Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SONG 567
Ex. 3.
1st Voice.
is contained in this simple formula : 1 1 1 1 1 1 ^.
That is, if the relative minor of the scale of
is taken descending from dominant to its octave,
the result is :
4th Voice.
The piessni or aolo aongs are very often sung
to the accompaniment of the lalalaika, a guitarlike
instrument. These are mainly lyrical in
character, and reflect the emotions and episodes
of peasant life. Some of the love-songs are
beautiful, and the wailing songs mplachki—
most pathetic. Themelancholy and monotonous
cradle-songs have a strange chann of their own ;
and the so-called ' laudatory ' songs (glorifying
some individual indiscriminately, before or after
death), which are the peculiar property of the
Slav, rank high in importance among the songs
of the peasants. 1
The rhythm of Russian folk-songs is often
characterised by extreme irregularity. The
tunes usually begin on the first beat of the
1 The minierotis other kjBdB of songa which the above daeelftcatlons
do not inclnde caimot here be dealt with. They will be found
nnder their different headings in any standard collection. See also
Ealston's Stmgg of the ltus»ian People, pp. 34, 39 et aeq.
2 Sokalski'a Russian Fotk-Bonga.
3 See preface to LineflTa 'Peasant Songs of Great Russia.'
This when reversed will be found to be identical
with the ecclesiastical Phrygian mode.* Certainly
there is an indisputable connection between
the musical theory of the ancient Greeks
and the oldest and actually existing Slavonic
melodies founded on these scales, more especially
those of the western part of Russia. To modern
ears the tonality, therefore, is of an uncertain
character, and many melodies commence in
the major and bear distinctly the stamp of the
major key, until towards the end, where they
modulate into the minor key ill which they
conclude. Further they more often begin and
end on the supertonio, or indeed oh any degree
of the scale rather than the tonic. Another
peculiarity we find in the folk and art-songs
alike are the florid passages on one syllable ;
for instance in ' The Cossack of the Don ' and
some of Rubinstein's songs. This and many
other features in Russian Song could be traced
to Asiatic influence, for in Russia the eastern
and western temperaments meet and intermingle.^
bar, but the phrases are of unequal length ;
they are frequently in 7-4 or 5-4 time, or 2-4
and 3-4 time alternating ; but it must be remembered
on the authority of Sokalski and tion was lacking in Russian music. It awaited
Early in the 1 9th century national representa-
others,' that the division of the melodies into emancipation from the foreigs influences under
bars is arbitrary. ^ The original tunes, handed which it had so long lain. It was Glinka who
down by oral tradition, owed their rhythm to first began to effect its liberation, and the
no symmetrical repetition of accents, but to the importance of his work cannot be exaggerated.
cadences su^ested by the flow of the verse Though his national opera, 'La vie pour le Czar
itself. Again it frequently happens that the (except for a few bars in the opening chorus),
accent of the verse varies, which renders it incorporates no single folk-song, Glinka so
difficult to arrange under the regular metrical identified himself with the feeling and spirit of
accentuation of the time system. The accent the national music, that his melodies became at
moves from one syllable or one word to another, once familiar to his countrymen. Glinka has
for instance, gdry or gor]i (hills)—as if to avoid truly been named the father of the Russian artsong.
Previous to him, other song- composers,
monotony ; and the inequality of the number
of syllables in each half verse, each of which such as Alabiev, Varlamov, Eozlovsky, Verstovsky,^
and Lvov, wrote songs of the simple,
has one main accent, appears to be one of the
characteristics of Russian folk-songs. ^ Naturally popular type, imitating so faithfully the external
qualities of the real folk-song, that some,
the dance-songs have more regular accents and
rhythms, especially those of gipsy origin, when such as Alabiev's ' Nightingale' and Tarlamov's
the dancers mark the time with their feet. '
Red Sarafan ' have been accepted as national
Peasants do not like singing solos ; they prefer melodies. Lvov was the composer of the
to sing in artd or companies, in which each Russian national hymn,^ the tune of which,
member is a performer and composer, owing to though fine and suitable to the words, is not
the above-mentioned structure of the songs. Russian in character.* Again, others like
Glinka and many other theorists have made * Tchaikovsky's remarks on the character of the folk-songs are
the peculiar tonality and harmonisation of worth quoting. In writing to Tolstoi to acknowledge some songs
he had sent him, Tchaikovsky says,
Russian songs their life-long study. Melgounov
I must frankly say the songs
have not been skilfally treated, and thereby all their original beauty
has been lost. The chief fault is, that they have been forced into
says that they are based on the so-called natural a regular, formal rhythm. The buUini have nothing in common
with the dances. Besides this, the greater part of these songs are
(untempered) scale, which is impossible to written in the cheerful D major scale, and this does not agree in
represent in our present notation ; and that the least with the tonality of the true Eussian Volkslied, which is
always of an uncertain tonality, so that one can really only compare
them with the old church modes.'
the foundation of the major and minor scales
5 C. Cui remarks that the ' Tartar influence is so strong that there
is hardly one Russian folk-song not affteted by it.'
6 Verstovsky, who was h^l«l for a time as the true Messiah of
Bussian music, owed his fleeting popularity to his operas more than
to his songs.
7 Composed to order in 1833, the words by Shukovaky.
6 It has recently been stated that Lvov was not the true composer