In Russia, Music Makes YOU!

First, the boring lecture

• GO to page 36• PREPARE to take notes• TAKE NOTES!

FOLK MUSIC

• ORAL TRADITION• END OF 18TH CENTURY, ELITE CLASSES BEGAN TO

“COLLECT” FOLK MUSIC• JOHANN HERDER SAW FOLK SONGS AS A VESSEL

FOR THE NATIONAL SPIRIT• IS NECESSARILY CHANGED WHEN WRITTEN

DOWN• MOST LABELED AS “FOLK” ARE ACTUALLY URBAN

POPULAR SONGS

SONG GENRES

• PROTYAZHNAYA = prolonged– Slow– Lyrical– Melismatic• Each syllable can be stretched into a whole musical

phrase – lots of notes for each syllable

Track One, page 38• PROTYAZHNAYA– “The Day was Breaking”• From the Smolensk region of Russia

“The Day was Breaking”

• RURAL• Subject: recruitment into the Russian Tsarist

Army– Hitch was 25 years• Say good bye to old life

LISTEN! “The Day was Breaking”

• Begins with solo introduction (ZAPEV)• Zapev is enveloped by “undervoices”

(PODGOLOSKI)• Podgoloski creates dense texture, becomes

dissonant• Zapev developed around the interval of the

fifth – HELP, LISSETTE!!!!!!

GLINKA SEZ…

“THE FIFTH IS THE SOUL OF RUSSIAN MUSIC”

THE FIFTH IS THE SOUL OF RUSSIAN MUSIC!

“The Day was Breaking”

• MODE IS UNUSUAL – At the beginning, the third degree of the scale is

heard as a minor third over the modal center– BUT before the final unison of every verse we hear

a major third

Track two, page 39• PROTYAZHNAYA in an urban (popular) idiom –

not folk• “Akh Ty Step” (O, ye steppes…)• One of the vast usually level and treeless tracts in

southeastern Europe or Asia

“Akh Ty Step” (O, ye steppes…)

• It’s a protyazhnaya because:1. The text, “O, ye steppes…”, is a common opening

line in this genre2. Typical features of the melody (wide intervals,

like the opening ascending sixth)3. General mood: lyrical and melancholy

OTHER FOLK SONG GENRES (p. 40)

• CALENDAR – Belong to various seasonal rituals like Advent,

Christmas, summer solstice• Older than lyrical songs• Shorter melodic phrases• Not melismatic• Sometimes mix pagan and Christian imagery

MORE “OTHER FOLK SONG GENRES” (p. 40)

• Wedding • Funeral laments• Epic (bylini) solo songs of Northern Russia, telling of

historical events or legends• Labor songs (“Volga Boatmen”)• Lullabies• Game (songs for children)• Dance (plyasovye) with strong rhythms and repetition• Military

Collections and arrangements (p.40)

• Lvov-Pratsch (1790)– Nikolai Lvov = transcriber– Johann (Ivan)Pratsch = arranger.• Influential UNTIL people determined that Pratsch

allegedly remolded the melodies to fit the art and popular songs, placing accents on the wrong syllables • Accused of WESTERNIZING folk songs

• SO-Was good collection for the time but falls short by later

standards

MORE Collections and arrangements (p.41)

• MILY BALAKIREV (1866) • Didn’t try to fool people into thinking that he was

approximating folk practice – he was just an arranger

• Showed a clear preference for flattened 7ths• Restricted most of his harmony to chords (diatonic

harmony) – result is not just diatonic but modal• Also stuck to triads instead of 4-note chords to

make his folk songs sound more ancient

QUICK! TURN TO PAGE 41-42 FOR MORE NOTES!

• HETEROPHONY – DEFINE IT!• POLYPHONY – CONTRAST IT!• WHY ARE THESE TERMS IMPORTANT? • FIGURE IT OUT!

MORE Collections and arrangements (p.42)

• YULI MELGUNOV (1879)• First to attempt writing down polyphony– Had a problem: impossible to make accurate

transcriptions while singers were performing together

HOW did he solve it? Turn to p. 42 and find out!

P.S> - Rimsky-Korsakov called Melgunov’s solution “barbaric”

MORE Collections and arrangements (p.42)

• Nikolai Palchikov • Made the best attempt at reproducing folk polyphony;

had a chance to study choral folk singing b/c he lived in a villag4e

• Listened to individual singers and notated each part separately and then turned it into a “score”

• Result was better than Melgunov’s • Nice, but no cigar,

• b/c Palchikov lived in a village, his work remained obscure

Still MORE Collections and arrangements (p.42)

• Yevgeniya Linyova (1904)• Published first set of Her transcripts in 1904• Had the advantage of audio recording• Igor Stravinsky LOVED the idea of using audio

recordings – such a rebel!

Last set of notes

• (from me)• (for today)

• Turn to page 43• Prepare to take notes• Take notes!

And now for the homework

• Read and take notes on pages 45 through 50, stopping when you get to “Glinka, ‘The Father of Russian Music’”.

• Serenity will answer the burning question, “Why Glinka? ” and tell us why we should care.