Traveling musicians in ancient Rus'. Attachments for music of ancient Rus'

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 the Christian culture that came from Byzantium, Russian singers inevitably had to use the old reserves of pagan song. 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. The mastery of 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 by instrumental music or epics. 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 Host” (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, a gusel, a psaltery, a domra, bagpipes, and a 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 “merry 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 that time on, the buffoon became an obsolete figure, although certain types of his creative activity continued to live among the people for a very long time. Thus, the buffoon-singer, performer of 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' perceived 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 is the idea of ​​its 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 of medieval Russian art was its synthetic nature. The same images were embodied by different means in different types of art, but 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 in the musical side of the service: “And the Tsar and the Grand Duke listened to that modem singing, until which time the baptism was performed.” 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 precisely deciphered, the question remains open: whether Rus' adopted church singing from Byzantium directly or through the South Slavic countries, but it is obvious that by the 15th-16th centuries. Russian Znamenny chant was a completely original artistic phenomenon. Received from Byzantium and stable principles remained the strictly vocal nature of 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 epic 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, traveling and demestial chants appeared, each having its own recording system, as well as individual versions of individual chants that belonged to a given 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 became widespread, partly related to the singing of the 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. Typically, three periods are distinguished for the Middle Ages: before the Mongol-Tatar invasion (XI-XIII centuries), the Moscow period (XIV - early XVII centuries), the era of the turning point (from the accession of the Romanov dynasty in 1613 to the reign of Peter I, the beginning of the XVIII V.).

Further XVIII century. are often divided into two periods - the post-Petrine period, marked by the strongest foreign influence, and the Catherine period (the last third of the century), when signs of a national music school began 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), a new stage gradually unfolds, marked first by the development - against the backdrop of classical traditions - of the "modern" style, and then by other new trends, which can be generalized by the terms “futurism”, “constructivism”, etc. In the history of Russian music of the Soviet period, the pre-war and post-war periods are distinguished, and in the second of them the beginning of the 1960s is designated as the boundary. 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... Here's 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 recorded 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 of the Slavs and ancient Russians was destroyed and replaced with Western church music. What has reached us since that time is still a hundred liters of water in the ocean...

In Ancient Rus', vocal art developed primarily. Its primary sources were Russian folk songs, because they reflect the entire life of the common people. These include everyday themes, as well as themes of work and faith. The most famous ancient songs are:

Lullabies,

Pagan,

Calendar-ritual cycle.

But songs like these have a narrow range.

IX-XII centuries - the time of the existence of the state of Kievan Rus. In 988, Christianity was adopted, which came from Byzantium. It was then that three centers of musical art were formed:

1. Folk song, which has a connection with paganism. Among the people, buffoons stood out - talented people who amused others with musical and circus acts. But they were subject to persecution by the church. Instrumental music was not approved by the church. Only vocal and spiritual were recognized.

2. Prince's courtyard. Here the central figure is a singer-storyteller, composing and singing epics and songs dedicated to the exploits of the prince and his squad. The most popular musical instruments at that time were:

3. The church was the most important center for the development of writing and iconography. At that time, prayer-songs appeared, performed by a male choir in unison. These are harsh tunes with a smooth melody and a narrow range. They were recorded with banners (signs), some of which were hooks. They indicated the direction of the melody (down or up). For this they received the name “znamenny chant.” Composed by chanting monks. The most famous are Savva Rogov and Fyodor Krestyanin. The unique texts were first written in Byzantine and then translated. Later, Znamenny chant became the source of Russian musical classics (Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov, etc.).

After the collapse of Kievan Rus, the Principality of Novgorod emerged. Here the buffoonery was not persecuted by the church, and therefore flourished. In those days, many epics were composed in which ingenuity and dexterity were glorified.

During the time of Muscovite Rus', many songs and epics were composed about the capture of Kazan. The art of music received great development at the court of Ivan IV. It was he who brought such musical instruments as the clavichord and organ to Russia and created the “Chorus of State Singing Deacons.” That time was marked by the appearance of the first Russian polyphony, and divine services became even more magnificent and exciting. Line singing appeared - the main voice + 2 voices above and below it.

It developed primarily as vocal music. Its origins are in Russian folk song. The folk song reflected the entire life of the people (work, life, faith, etc.). Among the most ancient songs, lullabies and calendar songs are known (pagan songs associated with the time of year - spring songs, etc.). They have a narrow range.

9-12 centuries – the time of Kievan Rus. In 988, Rus' adopted Christianity. It came from Byzantium. Three main centers of musical culture emerged:

1) Folk song. The folk song has a connection with paganism. Talented people stood out from the people - buffoons. They amused the people by performing not only musical numbers, but also circus acts. They were persecuted by the church. The Church did not approve of instrumental music. She recognized only vocal and sacred music.

2) Princely court. Here the central figure was the singer-storyteller, who composed and sang songs and epics about the military exploits of the prince and his squad. He accompanied himself on the harp. Other instruments were also used at court - domra, horns, gudok (a string instrument with 3 strings and a bow).

3) Church. This is the most important focus. Writing and icon painting developed. The “Znamenny chant” appeared (11-17 centuries). These are prayer chants performed by a male choir in unison. By nature they are harsh tunes with a smooth melody and a narrow range. These chants were recorded using banners (signs), some of which were hooks. They did not indicate the exact pitch, but only the direction of the melody (up or down). These chants were composed by chanting monks. The most famous of them are Fyodor the Peasant (one of the most famous works is “Stichera”), Savva Rogov. The texts were first translated from Byzantine. In the 16th century, Znamenny chants were written by Ivan IV (the Terrible) himself. Subsequently, Znamenny chant became one of the sources of Russian musical classics (Rachmaninov, Mussorgsky, etc.).

In the 12th-15th centuries, the Novgorod principality stood out. Here the art of music was somewhat different. The people lived well. Buffoonery flourished (here it was not persecuted by the church). Epic epics were composed, but they glorified not the prince’s exploits, but his dexterity and ingenuity.

Late 14th – 16th centuries. - the time of Moscow Rus'. At this time, Ivan Kalita, Dmitry Donskoy, Ivan the Terrible (16th century) ruled, who united Rus' and took Kazan from the Tatars. Songs and epics were written about the capture of Kazan. At the court of Ivan IV, music received great development. From abroad he brought an organ and clavichord and created the “Chorus of State Singing Deacons.” This is the heyday of Znamenny singing. Divine services were distinguished by pomp. At the same time, the first Russian polyphony appeared (znamenny chant - monophony). Line singing began to appear - the main voice and voices lower and higher from the main voice. Clerk Ivan Shaidurov introduced a new recording - “cinnabar marks”, in which the pitch of the sound was already recorded. The recording has become more perfect.

In the 17th century the Znamenny chant disappeared. 1613 – beginning of the Romanov dynasty (Mikhail). The Russian nation is taking shape. Popular riots occur. All this life was reflected in folk songs - freestyle songs, satirical songs. A new genre arose - lyrical folk song (lyrical lingering). These are, first of all, songs about the difficult life of women (slow, expressive, suffering). One of the striking examples of this genre is the song “Luchinushka”.

Russian polyphony developed. This is largely due to the fact that Ukraine joined Russia, where the influence of Polish Catholic music (choral singing) was felt. “Partes singing”—singing in parts—developed. The highest genre of partes singing is the spiritual choral concert. This is a grandiose choral work for many voices (chord thinking). Tools must have been missing. Partes concertos were written by Vasily Titov (wrote a concert in honor of the Poltava victory - 12 voices), Nikolai Bavykin.

In the 17th century, new secular genres also emerged - cants and psalms (the only difference was in the text). In the cants there is a secular text, and in the psalms there is a spiritual text. These genres have their own characteristics - 3 voices, in which the 2 upper voices are parallel, and the bass is the harmonic basis. Cants were very common in the 18th century - in the era of Peter I. Then panegyric cants (praises) appeared in honor of the victories of Peter I. They had quarto-quintal intonations and were energetic. Their form is couplet. Cants subsequently influenced Russian music: Glinka – final chorus of “Ivan Susanin” (“Glory”) – 3 voices, cant composition (has the features of a hymn and a march); this also manifests itself in the finale of Glazunov’s symphony.

Music notation on five rulers in square notes came from Ukraine to Russia. The pinnacle of the development of the partes style is the spiritual choral concerts of Berezovsky and Bortnyansky. Berezovsky is a serf musician. He was very talented. Because of his enormous talent, he was sent to Italy. There he studied with Padre Martini (Mozart's teacher). His life was tragic. When he was already at the height of his glory in Italy, his prince suddenly remembered that he had a serf in Italy and demanded that he be sent to Russia. Berezovsky could not bear such grief and committed suicide. Berezovsky's choral concerts are at a very high technical level, comparable to Mozart. He had enormous harmonic and polyphonic skill. His concerts consist of different contrasting parts (among them there are fugues). A particularly popular concert is “Do not open to me in my old age” (an appeal to God).

Dmitry Bortnyansky lived until the first half of the 19th century. He wrote not only wind music, but also instrumental music - sonatas, etc. He is a more lyrical composer than Berezovsky (Berezovsky has more drama).

18 century. Bright time. The century of Peter I and Catherine II. Russia at this time was undergoing violent upheavals and reforms. The first Russian Academy of Sciences was opened. The flourishing of various types of art: science - Lomonosov, the flourishing of literature - Trediakovsky, Radishchev, Lotonovsky. The heyday of painting is portraits. It began with Peter's reforms. Peter established assemblies in which dances and instrumental music that were then fashionable in Europe were performed. Each regiment had its own brass band. Among the musical genres, cants (panegyric) in honor of military victories, spiritual concerts, and Wedel (composer) spread. The folk song became widespread. People in the city began to take an interest in her. The first collections of folk songs appeared (towards the end of the 18th century):

Trutovsky's collection

Lvov and Prach – Collection of folk songs.

Kirsha Danilov – Collection of folk songs.

etc. Folk songs in them were processed in a Western manner - harmonized with Albertian basses, the music was squeezed into a certain size (in folk music there was a frequent change of sizes) - for home music playing. The first Russian operas were composed from Russian folk songs (late 18th century). They (operas) consisted of separate numbers with spoken dialogues. The first Russian opera without spoken dialogue is Glinka's Ivan Susanin.

In 1779, 3 Russian operas appeared at once. The first operas were comic.

1. “The miller is a sorcerer, a deceiver and a matchmaker.” Text by Ablesimov. The music was composed by Sokolovsky (arranged folk themes).

2. “St. Petersburg Gostiny Dvor.” Text and music by Maatinsky. 2nd edition with Pashkevich.

Among theater composers, Evstignei Fomin stood out. He wrote the melodrama “Orpheus” (French genre). This is a reading of a tragedy to music with musical inserts. The music shocked the listener with its drama. There is an overture. Written in the spirit of the Viennese classics. Inside there are similarities with Gluck and Handel - sublime music.

In the 18th century, folk song spread into instrumental music. Composers wrote variations on folk themes, but the musical material often did not correspond to the nature of the variations, since the variations were done in a Western manner - classical ornamental variations. Only Glinka solved this problem.

The second important genre of instrumental creativity is overtures, in which Russian symphonism was born, but overtures were not independent, but as an overture to opera or melodrama. Russian material also began to penetrate into them, but not always.

Russian music of the early 19th century before Glinka

At the beginning of the century, the first Russian concert organization was opened - the Philharmonic Society. But the main concert life was concentrated in secular salons. There were many serf orchestras and theaters. Delvig's (poet) salon was very popular. He was visited by Pushkin, Glinka, Griboyedov and others.

In the 19th century, there were various artistic movements: sentimentalism, romanticism (especially in the poetry of Zhukovsky), classicism. All these trends merged together in the work of Pushkin, who had a great influence on the entire artistic life of the first half of the 19th century.

The two main genres of the early 19th century were opera and romance.

Operas have become more diverse in genres - not only comic, but also with an element of seriousness. The composer of Italian origin Caterino Cavos was the first to write the opera “Ivan Susanin”. This opera had spoken dialogues. Susanin in it has an everyday character. The opera has a happy ending.

A new genre has appeared - fairy-tale-fantastic opera. The first of them is “Lesta - the Dnieper mermaid.” Authors: Kavos and Davydov. The music is based on Russian folk material. From here the path to Dargomyzhsky’s “Rusalka” (in the genre sense) can be traced.

In the 30s - the genre of “romantic opera”. Verstovsky was a great master of this genre - “Pan Tvardovsky”, “Vadim” (according to Zhukovsky) and the especially popular “Askold’s Grave” (a plot from ancient Rus'). This opera was staged even after Glinka appeared. It was staged a year before Glinka’s “Ivan Susanin” - in 1835 (“Ivan Susanin” - 1836).

The second popular genre of the first third of the 19th century was romance. It was a favorite genre of both professionals and just music lovers. These romances have accumulated vivid emotionality and expressiveness. Romances were written by both professionals and amateurs based on verses by contemporary poets.

Russian everyday romance has stable features. They could be written in the genre of “elegy” with a decomposed accompaniment. This is a romance - a philosophical reflection.

Another variety is “Russian song”. It first arose in poetry and had a certain vocabulary, close to folk speech. This genre also appeared in romance (with similar vocabulary). Such romances were distinguished by greater simplicity in music than other romances.

Composers of romances widely used the rhythm of waltz, mazurka, bolero, and polonaise. Russian romances were characterized by melodious melodies, often using a sixth (from the 5th to the 3rd centuries). The minor predominated, with an obligatory deviation into the parallel major. Cadenzas often used D7 with a sixth. The most popular authors of romances were: Zhilin, Titov, Gurilev, Varlamov, Alyabyev. The forms of romances are simple - couplets. Alyabyev – “Nightingale”, Varlamov – “The Lonely Sail Whitens” (with the rhythm of a polonaise), Gurilev – “Tiny House”.

• The presentation was made by
• primary school teacher
• Efanova L.E.

• Russian music was initially associated with the culture and life of the ancient Russian Slavs.
• The ancient Slavs were pagans and worshiped nature.
• All the beliefs of the Slavs were accompanied by chants and incantations, singing, dancing, and round dancing.
• All significant events in human life were accompanied by rituals.

• The beauty of folk songs is already revealed in ancient lullabies. They are filled with motherly love.
• After the singing of lullabies comes the turn of nurseries and nursery rhymes (from the word nurture, nurse, groom, follow someone.). These are short poetic sentences that accompany the child’s movements in the first months of life.
• For the first time, children were sung little fairy tales in verse, and children were taught to put up with lies and inconsistencies.

• A unique genre, typical only for the music of Ancient Rus', is the art of bell ringing. There are three types of ringing: 1. Blagovest ( uniform strikes of a large bell), 2. Chime (selection of bells from the smallest to the largest or vice versa) 3. Actually the ringing itself (this was already a real game of bells).

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; amusing man, lomaka, gayer, jester; bugbear; comedian, actor, etc.”

Buffoons were carriers of synthetic forms of folk art that combined singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, bear fun, puppet shows, performances in masks, and magic tricks. Buffoons were regular participants in folk festivals, games, festivities, and various ceremonies: weddings, maternity baptisms, funerals. “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, is the plural of the word “skomorosi” (skomrasi), which goes back to the Proto-Slavic forms. In turn, the Proto-Slavic word has an Indo-European root, common to all European languages ​​- “scomors-os”, which originally referred to a wandering musician, dancer, comedian. This is where the names of folk comic characters come from: the Italian “scaramuccia” (Italian scaramuccia) and the 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: “the buffoons, “copping up 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, in the oral poetry of the Russian people there is no 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 in order 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, and 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.

— A detailed description of the trip 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 the traditional culture of the Eastern Slavs, influencing 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, a gusel, a psaltery, a domra, bagpipes, and a 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 invited into your house.” “If we learn... the worldly people will allow those buffoons (with harps, domras, surnas and bagpipes) and bear guides 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.”