... The bowstring rang,
An arrow flew...
Gusli - the oldest musical instrument. Thousands of years of human history have hidden from us both the age and place of their birth. IN different countries and at different peoples this instrument was called differently. Among the Slavs, the name of this instrument, I think, is associated with the sound of a bowstring. The same string that was pulled over the bow.
In ancient times, the elastic bow string was called differently - "gusla". Here is one of the hypotheses for the origin of the name of the instrument. And by attaching a hollow vessel to a string, we get a primitive musical instrument. So: strings and a resonator that amplifies their sound is the main principle of this plucked instrument.
IN old Russian manuscript, "The Tale of a Belarusian Man and Monasticism", the miniaturist depicted in the letter "D" the figure of the king (possibly the psalmist David) playing the harp. Their form corresponds to the instrument that existed in those days in Rus'. These are the so-called "helmet-like" harps. The shape of their body really resembles a helmet. Subsequently, the shape of the flat resonator box changed. Trapezoidal gusli appeared. The number of strings on the instrument has decreased, and the shape of the body has also changed. So the winged gusli appeared.
Back in the 9th century, the Slavs surprised the kings of Byzantium with the harp. In those distant times, the psaltery was made from dugout dry boards of spruce or maple. Maple "Yavor" is especially loved by music masters. This is where the name of the harp comes from - "Yarovchatye". / And as soon as the strings began to be pulled from metal, the harp rang and began to be called "voiced".
The fate of this instrument has long been associated with the folk song and epic tradition. For centuries, craftsmen have passed on the secrets of making gusli. Goose tunes, songs of singers, were loved by both the people and the kings. But often folk singers sang unflatteringly about the authorities.
... About the will, about the share, the epic will sing,And the heart will call to the free will, will call.
Grandees and kings reared with great malice,
So that in Rus' vagabonds guslyars will appear.
But the sonorous harp sang, and their harmony was harsh,
And there were violent riots from the songs of the guslars.
I. Kobzev
These persecutions of the harpists (this word sounds so correct), or, as the harpists began to call them disparagingly, did an unkind service to the fate of the instrument. Interest in his improvement was not the same as he was in the fate of the violin. But time has changed this ancient instrument. Its design, body shape, wood processing technology, varnishes, decorative trim- all this has long removed the harp from the category of an archaic, purely folk instrument, turning it into a stage professional instrument with a rich unique sound.
Today every orchestra folk instruments it incorporates plucked harps - table-shaped and keyboard harps. The sound of these instruments gives the orchestra a unique flavor of ancient goose chimes.
Currently, interest in the harp has grown markedly. Modern guslars appeared - storytellers who set themselves the goal of recreating ancient tradition both playing the harp and singing to the harp. Along with three types of plucked harps, the main technique of playing which is plucking and rattling, keyboard harps also appeared. The mechanics installed on them, when you press the keys, open the strings, and makes it possible to select the desired chord. This greatly simplifies playing the harp as an accompanying instrument.
Unfortunately, if you want to buy an instrument, you have to talk about small workshops in Russia where the harp is very rarely made as separate copies. In the whole world, it seems to me, there is not a single factory where this unique instrument. The money goes for anything: wild entertainment, wars, pleasures... Diversion of funds for the manufacture of at least one ground-to-air combat missile would be more than enough to build a small music factory. How sad and painful it is to realize today. But ... the psaltery sounds and will sound forever!
Gusli- This is an old Russian instrument, which is rightfully considered a folk instrument. If we turn to the Old Slavonic language, then the name comes from the word "buzz", which is quite logical.The uniqueness of the harp is relative, as there are similar systems, such as the zither, which was popular in XVII-XVIII centuries in Germany and Austria. It should be noted that the zither, in turn, falls into the genus of instruments descended from the ancient Greek cithara. We can assume that and have approximately the same vector historical development. The most widespread varieties of the pterygoid type. Academic harp is often performed in a 15-string version, now they can be found in some ensembles.
We list the instruments that are classified as varieties of gusli:
- lira (Greece);
- harp (Italy);
- zhetygen (Kazakhstan);
- canon (Armenia);
- santur (Iran);
- kantle (Finland);
- kokle (Latvia);
- kankles (Lithuania), etc.
That is, many peoples have similar tools. Performers are called harpists. Some famous artists they say that there is no better folk instrument for accompaniment when performing vocal parts. In the Russian clergy at the beginning of the 20th century, clavier-shaped harp could be found: a rectangular resonant box, clogged with a lid, it lay on the table, the system was piano, so the game was facilitated.
Structure and manufacture
The gusli is a rather simple musical instrument, which consists of a body and strings attached to it, which are stretched by means of a peg system. The material is wood. Most often these are conifers: spruce, pine, cedar, etc. It is believed that only in this case will there be a characteristic, unique sound. A resonating box is assembled, in parts, glue or small cloves are used. It is necessary to think over how and where the hole will be located, without it volume sound extraction is impossible. Auxiliary holes are also made. The role of the deck here is played by the voice board, which is installed on the front.
Game principle and structure
As a rule, you can find tutorials for playing the voiced harp. They can be played standing or sitting. In the second case, the instrument is installed with an edge (sideways) on the knees and, for convenience, leans slightly towards the performer. The easiest way to find songs and notes for 9 or 12 string harps. The academic school also includes orchestras of folk instruments, therefore it has its own performance school and many famous guslar artists (some modern teams mention this instrument in their work, for example, Guf Gusli). The original harp is produced and used only in the CIS countries, in the rest of the world others are used. similar instruments. That is it is safe to call Russian gusli a phenomenon(foreigners often call them trapezoidal because of the characteristic ethnic shape).
Varieties and types of gusli
Pterygoid
Quite an interesting variety, because the case is made not from spruce, but from maple. Many experts believe that this is where the name comes from. There is another - sycamore (sycamore - maple). But all the same, the deck is made from a spruce array (ideally) or from planks (worse). They are also called voiced, they have diatonic sound series. Related instruments: kantele and kokles. In appearance, they are quite easy to distinguish, since the strings are stretched fan-shaped and taper towards the “heel”. The body is often beveled, some strings are tuned as bourdon, that is, they can sound continuously when played without spoiling the songs. If the harp touches all the strings at once, then this is called "rattling". There are many techniques, the most common of which are "plucking" and "silencing".
Helmet-shaped
Such harps are not so easy to meet - they are pretty rare. It used to be believed that the origin of this species is Old Russian, but later historians chose a different version - the Volga region. A musician who played such an instrument in the Middle Ages was called a gudets. The name was given for a reason, and in fact the shape of the helmet takes place, one can count from 11 to 27 strings. The melody is “plucked out” with the right hand, and the chords are clamped with the left. It is placed in the same way as other varieties, on your knees. The tool exists and will be used to this day. Exist original techniques games - when two hands twitch notes with an octave difference, this is how the Mari play.
Lyre-shaped
They were widespread in Rus', starting from the 11th century, outwardly similar to a lyre. They have an opening (window) in the upper part. Fits there left hand, and the right one will strike the strings in the holder area. The instrument rested against the thigh, it's good that you could play on the go. Number of strings: 5. Now lyre-shaped harp can only be found in museums and among collectors, they are used extremely rarely, have historical and cultural value . They are very expensive.
Stationary
This type of harp is very different from portable ones, as they are fixed in a certain place to facilitate the game. At the same time, the instruments are more serious and thoughtful, they are
- clavier-shaped;
- table-like;
- rectangular.
look
Video
Listen to the harp Saturday bard concert Rock on the harp The Lonely Shepherd - James Last Metallica Tsoi - performed by Sergei Plotnikov Egor Strelnikov Olga GlazovaGusli is a stringed musical instrument, most common in Russia.
The harp is a flat resonator box with strings stretched over it. Under various names - kannel, kankles, kok-le, kantele, kyusle, kyosle - this multi-stringed plucked instrument known among the peoples of the Baltic and Volga regions.
In Rus', the harp has been known since the 11th century. Pterygoid gusli, also called voiced or yarovchaty, and helmet-shaped, differed in shape. Both of them were kept on their knees during the game, but on the first strings they plucked with a special thin plate - a plectrum, and on the second - with the fingers of both hands. IN late XVI - early XVII V. in Russia, rectangular harps were created. They had a table-like body with a lid, up to 66 strings were stretched inside it. When playing, the strings were plucked with the fingers of both hands, the sounds were loud, not fading for a long time.
Three types of gusli are now common: voiced, plucked and keyboard. Voiced gusli are the direct heirs of the ancient pterygoid gusli. They are usually trapezoid in shape. When playing, the performer keeps them on his knees, extracting sound in several ways: he plucks the strings with the fingers of both hands, or only with his right hand, and muffles the strings with his left; uses a plectrum, then the sound becomes especially sonorous. They play these harps and rattling, like a balalaika. At the beginning of the XX century. musician-ethnographer, conductor N. I. Privalov and gusliar O. U. Smolensky reconstructed this type of harp: they gave them a triangular shape, increased the number of strings - from 5-9 to 13, created ensemble harps - piccolo, prima, viola and bass. Currently, only prima is used predominantly. The Soviet performer D. Lok-shin designed a chromatic sonorous harp, which greatly expanded the artistic possibilities of the instrument.
The plucked harp is an improved rectangular harp. They consist of a metal frame on wooden legs with strings stretched over it. Their scale is chromatic, it is possible to play chords and even various polyphonic pieces on them. Numerous strings are placed on two levels: on the top there are strings tuned diatonically, on the bottom - strings that give the missing chromatic sounds.
The keyboard harp was designed by the closest associate of V.V. Andreev - N.P. Fomin. Device, appearance and their range is similar to plucked harps, but all the strings are located in the same plane, and above the strings there is a box with a system of mufflers - dampers. This whole system is controlled by 12 keys of one octave of the piano keyboard located on the edge of the damper box. When a key is pressed, the damper associated with it rises and opens the strings corresponding to the given sound in all octaves at once. Most often, arpeggiated chords are played on the keyboard harp. With his right hand, the performer runs a mediator (a thin plate with a pointed end) along the strings, and with his left hand presses the necessary keys. With the help of a pedal located at the keys, all dampers immediately rise. When the pedal is depressed, the keyboard harp can be used as a plucked harp.
In modern Russian folk orchestra this type of harp is used; V professional teams there is a duet of plucked and keyboard gusli.
History of the harp
Gusli is a musical instrument, which in Russia refers to several varieties of recumbent harps. The psalted harp is similar to the Greek psalter and the Jewish kinnor; these include: the Chuvash harp, the Cheremis harp, the clavier-shaped harp and the harp, resembling the Finnish kantele, the Latvian kukles and the Lithuanian kankles.
The Chuvash and Cheremis gusli have a striking resemblance to the images of this instrument, preserved in the monuments of our antiquity, for example, in a manuscript missal of the 14th century, where in capital letter D represents a man playing the harp in the Makarievskaya Chet-Mineya of 1542 and others.
In all these images, the performers hold the harp on their knees and hook the strings with their fingers. The Chuvash and Cheremis play the harp in exactly the same way. The strings of their harp are intestinal; their number is not always the same. Psalter-shaped harp was brought to Russia by the Greeks; the Chuvash and Cheremis borrowed this instrument from the Russians (see also: Mari music).
The clavier-shaped harp, which is still found, mainly among the Russian clergy, is nothing more than an improved type of psalter-shaped harp. This instrument consists of a rectangular resonant box with a lid, which rests on a table. Several round cutouts (voices) were made on the resonance board, and two concave wooden bars were attached to it.
Iron pegs are screwed on one of them, on which are wound metal strings; the other beam plays the role of a stringer, that is, it serves to attach the strings. The clavier-shaped harp has a piano-like tuning, and the strings corresponding to the black keys are placed below those corresponding to the white keys.
For clavier-shaped harp, there are notes and a school compiled by Kushenov-Dmitrevsky. In addition to the psalter-shaped gusli, there are kantele similar to the Finnish instrument. This type of harp has almost completely disappeared. It is very likely that it was borrowed by the Russians from the Finns. The Old Slavic word means kifaru, that is, at the beginning of the Middle Ages it expressed the general concept of stringed instruments.
From this word came modern titles: gusle - among the Serbs and Bulgarians, gusle, guzla, gusli - among the Croats, gosle - among the Slovenes, guslic - among the Poles, housle ("violin") from the Czechs and harp from the Russians. These instruments are quite diverse and many of them are bowed, for example. guzla, which has only one horsehair string.
Gusli. Story ancient instrument
Gusli - ancient musical instrument. Thousands of years of human history have hidden from us both the age and place of their birth. In different countries and among different peoples, this instrument was called differently. Among the Slavs, the name of this instrument, I think, is associated with the sound of a bowstring. The same string that was pulled over the bow.
In ancient times, the elastic bow string was called differently - "gusla". Here is one of the hypotheses for the origin of the name of the instrument. And by attaching a hollow vessel to the string, we get a primitive musical instrument. So: strings and a resonator that amplifies their sound is the main principle of this plucked instrument.
Back in the 9th century, the Slavs surprised the kings of Byzantium with the harp. In those distant times, the psaltery was made from dugout dry boards of spruce or maple. Maple "Yavor" is especially loved by music masters. This is where the name of the gusli comes from - "Yarovchatye". And as soon as the strings began to be pulled from metal, the psaltery rang and began to be called "voiced".
The fate of this instrument has long been associated with folk song and epic tradition. For centuries, craftsmen have passed on the secrets of making gusli. Goose tunes, songs of singers, were loved by both the people and the kings.
Today, every orchestra of folk instruments has a harp in its composition. The sound of these instruments gives the orchestra a unique flavor of ancient goose chimes.
Currently, interest in the harp has grown markedly. Modern harp players appeared - storytellers who set out to recreate the ancient tradition of both playing the harp and singing to the harp.
Unfortunately, if you want to buy an instrument, you have to talk about small workshops in Russia, where the harp is very rarely made by individual copies. In the whole world, it seems to me, there is not a single factory where this unique instrument would be produced.
Varieties of gusli
- Helmet-shaped gusli, or "psalter"
Gusli- a stringed musical instrument, common in Russia. It is the most ancient Russian stringed plucked musical instrument.
Types of gusli
Pterygoid harp has a variety of shapes, the strings are stretched fan-shaped, tapering towards the "heel" (the place where the string holder is located). Basically, you can distinguish instruments with a beveled body, which narrows as it approaches the tailpiece. The thickness of the tool is usually 4-5 cm, and the length is not more than 800 mm. Special feature, which gave the name to this type of instrument, is a thin, about 6-11 mm, postcard. It is used to support the left hand, which quickly gets tired from hanging over the strings. This type of harp is from 5 to 17 strings, tuned in steps of the diatonic scale in the Mixolydian mode (lowered 7th step). Also, the lower or upper extreme strings can be tuned as bourdon, that is, constantly sounding when played. There are about 12 various ways harp settings. The winged harp is played, as a rule, by touching all the strings at once ("rattling") and muffling unnecessary strings with the fingers of the left hand. This is achieved three(sometimes four) fingers between the strings, which allows you to quickly change chords. Usually the blow goes from top to bottom, but for greater smoothness of the sound, blows of equal strength from bottom to top are often added. Melodies are played in the same way (technique of "stuffing", "selective", "plucking"). Sometimes harpists use the techniques of plucking sounds with the fingers of the left hand, usually the ring and thumb.
Lyre-shaped harp
They are also called gusli with a game window. They were distributed on the territory of Russia in Novgorod. Most ancient view tool (find specimens and 7-8 centuries). Gusli with a playing window (Novgorod) on the back side have an opening, like the Scandinavian lyres, into which the musician's hand is placed. The strings are muffled with the fingers of the left hand, just like in the pterygoids. When playing, the instrument is held vertically, with the lower end resting on the knee or on the belt. When playing on the go or while standing, it can rest on the thigh.
Helmet-shaped harp
Also the harp-psalter. Helmet-shaped harps have the shape of a helmet or a hill and from 10 to 26 strings of the same tuning as those of the pterygoid ones (lowered seventh step). The harp is placed in the same way as the pterygoid ones, vertically on the musician's knees. Right hand plucks the melody on the upper strings, using all fingers, and the right one plucks chords, usually in fifths or fourths on the lower ones. You can also find the technique of playing with both hands in an octave among the Cheremis.
The harp is sonorous
They are also never called academic, concert harps. They are strongly modified pterygoid. The wing has been removed and the number of strings has been increased, there is also a stand near the peg row, there are other differences. They are the brainchild of V.V. Andreev, also known for the improvement of the balalaika, domra. The technique of playing is very different from playing on pterygoids. Rattling is used less often, but the strings are often plucked with the left hand, creating a background for the right, which leads the melody.
table gusli
An instrument that arose at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. It also existed as a portable instrument, which was laid horizontally on the knees of the harpman. Basically, it was distributed as a fixed instrument with a large number of strings (up to four octaves). Sometimes such harps came across in the homes of wealthy citizens, where they accompanied feasts. Currently, they are also used in the academic environment, where it also developed into a keyboard harp (which opened, by pressing a key, the strings corresponding to it, as on pterygoid ones). They were usually played like helmets, but glissando was also often encountered, when the strings were muted to form a chord.
Game Features
The harp is played sitting or standing. When playing while sitting, the harp is kneeled with an edge, slightly tilted to the body. When playing while standing or during a procession, the harp is hung on a string or strap. The harp is placed on your knees or on the table.
The musical repertoire for the harp is varied. The winged harp is characterized by the traditional game " to the songs" And " dancing", "under a fight". Playing to songs is distinguished by smooth beats and the same rhythm, and all rhythmic patterns are performed by voice. Playing to dance, on the contrary, is distinguished by a sharp and pronounced "march" rhythm. The repertoire for helmet-shaped harps included primarily playing song melodies, but not excluded the game of dancing and dancing.
The harp is tuned diatonically with a decrease in the 7th step: Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si flat-do. In ethnographic samples, several tuning methods are known, including bourdon - constantly sounding strings during the game (like a bagpipe has additional pipes or like a hurdy-gurdy and a whistle). With certain tunes, broudons can be jammed.
Bourdon setup:
- for 9-string gusli (Pskov region) Sol-do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si flat-do;
- for 9-string gusli (Novgorod, Pskov regions) B flat-do re-mi-fa-sol-la-si flat-do;
- for 12-string gusli (Novosibirsk region) C-to-sol-do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si flat-to-do;
- for 5-string harp (Belgian musicologist Dr. Gyutry, 17th century) ( Leningrad region) Do-fa-sol-si flat-do;
- southern Russian system (Voronezh, Kursk, Oryol provinces) Sol-si flat-do-re-mi.
Gusli setting academic school(orchestras of folk instruments) the same as in the Baltic (kokle, kankles) and Finno-Ugric instruments (kantele, kannel, sankvyltap, nars-yukh), without lowering the seventh step: Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la- si-do.
Story
Gusli is a musical instrument, a variety of which is a harp, cithara, lyre, psaltery. Also, the ancient Greek cithara is similar to the harp (there is a hypothesis that it is she who is the ancestor of the harp), the Armenian canon and the Iranian santur; these include: Chuvash gusli, Cheremis gusli, clavier-shaped gusli, and gusli resembling Finnish kantele, Latvian kokle, and Lithuanian kankles.
Heroes of the Russian epic epic play the harp: Sadko, Dobrynya Nikitich, Nightingale Budimirovich. In the Tale of Igor's Campaign, the 11th-century guslar-narrator Boyan is mentioned:
Boyan, brethren, not 10 falcons
more than a flock of swans,
but my own things and fingers
on live strings loose;
they themselves are the prince of the glory of the roar.
Researchers of the early 20th century noted the striking similarity of the contemporary Chuvash and Cheremis gusli with the images of this instrument in medieval Russian manuscripts (for example, in the 14th-century Missal, where a person playing the harp is represented in the capital letter D, and in Makarievskaya Chetya-Mineya of the year). In these images, the performers hold the harp on their knees and hook the strings with their fingers. In exactly the same way, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Chuvash and Cheremis played the harp. The strings of their harp were intestinal; their number was not always the same. Psalter-shaped harps are believed to have been brought to Russia by the Greeks, and the Chuvash and Cheremis borrowed this instrument from the Russians.
The clavier-shaped harp, which was also found at the beginning of the 20th century mainly among the Russian clergy, was an improved type of psalter-shaped harp. This instrument consisted of a rectangular resonant box with a lid, which rested on a table. Several round cutouts (voices) were made on the resonance board, and two concave wooden bars were attached to it. Iron pegs were screwed into one of them, on which metal strings were wound; the other beam played the role of a keeper, that is, it served to attach the strings. The clavier-shaped harp had a piano system, and the strings corresponding to the black keys were placed below those corresponding to the white keys.
For clavier-shaped harp, there were notes and a school composed in early XIX century by Fyodor Kushenov-Dmitrevsky.
In addition to the psalter-shaped gusli, there were kantele similar to the Finnish instrument. Probably, this type of gusli was borrowed by the Russians from the Finns. By the beginning of the 20th century, it had almost completely disappeared.
Manufacturing
Usually made from an already processed board, sometimes from a wooden deck, which is split to the desired size. The manufacturing technology is quite simple. First, the master selects wood. It can be both pine and spruce, sometimes (in Siberia) - cedar. Previously, they also used, and sometimes now, apple and maple sycamore. Then, at a properly split and dried board, a shape is indicated, an opener and a threshold for pegs are cut down, if they are wooden. After the master, usually by hand, selects the wood from the back, front or end (rare way), creating a resonant void. Then the master cuts through the voice box (resonator hole), or burns several small holes. In the place from which the master began to choose an instrument, a voice board (deck) is installed. Sometimes it is sunk into the body, and sometimes it is placed on top. It can be fixed with both nails and glue. Here the master, if necessary, covers the instrument with stain or varnish. The master adjusts the string holder to the heel. It can also be ducks holding a rod with strings, it also happens metal brace embedded in the hull. Less often you can find carnations driven in from the end. In this case, the strings are passed through the nut. After the master puts the pegs and pulls the strings (usually their lengths are calculated in advance). You can also find a later method of assembling a tool on a frame. Sometimes there are also two-chamber harps, where the opening is a continuation of the body, divided by a wirbelbank.
