The genres of musical folklore are the main types of musical works created by unknown authors and saved by the people for many generations with the help of an oral transmission from one person to another.
We will talk about these views today, but first we will bring some clarity to the concepts of "folklore" and "genre" so that no one is confused.
What is folklore and what is a genre?
General word "folklore" refers not only to the field of musical creativity. This word is English and is translated as "popular wisdom". We attribute many phenomena of spiritual culture to folklore. These are legends, legends and fairy tales, sayings and proverbs, spells and conspiracies, signs and fortune telling, dancing, religious and festive rituals, various games and even counting, rhymes and anecdotes!
Genres - these are historically established types of works with their inherent features of the content and form, as well as the specific life purpose and features of their existence and performance. Examples of musical genres are opera, ballet, symphony, song, romance and so on.
What are the genres of musical folklore?
There are extremely many folklore musical genres in different nations (the whole world), therefore in the most general sense they can be divided into vocal (those that are sung - mostly songs) instrumental (which are played - mostly tunes) and vocal and instrumental (it is clear that here they both sing and play at once).
Many more music genres can be divided into three universal categories of content. it epic (if any story is told) lyrics (if the emphasis relies on feelings) and drama (if any action is performed).
Russian song folklore genres
To name all genres of musical folklore is to embrace the immensity. Each new kind of song or dance is a separate genre. For example, epic, round dance, trepak, lullaby, and spring, and carol, and a chastushka - All these are the names of genres.
We will dwell on the genres of Russian folk music. The main genre here is the song, but the songs are different and therefore there are numerous genre variations of the Russian song. These varieties are best remembered by the role they played in the life of the people, in what circumstances and under what circumstances they could sound.
And circumstances can be, for example, here are some - some songs are sung once a year (on the day of a holiday), other songs are tied to a certain rite and are performed only when this rite is performed (for example, on the day of birth, wedding day or funeral). There are songs that are sung only in winter or summer, and there are also songs that can be sung all year round on any day of the week and in any weather. These songs are not tied to either time or rituals and are sung when you just have the mood to sing - for example, a song about sadness, when it is sad, or a song about unrequited love, when there is one, or a fairy tale song told by a guslar, when listen to a lot of people.
So, Russian songs are like this:
- Songs that are associated with the calendar and calendar holidays and rituals (call and meeting spring, "larks", early spring and summer trinity dances, songs of harvest and haymaking, congratulations happy new year, carols and songs-fortune telling, maslinichnye songs).
- Songs that are associated with various events in the personal and family life of people (songs for the birth of a child, baptismal songs, lullabies, children's game round dances, great, wedding and recruit songs, funeral laments and ecclesiastics, memorial prayers and spiritual poems).
- Epic song genres (epic, tale, buffoons and fables, some spiritual poems, ballads, historical songs).
- Lyrical songs (songs about love - happy and unrequited, tragic, drawn-out songs, "suffering", urban songs and cants).
- Songs of everyday life and holidays (soldier’s and student’s songs, nautical navigation songs, labor songs of burlatz, artel, peasant songs, holiday songs — vivatnye, balagan, joke songs and ditties).
Thus, referring to the content of the songs and their life purpose, one can conditionally distribute the genres of musical folklore into such groups.
As a live musical example from the old Russian folk music, listen to the cant "The Storm of the Sea Blurs" about the harsh share of sailors performed by a harmonious male choir.
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