Article

Name: Calendar tradition of Belarusian settlers: structural and rhythmic typology of late summer and autumn songs

Authors: T. V. Dayneko

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Обрядовый фольклор

Abstract:

The article presents the results of a study of the tunes of ritual and season-timed songs of late summer and autumn of the folklore tradition of Belarusian settlers of Siberia and the Far East. The study material comprises archival and published recordings made since the 1970s and up to the present time in a number of the main regions of settlement of Belarusians: Novosibirsk, Omsk regions, Krasnoyarsk, and Primorsky Territories. The focus is on the most important aspect of calendar songs, namely, the structural-rhythmic organization of the tunes. The author of the article has correlated the features of the tunes of the songs of the settlers’ tradition with the types of tunes of ritual songs in the maternal tradition identified by the Belarusian ethnomusicologist Z. Ya. Mozheyko.

The tunes under investigation were established to belong to the first and second typological groups of zhnivnye songs, to the type of zhnivnye tunes of the eastern districts of Poozerye (the territory of Belarus), to the first and second dozhinochnye types, the first yarynnyy and the second autumn types (according to Mozheyko). In addition, some tunes were found to have characteristic structural and rhythmic parameters of the summer period types – the sixth rusal’nyy and the seventh kupal’skiy. Few songs proved to have typical modified and typical combined tunes. A special role in the organization of zhnivnye tunes is played by four- and six-syllable verse structures; they are realized in rhythmic formulas found in the tunes of songs throughout the calendar circle.

Keywords: folklore of Belarusians of Siberia and the Far East, calendar songs of Belarusian settlers, ritual and season-timed songs of late summer and autumn, structural and rhythmic typology

Bibliography:

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