In the book by N.P. Kolpakova “Russian folk everyday song”, among others, “game” and “lyrical” are named. The term “everyday” is unfortunate because it inspires the idea that, in addition to everyday songs, there are some other, non-everyday songs. The term “household” should be completely removed from scientific use as too broad and therefore not having any specific meaning. All songs are decidedly everyday songs, either because they live and are used in everyday life, or because they directly or indirectly reflect the life of the Russian village.

Carols can just as much be called everyday songs as soldiers' marching songs or lullabies; the only difference is which aspects of Russian life are directly or indirectly reflected in it. There are no songs outside of everyday life.

The division into “game”, on the one hand, and “lyrical”, on the other, is incorrect because lyricism is a broad concept, which includes the most different kinds non-epic folk songs. This distribution is based on a narrow understanding of “lyrics” as an expression of deeply personal and intimate feelings. For folklore, such an understanding of “lyrics” is inapplicable.

Lyrics, along with epic and grammar, is a type of poetic creativity that expresses not only personal feelings of sadness, love, etc., but popular feelings of joy, sorrow, anger, indignation, and expresses it in a wide variety of forms. These forms constitute genres, while “lyrics” are not a genre. “Game” songs are one of the private forms of song performance; contrasting the concepts of “lyrical” and “game” songs and asserting their incompatibility is as wrong as talking about the incompatibility of the concepts of tree and birch.

The inability to distinguish genus and species, as well as to apply broader and narrower categories of classification, is generally very common. We can say that this method of distribution prevails in our country. The material is divided into categories without further subdivisions or ramifications, and phenomena of a very broad and very narrow nature fall into one row. The result is an enumeration without any divisions, without branches. Meanwhile, many errors could be avoided by using some signs for categories, others for subcategories, instead of combining them in one row, where they do not exclude each other.

It is quite obvious that as long as there are such erroneous ideas about the composition of Russian folklore, about the categories of this composition and about their relationships, the question of the genres of Russian song cannot be resolved.

How to get out of difficulties? We proceed from two theoretical premises. The first is that in folklore, with the unity or cohesion of content and form, the content is primary; it creates its own form, and not vice versa. This position remains true regardless of philosophical debates about what is meant by form and what by content.

The second premise is that different social groups create different, not identical songs. Both of these premises are closely related. We believe that peasants, farm laborers, soldiers, workers will create songs with different content and that, due to this difference in content, their form will be different. This means that the division by social sign will not contradict the division on the basis of poetics. On the contrary, such a division will make it possible to introduce some system into the motley and varied world of song.

Without prejudging the question of what is called a genre in the field of lyric poetry and what is not, we will try to divide songs based on social affiliation. From this point of view, three large groups can be distinguished:

1. songs of peasants doing agricultural work;
2. songs of peasants separated from agricultural labor;
3. workers' songs.

Let us first dwell on the songs of the peasants themselves.

The traditional division of peasant lyrics into ritual and non-ritual is logically and factually correct. It is also correct to divide ritual lyrics into calendar and family ritual lyrics.

The word “calendar songs” when applied to the lyrics is not entirely appropriate. These are the songs of the big ones national holidays, which had a pronounced agricultural character. Therefore, it would be more correct to call the totality of these songs agricultural ritual lyrics.

Songs of this type are easily and naturally divided according to the holidays during which they were performed. At Christmas time, carols were sung - songs that glorified the owners and promised them a rich harvest, multiplication of livestock, health and prosperity. In gratitude for these promises (which were once credited with magical powers), the owners gave gifts to the carolers. Under New Year they sang underwater songs. These songs accompanied fortune telling, which consisted of placing several rings in a dish of water, and then short songs were sung, promising marriage, separation, death, travel, etc. During the songs, the rings were taken out, and the one to whom the ring belonged took a song to yourself.

Continuing the review, we can name Maslenitsa songs. Their number is very small and they are poorly preserved. These are funny songs about meeting and seeing off Maslenitsa. On Yegoryev Day in central Russia, for the first time after winter, cattle were driven out to pasture. On this occasion, special songs were sung, Yegoryev’s songs, the content of which was reduced to spells or conspiracies to protect livestock from wolves, deaths and lack of food. During the vernal equinox, the welcoming of spring was celebrated. On the day of this holiday, larks or waders were baked and given to children. Children tied them to twigs or trees, which was supposed to represent the arrival of birds, and sang special songs called stoneflies.

These songs called for spring and praised it. The birds seemed to bring spring on their wings. The seventh Thursday after Easter was called Semik. On this day, they decorated the birch tree, danced under it and sang songs in praise of the birch tree. The girls worshiped each other, and songs were also sung about this. These songs are usually called Semitic songs. In these songs, ritual motifs are intertwined with love ones. We know that special Kupala songs were sung during the summer solstice - on the day of Ivan Kupala, but the Russians did not preserve such songs. Finally, during the harvest, stubble songs were sung in this manner.

They sang about the imminent completion of work and about the treat that awaits the reapers. Such songs were accompanied by glorification of the owner, in whose field the reapers helped to reap. We could highlight carols, sub-bread songs, Maslenitsa songs, vesnyankas, Yegoryevsk songs, Semitic songs, stubble songs. All of them belong to the field of ritual agricultural lyrics, but have different content and different shapes, are performed in different ways, at different times and differ in their tunes.

Each of these types constitutes a genre, that is, it has a common poetic system and is performed at the same times, in the same forms, by the same musical style. A more detailed division of them is possible. So, for example, it is possible to establish different types of carols, sub-bowl songs, stoneflies, but these types do not represent new genres.

Another large area of ​​ritual poetry is family ritual songs. These include funeral and wedding songs.

Funeral cries, or lamentations, or, as they are sometimes called popularly, screams, accompany all moments of the funeral rite: the dressing of the deceased, farewell before being taken out, immersion in the ground, the moment of relatives returning home to an empty hut. Each of these moments can be accompanied by songs that are specific in their content, but they can also be mixed.

The metrical structure of laments differs from the metrical structure of all other types of folk lyrics. In the classical form of laments, the meter is trochaic with a dactylic ending, the lines are long, covering from four to seven feet for different performers. Each line is syntactically complete, after each line there is a long pause, during which the singer sobs and sobs.

Wedding poetry also mainly consists of laments. The bride laments, or, if she does not know how to do this, the mourner. The main moments of the wedding ceremony, such as the conspiracy, bachelorette party, wedding day and others, are each accompanied by their own lamentations. The bride asked not to give her away in marriage, to postpone the wedding day, she is afraid of life in a new house, where hard work and unkind treatment await her.

All this shows that wedding laments represent a completely different genre than funeral laments. The bride sang sad songs, while the rest of the youth sang happy songs. This includes wedding songs for the newlyweds, their parents and guests of honor. On the contrary, mocking songs were sung towards the groomsmen, matchmakers and matchmakers; to get rid of such ridicule, it was necessary to pay off with money. The friend also created fun. But he did not sing, but performed various sentences, the content of which was greetings. These greetings may be accompanied by ridicule directed at girls, children, or, for example, grumpy old women who are offered to be shoved onto the stove, etc.

Friend's sentences are not songs. They are performed in rhymed prose, interspersed with all sorts of witticisms and jokes. Thus, the lamentations of the bride, majestic wedding songs and sentences of the groomsmen and songs of ridicule constitute the main genres of wedding poetry.

We move on to consider non-ritual lyrics - the richest type of folk song creativity. Having touched on ritual lamentations, we must resolve the issue of non-ritual lamentations. We mean those lamentations or laments that are performed over various misfortunes and disasters with which peasant life was so rich. Do these laments belong to the same genre as funeral laments or not?

One of these disasters is the transfer of a guy to a recruit, and subsequently the conscription of recruits into the army. This moment was accompanied by lamentations or cries, which are commonly called recruiting lamentations. But cries and lamentations could be accompanied by any other sad moment in the life of a peasant: a fire, sending a patient to the hospital; on various occasions, farm laborers and orphans lamented about their lot; they cried as they reminisced about their past.

During the Great Patriotic War women lamented when they received news of the death of their husband, son, brother. Refugees cried when returning home, seeing their homes destroyed. It is generally accepted to combine all types of lamentations into one genre, distinguishing three main types: funeral, recruitment and wedding. We saw above that the bride’s wedding lamentations constitute a completely special genre.

There are more grounds for combining the laments of recruits and others with funeral laments. Indeed, the verse in both cases is sometimes completely the same, especially in the mouths of the same performers. Thus, the famous Irina Fedosova performed funeral and recruitment lamentations in exactly the same way. The difference here seems to concern only the subject matter, and this does not yet give grounds to talk about different genres.

From our point of view, the similarity of the metric system does not yet provide grounds for unification into one genre. Funeral laments are ritual poetry, with its roots going back to pagan times. The composition of ritual laments is determined by the course of the ritual, and therefore it is uniform, but the composition of non-ritual laments is as diverse as life itself is diverse. The world of ideas, images and vocabulary are also deeply different. They also differ in their everyday use, and this, as we have seen, is one of the signs of the genre.

We come to the conclusion that in the field of lamentations there are three genres: two ritual ones - weddings and funerals, and one non-ritual one, which includes recruitment lamentations and others associated with wartime disasters, as well as laments associated with various misfortunes of the old peasant life.

V.Ya. Propp. Poetics of folklore - M., 1998

Each exam question may have multiple answers from different authors. The answer may contain text, formulas, pictures. The author of the exam or the author of the answer to the exam can delete or edit a question.

Folklore is a type of collective verbal activity that is carried out primarily orally. The main categories of folklore are collectivity, traditionality, formulaicity, variability, the presence of a performer, and syncretism. Folklore is divided into two groups - ritual and non-ritual. TO ritual folklore include: calendar folklore (carols, Maslenitsa songs, spring flowers), family folklore (family stories, lullabies, wedding songs, lamentations), occasional folklore (spells, chants, counting rhymes). Non-ritual folklore is divided into four groups: folklore drama, poetry, prose and folklore of speech situations. Folklore drama includes: the Parsley Theater, nativity scene drama, and religious drama. Folklore poetry includes: epic, historical song, spiritual verse, lyrical song, ballad, cruel romance, ditty, children's poetic songs (poetic parodies), sadistic rhymes. Folklore prose is again divided into two groups: fairy-tale and non-fairytale. Fairy-tale prose includes: a fairy tale (which, in turn, comes in four types: a fairy tale, a fairy tale about animals, an everyday tale, a cumulative fairy tale) and an anecdote. Non-fairy tale prose includes: tradition, legend, tale, mythological story, story about a dream. The folklore of speech situations includes: proverbs, sayings, well-wishes, curses, nicknames, teasers, riddles, quick-talks and some others.

An anecdote is one of the genres of folklore: a short oral story with a witty and unexpected ending. Jokes can rightfully be called the favorite genre of our time. In Slavic folklore, a favorite character was a man playing pranks on fellow villagers.

A tale is a traditionally male oral story of a playful nature, pretending to be verisimilitude; refers to small folklore forms. Popular bikes include hunting, fishing, sea, miner, theater and driver's bikes.

Ballad (ballad song, ballad verse) is one of the genres of Russian folklore, which arose from a folk song with tragic content. The most important characteristics of ballad songs are epicness, family and everyday themes, and psychological drama. Ballad songs are characterized by a predicted fatal outcome, recognition of the tragic, and single-conflict. As a rule, they feature antagonistic characters: the destroyer and the victim. Ballads have many features that bring them closer to other song genres, rich in fantastic and magical motifs common to folk epic. The term “ballad” is relatively new in folklore. Proposed by P.V. Kireevsky in the 19th century, it took root only a century later. The people themselves, performing ballad songs, did not distinguish them from others. An example of a classic ballad is the lyric-epic song “Vasily and Sofia.” The entire content is an eternal plot about lovers, whose mutual feeling is so strong that it conquers death. The lovers are destroyed by Vasily’s jealous and evil mother. The plots of many ballad songs are based on the relationship between a girl and a good fellow (“Dmitry and Domna”, “The Girl Poisoned the Young Man”).

An epic is a work of a song nature, a song-poem. It is characterized by greatness of content, grandeur, monumentality of images, and heroic pathos. The real-historical basis of epics is Rus' of the X-XI centuries. About a hundred epic stories are known. Russian and Western European epics have common plots (epic heroes fight enemies and foreigners), but in Russian epics there is no idea of ​​religious wars; Neither loyalty to the leader nor bloody revenge become the defining themes of the Russian epic. In Russian epic traditions - liberation, protection, glorification of the Russian land and its people. The discovery of the Russian epic took place relatively recently, after the publication in 1804 of Kirsha Danilov’s collections, including 60 folklore works. Subsequently, the collection of epics was supplemented by the finds of P.N. Rybnikov and A.F. Hilferding. A rare fusion of wisdom and ethics distinguishes Russian epic. Each epic, in addition to the main idea of ​​honest service to the Fatherland, contains reflections on the painful moral and psychological quest of the main characters. So, Ilya Muromets finds himself in a situation of difficult choice: marry or die.

Bylichka (byvalshchina) is a mythological story based on events that supposedly took place in real life. The reliability and factual nature of these stories is confirmed by specific names; exact geographical names of the place of action. The world of fairy tales is simple and well known. The main difference between a fairy tale and a tale lies in the attitude of the listeners and the narrator to the story being told. If they listen to a fairy tale, realizing that it is fiction, then they listen to a fairy tale as if it were true.

Children's folklore is a generalized name for small genres composed and performed both by children themselves and for them. Genres of children's folklore include songs and poems that accompany the life of a child from the cradle to adolescence: toss-ups, chants, teasers, lullabies, dog songs, sayings, nursery rhymes, counting rhymes.

A boring fairy tale (from bother - to bother) is a specific genre of folklore narratives, endless fairy tales in which the same cycle of events takes place. They are often presented in poetic form

Spiritual poems are songs of religious content that arose as poetic adaptations by the people of the fundamentals Christian doctrine. Folk names spiritual verses: antiquities, psalms, poems. A characteristic feature of spiritual poems is the opposition of the religious to the worldly. One of the oldest spiritual poems, “Adam’s Lament,” was known already in the 12th century. The mass dissemination of spiritual poems began around the 15th century.

The harvest song is a type of autumn songs of calendar-ritual poetry. Autumn ritual poetry has not received the same development as summer poetry, glorifying nimble women - “winch daughters”, “quail daughters-in-law”, who went out early to the fields and harvested the harvest, “so that there would be something to make good jigs from.”

A riddle is a type of oral folk art, an intricate, allegorical description of an object or phenomenon, offered as a test of intelligence or an exercise (for children) to develop logical thinking. The riddle belongs to those ancient types of folk art that, continuing to live through the centuries, gradually lose their original meaning and become a qualitatively different phenomenon. Having arisen on the basis of the secret language of the clan, the riddle was once used in military and ambassadorial negotiations, expressed the prohibitions of family life, and served as a poetic means of transmitting wisdom.

A conspiracy is a linguistic formula that, according to popular belief, has miraculous powers. In ancient times, conspiracies were widely used in medical practice (treatment with words, prayer). They were credited with the ability to induce the desired state of a person (induce sound sleep, tame the anger of an angry mother, keep someone going to war unharmed, develop sympathy for someone, something, etc.) or the power of action. birth: “grow, turnip, sweet, grow, turnip, strong” to get a good harvest.

Calendar-ritual songs (Carols, Podblyudnye songs, Maslenitsa songs, Vesnyanka, Trinity-Semitic songs, Round dances, Kupala, Zhniv-nye) - songs, the performance of which was timed to strictly defined calendar dates. The most significant rituals and songs are associated with various states of nature summer period, which began with the solstice (Peter-turn) on June 12 (25). Calendar-ritual poetry contains valuable ethnographic and historical information: a description of peasant life, morals, customs, observations of nature, and even elements of worldview.

A legend is one of the genres of folklore, telling about the miraculous and fantastic, which determines its structure and system of images. One of the ways a legend arises is the transformation of legend. Often called legends oral histories about historical persons or events to which absolute authenticity is attributed (legends about the founding of Kyiv). In these cases, the word “legend” can be replaced by the word “tradition”. The narrator, presenting facts, supplements them with those created by his own imagination or connects them with fictitious motives known to him. At the same time, the real basis often fades into the background. By topic, legends are divided into historical (about Stepan Razin), religious (about Jesus Christ and his apostles, about saints, about the machinations of the devil), toponymic (about Baikal), demonological (about the Snake, evil spirits, devils, etc. .), everyday (about sinners).

Small genres - a name that unites a group of Russian folklore genres of different nature and origin, extremely small in size (sometimes in two words: Phil the simpleton), which is what their main value. This includes jokes, riddles, proverbs and anecdotes. Small genres not only decorate and enliven other texts, they are very well adapted to independent life. Unlike the epic epic, small genres are not forgotten, they are as relevant as thousands of years ago.

Fables are works of comic poetry, small songs built on the principle of stringing together completely absurd events: Thunder rolled across the sky: A mosquito fell from a tree. It is fables that clearly demonstrate the other, scary side of the funny. A chain of distorted events, which seem funny at first, gradually creates a single picture of a “shifted”, “inverted” world. Fables are no less philosophical than epics. They, like the global metaphor of laughter, are also a way of understanding life: in clear simplicity they show us the universal connection of opposite, “wrong side” phenomena of reality. In medieval Rus', the performance of fables was certainly an integral part of the “repertoire” of buffoons.

Folk songs are a genuine artistic encyclopedia of the life of the Russian people. Today, song, the richest layer of Russian folklore, is described incompletely and contradictorily. The genre division of songs into historical and ballad, bandit and soldier, lyrical and round dance is quite arbitrary. All of them are examples of the finest lyricism and all, without exception, are historical. Attractive with purity and sincerity, the songs deeply reveal the character of the Russian person who values ​​​​his fatherland; who never tires of admiring his native land; and to your children.

A proverb is a widespread expression that figuratively defines any life phenomenon or gives it an assessment: A pancake is not a wedge, it will not split your belly. Where is the sorrow for the wise, and the joy for the fool.

A proverb is a short, apt, stable saying in everyday life. Compared to a proverb - a witty characteristic given to a person, object or phenomenon and decorating speech, a proverb has a complete deep meaning, contains a wise generalization. A proverb, by definition of the people, is “a flower”, a proverb is “a berry”. The proverbs capture the life experience of the people: People quarrel, but the governors feed. A thief worth $100 is hanged, a thief worth $500 is honored. The people are like in a cloud: in a thunderstorm everything will come out.

The famous Russian scientist and poet M.V. was the first to collect and write down proverbs. Lomonosov. Subsequently, collections containing 4-9 thousand proverbs were published: “Collection of ancient Russian proverbs” (Moscow University, 4291 proverbs), “ Complete collection Russian proverbs and sayings" (Ts.M. Knyazhevich, 5365 proverbs), "Russian folk proverbs and parables" (I.M. Snegirev, 9623 proverbs and sayings), in the famous collection of V.I. Dal's "Proverbs of the Russian People" there are more than 30 thousand of them.

Tradition is an artistic and narrative genre of folklore with elements of fiction. The plot of a legend is usually based on real event. A striking example of oral narratives of this type are the legends about the son of the Tula blacksmith Demid Antufiev, Nikita Demidov, the founder of the largest factories in the Urals in the first decades of the 18th century.

A tale is an oral folk story that tells about the past without fiction: Cossack and Siberian tales, “working” prose of gold miners, craftsmen, miners, etc. In their narrative style and structure, tales are similar to traditions and legends.

A fairy tale is one of the main prose folklore genres of an artistic and fantastic nature.

For ancient man there was no gap between him and the animal world. He views animals primarily as beings equal to him not only physically, but also socially. For a person, the world around him is populated simply by different tribes with the same social structure as his, and the attitude towards these tribes is either peaceful or hostile, depending on how the attitude of the animals themselves towards him manifests itself. And our ancestors accepted the exceptional instincts of animals as manifestations of a higher mind, considering some not only equal to themselves, but also superior to themselves. Fairy tales about animals organically combine other subjects (everyday and magical), and sometimes it is completely impossible to draw a line between genres. Mythopoetic ideas about nature, expressing a certain knowledge of the world with the help of images of animals and birds, are intertwined in fairy tales with live observations of animal habits, show a gradually growing spirit of competition between man and animal, defending their rights to life, fight for spoils and territory. Everyday tales and tales about animals are distinguished by extraordinary optimism and gentle humor that permeates the narrative. As the person became stronger and more confident, folklore images animals acquired a different, more “lenient” coloring: the wolf from a villain turned simply into a fool (“the beaten unbeaten is lucky”), the formidable bear, the totem animal, was endowed with good nature: Mashenka ordered to take gifts to the old people - and he did.

Other fairy tales, everyday (novelistic), are characterized by confrontation between social heroes: a man (his son or daughter) competes in intelligence and intelligence with merchants, priests, and even with the tsar himself. Much attention is paid to family conflicts with an unfaithful, talkative or “perky” wife, with a younger brother (son) who is a fool, who is invariably lucky (“luck is for fools”), despite his natural stupidity. The anthropomorphism of Russian nature in folklore works concerns not only the Mother of the Raw Earth, but also trees, primarily oak and birch, capable of talking, giving advice and predicting the further course of events. Trees in fairy tales are man's faithful friends and helpers; they provide shelter from enemies, give magical objects, reveal treasures and secrets, rewarding heroes for their work and patience. Thus, fairy tales reflect the life and ideas of different tribal inhabitants (of the territory that later became Russian) at the stage of the emergence and collapse of the primitive communal system. Both fairy tales about animals and legends associated with belief in the spirits of nature and plants, as well as ritual songs and children's folklore are characteristic of totemic societies, natural for this stage of pagan human relations with the world.

Skomoroshins are diverse songs of the mischievous art of skomorokhs: jester oldies (epics - parodies), parody ballads, songs-novels of comic content, fables. They have one thing in common - laughter. If in the classical genres of Russian folklore laughter is only an element of content , then for buffoons it serves as an organizing artistic principle.

Tongue twisters are a comic genre of folk art, classified as small, a phrase built on a combination of sounds that make it difficult to quickly pronounce words. Tongue twisters were used by the people as a teaching tool in the formation of children's speech, its development and subsequent formation, as well as for entertainment purposes.

Chatushka (from frequent) is a short, usually rhymed song with humorous or satirical content. The ditties are performed at a cheerful, enthusiastic tempo, accompanied by an accordion.

2. Calendar-ritual poetry

Vesnyanka is a song calling for spring and warmth. Ves-nyanki sounded in Russian villages after Maslenitsa songs. They reminded that the time for field work was approaching, birds were flying and “bringing spring.” The main dates for the clicking of spring: March 4 - the day of Gerasim Rooker (rooks arrive); March 9 is the day of the Forty Martyrs (forty and forty birds fly); March 25 - April 7 according to the new style - Annunciation (the day when birds are released from cages into the wild).

The harvest song is a type of autumn songs in calendar-ritual poetry. Autumn ritual poetry did not develop as much as summer poetry. Only stubble songs are known, filled with gratitude and glorifying nimble women - “winch daughters”, “quail daughters-in-law”, who “early” went out into the fields and harvested the harvest, “so that there will be, why jig well, okay "

Game song is a type of spring-summer songs in calendar-ritual folk poetry. Already in the titles of this type of songs, a cheerful mood is reflected, caused by the onset of the long-awaited warmth, hopes for a generous harvest (sow in the dirt, you will be a prince!), the opportunity to take off heavy clothes, show off and take a closer look at the future bride or to the groom. The game songs talked about sowing and growing the future crop, here was main topic the sun - the source and continuation of life, light and warmth, the theme of cereals and other plants, the song-games were called: “Poppy”, “Peas”, “Cabbage”, “Flax”, “Turnip”, “Millet” . Game songs can be divided as follows: - round dances, when those gathered moved in a circle or in the same circle depicted various scenes provided for by the content of the song (“There was a birch tree in the field”); - song-games performed by participants lined up in two lines, one opposite the other (“And we sowed millet”); - “ghoul” songs, when the players, while performing a song, follow each other around the hut, intertwine their hands, round the line, “curl” in a ball (“braid, wattle fence”, “curl, cabbage”). In gaming poetry, echoes of ancient magic and traces of ancient forms of marriage have been preserved.

Kolyadovaya song (kolyadka) is a type of winter (New Year's) songs in calendar-ritual poetry. The onset of the New Year was popularly associated with the increase in the day “by a chicken step” after the winter solstice on December 22. This observation formed the basis of popular ideas about the boundary that separates the end of the old year from the beginning of the new. The arrival of the new year was celebrated by calling Kolyada and Avsen. The word “kolyada” goes back to the Latin name for the first day of the month - calendae (cf. calendar). In Rus', caroling was one of the main rituals performed on New Year's Eve. It was accompanied by a round of neighbors and carol songs (Avsen), among which we can highlight songs of celebration and songs of request:

Kupala songs - a cycle of songs performed on the holiday of Ivan Kupala (the night of July 6-7 - according to the new style). They contained elements of ancient magical formulas aimed at protecting the harvest from the machinations of evil spirits and so that grain would be produced generously.

The Maslenitsa song is an invitation to the wide and generous swarm of Maslenitsa (she is sometimes called Avdotya Izotyevna).

Podludnye songs - songs performed during the game that accompanied fortune telling. Each player put his own object (a ring) into the dish, then songs under the dish were sung. The host, without looking, took out the first ring he came across from the dish. The content of the song was related to the person whose ring was taken out. The sub-dish song contained an allegory by which the future was judged.

Trinity-Semitic song is a type of summer songs in calendar-ritual poetry. The most significant groups of rituals and songs of the summer period, which began with the summer solstice (Peter-turn) - June 12 (25), are associated with various states of the sun and the plant world. Summer (Semitic) rituals, later combined with the Christian Trinity, are otherwise called green Christmastide. In the Trinity-Semitic songs, the central place is given to the birch tree - the cult tree of the Slavs, the ancestor tree, a symbol of warmth and life.

Barge hauler songs are songs of barge haulers and about barge haulers. Burlachestvo originated in Russia in late XVI- at the beginning of the 17th century, when the state was especially interested in the development of water trade relations and the attitude towards fugitive peasants or recruits hired as barge haulers was the most lenient. People went into barge haulers both from family hardships and from the cruelties of serfdom. Usually they went downstream on ships and returned, towing ships loaded with goods; in addition, they were both loaders and porters.

Historical songs are songs whose origins are associated with a particular historical event or person. At the same time, individual nuances of the event (“I am from the Kama River, Stenka Razin’s son”) or the characterization details of the artistic and poetic portrait of a historical figure could be fictitious, embellished or inverted, sometimes creating an image distorted to the point of its opposite. -falsity. Unlike epics, with their unchanged ethical structure, historical songs, while possessing the same information content, no longer have strict compositional rules and are subject to the laws of other genres. Over time, epics disappear from the developing new genre. Songs of the XVII-XVIII centuries. become more diverse and acquire social connotations. The heroes of the new songs are real characters- Stepan Razin, Emelyan Pugachev, Ivan the Terrible, Ermak. Despite their apparent simplicity, historical songs have a wide folklore context; folklore symbolism is actively “at work” here: death is perceived as crossing a river, heroes are likened to eagles and falcons, symbolic images of trees - birch, oak - are widely used , mountain ash, etc.

Lyrical songs are songs that reflect the world of personal feelings. The lyrical song helped the people to survive in any situation, absorbed the sadness and pain of losses, insults and disappointments, and was the only means of maintaining their own dignity in a state of humiliation and powerlessness. “A song is a friend, a joke is a sister,” says a Russian proverb. Through the spiritual grief, the sad “mourning” of the lyrical song, the greatness and moral beauty of the people clearly emerge.

Dance (comic) songs - the name of this group of songs speaks for itself. A good, cheerful mood is not alien to Russian songwriting, in which laughter, jokes, and ridicule find a place. Many Russian dancers have entered the golden treasury of world culture: “Kalinka” is known in almost every country. The songs “The Moon is Shining”, “You are my canopy, my canopy”, “There was a birch tree in the field” are widely known.

Robber songs - songs of robbers or about robbers. Robber (and prison) song as a genre was formed during peasant uprisings, mass escapes of peasants and soldiers from cruel forced life (XVII-XVIII centuries). The main theme of bandit and prison songs is the dream of the triumph of justice. The heroes of robber songs are daring, brave “good fellows” with their own code of honor, the desire to comprehend what is happening (“dum think”), and a courageous readiness to accept all the vicissitudes of fate.

Wedding songs are songs that accompanied all the wedding events from matchmaking to the “prince’s table,” i.e., the feast table in the groom’s house: the conspiracy, the bachelorette party, the wedding, the arrival and departure of the wedding train to the church. Bride and groom married couple in lyrical songs they symbolize the inseparable Utushka and the Drake, or the swan and the swan, especially beloved in Rus'. The duck and the swan are symbols of eternal femininity, each of which reflects complex vicissitudes female destiny. A Russian wedding is a complex complex of almost theatrical ritual actions, including many songs: sentences, magnifications, dialogue songs and lamentations, and corrugations. 1. Wedding sentences were pronounced mostly by the groomsmen, who played the most important role at the wedding: he was its “director” and the protector of the bride and groom from evil forces. Sometimes the sentences were pronounced by the matchmaker, the matchmaker, or the parents. When the groom addressed one of the participants in the ritual, dialogue songs were formed, giving the wedding ceremony the character of a performance in which almost everyone was a participant. After the verdict was pronounced, the parents put bread and salt on the tray, and occasionally money; then the guests made offerings. Dialogue songs were extremely popular at weddings. A typical example of girlish songs (performed at a bachelorette party) is a conversation between a daughter and her mother. Greatnesses are song praises of the bride and groom, originally associated with incantatory magic: the well-being and happiness of the bride and groom seemed real, almost here. In later forms, the incantatory magic of magnification was supplanted by the expression of the ideal type moral behavior, beauty, prosperity.

Lamentations are lyrical songs that directly convey the feelings and thoughts of the bride, girlfriends, and wedding participants. Initially, the function of lamentation was determined by the ritual, where the bride presented her departure from home as unwanted, as an action performed against her will, in order to avoid the revenge of the patrons of the hearth. But it cannot be said that the bride’s crying was always insincere. Corial songs are joke songs, often parodies of greatness. The function of reproach songs is entertaining; they are colored with humor. They were performed after all the main actions of the wedding ceremony were completed.

Soldiers' songs (their name speaks for itself) began to take shape after Peter I's decree on recruitment (1699). Indefinite service, established by decree, forever separated the soldier from his family, from his home. Soldiers' and recruits' songs are permeated with doom ("great adversity - the service of the sovereign"), describe difficult moments of parting with relatives ("From your young eyes, tears roll like a river flows"), the hardships of barracks life ("What a day - then, not even a night for us, little soldiers, can calm down: Dark night comes - to be on guard, White day comes - to stand in the ranks") and often inevitable death in battle.

Among the soldiers' and recruits' songs, lamentations stand out as a special group.

Round dance songs are play songs, the name of which goes back to the name of the ancient solar Slavic deity Khors (cf. good, mansions, horo-vod). Those gathered moved in a circle, depicting the movement of the luminary across the sky, thereby glorifying, calling and propitiating the sun, which was so necessary for the harvest. In the same circle, various scenes included in the content of the song were depicted. The most popular round dance songs have survived to this day: “There was a birch tree in the field”, “I walk along the round dance”, “Along and along the river, along and along the Kazanka”, etc.

Coachman songs - songs of coachmen or about coachmen. The life of the coachmen, whose main occupation was “yam racing,” differed significantly from the life of the peasants. They were exempt from taxes, but their situation was still extremely difficult. Often the “serving people” did not pay travel money, and when the coachmen refused to carry for free, they were beaten, or even shackled. The coachmen who tried to return back to the village were forcibly returned to the outpost. Their songs tell of a bleak fate. Particularly common in coachman songs are motifs about love for the “red maiden,” who “made my heart soar without frost,” and about the death of a coachman in the steppe, in a foreign land.

4. Children's folklore

A teaser is a mocking joke of a rhyming nature aimed at demoralizing an enemy:

Drawing lots is one of the most common genres of children's folklore. Like counting rhymes, draws are designed to distribute playing roles. The child chooses one thing, getting a player on his team, or something else.

Zaklichka is a children's song addressed to the sun, rainbow, rain, birds.

Lullabies are the oldest lyrical songs that accompany the motion sickness of a child. The lullaby song is distinguished by its extraordinary tenderness, regularity and calmness.

Pestushka is a song or rhyme that accompanies the child’s first conscious movements.

A nursery rhyme is a short song that accompanies a child’s first games with fingers, arms and legs, for example, “The White-sided Magpie,” when each of the child’s fingers is fed with porridge, but the little finger is not given anything because it is too small and has not worked out anything. “Ladushki” has remained the most popular nursery rhyme since ancient times.

A counting book is a rhymed poem, with the help of which playing children distribute roles and set the order for starting the game.

Folklore. Genres of folklore

Folklore(from English folk- people, lore- wisdom) - oral folk art. Folklore arose before the advent of writing. Its most important feature is that folklore is the art of the spoken word. This is what distinguishes it from literature and other forms of art. Another important one distinguishing feature folklore - collectivity of creativity. It arose as mass creativity and expressed the ideas of a primitive community and clan, and not of an individual.

In folklore, as in literature, there are three types of works: epic, lyrical and dramatic. At the same time, epic genres have poetic and prose forms (in literature, the epic genre is represented only by prose works: short story, tale, novel, etc.). Literary genres and folklore genres differ in composition. In Russian folklore, epic genres include epics, historical songs, fairy tales, traditions, legends, tales, proverbs, and sayings. Lyrical folklore genres include ritual songs, lullabies, family and love songs, lamentations, and ditties. TO dramatic genres include folk dramas. Many folklore genres have entered literature: song, fairy tale, legend (for example, Pushkin's fairy tales, Koltsov's songs, Gorky's legends).

Genres of folklore each have their own content: epics depict the military feats of heroes, historical songs - events and heroes of the past, family songs describe the everyday side of life. Each genre has its own heroes: in epics there are heroes Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich, in fairy tales - Ivan Tsarevich, Ivan the Fool, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Baba Yaga, in family songs - wife, husband, mother-in-law.

Folklore also differs from literature in its special system of expressive means. For example, the composition (construction) of folklore works is characterized by the presence of such elements as a chorus, an opening, a saying, a slowdown in action (retardation), a trinity of events; for style - constant epithets, tautologies (repetitions), parallelisms, hyperboles (exaggerations), etc.

The folklore of different nations has much in common in genres, artistic means, plots, types of heroes, etc. This is explained by the fact that folklore as a type of folk art reflects general patterns social development peoples General Features in the folklore of different peoples can arise due to the proximity of culture and life or long-term economic, political and cultural ties. The similarity of historical development, geographical proximity, movements of peoples, etc. also play a big role.

(Poiché quanto sotto riportato è parte della mia tesi di laurea magistrale, se desiderate copiare il testo vi prego di citare sempre la fonte e l’autore (Margherita Sanguineti). Grazie.)

Folklore genres also differ in the way they are performed and in the different combinations of text with melody, intonation, and movements (singing, singing and dancing, storytelling, acting, etc.).

With changes to social life societies, new genres also arose in Russian folklore: soldiers', coachmen's, and barge haulers' songs. The growth of industry and cities gave rise to romances, jokes, worker, school and student folklore.

There are genres in folklore productive, in the depths of which new works may appear. Now these are ditties, sayings, city songs, jokes, and many types of children's folklore. There are genres unproductive, but continue to exist. Thus, no new folk tales appear, but old ones are still told. Many old songs are also sung. But epics and historical songs are practically no longer heard live.

Depending on the stage of development, folklore is usually divided into early traditional folklore, classical folklore and late traditional folklore. Each group belongs to special genres typical for this stage development of folk art.

Early traditional folklore

1. Labor songs.

These songs are known among all nations, which were performed during labor processes (when lifting heavy objects, plowing fields, manually grinding grain, etc.).

Such songs could be performed when working alone, but they were especially important when working together, since they contained commands for simultaneous action.

Their main element was rhythm, which organized the labor process.

2. Fortune telling and conspiracies.

Fortune telling is a means of recognizing the future. To recognize the future, one had to turn to evil spirits , therefore, fortune telling was perceived as a sinful and dangerous activity.

For fortune-telling, places were chosen where, according to the people, it was possible to come into contact with the inhabitants of the “other world”, as well as the time of day at which this contact was most likely.

Fortune telling was based on the technique of interpreting “signs”: randomly heard words, reflections in water, animal behavior, etc. To obtain these “signs,” actions were taken in which objects, animals, and plants were used. Sometimes actions were accompanied by verbal formulas.

Classic folklore

1. Rituals and ritual folklore

Ritual folklore consisted of verbal, musical, dramatic, game and choreographic genres.

The rituals had ritual and magical significance and contained rules of human behavior in everyday life and work. They are usually divided into work and family.

1.1 Labor rites: calendar rites

The observations of the ancient Slavs on the solstice and the changes in nature associated with it developed into a system of mythological beliefs and practical work skills, reinforced by rituals, signs, and proverbs.

Gradually the rituals formed an annual cycle, and the most important holidays were timed to coincide with the winter and summer solstice.

There are winter, spring, summer and autumn rituals.

1.2. Family rituals

Unlike calendar rituals, the hero of family rituals is a real person. Rituals accompanied many events in his life, among which the most important were birth, marriage and death.

The wedding ceremony was the most developed; it had its own characteristics and laws, its own mythology and its own poetry.

1.3. Lamentations

This is an ancient genre of folklore, genetically related to funeral rites. The object of the lamentation image is the tragic in life, therefore the lyrical principle is strongly expressed in them, the melody is weakly expressed and in the content of the text one could find many exclamatory-interrogative constructions, synonymous repetitions, unity of beginning, etc.

2. Small genres of folklore. Proverbs.

Small folklore genres include works that differ in genre, but have a common external sign– small volume.

Small genres of folklore prose, or proverbs, are very diverse: proverbs, sayings, signs, riddles, jokes, proverbs, tongue twisters, puns, well wishes, curses, etc.

3. Fairy tales(see § 2.)

3.1. Animal Tales

3.2. Fairy tales

3.3. Everyday tales

3.3.1. Anecdotal tales

3.3.2. Short story tales

4. Non-fairy prose

Non-fairy tale prose has a different modality than fairy tales: its works are confined to real time, real terrain, real persons. Non-fairy-tale prose is characterized by not being distinguished from the flow of everyday speech and the absence of special genre and style canons. In the most general sense, we can say that her works are characterized by the stylistic form of an epic narrative about the authentic.

The most stable component is the character, around which all the rest of the material is united.

An important feature of non-fairy tale prose is the plot. Usually the plots have an embryonic form (single-motive), but can be conveyed both concisely and in detail.

Works of non-fairy tale prose are capable of contamination.

The following genres belong to non-fairy tale prose: tales, legends and demonological stories.

5. Epics

Bylinas are epic songs in which heroic events or individual episodes of ancient Russian history are sung.

As in fairy tales, mythological images of enemies appear in epics, characters are reincarnated, and animals help the heroes.

The epics have a heroic or novelistic character: the idea of ​​​​heroic epics is the glorification of the unity and independence of the Russian land; in the novelistic epics marital fidelity, true friendship were glorified, personal vices (bragging, arrogance) were condemned.

6. Historical songs

Historical songs are folk epic, lyric epic and lyrical songs, the content of which is dedicated to specific events and real persons of Russian history and expresses the national interests and ideals of the people.

7. Ballads

Folk ballads are lyric-epic songs about a tragic event. Ballads are characterized by personal, family and everyday themes. At the center of the ballads are moral problems: love and hatred, loyalty and betrayal, crime and repentance.

8. Spiritual Poems

Spiritual poems are songs with religious content.

The main feature of spiritual verses is the contrast between everything Christian and the worldly.

Spiritual poems are heterogeneous. In oral existence they interacted with epics, historical songs, ballads, lyrical songs, and lamentations.

9. Lyrical non-ritual songs

In folk lyrics, word and melody are inseparable. The main purpose of songs is to reveal the worldview of the people by directly expressing their feelings, thoughts and moods.

These songs expressed the characteristic experiences of a Russian person in different life situations.

10. Folklore theatre.

Folklore theater is the traditional dramatic creativity of the people.

Specific features of folk theater are the absence of a stage, separation of performers and audience, action as a form of reflection of reality, transformation of the performer into another objectified image, aesthetic orientation representation.

Plays were often distributed in written form and pre-rehearsed, which did not exclude improvisation.

Folklore theater includes: booths, traveling picture theater (rayok), folk puppet show and folk dramas.

11. Children's folklore.

Children's folklore is a specific area of ​​oral artistic creativity, which, unlike the folklore of adults, has its own poetics, its own forms of existence and its own speakers.

A general, generic feature of children's folklore is correlation literary text with the game.

Works of children's folklore are performed by adults for children (mother's folklore) and by the children themselves (actually children's folklore)

Late traditional folklore

Late traditional folklore is a collection of works of different genres and different directions, created in peasant, urban, soldier, worker and other environments since the beginning of the development of industry, the growth of cities, and the collapse of the feudal countryside.

Late traditional folklore is characterized by a smaller number of works and a generally lower artistic level compared to classical folklore.

1. Ditties

A chastushka is a short rhyming folk song that is sung at a fast tempo to a specific melody.

The themes of the ditties are varied. Most of them are devoted to love and family themes. But they often reflect the modern life of the people, the changes that are taking place in the country, and contain sharp political hints. The ditty is characterized by a humorous attitude towards its characters, irony, and sometimes sharp satire.

2. Workers' folklore

Workers' folklore is oral folk works that were created in the working environment or assimilated by it and processed so much that they began to reflect the spiritual needs of this particular environment.

Unlike ditties, workers' folklore did not turn into a national, all-Russian phenomenon. His characteristic feature– locality, isolation within a particular industrial territory. For example, workers in factories, factories and mines in Petrozavodsk, Donbass, the Urals, Altai and Siberia knew almost no oral works of each other.

Song genres predominated in workers' folklore. The songs depicted the difficult working and living conditions of a simple worker, which were contrasted with the idle life of the oppressors - business owners and overseers.

In form, the songs are monologues-complaints.

3. Folklore of the period of the Great Patriotic War.

Folklore of the period of the Great Patriotic War consists of works of various genres: songs, prose, aphoristic. They were created by the participants in events and battles, workers of factories, collective farm fields, partisans, etc.

These works reflect the life and struggle of the peoples of the USSR, the heroism of the country's defenders, faith in victory, the joy of victory, fidelity in love and love betrayals.

In our work we will dwell in more detail on folklore classical genre fairy tales.

Folklore, by its nature, content and purpose, is a deeply democratic, truly folk art. He is distinguished not only by his ideological depth, but also by his high artistic qualities. Folk poetry is distinguished by its peculiar artistic system visual arts and genres.

What are genres of Russian folklore?

One of the types of ancient creativity was labor songs with their simplest commands, shouts, signals given as work progresses.

Calendar folklore originally came from the urgent practical goals of people. It was associated with ideas about the annual agricultural cycle and changeable natural conditions. People sought to know the future, so they resorted to fortune telling and talked about the future based on signs.

This also explained wedding folklore. It is permeated with the thought of the safety of the family and clan, and is designed for the favor of the highest patrons.

Individual elements have also been preserved from antiquity children's folklore, which changed later under the influence of aesthetic and pedagogical functions.

Among the oldest genres - funeral lamentations. With the advent of universal conscription, mourning arose for those being drafted into service—recruitment lamentations.

Genres non-ritual folklore also developed under the influence of syncretism. It includes small folklore genres ( proverbs): proverbs, fables, signs and sayings. They contained human judgments about the way of life, about work, about higher natural forces, and statements about human affairs. “This is a vast area of ​​moral assessments and judgments, how to live, how to raise children, how to honor ancestors, thoughts about the need to follow precepts and examples, these are everyday rules of behavior... In a word, the functionality of proverbs covers almost all ideological areas.” 9

Genres of oral prose include legends, tales, tales, legends. These are stories and incidents from life that tell about a person’s meeting with characters of Russian demonology - sorcerers, witches, mermaids, etc. This also includes stories about saints, shrines and miracles - about the communication of a person who has accepted Christian faith, with forces of a higher order.

Genres song epic: epics, historical songs, military songs, spiritual songs and poems.

Gradually, folklore moves away from everyday functions and acquires elements of artistry. The role of the artistic principle in it increases. As a result of historical evolution, folklore became poetic in its main and fundamental qualities, having reworked the traditions of all previous states of folklore. 10

Artistic creativity is embodied in all forms fairy tales: tales about animals, magic, everyday.

This type of creativity is also represented in riddles.

The earliest types of artistic creativity include ballads.

Lyrical songs also have an artistic function. They are performed outside of rituals. The content and form of lyrical songs are associated with the expression of the experiences and feelings of the performers.

Modern researchers include artistic song folklore of the newest formation romances And ditties.

Children's folklore has its own system of genres, correlated with the age characteristics of children. It has artistic and pedagogical functions. It is dominated by gaming principles.

The artistic spectacular theatrical basis contains folklore spectacles and folk theater. It is presented in a wide variety of genres and types ( games, dressing up, nativity scene, playgrounds, puppet shows, etc.).

A separate type of artistic representation is formed by the so-called fair folklore. It arose from fair performances, shouts of traders, farce barkers, joke speech, jokes and folk sayings.

At the intersection of long-standing traditions of folklore and trends new culture the genre has developed joke.

A detailed account of individual folklore genres will be made in subsequent sections of the manual.