Last year Andrei Kabanov, a man who devoted most of his life to the preservation of Russian folk musical culture, turned 70 years old. This is truly a legendary person. His numerous works, devoted mainly to the folklore traditions of the Russian Cossacks, are among the most monumental studies in this area.
But the activities of Andrei Sergeevich Kabanov are not limited to scientific publications. He repeatedly took part in various folklore expeditions to the villages of Russian Cossacks, where he studied and recorded folk songs that have survived to this day. Andrey Sergeevich also knows the art of playing a variety of folk musical instruments. He demonstrated these skills more than once at concerts.
The beginning of the creative biography of Andrei Kabanov
The future folklorist, connoisseur and propagandist of folk culture was born, oddly enough, in the center of Moscow. The professions of his parents are far from music: his father was a military engineer, andmother was engaged in scientific activities in the field of biology. However, mom and dad managed to discern in their child the makings of a creative person. Therefore, they sent their son to study at the famous Central Music School - an educational institution where, along with the usual general education program, gifted children also take a course in playing instruments, as well as musical and theoretical disciplines.
The grandmother instilled in Andrei Kabanov an interest in research activities and collecting samples of folk songs. It was she who advised him to go on an expedition during the summer holidays, which she heard about on the radio. The participants of this trip traveled through the villages and villages of the Vladimir and Volgograd regions in order to record old Russian songs.
Education
After graduating from the Central Music School, the hero of this article entered the Moscow Conservatory at the Faculty of Theory and Composition. The teachers, noticing the student's great interest in the study of folk culture, invited Andrey Kabanov to work in the department dealing with the decoding of records made in folklore expeditions.
Beginning of scientific activity
Andrey Sergeevich after the successful defense of his thesis, which was devoted to the use of children's voices in the Cossack folk choirs, was invited to work in the Union of Composers. There, Kabanov, under the guidance of Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich, was compiling a large catalog of Russian folk songs. If you need to select one of themany of its variants, the scientist used his own method.
An original approach to the study of folk music
Andrey Kabanov has always chosen the version of the song that is most suitable for performance by professional and amateur ensembles.
It is these works that were included in the unified catalog of Russian folk songs. Andrei Sergeevich explains his approach to the study of folklore as follows. In his opinion, at present it is much more important that this music exists in a live performance, and not only in audio recordings and on music paper. He says that today traditions are most easily preserved in cities. Since there are more opportunities for creating amateur musical groups in which people of different ages can participate. When folklore traditions completely disappear in those places where they existed for many centuries, these ensembles will be able to contribute to their revival.
Creativity of Andrey Sergeevich Kabanov
This musician and folklorist is one of the founders of the famous folk music ensemble led by Pokrovsky. The group's repertoire was replenished mainly due to the songs that Andrei Sergeevich recorded during his folklore expeditions. He subsequently did their deciphering and processing. Records of the Pokrovsky Ensemble, as well as his live performances, contributed to an increase in interest in folk music. It was thanks to the work of this team that many people first discovered the world of Russiansongs.
Audio recordings
Folklorist Andrei Kabanov has made more than twenty thousand recordings of folk songs for his half-century of professional activity, which are stored in his personal archive.
The routes of the folklore expeditions of this scientist cover the territory of the whole of Russia. His method of preserving and passing on the tradition of folk performance to future generations is precisely to fix the work of local vocal groups with the help of professional equipment. To this end, he carried out several joint projects with the Melodiya company, where each record with songs from a certain area was accompanied by an annotation by a musicologist.
For all albums from the discography, Andrey Kabanov made a description of the performing style inherent in a particular band. An interesting fact is that for this work the scientist was the first folklorist to use multichannel recording.
Practical Experimental Folkloristics
Andrey Kabanov, as already mentioned, does not focus solely on the theoretical study of folk art, but tries to introduce traditions and customs into urban and rural life. To this end, he conducts numerous seminars on cultural issues.
Reed
Another facet of Andrei Sergeevich Kabanov's creativity was the leadership of the Kamyshinka folklore ensemble, each member of which is bothvocal teacher. The artists of this group, in addition to concert and teaching activities, are also involved in organizing holidays in folk style. Kamyshinka is also famous for its Christmas puppet shows. Such performances are popularly called nativity scenes.
Andrey Sergeevich says that this constant interaction of generations through the transfer of cultural values to each other is the meaning of communication and life in general.
Kabanov admits that only many years later he realized what a great gift the old people made for him, who sang many magnificent folk songs for him. Due to their shyness, not everyone agreed to this the first time. Sometimes I had to come several times to the same village to beg the locals to show their art. This happened, for example, with the subsequently famous song "Dobrynushka". The folklorist calls this example of folk art one of the best songs that he managed to find. And today, having celebrated his 70th birthday, Andrey Sergeevich Kabanov continues to do what he loves. He still conducts many seminars for those wishing to master the art of folk performance. He himself jokingly says that it's time for people to forget what karaoke is and remember the traditions of home choral singing.
