Russian folk art: types, genres, examples

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

Collective artistic creative activity, reflecting the life of an ethnic group, its ideals, its views, has absorbed the folk art of Russia. Epos, fairy tales, legends were created and existed among the people from generation to generation - this is a genre of poetry, original music sounded - plays, tunes, songs, theatrical performances were a favorite festive spectacle - mainly it was a puppet theater. But dramas and satirical plays were also staged there. The folk art of Russia also penetrated deeply into dance, fine arts, arts and crafts. Russian dances also originated in ancient times. The folk art of Russia has erected a historical foundation for modern artistic culture, has become a source of artistic traditions, an expression of the self-consciousness of the people.

Oral and written

Written literary works came much later than those oral gems that filled the precious casket of folklore since pagan times. Those very proverbs, sayings, riddles, songs and round dances, spells and charms, epics and fairy tales, which the folk art of Russia cut to a brilliant shine. The ancient Russian epic reflectedthe spirituality of our people, traditions, real events, features of life, revealed and preserved the exploits of historical characters. So, for example, Vladimir the Red Sun, everyone's favorite prince, served as a prototype for the real prince - Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, the hero Dobrynya Nikitich - the uncle of Vladimir the First, the boyar Dobrynya. The types of oral folk art are exceptionally diverse.

With the advent of Christianity in the tenth century begins the great Russian literature, its history. Gradually, with its help, the Old Russian language was formed, which became unified. The first books - handwritten, were decorated with gold and other precious metals, gems, enamel. They were very expensive, because people did not know them for a long time. However, with the strengthening of religion, books penetrated into the most remote corners of the Russian land, since the people needed to know the works of Ephraim the Syrian, John Chrysostom and other religious translated literature. The original Russian literature of antiquity is now represented by chronicles, biographies of saints (lives), rhetorical teachings ("Words", one of them is "The Tale of Igor's Campaign"), walking (or walking, travel notes) and many other genres, not so famous. The fourteenth century produced a whole series of monuments of folklore of exceptional significance. Some types of oral folk art, such as epic, passed into the category of written ones. This is how "Sadko" and "Vasily Buslaev" appeared, recorded by the storytellers.

Examples of folk art

Oral creativity has served as a storehouse of people's memory. The heroic opposition to the Tatar-Mongol yoke and other invaders was sung from mouth to mouth. It was on the basis of such songs that the stories that have survived to this day were created: about the battle on Kalka, where "seventy great and brave" get our freedom, about Evpaty Kolovrat, who defended Ryazan from Batu, about Mercury, who defended Smolensk. The oral folk art of Russia has preserved the facts of the uprising of Tver against the Baskak Shevkal, about Shchelkan Dudentievich, and these songs were sung far beyond the borders of the principality of Tver. The compilers of epics brought the events of the Kulikovo field to distant descendants, and the old images of Russian heroes were still used by the people for folk works dedicated to the fight against the Golden Horde.

Until the end of the tenth century, the inhabitants of Kiev-Novgorod Rus did not yet know writing. However, this pre-literary period has brought to our days the golden verbal works transmitted from mouth to mouth and from generation to generation. And now festivals of folk art in Russia are held, where all the same songs, tales and epics of a thousand years ago are heard. Epics, songs, fairy tales, legends, riddles, sayings, proverbs can be attributed to the ancient genres that still sound today. Most of the folklore works that have come down to us are poetry. The poetic form makes it easy to memorize texts, and therefore, for many centuries, folklore works were passed down through generations, changing to expediency, polished from one talented storyteller to another.

Small genres

Small volume works belong to small genres of folklore. These are parables: puns, tongue twisters, proverbs, jokes, riddles, signs, sayings, proverbs, what oral folk art gave us. Riddles are one of such artistic manifestations of folk poetry, which originated orally. A hint or allegory, a roundabout, roundabout speech - an allegorical description in a brief form of an object - this is what a riddle is according to V. I. Dahl. In other words, an allegorical depiction of the phenomena of reality or an object that is to be guessed. Even here, oral folk art provided for multivariance. Riddles can be descriptions, allegories, questions, tasks. Most often they consist of two parts - a question and an answer, riddles and riddles, interconnected. In terms of subject matter, they are diverse and closely related to work and life: flora and fauna, nature, tools and activities.

Proverbs and sayings that have survived to this day from the most ancient times, these are well-aimed expressions, wise thoughts. Most often, they are also two-part, where the parts are proportionate and often rhyme. The meaning of sayings and proverbs is usually direct and figurative, containing morality. Often we see in proverbs and sayings multivariance, that is, many variants of a proverb with the same morality. Proverbs are distinguished from sayings by a generalizing meaning, which is higher. The oldest of them date back to the twelfth century. The history of folk art in Russia notes that to this day manyproverbs came shortened, sometimes losing even their original meaning. So, they say: "He ate the dog in this case," implying high professionalism, but the Russian people continued in the old days: "Yes, he choked on his tail." I mean, no, not that tall.

Music

Ancient types of folk music in Russia are based primarily on the song genre. A song is a musical and verbal genre at the same time, either a lyrical or narrative work, which is intended purely for singing. songs can be lyrical, dance, ritual, historical, and all of them express both the aspirations of an individual and the feelings of many people, they are always in tune with the social inner state.

Whether there are love experiences, thoughts about fate, a description of whether social or family life - this should always be interesting to listeners, and without adding a state of mind to the song, as many people as possible will not listen to the singer. The people are very fond of the technique of parallelism, when the mood of the lyrical hero is transferred to nature. "What are you standing, swaying, a thin mountain ash", "The night has no bright moon", for example. And almost rarely comes across a folk song in which this parallelism is absent. Even in historical songs - "Ermak", "Stepan Razin" and others - he is constantly found. From this, the emotional sound of the song becomes much stronger, and the song itself is perceived much brighter.

Epic and fairy tale

The genre of folk art took shape much earlier than the ninth century, and the term "epic" appeared only in the nineteenth century and denoted a heroic song of an epic nature. We know the epics that were sung in the ninth century, although they certainly were not the first, they simply did not reach us, lost in the centuries. Every child knows well epic heroes - heroes who embodied the ideal of national patriotism, courage and strength: the merchant Sadko and Ilya Muromets, the giant Svyatogor and Mikula Selyaninovich. The plot of the epic is most often filled with life situationality, but it is significantly enriched with fantastic fictions: they have a teleport (they can instantly overcome distances from Murom to Kyiv), defeat the army alone ("as it waves to the right - there will be a street, as it waves to the left - lane"), and, of course, monsters: three-headed dragons - Gorynychi Serpents. The types of Russian folk art in oral genres are not limited to this. There are also fairy tales and legends.

Epics differ from fairy tales in that in the latter events are completely fictional. Fairy tales are of two types: everyday and magical. The most diverse, but ordinary people are depicted in everyday life - princes and princesses, kings and kings, soldiers and workers, peasants and priests in the most ordinary setting. And fairy tales necessarily attract fantastic forces, produce artifacts with miraculous properties, and so on. The fairy tale is usually optimistic, and this is what distinguishes it from the plot of other genre works. In fairy tales, only good usually wins, evil forces always fail and are ridiculed in every possible way. legend inunlike a fairy tale - an oral story about a miracle, a fantastic image, an incredible event, which should be perceived by the narrator and listeners as authenticity. Pagan legends about the creation of the world, the origin of countries, seas, peoples, about the exploits of both fictional and real heroes have come down to us.

Today

Modern folk art of Russia cannot represent exactly ethnic culture, since this culture is pre-industrial. Any modern settlement - from the smallest village to the metropolis - is a fusion of various ethnic groups, and the natural development of each without the slightest mixing and borrowing is simply impossible. What is now called folk art is rather a deliberate stylization, folklorization, behind which is professional art, which was inspired by ethnic motifs.

Sometimes this is both amateur creativity, like mass culture, and the work of handicraftsmen. In fairness, it should be noted that only folk crafts - arts and crafts - can be recognized as the purest and still developing. There is still present, in addition to professional, and ethnic creativity, although production has long been put on the conveyor and the possibilities for improvisation are scanty.

People and creativity

What do people mean by the word people? The population of a country, a nation. But, for example, dozens of original ethnic groups live in Russia, and folk art has common features that are present in the sum of all ethnic groups. Chuvashs, Tatars, Maris, evenChukchi - don't musicians, artists, architects borrow from each other in modern art? But their common features are comprehended by the elite culture. And therefore, in addition to nesting dolls, we have a certain export product, which is our joint business card. A minimum of opposition, a maximum of general unification within the nation, this is the direction of the modern creativity of the peoples of Russia. Today is:

• ethnic (folklore) creativity,
• amateur creativity,
• creativity of the common people,
• amateur art.

The craving for aesthetic activity will be alive as long as a person is alive. That is why art flourishes today.

Art, creativity hobby

Art is occupied by an elitist, professional culture, where outstanding talent is required, and works are an indicator of the level of aesthetic development of mankind. It has little to do with folk art, except for inspiration: all composers, for example, wrote symphonies using the melodies of folk songs. But this is by no means it, not a folk song. The property of traditional culture is creativity as an indicator of the development of a team or an individual. Such a culture can develop successfully and multilaterally. And the result of mass culture, like a template of a master, presented to the people for feasible repetition, is a hobby, an aesthetic of this kind, which is designed to relieve tension from the mechanicalness of modern life.

Here you can see somesigns of the primordial beginning, drawing themes and means of expression in folk art. These are quite common technological processes: weaving, embroidery, carving, forging and casting, decorative painting, embossing, and so on. True folk art did not know the contrasts of changes in artistic styles for a whole millennium. Now it is greatly enriched in modern folk art. The degree of stylization changes, as does the nature of the comprehension of all the old borrowed motifs.

Applied arts

From the most gray-haired antiquity, Russian folk arts and crafts have been known. This is perhaps the only species that has not undergone fundamental changes to this day. From time immemorial and to this day, these objects have been used to decorate and improve domestic and social life. Rural craft mastered even rather complex designs, quite suitable for modern life.

Although now all these items are not so much practical as aesthetic load. This includes jewelry, whistles, toys, and interior decorations. Different areas and regions had their own types of arts, crafts and needlework. The most famous and prominent are the following.

Shawls and samovars

The Orenburg shawl is both warm and heavy shawls, and weightless scarves and gossamer shawls. Knitting patterns that came from afar are unique, they identify eternal truths in the understanding of harmony, beauty, order. The goats of the Orenburg region are also special, they give unusual fluff, it can be spun thinlyand firmly. To match the eternal knitters of Orenburg and Tula masters. They were not pioneers: the first copper samovar was found in the excavations of the Volga city of Dubovka, the discovery dates back to the beginning of the Middle Ages.

In Russia, tea took root in the seventeenth century. But the first samovar workshops did appear in Tula. This unit is still in honor, and tea drinking from a samovar on pine cones is quite an ordinary phenomenon in summer cottages. They are extremely diverse in shape and decoration - barrels, vases, with ligature painting, embossing, decorations for handles and taps, genuine works of art, moreover, extremely comfortable in everyday life. Already at the beginning of the nineteenth century, up to 1200 samovars were produced in Tula a year! They were sold by weight. Brass cost sixty-four rubles a pood, and red copper ones cost ninety. That's a lot of money.