Audio examples of Laura Olson's fieldwork in Russia, 1996-99.
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The following recordings show various types of folk singing in Russia
today. Examples 1, 6, 7, 11 and 18 are by urban adult revivalist groups,
while 12 and 13 are urban children's revivalist groups. Examples 2, 8,
and 10 show the work of professional and pre-professional singers and
ensembles; their music is representative of a mainstream folk music sound.
Examples 14, 15, and 16 are recordings of village ensembles made up of
retirement-age women. Example 17 shows the work of a village-based revivalist
ensemble. Examples 3, 4, 5, and 19 are recordings made in the 1970s by
Russian ethnomusicologists. Examples 3 and 4 show the work of Dmitri Pokrovsky
and the Pokrovsky Ensemble, who started the Russian folk revival movement.
For more detailed explanations of this music and its context, see Performing
Russia: Folk Revival and Russian Identity (Routledge, 2004).
If you would rather download the sample files in mp3 format you may
do so by selecting any of the X's below. The full length files require
a username and password that can be obtained from Prof. Laura Olson (LOlson@Colorado.EDU).
Tat’iana Zbueva of Saratov, one of winners of
the second annual Lydia Ruslanova Contest for Russian Folk Singing,
performs a medley of “Rasti, rasti moia kalinushka” and
“Iz-pod duba, iz-pod viaza” (folk songs made famous by
Lydia Ruslanova and others) accompanied by Ossipov Folk Orchestra
directed by Nikolai Karimov at “Russia’s Children Sing”
concert, Tchaikovsky Hall, Moscow, 16 January 1999.
Pokrovsky Ensemble sings "Poidu vydu da na vulitsu,"dance song from Dolzhonkovo, Kursk oblast', during a concert in late 1970s. Note the fast (and accelerating) tempo at which the singers take the song (compare with tempo of #5, recording of retirement-age villagers).
Three vocal tracks of "Poidu vydu da na vulitsu": Dmitri Pokrovsky, Tamara Smyslova, Aleksandr Danilov. Recordings made by Andrei Kabanov in 1977 using "multi-track recording" technology (one recorder for each singer). Other members of the Pokrovsky Ensemble were recorded simultaneously on other tracks. Some interesting features of the performances: The whole recording session was recorded over level, because (according to Kabanov) the singers' voices were so powerful that the available equipment could not accommodate them. "Rests" are stylistic features; the idea is to underline one's entrance and exit (Pokrovsky and Danilov use this device creatively, while Smyslova seems to aim for a nearly seamless wall of sound with very short and widely spaced breaks for breaths. The singers' breathing technique was legendary). Other stylistic devices: sliding up to or down from a note (portamento), glottal stops. Also note Smyslova's strong deemphasis of consonants. According to revivalists, all of these are features of South Russian traditional village singing.
Andrei Kabanov's field recording of "Poidu vydu da na vulitsu" in village of Dolzhonkovo, Kursk oblast' (not dated). Kabanov used the "sliding track" method in which the microphone is held in front of a different singer on each verse in order to capture the song's polyphonic texture.
Ensemble "Volia" [Freedom] of the Voronezh Conservatory, directed by Galina Sysoeva, performs dance song "O moia zaria, O moia zoriushka" from one of the areas where they do fieldwork (Belgorod oblast), at a workshop as part of the Fourth Annual Moscow "Folklore Spring" festival, 21 April 1999.
The professional Cossack ensemble "Stanitsa" of Volgograd, composed of professional singers and former and current students at the Volgograd branch of the Samara State Academy of Culture and the Arts, performs the stroevaia (marching) song "Oi v nogu rebiata idite" (Oskorbili ofitsera) [In step, kids! (They insulted the officer)] for American guests in their hotel room in Moscow after the "Folklore Spring" festival, 24 April 1999. I recorded it using the "sliding track" method (see #5), which accounts for some of the volume shifts.
Second-year students of Gnesin Academy, directed by
Svetlana Ignat’eva, perform “Devushki, davaite sovet”
[Give me advice, girls], a dance song from Leshukhonsk, Arkhangel’sk
oblast, at end-of-semester recital in Gnesin Academy auditorium, Moscow,
23 December, 1998.
Zhanna Kabanova demonstrates the difference between
a village song sung the way she and her husband have learned, and
the sound typically taught at the Gnesin Academy in Moscow. First
she asks me to begin “Vse by ia po gorenki khodila” [Oh
how I’d like to go visiting] (originally recorded in village
of Podserednee, Belgorod oblast), and she and her husband Andrei Kabanov
join in; she calls this the “philosophy of a conversation.”
Then she sings the song the way she was taught at Gnesin.
Riazan’ State Folk Choir, directed by Aleksandr
Kozlov, exemplifies the typical Gnesin Academy sound, yet shows that
they are interested in portraying local traditions as they perform
a soldier’s song recorded in the Riazan’ oblast village
of Zaokskoe, “Molodoi gusarik,” [The Young Hussar], at
a dress rehearsal in Riazan’ 22 October, 1998.
At a rehearsal in their Perm studio 16 May 1999, ensemble "Pesel'naia artel'" [Songster Workshop] of Perm performs a drawn-out historical song about the time of Napoleon's invasion of Moscow, "Byl ia da na gore da na vysokoiu" [I was on the mountain, on the high one], collected from Perm villagers who had been transplanted to Novosibirsk. The singers warned that they do not consider themselves "nositeli" [transmitters] of this song since the tradition is from Novosibirsk and not Perm oblast. I recorded the performance using the "sliding track" technique (see # 5).
Children in Elena Krasnopevtseva’s “Veretentse”
[Little Spindle] ensemble sing and dance “Tymonia” at
rehearsal in their Moscow studio, 19 November 1998.
Children’s ensemble “Izmailovskaia Sloboda”
[Izmailovsky Tradesmen’s Settlement], directed by Andrei and
Zhanna Kabanov, performs chastushki at concert at Ostrovsky
Museum, Moscow, 28 October, 1998.
Zinaida Gubareva, Valentina Chikhunova, Tat'iana Arkhipova, Valentina A. Aleshina, Valentina I. Aleshina, and Aleksandra Tarasova, members of local ensemble, perform pre-Revolution-era cruel romance "Ekhali soldaty" [The soldiers rode] for visitors at Gubareva's home in Kochemary, Riazan oblast, 19 October 1998. Gubareva sings podgolosok (highest contrasting vocal part); V. I. Aleshina is zapevala (precentor, initial soloist). The singers said they had sung this song recently at a local performance for the anniversary of the Soviet Army.
Members of local ensemble in Liubovnikovo, Riazan oblast,
perform the Soviet-era song “Vo soldaty Vaniu mat’ provozhala”
[Vanya’s mother saw him off to the army], traditionally sung
during festivities when communities send young men off to the army.
Ekaterina Nikanorova, the group’s unofficial leader, stated
she liked when they used to sing the song with a tambourine.
In the village House of Culture members of local ensemble
perform for American guests chastushki that they themselves
have authored, accompanied by accordion and balalaika. Village of
Ermolovo, Riazan oblast, 1 August 1996.
At a rehearsal 6 May 1999, Nina Peregudova, Liudmilla
Kostiakova, Ol’ga Gorlova, Irina Kozlova, Natasha and Nina of
Ensemble Vereia of Vorob’evka, Voronezh oblast, sing “Zdravstvui
milaia khoroshaia moia” [Hello, my dear lovely one] which they
learned from older women in a neighboring village, Solontsy. Kostiakova,
the song’s zapevala, was hoarse from a cold that day.
I recorded the performance using the “sliding track” technique.
Moscow Conservatory Folk Ensemble performs dance song "Mushka po luzhku poshla" [The fly crawled across the meadow] at a concert at Shaliapin House-Museum in Moscow, 10 October, 1998. The group "restored" the song to full mnogogolosie (folk polyphony) by using as their source the two-voice recording that follows.
