"I wanna sing...!". Almost detective story about the folk songs from the animated film “There once was a dog”

Abstract

Relevance. 1982 is a special year for the Soviet Union cinematography because this year animated short film “There once was a dog” directed by soviet artist Eduard Nazarov (1941–2016) was showed up. Cartoon is based on a Ukrainian folk tale “Sirko” about friendship between the old enemies: a gray wolf and a home dog, who was kicked out the house by owners. Phrases and songs from the film (by the way, in the initial version – “Dog’s life”) became well-known. In 1983 authors won awards at international film festivals in Denmark and France. This animated film became one of the populariest in the end of XX century.So, very frustrating is the fact that today there is no exact data about the performers of favorite folk songs, or, moreover, about their geographical origin. In the titles of the movie there is no information about music that sounds. This was the reason of the long-term confusion. A long time there was considered that all folk songs from “There once was a dog” are performed by well-known authentic folk ensemble “Drevo” from Kryachkivkavillage Pyryatyn district Poltava region. But songs from the short movie are different by songs performed by the ensemble, which were recorded by ethnomusicologists or published on audio discs. They are different by polyphonic texture, timbre and manner of the singers. Thus, it became obvious that songs from the cartoon were performed by other ensembles. The object of the article was to search for the original recordings used by E. Nazarov in the cartoon.So, after long term searching, the answer was found. Two songs from animation short film were found in the audio fund of Ukrainian Broadcasting Company. They were recorded for the radio program “The gold springs” (1980-1993) leading by Halyna Verhovynets.A humorous song "Ta kosyv bat’ko" was sung by authentic ensemble from Solonytsia village of Lubny district Poltava region.Ballad “Oi tam na hori” was performed by authentic ensemble from Pulyntsi village Lubny district Poltava region.Petrivka (ritual summer period song) “Oi do boru stezhechka”, which was sound from the third verse “Schob do mene solovei prylitav”, origins from the Nedilysche village Emilchyn district Zhytomyr region. The authentic version was recorded by ethnomusicologist of Kyiv conservatory Volodymyr Matvienko in 1977. But in short-film it is performed by reconstructive ensemble by O. Shevchuk, V. Ponomarenko, P. Aron and T. Tonkal.Due to collaboration of Kyiv ethnomusicologists all the songs of the cartoon were identified. With methods of comparative and stylistic analysis there was found original recordings used by E. Nazarov in his film “There once was a dog”.