Traditional winter-time melodies in the upper Samara river basin

Abstract

For the first time, the winter calendar tunes of the local ethno-music tradition of the upper reaches of the Samara River in historical and ethnographic context are considered in detail. Kolyadky and schedrivky – in the total absence of other calendar genres – today represent the oldest layer of local musical folklore in the repertoire of local tradition respondents. The material for publication was the samples of the corresponding genres, recorded by the author as part of the expeditions of the Laborato-ry of Folklore and Ethnography at M. Glinka Dnipropetrovsk Academy of Music in the years 2016–2017 from the Petropav-lovsk district of the Dnepropetrovsk region, as well as songs found in printed and archival sources. These works are systema-tized from different points of view: their performers age, rhythmic structure, compositional and tune features. According to these indicators, statistical tables and maps of the geographical distribution of winter ritual folk songs found in the research ar-ea were created. It was found out that the tunes of the children's repertoire (one- or two-element structures of the primitive rhythmic and melodic structure) are recorded practically in every investigated settlement, which allows us to draw the conclu-sion about the wide area of their existence. The repertoire of adults, mainly schedrivky, is represented by strophic forms with re-frains and reveals musical and stylistic features that approximate local generosity to cantilever singing forms: solemn character of performance at a moderate or slow tempo, long length, wide tunes, active rhythmic crushing of syllables, polyphonic tex-ture, etc. The distribution of such structures in the study area turned out to be uneven.