Songs of Maslenitsa in Belarusian traditions of Siberian existence: structural and rhythmic typology

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the author’s typological study of the tunes of the ritual songs of Maslenitsa of Belarusian settlers of Siberia and the Far East. The study material includes archival and published recordings of songs of Maslenitsa made in the main regions of the settlement of Belarusians (Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Omsk regions, Krasnoyarsk and Primorsky territories). The focus is on the most important aspect for calendar songs - the structural and rhythmic organization of tunes. The results of studying the song tunes of the resettlement tradition were found to correlate with the tunes of Maslenitsa songs of the metropolis presented in the classifications of Belarusian ethnomusicologists Z. Ya. Mozheiko and V. M. Pribylova. The analysis of the resettlement Belarusian tradition of Siberia and the Far East allowed identifying the groups of Maslenitsa songs correlating structurally with tunes identified by Belarusian researchers. It was revealed that despite there being a relatively small number of songs, the Siberian tradition features the tunes of type IV ves.-masl. (according to Z. Ya. Mozheiko; = IIb according to V. M. Pribylova), as well as tunes not only of the main types I, III, and IV according to classification of V. M. Pribylova, but also ones of their local varieties. In addition, a number of tunes of Siberian songs prove to have a non-typical structure.