, publications from folklore archives of collectors of the XX century, previously unpublished folklore materials. Among them are tunes recorded in the Tver, Nizhny Novgorod, Vologda, Murmansk, and Arkhangelsk regions. The author draws attention to a little-known recording of the ballad made in the Novgorod region, and designates the role of this fact as an important evidence of the involvement of Novgorodians in the hit of "Prince Mikhailo" in the Northern Russian territories. The purpose of the study is the need to give a typological and historical assessment of the ballad tunes. A special perspective of the work is aimed at finding related musical forms in other genres of the Russian musical epic. The analysis showed that the ballad tunes recorded in various regions of Russia belong to the same musical type. It is based on a single-verse line of 8-complex composition with a choreographic ending, covering 10 or 12 musical-time units. The melodic features of the tunes testify to their fret unity associated with the narrative orientation of intonation. During the study, it was found that "Prince Mikhailo" is performed only with the melodies of the described structure. Moreover, it is the only proper ballad text assigned to this model. In Russian musical folklore, a structural type with a choreic ending was revealed (in addition to the ballad "Prince Mikhailo") in spiritual poems, tall tales, and some church hymns. The article suggests that it has developed among the Russian professional singers – buffoons and kalik pererozhikh. The role of Ancient Novgorod in the formation of a special cultural environment that contributed to the formation of these social institutions and the musical repertoire of its representatives is indicated.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.6.33571

Abstract: The article focuses on calendar-ceremonial folklore of Novgorod region as an important component of folklore song traditions of the region. The musical and poetical forms of the calendar are considered in terms of type, genre and realm. The author is the first to systematize the data about calendar folklore recordings made in Novgorod region by various collectors in the 1960s - 1990s. The author gives special attention to the results of field studies of Saint Petersburg Conservatory named after N.A. Rimski-Korsakov. The author introduces into scientific discourse a range of items of calendar folklore from the archive of the Conservatory (Maslenitsa, Christmas and Easter carols and yells). The specificity of Novgorod calendar traditions is connected with a special role of intoned yells serving a function of calling over ceremonial characters, and Christmas carols combining the features of folk and church melodics. Some folklore forms, recorded in Novgorod region, can be considered unique (the North-East Maslenitsa chants, the “Piper” song, the Easter callings). Taking into account the peculiarities of a genre composition of the calendar, the types of chants and the style features, the author outlines three historical-cultural zones in Novgorod region - the North-East, the South-West and the Central. The research results can be used for mapping  the calendar folklore chants of Russia’s North-West, and for the further study of music folklore traditions of Novgorod region together with other folklore genres.   

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.6.40364

Abstract: The article focuses on calendar-ceremonial folklore of Novgorod region as an important component of folklore song traditions of the region. The musical and poetical forms of the calendar are considered in terms of type, genre and realm. The author is the first to systematize the data about calendar folklore recordings made in Novgorod region by various collectors in the 1960s - 1990s. The author gives special attention to the results of field studies of Saint Petersburg Conservatory named after N.A. Rimski-Korsakov. The author introduces into scientific discourse a range of items of calendar folklore from the archive of the Conservatory (Maslenitsa, Christmas and Easter carols and yells). The specificity of Novgorod calendar traditions is connected with a special role of intoned yells serving a function of calling over ceremonial characters, and Christmas carols combining the features of folk and church melodics. Some folklore forms, recorded in Novgorod region, can be considered unique (the North-East Maslenitsa chants, the “Piper” song, the Easter callings). Taking into account the peculiarities of a genre composition of the calendar, the types of chants and the style features, the author outlines three historical-cultural zones in Novgorod region - the North-East, the South-West and the Central. The research results can be used for mapping  the calendar folklore chants of Russia’s North-West, and for the further study of music folklore traditions of Novgorod region together with other folklore genres.