Wedding Macroareology of Slavic-Baltic Area

Abstract

The purpose of the publication is to present an arealogy of the largest groups of typical wedding meloforms (established by their key rhythmic and compositional characteristics), which function in the common multi-ethnic geographical space of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Lithuanians, and in adjacent Russian regions. The geographical spaces of the listed ethnic groups mean their ethnic territories established at the beginning of the 20th century on linguistic grounds. Late administrative boundaries are not taken into account. The research source was approx. 27,500 melodies compiled from archival and published sources (sound recordings and notations), and registered in the electronic database “The register of ritual melodies of Ukrainians and neighboring ethnic groups” (RRMU+). The main research tools: modeling the syllable-rhythmic formulas, determining the types of arrangement of tunes, combining the models built at the intersection of components into the related typological groups (families), highlighting the key - geographically large-scale - musical forms and their mapping.The article contains 17 melo-geographic maps of iconic type. In the wedding cycle of the outlined territory, more than six dozen stable (typical) musical forms were established, which can be described in one analytical algorithm, since all the forms belong to the class of quantitative (time-measuring) rhythm. 5 tables are attached to the study. They show all the basic rhythmic formulas that serve as the basis for the creation of compositions. The characteristic is given to all the main ways of arranging of wedding melodies: various types of stanzas (classical two-line responsory type, three-line based on indivisible long formulas, original reduced one-and-a-half forms or expanded 4-line ones), several types of tirade (stretchable) forms with an altering number of lines, separate original compositions (forms with rerhythmization, multi-element formulas, a couple of periodicities).The obtained areas showed a complex system of melotypological and geographical ties in the common Slavic-Baltic space. Some of the areas are closed within the Ukrainian ethnic territories (all classical tirade compositions, hetero-rhythmic composition ‹formula-stanza›, mobile composition formulas (usually monotext or with a dominant plot), ritual introductory formulas preceding singing with a triple repetition of a song). The other part of the forms (mostly stanzaic) has multi-ethnic areas (bilingual, trili?gual, four-language) with different geographical vectors. Linguistic boundaries had not prevent spreading of this group of forms. In interethnic relations, the northern vector (Ukrainian-Belarusian relations) is represented by almost two dozen forms. The western vector (Poles, Lithuanians) is represented by nearly 10 rhythmic types. Eastern (Russian) vector is the most closed. Separate general forms extend to the east from the border of the Slavic-Baltic area to a shallow depth (to neighboring areas), while predominantly acquiring distinctive features (for example, special “alilio” refrains).The largest multi-ethnic areas have melodies based on the formulas of the 6-metre (hexachord), the iambic 6/7-syllable, the verse forms V5 + 3, V5 + 5 + 7. These formulas served as material for a diverse compositional development. The total number of varieties based on each model requires the application of the concept of macro-family to each of these groups. The construction of macroareals allows us to clearly outline the external borders of the Slavic-Baltic early traditional area (SBA). The bunch of isomels on the north-eastern border coincides with the Belarusian language border. In the internal division of the SBA, the leading role is played by the conditional vertical division of the area into the western and eastern parts. In the western part (presented in the form of an arc, also covering the northern segment of the SBA – Poozeria (Lakeland)), the three-dimensional organization formulas dominate, and the technique of adding of syllable-chrons is also active. In the eastern zone, the main role is played by the two-dimensional organization formulas (4 and 6-metre), which act in the mode of active syllable-rhythmic division.