Storytellers |

Storytellers – performers of epics, epic ballads and early historical. songs. The word “S.” has nar. origin, formed from the verb “to say”; it indicates a peculiar manner of performance of the product. listed folklore genres. In the north of Russia, the performers of the epic were also called “storytellers”, “old-timers”. S. were usually peasants (both men and women). In folklore, the term “S.” entered Ser. 19th century thanks to the work of P. N. Rybnikov and A. F. Gilferding. S. during the heyday of Russian. epic (10-16 centuries) there were both non-professionals and professionals – singers in squads, at princely courts, buffoons, etc. From the 60s. In the 19th century, when the epic began to be systematically recorded, S. professionals no longer met.

S. used one, maximum 2-3 traditional. recitative tunes and used them regardless of the content of the text of the work. S.’s personality was manifested in the individual selection of poetic means. expressiveness of the verbal text, in varying the melody, episodes, in establishing the sequence of episodes, and, finally, in the S. repertoire itself. Depending on the degree of manifestation of the individual principle in S.’s work, folklorists (following the Soviet folklorist A. M. Astakhova) distinguish: transmitters striving for extremely accurate reproduction of what they have assimilated (I. T. Ryabinin, B. Surikov, second half of the 2th century); S., who create their own editions and versions (T. G. Ryabinin – middle of the 19th century, N. S. Bogdanova, A. M. Pashkova – late 19th – early 19th centuries); S. improvisers, who each time present the plot in a new way (V. P. Shchegolyonok – late 20th century, M. S. Kryukova – 19th century). Under the influence of the most talented S., local schools arose (Onega, White Sea, Pechora, Mezen, and others), and after them, more extensive local traditions. Among the outstanding S. Rus. North — T. G. Ryabinin, A. M. Kryukova, G. L. Kryukov, M. D. Krivopolenova, A. P. Sorokin, H. S. Bogdanova, G. A. Yakushov, F. A. Konashkov. To popularize the work of S. from the 20s. 80th century organized their public performances in the largest cities of Russia and Zap. Europe.

The first collectors and researchers of Nar. the epic caught only the last stage of its active existence (mid-19th century) – mainly in the north. the outskirts of Russia and, to a lesser extent, in Siberia. By this time, in the south of Russia, in the Cossack environment, epics were transformed into epic songs, performed by the choir to song melodies.

S. sometimes called. performers of the epic of other peoples of the USSR – Kazakh, Zhirshi, Turkmen. Bakhshi, Yakuts, Olonkhosutov, etc.

References: Rybnikov P. N., Note of the collector, in collection: Songs collected by P. N. Rybnikov, part 3 – Folk epics, antiquities, visits and songs, Petrozavodsk, 1864, vol. 1, M., 1909; Hilferding A., Olonets province and its folk rhapsody, in collection: Onega epics, recorded by A.F. Hilferding in the summer of 1871, St. Petersburg, 1873; Lyatsky E., Narrator I. T. Ryabinin and his epics, “Ethnographic Review”, 1894, book. 23, No 4, p. 105-35; Miller Sun. F., Essays on Russian folk literature, vol. 1, M., 1897; Arkhangelsk epics and historical songs collected by A. D. Grigoriev in 1899-1901, vol. 1, M., 1904, p. 333-91 (with sheet music); Onchukov N., Pechora epics, St. Petersburg, 1904, p. I-XXXIII; Speransky M., Russian oral literature, vol. 2 – Epics. Historical Songs, ed. and with note. M. Speransky, M., 1919, p. VII-XX; Sokolov B., Narrators, M., 1924; Sokolov Yu. M., Russian folklore, M., 1938, p. 232-46; Astakhova A., Epic creativity of the northern peasants, in collection: Epics of the North, vol. 1, M.-L., 1938, p. 7-105; her own, Russian epic epic in the North, Petrozavodsk, 1948; Ukhov P. D., Byliny, in the collection: Russian folk poetic creativity, M., 1956, p. 350-56.

I. Ya. Lesenchuk