Olga Vasilievna Kovaleva (1881 - 1962) was born in the village of Lyubovka (Okunevka) of the Atkarsk district of the Saratov province and spent her childhood there.
At sixteen, she leaves her home and goes to the city. In Samara, Olga Kovaleva lives with distant relatives, learns to read and write, at the age of twenty she enters the paramedic courses. During these years, she still does not realize her true vocation, although she constantly sings folk love songs. The beautiful voice and musicality of the peasant girl attract the attention of those around her. Musicians notice her and help her to enter a music school - to learn to sing.
Already a student (1904-1906), she participates in concerts organized by the Samara branch of the Russian Musical Society (RMO). After completing music courses at the Samara RMO, Olga Kovaleva went to St. Petersburg, where she took lessons from Professor IM Pryanishnikov at a three-year private operatic course (1907-1909). With the assistance of Pryanishnikov, she entered the traveling opera troupe of Rostov-on-Don, touring the cities of the Volga region (Samara, Tsaritsyn, Astrakhan).
After working in it for one winter season (1909/10), Olga Vasilievna Kovaleva left the theater, but performed in concerts with various partners as an "opera singer" (1910/11). Her program includes only arias and romances by Russian and foreign composers.
After a short stay in Lyubovka, Olga Vasilievna decides to include folk songs in her concert performances. The first song she sang was "Luchinushka" (a love version), which became a kind of musical emblem of all her subsequent concerts. The folk song repertoire Olga Vasilievna draws from the collections of M. A. Balakirev, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. V. Lyadov, where the songs are presented in a monophonic presentation with piano accompaniment.
Having settled in Novorossiysk (1911/12), O. V. Kovaleva performs with other artists in cities and villages of southern Russia. And in 1912-13 she gave concerts with her permanent partner - the violinist Herman Klemens * - in the Central Russian regions and in the cities of the Volga region as a peasant singer, performer of folk songs. According to the posters, she "appears in the folk peasant costume of the Ryazan province."
At the beginning of 1914 they were in Moscow. This year is becoming significant for Olga Vasilievna Kovaleva. A lot of posters and reviews of that time show that OV Kovaleva's performing profile seems to be stabilizing and “enlarging”. If earlier the leading figure of the ensemble was the violinist Herman Clemens, who graduated from the Moscow People's Conservatory, who performed “with the participation of Mrs. Olga Kovaleva,” now Olga Kovaleva is the main performer of the program; violinist G. Clemens plays variations on the themes of one or two folk songs, and otherwise composes a duet with the singer, playing along with the "echoes" of the songs.
Especially significant for Olga Vasilievna was the "Evening of Songs" - a concert at the Polytechnic Museum, organized by E.E. Linear in February 1914. OV Kovaleva from a provincial, little-known itinerant singer turns into a "well-known" performer of folk songs. Her repertoire is noticeably becoming more serious, thematically deepening and at the same time "democratizing". Olga Vasilievna's own recordings, songs of her dear Lyubov-ka, ethnographic recordings of E. Lineva, Yu. Melgunov, N. Palchikov, begin to take a large place in it. Her portrait is printed next to the portrait of M. Ye. Pyatnitsky (newspaper "Nov" for 1914). The reviews note the authenticity of folk art, truthfulness, simplicity, restraint inherent in female folk singing *.
During the difficult war years (1914-1916) Olga Vasilievna performs in charity concerts, in hospitals ("sister with songs"), in barracks, leads a singing circle in a shelter for blind warriors with disabilities, sings songs for ordinary people, bypassing Moscow courtyards. Tours continue in remote and remote corners of the country.
In 1917, a new, second period of Kovaleva's artistic activity began, which brought her fame, and prosperity, and great creative satisfaction. Olga Vasilievna becomes an active participant in concerts for the people. She sings in the shops of factories and factories, in barracks, in squares and train stations. Its popularity is growing. Now her constant partners are the singer Anatoly Dolivo and the domra quartet conducted by G.P. Lyubimov. In 1921, Olga Vasilievna went with them to Sweden, Norway, where the artists give concerts in favor of the starving people of the Volga region. (Subsequent trips abroad in the same composition were in 1925, to Paris for a world art exhibition, and in 1927, to Frankfurt am Main for a decade of Soviet art.)
Since 1924, Olga Vasilievna has been speaking on the radio, mainly in programs for peasants. She meets in concerts with the guslar K.M. Seversky, the choir of M.E. Pyatnitsky, with P.G. Yarkov and his choir, with Irma Yaunz, continues to communicate with the figures of the Musical and Ethnographic Commission of Moscow University, relatives of E.E. Lineva , the Denisov family (female trio), the folk song quartet under the direction of V. A. Fedorov, the singer A. I. Tretyakova and many experts in the folk song. It was in this environment that the traditions of modern performance of folk songs on the stage were formed, the repertoire of Soviet folk singers was created.
The second period, the heyday of Olga Vasilievna's creative and performing activities, ended with her being awarded the title of Honored (1934) and People's (1946) Artist of the RSFSR.
While at the main job as a soloist of the All-Union Radio, Olga Vasilievna in the third and last period of her working life is a consultant to the Russian song choir of the All-Union Radio. She advises young performers M. Kiryushova, A. Savelyeva, E. Shurupova, E. Semenkina, A. Frolova, L. Zykina, transfers her performing experience to them. Olga Vasilievna died on January 2, 1962 at the eighty-first year of her life.
The biography of Marina Devyatova, a performer of Russian songs, began in December 1983. It was then that the future singer was born in the family of the People's Artist Vladimir Devyatov, in Moscow. Marina's artistic abilities showed up at the age of three. Her childish voice sounded harmonious, the girl felt the tonality and rhythm of the melody. After observing their daughter for a while, the parents decided to send the child to a music school, which was done in 1990, when Marina was 7 years old. Thus, the biography of Marina Devyatova opened its next page.
Studying at a music school
For the full eight years, the young student comprehended the basics of musical science, harmony and solfeggio, and also studied choral conducting. After school, Marina entered the Schnittke School of Music, and four years later continued her studies at the famous Gnesinka, the Academy of Music, where she studied vocal for several years. Musical education allowed the girl to believe in herself and continue to improve in the performance of Russian folk songs.
First concerts
In October 2008, the singer Marina Devyatova, whose biography was constantly replenished with new pages, organized her first concert, held under the sign of Russian singing traditions. The success was overwhelming, after the concert the young singer decided to devote herself entirely to Russian folk song and the study of folklore. And in March 2009, the biography of the singer Marina Devyatova was marked by another event that excited the girl to the core, she received an invitation to participate in a reception organized by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in honor of Queen Elizabeth of England and her entire family.
Solo albums
Exactly one and a half years later, Marina presented her own program, with the ingenuous title "I'll go, I'll go out," at the Moscow Variety Theater. Then her album "I Didn't Think, I Didn't Wonder" was released. Critics unanimously suggested that Marina Devyatova neither thought nor wondered that Russian songs performed by her would receive such wide popularity. And when at the end of 2011 Marina's next album entitled "I am happy" was released, no one had any doubts that the singer, by and large, found herself and would continue to develop in the field of Russian folk songs.
Overseas concerts
Marina regularly visits various countries of the world with concerts, and she is already considered the "ambassador" of Russian culture. At the same time, the biography of Marina Devyatova develops in a given direction and new creative pages appear in it. The singer loves to work with children's groups, talented guys add a sonorous note to her performances, and Marina is just happy from this, like her little assistants. She is also assisted in her touring by a Russian folklore group, the Young Dance show-ballet, which includes professionally trained dancers who are proficient in the technique of primordial Russian dance.
Religious beliefs
The biography of Marina Devyatova, in addition to her creative pages, contains information about the singer's religious beliefs. By her own admission, Marina is a Hare Krishna woman. Being a vegetarian, the singer tries to convey her beliefs to every person with whom fate brings her in one way or another. Marina Devyatova, among other things, with difficulty, but finds time to practice yoga, which, according to her assurances, is the key to physical and mental health.
I see a wonderful freedom
I see fields and fields ...
This is Russian expanse,
This is the Russian land!
F.P.Savinov
1. Russian philosophers and writers about folk song
The study of the Russian national character will always be incomplete, truncated outside the reference to Russian folk song. The laconic formula: "The song is the soul of the people", directly and directly expresses the meaning of the folk song. The song reveals such depths, such recesses of the Russian character, which are inexpressible, incomprehensible in other life situations. A Russian person sang and sings 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 expresses the peculiarities of the national character so fully that it 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 IA Ilyin, - tell me all this, and I will tell you what nation you are a son of. "
Folk song is the most democratic, accessible to all form of familiarization with musical creativity. Where, if not in a song, you can comprehend the character of the people: its immense breadth, kindness and generosity, native disposition, prowess and valiant enthusiasm. In the song, as in prayer, the soul is purified, catharsis, as the ancient Greek sages said. Unfortunately, today, in the context of universal globalization, we observe negative trends in the development of Russian culture, including the oblivion of the Russian folk song, its displacement by pop. For modern mass media, the Russian song turned out to be "out of format". The format of the media and TV, it turns out, corresponds to the graduates of the incubator of the "factory of stars", numerous rock ensembles and inveterate entertainers-laughter.
As my personal experience of teaching shows, students of the last two decades do not actually know Russian folk songs. Imagine for a moment the following situation: in a youth student camp, where students from different countries have gathered, a concert is being held in which folk songs are performed. Each of the participants in this impromptu concert sings songs of their homeland with fervor and genuine pathos. And only a Russian student, whose folk songs have been erased from his memory, is left to shrug or babble something in bad English, which many people do today.
All this is a great misfortune, which was the result of erasing the deep foundations of Russian national identity at the present stage. According to the artistic director of the Academic Capella. MI Glinka, People's Artist of the USSR V. Chernushenko, the song is the repository of the people's soul, and without the soul and the people will not be. In the ensemble of choral singing, for which Russia has always been famous, souls and hearts unite in harmony, and if people stop singing their songs, they will cease to exist as a nation. In choral singing, collegiality is expressed to the maximum extent, as the most important feature of the Russian national character. Today we are faced with a meaningful dilemma: will we be the heirs of the great Russian culture, including songwriting, or will we become Ivans who do not remember 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 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 placers testifying to the Russian song, its significance for understanding the originality and originality of the Russian national character. songs from Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin to contemporary performers.
Russian folk song - the main type of musical creativity of the Russian people - from ancient times; sung solo, by an ensemble, by a chorus ("One cannot sing, it is easier for an artel"). Closely connected with life and everyday life, transmitted orally from generation to generation, it is polished in the process of execution in all strata of the people. The folk song is rich in various genres: work songs, ritual, calendar, wedding, choral, play, dance, historical songs and spiritual poems, romances, lyrical drawn-out songs, ditties, etc. The old peasant song is characterized by a polyphonic warehouse in the form of under-voice polyphony, harmoniousness, rhythmic freedom, and singing without musical accompaniment. Urban songs, varied in content and style, created by various social groups (workers, soldiers, students, bourgeois) have their own specificity. These songs are distinguished by their harmonic composition, 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 formation of the Russian school of composition. Choral folk song has long been a favorite form of everyday music-making. The song has always been an organic combination of words (lyrics) and music. Russian folk song found a new life in Soviet times, thanks to its wide distribution (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 the Russian folk song in the formation of national identity 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 while still in the cradle. Singing brings him the first soulful breath and the first spiritual groan: they must be Russian. Singing will teach him the first spiritualization of the spiritual nature - in Russian; singing will give him the first "non-animal" happiness - in Russian. “The Russian song,” he wrote, “is as deep as human suffering, sincere as prayer, sweet as love and consolation; in our dark days, as under the yoke of the Tatars, she will give the child's soul an outcome from the threatening anger and stony. "
In life, a Russian sings at every step, especially peasant girls during and after work, pedestrian walkers, soldiers on the march, students at the earliest opportunity, and all strata of society during some hard and boring work. Ilyin cites the point of view of a person of a different nationality. In 1879 the Russian German prof. Westphal from Yuryev (Dorpat) published a wonderful work on Russian folk song. On the basis of research by Yu.N. Melgunov, he established that Russian folk song occupies a unique place in world music. It is sung in an exceptionally peculiar key, which resembles Greek, but is not identical to it. These songs are distinguished by the originality of harmony, voice leading and cadence, which sound great, but do not correspond to European music theory, the doctrine of harmony and composer practice. They are performed by a peasant choir without any musical training, without tuning fork and conductor, without accompaniment, a capella; this is a four-part voice, in which there is never a nasty and boring unison, and hence there are free variations and moving voices, which from time to time improvise, proceeding directly from the inner feeling, hearing and taste. The richness of these songs is inexhaustible, their age sometimes cannot be established, their melody, rhythm and expressiveness are simply captivating, especially when performing ancient diverse wedding songs, sometimes sounding plaintively, sometimes thoughtfully blessing.
The Russian person, according to IA Ilyin, for centuries lived in a fluctuating rhythm: burning or rest, concentration or relaxation, impetuosity or drowsiness, exultant 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 concentration and a drowsy intensity that can be found in the radiance of the eyes, in the smile, in the song and in the dance.
Whoever wants to get to know the Russian soul better should get to know the Russian song. “When, for example, after a training exercise, soldiers return to their barracks in formation, or especially when, after a safely completed inspection, the troops are given the command:“ Singers, go ahead! ” - then the choir marches in front, performing folk songs, and the lead 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 spouting frets. You will never hear unison, never hear false voices, never become a choral recitative. Everyone is caught up in this and cannot hear enough. "
Russian classical literature of the 19th century contains numerous testimonies about the originality, mental structure and emotional depth of Russian folk song. The amazing, enchanting power of the folk song was captured by Nikolai Gogol in Dead Souls: “Rus! Russia! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful far away I see you: poorly scattered and uncomfortable in you ... But what incomprehensible, secret power attracts to you? Why is your melancholy song, rushing along your entire length and breadth, from sea to sea, heard and heard ceaselessly in your ears? What's in her, in this song? What calls, and weeps, and grabs the heart? What sounds painfully kiss and strive into the soul, and curl around my heart? " ...
Leo Tolstoy has a story "Songs in the Village". But, perhaps, the most powerful impression is made by the story "Singers" in the "Notes of a Hunter" by IS Turgenev. This story is about a competition between two singers, which takes place in the Pritynny tavern. This competition is a kind of competition in which two heroes of Turgenev's story take part: a rower and Yakov-Turok. The rower was the first to sing a cheerful dance song with dashing prowess, and all those present decided that he won. But it was Yakov-Turk's turn to perform his song. I.S. Turgenev describes in detail how the singer "enters the image", psychologically tunes in. “He sighed deeply and began to sing ...“ Not one path lay in the field, ”he sang, and all of us felt sweet and creepy. I confess that I rarely heard such a voice: it was slightly broken and rang like cracked; at first he even responded with something painful; but in him there was a genuine deep passion, and youth, and strength, and sweetness, and some kind of captivating careless, sad sorrow. The Russian, truthful, hot soul sounded and breathed in him and so grabbed you by the heart, grabbed right by his Russian strings! The song grew and spread. Evidently, Jacob was overwhelmed by rapture: he was no longer shy, he surrendered himself entirely to his happiness; his voice did not tremble anymore - he trembled, but with that barely noticeable inner tremor of passion, which pierces the listener's soul like an arrow, and ceaselessly grew stronger, hardened and expanded ”.
Turgenev repeatedly uses phrases - "Russian soul", "Russian heart strings", "Russian people", "Russian people", thereby emphasizing that such songwriting is fully an expression of Russian national identity and Russian character. “He sang, and every sound of his voice breathed something familiar and immensely wide, as if a familiar steppe was opening up in front of you, going into an endless distance. I felt that my heart was boiling and tears rose to my eyes; deaf, restrained sobs suddenly struck me ... I looked around - the kissing man's wife was crying, leaning her chest against the window ... I don't know how the general languor would have been resolved if Yakov had not suddenly finished on a high, unusually subtle sound - like his voice broke off. Nobody shouted, didn't even move; everyone seemed to be waiting to see if he would still sing; but he opened his eyes, as if surprised by our silence, looked around everyone with an inquiring gaze and saw that the victory was his ... ”.
The rather lengthy fragment from the story "Singers", which I have cited, clearly represents one of the many Russian nuggets fostered in the very midst of the life of the people. Precisely those who are characterized by the immense breadth of the Russian soul, talent and ability to the highest forms of experience. Turgenev, known in our country as a Western writer, was able to show the originality of the Russian national character in songwriting with unusually expressive artistic means.
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 life, their everyday life: work and rest, joy and grief, love and separation. The Russian person in the song personifies the world of nature, projects onto it his spiritual properties and experiences: "What is clouded, a clear dawn ...", "A century-old linden tree stands over the river ...", "Kalinka ...". We comprehend this personification of nature with some special heart-pinching sadness in "Thin Rowan":
Why do you stand rocking
Thin rowan,
Head bowing
Until the very tyna?
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 he affirms the fusion of man with nature, rootedness in it. And in the Russian song the immense breadth of the Russian character is affirmed, corresponding to the immensity of the vast Russian expanses: "Oh, you wide steppe ...", "Down the mother, along the Volga ...", "I rode the whole universe ..." ... The image of the Motherland is perceptively captured in the song "Native" to a poem by F.P.Savinov:
I hear the songs of a lark
I hear the trills of a nightingale.
This is the Russian side
This is my Motherland!
Lydia Ruslanova, speaking at the rally of coachmen in the late 1920s. of the last century, she said that there are more than 80 songs about coachmen, and she herself performed about 30 of them. In each of these songs, the immense Russian expanses and the equally immeasurable passions and emotional impulses are fused together. Altai and Valdai, Ural and Siberia, Quiet Don and Volga, Baikal and the Russian North are sung in Russian folk songs: "On the wild bank of the Irtysh ...", "Glorious sea - sacred Baikal ...", "Zhiguli", "Po A young Cossack walks to the Don ... ". Even when the action of the song unfolds within the confines of the capital city of Moscow, there is an immense breadth of the Russian soul: "Moscow is golden" and "Along St. Petersburg ..." is a song performed by the great Russian singer Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin.
Both generalized and specific images of dear, especially revered, sacred natural phenomena for the Russian people are reflected in Russian folk songs - one of the diverse faces of Holy Russia. With them, the Russian person communicates, speaks as if they were alive, personifies, personifies them, endowing them with their own, inherent only to a person, properties. Especially widely known are the songs in which they sing about the more revered natural phenomena - the Volga, Don, sacred Baikal. All of Russia knew these songs. Some of them are joyful, others are sad, but in all the songs of the river or lake, as if alive, “their life” 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 fixed in the memory of people for a long time.
The folk song is of no small importance in school education and upbringing. Among the many terms that make up the basis of the national character, the famous teacher of the early XX century. V.N. Soroka-Rosinsky calls a folk song. Such a song goes back to the archetypes of our ancestors, through it, the involvement 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 own song from an early age and get used to being inspired by the sounds of it and to feel the blood of his people and all that heroic and lofty that is hidden 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 song
Russian folk song is becoming even more famous and popular thanks to the great Russian performers, among whom Fyodor Shalyapin, Nadezhda Plevitskaya, Lydia Ruslanova, Boris Shtokolov, Lyudmila Zykina, Dmitry Hvorostovsky and many others have occupied the first places.
A special place in this list is occupied by F.I. Chaliapin(1873-1938), who, being an opera singer, constantly gave concerts, performed Russian folk songs. In his autobiographical book Mask and Soul. My Forty Years of Life at the Theater ”, he repeatedly noted the importance of Russian folk song for his development as an opera singer. In his conviction, mathematical fidelity in music and the best voice are deathly until mathematics and sound are inspired by feeling. Chaliapin absorbed this high spirit from the folk song. The song is not a random combination of sounds, but the result of the creative act of the people. “I consider it significant,” he wrote, “and for Russian life, to a high degree typical, that I was encouraged to sing by simple artisan Russian people. Russian people have been singing songs since birth. So it was in the days of my adolescence. The people, who suffered in the dark depths of life, sang songs of suffering and desperately merry songs. And how well they sang! They sang in the field, sang in the hayloft, on the rivers, by the streams, in the forests and behind the splinter. From nature, from everyday life, a Russian song and from love. After all, love is a song. "
Chaliapin studied singing in the church choir, like many singers from the people of that time. Thanks to natural data, and Chaliapin had a heroic physique, he was a true hare, he was inherent in immense talent and some kind of special robbery prowess. He embodied a certain standard of a Russian person on stage. Nevertheless, he always stressed that the beginning of the soul, the state of mind should 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 capture the essential note of the character's plastic existence. A singer who has no imagination can be saved 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 a young man”. "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 a heart beats in this song." It is necessary to feel all this so that the singer would feel pain if he imagines how they worked in the village, how they got up before dawn, in what dry atmosphere a young heart awakened. These Shalyapin thoughts have been 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 the sound recording, we can still listen to the sound of Shalyapin's voice, as he sang "From behind the island to the rod ...", "Dubinushka" and many other songs. The crowning number in every Shalyapin concert was undoubtedly a well-known song:
Eh, along the Piterskaya street,
Along Tverskaya-Yamskaya,
Along Tverskaya-Yamskaya, yes
With a bell ...
IA Ilyin in his article "The Artistic Vocation of Chaliapin" analyzes the influences under the influence of which the artist's talent has awakened, grown and strengthened. This is, first of all, a Russian folk song that has been pouring throughout Russia from end to end for many hundreds of years. Her sincerity and emotionality, her expressiveness made Chaliapin possible as a national phenomenon. We know that Chaliapin listened to her and went from her. There is no doubt that the gypsy song also gave Chaliapin its own. Church Orthodox chanting influenced Chaliapin. Only in the best places of prayer of his roles can a certain tradition of spiritual chanting be traced. It was these influences that laid the foundation for the creative path of Chaliapin. “Chaliapin not only sang, but breathed into your soul with his sound: in his deep sound, massive to the bell-ringing, breath trembled, and in his 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 him, breathe with him and tremble with him; breathing and breathing gave life to sound; the sound ceased to be a ringing, but became a groan: you heard in it a rising and falling, thickening and thinning line of feeling - and your soul swam in it and lived by it; the sound was obtained, extremely saturated with animation, imperiously embracing the soul of the listener. "
However, I.A. Ilyin, to some extent and rightly, indicates the negative traits of his character. All this led to the fact that Chaliapin did not create, did not leave behind a school, like the school of K. Stanislavsky, in which it would be worthwhile to embody the method of his creativity and a living school of new opera art. Chaliapin's song heritage has always been a kind of tuning fork and a model for many generations of professional singers and lovers of Russian folk songs.
An outstanding performer of Russian folk songs was Nadezhda Plevitskaya(Vinnikova) (1884-1941). The nugget singer - Plevitskaya was born in the village of Vinnikovo near Kursk in a simple peasant family. Her love of singing led her to the church choir of the Trinity Monastery in Kursk, where she was a student for over two years. The first great success came on tour in Nizhny Novgorod in 1909 at a charity concert during the days of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, where she performed at the invitation of L.V. Sobinov. A year later, Plevitskaya sang with triumph in Moscow and St. Petersburg. F.Shalyapin greeted her very warmly, who after the concert admonished the singer in a fatherly manner: “God help you, dear Nadia. Sing your songs that you brought from the earth, I don't have such songs - I am a Slobozhan, not a village one. " All her life Plevitskaya kept a photograph of Chaliapin with a dedication: "To my dear Lark Nadezhda Vasilyevna Plevitskaya, F. Chaliapin, who loves her heartily."
About how Plevitskaya sang, there is evidence of a fan 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 a certain artificiality. But the movements of the mouth and nostrils were like an open book. Plevitskaya's speech is the purest, most sonorous, most charming Russian dialect. She wringes her fingers, clasping her hands, and these fingers live, they say, suffer, joke, laugh. " Many connoisseurs noted her rare musicality, flexible and naturally richly delivered voice - a mezzo-soprano of a wide range.
Plevitskaya's repertoire was huge. She performed well-known Russian folk songs: "Peddlers", "Ukhar-merchant", "Troika", "Stenka Razin", "On the Murom path", "Among the plain valley", "On 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 Tsarskoe Selo, where she successfully performed in front of Emperor Nicholas II and his family. The Emperor liked the singing of Plevitskaya so much that subsequently she repeatedly performed before the Emperor, the Grand Dukes and the highest ranks 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 the soldiers of the Red Army.
In the future, the fate of Plevitskaya was very tragic. The outstanding singer found herself 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, where she died in 1941. Plevitskaya's name still lives in Russia in legends, songs and romances.
Great Russian singer Lydia 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 of a wide range. She created her own style of performing folk songs, which she collected all her life. Among the most popular of her songs are "The steppe, and the steppe all around", "Golden mountains", "The month was painted with crimson", "The month is shining", "Valenki", "The age-old linden" and many others. She was one of the first to perform “Katyusha” by M. Isakovsky. For some time, thanks to the help of the teacher M. Medvedev, Ruslanova studied at the Saratov Conservatory, but after that she decided that her life should be connected with folk songs: “I realized that I would not be an academic singer. All my strength was in immediacy, in a natural feeling, in unity with the world where the song was born. "
During the First World War, Ruslanova was at the front as a sister of mercy. In the 20s, her style in performance, behavior on stage, in the selection of concert costumes was finally formed. These were peasant sundresses, colored scarves and shawls. In the 30s, the singer went on tour throughout the Soviet Union. Her voice possessed great strength and endurance, often in one evening she participated in 4-5 concerts. From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Ruslanova went to the front as part of one of the best concert brigades. Once, in 17 days, this brigade gave 51 concerts. The song "Valenki" has become the "calling card" of the popularly beloved singer. They had to perform in the open air, in trenches, in dugouts, in hospitals. With her songs Ruslanova infused the life elixir - the Russian national spirit - into the souls of the soldiers. On her own money, earned during a tour of the country in the pre-war years, Lydia Ruslanova purchased two batteries of Katyusha guards mortars, which were sent to the First Belorussian Front.
Ruslanova sang on the front line, under fire in the back of a truck in 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, either from either side of the front. During these three hours, the redeployment of our troops was carried out, preparations for the counteroffensive were completed. And in the defeated Berlin, several concerts of Lydia Ruslanova took place - at the Reichstag building and at the Brandenburg Gate. In total, on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, she gave more than 1120 concerts. For all these achievements Ruslanova was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 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, but "folk plan") of a wide range and could move from contralto to top notes of 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, Central Russian, northern, Siberian, Cossack - that she could surprise even experienced folklorists. She performed memorable, heroic, brave, robber, lingering, mournful, funny, playful, circular, round dance, dance, joke, burlak, buffoonery, ritual, wedding, guly, submarine, woman's, sit-down songs, as well as epics, crying, and thoughts. Each song became a small performance.
The ease with which Ruslanova performed folk songs was given by hard work. She said more than once: “Singing well is very difficult. You will be worn out while you comprehend the soul of the song, while you solve its riddle. I don't sing the song, I play it. It's a whole play with several roles. " Ruslanova was rightfully called the "Tsarina of the Russian song" and "Guards singer" during the Great Patriotic War. And today, in a number of Russian cities, competitions of folk songs 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, collegiality 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. The song is the embodiment of the life of the people, their culture; is and has always been an expression of sincerity, emotionality, and expressiveness of the people's soul. And as you drag on the song - and hard work is not a burden, and grief is not grief, and trouble is not a problem. For a Russian person, singing is like a prayer: in a song you will cry, and you will repent, and you will obey, and you will lighten your soul, and the burden will fall off like a stone from your soul. 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 songs. In the second half of the 20th century, Russian song was constantly played in concerts by Lyudmila Zykina, Klavdia Shulzhenko, Valentina Tolkunova, Vladimir Troshin and many other performers.
3. "Burn, burn, my star ..."
Romance is another and very important component of the treasury of Russian songwriting. According to the People's Artist of Russia Isabella Yurieva, romance is an amazing phenomenon of our song culture. Romance is a purely Russian phenomenon. The Russian romance, as well as the old Russian song, expressed the soul of our people with its subtle lyricism, with its inescapable longing and dreaminess; with her cheerful prowess and desperate recklessness.
What is the difference between Russian romance and other genres and other vocal forms? What specific features inherent in the romance can be called? First of all, it's a simple plot. The space of romance plots is limited by the sphere of human experiences: the first meeting, love, betrayal, separation, loneliness, death of a beloved (beloved) - that which is accessible to the understanding of every person. To this must be added the simplicity and accessibility of forms, if the way of expression becomes more complicated, the language of the romance ceases to be understandable. All feelings are expressed directly, in plain text. The content of the romance is full of symbolic words, 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 obligatory feature of the Russian romance. The more sentimental the romance is, the higher its popularity. The most important thing in the romance is the intonation, trusting, but not familiar in relation to the listener. This is another advantage of the Russian romance. It is in the intonation that the elusive charm of the romance lies, which gives it genuine depth, the sincerity of the feelings experienced, the elegiac mood, and light sadness. A distinctive feature of the Russian romance is its specific language, in which there are a lot of Slavicisms, giving the romance a high style:
I will cover with kisses
Mouth and eyes and forehead.
Replace these words with modern ones and the whole aroma and charm of the romance will crumble and disappear.
The most valuable thing in the music of Russian romance is its rich and expressive melody. The broad chanting, flexibility and plasticity of the romance are inherited from the Russian folk song. It should be noted that some romances that are far removed from folk song origins never lose touch with them. Often Russian romances were performed by the chorus of gypsies, which led to an intensification of melodramatic moments, exalted the drawing of the melody. And then the Russian romance became, ostensibly, gypsy. In this case, the Russian origin of the romance is forgotten (“Oh, even speak with me, seven-stringed friend” by A. Grigoriev, “Black Eyes” by E. Grebenka.)
An elegy romance became the artistic epicenter of Russian musical and poetic culture in the 19th century. Romance has always been a synthetic art - the unity of word and sound. From the side of poetry, the work of the great Russian poets - A.S. Pushkin, F.I. Tyutchev, A.A. Fet, A.K. Tolstoy had a profound influence on the development of romance. 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 have given the romance various and amazing musical forms. And today, classical romances are considered to be works on Pushkin's poems "I remember a wonderful moment ...", on the verses of Tyutchev "I met you ...", on the verses of A.K. Tolstoy "Amid the 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 is the works of PI Tchaikovsky ("Is it daytime ...", "I won't tell you anything ..."), in which the expressiveness of the music meets the mood of the text. But this kind of romance resonates with a select few, not a mass audience. The classical romance becomes intellectual, while losing its lightness and simplicity.
At the beginning of the 20th century, romance becomes more of a performing art than a compositional and poetic one. We can judge this by comparing various performing manners of that time, thanks to the preserved records. 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. Yuriev, A. Bayanova and others. The popularization of the romance was promoted by the appearance of the gramophone and records. The performance of romances was enthusiastically received not only by the regulars of restaurants, but also by visitors to concert halls and outstanding artists. The performance of a romance always presupposes a coincidence, a consonance of a spiritual impulse, the inner mood of the performer and listener, artist and audience. The listener is most often a person who has experienced and suffered a lot, who has heart wounds and unhealed scars. Only such a listener can fully comprehend the enchanting power of the romance.
A documentary report by the famous Russian journalist of the early XX century Vlas Doroshevich about the performance of Sasha Davydov in the operetta performance "Gypsy songs and romances in faces ..." has survived:
“- I remember a performance at the Hermitage by Lentovsky.
It was fun, crowded, gorgeous.
There were "Gypsy Songs".
Davydov sang "Cry" and "Night".
And then he came to the ramp.
The face became stern, solemn.
A pair of bay, harnessed to the dawn ...
First performance of a 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?
Artist E. Hildebrandt swayed. She was taken off the stage.
Raisova - Stesha - bent down to the table and began to cry.
Beautiful chorus girls wiped away their tears.
Sobbing was heard in the hall.
Sobs grew.
Someone was carried out without feeling.
Someone ran out of the box with a loud cry.
I looked to my left.
In the box sat the opera artist Tilda, who was then touring in the Hermitage, the French opera Gunzburg.
Large tears ran down her cheeks.
She did not understand the words.
But she understood the tears with which the artist sang.
French writer Armand Sylvester, who was at the theater and stayed in Moscow, a light, pleasant writer, a fat, cheerful bourgeois, shrugged his hands during the intermission:
Amazing country! An incomprehensible country! They cry in the operetta.
You, only you, are faithful to her to this day,
A pair of bay ... a couple of bay ...
Davydov finished himself with a face filled with tears
Under some general sobbing.
I saw such a performance only once in my life ... ".
Such a discerning judge as K.S. Stanislavsky, who was very far from the stage, wrote, evaluating the work of A. Davydov: was known to him. " It is not surprising that the enthusiastic audience quite often after the concert literally carried their favorite performers of Russian romances into their hands.
We meet 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. As if in a room that smelled of fashionable perfume, the aroma of some wild flower suddenly breathed. I heard the gradually enchanted spectators subside, and for a long time not a single sound, not a rustle was heard in the huge hall, except for that sweet, yearning and fiery motive ... with all my heart. " N. Dulkevich often performed 30, 40 and even 50 romances and songs during one concert! And this is without a microphone and other sound-amplifying technology. The "foreign" ear and other soul is hardly capable of understanding the full depth, passion and magical power of the Russian romance. But all this is open to the Russian soul, which, according to cultural genetics, is able to harmoniously merge in the performance of the artist and the perception of the listener.
The Russian romance has come a long way - through high society salons, noisy hussar and student gatherings, soldiers' halts - has come down to our time, continuing to excite the hearts of people today with its soft lyricism and sincere sentimentality. Russian romance - unpretentious and touching - has absorbed the whole gamut of human feelings: sublime love and fatal passions, inescapable sadness and cheerful daring, desperate recklessness and sentimental daydreaming. Russian romance is eternal, like a loving and suffering human soul.
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 change of fashion in pop song, is there a warm, reverent attitude to the songs of the Great Patriotic War? Probably because they are simple, like a soldier's life, and sincere, like a 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 the Russian person stops and the soul trembles when a quiet melody is heard:
Fire beats in a small stove,
On the logs there is tar like a tear.
And the accordion sings to me in the dugout
About your smile and your 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 the war song is the attitude of a man belonging to the generation whose fathers died at the front. Therefore, the words from the song - "It's not easy for me to reach you, but 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, the victory of our army, our country, I have always perceived and still perceive as my personal victory.
The song of the Great Patriotic War reflected the events of the war, became its musical chronicle. Themes, images, content of the song exclusively fully convey the emotional atmosphere of wartime. It presents all shades of heroism and lyricism of the war years: high civic position and patriotism ("Holy War"); the spirit of courage and struggle ("The Covenant Stone"); soldier's friendship and front-line brotherhood ("Two Friends"); love for the home and the woman ("Wait for me"); a joke song that creates an atmosphere of valiant enthusiasm and fun ("Vasya-Vasilek"); 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. Love for the song, the awareness that the song relieves physical and mental suffering, is very clearly expressed in the poetic lines:
After the fight, the heart asks
Music doubly.
A person, even in times of war, cannot be infinitely 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
Far, easily leads ...
No, what are you guys,
Amazing people (...)
The memory of the war song is the memory of its authors and performers. These are the composers A. Alexandrov, V. Soloviev-Sedoy - the author of the songs "Evening on the Road", "Nightingales", "On a Sunny Meadow"; N. Bogoslovsky - author of the song "Dark Night"; T. Khrennikov, M. Blanter, I. Dunaevsky. These are 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, the artists of the 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 the war is extremely large. Front songwriting gave rise to numerous transcriptions on well-known motives: "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 songwriting. They reflect the motives of front-line life. Their heroes are the defenders of our Motherland. Therefore, even today, a large and painstaking folk-collecting work is necessary.
The most popular war songs written after the war should be given credit. These are "Victory Day" (authors V. Kharitonov and D. Tukhmanov), "Cranes" (R. Gamzatov and Y. Frenkel), "He did not return from 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 the Red Book, which will include disappearing spiritual values. We should preserve them, not lose them in vanity and anger. Perhaps the songs of the war years will help us overcome the shocks and hardships that have befallen our lot today.
May the road lead us to the mass graves on every Victory Day, where "there is not a single personal destiny - all destinies are merged into a single one." Eternal memory to the defenders of our Motherland! Let our path lead us to the church, where a prayer service for the fallen soldiers of the Great Patriotic War will be served. Let 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 are still forming the properties of the Russian national character - patriotism, heroism, national staunchness, brotherhood, inexhaustible patience and a sense of collegiality. Today, in post-Soviet Russia, there is a deficit of these qualities. How necessary they are for the new generations of Russian people.
5. "I love you, Russia ..."
A huge layer of Russian songwriting is represented by songs of the Soviet era, which chronologically coincide with the second half of the 20th century. They continue the traditions of the classical Russian national song - in terms of content, intonation, and genre diversity. But most importantly, they have cultural genetics identical to the Russian folk song, express the basic features of the Russian national character. Among the diverse themes, plots and motives of these songs, I would like to focus on two main themes.
The first theme is Russia, Motherland, Russian nature, the existence of the Russian people. The songs of this theme are characterized by immense breadth, chanting, endless freedom and deep patriotic feeling. These are “Moscow Nights” by M. Matusovsky; "The Volga flows" - L. Oshanina, "Russia is my Motherland!" - V. Kharitonova, "Russian field" - I. Goff, "My village" - V. Gundareva, "My quiet homeland" - N. Rubtsova, "Grass at home" - A. Perechnoi, "Hope" - N. Dobronravova , "Russia" - I. Talkova.
The boundlessness of Russia and the equally boundless love for the Motherland are shrewdly expressed in the song "Russia" by M. Nozhkin:
I love you, Russia,
Our dear Rus,
Unspent strength
Unsolved sadness.
You are immense in scope
There is no end to you
You are incomprehensible for centuries
To foreign sages.
The second theme is Russian songs of the lyric genre, which tell about love and separation, about joy and sorrow, about 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 shawl" to verses. 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 half-stop” - M. Ancharova, "Ural Ryabinushka" - M. Pilipenko, "White Birch Friend" - A. Ovsyannikova, "What a Song Without a Bayan" - O. Anofrieva. The list of these songs is endless.
During this period of 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 the famous composers-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 it is rare to hear a Russian folk song. Various imported and home-grown hits and hits that have nothing to do with our song culture are now suitable for the "format" of mass media.
Nevertheless, 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 were performed and still sound - "Black Eyes" (E. Grebenka), "Two Guitars" (S. Makarov), "A Pair of Bay" (A. Apukhtin), songs of the Soviet era - "Katyusha" and "Moscow Nights". But, perhaps, until now the greatest success is enjoyed by K. Podrevsky's romance "Long Road", to the music of B. Fomin. This romance has been translated into many languages. In French and in Italian, it has been performed many times by the star of French cinema, 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 have been performed for many years by Boris Rubashkin, a descendant of the first wave of Russian emigrants. The choir of Yale University (USA) has been performing Russian folk songs for a long time - "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 Writers' Union of Russia, says with deep regret that today the Russian folk song has disappeared, they don't know it, they don't sing it. “And the Russian song is also our great Russian relic. They fought with it in the same way as Yemelyan Yaroslavsky with the church, destroyed, perverted, replaced. The country was flooded with precocious, brisk marches, and only the Great Patriotic War again brought the Russian song to life. The brilliant amulet song "Sacred War" gave birth to new spiritually sublime, dramatic-heroic, lyrical-romantic songs ... Alexandrov's choir, Pyatnitsky's choir, "Birch" were known to the whole world, the standard of song culture were the Arkhangelsk, Voronezh, Ural choirs. The country sang its songs. Every evening at 19 hours 15 minutes, folk songs and songs of the Great Patriotic War were learned through all radio stations throughout the Soviet Union. And suddenly everything collapsed ... Visiting rock musicians were singing on Vasilyevsky Spusk, and all kinds of pop music was playing, only one broadcast of the folk song "Play, accordion!" Only Viktor Zakharchenko, wounded by many years of struggle, breaks through with his outstanding Kuban folk choir to the main concert venue of the country - to the Palace of Congresses. The departure of the folk song from the life of the country deprived it of the spiritual oxygen of tradition and self-awareness, the eternal sound and movement. The cells of the consciousness and soul of our young man filled the rhythms of Florida and Texas, the melodies of London suburbs, discos in 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 tells about one trip of the youth delegation to America. There we were asked to sing our songs. The guys from Armenia tightened their tune, two Ukrainians and I sang "Poviy Vitra to Vkrainu", but Muscovites and Petrograd did not remember anything. The American owners suggested: "Kalinka" - the guys did not know, "Black Eyes" - too. Let's at least "Moscow Nights" - I suggested angrily. Without the support of the entire delegation, they would not have sung. Compatriots are good. And are they compatriots? So, second-class citizens of the world.
Tanya Petrova said that in Japan in music schools, the obligatory rule is the knowledge of ten Russian songs, as the most perfect melodic and harmonic samples. Can we boast of such knowledge? Does our student know ten folk songs, can he perform them? Clearly not. A great black hole has formed in the musical image of Russia ... Either we sing out our songs, or our people will dissolve in an alien melody, which means in other people's thoughts and spirit ...
The outstanding leader of the Moscow Chamber Choir, Vladimir Minin, complains that nowadays they do not sing at all in Russia. He sees a way out in the musical upbringing of children, who could absorb the authentic traditions of national polyphony, still preserved here and there. The famous bass, People's Artist of the USSR Yevgeny Nesterenko said that we are Russian by nature a singing nation.
But the ascetics-performers of the Russian song have not yet died out in Russia. Alexander Vasin-Makarov, creator of the Nadezhda trio, says: “We have undertaken the task of combining all types of Russian songs - folk, Soviet and author's. 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; singing, going from hard day's work, singing soldiers, returning from a heated exercise, and sometimes going to the assault. He notes that over the past 20 years, 150 melodies have been composed on the verses of N. Rubtsov! On poems by M. Lermontov - 450! Trio "Nadezhda" sings songs to the poems of Tyutchev, Apukhtin, Fet, Blok, Rubtsov, Peredreev, Tryapkin, as well as to Vasin-Makarov's own poems, set to the music he composed.
The sincerity, emotionality and expressiveness of the Russian folk song, with special force, presented by IA Ilyin in his book “The Singing Heart. The Book of Quiet Contemplation ”. According to Ilyin, the human heart sees the Divine in everything, rejoices and sings, the heart shines from the depths where the human-personal merges with the superhuman-divine to the point of indistinguishability: for God's rays penetrate a person, and a person 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 secrets, miracles and beauties of God's world. The heart sings during inspirational prayer, which is a focused turn of a person to God. The heart sings when we contemplate the true shrine in art, when we hear the voices of angels in the melody of earthly music. “We need to see and acknowledge 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 an island of God - His beacon. His mediator. "
Russian folk song has always been and will be the expression of Russian national identity and Russian character. Tatiana Petrova, Svetlana Kopylova, Elena Sapogova, our fellow countryman Yevgeny Buntov and many performers who carefully preserve the traditions of Russian folk song, which really is the embodiment of the soul of the people, continue today the traditions that come from Chaliapin, Plevitskaya, Ruslanova and other outstanding performers of Russian folk song. an integral part of our spiritual substance.
Vitaly Ilyich Kopalov , Professor, Doctor of Philosophy Sciences, UrIB im. I. A. Ilyina, Yekaterinburg
1. Ilyin I.A. The path of spiritual renewal // Ilyin I.A. Sobr. Op. : in 10 volumes - M., 1993. - T. 1. - P.202.
2. Ibid. P. 203.
3. See: Ilyin I.A. Essence and originality of Russian culture // Ilyin I.A. Collected works: in 10 volumes, Moscow, 1996. Vol.6, book. II. P.389.
4. Ibid. P. 395.
5. Gogol N.V. Stories. Dead Souls. M., 1996.S. 500.
6. Turgenev I. S. Notes of a hunter // Turgenev I. S. Complete collection of works: in 30 volumes, Moscow, 1979.Vol. 3. P.222.
7. Ibid. S.222-223.
8. Soroka-Rosinsky V.N. National and heroic in education // Spiritual foundations of Russian national education: a reader. Yekaterinburg, 1994.S. 67.
9. Shalyapin F.I. Mask and soul. My forty years of life in the theater. Perm, 1965.S. 242-243.
10. Ilyin I.A. Chaliapin's artistic vocation // Ilyin I.A. Collected works: in 10 volumes, Moscow, 1998.Vol. 7. P.430.
11. Burn, burn, my star. An old Russian romance. M., 1999.S. 38-39.
12. Ganichev. V. From the Sanaksar monastery ... Fates, reflections, hopes // Our contemporary. 2010. No. 1. Pp. 189-190.
13. See: Ibid. S. 190.
14. See: Tomorrow. 2008. No. 22.C.8.
15. Ilyin I.A. The lights of life. M., 2006.S. 292.
Today Buranovskie Babushki is incredibly popular. This is easy to explain. People are close to sincere, sincere performance of folk songs. We decided to tell you about other, no less wonderful, but less famous folklore performers from the Russian provinces.
"Aliyoshnye" songs of the village of Plekhovo
A striking feature of the musical culture of the village of Plyokhovo, Sudzhansky District, Kursk Region, are "alileshnye" songs performed to dance, a developed tradition of instrumental playing, specific choreographic genres - tanks (ritual dance) and karagodes (round dances).
Local tunes that made Plyokhovo famous all over the world - Timonya, Chebotukha, Father, Plow Hot - are performed by an ensemble with a unique set of instruments: kugikly (Pan's flute), horn (zhaleika), violin, balalaika.
The performing style of the Plyokhovites is distinguished by the richness of improvisation and complex polyphony. Instrumental music, singing and dance are inseparable components of the Plyokhov tradition, which all true masters possess: good singers often know how to play the kugikl, and violinists and horn players sing with pleasure - and without exception, they all dance deftly in karagode.
There are traditional rules in instrumental performance: only women play on kugikls; on the horn, violin, accordion - only men.
"Oh, what a marvel this is." Karagodnaya song on Maslenitsa performed by residents of the village of Plyokhovo
Suffering in the village of Russkaya Trostyanka
The song tradition of the village Russkaya Trostyanka of the Ostrogozhsky district of the Voronezh region is distinguished by a loud chest timbre of female voices, sounding in the upper register of male voices, colorful polyphony, a high level of performing improvisation, the use of special singing techniques - "kicks", , usually high case).
The genre musical and folklore system of the village includes calendar, wedding, lingering, round dance, game songs. A significant place in the repertoire of local residents is occupied by ditties and suffering. They could be performed as a solo accordion or balalaika ("Matanya", "Semyonovna", "Lady"), and in chorus without instrumental accompaniment ("I begin to sing suffering", "Puva, puva").
Another feature of the song tradition of the village of Russkaya Trostyanka is the presence of special spring songs performed from Krasnaya Gorka to Trinity. Such songs, marking the season, are the drawn-out "After the forest, the forest, the nightingale and the cuckoo salted", "We had a good summer in the forest".
Lingering song "My nightingale, nightingale" performed by the folklore ensemble "Krestyanka" from the village of Russkaya Trostyanka, Ostrogozhsky district, Voronezh region
Ballads of Dukhovshchinsky district
Lyric songs are one of the dominant genres in the song tradition of the Dukhovshchinsky region. In the poetic texts of these songs, the emotional states and emotional experiences of a person are revealed. There are even ballads among the plots. In the tunes of lyric songs, exclamation-cliché and narrative intonations are combined, expressive chants play an important role. Songs are traditionally timed to coincide with calendar periods (summer, winter) and individual holidays (Maslenitsa, Spirit day, patronal holidays), autumn-winter gatherings, and seeing off to the army. Among the features of the local performing tradition are the characteristic timbre and special performing techniques.
Lyric song "The girls were walking" performed by P.M. Kozlova and K.M. Titova from the village of Sheboltaevo, Dukhovshchinsky District, Smolensk Region
Lamentations in the village of Kukushka
The village of Kukushka in the Perm Territory is like a reserve of Permian Komi traditional singing. The area of specialization of the ensemble members is singing, traditional dances, dances and games, folk costume. Typical for the nomadic Komi-Permians, "massive", timbre-intense, "filled" ensemble singing takes on special brightness and intense emotionality in the performance of Kukushan songwriters.
The ensemble includes the inhabitants of the village of Kukushka, connected with each other by family, kinship, and neighborhood ties. The band members collect all genres of the local song tradition: lingering, lyrical Komi and Russian songs, dance, game, round dance songs, wedding ceremony songs, spiritual verses, ditties and choruses. They have a tradition of lamentations, they know children's folklore repertoire, fairy tales and lullabies, as well as dance, dance and play forms of local folklore. Finally, they preserve and reproduce local ritual and holiday traditions: an old wedding ceremony, the rite of seeing off to the army, commemoration of the dead, Christmas games and Trinity meadow festivities.
Dance song ("yukktan") "Basuk nylka, volkyt yura" ("Beautiful girl, smooth head") performed by an ethnographic ensemble from the village of Kukushka, Kochevsky district, Perm region
Karagodnye songs of Ilovka
Traditional songs of the southern Russian village of Ilovka, Alekseevsky district of the Belgorod region, relate to the song style of the Voronezh-Belgorod borderland. The musical culture of Ilovka is dominated by lingering broad-singing songs and round dance (karagodnye) songs with dance crossed.
In the singing tradition of the village, the signs of the South Russian style are also clearly manifested: an open, bright voice, the use of high registers for men and low registers for women in joint singing, the influence of the style of round dance songs.
There are very few calendar-ritual song forms in the Ilov tradition. The only calendar song that has survived to this day is the carol "Oh, kaleda, from under the forest, forest!", Which is sung in many voices. There are few and seasonally timed songs, among them one can note the Trinity round dance "My universal wreath".
Round dance song "My all-inclusive wreath" performed by residents of the village of Ilovka, Alekseevsky district, Belgorod region
Brazhnichanye in Afanasyevsky district
Residents of the villages of the Kirov region remember, love and carefully preserve local singing traditions.
Lyric songs form one of the most important parts of the region's cultural heritage. There is no special term for the genre of lyric songs in the Afanasyevsky district of the Kirov region. Most often, such songs are characterized as long, drawn-out, heavy. In the stories of the performers, they are also mentioned as ancient, since they were sung in the old days. The names are widespread, associated with the absence of a song to date (simple songs) or with their belonging to the holidays (holiday songs). In some places, memories of singing certain lyrical songs while being sent off to the army have been preserved. Then they are called soldiers.
Lyric songs here, as a rule, were not confined to certain life situations: they sang "when it comes up." Most often they were sung during field work, as well as on holidays, by both women and men: "He who wants to, he sings."
An important place in the tradition was occupied by beer festivals, when guests were drinking. The participants of the feast made folds - each brought honey, mash or beer. After sitting for an hour or two with one owner, the guests went to another hut. Lyric songs were necessarily sounded at these festivities.
Lyric song "Cool mountains are merry" performed by P.N. Varankina from the village of Ichetovkiny, Afanasyevsky district, Kirov region
Schedrovki in the village of Kamen
The song tradition of the Bryansk region is characterized by the dominance of wedding, round dance and late lyric songs. Wedding, round dance, lyrical and calendar songs are still popular in the village of Kamen. The calendar cycle is represented here by genres of the Christmastide period - generosity and songs that accompanied the driving of a goat, and Shrovetide songs performed during the Maslenitsa festivities.
The genre that is most often found in the Starodubsky district is wedding songs. One of the few "living" genres today is lyrical songs. Local singers believe that they have an undeniable beauty, they say: "Beautiful songs!"
Wedding song "Oh mother-in-law was waiting for the supper" performed by residents of the village of Kamen, Starodubsky district, Bryansk region
