Musical instruments of the Rus

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Ancient musical instruments discovered by archaeologists are genuine material evidence of their existence in Russia. In the recent past, the everyday life of the Russian people was unthinkable without musical instruments. Almost all of our ancestors possessed the secrets of making simple sound instruments and passed them down from generation to generation. An introduction to the secrets of mastery was instilled from childhood, in games, in work, feasible for children's hands. Observing the work of elders, adolescents received the first skills in creating the simplest musical instruments. Time passed. Spiritual ties between generations were gradually broken, their continuity was interrupted. With the disappearance of the folk musical instruments that were once ubiquitous in Russia, the mass introduction to the national musical culture has also been lost.

Nowadays, unfortunately, there are not so many master craftsmen who have preserved the traditions of creating the simplest musical instruments. In addition, they create their masterpieces only for individual orders. The manufacture of tools on an industrial basis is associated with considerable financial costs, hence their high cost. Not everyone can afford to buy a musical instrument today. That is why there was a desire to collect materials in one article that will help everyone who wants to make this or that instrument with their own hands. We are surrounded by a large number of familiar materials of plant and animal origin, which we sometimes do not pay attention to. Any material will sound if skillful hands touch it:

- a whistle or ocarina can be made from a nondescript piece of clay;

- birch bark, removed from the trunk of a birch, will turn into a large horn with a squeak;

- the plastic tube will take on sound if you make a whistle device and holes in it;

- many different percussion instruments can be made from wooden blocks and plates.

For many peoples, the origin of musical instruments is associated with the gods and masters of thunderstorms, blizzards and winds. The ancient Greeks attributed to Hermes the invention of the lyre: he made an instrument by pulling strings over a tortoise shell. His son, a forest demon and patron saint of shepherds, Pan was depicted without fail with a flute consisting of several reed stalks (Pan's flute).

In German tales, the sounds of the horn are often mentioned, in Finnish - the five-string harp kantele. In Russian fairy tales, the sounds of horns and pipes are heard by warriors, against whom no force can resist; the miraculous gusli-samoguds themselves play, they sing the songs themselves, make them dance without rest. In Ukrainian and Belarusian fairy tales, even animals started dancing to the sound of bagpipes (pipes).

Historian, folklorist A. N. Afanasyev, author of the work "Poetic views of the Slavs on nature", wrote that various musical tones, born when the wind blows in the air, identify "expressions for the wind and music": from the verb "to blow" came - duda, pipe, pipe; Persian. dudu - the sound of a flute; German blasen - to blow, blow, trumpet, play a wind instrument; whistle and gusli - from gudu; to buzz - the word used by the Little Russians to denote the blowing wind; compare: nozzle, sipovka from sopati, sniff (hiss), hoarse, whistle - from whistle.

The sounds of brass music are created by blowing air into the instrument. The breath of the wind was perceived by our ancestors as coming from the open mouths of the gods. The fantasy of the ancient Slavs brought the howl of the storm and the whistle of the winds closer to singing and music. This is how legends about singing, dancing, playing musical instruments arose. Mythical performances, combined with music, made them a sacred and necessary accessory to pagan rituals and holidays.

As imperfect as the first musical instruments were, they nevertheless required musicians to be able to make and play them.

For centuries, the improvement of folk instruments and the selection of the best samples did not stop. Musical instruments took on new forms. There were constructive solutions for their manufacture, methods of extracting sounds, playing techniques. Slavic peoples were creators and keepers of musical values.

The ancient Slavs honored their ancestors and praised the Gods. The glorification of the Gods was performed in front of the sacred goddess in temples or in the open air. Rituals in honor of Perun (the god of thunder and lightning), Stribog (the god of the winds), Svyatovid (the sun god), Lada (the goddess of love), etc. were accompanied by singing, dancing, playing musical instruments and ended with a common feast. The Slavs worshiped not only invisible deities, but also their habitats: forests, mountains, rivers and lakes.

According to the researchers, the song and instrumental art of those years developed in close relationship. Perhaps, ritual chanting contributed to the birth of instruments with the establishment of their musical structure, since temple prayer songs were performed with musical accompaniment.

The Byzantine historian Theophylact Simokatta, the Arab traveler Al-Masudi, the Arab geographer Omar ibn Dast confirm the existence of musical instruments among the ancient Slavs. The latter in his "Book of Precious Treasures" writes: "They have all sorts of lutes, gusli and flutes …"

In Essays on the History of Music in Russia from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century, Russian musicologist N. F. Findeizen notes: splendor, they would not know how to make their own musical instruments, completely regardless of whether there were similar instruments in neighboring areas."

Few references have survived to the ancient Russian musical culture.

Nine hundred years ago, unknown painters left frescoes depicting scenes of musical and theatrical content in the tower of St. Sophia Cathedral (founded in 1037). These are buffoonery games, musicians playing the harp, trumpet and flute, dancers leading a round dance. Among the characters are clearly visible musicians playing the longitudinal flute. There are similar images in the Dmitrievsky Cathedral in Vladimir (XII century), on the Novgorod icon "Signs". The annalistic collection of 1205-1206 confirms the presence of these musical instruments among the Slavs.

Kiev was one of the most beautiful and largest cities in Europe. Already from afar, the huge city amazed travelers with its majestic view of white-stone walls, towers of Orthodox cathedrals and temples. Craftsmen worked in Kiev, whose products were famous throughout Russia and abroad. Medieval Kiev was the most important center of Russian culture.

There were several schools for teaching children to read and write, a large library at the St. Sophia Cathedral, which collected tens of thousands of Russian, Greek and Latin books. Philosophers, poets, artists and musicians lived and worked in Kiev, whose work had a great influence on the development of Russian culture. The chronicler Nestor, a monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, mentioned in the "Tale of Bygone Years" (1074) almost the entire arsenal of musical instruments of those years: "… and oudarisha in sopli, in gusli and tambourines, start playing them." This list can be supplemented with horns, wooden pipes, twin pipes, nozzles (wooden pipes). Later, the image of the Slavic pipe was discovered by archaeologists during excavations in Novgorod. It was this instrument, together with the harp, twin flutes, Pan's flute and trumpets, which was most of all used by buffoons - itinerant actors who amused the people with singing, dancing, playing musical instruments; "soplnik", "dancer", "gamer" - this is how the buffoons were called in Ancient Rus.

Gusli - were a small wooden wing-shaped body (hence the name "winged") with stretched strings. Strings (4 to 8) could be strand or metal. The instrument was on my knees when playing. With the fingers of his right hand, the musician struck the strings, and with his left, he muffled unnecessary strings. The musical structure is unknown.

Nozzles are whistle longitudinal flutes made of wood. The upper end of the barrel has a cut and a whistle device. Ancient snot had 3-4 holes on one side. The tool was used in military campaigns and at festivals.

Twin flutes - whistle flutes, together making up a single scale.

Pan flute - a kind of multi-barrel flute. Consists of several reed tubes of different lengths. Sounds of different heights were extracted from it.

Beep (closure) is a string instrument.

The buffoons used it in combination with the harp. Consists of a hollowed out oval or pear-shaped wooden body, a flat soundboard with resonator holes, • a short fretless neck, with a straight or bent head. Tool length 300 - 800 mm. It had three strings that were flush with the face (deck). The bow-shaped bow, when played, touched three strings simultaneously. The melody was played on the first string, while the second and third, the so-called drone, sounded without changing the sound. Had a quarter-fifth tuning. The uninterrupted sounding of the lower strings was one of the characteristic features of folk music. During the game, the instrument was on the performer's knee in an upright position. It was distributed later, in the 17th-19th centuries.

The first information about buffoons dates back to the 11th century. In the "Teachings on the Executions of God" ("The Tale of Bygone Years", 1068), their fun and participation in pagan rituals are condemned. The buffoons represented Russian folk culture in the early period of its formation and contributed to the development of epic, poetry, and drama.

During this period, music occupies the most important place in the national culture of Kievan Rus. Official music accompanied solemn ceremonies, military campaigns, holidays. Folk music-making, like the entire culture of Kiev, developed and interacted with the life of other countries and peoples that influenced its development in the following centuries.

After some time, Kievan Rus disintegrated into separate principalities, which weakened the state. Kiev was ruined, economic and cultural development was suspended for several centuries. Many cultural values created by the people over the long history of the state's existence perished.

Domra

One of the most widespread and popular instruments in the 17th century was the domra. It was made both in Moscow and in other cities of Russia. Among the shopping malls there was also a "home" row. Domras were of different sizes: from a small "domrishka" to a large "bass" one, with a semicircular body, a long neck and two strings tuned to a fifth or fourth.

Lyre

Since the 16th century, Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians used the lyre (the Belarusian name is lera, the Ukrainian name is rylya, relay). This instrument was known to European countries much earlier, from the 10th century.

The lyre is a stringed instrument with a wooden body that resembles a guitar or violin. Inside the body, a wheel rubbed with resin or rosin is fixed through the deck. When the handle is rotated, the outward protruding wheel touches the strings and makes them sound. The number of strings is different. The middle one is melodic, the right and left strings are drone, accompanying. They are tuned in fifth or fourth. The string is passed through the box with the pitch control mechanism and is clamped by the keys inside. The strings are supported by a wheel that is rotated by a handle. The surface of the wheel is rubbed with rosin. The wheel touches the strings, glides over them and produces long continuous sounds. The lyre was played mainly by wandering beggars - blind "lyre players", who accompanied the chanting of spiritual verses.

Balalaika

At the end of the 17th century, domra, the most common instrument among buffoons, fell out of use. But another stringed instrument appears - the balalaika. At different times it was called differently: both "bala-boyka" and "balabaika", but the first name has survived to this day.

The image of the balalaika can be found in popular prints and paintings by 18th century artists, and in historical evidence of the 18th century. Researchers of Russian art noted: "It is difficult to find a house in Russia in which you would not find a guy who knows how to play the balalaika in front of girls. They usually even make their own instrument."

Over the centuries, the design of the balalaika has evolved. The first balalaikas (18th century) had an oval or round body and two strings. Later (XIX century) the body became triangular, one more string was added. The simplicity of the form and manufacture - four triangular plates and a fretboard with frets - attracted folk craftsmen. The structure of three-stringed balalaikas, the so-called "folk" or "guitar", was most used by musicians. The instrument was tuned in thirds to a major triad. Another way to tune the balalaika: the lower two strings were tuned in unison, and the upper string in a fourth in relation to them.

Buffoons

The buffoons were not only musicians, but also folk poets, storytellers. They made people laugh with jokes, played stage performances. The performances of buffoons bore the stamp of ancient Slavic mythology. The most common form of theatrical performances with elements of humor and satire were bear fun and genre scenes with the participation of Petrushka. The performances were accompanied by sounds of wind and percussion instruments.

The buffoons were required to have an impeccable mastery of the skill of entertainers, that is, organizers of folk festivals, amusers who acted as musicians or actors. The drawings, reproduced in many old editions, depicted groups of buffoons-gamers, for example, guselytsiks or gudoshniks.

Buffoons were subdivided into "sedentary", that is, assigned to one posad, and wandering - "marching", "walking". The settled people were engaged in agriculture or handicrafts, and played only on a holiday for their own pleasure. Wandering buffoons, professional actors and musicians, were engaged only in their craft: moving in large groups, moving from village to village, from city to city, they were indispensable participants in holidays, festivities, weddings and ceremonies.

Back in 1551 in the Code of Decisions of the Ecumenical Council "Stoglava" it was said: "Yes, buffoons walk in distant countries, copulating in gangs of many, sixty, and seventy and up to a hundred people … In worldly weddings, there are glamor-makers, and organists, and ridiculous, and gusseters. and they sing demonic songs."

It is not surprising that the opposition of the official church to buffoonery traditions that retained elements of paganism runs through the entire medieval Russian culture. In addition, the repertoire of buffoons often had an anti-church, anti-lordly orientation. At the end of the 15th century, the church made decisions aimed at eradicating buffoonery. Finally, in 1648, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich adopted a decree ordering the authorities to destroy buffoons, including their musical instruments: those demonic games, order to burn. Buffoons and masters of gudosh business were subject to expulsion to Siberia and the North, and the instruments were destroyed. Irreparable damage was done to Russian musical art. Some examples of folk instruments have been irretrievably lost.

Pursuing a policy of prohibiting buffoons, those in power at the same time kept small ensembles of musicians at their courts. Buffoonery was eradicated in the 18th century, but the traditions of buffoonery games, satire, humor revived in those regions of Russia where buffoons were exiled. As the researchers wrote, "the jolly legacy of buffoons lived in the posad for a long time even after their expulsion from Moscow and other cities."

The destruction of "buzzing vessels", beating with batogs, exile for making and playing musical instruments led to a reduction in the production of instruments. In Moscow shopping malls, the "home" row has closed.