Karelian lamentations or laments. Wedding ritual songs

E unity of the Loknya-Lovatsky cultural traditions, widespread over a vast territory, is largely manifested at the level of wedding rituals. Choral and solo lamentations are of fundamental importance in the pre-wedding rites, which is one of the characteristic features, indicating a commonality with northern Russian traditions. Wedding ritual songs and choruses make up a significant part of the material collected during the expeditions of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory named after N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov under the direction of A. M. Mekhnetsov in 1988-1989 - more than 80 song plots, 13 ritual formula melodies.

Everywhere in the Loknya-Lovta traditions, two types of wedding ceremonial complex are common: “wedding with matchmaking” (includes all the necessary ritual components) and marriage without parental permission - “byegom”, “quietly”. In the second case, there is a significant change in the content and simplification of the structure of the wedding ceremony, which is often limited to holding a feast. If the first type of wedding is considered the main one in all areas, then the second is considered by the villagers as an abnormal phenomenon and is widespread mainly in the Novosokolniki district and in the north-eastern volosts of the Pustoshkinsky district, where the Old Believer settlements are located. In many cases, marriage "runaway" was associated with a violation of the existing ban on mixed marriages between children from "secular" and Old Believer families, but often due to other reasons. If the girls got married “running away” (without the consent of their parents) from a fair or from a festivities, then in the groom’s house the groom’s parents met the young as usual - they spread a fur coat, showered them with life. The mother-in-law was supposed to kiss the bride and groom, but if she did not agree to marry, she could vote at that moment. A week later, the groom with one of his relatives went to the bride's house "for peace", bowed to their parents at the feet. If the bride's parents forgave the young, then they could play a wedding after that (in two or three weeks).

The main type of wedding is a structured ceremonial complex with developed, detailed sections devoted to the preliminary agreement of matchmakers, the “beautification” of the bride and her farewell to parental home(wedding eve and morning of the wedding day), the union of the newlywed couple (wedding day). On the periphery of the tradition - in the Bezhanitsky, Novosokolnichesky, Pustoshkinsky districts, wedding rituals are not presented in such a rich and complete form as in the Loknyansky and Velikoluksky districts, as well as in the neighboring territories of the Kholmsky district of the Novgorod region and the Toropetsky district of the Tver region. Here there is a forgetfulness of many important details rite, wedding songs and lamentations.

The main stages of the ceremony:

1. Matchmaking. "A place to look" (the bride's parents go to inspect the household). Prayer.

2. The period of preparations for the wedding (a week or more): “the bride flaunts”, her friends come to her every day; preparing a dowry.

3. The eve of the wedding day is one of the most ritualistic periods of the wedding. The main events took place in the bride's house. On this day, the orphan bride visited the graves of her parents; in the evening the bride was taken to the bathhouse; after the bath, the bride with the boyars walked around the village, invited relatives to the wedding, the bride and girls were invited to the hut, treated; returning to her house, the bride bowed at the feet of her parents; a "party" ("party") was held in the bride's house, to which the groom could come.

4. Morning of the wedding day: the bride goes to her relatives and calls them to the wedding (“calling the people”), relatives, boyars gather in her house and “scratch the head” (scythe) of the bride; it is endowed and blessed by parents and relatives. In the groom's house, he is also endowed by relatives.

5. The groom with the wedding train arrives at the bride's house: the bride and the boyars go out into the street, the groom "catches the bride", endows the bride with money (either on the street or at the table); "druzhko" must "buy the bride" and "buy the place" from the boyars. The bride is handed over to the groom and they are brought together to the table; participants of the “groom train” sit down at the table; they are sung by the songs of the women who came to the wedding. They go to church.

6. Wedding.

7. After the wedding, the young people go to the groom's house; meet his parents at the porch; lead to the table; singing songs.

8. The second day of the wedding.

9. "Khlebins" - the newlyweds, the parents and the closest relatives of the groom go to the bride's house.

10. Post-wedding rituals.

Features of local traditions, folk terminology

With the general structure of the ritual complex in some volosts, special order wedding events. So, for example, an extended cycle of ritual actions related to the “beautification” of the bride, her farewell to her parents and relatives (walking around the hut, invoking dead parents at the window, scratching the head, transferring “beauty”) can be performed in the bride’s house as on the eve of the wedding, and on the morning of the wedding day. In most villages of the Loknyansky region (in the center of the traditions presented), all of the above actions are performed on the morning of the wedding day. The timing of these actions on the eve of the wedding is typical for the northern volosts of the Velikoluksky district, and is also recorded in individual villages in other districts. Ritual cycles of the wedding day can also differ in their internal content.

One of the important components of the Loknya-Lovatsky traditions are the ritual processions through the village of the bride and the boyars (bridesmaids or older women who own the tradition of nakedness) on the eve or in the morning of the wedding day - “they wear beauty”, “they walk with beauty”, “the bride is led with beauty” , "the bride puts on makeup." The "krasá" itself has a peculiar shape - it is a sieve decorated with a silk scarf and ribbons, which is carried over the head of the bride or in her hands in front of her.

Throughout the represented territory, a decorated Christmas tree is also a symbol of girlish beauty - it is placed on the table during a party, endowing the bride with relatives and redeeming her by the groom. In the center of the traditions under consideration - in the Loknyansky district (everywhere), in the north of the Cherpes volost of the Velikoluksky district, as well as in several villages of the Bezhanitsky and Novosokolnichesky districts - an original form of ritual action is widespread, associated with the meeting of the groom's train at the bride's house before the wedding krasoy"): a bride with boyars goes out into the street with a "beauty" (decorated with a sieve, in more rare cases - with a large straw jug, Christmas tree). The groom and his companions must go out to meet the bride and redeem the "beauty". This ritual action turns out to be characteristic of the Loknya-Lovatian traditions. As a result of the expedition work, the southern and southwestern boundaries of the distribution of this component of the rite are clearly marked, since in the southern part of the Cherpes volost, everywhere in the Bukrovskaya, Maryinskaya, Goritskaya volosts of the Velikoluksky district, in many villages of the Novosokolnichesky district at the time of the arrival of the groom, the bride with the boyars do not meet him on the street, but are at the table. Field research also showed that the tradition of meeting the groom on the street with the "beauty" is widespread in the northern volosts of the Toropetsky district (Tver region), in the adjacent volosts of the Kholmsky district (Novgorod region), and also exists in a slightly different form in the central regions of the Pskov region. areas.

The custom of shedding wheat (wheat, sweets, money, etc.) has a different meaning, timed either to meet the groom at the bride's house before the wedding, or to meet the newlyweds at the groom's house after the wedding. In the center of the traditions presented (in the Loknyansky region and in some villages of the Velikoluksky region), the groom throws wheat (sweets, nuts, money) into the boyarki, and rye (or peas) towards the boyarki at the moment when he enters the bride’s house ( before redemption). This action is perceived as a symbolically transformed form of confrontation and, perhaps, was originally associated with the need to "win the bride." In the eastern volosts of Velikoluksky and in several villages of Loknyansky, Novosokolnichesky, Bezhanitsky, Pustoshkinsky districts (i.e., on the periphery of the traditions under consideration), the sprinkling of wheat, hops, sweets on the newlyweds during their meeting “from the crown” is done by the groom’s parents, and in response the groom or "best man" can throw sweets at those present. IN this case the produced action has a pronounced producing function - showered "to life", to wealth.

An important indicator of specificity local traditions serves as the ritual terminology of the wedding. For example, in relation to the ritual action, which finally fixes the agreement of matchmakers on the wedding, the names “prayer” (“prayer”, “pray to God”) and “hand-beating” are widespread. Another name - “profits” or “washed down profits” - exists only in the Tsevel volost of the Bezhanitsky district. On the northwestern outskirts of the territory under consideration, the name “zarychiny” is occasionally found (at the same time, in the northern volosts of the Pustoshkinsky district, ritual actions of a different content that took place in the bride’s house on the eve of the wedding were called “zarychiny”). Also, various names of the rites of the second (post-wedding) wedding day are recorded: “khlebiny” - in the western part of the represented territory, “outflows” - in the eastern part (along the Lovat River). Among the rare, original ritual terms that indicate the mythological basis of the actions performed, is the name - "raise the bear", which is associated with marking a qualitatively new status of the young woman during the wedding of the newlyweds to the table or waking them up in the morning of the second wedding day. This name met twice in the Cherpes volost of the Velikoluksky region (on the Lovati River).

In the territory under consideration, various names of wedding rites are used. The younger comrade accompanying the groom, in the villages located along the river. Lovat is called “podknyazhnik”, while in other villages of the Loknyansky district the name “best man” is more common, in the Samolukovsky and Krestilovskaya volosts of the Loknyansky district there is also the name “podknyazhnik”. The elder brother or godfather of the groom, who leads the "prince's train", is almost universally called - "druzhk", except for the northern volosts of the Velikoluksky district, where there is a change in the names of wedding ranks: the older man who leads the "train" of the groom is called here - "subprince "or" sub-prince", "sub-prince". Special local names of bread were also recorded as a necessary attribute of the rites of blessing and endowment: in the Lovat villages this bread is called “kýrnik” (“advisor”), and in the Novosokolnichesky district - “allotment bread”. The ritual women's headdress in most villages has the name "povoy", "poynik", but in the Bukrovskaya volost of the Velikoluksky district, a rare name for the Pskov region was found - "forty".

Sequential description of the stages of the ceremony

1. The matchmaking process took several days. If the groom (or his parents) was not sure of the success of the matchmaking, then he asked the aunt (before the matchmaking) to receive a “deposit” (handkerchief) from the bride - as a sign that she would not refuse him, and only after that he went to woo the bride .

The groom went to woo with his father or mother; according to other sources - one father (mother) with one of the acquaintances. In some cases, a sorcerer was invited to matchmakers. Married in the evening. Matchmakers could dress up and tie a towel over their shoulders, decorate horses, hang bells on the arc.

At the moment when the matchmakers left their home, someone threw a felt boot or “heating” after them so that the matchmaking was successful. When the matchmaker entered the bride's house, he specially tugged with his foot and with a roar knocked down the poker on the floor, the tongs, which usually stood by the stove, said: “Hello! Fall down, hooks, tongs, and we have come to matchmakers.

The matchmakers did not pass behind the “slegu” or “matitsa” (the central beam on the ceiling), they sat down against the door, started a conversation in a conditionally symbolic form: “they told fables” “gawared with jokes”. In winter, matchmakers came in large sheepskin coats, and in former years there was a custom to “soar the groom”: the bride’s parents did not offer the matchmakers to take off their sheepskin coats until they agreed on the wedding. After a preliminary conversation, everyone was invited to the table, the matchmakers were treated, they drank tea from a samovar; the groom put a bottle of wine on the table if things were going well. In the villages, this feast is sometimes called "drinks".

After the matchmaking, the bride's parents (or only the father) go to inspect the groom's household - "a place to look" ("a house to look"). If they don’t like something, they can refuse the matchmakers and the wedding will be “upset”.

Prayer is appointed on the third or fifth day from the matchmaking, by which time the final decision should be made. The groom's parents (or only the father), close relatives and the groom himself come to the "prayer" ("prayer", "handshake", "hands"; "drinks", "profits"). Everyone faces the icons (the bride and groom are next to each other, their parents are near each of them), light candles and pray to God, bow three times to the ground. Then the bride and groom are allowed to kiss the icon, the parents kiss the bride and groom and bless. Everyone is invited to the table, the groom must bring wine, everyone drinks. From the groom, the parents give money, and from the bride, the mother brings gifts: to the father-in-law - fabric for a shirt; mother-in-law - a scarf, a groom - a shirt; girls, sister-in-law - on a dress. Father-in-law and mother-in-law were always presented with knitted mittens with patterns - “undershirts”.

During the "prayer" they appoint a wedding day (usually a week later on Sunday) and agree on the number of guests from the groom's side and the bride's side.

At the end of the courtship, the father of the bride and the father of the groom put on "undershirts" (mittens) and "beat on the hands" - "we are matchmakers now." According to the narrators, mittens were put on in order to be taken “not with bare hands” - so that “there was wealth”. After the handshake, the bride and her mother wailed: the bride lamented, bowing at the feet of her father, mother, brother.

2. In the period from matchmaking to the wedding day, friends come to the bride every day. In the bride's house, a dowry is prepared - towels; "napkins" (tablecloths); “veils” on the windows (for this, they first went to the groom’s house to “measure windows” “sew gifts”: they knit “patterned bottoms” (colored mittens with patterns), weave belts, sew “magpies” (women's hats).
3. On the evening before the wedding, a bathing ritual was performed. The banya (“bainya”) is drowned by the elder boyar woman, while the “little firewood” in the stove “does not beat”, otherwise the husband will “beat”. The bride is not soared, otherwise they will "scald", and the husband "will fight." The girls dressed the bride, scratched her head and braided her braid. According to one of the testimonies, in the bath the bride's hair was braided into two braids. Coming out of the bath, the bride thanked her friends, bowed, “gave thanks for the sultry baenka” - “lamented”.

When the bride and the boyars leave the bath, they stop and bow on four sides - “Pray to God.” Some records contain information that the bride with the boyars immediately after the bath comes home and asks her father for permission to go outside and call relatives to wedding, voice. After that, the bride and boyars go to invite relatives to the wedding. The orphan bride stops on the road or “at the crossroads” (crossroads), turns her face “towards the buoy” (towards the cemetery) or, according to other stories, goes outside the village, “into an open field” and “shouts” - calls for a wedding deceased parents. If close relatives of the bride live in the village, then the boyars with the bride go “along the huts” and invite relatives to the wedding.

Approaching the house of a relative, the bride continued to cry, asked to open the door. The bride's relatives invited the girls to the house, the bride "went around the hut" and lamented, referring to the owner and mistress of the house, and the boyars cried, summed up in a voice - "hiccup". The bride and the boyars were seated at the table, fed "dinner". After the treat, when the girls were about to leave, they thanked their relatives - "give thanks" - they voted. At the same time, the bride “wept with her voice” as well. In some villages, the very procession of the bride along the street with the boyars is called - "the bride flaunts."

In the village of Bor, located on the river. Lovat, there are memories of how, on the evening before the wedding (after bathing in the bath), an orphan bride who did not have a father, and her friends went around the whole village - “wearing beauty”, while in each house they gave the bride. "Girl's beauty" - a sieve covered with a large "haze" cloth with tassels - the girls carried over the head of the bride, lamented. The owners came out of the house and put money on the sieve.

When the boyars and the naked bride return to her house, the door must be closed. The bride “pounds on the hut”, laments, and the boyars let down their voice (“hiccups”). The bride with the boyars on the porch is met by her mother (or father). The bride does not immediately enter the house: the mother opens the door, and the boyar woman closes it from the outside. When the mother (or father) finally lets them into the house, the bride bows (“falls”) at her feet and wails to her parents.

Relatives gather in the bride's house, everyone sits in a row on the benches, the father and mother sit near the table, the boyars stand. The elder boyar woman leads the bride by the arm - the bride “walks around the hut”, wails, bows at the feet of her father and cries, the boyar woman calms her down. Then the bride cries and wails with her mother and with all her sisters, brothers and relatives.

In some villages of the northern volosts of the Velikoluksky district, as well as in the village of Gogolevo, Loknyansky district, the cycle of ritual actions that took place in the bride’s house in the evening after the bath ritual has a developed multi-component form: the bride “walks around the hut” - “flaunts” (if the bride is an orphan, then she calls her parents at the window), bows - “gives thanks to her parents” (“for beauty and for the will”); the bride is “scratched her head”; after that, she, covered with a scarf, again “walks around the hut”, bows and “gives thanks” (“that they combed my wild galovka”). At the end, the bride wears ribbons in her hands, and passes on the “beauty of a girl” to her sister.

Immediately after the bride “walks around the hut”, or after some time, the boyars bring the bride to the table, and the party begins, to which the girls gather. A Christmas tree decorated with paper flowers and rags was placed on the table, and treats were placed. The boyars lead the bride to the table, everyone sits in a row. If the bride is an orphan, then the elder boyar woman “starts with her voice” a choral lamentation, all those present cry. After that, the boyars (or the women who have gathered to watch the party) sing “party songs: “On the eve of the hour of the evening”, “The river runs, it won’t rock”, “Evening, evening party”, and others. During the singing, the bride sits at the table and cries. The groom could come to the party with a "best man" ("subprince"). The groom gives the bride money - “for tears”, so that she calms down, does not cry; he brings treats, sweets. The bride at the party could present the groom and his brothers or friends accompanying him with “undershirts” (mittens), she gives the groom a shirt (in which he will be married). According to some stories, the guys (who came with the groom) could dance with the girls, and the bride was crying at that time.

According to information from the villages located along the Lovat River, on the evening before the wedding, a “kurnik” (“adviser”) is baked in the bride’s house. According to some sources, this is a simple pie (without filling) made of white flour, according to others, chicken or goose is baked into the pie. This "kurnik" on the morning of the wedding day lies on the table in the bride's house, then godmother of the bride(“Svashka”) wraps him up and takes him to the groom’s house.

On the eve of the wedding, a dowry is taken from the bride's house to the groom's house ("they are carrying a chest"; "they are taking it more comfortably", "they are bringing it more comfortably"; "they are bringing it well"; "attachment"). When the dowry is folded, a towel (or handkerchief) is hidden under the mattress or the bed linen is tied with a belt - this is a gift to the one who will spread the bed in the groom's house.

From the side of the bride, women and friends go to “dress up the hut” of the groom: they hang towels in the room along the walls (“towels” are hung on stretched belts -), “veils” (curtains) on the windows and around the bed; “Kryapa” (stuffed with straw) mattress; lay out the feather bed all the blankets and pillows on the bed; spread sheets - so that "everything is shown." The one who brought and hung the dowry is treated by the groom's parents On the wedding day in the morning, villagers and neighbors come to "look at the dowry."

4. The mother of the bride “was crying,” she wailed when she woke up the bride on the morning of the wedding day. At the dawn of the morning, the boyar women lead under their arms a closed large beautiful handkerchief the bride down the street with a bare - "they call the breed" - they call relatives. The bride and friends wailed, addressing the deceased relatives and those who were far away and could not come to the wedding. Returning, the boyars wailed at the bride's house - they asked the bride's parents to open the door for them, and if the bride was an orphan, then at that moment she "shout, cry."

Relatives gather at the bride's house, "scratch her head" to the bride: they put her on a sourdough bread in front of the table - "in the middle of the floor." She sits bent over, covered with a handkerchief or "napkin" (tablecloth) and wails to the singing of the boyars. The father and mother are the first to approach, open the bride (remove the scarf) and scratch her head with a comb or brush for combing flax, leave the comb in her hair or put the brush on the sourdough next to the bride. According to some reports, it is at this moment that the bride is endowed with money. Money is placed in a hem or in a sieve placed on the floor in front of the bride, decorated with shawls and ribbons, like “beauty”, or covered with a white scarf, in other cases - in a plate that is on the bride’s knees. The bride "covers" everyone, cries, wails - "thank you."

The bride is then dressed in wedding dress, a wax wreath (“flowers”, veil) is placed on the head. The braid is not braided, only tied at the back with a ribbon. The elder boyar woman leads the bride to the table, the boyars sit next to him, light candles, and the ceremony of endowing the bride begins. On the table is “allotment” bread covered with a scarf (or a plate covered with a towel or scarf) - money will be put on this bread (plate). There is also a decorated Christmas tree on the table. Boyars call - "shout" father and mother, brothers, sisters, relatives, neighbors. The bride, while singing, sat at the table and wailed, cried, and the boyar woman calmed her down. During the endowment, the bride's parents come to the table and bless her with bread, salt, an icon: they circle bread and salt around the bride's head three times from right to left (or make a cross-shaped movement above her head).

mother, as well as godmother, having crossed the bride, put a pectoral cross on a ribbon around her neck and voted. The bride and mother could "hug each other" across the table and wail together. Then everyone who comes to endow her also blesses the bride. During the vesting, the bride and the boyars stand and bow to everyone who comes to the table. The bride's father (or her godfather) stands next to the table and treats everyone who gives the bride a glass of wine. After the endowment, the bridegrooms are “waited” in the bride’s house. Sitting at the table, the boyars sing songs.

In the groom's house on the morning of the wedding day, he was also endowed by relatives. Mother "invited" for the groom. During the vesting in the groom's house, women also sang ritual songs:

5. An important feature of the Loknya-Lovatsky traditions is the inclusion in the rites of the wedding day of an independent ritual action - the bride’s exit with “beauty” (a sieve covered on top with a large silk scarf with tassels and tied with ribbons) to meet the groom’s train - “they wear beauty”, “with they walk with beauty”, “they lead the bride with beauty”, “the bride flaunts”. The "beauty" of the boyars was held over the head of the bride, they sang a choral voice. According to other stories, one or two or three sieves covered with scarves were carried in their hands by the bridesmaids or young guys (usually the bride's brothers), who walked in front of the bride or next to her.

The boyars and the bride walk, holding hands, trying to get away from the groom's "train", turn their backs to him. The groom must be so contrived to leave with the "train" to meet the bride. Sometimes, in order to overtake the bride, the groom and the “best man” dismounted from their horses.

The “train” of the groom surrounds the boyars from all sides, they stop, the groom or “best man” comes up and “redeems the bride”, puts money or bagels, sweets on top “on the beauty” (on the sieve) (at the same time, the bride’s brother tries to raise the sieve higher so that harder to get). After that, everyone goes to the bride's house: the boyars with the bride rush to go ahead and take a place at the table, and the bridegroom's parents meet the bride's house with an icon.

In the house, going up to the table, the groom had to "buy the bride" and "buy the place" from the boyars. In some villages of the Velikoluksky district, the “princely” (or groom) could quietly throw a hat (less often, a whip) over the boyars so as to get on the “pillow” (the groom’s place at the table) or the bride. In this case, the boyars had to give the bride without a ransom and let the groom to the table.

In the Loknyansky district and in some villages of the Velikoluksky district, at the completion of the ransom, the groom threw sweets (or nuts with seeds and sweets, or money) to the boyars, and the boyars in response poured zhito (barley grains), peas towards the groom.

At the time of the ransom of the bride, next to her, a younger brother or sister is placed on the bench to “cut kasu” to the bride: the groom (or “druzhko”) must pay money - “to redeem the braid”.

The boyars pin flowers on the chest of the young participants of the groom's train, who must thank the boyars for this, give them money.

After the ransom of the bride, the boyars take the gifts and leave the table.

The elder boyar woman takes the bride from the table to the groom, and they are “put in place” - the bride and groom take each other by the hand and kiss. From that moment on, throughout the wedding, the bride and groom do not part and hold each other by the hand or “hand in hand” (so that they “do not disperse” in life).

“Druzhko” (“podknyazh”) leads them “round the table” and sits at the table - the groom sits closer to the front corner, the “podknyazh” sits to the right of the groom, then the godfather of the groom (“thousand”). The bride sits to the left of the groom, next to her sister (boyarka) and the godmother of the bride (“matchmaker”). The “breed” of the groom sits at the table - “all weddings”.

When the young are led to the table, their parents bless them. The women gathered in the house or the older man begin the song: “Baslav, God, God, play the wedding, God.” The singer stands near the table, crosses himself, begins to sing and claps three times, taking two pies in his hands. After they “play a song”, the pies are broken and divided among all the singers. In some villages, at the moment when the bride and groom are taken to the table, they are endowed with guests from the groom's side (“the whole train”) and all those present. The mother and father of the bride are the first to approach with bread, an icon, they give pectoral crosses - the father puts on the groom, and the mother puts on the bride.

Before endowing “they are suitable with beer” - beer is placed on the table in a wooden bucket, next to it are mugs. The bride (or one of her assistants) should cover the beer with an embroidered “napkin” or towel, a platter – “donate gifts”. This gift is taken by the one who brewed beer, or the "druzhko" himself. To each one who then comes up to endow the young and puts money in, the "druzhko" serves a mug of beer and a glass of wine.

The expedition records indicate that no treats were brought to the table in the bride's house before the wedding.

Young people and guests could be called at the table: first of all, they sing for the “prince” (groom) and “princess”. The guests at the table gave the singers money and treated them to beer and wine.

Women could dance in a “circle” at a wedding - one after another in a circle, turning during the dance either with their backs or sideways, while waving their arms during the circular dance, “huffed”.

As soon as the groom takes the bride by the hand from the table, the girls take off the "napkin" (tablecloth) from the table and throw it over the heads of everyone walking - over the threshold, onto the street, so that other girls "do not sit, get married." The parents of the bride bless the groom and the bride and “send down the aisle”.

First of home goes"druzhko", leads the groom by the hand, and the groom holds the bride's hand

When the entire wedding train has gathered and is ready to go to church, the “druzhko” or godfather, taking the icon in his hands, baptizes the first horse with it and then walks around all the horses with the icon three times.

The bride and groom ride to the crown in different sleighs. Following those leaving for the crown, they throw rye (barley) and sheep wool, “shtob lived rich”.

6. The wedding ceremony was performed according to the church order. Crowns over their heads were held by the "best man" and "best man". After the wedding, the young "ride" through the villages.

7. At the groom's house, women gather on the street and meet the young (“to get married”) with songs. The groom's parents greet the young with bread and salt, congratulate the young, kiss and lead them into the house

In some villages, there is a custom during a meeting “from the crown” of young people on the street to shower with zhit (barley grain), hops, sweets, which the father, uncle or mother of the groom took out in a sieve - “to life”, “to live harasho”, to wealth .

The very moment the young people enter the groom's house is endowed with special significance. According to one of the records, the groom's parents, standing at the threshold, raise bread in their hands, and the young people go into the hut under the bread. The bride tries to enter first and step over the threshold with her right foot.

Before taking a seat at the tables, the young go to the other half of the hut, where they are fed separately (“they are fed”, “padded”). Young people at the table do not eat or drink, although they are poured glasses and put spoons.

A number of unique expedition records include a story about inviting young people from the other half of the hut to a wedding feast - “to fall down a bear”. When the young are “started to feed”, all the participants in the feast gather at the table and stand on the sides, waiting. After a while, the women go to the other half of the hut: “Come and fall the bear!”. One of them picks up two torches and snaps them so hard that the torch flies up. After that, the godmother (“matchmaker”, “matchmaker”) and the godfather take the young to the table.

After the young people are led to the table (or immediately before it), the godmother “twirls”, “ties” the young woman: removes a wreath from her, braids her hair “into two braids”, folds (“curls”) the braids from behind, puts on the young woman povoynik - a women's headdress in the form of a satin cap with ties. In the Novosokolnichesky district, when a young woman is put on a “warrior”, they, together with the groom, are “closed” or “veiled” with a large veil - two women (or a “best man” with a “best man”) stand on both sides with candles and hold the veil in their hands so so that others do not see the young.

During the feast, according to custom, each dish was taken out separately and in turn. Jellied meat used to be served on the wedding table, then hot - cabbage soup, soup or noodles, cabbage, potatoes with meat, cereals (“prusovaya”, buckwheat or “gushsha” from crushed grain, “white” from millet), pancakes with butter, scrambled eggs; milk, cranberry jelly, tea with white flour pies, cookies. They brought beer and vodka: the father or brother of the groom poured and served the drink to the guests.

They are going to the groom's house strangers from his village to look at the wedding, it was called - “in the eye”, “the eye had ate”, “we eat the eye”.

"Pesnahorki" sing to all guests in the same way as it happened in the bride's house. When the "wedding abay" was played, the singers jumped onto the bench and danced; the one to whom it was dedicated also danced with them.

During the post-wedding feast, the bride presented gifts to the parents and relatives of the groom: she gave her father-in-law a shirt (or fabric for a shirt); mother-in-law - fabric on the dress; all participants of the groom's "train" - "undershirts" (mittens), pouches; “Kin-parodushka” - scarves, “sleeves”.

In the evening, when the last dish (in most cases, a pot of porridge) is brought to the table, the mother-in-law (or another woman “who cooked”), approaching the table, shouts: “Oh! Hot, hot, hot! “I burn my hands! I'm burning my hands! At the same time, she drops and breaks a cup of food on the floor or threshold. At this moment, the bride "svashka" (godmother) should throw a towel ("wife") or a scarf, "povoy" (women's headdress), chintz on the dress - "svashka is already with a knot and sits behind became." All participants in the feast put money on top of the gift thrown by the “svashka”. Having received a gift, the mother-in-law “beat with calico” (shaking in her hand), danced and sang.

After the feast, the young were taken away for the night to another house (to relatives).

8. The next day, in the morning, outsiders (or relatives) come to the house in which the young people spent the night and “wake up the young” - they break the pot near the bed, while dancing over the shards. Young people get up and treat those who broke the pots.

According to the memoirs of the oldest residents, if they found out that a girl was “dishonest”, then they put a collar on her; or at the moment when the pots were beaten, the young woman's shirt was spread on the floor and danced on it.

In some villages, on the morning after the wedding, strangers come and litter the hut, and the young woman is forced to sweep the floor. The bride deliberately begins sweeping the rubbish into the red corner and hangs a broom on a nail in the red corner. A young woman tied a belt to a broom - this is a gift to that woman who will remove the broom and clean up the garbage.

A feast is arranged in the groom's house in the morning, during which they cut and eat "kurnik" (a pie baked on the eve of the wedding and brought from the bride's house). The bride gives gifts to her new relatives: scarves, belts, pouches.

9. The newlyweds, as well as the parents and closest relatives of the groom, go to the bride’s house “for bread” (or “for allotments”, “for allotments”).

The bride's parents serve on the table the same treat as during the wedding feast. They didn’t sing songs on the “outlets”. The matchmakers are visiting, they spend the night.

10. The materials of the expedition contain single information about how the young are taken to the bathhouse for the first time in the groom's house: the young women are accompanied to the bathhouse with singing and dancing.

Since weddings, as a rule, were held during the winter meat-eater, during Maslenitsa, the newlyweds had to visit the bride's parents and ride in a sleigh through the villages.

Music of the rite

Choral and solo lamentations are of fundamental importance in the pre-wedding rites, which is one of the characteristic features of the Loknya-Lovat traditions, indicating their original relationship with the northern Russian traditions. In the course of folklore expeditions, various texts of wedding lamentations and numerous versions of two different tunes of choral lamentations performed by the boyars, and tunes of solo lamentations of the bride and her mother were recorded.

In the western part of the Loknyansky district and in the adjacent territory of the Bezhanitsky and Novosokolnichesky districts, the chant of a choral chant is widespread, which is characteristic of a vast zone of the central Pskov region (variants of this melody were also recorded in Pustoshkinsky, Opochetsky, and Krasnogorodsky districts). This tune is characterized by the development of the melodic line (an abundance of syllabic chanters), the uniformity of syllabic pronunciation, the verse organization of the musical and poetic form, which has a stable syllabic structure based on the tonic principle of versification (in most cases, the length of a verse line is limited to 13–14 syllables; the number of main accents is three) .

The second type of choral chant is found in villages located along the Lovat River (Podberezinskaya volost of Loknyansky and Cherpesskaya, Maryinskaya volost of Velikoluksky districts) (Appendix, audio, No. 1). The Lovatsky chant of the choral chant has the same compositional and rhythmic characteristics as the melody common in the western part of the Loknyansky district. At the same time, the originality of the melody is due to a special form of performing voice-over - with eyeliner-vocalization: the elder boyar woman or the bride reproduces the text and the chant of the choral chant, and the girls simultaneously lead the same motive without words to the vowel "i" - "hiccup", "hiccup", " chirp", "fight". There is a synchronous superimposition of the choral eyeliner on the solo performance of the lamentation, resulting in a stratification of the musical and speech flow. The declamatory beginning prevails in the “vocal part” of the bride (or the boyar woman), reproducing the text of the holocaust - here there are some techniques characteristic of solo performance (for example, frequent and sometimes irregular in length caesuras, due to the intermittency of emotionally colored breathing). At the same time, in the choir part of the girls, the melody of voice is free from poetic text and acts as an independent musical phenomenon - the desire for continuity and richness of the sound flow prevails here. The complex organization of the artistic form, based on the simultaneous implementation of the voicing melody in two "sound hypostases", gives the Loknya choral lamentation a unique look. This character of the performance of the choral chant testifies to the originality and historical depth of the local singing style and, at the same time, reveals the kinship of the tradition under consideration with the Central Pskov and Middle Velikoretsk traditions, where there are similar forms of eyeliner in choral lamentations and ritual vocalization without words when performing wedding songs. - the so-called "burning" (from "burning" - to lead with a voice).

Wedding solo lamentation (of the bride, her mother, friend) at the intonational level has a commonality with the funeral voice. In general, the melodies of solo lamentations in the presented traditions are distinguished by great diversity in the expression of lamentable-narrative and exclamatory-petitionary beginnings. In contrast to the choral lamentation, the composition of solo lamentations is mobile and has a tirade basis; rhythm reflects all the subtleties of pronouncing the text in a singsong voice, an irregular (in selected examples- ternary) pulsation. The leading structure-forming role is played by the tonic principle of verse organization (the significance of phrasal accents as centers organizing the speech process). In many cases, the intonation system of voicing chants is based on a trichord in a fourth, but in general, there is mobility and a variety of modal patterns. Moreover, this or that character of intonation and the features of the melody of lamentations are often determined by the emotional state of the performer.

Wedding ritual songs and choruses make up a significant part of collected material: expeditions recorded more than 80 song plots, 13 ritual formula melodies. Very revealing for the characterization of the Loknya-Lovatian traditions are observations concerning the style features and dynamics of the distribution of wedding ritual melodies. A group of melancholy-narrative melodies stands out in particular, the structure of which is based on varieties of the slogo-rhythmic model of the tonic nine-syllable. Generally this group songs associated with the rites of preparation for the wedding. Poetic texts are assigned to the four formulaic tunes, in which the themes of the bride's farewell to her parents, the blessing of the orphan, the bride's parting with "beauty" develop; the content of individual poetic texts can be generally represented as the embodiment of the idea of ​​the upcoming marriage: the bridegroom is sung to the girl (bride). It should be noted that some tunes (for example, Appendix, audio, No. 5) were recorded only in the Podberezinsky volost of the Loknyansky district. One of the tunes is found in all the surveyed volosts of the Loknyansky district, in the Cherpes volost of the Velikoluksky district, in the Bologovskaya, Ramenskaya, Runovskaya volosts of the Novosokolniki district, single records of this melody were made in the Kudeverskaya and Tsevelskaya volosts of the Bezhanitsky district. In addition, variants of this tune are presented in many geographically distant song traditions of Novgorod origin. In other regions of the Pskov region, this tune is not found. Thus, an important link is revealed, indicating the connection between the Loknya-Lovat traditions and the Novgorod folk song culture.

In the course of an expeditionary survey on the Lovat River and in the northern volosts of the Velikoluksky district, especially significant ritual songs “Bless, God, God” and “Falcon, fly together” (Appendix, audio, No. 5), which have independent melodically developed formula melodies, were recorded. The villagers call these songs “blessed” and “nadelnaya” - their sound marks the key moments of the wedding ritual action associated with the blessing and endowment of the bride and groom before leaving for the wedding or after the wedding, when the young are brought to the table (“bring the young to one place "). Both marked songs belong to the original phenomena of the Loknya-Lovatian traditions.

The connection with the traditions of the western and central Pskov region is manifested in a special form of glorification of the participants in the wedding feast, preserved mainly in the Podberezinskaya and Cherpesskaya volosts (on the Lovat River): the singers “abai play the train”, while in the song they call “prince” and “princess” by name, all members of the "prince's train", all the relatives of the bride sitting at the table ("bride of the train"). Immediately after the execution of the main text of magnification to one of the main formula tunes, a “dancing song” is sung for the guest, a chorus (Appendix, audio, No. 6). As a result, the process of "playing out the wedding train" takes on the form of a kind of song cycle that has ritual significance. At the same time, the main melody, which is complex in melodic and compositional-rhythmic respects, is often reproduced with the texts of greatness repeatedly, interspersed with various fast chants, accompanied by a general dance.

Quite indicative of the Loknya-Lovatian traditions is the characteristic of the wedding ceremonial melody formula prevailing in the given territory (appendix, audio, No. 3), with which about 30 texts are sung. Since poetic texts differ significantly in figurative and thematic terms, this allows us to judge the semantic diversity and multifunctionality of this tune. The musical and poetic stanza has a complex composition - it consists of 4 verse lines, united by a continuous stream musical development; The syllogo-rhythmic model of the melody is based on the tonic semi-syllable. Variants of the main melody of the Pechora and Gdov weddings have a similar compositional-rhythmic structure and intonational content, and at the same time, in all respects, the Loknya chant turns out to be close to the Velikie Luki formula melody. The difference between the variants of the melody related to the Loknya-Lovat traditions lies in a much greater chant, slowness of the musical movement, which gives it special kind. The northern and western boundaries of the distribution of the Loknya-Lovatian traditions coincide with the extreme points of existence of the specified main formulaic wedding tune. Already in the Bezhanitsky, Pustoshkinsky, Novosokolnichesky districts, there is a reduction in the number of texts performed to this tune, and the structure of the musical and poetic stanza is simplified. At the same time, the eastern and southern limits of the distribution of this tune are not limited to the Loknya-Lovatian traditions. The second place in importance in the wedding ceremony belongs to the tune, the structure of which is based on the syllabic syllabic period (Appendix, audio, No. 4). This tune is also polytextual: more than 20 poetic texts are performed with it, varied in content, but for the most part, they are an artistic and symbolic generalization of the most important ritual actions taking place at the time of their performance (the departure of the groom for the bride, the meeting of the groom's train, the departure and connection of the newlywed couple for tables, departure of the bride to the crown). Many texts are connected with the glorification of the participants in the wedding feast. Only one of the plots develops the theme of the bride's farewell to beauty (“The heat is burning, the heat is burning on a high mountain”). Thus, this chant is mainly associated with the incantatory functional sphere, which is fully consistent with its stylistic properties. Most of the recordings of this tune were made in the Podberezinsky volost of the Loknyansky and Cherpes volosts of the Velikoluksky districts, which allows us to judge the strengthening of its significance in the eastern part of the represented territory. In some villages of the Bukrovskaya and Goritskaya volosts of the Velikoluksky district, there is an independent, musically very expressive version of this tune with a characteristic vocalization (the second part of the stanza is sung without words - on “oh-oh-oh”) and a pronounced exclamation-cry intonation base . In the song traditions of the Loknyansky and Velikoluksky regions, there are other variants of the tune with separate texts, similar to it in terms of composition, but having a different melodic or musical-rhythmic embodiment.

The formula melody presented in song sample No. 15 was recorded in several villages of the Podberezinskaya volost of the Loknyansky and Bukrovskaya volosts of the Velikoluksky districts with 4 texts. Expeditionary studies have shown that the center of distribution of this formula tune is located to the east - in the Kholmsky and Toropetsky regions.

Other ritual songs and choruses of the Loknya-Lovat wedding are not so characteristic of local traditions, but rather belong to the general folklore "fund" of the Pskov region and the North-West of Russia as a whole. In this regard, for example, a set of wedding ritual choruses is indicative. But, at the same time, interesting details were recorded in the surveyed area, revealing the features of the performance of choruses: an indispensable dance of all the singers, while the participant in the feast, to whom the chorus was intended, jumps onto the bench and dances on it.

A specific feature of the Bezhanitsa wedding is the inclusion of non-ritual round dance songs and dances in the process of the wedding feast - women danced in a “circle”, waved their arms, “choked”.

The expeditionary records also contain samples of ritual sentences and detailed dialogues between the friends and the boyars during the ransom of the bride, which are one of the brightest pages of the Loknya-Lovat wedding.

6. Current state. Not known.

Lamentation (lamentation, lamentation, lamentation) is an archaic genre of folklore, genetically related to the funeral rite. Evidence of Lamentation contains ancient Egyptian papyri, the Mahabharata, the Iliad, the Edda, monuments of ancient Russian literature (Yaroslavna's lament in the Tale of Igor's Campaign). In Russian folklore, laments associated with family rituals(funeral, wedding, recruiting); occasional laments that could be performed in connection with an accident (fire, famine, illness) and parodic lamentations that were included in the poetry of folk calendar rituals at parodic “burials” (Maslenitsa, Kostroma, Trinity birch). IN Slavic tradition, like most peoples, lamentations were performed by women (solo, alternately or solo with a choir of “voices”). From time immemorial, special connoisseurs of lamentations have stood out from the people's environment - yellers (also “mourners”, “weepers”, “clerks”), the performance of lamentations sometimes became their profession. The first collection of Russian lamentations largely consisted of the repertoire of the famous Zaonezhie captive I.A. Fedosova (Lamentations of the Northern Territory, collected by E.V. Barsov). Russian lamentations were also recorded in the 20th century.

The object of the image of lamentations is the tragic in life, therefore they have a strong lyrical beginning. Emotional tension determined the features of poetics: an abundance of exclamatory-interrogative constructions, exclamatory particles, synonymic repetitions, stringing similar syntactic structures, monotony, expressive word formations. The melody in the lamentation is weakly expressed, but big role Sobs, groans, bows, etc. played. Lamentations were created on behalf of the one to whom the ceremony is dedicated (bride, recruit), or on behalf of his relatives. In form, they represented a monologue or lyrical appeal. In central and southern Russia, lamentations had a lyrical character and were small in volume, performed in recitative. Northern lamentations were sung in a melodious, drawling manner and were distinguished by lyrical-epic character; they developed a descriptive, detailed account of what is happening. The structure of the lamentations was open, it contained the possibility of building lines.

Improvisation lay at the heart of the method of performing lamentations, since each time plea was addressed to certain person and was supposed to reveal in its content the specific features of his life. The composition of lamentations was formed in the course of the ceremony. Lamentations functioned as one-time texts, created anew at each performance, however, they actively used verbal formulas accumulated by tradition, individual lines or groups of lines. The content of lamentations could include a request, a command, a reproach, a spell, thanksgiving, and lamentation. Particularly important is the role of lamentations, which helped to pour out a sense of grief. IN the art world lamentations, along with images of real participants in the rite, personifications (illness, death, grief), symbols, and poetic comparisons arose. Lamentations tend to deploy a system of comparisons, pumping up the emotional impression they cause. An archaic feature is the system of metaphorical substitutions. For example, the widow called the deceased owner of the house “desired family”, “legitimate sovereign”, “lada dear”. The lamentations used epithets, hyperbole, words with diminutive suffixes, various poetic tautologies.

Russian writers introduced into their works literary processed texts of lamentations or their imitation (“About a Bear”, 1830, A.S. Pushkin; “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, 1863-77, N.A. Nekrasova; “In the Forests”, 1875, P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky).

Lamentation, lamentation, lamentation is one of the oldest types of folk poetry. In some places of the Russian North-West * it has survived to this day, so weeping, similar to the lamentation of Yaroslavna from the eight-hundred-year-old "Tale of Igor's Campaign", can still be heard today.

The clerk was called in other places wailing, in others, just weeping. Like storytellers, they often became professionals, but the majority of Russian women had access to one or another artistic degree.**

The lamentation has always been individually, and the cause of it could be any family grief: death close relative, missing, some natural disaster.

Since grief, like happiness, is not standard, similar to grief in another house, then the parables cannot be the same. Professional crying must improvise, a relative of the deceased is also individual in crying, she laments for a certain person - for a husband or brother, for a son or daughter, for a parent or grandson. Traditional images that have lost their freshness and strength from frequent, for example, fairy-tale repetitions, in relation to a certain family, to a certain tragic event, acquire an amazing, sometimes terrible emotionality.

Crying out unbearable, under normal conditions, unimaginable and even unacceptable grief was in folk life almost physiological need. After crying out, the man half overcame an irreparable misfortune. Listening to the lamentations, the world, the people around share the grief, take on the burden of loss. Grief in lamentations seems to spread over people. In weeping, in addition, sobs and tears are sort of ordered, their physiology recedes into the background, suffering acquires spirituality due to imagery:

You rise, yes, a formidable cloud,

Fall out, yes, a ser-combustible stone,

· Lamentations were preserved, apparently, in Siberia. So, the untimely death of V. M. Shukshin was mourned by his mother Maria Sergeevna at a funeral in Moscow. Her parable was distinguished by figurativeness and special emotional power.

Crush-ko yes mother cheese ground,

Split the coffin board!

You go, violent winds,

Wave and thin shrouds,

Oh, please, oh my God,

To my breadwinner-father

In the frisky legs of a walker,

In the white hands of the owner.

There's a talker in the mouth...

Oh, I myself know, I know

According to my thoughts, it doesn’t work,

From the soldiery they pay off,

From captivity, they are rescued,

And from the mother damp earth

There is no way out, no way out,

Death is this chaos and ugliness - overcome here imagery, beauty and poetry struggle with non-existence and win. Terrible grief, death, non-existence are softened by tears, in the words of a reckoning they dissolve and splash around the world. The world, people, people, as you know, do not disappear, they were, are and will always be (at least our ancestors thought so) ...

In another case, for example, at a wedding, lamentations have an applied meaning. The wedding action implies a game, some kind of reincarnation, and therefore, as already mentioned, a lamenting bride does not always lament sincerely. The sad meaning of the traditional wedding crying contradicts the wedding itself, its spirit of fun and life renewal. But this is precisely the originality of the wedding parable. During the course of the wedding, the bride was obliged to cry, lament and "crunch", and insincere, unnatural tears often became real, sincere, that's it. emotional impact image. Not allowing to go too far in the reckoning, artistic wedding tradition in some places she switched the bride in a completely different way:

Already God forbid, matchmaker

Yes, for this service

He has three boils in his beard,

And the fourth under the neck

Instead of a red sun

Get lost on the stove

Yes, in cabbage soup would be boiled.

A modern parable using song, even epic echoes, a competent parable can write down, at the same time, it needs some initial

a push that awakens emotional memory. After that, the poetic imagination begins to work, and the parabler creates her own work on a traditional basis. This is exactly what happened to the collective farmer Maria Erakhina from the Vozhegodsky district of the Vologda region*. Starting with an expression of resentment (“a young woman was married off”), Erakhina figuratively retells all the main events of her life:

Go down the aisle - carried out with a toe.

Erakhina's wedding is very well described:

I won't say that I'm beautiful

And there was a talent, people praised.

From my side, this is what they say:

“Oh, what a berry we gave,

Wake poppies color, gold girl!

And those of their own: “We are not worse than you,

We were worth your Maryushka ... "

Before taking the bride to the “God-given house”,

The father says to the father-in-law:

“Now your daughter, dear matchmaker,

A bell has been given to you, even around the corner with it.

A truly popular attitude towards the family is felt further in the reckoning, insults are forgotten, and everything seems to go on as usual:

And then I got used to everything,

I will not be offended by the mother-in-law,

She was hot and outgoing.

If you endure a swear word,

So you can live, there is nothing to sin.

But the husband fell ill and died, leaving behind five orphans.

I mourned, I wept bitterly,

How will I live as a bitter widow,

How to raise children, how to learn

How can I, a widow, bring them out to people?

* "Day of Poetry of the North", Murmansk. The publication was organized by Erakhina's countryman Ivan Aleksandrovich Novozhilov.

And fell on my head

All work, all care,

All male and female.

I'll run the house while the people sleep

With the men suddenly * I'll go out into the field

And I plow all day, almost until night.

I did all the work

All the troubles have passed, all the misfortunes,

I cut down the forest, and I respected it,

I was on the raft and tanned,

Yes, where you want to be saved kind people.

I then taught all the sons,

She brought it to people and is no worse than everyone else.

And forward ** waited for ease

Yes, and I think, poor grief:

It will be easier to live, I will rest now.

Oh, I'm not born for this!

Grief fell on my head,

My poor heart hurt

Never cure him

Only the coffin board will cure!

What fate has done to me

She took my two sons from me...

The ending of this work is also amazing:

You believe me, good people,

I'm not lying, I didn't come up with anything,

Wrote the whole truth

Yes, and that's just a hundredth share.

I wrote something only two days,

And I've been suffering for forty years now...

CHATUSHKA. Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin could not stand ditties, he considered the accordion a German instrument contributing to the primitivization and degeneration of the powerful and ancient vocal and choral culture.

Perplexed about this, he asks: “What happened to him (that is, to the people), that he forgot these songs and sang a ditty, this depressing, this unbearable and mediocre vulgarity? Isn't the factory to blame here, isn't it shiny rubber galoshes, isn't it a woolen scarf that wraps around your neck for no apparent reason on a bright summer day, when the birds sing so well? Isn't it a corset worn over a dress by rural women of fashion? Or is it the accursed German harmonica that a man of some shop holds with such love under his arm on a day of rest? I'm not going to explain this. I only know that this ditty is not a song, but a magpie, and not even natural, but obscenely painted by a mischievous one. And how well they sang! They sang in the field, they sang in the hayloft, in the rivers, by the streams, in the forests and beyond the torch.

V.V. Mayakovsky, referring to the poetic change, also does not really like the ditty: “I’m afraid of one thing - for you and myself, - so that our souls do not become shallow, so that we do not elevate the plane of Raeshniks and the nonsense of ditties to the communist rank.”

However, no matter what is said about the ditty, no matter what is thought, by the will of fate it has become the most widespread, the most popular of all living folklore genres. The figurative energy of a language accumulated over many centuries does not disappear with the death of any (for example, epic) genre; it can manifest itself in the most unexpected forms, both folklore and literary.

Chastushka in folklore, and, perhaps, Mayakovsky himself in literature, were just such surprises. And the antagonism between them, if you think about it, is purely external, both have the same parent - the Russian language ...

True, the parent has many other children. F. I. Chaliapin had reason to be indignant: too much space was occupied by a ditty in common family folk art. Once upon a time, in addition to table choral singing, street choral singing lived and flourished, but long round dance songs gradually turned into short songs, at the same time, the round dance gradually degenerated into the current dance. One can even say that the transformation of the round dance into a dance was accompanied by just degeneration of long songs into ditties. The slow round dance pace at the end of the last century is gradually replaced by a fast, dance one; general dance - pairs and singles. Together

* Together.

** In future.

with all this, and a long song, as it were, is divided into many small ones, with a relatively fast tempo.

And the ditty went for a walk around Rus' ... Neither social troubles, nor the introduction of club amateur art into the people's life could stop her. She lived and lives according to her own laws, only known to her. No one knows how many ditties have been created among the people, whether to count them in thousands or millions. Numerous collectors of this folklore beads, apparently, do not even assume that the ditty, even to a greater extent than the proverb, is characterized by inseparability from everyday life, that, removed from the ethnic musical and verbal environment, it dies immediately. How much does the reader extract, for example, from such a quatrain, lost among thousands of others:

Rebake* due to jerking off

Lost my appetite

I have after the betrayal

Flying ruthlessly.

The reader needs a very large fantasy to imagine a noisy village festivity, to imagine an “exit” to the circle, dancing and defiant singing, counting on everyone to hear. One must know the state of a girl who has been betrayed in love, that strange state of hers when she laughs through her tears, and invigorates, and despairs, and disguises her misfortune with a joke. It is necessary, finally, to know what a "perebeyka", "perebechka" is. The opinion of some researchers that women's ditties were invented mainly by men is hardly worth listening to. Chastushkas were created and are being created on a specific occasion, often during a dance, sometimes in advance, in order to express this or that feeling. There may be a declaration of love, a threat to a possible rival, an encouragement for a not very brave boyfriend, an announcement of a breakup, a request to a friend or comrade to "tune up" in acquaintance, etc. and so on.**.

At all love ditty- the most common and most numerous. Adjacent to it are recruiting and production and household, so to speak, and in some periods there was a ditty and political, expressing frank social protest. Prison, hooligan and obscene ditties unmistakably reflect the change and shifts in the moral and everyday life, the oblivion of artistic tradition.

It would be foolish to say that in traditional folklore there were no obscene ditties at all. There were some, but they were sung very rarely, and then in certain, most often male companies, as if with an eye on them. To sing a bawdy ditty in front of all honest people could only be the very last bastard, who by no means valued his good name. “Progress” in the dissemination of talented but obscene ditties began at the turn of the two centuries with approximately the following quatrains: “I wanted to press my madam to the woodpile, the woodpile rolled, madam run.” Excessive frankness and spontaneity are redeemed in this ditty with amazing authenticity. The later obscene ditty becomes more and more cynical, unreliable-abstract ***. The relationship of such folklore opuses with drunkenness is obvious.

It is interesting that the ditty was sung not only in those cases when it was fun or when it was boring. Sometimes she sang during inescapable grief, taking the form of a confession or a complaint about fate. So, during the dance, the young widow sang and cried at the same time:

Berry was killed

And yes, I would die

Neither which nor which

Wouldn't regret it.

And dancing and singing in such cases took on the functions of crying, lamentations. The meaning of many ditties, as well as proverbs, is not always unambiguous, it is revealed only in certain conditions, depending on who sings where, how and why.

Golden Chairman, Silver Brigadier. Let go for a walk, Today is not a windy day.

· Perebeyka-razluchnitsa, rival. From the word "interrupt", "beat off". A synonym can be "adversary."

· ** Maria Vasilievna Khvalynskaya, a Kargopol collector of ditties and proverbs, says that “before, many girls had notebooks with their ditties. They started them at the age of thirteen or fourteen and replenished the records until they were given in marriage. *** The reader should take the author's word for it, as the examples are completely unprintable.

Again, you need to know that on wet, that is, sunny days, you need to work, mow or reap, and you can take a walk in bad weather. The song can be sung this way and that, either with inner mockery, or with sincere respect. But such, for example, a ditty can hardly be sung in any other sense:

Dear, cherished,

Noticeable on the scythe

Harvest on the strip

Scarlet ribbon in a braid.

At the table and during the general dance “in a circle”, the second half of the ditties were sung collectively, well-known words were picked up immediately. Anyone present could sing. A pair of girlish dances brought to life a special ditty dialogue, during which worldly joys and grievances are expressed, intimate questions are asked and answers are sung, rivals or unkind relatives make their way.

Chastushechny dialogue, carried out in a dance, could occur between two friends, between rivals, between a guy and a girl, between loving friend friend, between two relatives, etc. Threat, flattery, gratitude, appeal, refusal - all that

what people are shy or afraid to express directly, easily and naturally expresses themselves in a ditty.

In ditty monologue confessional energy is expressed. In folklore storerooms there are ditties to express any feelings, any shades of state of mind. But if a suitable quatrain is not remembered or unknown to the singer, then his own, completely new, is invented.

There are quite numerous ditties addressed to the harmonist. Sometimes they sound outright flattery, even sycophancy. But what will you not do to dance for once, pour out your soul in songs! Especially in those days when so many harmonists lay down for eternal sleep in their unmourned graves.

RAEK. Speaking fluently means rhythmically, in rhyme, briefly, accurately and figuratively. Coherent speech was not the property of only a few people; everyone strove to speak fluently. The difference between talented and dumb-tongued speakers was only that the former improvised, while the latter only repeated what they had once heard. There was no sharp qualitative boundary between the two. Nature gives abilities to all people, but not all equally and not all the same. The boundary between ordinary speech and stylized speech is also indefinite. Many people, however, have a very pronounced ability to speak in rhyme and even the ability to fold, that is, to poetry.

Such a poet lived in almost every village, and in other villages there were more than one of them, and they arranged original tournaments, competing with each other.

A peasant Akindin Sudenkov lived in Timonikh, a real poet who composed poems for any funny occasion, using ditty rhythm and meter for this. Ivan Makarovich Senin lived in the village of Druzhinin, who also composed ditties. Old man Yefim lived on Lake Dolgoe, like Sudenkov, who wrote whole poems about how they beat the “tyutya” (an eagle owl who frightened with his cry) with the whole world, how they joined the collective farm and how they carried out the plan for felling and hauling the forest.

We won’t catch up with the attackers, So we’ll catch up with the caps, - Yefim wrote about the competition in the spring hauling of timber. (We are talking about the fact that in the spring, when the snow melted and the roads became impassable, to fulfill the plan, they called on people to throw snow on the road with shovels.) About own wife, who participated in social work, Yefim composed as follows:

What a lovely wife

Wasn't in power

The village council would not come,

Would not catch up with passion.

Yefim carved poems on spinning wheels, which he made himself, on pails, etc. On a rattle made for a neighbor, he, perhaps in defiance of his wife, carved the following words: “I give Nastasyushka a ruffle, my love for her fell hard.”

Many residents of the Azletsky village council of the Kharovsky district remember well the half-blind Vasya Chernyaev, who from time to time walked around the world. Opening the door and crossing himself, he stood at the threshold and recitative started either a prayer, or some kind of song-spell - long and very foldable. He called on the holy power to protect the house and its inhabitants "from the sword, from the bullet, from the fire, from the pestilence, from the dashing man" and from other misfortunes. He was given a generous donation. On the street, the children caught up with him, thrust a piece of newspaper or birch bark into his hand, and sometimes just a splinter. He took it, sat down on a stone and, to the general amusement, began to read always in rhyme and on a local topic. Such improvised verses gathered a lot of people around him. Vasya Chernyaev, ashamed of his position, seemed to earn his living. He ran his finger along the birch bark and “read” about how, at a collective farm holiday, “four kilograms of hair was pulled out of someone’s head,” and someone was “deprived of his voice” (in fact, he was hoarse from songs), etc. .

An excellent example of a paradise can be the jokes that a friend says at a wedding, it was not in vain that the most agile and most talkative were appointed friends.

Sometimes whole fairy tales, byvalschiny and bays were told in rhyme, in other cases abstruse fables like this:

“It is written, it is written about Ivan Denisov, it is not written for the novel, everything is without deceit. Uncle Vlas came, if I were given power for that time, and a flock of sheep, I would become their spiritual father, I would confess everyone and put them in a pile, ”etc.

Such word-creation was peculiar only to men, a woman speaking in rhyme was quite rare.

CONSPIRACY. The word, which is “sharper than an awl sting, clumsy sharpness”, from which “you can’t sit out with your girlfriends, you can’t steam off in a bath”, which “you can’t drink sour, you can’t choke on insipid”, - such a word really had a mighty power. It protected not only from toothache, but also “from flying arrows, from forged and unforged iron, and from blue damask steel, and from red and white, and red-hot arrows, and from red copper, and from wire, and from every beast. and from his bones, and from every tree, from Russian and overseas trees, and from every bird feathers, in the forest and in the field, and from every ore* of human, Russian, and Tatar, and Cheremis, and Lithuanian, and German, and all wicked Helena clans, and enemies, and adversaries.

Many spells and conspiracies in later times became prayers, Christian religious terminology coexists in them with pagan. “Save, the cross of the Lord, and have mercy on me, close, protect my cherished comrades, and go, arrow, with the forearm into the tree, and the feather into the bird, and the bird into the sky, and the glue into the fish, and the fish into the sea, and iron and lead, kan to your mother earth from me, the servant of God (name), and from my council comrades, thoughtful and friendly. Amen, amen, amen."

But “one cannot get rid of the devil” - says the proverb, and the word still protected, probably, together with other weapons ... By casting spells, a person strengthened faith in the success of the work begun, awakened spiritual forces in himself, tuned in a certain way. hunting plot from evil person, recorded by N. A. Ivanitsky, says: “I will get up blessed, I will go crossing myself from the hut to the door, from the door to the gate, into the open field, beyond the dark ravines, into the dense forests, into quiet swamps, into the winds, into the high mountains, I will I am in the forests of a good beast to beat, a squirrel, a marten, a hare, a fox, field workers and ripples, wolves and bears. On the blue seas, lakes and rivers of geese, swans and gray ducks. Whoever an evil person has anger at me, that evil person would have to get sand from the shore of the blue sea, drink water, count the forest in the forest and bough spruce and aspen, wear out barley chaff in the eyes, gnaw through the gnarled stone with teeth. As God's mercy rises in storm and padera, breaks dark forests, dry and damp roots, so would that dashing person's bones and joints would break. And just as, by the grace of God, thunder rumbles and an arrow flies after the devil, so would the same arrow fall on an evil person. Be, my words, strong and marks.

· Incomprehensible word. It means either iron ore, or blood.

There were enough conspiracies and spells from a fire, from bestial sickness, love spells and lapel, shepherd's, as well as from unrighteous judges and city hook-makers. As we can see from hunting and military spells, in ancient times, men used conspiracies on an equal basis with women, later incantation became an exclusively female privilege.

Apparently, the effect of conspiracies had the same psychological basis, as the current hypnosis, self-hypnosis.

Many household everyday spells were born immediately before this or that action. Sitting down, for example, to milk a cow, the hostess whispered or spoke in an undertone so that only the cow could hear: , stop, don’t move, don’t wave your tail, don’t step from foot to foot.

Lamentations (prychet, lamentation, lamentation) is an ancient genre of folklore, genetically associated with the funeral rite.

The object of the image of lamentations is the tragic in life, therefore the lyrical beginning is strongly expressed in them. Emotional tension determined the peculiarities of poetics: an abundance of exclamatory-interrogative constructions, exclamatory particles, synonymous repetitions, stringing similar syntactic structures, single words, expressive word formations, etc. The melody in lamentations is poorly expressed, but sobbing, groaning, bowing, etc. played an important role. Lamentations were created on behalf of the one to whom the ceremony is dedicated (bride, recruit), or on behalf of his relatives. In form, they were a monologue or lyrical appeal.

In central and southern Russia, lamentations had a lyrical character and were small in volume, they were performed in recitative. Northern lamentations were sung melodiously, drawn out and distinguished by their lyrical epic quality. They developed a descriptive, detailed story about what is happening. Even an insignificant detail could be developed.

For example, the bride asks rhetorical questions to a brick white cookie: "Who was the blower for the fire. Who was the giver of the splinter, Who was the lighter?" She herself knows the answer: mother blew out the fire, brother gave the torch. A torch appears in the field of vision of the wailer, and a micro-plot develops:

Like a dear dear brother

There was this torch

She was cut off in the swamp.

Changed in three years

Little by little it was split

It was partly plucked.

I'm driven home by the dog.

On three beds smoky,

Dried in three cookies,

To this wedding shepherd!

Such detailing led to the complication of the text and slowed it down. artistic development in time. The structure of the lamentations was open, it contained the possibility of building lines.

Improvisation lay at the heart of the method of fulfilling lamentations, since each time the lamentation was addressed to a specific person and should have revealed specific features of his life in its content. Lamentations functioned as one-time texts, created anew with each performance. However, they actively used verbal formulas accumulated by tradition, individual lines or groups of lines. Traditional images of oral poetry, stable stereotypes passed from one work to another, reflected the mental mood of a person in moments of sorrow and sadness. Lamentation is an improvisation using steady, traditional forms and under the influence of a content that is homogeneous in idea, once cast into these forms.

The composition of lamentations was formed in the course of the ceremony.

For example, at the beginning of the XX century. in the Ustyuzhensky district of the Novgorod province, a daughter's lament for the deceased father was recorded. “All this is arranged in such a picture order: having learned, of course, in advance about the death of her father, the daughter, who lived in different villages with the deceased, goes outside the village in the field to meet the sad news and addresses the reporter with these words:

I meet, bitter orphan,

I meet bad news

The news is unwelcome, miserable ...<И т. д.>

Then, together with a sad messenger or messenger, he goes to the village where the house of the deceased parent is located. Approaching the house, the daughter stops and cries in a singsong voice:

I'm coming, a bitter orphan,

I'm going to the blessed house

To the breadwinner, to the father.

The young-clear month does not shine.

Not warmed by the red sun.

The red sun does not meet,

My breadwinner, sir.

I'm a sad guest

Unhappy-sad.

She approaches the door of the house with the words:

Dissolve, solid door,

There is a guest not cheerful,

Not fun, not happy!

I go yes with burning tears.

Entering the house, crossing herself on the icons and bowing from the waist, the daughter turns to her mother:

You let me, the sun is red,

Thank you my mother

Come closer to me

To my breadwinner-father.

bow low,

I ask if the sun is red

I should ask the breadwinner, father,

What's going on, breadwinner-father ...

<И т. д., всего 15 строк>

Addressing the family gathered around the deceased:

Tell me, darling,

Above the forest in the sky.

To all stray, free birds...

< Всего 31 строка>

Back to mother:

You are my red sun...

Let's go find the right coachman

To go to the city, to the capital

Send a mournful tidings to your brother...

<И т. д., всего 9 строк>

The mother replies that the news of the father's death was sent to the eldest son in the capital city, and the daughter thanks her mother:

Thank you, red sun

Thank you my mother!

Soon you were worried

Send bad news.

After a short silence, the daughter addresses everyone present<26 строк: не слыхали ли, не едет ли брат?>. After some thought, the daughter again begins to lament: she complains about herself: she is not intelligent, not rich ... She quickly catches herself and turns again to her relatives:

Do not tell, dear,

What blamed, bitter orphan.<...>

That a stone does not float on water.

How the dead do not walk on the earth!

< Всего 14 стихов. >

Having finished her lamentations over the corpse, the daughter modestly steps aside and, if among those present there is still someone who can cry with her voice, then this one comes out and begins to compete in her art with the daughter of the deceased who has just done her duty ... ".

As you can see, the lamentations reflected the rite itself and expressed emotional condition its members. The content of lamentations could include a request, a command, a reproach, a spell, thanksgiving, an apology, a lament. Particularly important is the role of lamentations, which helped to pour out a sense of grief. In the lamentation "The Lament of a Holy Lake Peasant Woman for a Recruit" (see the Reader), lamentations occur three times, and each time they receive an epic development.

The lamentation begins with the beginning (Farewell to you, my horny sweet child ...), then reproach follows (How you were forced into bondage and not at the right time ...), then - lamentation (You will go, my beloved daring bait head ... - the long journey of the recruit is depicted), a request (Do you remember your favorite homemade peasant fat ...), again lamentation (And how honest annual Sunday sovereign holidays will come ... - his friends will go to the game , the mother will grieve, sitting under the window), then the spell (You don’t let me, God, Lord ...), the third lamentation (And how is it that I feel sick ... - future pictures of peasant labor without son-assistant), a request - to report about yourself at least in a letter (And you are a beloved daring little head ...), an apology (And you don’t remember, my dear, All my worldly rudeness), a mandate (And you remember, ugly. My affectionate little words!), a spell (And as I, the many-victorious, I, the grief-sorrow-bitter, I will ask the King of Heaven ...).

The system of images played an important role in the artistic world of lamentations. In addition to images of real participants in the rite, images-personifications, images-symbols, poetic comparisons and metaphorical replacements arose in lamentations.

Personifications are the personification of illness, death, grief, similar to mythological and poetic personification in the rite itself (for example, maiden beauty). Personification is an essential stylistic device. So, in northern Russian wedding lamentations, a stove, a hut were personified:

Everything in the house has changed!

For me, the window was sad.

All glass is fogged up:

Can't see the white light

Under the slanted window!

Even the voice of the lamenting bride was personified: he must run with a stump and a gray hare, From the tongue of an ermine... The bride asks him not to linger at the rivers for crossings, At the streams for crossings, At the fields behind the vegetable gardens, but go straight to the church to the cathedral and there to strike the big bell - so that the ringing would go through Rusiyushka.

Symbolic images had a general folklore character (white swan, red sun). Unlike wedding songs, lamentations used symbolic images to a lesser extent, but more deeply developed poetic comparisons related to real participants in the ceremony. Comparisons reached extraordinary artistic expressiveness:

Like crows flew

And there two matchmakers gathered.

Lamentations tend to deploy a system of comparisons, pumping up the emotional impression they cause. Here is how the death of a daughter is conveyed:

Being like rains go into the damp earth,

Like snowballs are melting all around, around the lights.

Like the sun is lost behind a cloud,

Just like a child hides from us;

How bright the moon rolls in the morning,

How often the star was lost under heaven.

My white swan flew away

To another, obscure livelihood!

Other psychological parallels also emerged. Sympathizing with the grief of the bride,

The apple trees withered in the garden,

The cherries have faded in the garden.

Birds choke<пташечки>,

Asking nightingales!

An archaic feature is the system of metaphorical substitutions. Once upon a time there was a ban on saying aloud the name of a person and revealing it family ties, as a result, his designations appeared through allegory. For example, the widow called the deceased owner of the house a coveted little family, a legitimate power-vushka, a sweetheart. Over time, metaphorical substitutions became a poetic device.

In lamentations, epithets, hyperbole, words in an affectionate form (with diminutive suffixes), various poetic tautologies were used.

Lamentations were performed, as a rule, by women (solo or alternately). Wedding lamentations could be performed by the bride herself or together with the choir of her friends, and when she was taken to the wedding table, by a vocalist. From time immemorial, special connoisseurs of prietry have stood out from the people's environment - yells (other names: mourners, lamenters, clerks, versifiers, under-voices). The execution of lamentations became their profession.

One of the remarkable professional wailers of the second half of the 19th century. - I. A. Fedosova, who from the age of thirteen was already known throughout Zaonezhye. In 1867, in Petrozavodsk, a seminary teacher E. V. Barsov met her. He recorded from her funeral, recruiting and wedding lamentations which formed the basis of the three-volume edition. This publication brought Fedosova wide popularity. Subsequently, the wailer performed with her art in Petrozavodsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan - and everywhere she aroused admiration. In the essay “Screamer” dedicated to her, M. Gorky wrote: “Fedosova is all saturated with Russian moaning, for about seventy years she lived with it, singing someone else’s grief in her improvisations and singing the grief of her life in old Russian songs.<...>Russian song is Russian history, and the illiterate old woman Fedosova, having fit 30,000 verses in her memory, understands this much better than many very literate people.

Zueva T.V., Kirdan B.P. Russian folklore - M., 2002

Crying or lamentation is a sung poetic improvisation associated with the expression of grief, sorrow. Genre features:

1. The presence of not only musical, but also speech, pitch-indefinite intonation, and sometimes only speech intonation (i.e., speech in a singsong voice).

2. Improvisation (invention) of the text (the text is not rhymed!), improvisation of the metro-rhythm, melody, form arising from the text right in the course of performance.

3. The freedom of the metro-rhythmic organization arising from the previous paragraph, the absence of periodic regularity of shares, certain size. Therefore, in musical notation, the arrangement of barlines is usually not performed and the time signature is not set.

From ancient times, weeping accompanied the death of a member of the tribal community and the funeral rite. They could also be performed outside of the funeral rite, for example, as memories of the dead or of people living, but in trouble or far away in a foreign land (Yaroslavna's lament from The Tale of Igor's Campaign). Later, lamentations become an obligatory part of the wedding ceremony (the lamentations of the bride when parting with her stepfather's house). In the 18th – 19th century, they lamented when parting with relatives, when collecting arrears, when recruiting, during and after natural disasters, fires, during war, famine, etc.

The content of laments corresponds to the event to which this lament is a response. Bright metaphors, colorful epithets, exclamations-addresses to others are characteristic. For funeral lamentations, echoes of ancient ideas about the posthumous existence of the deceased are typical. He is addressed with questions about whom and for what he was angry, leaving this world, where, on what long journey, the path he went, to whom he leaves relatives and friends. Lamentations ended with a complaint about the mournful fate, the bitter fate of the orphaned family members.

The tunes of lamentations are archaic, with melodic and rhythmic repetitions. The range is usually no wider than a fifth. Most of the tunes consist of a free variation of one or two, less often three initial tunes. Descending intonations predominate, the beginning of phrases with upper sounds, swinging on the sounds of an interval of a second (especially a small second), transitions from a singsong intonation to a talker and vice versa. The variability of the third tone is typical (sometimes a large, sometimes a small third). The neutral third is also often used (not tempered, intermediate between the major and minor). The declamatory beginning, recitative style prevails, which manifests itself:

In homogeneity, monotony of rhythm, duration;

In very frequent repetitions of notes in a row - two or more times, or similar repetitions of a cell of two or three sounds;

In underdevelopment, almost absence of intra-syllable chants: for one sound - one text syllable.

In conditions of a limited range of melody, all this is especially noticeable.

There are differences between northern and southern lamentations. Northern laments are a lyric-epic genre. Along with the expression of grief, grief feature their is the presence of an epic, narrative beginning, the development of the storyline of the text. It tells in detail how and why the trouble came, how the life of the family went before, etc. Like northern epics, northern lamentations have longer verse lines - each of 13-16 syllables, with three freely shifting stresses in one line. South Russian lamentations belong to the proper lyrical genre. Texts are usually devoid of narrative character and are more concise. Poetic lines are shorter, 7-8 syllables each.

In the old days, men also performed lamentations, but still, to a greater extent, this is a purely female genre. In addition to women - members of the family, lamentations were also performed by the masters of this genre recognized by the people, who were called wailers, lamenters, etc. They could speak on behalf of different family members, sincerely and deeply getting used to the image on behalf of which they improvised.

Along with solo lamentations, there was a tradition of simultaneous lamentations by several women at once. At the same time, different texts were combined either with approximately the same tune (in fact, it was not a unison that sounded, but polyphony of a heterophonic type with independent, independent rhythms and melodic turns of the singing participants), or with different, independent tunes and even in different keys - a kind of polyphony.