Old Russian music - performers and main genres

• ritual music, mainly the Magi,
• folk - .

Old Russian music was closely connected with rituals and beliefs, as well as with agricultural labor. This explains the wide variety of genres. In squares, in houses, and at feasts, epics, rituals, dances, work songs, games, lullabies and many other songs were performed.

Skomorokhs (they were also called “actors”, since they not only sang and played music, but also staged performances, often improvised) were the first professional musicians in Rus'.

In their creativity they used such musical instruments as

pipes, bagpipes, harps, whistles, trumpets, tambourines, pipes.

Many musicians performed at feasts, singing the valor of Russian knights and princes. The image of such a storyteller is depicted in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” - the famous Bayan.

After the capture of Rus' by the Tatar-Mongols, the free “Mr. Veliky Novgorod” became the center of cultural life. It was there that the genre of epics developed. The epics brought to us the story of famous performer and the guslar player Sadko, who conquered even the Sea King with his music.

Bell ringing as a musical genre

Also on Novgorod soil a unique, typical only for music, developed Ancient Rus' genre - the art of bell ringing. There are three types of ringing:

• blagovest(uniform strikes on a large bell),
• chime(sorting bells from smallest to largest or vice versa)
• and actually myself ringing(this was already a real game of bells).

A professional bell ringer has studied the art of ringing all his life.

Start professional music- church and spiritual

The origin of professional music is closely connected with the history of the formation of the ancient Russian state - Kievan Rus(IX–XIII centuries). After the Baptism of Rus' (988) and the strengthening of ties with Byzantium, the first church songs - sacred music - appeared.

Old Russian musical canon

The musical canon of that time was borrowed by ancient Russian priests straight from Byzantium. Old Russian church music, like all Christian music of that period, it was monodic, that is, it was based on single-voice chants. The chants were subject to the osmoglas system. With its help, strict order was established musical performance services.

The osmoglas system was entirely borrowed from and was called the “Byzantine pillar”. In accordance with it, a special voice was sung in Orthodox churches every week (in the system of ancient Russian music, a voice was considered not just one specific tune, but an entire musical system).

There were eight voices in total, and they formed an eight-week cycle (“Byzantine pillar”), which was repeated approximately six and a half times during the year (except for the days of Lent and Holy Easter).

Musicologists and historians consider St. John of Damascus to be the creator of the osmoglas system. ( 680-777), author of the Octoechos.

There were no recordings of the pitch designation of voices at that time. The melody was recorded using a system of special signs that indicated only the direction of the melody, directly below the line of text. The performers had to learn the melody of the chants by ear. The art of singing was passed down orally from teacher to student.

A special aesthetics is also associated with the Byzantine musical canon - "angelic singing" The clear sound of the voice was valued most of all. One of the early Christian writers, Clement of Alexandria (150-215), believed that the human voice is a perfect instrument, and therefore rejected other musical instruments. Therefore, a striking distinctive feature of the music of Ancient Rus' was the principle a capella, that is, singing without the accompaniment of musical instruments.

Singing styles in ancient Russian music

In the music of Ancient Rus', two singing styles coexisted - kondakarny(solo) and Znamenny(choral) chant.

The harmonious alternation of tones and semitones that formed a twelve-step scale was called in a churchly manner. It fell into four agreements - simple, dark, light and tri-light, each with three sounds.

Recording music in Ancient Rus'

To record ancient Russian church music, the monks used a special notation, which was called “znamenny” (from the word banner - “sign”). “Znamenny” notation (or “hook” - after the name of one of the main signs of the system - the hook), performed before the 16th century, is difficult to decipher, since for quite objective reasons science does not have accurate information about how Znamenny chants actually sounded.

It should be noted that Old Russian church and folk music were in a certain opposition. Since the Byzantine canon was borrowed, it came into conflict with folk music, which had deep national roots. Therefore, the authors of ancient Russian chants faced a difficult choice of combining Christian aesthetics and “established” national, but pagan, music-making techniques.

However, not only church and folk ancient Russian music became widespread throughout the country. From the surviving frescoes we can obtain some information about the secular music of that period, which was widespread at the court of the Kyiv princes. On one of the frescoes you can see a musician performing a melody on a bowed string instrument similar to the medieval fidelius (the prototype of the viol). Another fresco depicts a whole group of musicians playing sacred and plucked instruments surrounded by buffoons - dancers and acrobats. Also on the fresco is an image of an organ and a man playing it. The Old Russian princes were very fond of music in all its forms and valued talented performers.

It was probably not without reason that a group of singers was created under the tsar, who were called the “sovereign singing clerks.” They received a special salary, depending on how diligently they glorified the king (hence the term “doxology”) at the sovereign’s services. In this unique “singing academy” of ancient Russian music, the continuity of singers was preserved.

• toppers,
• travelers,
• lowlifes,

- universal singers who could sing in all three voices were called demestvenniks.

After the weakening of Kyiv, the Vladimir-Suzdal principality rises, taking over the “baton” further development ancient Russian singing art. The name of the singer and singer Luke has been preserved in history. He was the creator of a whole school of ancient Russian performers. The chronicle calls his students “lutsa’s child.”

The significance of the period of Old Russian music

The music of Ancient Rus' is a unique phenomenon in the history of the country and its culture:

• Performers of ancient Russian music created original genres (bell ringing, epics, historical, lyrical songs, etc.),
• Has been expanded and enriched Byzantine musical canon, which has absorbed the originality of the national character.
• Church music became the prototype of professional academic music and was necessary for the development of the culture of Ancient Rus' as a whole.

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• In the middle of the 1st millennium AD, Slavic tribes settled in the European part of Russia, glorifying themselves as musicians, singers and dancers. Byzantine and German sources report this. It is known that in 591 the Avar Khan sent Slavic singers with harp as ambassadors to the Byzantine emperor.

• Old Russian musical culture has its origins in the pagan traditions of the Slavs. Folk songs, invocations of spring, laments accompanying rites of remembrance of the dead, funerals or weddings, songs during the harvest or during military campaigns have always been an integral part of the life of our ancestors.

In Ancient Rus' there were two original concepts - musicia (music) and singing. These concepts were opposed, and only instrumental music was called musicia. Playing stringed musical instruments was called humming, and playing wind instruments was called puffing. The game often accompanied singing. Instrumental music has been heard in Rus' since pagan times and throughout the Middle Ages. Some vintage instruments have remained in folk music to this day.

Monuments of literature and art - chronicles, frescoes, icons - tell about the music of Ancient Rus' (IX-XII centuries). The life of the Novgorod bishop Nifont (XIII century), the teachings of the monk George (XIII century) and a number of other documents contain information that musicians performed on the streets and squares of cities. Music was a must ritual holidays- Maslenitsa (farewell to winter and welcoming spring), Ivan Kupala (summer solstice), etc. They usually took place with a large crowd of people and included games, dances, wrestling, equestrian competitions, performances of buffoons - traveling actors and musicians. The buffoons played the harp, trumpets, nozzles, tambourines, and whistles.

Night of Ivan Kupala.

Wedding Maslenitsa

• Music was played during ceremonies at the court of princes. Thus, the change of dishes at feasts was accompanied by instrumental music or epics.

• Epics, epic songs composed by the people in Ancient Rus' and reflecting historical reality mainly of the 11th-16th centuries. In the process of centuries-long development, Bylinas changed, absorbed events of later times, and sometimes events of an earlier era.

• In the center of the epic are images of heroes endowed with high moral qualities, selflessly devoted to the Motherland. In the image of a beloved hero

Ilya Muromets, the people created a poetic biography of a peasant son with his calm self-confidence and unprecedented strength. He stands at the head of the heroic outpost, blocking the path of enemies (this theme was formed even in the conditions Mongol invasion). Equally poetic are the images of other heroes guarding native land, - Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich. The theme of defending the Motherland is naturally merged into epics with the theme folk life and labor. So, the first feat that Ilya Muromets performed after healing was uprooting stumps and clearing a field for arable land. In epics about Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich reflected the eternal dream of the working people about easy plowing, about work that ensures life.

Boyan

Musical instruments in Ancient Rus' were used in various fields- in court, princely life, drums in military affairs and many different folk instruments. Folk instruments were rich and varied. The harp especially stood out here - as an instrument accompanying epic songs, tales, and glories. Guslar-storytellers were revered people. One of them - the storyteller Boyana - is described in an outstanding monument ancient Russian literature, "The Tale of Igor's Campaign". Boyan, who composed glories, legends, and songs, sang, accompanying them with playing the harp. The author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” draws an inspired image of the storyteller: he laid his fingers on the strings, and the strings, as if alive, under his fingers themselves rumbled the glory of the princes Yaroslav and Mstislav.

Gusli is a stringed musical instrument, most common in Russia. It is the most ancient Russian stringed musical instrument. There are wing-shaped and helmet-shaped harps. The first ones have a triangular shape and from 5 to 14 strings, helmet-shaped - 10-30 strings. The wing-shaped harp (they are also called ringed harp) is played, as a rule, by rattling all the strings and muffling unnecessary sounds with the fingers of the left hand; on the helmet-shaped harp, the strings are plucked with both hands.

Gudok is an ancient Russian musical instrument. The earliest mentions date back to the 11th-12th centuries new era. Playing the gudok in Rus' was prescribed only to men. This instrument was also made exclusively by men. The buzzer is similar to a violin, but larger in size. It had three strings, which were played with a bow. Moreover, the top string is the main one. The bottom two serve as bass strings.

• The horn is a conical straight tube with five playing holes on top and one on the bottom. There is a small bell at the lower end. The horn is made from birch, maple or juniper. In the past, they were made from two halves held together with birch bark.

• The sound of the horn is strong, but soft. Producing sound on an instrument is quite difficult. There are 2 types of horn: for solo and ensemble playing.

• Skomorokhs are Russian medieval actors, at the same time singers, dancers, animal trainers, musicians and authors of most of the verbal, musical and dramatic works they performed. They arose no later than the middle

Buffoons (skomrahs, mockers, guselniks, players, dancers, cheerful people) - wandering actors in Ancient Rus', who performed as singers, wits, musicians, performers of skits, trainers, acrobats. According to V. Dahl’s dictionary, a buffoon is “a musician, piper, sniffler, whistler, bagpiper, guslar; who trades in this, and dances, songs, jokes, tricks; funny man, lomaka, gayer, jester; bugbear; comedian, actor, etc.”

Buffoons were carriers of synthetic forms folk art, combining singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, bear fun, puppet shows, performances in masks, magic tricks. Buffoons were regular participants folk festivals, games, festivities, various ceremonies: wedding, maternity and baptism, funeral. “The buffoons combined in their art mastery of performance with a topical repertoire, which included comic songs, dramatic scenes - games, social satire - mockery, performed in masks and a “buffoon dress” to the accompaniment of domra, sniffles, bagpipes, surna, tambourine. The buffoons directly communicated with the audience, with the street crowd, and involved them in the game.”

Known since the 11th century. They gained particular popularity in the 15th–17th centuries. They were persecuted by church and civil authorities.

F. N. Riess. Buffoons in the village. 1857

Etymology

There is no exact explanation of the etymology of the word “buffoon”. There are different versions of the origin of this word:

• “Skomorokh” - re-arrangement of the Greek. skōmmarchos “master of jokes”, restored from the addition of skōmma “joke, ridicule” and archos “chief, leader”.
• From Arab. mascara - “joke, jester.”

According to N. Ya. Marr, “skomorokh”, according to the historical grammar of the Russian language - plural the word “skomorosi” (skomrasi), which goes back to Proto-Slavic forms. In turn, the Proto-Slavic word has an Indo-European root, common to all European languages- “scomors-os”, which was originally called traveling musician, dancer, comedian. This is where the folk names come from comic characters: Italian “scaramuccia” (Italian scaramuccia) and French “scaramouche” (French scaramouche).

A. P. Vasnetsov. Buffoons. 1904.

Emergence, heyday and decline

Buffoons arose no later than the middle of the 11th century, we can judge this from the frescoes of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, 1037. The heyday of buffoonery occurred in the 15th–17th centuries. In the 18th century, buffoons began to gradually disappear under pressure from the tsar and the church, leaving some traditions of their art as a legacy to booths and districts.

Buffoons - wandering musicians

Buffoons performed on the streets and squares, constantly communicating with the audience, involving them in their performance.

In the 16th-17th centuries, buffoons began to unite into “gangs”. The church and the state accused them of committing robberies: “buffoons, “coupling in gangs of many up to 60, up to 70 and up to 100 people,” in the villages of the peasants “eat and drink heavily and rob bellies from cages and smash people along the roads.” At the same time, verbally poetic creativity The Russian people lack the image of a buffoon-robber robbing the common people.

Buffoons in Moscow

In the work of Adam Olearius, secretary of the Holstein embassy, ​​who visited Muscovy three times in the 30s of the 17th century, we find evidence of a wave of general searches in the houses of Muscovites to identify “demonic vitriol vessels” - the musical instruments of buffoons - and their destruction.

In their homes, especially during their feasts, Russians love music. But since they began to abuse it, singing all kinds of shameful songs to the music in taverns, taverns and everywhere on the streets, the current patriarch two years ago first strictly forbade the existence of such tavern musicians and their instruments, which were found on the streets, ordered them to be immediately smashed and destroy, and then generally banned all kinds of instrumental music for the Russians, ordering musical instruments to be taken from houses everywhere, which were taken... on five carts across the Moscow River and burned there.

— Detailed Description travels of the Holstein embassy to Muscovy... - M., 1870 - p. 344.

In 1648 and 1657, Archbishop Nikon achieved royal decrees on the complete prohibition of buffoonery, which spoke of beating buffoons and their listeners with batogs and destroying buffoon equipment. After this, the “professional” buffoons disappeared, but the traditions of buffoonery were preserved in traditional culture Eastern Slavs, influenced the formation of epic plots (Sadko, Dobrynya, dressed as a buffoon at his wife’s wedding, etc.), the customs of dressing up, folk theater (“Tsar Maximilian”), wedding and calendar folklore.

Over time, buffoons turned into bugbears, puppeteers, fair entertainers and show-goers.

Musicians and buffoons. Look from the fresco of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. 1037

Repertoire and creativity

The repertoire of buffoons consisted of comic songs, plays, social satires (“glum”), performed in masks and “buffoon dress” to the accompaniment of a whistle, gusel, psaltery, domra, bagpipes, and tambourine. Each character was assigned a certain character and mask, which did not change for years.

Their work contained a significant amount of satire, humor, and buffoonery. The buffoons are credited with participating in the composition of the epic “Vavilo and the buffoons,” ballads of a satirical and comic nature (for example, “Guest Terentishche”), fairy tales, and proverbs. The art of buffoons was associated with ancient paganism, free from church influence, imbued with a “worldly” spirit, cheerful and mischievous, with elements of “obscenity.”

During the performance, the buffoon communicated directly with the audience, often presenting merchants, governors, and church representatives as satirical characters.

In addition to public holidays, weddings and birthplaces, buffoons, as experts in tradition, were also invited to funerals.

There is no doubt that here the buffoons, despite their comic nature, dared to appear at the sad pity parties out of the old memory of some once-everyone-understood funeral ritual with dances and games. There is no doubt that the people allowed them to visit their graves and did not consider it indecent to get carried away by their songs and games, according to the same old memory.

- Belyaev I. About buffoons // Temporary journal of the Society of Russian History and Antiquities - M., 1854 Book. 20

Adam Olearius. Puppeteer. 1643

Church attitude

The majority of the church, and then, under the influence of the church and state testimonies, were imbued with a spirit of intolerance towards folk amusements with songs, dances, jokes, the soul of which was often buffoons. Such holidays were called “stingy”, “demonic”, “ungodly”. The teachings repeated from century to century the censures and prohibitions of music, singing, dancing, dressing up in comic, satyr or tragic faces, horse shows and other folk entertainments, which in Byzantium were closely associated with pagan legends, borrowed from Byzantium and heard there since the first centuries of Christianity, were repeated there. with pagan cults. Byzantine views were transferred to Russian circumstances, only some expressions of the Byzantine originals were sometimes altered, omitted or supplemented, according to the conditions of Russian life.

Kirill, Metropolitan of Kiev (1243-50) - among the ordeals he names “dancing at feasts... and satanic fables sang frighteningly.” In the Word of the Lover of Christ (according to a 15th-century manuscript) there are names of demonic games at feasts (and weddings), and these games are the following: dancing, humming, songs, sniffles, tambourines. According to the “Charter for the People on Lent” (from the Dubno collection of rules and teachings of the 16th century), “it is a sin to create a feast with dancing and laughter on fasting days.” “Domostroy” (16th century) speaks of a meal accompanied by the sounds of music, dancing and mockery: “And if they begin... laughter and all sorts of mockery or harp, and all sorts of humming, and dancing, and splashing, and all sorts of demonic games, then just as the smoke drives away the bees, so the angels of God will leave that meal and the stinking demons will appear.”

In the royal charter of 1648 it is ordered that buffoons with domras, and with harps, and with bagpipes, and with all sorts of games, “should not be called into your house.” “If we learn... the worldly people will allow those buffoons (with harps, domras, surnas and bagpipes) and bear leashes with bears into their homes” (we read in “In Memory of Metropolitan Jonah”, 1657).

Dancer and buffoon Lubok

Proverbs and sayings

• Everyone will dance, but not like a buffoon.
• Don’t teach me how to dance, I’m a buffoon myself.
• Every buffoon has his own horn.
• Skomorokh's wife is always cheerful.
• The buffoon will set his voice on the whistle, but will not be satisfied with his life.
• And the buffoon sometimes cries.
• The buffoon is not a comrade.
• God gave the priest, the devil a buffoon.

Valery Gavrilin. Oratorio "Buffoons" (fragments)

Poems by Vadim Korostylev and folk.
Execute Eduard Khil and symphony orchestras conducted by A. Badkhen and S. Gorkovenko.

Gavrilin: In “Skomorokhs” there are samples that come directly from peasant folk art. For me, the people themselves seemed like a huge, cheerful buffoon who laughed through his tears. Visible laughter through invisible tears. And then all the people who, in one way or another, showed the world some kind of discovery of the truth, become buffoons. These are portraits of composers Modest Mussorgsky, Dmitry Shostakovich, my teacher and friend Georgy Sviridov.”

I might be wrong, but in my opinion they are buffoons, like those with bells...

In Rus', traveling musicians and actors were called mummers, buffoons. Their performances combined theatrical performances, playing folk musical instruments, dancing, parodies of ritual events, games, the skills of magicians, performances with a trained bear, puppet theater...

Buffoonery disappeared forever from the vastness of Russia in the second half of the 17th century. By decrees of Patriarch Nikon in the mid-17th century, buffoonery was prohibited and subjected to severe persecution.

The life and work of traveling actors and musicians is well said in the words of the song:

We are traveling artists, we are on the road day after day, and a van in a clean field is our usual home.

We roam all over the world, we don’t care about the weather, where we have to spend the night, what we have to eat.

We are great talents, but clear and simple, we are singers and musicians, acrobats and jesters.

If, with the help of a time machine, we found ourselves on the territory of Rus' in the period of the 12th - 17th centuries, we would see how artels and bands of traveling actors and musicians go along country roads to cities and towns, from village to village,

who were called buffoons.

The arrival of buffoons in a village or settlement was a real festive event for the residents.

The passage to the village square where the performance was planned was accompanied by playing musical instruments, singing and dancing. Everyone dropped what they were doing and rushed after the artists.

Both young and old gathered for the performance in the square.

For common people it was the only form of entertainment and amusement that suited his tastes and

needs, because fiction and there was no theater then.

The performances of buffoons combined various types of folk art. Using masks, costumes, makeup, and various props, buffoons performed puppet skits, sang humorous, comic, satirical and sometimes obscene songs, and danced to melodies played on various musical instruments.

People used to say: Buffoon songs are cheerful, funny, amusing.

After the puppets, songs and dances, the buffoons performed acrobatic acts, magic tricks, pantomime,

acted out humorous social and everyday scenes, directly communicating with the audience and involving them in the game and performance.

Of particular note is social satire - mockery, which was performed in masks and buffoon costumes under

accompaniment of musical instruments. In mockery the rich people and the clergy were ridiculed and showed sympathy ordinary people- sketches about a boyar and petitioners, about a greedy merchant, a comedy about Petrushka.

The buffoons themselves created scripts, often improvised, were resourceful wits and, in general, -

cheerful people.

The counselor's performance with the scientific bear was a constant success. The bear was treated to a bottle of vodka (honey water), danced awkwardly on its hind legs, did stands on its front legs, imitated playing a musical instrument and performed other nursery rhymes.

The gang always included a mummer in the image of a goat, taken from the Christmas comedy about a goat and a bear.

After the performance, everyone tried to invite the buffoons into their home. The goat was the first to enter, praising its owners, wishing for a rich harvest and offspring of domestic animals. Then they invited the rest of the gang to the set table.

After lunch, the performance continued, if the weather permitted, in the yard, and if not, then in the hut. The jokes continued - jokes, tales and fairy tales, ballads and epics, humor and buffoonery, stories about other lands.

Grateful residents collected a small amount of money from the community, provided food for the journey, and the next morning the gang set off for the next settlement.

Buffoonery in Rus' existed until the mid-17th century. In 1657, Archbishop Nikon obtained a royal decree banning buffoonery.

Churchmen and those in power did not like buffoons for their connection with ancient paganism, independence from the church, for their fun and mischief, short caftans, masks, acting and criticism of church ministers who in words preached asceticism.

Skomorokhs in Rus' were called: Gods of Russian stage. They not only sang songs, but also showed entire performances in the form of (in modern times) a fun dance performance with a circus and songs in crowded squares. Buffoons, like gypsies, led a bear with them. The people greeted them with joy.

Another category of musicians in Rus' belonged to what the passers-by called Kaliki. They sang spiritual songs, thoughts and wandered around the world like buffoons. But they were not classified as traveling actors.

The musical culture of Ancient Rus', starting from the Kievan period and throughout the Middle Ages, had a dual character.

Buffoons

Two cultures of different origins coexisted in it simultaneously: folk and church. Mastering Christian culture, which came from Byzantium, Russian singers inevitably had to use the old reserves of pagan songwriting. Despite the fact that they were in a state of antagonism due to the struggle of two incompatible ideologies - pagan and Christian - they had a lot in common. Their coexistence brought them closer together and mutually enriched them.

But the life of folk and church music had a different character. Mastering church music was bookish and required special schools, while folk songs were not recorded until the 18th century. Ancient musical hook manuscripts, preserved from the turn of the 11th-13th centuries, colorfully testify to the first stage of Russian professional music, and although they cannot be accurately deciphered, they largely reflect the ancient singing culture.

Monuments of literature and art - chronicles, frescoes, icons - tell about the music of Ancient Rus' (IX-XII centuries). The life of the Novgorod bishop Nifont (XIII century), the teachings of monk George (XIII century) and a number of other documents contain information that musicians performed on the streets and squares of cities. Music was an obligatory part of ritual holidays - Maslenitsa (farewell to winter and welcome of spring), Ivan Kupala (summer solstice), etc. They usually took place with a large crowd of people and included games, dances, wrestling, equestrian competitions, and performances by buffoons. The buffoons played the harp, trumpets, nozzles, tambourines, and whistles.

Music was played during ceremonies at the court of princes. Thus, the change of dishes at feasts was accompanied instrumental music or epic. On a medieval miniature representing the scene of the conclusion of peace between the princes Yaropolk and Vsevolod, a musician playing the trumpet is depicted next to them. In war, with the help of trumpets, horns, surnas, drums, tambourines, they gave signals and created noise that was supposed to frighten the enemy

The most common instrument was the harp. Byzantine historian of the 7th century. Theophylact writes about the love of the northern Slavs (Vends) for music, mentioning the citharas they invented, i.e. the harp. The gusli as an indispensable accessory of buffoons is mentioned in ancient Russian songs and epics of the Vladimirov cycle. It is no coincidence that in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (12th century) Bayan, the epic storyteller-gussler, is glorified. However, the attitude towards the harp was ambivalent. They were respected for their resemblance to the musical instrument of the biblical psalmist king David. But the same harp in the hands of funny buffoons was condemned by the church. Buffoons and their household items, including musical instruments, disappeared in the 17th century.

Skomorokhs are Russian medieval actors, at the same time singers, dancers, trainers, witty musicians, performers of skits, acrobats and authors of most of the verbal, musical and dramatic works they performed.
The repertoire of buffoons consisted of comic songs, plays, social satires (“glum”), performed in masks and “buffoon dress” to the accompaniment of a whistle, gusel, psaltery, domra, bagpipes, and tambourine. Each character was assigned a certain character and mask, which did not change for years. Buffoons performed on the streets and squares, constantly communicating with the audience, involving them in their performance.

The performances of buffoons combined different types of arts - both dramatic and circus. It is known that back in 1571 they recruited “cheerful people” for state fun, and at the beginning of the 17th century. The fast-moving troupe was part of the Amusement Chamber, built in Moscow by Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. At the same time, at the beginning of the 17th century, princes Ivan Shuisky, Dmitry Pozharsky and others had buffoon troupes. Prince Pozharsky’s buffoons often went around the villages “for their craft.” Just as medieval jugglers were divided into feudal jugglers and folk jugglers, so were Russian buffoons differentiated. But the circle of “court” buffoons in Russia remained limited; ultimately, their functions were reduced to the role of household jesters.
Buffoon-buzzer

Around the middle of the 17th century. wandering bands are gradually leaving the stage, and settled buffoons are more or less retraining as musicians and stage performers in the Western European style. From now on the buffoon becomes an obsolete figure, although individual species his creative activity continued to live among the people for a very long time. So, buffoon singer, performer folk poetry, gives way to representatives of the emerging from the end of the 16th century. poetry; a living memory of him was preserved among the people - in the person of epic storytellers in the North, in the form of a singer or bandura player in the South. The buffoon-buzzer (guselnik, domrachey, bagpiper, surnachey), dance player turned into an instrumental musician. Among the people, his successors are folk musicians, without whom not a single folk festival is complete.

In 1648 and 1657 Archbishop Nikon achieved decrees banning buffoonery.

One of the most striking pages of Russian spiritual and artistic culture is ancient Russian church music. The monumentality and greatness of ancient Russian music are completely connected with modest means of expression - unison singing, laconic, strict colors of sound. P. A. Florensky in “Discourse on Divine Services” speaks about the special property of ancient Russian monody: “Ancient unison or octave singing... it is amazing how it awakens the touch of Eternity. Eternity is perceived in some poverty by earthly treasures, and when there is a wealth of sounds, voices, vestments, etc., etc., earthly things come, and Eternity leaves the soul somewhere, to the poor in spirit and the poor in riches.”

Ancient Rus' adopted the Byzantine musical culture and new musical aesthetics together with baptism as the direct source from which a new stream of music developed, opposing itself to the original folk genres. Church music appeared in Rus' after its conversion to Christianity (988). Along with baptism, the country also adopted musical culture from Byzantium. Among the most important provisions of the theory and aesthetics of Byzantine and Old Russian musical art- the idea of ​​his God-givenness, inspiration.

The creators of ancient Russian music avoided external effects and decoration, so as not to disturb the depth of feelings and thoughts. The most important feature medieval Russian art was its synthetic nature. The same images were embodied by different means in different types art, however, the true core of the synthesis of ancient Russian church art was the word. The word and its meaning formed the basis of the chants, the melodies contributed to their perception, clarification of the text, unlearned it, and sometimes illustrated it. Contemplation of icons, listening to chants similar in content to them created a unity that evoked high thoughts and feelings. The icon and the chant and prayer sounded in front of it constituted the pulse of the spiritual culture of Ancient Rus', therefore icon painting and hymnographic creativity have always been at a great height.

The synthesis of arts that composers of the 20th century strived for in their work. in particular, A. Scriabin was essentially embodied in medieval art. Old Russian worship had the character of a mystery, during which a person could receive spiritual cleansing, free himself from the worries and vanity that burdened him, and rise morally.

A number of information about music has reached us from the 16th century. In particular, chants authored by Ivan the Terrible have been preserved. According to the data contained in the sources, one can judge his musical talent.

The literary stamp of that time was the following expression: the tsar went to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery to “listen to prayer singing.” The fact that this expression is not accidental is confirmed by some “variation” in the mention of Ivan IV’s interest specifically in the musical side of worship: “And the Tsar and Grand Duke I listened to that modem singing, until which time the baptism took place.” This behavior of his is all the more curious because it was observed at the baptism of his newly-named wife Mary. Or another place from the source: “The sovereign was alone with his spiritual fathers Andrei the archpriests, and he began to arm himself, put the yumshan on himself, and heard many bells and said to his neighbors: “The bells are heard, as if the bells of Simon’s Monastery” *. If we take into account that each monastery had its own bell ringing, then we must admit that Ivan IV had a good musical memory.

Together with Christianity, the Russians borrowed from Byzantium a very extensive and sophisticated system of temple singing - osmoglasis and a system for recording it - banners, hooks. Since the oldest forms of this notation are not exactly deciphered, the question remains open: did Rus' adopt church singing from Byzantium directly or through the South Slavic countries, but it is obvious that by the XV-XVI centuries. Russian Znamenny chant was a completely original artistic phenomenon. Received from Byzantium and stable principles remained strictly vocal character church creativity - the Orthodox canon excludes the use of any instruments; the closest connection between word and sound; smoothness of melodic movement; line structure of the whole (i.e. the musical form acted as a derivative of the speech, poetic). In general, these principles are to a large extent valid for ancient epics. folklore genres(calendar ritual - pagan songwriting had its own laws).

In the 16th century exemplary choirs were founded in Moscow - sovereign and patriarchal singing clerks. At the same time, variants of the main znamenny chant, travel and demesne chants appeared, each having its own recording system, as well as individual versions of individual chants that belonged to to this master, locality, monastery, etc. In the 16th century. A completely original Russian church polyphony also arises. Somewhat later, in the 17th century. Kiev, Greek, and Bulgarian chants are becoming widespread, partly related to the singing of southern and southwestern Orthodox churches, but acquiring independent forms in Rus'.

The first Russian teachers were Greek and Bulgarian singers.

XVI century was the time when many new local chants spread. There were chants from Kiev, Vladimir, Yaroslavl (based on the names of cities), Lukoshkov, and Christians (based on the names of singers and their authors). Works of church singing art (troparia, canons, etc.) remained, as a rule, like icon painting, anonymous. But still, the names of outstanding masters of the 16th-17th centuries are known from written sources; among them are Vasily Shaidur, Novgorodians (according to other sources - Karelians) brothers Vasily (monastically Varlaam) and Savva Rogov; Ivan (monastically Isaiah) Lukoshko and Stefan Golysh from the Urals; Ivan Nos and Fyodor Krestyanin (i.e. Christian), who worked at the court of Ivan the Terrible.

Another name that belongs to a number of very significant ones in the history of Russian singing art: archpriest, and later Metropolitan Andrei. Mentions of him in chronicles portray him as a musically literate person.

In general, it was the 16th century. was to a certain extent a turning point for the history of ancient Russian music, and not only in the performing arts of singing. It was from that time that we can talk about the emergence of “theoretical musicology” in Russia, the first results of which were numerous singing alphabet. And the 17th century is a period of a kind of flowering of domestic musicology. It is enough to name here the names of such authors as Nikolai Diletsky, Alexander Mezenets, Tikhon Makarevsky. And the next era in the history of Russian music - the era of partes singing - is already associated with purely professional musical and theoretical monuments of Russian culture.

From the middle of the 17th century. A turning point is beginning in Russian church singing art: a new style of choral polyphony is being established - partes, spread in Moscow by singers of Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish origin and based on the norms of Western European harmonic writing. At the same time, the five-line notation began to predominate, although the hook script remained for quite a long time (Old Believers still use it to this day). The spiritual psalm (cant) becomes very popular, then secular choral cants appear - historical, military, love, comic.

There is no uniform periodization of the history of Russian music. Usually, three periods are distinguished for the Middle Ages: before the Mongol-Tatar invasion (XI-XIII centuries), the Moscow period (XIV - beginning of XVII centuries), the era of a turning point (from the accession of the Romanov dynasty in 1613 to the reign of Peter I, beginning of XVIII V.).

Further XVIII century. often divided into two periods - post-Petrine, marked by the strongest foreign influence, and Catherine ( last third century), when signs of a national music school begin to appear.
First quarter of the 19th century. Usually considered as the era of early romanticism, this time is often also called the “pre-Glinka” or “pre-classical” era. With the advent of M. I. Glinka's operas (late 1830s - 1840s), the heyday of Russian music began, reaching its peak in the 1860s-1880s. Since the mid-1890s. and until 1917 (it would be more correct to push the second date a little further, to the middle or even the second half of the 1920s) gradually unfolds new stage, marked first by the development - against the backdrop of classical traditions - of the "modern" style, and then by other new trends that can be summarized by the terms "futurism", "constructivism", etc. In the history of Russian music Soviet period distinguish pre-war and post-war periods, and in the second of them they designate the beginning of the 1960s as a milestone. Since the late 1980s. a new, modern period of Russian musical art begins.

I can add this from myself. At one time, while still a student, I wrote an essay on the history of Russian folk instruments, in particular the domra... This is what I learned: the article states that Archbishop Nikon in the mid-17th century achieved a decree banning buffoonery. And it was not just a ban. The buffoons were executed. All instruments, all kinds of recordings of music were taken from people, thrown into large convoys, taken to the river and burned. Keeping the instrument in your home was like signing your own death warrant. Folk music was considered “demonic,” and the people performing it were considered “possessed by demonism.” By order of the church, the great cultural heritage Slavs and Old Russians and replaced with Western church music. What has reached us since that time is still a hundred liters of water in the ocean...