Boundaries of the mode in ancient russian musical folklore: historiography of the question
Abstract
Mode boundaries are a category of musical thinking essential for the study and understanding of music. Each musical era had its own norms of musical thinking and, accordingly, its own mode boundaries. The difficulty in studying mode boundaries lies in the fact that they are not a specific subject of musical scholarship. Therefore, the most effective method for studying mode boundaries is the analysis of musical theoretical literature of the period under study, since it may contain information that indirectly indicates certain mode boundaries. The problem of determining mode boundaries in ancient Russian (Slavic) musical folklore is due to the fact that this musical culture left no musical treatises. The relevance of this article is due to the lack of historiography in this issue. The purpose of this article is to review the most important sources that contain information on mode boundaries in ancient Russian music. The article used the method of historiographical analysis, which was used to examine various types of sources. Based on the analysis of scientific literature, a classification of all materials into two main groups was proposed: sources on church music and studies on Russian musical folklore. The article shows that although the term "mode boundaries" was not specifically used in music theory, many sources contain information about mode volumes in Old Russian folk music. Many scholars have used descriptions that are similar in essence to this concept, such as the concept of "soglasie" in Old Russian singing theory, the concept of "ladovaya yachejka" in the work of E. V. Gippius, the concept of "celostnoe edinstvo" in the work of N. A. Garbuzov, the concept of "tercovyj parallelism" in the work of M. G. Kharlap, and so on. Based on the analysis of these sources, it can be concluded that the main modes in Old Russian musical folklore were small-volume modes consisting of thirds and fourths. It is also noted that the use of fifths is being questioned. This article may be useful for studying the mode norms of Russian musical folklore.