Social value of folklore. Genres of musical folklore
The oral poetry of the people is of great social value, consisting in its cognitive, ideological, educational and aesthetic meanings, which are inextricably linked. The cognitive significance of folklore is manifested primarily in the fact that it reflects the characteristics of real life phenomena and provides extensive knowledge about the history of social relations, work and life, as well as an idea of the worldview and psychology of the people, and the nature of the country. The cognitive significance of folklore is increased by the fact that the plots and images of its works usually contain broad typification and contain generalizations of life phenomena and people’s characters. Thus, the images of Ilya Muromets and Mikula Selyaninovich in Russian epics give an idea of the Russian peasantry in general; one image characterizes an entire social stratum of people. The educational significance of folklore is also increased by the fact that its works not only present, but also explain pictures of life, historical events and images of heroes. Thus, epics and historical songs explain why the Russian people withstood the Mongol-Tatar yoke and emerged victorious in the struggle, they explain the meaning of the exploits of heroes and the activities of historical figures. M. Gorky said: “The true history of the working people cannot be known without knowing oral folk art.” Gorky M. Collection. cit., vol. 27, p. 311. The ideological and educational significance of folklore lies in the fact that its best works are inspired by high progressive ideas, love for the motherland, and the desire for peace. Folklore depicts heroes as defenders of the homeland and evokes a feeling of pride in them. He poetizes Russian nature - and the mighty rivers (Mother Volga, the wide Dnieper, the quiet Don), and the expansive steppes, and the wide fields - and this fosters love for it. The image of the Russian land is recreated in works of folklore. Folk art expresses the life aspirations and social views of the people, and often revolutionary sentiments. It played an important role in the people’s struggle for national and social liberation, for their socio-political and cultural development. Modern folk art contributes to the communist education of the masses. In all this, the ideological and educational significance of folk poetry is manifested. The aesthetic significance of folklore works lies in the fact that they are a wonderful art of words and are distinguished by great poetic skill, which is reflected in their construction, in the creation of images, and in language. Folklore skillfully uses fiction, fantasy, and symbolism, i.e. allegorical transfer and characterization of phenomena and their poeticization. Folklore expresses the artistic tastes of the people. The form of his works has been polished over the centuries by the work of excellent masters. Therefore, folklore develops an aesthetic sense, a sense of beauty, a sense of form, rhythm and language. Because of this, it is of great importance for the development of all types of professional art: literature, music, theater. The work of many great writers and composers is closely connected with folk poetry.
Folklore is characterized by the revelation of beauty in nature and man, the unity of aesthetic and moral principles, the combination of reality and fiction, vivid imagery and expressiveness. All this serves as an explanation why the best works of folklore provide great aesthetic pleasure. The science of folklore. The science of folklore - folkloristics - studies oral folk art, the verbal art of the masses. It poses and resolves a significant range of important questions: about the characteristics of folklore - its vital content, social nature, ideological essence, artistic originality; about its origin, development, originality at different stages of existence; about his attitude to literature and other forms of art; about the features of the creative process in it and the forms of existence of individual works; about the specifics of genres: epics, fairy tales, songs, proverbs, etc. Folklore is a complex, synthetic art; Often his works combine elements of various types of art - verbal, musical, theatrical. It is closely connected with folk life and rituals, and reflects the characteristics of various periods of history. That is why various sciences are interested in it and study it: linguistics, literary criticism, art history, ethnography, history. Each of them explores folklore in various aspects: linguistics - the verbal side, reflecting in it the history of the language and connections with dialects; literary criticism - general features of folklore and literature and their differences; art history - musical and theatrical elements; ethnography - the role of folklore in folk life and its connection with rituals; history is the expression in it of the people's understanding of historical events. Due to the uniqueness of folklore as an art, the term “folklore” has different meanings in different countries. content, and therefore the subject of folkloristics is understood differently. In some foreign countries, folkloristics deals not only with the study of the poetic, but also the musical and choreographic aspects of folk poetic works, i.e., elements of all types of arts. In our country, folkloristics is understood as the science of folk poetic creativity.
Folkloristics has its own subject of study, its own special tasks, and has developed its own research methods and techniques. However, the study of the verbal side of oral folk art is not separated from the study of its other aspects: the cooperation of the sciences of folklore, linguistics, literary criticism, art criticism, ethnography and history is very fruitful. Genera, genres and genre varieties. Folklore, like literature, is the art of words. This gives grounds for folkloristics to use concepts and terms that were developed by literary criticism, naturally applying them to the features of oral folk art. Such concepts and terms are genus, type, genre and genre variety. Both in literary criticism and in folkloristics there is still no unambiguous idea about them; researchers disagree and argue. We will adopt a working definition that we will use. Those phenomena of literature and folklore, which are called genera, genres and genre varieties, are groups of works that are similar to each other in structure, ideological and artistic principles and functions. They have developed historically and are relatively stable, changing only to a small extent and rather slowly. The difference between genera, genres and genre varieties is important for performers of works, and for their listeners, and for researchers studying folk art, since these phenomena represent meaningful forms, the emergence, development, change and death of which is an important process in history literature and folklore.
In literary and folkloristic terminology in our time, the concept and term “species” have almost gone out of use; most often they are replaced by the concept and term “genre”, although they were previously distinguished. We will also accept as a working concept “genre” - a narrower group of works than genus. In this case, by genus we will mean a way of depicting reality (epic, lyrical, dramatic), and by genre - a type of artistic form (fairy tale, song, proverb). But we have to introduce an even narrower concept - “genre variety”, which is a thematic group of works (fairy tales about animals, fairy tales, fairy tales, social and everyday tales, love songs, family songs, etc.). Even smaller groups of works can be identified. Thus, in social and everyday fairy tales there is a special group of works - satirical fairy tales. However, in order to present a general picture of the classification (distribution) of types of works of Russian folk poetry, a number of other circumstances should be taken into account: firstly, the relationship of genres to the so-called rituals (special cult actions), secondly, the relationship of the verbal text to singing and action, which is typical for some types of folklore works. Works may be associated with ritual and singing and may not be associated with them.
Signs, properties of folklore
Researchers have noticed many signs and properties that are characteristic of folklore and allow us to get closer to understanding its essence:
Bifunctionality (combination of practical and spiritual);
Polyelementity or syncretism.
Any folklore work is multi-elemental. Let's use the table:
Mimic element
Genres of oral prose
Verbal element
Pantomime, mimic dancing
Ritual performance, round dances, folk drama
Verbal and musical (song genres)
Dance element
Musical and choreographic genres
musical element
Collectivity;
Illiteration;
Variant multiplicity;
Traditionality.
For phenomena associated with the development of folklore in other types of culture, the name - folklorism - (introduced at the end of the 19th century by the French researcher P. Sebillot), as well as “secondary life”, “secondary folklore” has been adopted.
In connection with its wide distribution, the concept of folklore itself, its pure forms, arose: thus, the term authentic (from the Greek autenticus - genuine, reliable) was established.
Folk art is the basis of all national culture. The richness of its content and genre diversity - sayings, proverbs, riddles, fairy tales and more. Songs have a special place in the creativity of the people, accompanying human life from cradle to grave, reflecting it in the most diverse manifestations and generally representing enduring ethnographic, historical, aesthetic, moral and highly artistic value.
Features of folklore.
Folklore(folk-lore) is an international term of English origin, first introduced into science in 1846 by the scientist William Toms. Literally translated, it means “folk wisdom”, “folk knowledge” and denotes various manifestations of folk spiritual culture.
Other terms have also become established in Russian science: folk poetry, folk poetry, folk literature. The name “oral creativity of the people” emphasizes the oral nature of folklore in its difference from written literature. The name “folk poetic creativity” indicates artistry as a sign by which a folklore work is distinguished from beliefs, customs and rituals. This designation puts folklore on a par with other types of folk art and fiction. 1
Folklore is complex, synthetic art. His works often combine elements of various types of art - verbal, musical, theatrical. It is studied by various sciences - history, psychology, sociology, ethnology (ethnography) 2. It is closely connected with folk life and rituals. It is no coincidence that the first Russian scientists approached folklore broadly, recording not only works of verbal art, but also recording various ethnographic details and the realities of peasant life. Thus, the study of folklore was for them a unique area of national studies 3 .
The science that studies folklore is called folkloristics. If literature is understood not only as written artistic creativity, but as verbal art in general, then folklore is a special branch of literature, and folkloristics is thus part of literary studies.
Folklore is verbal oral creativity. It has the properties of the art of words. In this way he is close to literature. However, it has its own specific features: syncretism, traditionality, anonymity, variability and improvisation.
The prerequisites for the emergence of folklore appeared in the primitive communal system with the beginning of the formation of art. The ancient art of words was characterized utility– the desire to practically influence nature and human affairs.
The oldest folklore was in syncretic state(from the Greek word synkretismos - connection). A syncretic state is a state of unity, non-division. Art was not yet separated from other types of spiritual activity; it existed in conjunction with other types of spiritual consciousness. Later, the state of syncretism was followed by the separation of artistic creativity, along with other types of social consciousness, into an independent field of spiritual activity.
Folklore works anonymous. Their author is the people. Any of them is created on the basis of tradition. At one time V.G. Belinsky wrote about the specifics of a folklore work: there are no “famous names, because the author of literature is always a people. No one knows who composed his simple and naive songs, in which the internal and external life of a young people or tribe was so artlessly and vividly reflected. And he moves on a song from generation to generation, from generation to generation; and it changes over time: sometimes they shorten it, sometimes they lengthen it, sometimes they remake it, sometimes they combine it with another song, sometimes they compose another song in addition to it - and then poems come out of the songs, of which only the people can call themselves the author." 4
Academician D.S. is certainly right. Likhachev, who noted that there is no author in a folklore work not only because information about him, if he existed, has been lost, but also because he falls out of the very poetics of folklore; it is not needed from the point of view of the structure of the work. In folklore works there may be a performer, a storyteller, a storyteller, but there is no author or writer as an element of the artistic structure itself.
Traditional succession covers large historical periods - entire centuries. According to academician A.A. Potebny, folklore arises “from memorable sources, that is, it is transmitted from memory from mouth to mouth as far as memory lasts, but it has certainly passed through a significant layer of popular understanding” 5 . Each bearer of folklore creates within the boundaries of generally accepted tradition, relying on predecessors, repeating, changing, and supplementing the text of the work. In literature there is a writer and a reader, and in folklore there is a performer and a listener. “Works of folklore always bear the stamp of time and the environment in which they lived for a long time, or “existed.” For these reasons, folklore is called mass folk art. It has no individual authors, although there are many talented performers and creators who are perfect mastering generally accepted traditional techniques of saying and singing. Folklore is directly folk in content - that is, in the thoughts and feelings expressed in it. Folklore is also folk in style - that is, in the form of conveying the content. Folklore is folk in origin, in all respects and the properties of traditional figurative content and traditional stylistic forms." 6 This is the collective nature of folklore. Traditionality– the most important and basic specific property of folklore.
Any folklore work exists in large quantities options. Variant (lat. variantis - changing) - each new performance of a folklore work. Oral works had a mobile, variable nature.
A characteristic feature of a folklore work is improvisation. It is directly related to the variability of the text. Improvisation (Italian: improvvisazione - unforeseen, suddenly) - the creation of a folklore work or its parts directly in the process of performance. This feature is more characteristic of lamentations and crying. However, improvisation did not contradict tradition and was within certain artistic boundaries.
Taking into account all these signs of a folklore work, we present an extremely brief definition of folklore given by V.P. Anikin: “folklore is the traditional artistic creativity of the people. It equally applies to oral, verbal, and other visual arts, both to ancient creativity and to new ones created in modern times and created in our days.” 7
Folklore, like literature, is the art of words. This gives grounds to use literary terms: epic, lyric, drama. They are usually called childbirth. Each genus covers a group of works of a certain type. Genre– type of artistic form (fairy tale, song, proverb, etc.). This is a narrower group of works than the genus. Thus, by genus we mean a way of depicting reality, by genre - a type of artistic form. The history of folklore is the history of changes in its genres. They are more stable in folklore compared to literary ones; genre boundaries in literature are wider. New genre forms in folklore do not arise as a result of the creative activity of individuals, as in literature, but must be supported by the entire mass of participants in the collective creative process. Therefore, their change does not occur without the necessary historical grounds. At the same time, genres in folklore are not unchanged. They arise, develop and die, and are replaced by others. So, for example, epics arise in Ancient Rus', develop in the Middle Ages, and in the 19th century they are gradually forgotten and die out. As living conditions change, genres are destroyed and consigned to oblivion. But this does not indicate the decline of folk art. Changes in the genre composition of folklore are a natural consequence of the process of development of artistic collective creativity.
What is the relationship between reality and its reflection in folklore? Folklore combines a direct reflection of life with a conventional one. “Here there is no obligatory reflection of life in the form of life itself; convention is allowed.” 8 It is characterized by associativity, thinking by analogy, and symbolism.
All of the above determines only one side of the matter: this determines the social nature of folklore, but this still does not say anything about all its other features.
The above characteristics are clearly not enough to distinguish folklore as a special type of creativity, and folklore studies as a special science. But they define a number of other features, already specifically folklore in essence.
First of all, let us establish that folklore is a product of a special type of poetic creativity. But literature is also poetic creativity. Indeed, there is a very close connection between folklore and literature, between folklore studies and literary studies.
Literature and folklore, first of all, partially coincide in their poetic types and genres. There are, however, genres that are specific only to literature and impossible in folklore (for example, a novel) and, conversely, there are genres that are specific to folklore and impossible in literature (for example, a conspiracy).
Nevertheless, the very fact of the existence of genres, the possibility of classification here and there according to genres, is a fact that belongs to the field of poetics. Hence the commonality of some tasks and methods of studying literary studies and folkloristics.
One of the tasks of folkloristics is the task of isolating and studying the category of genre and each genre separately, and this task is a literary one.
One of the most important and difficult tasks of folkloristics is the study of the internal structure of works, in short, the study of composition and structure. Fairy tales, epics, riddles, songs, spells - all of this has little studied laws of addition and structure. In the field of epic genres, this includes the study of the plot, the course of action, the denouement, or, in other words, the laws of plot structure. The study shows that folklore and literary works are structured differently, that folklore has its own specific structural laws.
Literary criticism is unable to explain this specific pattern, but it can only be established using methods of literary analysis. This area also includes the study of poetic language and style. The study of the means of poetic language is a purely literary task.
Here again it turns out that folklore has means specific to it (parallelisms, repetitions, etc.) or that the usual means of poetic language (comparisons, metaphors, epithets) are filled with a completely different content than in literature. This can only be established through literary analysis.
In short, folklore has a completely special, specific poetics, different from the poetics of literary works. The study of this poetics will reveal the extraordinary artistic beauties inherent in folklore.
Thus, we see that not only is there a close connection between folklore and literature, but that folklore as such is a phenomenon of a literary order. It is one of the types of poetic creativity.
Folklore studies in the study of this side of folklore, in its descriptive elements, is a literary science. The connection between these sciences is so close that we often equate folklore and literature with the corresponding sciences; the method of studying literature is transferred entirely to the study of folklore, and that is all there is to it.
However, literary analysis can, as we see, only establish the phenomenon and pattern of folk poetics, but it is unable to explain them. To protect ourselves from such a mistake, we must establish not only the similarities between literature and folklore, their kinship and to some extent consubstantial, but also establish the specific difference between them, determine their differences.
Indeed, folklore has a number of specific features that distinguish it so much from literature that literary research methods are not enough to resolve all problems related to folklore.
One of the most important differences is that literary works always and certainly have an author. Folklore works may not have an author, and this is one of the specific features of folklore.
The question must be posed with all possible clarity and clarity. Either we recognize the existence of folk art as such, as a phenomenon of the social and cultural historical life of peoples, or we do not recognize it, we assert that it is a poetic or scientific fiction and that there is only the creativity of individual individuals or groups.
We stand on the point of view that folk art is not a fiction, but exists precisely as such, and that studying it is the main task of folkloristics as a science. In this regard, we identify ourselves with our old scientists, like F. Buslaev or O. Miller. What the old science felt instinctively, expressed naively, ineptly, and not so much scientifically as emotionally, must now be cleared of romantic errors and raised to the proper height of modern science with its thoughtful methods and precise techniques.
Brought up in the school of literary traditions, we often still cannot imagine that a poetic work could arise differently from the way a literary work arises during individual creativity. We all think that someone must have composed it or put it together first.
Meanwhile, completely different ways of the emergence of poetic works are possible, and the study of them is one of the main and very complex problems of folkloristics. It is not possible here to enter into the full breadth of this problem. It is enough to point out here that folklore should be genetically related not to literature, but to a language that was also not invented by anyone and has neither an author nor authors.
It arises and changes completely naturally and independently of the will of people, wherever appropriate conditions have been created for this in the historical development of peoples. The phenomenon of worldwide similarity does not pose a problem for us. The absence of such similarities would be inexplicable to us.
Similarity indicates a pattern, and the similarity of folklore works is only a special case of a historical pattern, leading from the same forms of production of material culture to the same or similar social institutions, to similar tools of production, and in the field of ideology - to the similarity of forms and categories of thinking, religious ideas, ritual life, languages and folklore All this lives, is interdependent, changes, grows and dies.
Returning to the question of how to empirically imagine the emergence of folklore works, here it will be enough to at least point out that folklore can initially constitute an integrating part of the ritual.
With the degeneration or fall of the ritual, folklore becomes detached from it and begins to live an independent life. This is only an illustration of the general situation. Proof can only be given through specific research. But the ritual origin of folklore was clear, for example, already to A. N. Veselovsky in the last years of his life.
The difference presented here is so fundamental that it alone forces us to distinguish folklore as a special type of creativity, and folklore studies as a special science. A literary historian, wanting to study the origins of a work, looks for its author.
V.Ya. Propp. Poetics of folklore - M., 1998
Russian folklore
Folklore, translated, means “folk wisdom, folk knowledge.” Folklore is folk art, artistic collective activity of the people, reflecting their life, views and ideals, i.e. folklore is the folk historical cultural heritage of any country in the world.
Works of Russian folklore (fairy tales, legends, epics, songs, ditties, dances, tales, applied art) help to recreate the characteristic features of the folk life of their time.
Creativity in ancient times was closely connected with human labor activity and reflected mythical, historical ideas, as well as the beginnings of scientific knowledge. The art of words was closely connected with other types of art - music, dance, decorative art. In science this is called "syncretism".
Folklore was an art organically inherent in folk life. The different purposes of the works gave rise to genres, with their various themes, images, and styles. In the ancient period, most peoples had tribal traditions, work and ritual songs, mythological stories, and conspiracies. The decisive event that paved the line between mythology and folklore itself was the appearance of fairy tales, the plots of which were based on dreams, wisdom, and ethical fiction.
In ancient and medieval society, a heroic epic took shape (Irish sagas, Russian epics and others). Legends and songs also arose reflecting various beliefs (for example, Russian spiritual poems). Later, historical songs appeared, depicting real historical events and heroes, as they remained in people's memory.
Genres in folklore also differ in the method of performance (solo, choir, choir and soloist) and different combinations of text with melody, intonation, movements (singing and dancing, storytelling and acting).
With changes in the social life of society, new genres arose in Russian folklore: soldiers', coachmen's, barge haulers' songs. The growth of industry and cities brought to life: romances, jokes, workers', and student folklore.
Now there are no new Russian folk tales appearing, but the old ones are still told and cartoons and feature films are made based on them. Many old songs are also sung. But epics and historical songs are practically no longer heard live.
For thousands of years, folklore was the only form of creativity among all peoples. The folklore of every nation is unique, just like its history, customs, and culture. And some genres (not just historical songs) reflect the history of a given people.
Russian folk musical culture
There are several points of view that interpret folklore as folk artistic culture, as oral poetry and as a set of verbal, musical, gaming or artistic types of folk art. With all the diversity of regional and local forms, folklore has common features, such as anonymity, collective creativity, traditionalism, close connection with work, everyday life, and the transmission of works from generation to generation in the oral tradition.
Folk musical art originated long before the emergence of professional music in the Orthodox church. In the social life of ancient Rus', folklore played a much greater role than in subsequent times. Unlike medieval Europe, Ancient Rus' did not have secular professional art. In its musical culture, folk art of the oral tradition developed, including various, including “semi-professional” genres (the art of storytellers, guslars, etc.).
By the time of Orthodox hymnography, Russian folklore already had a long history, an established system of genres and means of musical expression. Folk music and folk art have become firmly established in people's everyday lives, reflecting the most diverse facets of social, family and personal life.
Researchers believe that in the pre-state period (that is, before Ancient Rus' took shape), the Eastern Slavs already had a fairly developed calendar and family folklore, heroic epic and instrumental music.
With the adoption of Christianity, pagan (Vedic) knowledge began to be eradicated. The meaning of magical acts that gave rise to this or that type of folk activity was gradually forgotten. However, the purely external forms of ancient holidays turned out to be unusually stable, and some ritual folklore continued to live as if out of connection with the ancient paganism that gave birth to it.
The Christian Church (not only in Rus', but also in Europe) had a very negative attitude towards traditional folk songs and dances, considering them a manifestation of sinfulness and devilish seduction. This assessment is recorded in many chronicles and in canonical church decrees.
Lively, cheerful folk festivals with elements of theatrical performance and with the indispensable participation of music, the origins of which should be sought in ancient Vedic rituals, were fundamentally different from temple holidays.
The most extensive area of folk musical creativity of Ancient Rus' is ritual folklore, testifying to the high artistic talent of the Russian people. He was born in the depths of the Vedic picture of the world, the deification of natural elements. Calendar-ritual songs are considered the most ancient. Their content is associated with ideas about the cycle of nature and the agricultural calendar. These songs reflect the different stages of life of the farmers. They were part of winter, spring, and summer rituals that correspond to turning points in the change of seasons. By performing this natural ritual (songs, dances), people believed that the mighty gods, the forces of Love, Family, Sun, Water, Mother Earth would hear them and healthy children would be born, a good harvest would be born, there would be offspring of livestock, life in love would develop and harmony.
In Rus', weddings have been played since ancient times. Each locality had its own custom of wedding actions, lamentations, songs, and sentences. But with all the endless variety, weddings were played according to the same laws. Poetic wedding reality transforms what is happening into a fantastic fairy-tale world. Just as in a fairy tale all the images are varied, so the ritual itself, poetically interpreted, appears as a kind of fairy tale. A wedding, being one of the most significant events of human life in Rus', required a festive and solemn frame. And if you feel all the rituals and songs, delving into this fantastic wedding world, you can feel the aching beauty of this ritual. What will remain behind the scenes are the colorful clothes, the wedding train rattling with bells, the polyphonic choir of “singers” and the mournful melodies of lamentations, the sounds of waxwings and buzzers, accordions and balalaikas - but the poetry of the wedding itself resurrects - the pain of leaving the parental home and the high joy of the festive state of mind - Love.
One of the most ancient Russian genres is round dance songs. In Rus', round dances were held throughout almost the entire year - on Kolovorot (New Year), Maslenitsa (farewell to winter and welcoming spring), Green Week (round dances of girls around birches), Yarilo (sacred bonfires), Ovsen (harvest festivals). Round dances-games and round dances-processions were common. Initially, round dance songs were part of agricultural rituals, but over the centuries they became independent, although images of labor were preserved in many of them:
And we sowed and sowed millet!
Oh, Did Lado, they sowed, they sowed!
Dance songs that have survived to this day accompanied men's and women's dances. Men's - personified strength, courage, courage, women's - tenderness, love, stateliness.
Over the centuries, the musical epic begins to be replenished with new themes and images. Epic epics are born telling about the struggle against the Horde, about travel to distant countries, about the emergence of the Cossacks, and popular uprisings.
People's memory has long preserved many beautiful ancient songs over the centuries. In the 18th century, during the period of the formation of professional secular genres (opera, instrumental music), folk art for the first time became the subject of study and creative implementation. The educational attitude towards folklore was vividly expressed by the remarkable writer, humanist A.N. Radishchev, in the heartfelt lines of his “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”: “Whoever knows the voices of Russian folk songs admits that there is something in them that means spiritual pain... In in them you will find the formation of the soul of our people.” In the 19th century, the assessment of folklore as the “education of the soul” of the Russian people became the basis of the aesthetics of the school of composers from Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, to Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Kalinikov, and folk song itself was one of the sources of the formation of Russian national thinking.
Russian folk songs of the 16th-19th centuries - “like the golden mirror of the Russian people”
Folk songs recorded in various parts of Russia are a historical monument to the life of the people, but also a documentary source that captures the development of folk creative thought of their time.
The fight against the Tatars, peasant riots - all this left an imprint on folk song traditions in each specific area, starting with epics, historical songs and ballads. Like, for example, the ballad about Ilya Muromets, which is associated with the Nightingale River, which flows in the area of Yazykovo, there was a struggle between Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber, who lived in these parts.
It is known that the conquest of the Kazan Khanate by Ivan the Terrible played a role in the development of oral folk art; Ivan the Terrible’s campaigns marked the beginning of the final victory over the Tatar-Mongol yoke, which freed many thousands of Russian prisoners from captivity. The songs of this time became the prototype for Lermontov’s epic “Song about Ivan Tsarevich” - a chronicle of people’s life, and A.S. Pushkin used oral folk art in his works - Russian songs and Russian fairy tales.
On the Volga, not far from the village of Undory, there is a cape called Stenka Razin; songs of that time were sung there: “On the steppe, Saratov steppe”, “We had it in holy Rus'”. Historical events of the late XVII - early XVIII centuries. captured in the compilation about the campaigns of Peter I and his Azov campaigns, about the execution of the archers: “It’s like walking along the blue sea,” “A young Cossack is walking along the Don.”
With the military reforms of the early 18th century, new historical songs appeared, these were no longer lyrical, but epic. Historical songs preserve the most ancient images of the historical epic, songs about the Russian-Turkish War, about recruitment and the war with Napoleon: “The French thief boasted of taking Russia,” “Don’t make noise, you green oak mother.”
At this time, epics about “Surovets Suzdalets”, about “Dobrynya and Alyosha” and a very rare fairy tale by Gorshen were preserved. Also in the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Nekrasov, Russian epic folk songs and tales were used. The ancient traditions of folk games, mummery and the special performing culture of Russian folklore have been preserved.
Russian folk theater art
Russian folk drama and folk theater art in general are the most interesting and significant phenomenon of Russian national culture.
Dramatic games and performances at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 20th centuries formed an organic part of festive folk life, be it village gatherings, soldier and factory barracks, or fair booths.
The geography of distribution of folk drama is extensive. Collectors of our days have discovered unique theatrical “hearths” in the Yaroslavl and Gorky regions, Russian villages of Tataria, on Vyatka and Kama, in Siberia and the Urals.
Folk drama, contrary to the opinion of some scientists, is a natural product of folklore tradition. It compressed the creative experience accumulated by dozens of generations of the broadest strata of the Russian people.
At city and later rural fairs, carousels and booths were set up, on the stage of which performances on fairy-tale and national historical themes were performed. The performances seen at the fairs could not completely influence the aesthetic tastes of the people, but they expanded their fairy tale and song repertoire. Popular and theatrical borrowings largely determined the originality of the plots of folk drama. However, they “lay down” on the ancient gaming traditions of folk games, dressing up, i.e. on the special performing culture of Russian folklore.
Generations of creators and performers of folk dramas have developed certain techniques for plotting plots, characterizations, and style. Developed folk dramas are characterized by strong passions and insoluble conflicts, continuity and speed of successive actions.
A special role in folk drama is played by songs performed by the heroes at different moments or sounded in chorus - as comments on ongoing events. The songs were a kind of emotional and psychological element of the performance. They were performed mostly in fragments, revealing the emotional meaning of the scene or the state of the character. Songs were required at the beginning and end of the performance. The song repertoire of folk dramas consists mainly of original songs from the 19th and early 20th centuries, popular in all strata of society. These are the soldiers’ songs “The White Russian Tsar Went,” “Malbruk Left on a Campaign,” “Praise, Praise to You, Hero,” and the romances “I walked in the meadows in the evening,” “I’m heading off into the desert,” “What’s clouded, the clear dawn " and many others.
Late genres of Russian folk art - festivities
The heyday of the festivities occurred in the 17th-19th centuries, although certain types and genres of folk art, which were an indispensable part of the fair and city festive square, were created and actively existed long before these centuries and continue, often in a transformed form, to exist to this day. This is the puppet theater, bear fun, partly the jokes of traders, many circus acts. Other genres were born out of the fairgrounds and died out when the festivities ended. These are comic monologues of booth barkers, barkers, performances of booth theaters, dialogues of parsley clowns.
Usually, during celebrations and fairs, entire entertainment towns with booths, carousels, swings, and tents were erected in traditional places, selling everything from popular prints to songbirds and sweets. In winter, ice mountains were added, access to which was completely free, and sledding from a height of 10-12 m brought incomparable pleasure.
With all the diversity and diversity, the city's folk festival was perceived as something integral. This integrity was created by the specific atmosphere of the festive square, with its free speech, familiarity, unbridled laughter, food and drinks; equality, fun, festive perception of the world.
The festive square itself amazed with its incredible combination of all kinds of details. Accordingly, outwardly it was a colorful, loud chaos. Bright, motley clothes of walkers, catchy, unusual costumes of “artists”, flashy signs of booths, swings, carousels, shops and taverns, handicrafts shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow and the simultaneous sound of barrel organs, pipes, flutes, drums, exclamations, songs, cries of merchants , loud laughter from the jokes of “boothy grandfathers” and clowns - everything merged into a single fair fireworks display, which fascinated and amused.
The large, well-known festivities “under the mountains” and “under the swings” attracted many guest performers from Europe (many of them owners of booths, panoramas) and even southern countries (magicians, animal tamers, strongmen, acrobats and others). Foreign speech and overseas curiosities were commonplace at metropolitan festivities and large fairs. It is clear why the city’s spectacular folklore often appeared as a kind of mixture of “Nizhny Novgorod and French.”
The basis, heart and soul of Russian national culture is Russian folklore, this is the treasure, this is what has filled Russian people from the inside since ancient times, and this internal Russian folk culture ultimately gave birth to a whole galaxy of great Russian writers, composers, artists, scientists in the 17th-19th centuries , military men, philosophers, whom the whole world knows and respects:
Zhukovsky V.A., Ryleev K.F., Tyutchev F.I., Pushkin A.S., Lermontov M.Yu., Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E., Bulgakov M.A., Tolstoy L.N., Turgenev I.S., Fonvizin D.I., Chekhov A.P., Gogol N.V., Goncharov I.A., Bunin I.A., Griboedov A.S., Karamzin N.M., Dostoevsky F. M., Kuprin A.I., Glinka M.I., Glazunov A.K., Mussorgsky M.P., Rimsky-Korsakov N.A., Tchaikovsky P.I., Borodin A.P., Balakirev M. A.A., Rachmaninov S.V., Stravinsky I.F., Prokofiev S.S., Kramskoy I.N., Vereshchagin V.V., Surikov V.I., Polenov V.D., Serov V.A. ., Aivazovsky I.K., Shishkin I.I., Vasnetsov V.N., Repin I.E., Roerich N.K., Vernadsky V.I., Lomonosov M.V., Sklifosovsky N.V., Mendeleev D.I., Sechenov I.M., Pavlov I.P., Tsiolkovsky K.E., Popov A.S., Bagration P.R., Nakhimov P.S., Suvorov A.V., Kutuzov M. I., Ushakov F.F., Kolchak A.V., Solovyov V.S., Berdyaev N.A., Chernyshevsky N.G., Dobrolyubov N.A., Pisarev D.I., Chaadaev P.E. ., there are thousands of them, which, one way or another, the whole earthly world knows. These are world pillars that grew up on Russian folk culture.
But in 1917, a second attempt was made in Russia to break the connection of times, to interrupt the Russian cultural heritage of ancient generations. The first attempt was made back in the years of the baptism of Rus'. But it was not a complete success, since the power of Russian folklore was based on the life of the people, on their Vedic natural worldview. But already somewhere in the sixties of the twentieth century, Russian folklore began to be gradually replaced by the popular pop genres of pop, disco and, as they say now, chanson (prison-thieve folklore) and other types of Soviet-style arts. But a special blow was dealt in the 90s. The word “Russian” was secretly forbidden even to be uttered, supposedly this word meant inciting national hatred. This situation continues to this day.
And there was no longer a single Russian people, they scattered them, they made them drunk, and they began to destroy them at the genetic level. Now in Rus' there is a non-Russian spirit of Uzbeks, Tajiks, Chechens and all other inhabitants of Asia and the Middle East, and in the Far East there are Chinese, Koreans, etc., and active, global Ukrainization of Russia is taking place everywhere.
Folklore is the basis on which individual creativity develops. Outstanding figures in various fields of art of the past and present were clearly aware of the importance of folklore. M.I. Glinka said: “We do not create, it is the people who create; we just record and arrange” \ A. S. Pushkin back in the early 19th century. wrote: “The study of ancient songs, fairy tales, etc. is necessary for perfect knowledge of the properties of the Russian language. Our critics have no reason to despise them.” Addressing writers, he pointed out: “Read folk tales, young writers, to see the properties of the Russian language.”
The legacy of turning to folk art has been and is being followed by the creators of classical and modern literature, music, and fine arts. There is not a single prominent writer, artist, composer who would not turn to the springs of folk art, because they reflect the life of the people. The list of musical works that creatively develop the art of the people is enormous. Operas such as “Sadko”, “Kashchei” and others were created based on folk stories. Images and stories of folk art were included in the fine arts. Paintings by Vasnetsov “Bogatyrs”, “Alyonushka”, Vrubel “Mikula”, “Ilya Muromets”, Repin “Sadko”, etc. were included in the treasury of world art. A. M. Gorky pointed out that the basis of generalizations created by an individual genius is the creativity of the people: “Zeus was created by the people, Phidias embodied him in marble.” It is argued here that the art of a writer, artist, or sculptor only reaches its peak when it arises as an expression of the ideas, feelings, and views of the people. Gorky did not belittle the role of the individual artist, but emphasized that his strength of talent and skill give special expressiveness and perfection to the form of creating collective creativity of the masses.
The connection between literature and folklore is not limited to the use by writers of the content and form of individual works of folk art. This connection expresses an incomparably broader and more general phenomenon: the organic unity of the artist with the people, and of art with the creative people's experience.
Consequently, both individual and collective creativity only acquire enormous ideological and aesthetic significance in the life of society when they are connected with the life of the people and truthfully and artistically reflect it completely. But it is necessary to take into account that, firstly, the nature and correlation of collective and individual creativity at different stages of the development of human society are different and, secondly, the fact that collective and individual creativity are unique historically emerged ways of creating a work of art.
A. M. Gorky rightly said that the collective creativity of the masses was the mother’s womb for individual creativity, that the beginning of the art of words and literature was in folklore. In the early periods of history, the closeness of literature and folk art was so great that it was impossible to clearly distinguish between them. “The Iliad” and “Odyssey” are rightfully considered works of ancient literature and, at the same time, the most beautiful creations of collective folk art, dating back to the “infancy period of human society.” The same lack of differentiation between individual and collective creativity is noted in a number of works by many peoples.
In the initial period of its existence, literature had not yet completely separated from collective folk art. With the development of class society, the division of individual and collective creativity gradually deepens. But, of course, the very concepts of collective and individual creativity cannot be interpreted abstractly, equally and unchangeably for all times and peoples. Individual and collective art have features determined by historical reality.
In pre-class society, collective creativity was an artistic and figurative reflection of the reality of that time, a generalization of the views and ideas of a tribe, a primitive community from which an individual had not yet emerged. In conditions when the tribe remained the border of a person both in relation to a stranger from another tribe, and in relation to himself, when an individual was unconditionally subordinated in his feelings, thoughts and actions to the tribe, the clan\collective creativity was the only possible form of artistic activity of individual individualities. The participation of the entire mass of the tribe in generalizing life experience, the common desire to understand and change reality were the basis of the pre-class epic, which has come down to us mainly in later revisions. An example of such epic tales, which originated in the conditions of a pre-class society, can be at least the Kalevala runes, Yakut oloikho, Georgian and Ossetian tales about Amiran, North Caucasian and Abkhaz tales about the Narts, etc.
In pre-class society, the collectivity of creativity not only merged with individuality, but subordinated it. Here even the most outstanding personality was perceived as the embodiment of the strength and experience of the entire tribe; This is how the image of the masses of the people through the image of a hero, characteristic of the epic and early literary creativity, was born (Weinemeinen, Prometheus, Balder, and later Russian heroes and other images of heroic legends).
The development of class relations could not but change collective creativity. With the advent of class society, the ideology of antagonistic classes is clearly reflected in different interpretations of images, plots of legends and songs. Examples from the epic of the peoples of the USSR confirm this. Discussion of the ideological essence of the Kyrgyz legends about Manas, the Buryat and Mongolian epic “Geser”, discussions on the problems of the epic revealed the facts of anti-national distortions by feudal circles of the creativity of the working masses.
There is a constant interaction between literature and folklore. Folklore and literature, collective and individual artistic creativity accompany each other in a class society. Thus, Russian folk art of the 11th-17th centuries. had a huge impact on the works of ancient Russian literature, as eloquently evidenced by “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia”, “Zadonshchina”. At the same time, images of fiction increasingly entered the everyday life of oral poetic creativity. Subsequently, this process became even more intense. Lermontov, Gogol, JI. Tolstoy, Nekrasov, Gorky believed that folklore enriches the individual creativity of a professional artist. At the same time, all the outstanding masters of Russian literature emphasized that a writer should not copy folklore and should not take the path of stylization. A true artist boldly invades the oral and poetic creativity of the people, selects the best in it and creatively develops it. To be convinced of this, it is enough to recall the fairy tales of A.S. Pushkin. “He decorated folk songs and fairy tales with the brilliance of his talent, but left their meaning and power unchanged,” wrote A. M. Gorky
The interaction between folklore and literature takes place in different forms. For example, a professional artist often uses and enriches themes, plots, and images of folklore, but he can use folklore without directly reproducing its plots and images. A true artist never confines himself to reproducing the form of folklore works, but enriches and develops the traditions of oral poetic creativity, revealing the life of the people, their thoughts, feelings and aspirations. It is known that the best, most progressive representatives of the ruling classes, exposing social injustice and truthfully depicting life, rose above class limitations and created works that met the interests and needs of the people.
The living connection between literature and folklore is confirmed by the work of the best writers of all nations. But no matter how tangible the connection between the works of writers and folk poetry is in the conditions of a class society, collective and individual creativity are always distinguished by the method of creating works of art.
In class society, differences have developed in the creative process of creating works of literature and mass folk poetry. They consist primarily in the following: a literary work is created by a writer - it makes no difference whether he is a writer by profession or not - individually or in collaboration with another writer; While the writer is working on it, the work is not the property of the masses; the masses become familiar with it only after it receives the final edition, enshrined in the letter. This means that in literature the process of creating the canonical text of a work is separated from the direct creative activity of the masses and is associated with it only genetically.
Works of collective folk art are a different matter; here the personal and collective principles are united in the creative process so closely that individual creative individuals dissolve in the collective. Works of folk art do not have a final edition. Each performer of a work creates, develops, polishes the text, acts as a co-author of a song, a legend that belongs to the people.
