Russian Folk Music

Stretching across 11 time zones from Europe to the Pacific Ocean, Russia is the largest country in the world. Besides ethnic Russians, who make up the majority of the people in the country, there are dozens of distinct cultures within the Russian borders. Even Russian culture varies greatly from region to region. Studying the music of such a huge area has been challenging for Russian ethnomusicologists and music scholars. Their efforts were further complicated by the fact that, during the Soviet era, the government made a concerted effort to discourage or prevent people from performing folk music. In spite of this official repression, many styles of Russian folk music have been able to survive, and in some cases flourish.

Instruments

Because Russian folk music is predominantly vocal, Russian instrumental traditions have received less attention from scholars through the years. In addition, for much of its history the Russian Orthodox Church discouraged or prevented instrumental performance because it was believed this distracted parishioners from their spiritual duties. Many instruments have persisted however, particularly in the rural areas away from large cities where the authorities could not interfere.

There are several types of aerophones, or wind instruments, found in Russia. The dudka, one of the most well-known Russian folk instruments, is a vertical flute played much like a recorder. It is made of wood and has five or six holes for a range of a sixth or a seventh. The zhaleyka is a single-reed wooden flute capable of producing a diatonic scale that has either one or two pipes with a bell on the end. Shepherd's horns are pervasive throughout Russia and are used both for making music and calling across the fields. In southwestern Russia women often play panpipes, either alone or to accompany singing.

String instruments include the skripka (Russia fiddle), the gusli (psaltery), and the balalaika. The balalaika has an interesting history. During a cultural revival in the mid-1800s, Vassily Andreyev founded the first professional orchestra of Russian instruments. He saw a balalaika performance and returned to the city to make balalaika's of different sizes. Today, the three-stringed triangular balalaika is produced in different sizes, from a very large bass balalaika to a small one resembling a mandolin.

Instruments from outside of Russia have also become popular, including the seven-stringed guitar and the accordion.

Vocal Traditions

Due to the dominance of vocal music in Russia, there are a great many genres that vary from region to region or town to town. Song types include work songs (such as barge-hauling or carpenter songs), songs tied to the calendar (the beginning of spring, calls for a good harvest, etc.), songs for weddings and funerals, epic songs called bïlinï, and children's game songs and lullabies. As in many places in Europe, gypsy (Roma) music has also had an important influence on Russian folk song.

Though singing is enjoyed by nearly everyone in Russia, it is generally the women who sing the most. Choral singing is heard throughout Russia, often in the form of lyric songs. Sometimes groups of singers follow the same general melodic line but add their own nuances, while at other times a melody might be accompanied by a descant. More rare are parallel harmonies.

Chastushki

One vocal tradition many areas of Russia enjoy the chastushka (pl. chastushki). Chastushki, a genre of song, are purely for entertainment and use humor and satire to cover politics, love, and even communist propaganda. A performance will generally include a sequence of chastushki, separated by an instrumental interlude so that the audience has time to laugh and recover. Much like free-style rap, a chastushka performer needs to be quick and able to improvise, since performances often involve "duels" between two or more people. Chastushki usually use the same tune every time they are performed, depending on the region.

During the Soviet era the government encouraged the use of folk songs for propaganda or nationalist purposes. Folk songs often were adapted or arranged for the stage or on recordings in ways that compromised their original context, like those of the once-famous Red Army Choir. Today instances of these sanitized Soviet "folk" musics are often referred to as "fakelore."

Folk Preservation

Efforts to preserve Russian folk music began as early as the middle 1800s when the Russian Music Society was formed. Russian classical composers of the time, including Glinka and the "Russian Five" (Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Borodin, and Cui) went to great lengths to include Russian folk songs and melodies in their works.

During the Soviet era many people tried to revive and preserve Russian folk music, including Mitrofan Pyatnitsky in the early 1900s, Vyacheslav Shchurov in the 1960s, and Dmitry Pokrovsky from the 1970s to the 1990s. Pokrovsky's group encouraged professional musicians to go out "in the field" and learn folk styles directly from the people. Today several popular singers in Russia perform folk music, including Zhanna Bichevskaya, and Boris Grebenshikov of the folk-rock band Aquarium.

Their efforts helped preserve many traditions that might have been lost, while also encouraging new generations of Russians to take interest in the folk traditions of their culture.

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