Country in eastern Europe. Formerly the Belorusian Soviet Socialist Republic and part of the Soviet Union, it declared itself independent on 25 August 1991.
GUY DE PICARDA (I), ZINAIDA MOZHEIYKO (II)
1. Byzantino-Gothic origins and the medieval period.
2. Renaissance and Baroque, 1569–1794.
3. From the Romantics to the folklore revival, 1795–1918.
The cult-songs of the Krïvichï, Radzimichï and Drïhavichï tribes, together with the harp music of the Baltic skalds at the court of Rohvalad (Rognvald) of Polatsk, were the earliest forms of musical entertainment in the 10th-century Belarusian principalities. Illuminated manuscripts from the 11th century onwards depict the trumpets and horns of military bands, as well as the harps and psalteries of the court musicians. Itinerant skamarokhi (entertainers) were condemned by St Cyril of Turaw for their pagan ways, but such teams of players, round-dancers and trained animals remained popular with the nobility and people alike. The court painters Andrey z Litvï (c1390) and Matsey Dzisyaty (1502) both depicted a standard capella as comprising lute, vielle (skrypitsa), harp, horn, two natural trumpets, clarinet and drum; no secular music from the Middle Ages, though, appears to have survived.
Following the introduction of Christianity in 989, the cathedrals and choir schools (usually with 3–12 singers) of Polatsk (992), Vitebsk (992), Turaw (1055), Minsk (1073) and Hrodna Smolensk (1101) provided the bulk of early musical notation, based on Byzantine neumatic models (12th-century Stichiry to St Euphrosyne, St Raman, St David and other local saints). Among important cantors at Smolensk were Manuil (fl 1137), one of three Greek singers in the city, and Senka (15th-century). Under folk influences, particularly after the Mongol invasions of 1245 and the formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Belarus in the early 14th century, the early znammenïy chant evolved into a variety of Kiev-Lithuanian, demestvennïy and local chants (Mir-Slutsk, Vilnia Belarusian and Kutseyna), as recorded in later manuscript compilations (the early 16th-century Codex peremysliensis, the Zhïrovitski heirmologion of 1649). The solemn bolgar chant has been attributed to the Bulgarian Tsamblak in Navahrudak (1415); later Greek chants were brought by a choir from Constantinople (1588) and recorded by Bohdan Anisimovich of Pinsk in his monumental Supraśl heirmologion (1598–1601).
Latin-rite missionaries (Torvald Vandrownik) also became active in the 10th century in the cities on the trade route from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Gregorian graduals and organs spread throughout Belarus particularly after the dynastic union with Poland in 1386. Professional organists are mentioned in the Lithuanian Statute (1529), and scholae cantorum were founded during the 14th century in Vilnius (1320), Ashmyanï, Minsk, Navahrudak and Lida, and during the 15th in Mahilyow (c1430), Hrodna, Slutsk, Kletsk, Slonim and Polatsk. Printed chantbooks with staff notation, first introduced at the Reformation by the Calvinists in their Pieśni chwał Boskich (Brest, 1558), together with polyphony and kantïchki (hymns), became popular with the Greek-rite monastic and confraternity schools. Anisimovich of Pinsk was the first to use this Western notation (1598).
In the wake of the Reformation and the presence of the Grand Duchess Bona Sforza (d 1558), Western Renaissance music came into vogue: a Lithuanian Capella, or chapel royal, of up to 15 players and singers was established in 1543 in Hrodna. In 1586 the English traveller Sir Jerome Horsey found the harpsichord popular at the court of Stephen Bathory in Hrodna and heard at the court of Mikola Radziwiłł, Vajavod of Vilnius, a female choir, which ‘came in with sweet harmony and mournful pipes and songs of art; tymbrils and sweet sounding bells’. Elsewhere consorts of viols, woodwinds and clavichords or spinets flourished at the courts of the feudal princes (Drutski, Radziwiłł, Sapieha, Chodkiewicz, Astrozhski), playing madrigals and kantïchki, as well as dances, of the type later recorded in the Polatski sshïtak (‘Polatsk Music-Book’, 1680).
Despite the religious wars of the 17th century, Greek-rite cantors were able to compile heirmologia and bahahlasniki (hymnbooks) of local chants in Western staff notation: some 70 of these manuscript collections have survived, often richly decorated with miniatures, title pages and headpieces. An early 17th-century Cherubicon from Supraśl was composed as a four-part chorale with florid bass and alto runs. Among the compilers were Todar Semyanovich (Supraśl 1638), Tsimafey Kulikovich (Bely Kovel 1652), inok Feafil (Supraśl 1662), Parkhomy Patsienka (Slutsk 1669), Hawrïla Aryasanovich (Sava Starawsk 1673), Antoni Kishïts (Supraśl 1674), Kiryl Il'inski (Davïd Haradok 1713), hieromonk Tarasy (Minsk c1750), Anton Taranevich (Pinsk 1759), hieromonk Awramï (Holy Ghost Church, Vilnius 1764), Protoarchimandrite Tsimafey Shchurowski (Vilnius, Supraśl 1740–1811) and others.
During the Russian invasions of 1648–67 and 1702–20 half the population of Belarus was massacred or deported to Moscow, the deportees including fashionable singers such as Yan Koklia, Yan Kalenda, Dziak Tyzenhaus, the organist Kazimier Vasiliewski, as well as numerous nuns and choristers. After the Peace of Andrusava (1667), Jesuit academies and schools of music were founded or rebuilt in ravaged Polatsk, Vitebsk, Orsha and Mahilyow. Fine organs by Casparini and others were installed in Minsk (1698), Slutsk (1752) and Hrodna (c1770), and played by accomplished organists (Masyazhkowski, Sïmkevich, Fok). Lesser parish churches relied on instrumental groups, which were also available for private functions, and became the nuclei of municipal orchestras in Slonim (1731), Minsk (1739), Pinsk (1742) and elsewhere. Hymns in the Latin and Old Slavonic languages, as well as in Belarusian and Polish were in the 17th and 18th centuries sung in two- or three-part harmony by congregations of both rites during Low Mass. The first printed collection of simpler Belarusian kantï was published in 1774 by the Jesuits of Polatsk (Kantyczka, albo nabożne pieśni w narzeczu Połockim, ‘Divine Songs in the Polatsk Dialect’). Manuscript bahahlayniki from this period often contain sophisticated and attractive settings of kantï, such as Ne plach Rakhile (‘Do not weep, O Rachel’).
With the return of prosperity in the 18th century, palaces and theatres flourished, church bells were rehung, and the capellae of the Belarusian nobility revived to play Paisiello, J.-C. Bach, Gluck, Holland, Jommelli, Haydn, Boccherini, Grétry and Stamitz. The court capella (1724–1809) at Nyasvizh (Pol. Nieśwież), which was ruled by Prince Maciej Radziwiłł, himself no mean composer of chamber music, boasted a theatre, a collegiate church choir, a music school and a ballet company of more than 18 dancers. At Slonim the Ogiński (Ahinski) capella included up to 53 players and singers, a ballet and a music school; their repertory included keyboard works by the Hetman Michał Kazimierz Ogiński and also three-part Latin masses with organ and instruments preserved at Nyasvizh and Slonim. Other distinguished court capellae of the Belarusian nobility flourished at Ruzhanï (Sapieha), Svislach (Tïshkevichï), Savichï (Vaynillovich) and later at Dukora (Ashtorp) and Shklow (Zorich). Court musicians, usually Italian or French (Viotti, Cipriani, Cormier, Durand), also included some Belarusians, among them the conductors Yan Tsentsilovich and P. Pyotukh, and the violinist Matsey z Karelich. The capellae of Hrodna (Tyzenhaus) and Minsk (Zavisha) tended to favour indigenous musical themes; there was also a growing interest in Belarusian folk music.
With the incorporation of Belarus into the Russian empire, a number of the great princely estates were expropriated, their capellae disbanded, the Roman Catholic orders and Greek-rite Basilians expelled and their colleges closed. In 1839 the religious union of 1596 was suppressed, and numerous Belarusian songbooks were destroyed. Thereafter vocational education became more readily available in St Petersburg and Moscow than in Warsaw, and professionals gravitated towards the municipal orchestras, musical societies, salons and private schools of Minsk, Vilnius, Brest, Vitebsk, Mahilyow, Babruysk and Hrodna.
Glinka received his basic musical education with his uncle’s capella near Smolensk, and the originality of many of his orchestral works lies in his use of Belarusian folk motifs. His St Petersburg contemporary Anton Abramovich (1811–57), a pianist from Vitebsk, endeavoured to develop a national style by setting Belarusian poetry and incorporating folk melodies, even a hymn (O moj Bozha), into his keyboard suites (Belaruskiya melodïi, Zacharavanaya dudka and Belaruskaye vyaselle).
An important role in 19th-century Belarusian musical life was played by the music schools and salons of the present capital Minsk. Central to their activity was the Minsk City Orchestra (1803–1917), its directors the brothers Dominik (1797–1870) and Wikenty Stefanowicz (b 1804) and a number of brilliant local pupils. Born in Ubiel near Minsk to parents connected with the Ashtorp capella at Dukora, Moniuszko studied in Minsk with the elder Stefanowicz, and held musical soirées at his family mansion. Other Belarusian-born composers connected with the Minsk circle were Napoleon Orda (1807–83), Florian Miładowski (1819–89) and Michał Jelski, and among noteworthy provincial composers and conductors were I. Dabravolski, L. Skrabetski (Mahilyow) and Yu. Shadurski (Vitebsk), author of a setting of the folkdance Lyavonikha from the lost Belarusian operetta Taras na Parnase. Many of these became implicated in the 1863 uprising and were imprisoned or obliged to emigrate.
Musical and dramatic societies, as well as high schools, promoted the foundation of orchestras in provincial cities such as Vitebsk (1883), Brest (1885), Mahilyow (1886), Slutsk (1906) and Homel' (1909), and even more importantly within the Belarusian circle of Vilnius (1910). Repertories reflected a growing sense of national identity. Many churches also had fine choirs, but after the imposition of the Italo-German synodal obikhod (1848, 1869) service books, local chants (such as the Minsk, Vilnius, Zhïrovitsï, Białystok and Palesse) and other national forms generally remained unpublished. But the rebirth of a national school of music was stimulated in the latter half of the 19th century by the publication of extensive collections of Belarusian folk music, which throughout the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical periods had never lost its popularity. Native and foreign ethnographers active in this field included Oskar Kolberg and Z. Radčanka. The latter was responsible for the first publication of Belarusian folksongs with piano accompaniment for concert performance (1881).
A new generation of ethnographers, involved in the literary Nasha Niva (‘Our Cornfield’) revival of 1905–16 and having had conservatory training in St Petersburg, Warsaw or Moscow, were instrumental in popularizing polyphonic Belarusian folksong as an art form: this group included K. Halkowski (1875–1963), A. Hrïnevich (1877–1937), N. Churkin (1869–1964), W. Terawsky (1871–1938) and M. Ravenski (1886–1953), and their choral settings formed part of the repertory of the popular First Belarusian Troupe of Ihnat Buynitsky (1907–17). A Holy Liturgy begun in 1898 by another noted folklorist, M. Antsaw (1865–1945) of Vitebsk, heralded the revival of Belarusian church music. A number of published works by A. Turankow, M. Ravenski and later Shchahlow Kulikovich (1893–1969), A. Valïnchïk (1899–1984), M. Butoma (1905–1983), A. Zalyotnew (b 1947) and S. Bel'tsyukow, the leading exponents in this field, have proved popular (Biełaruski Tsarkowny Spewnik London 1979; 1994). A first modern hymnal of Belarusian Latin-rite hymns, Kashchelny piesni (St Petersburg, 1917), was followed by an eponymous collection (Minsk, 1992), and M. Trapashka and other Catholic composers have achieved popularity through the Mahutny Bozha Festival of Church Music in Mahilyow, established in 1993. Comprehensive collections of evangelical hymns in Belarusian have also been published (Bozhaya lira, 1930; Himnï Khrïstsïyan, 1979).
The creation of the short-lived Belarusian Republic (1918–19), with a national capital in Minsk, led to the establishment of a ministry of culture, state orchestras, a national opera and ballet and a national conservatory, all staffed and trained initially by qualified teachers from Moscow and St Petersburg. Academies of music were established in Vitebsk (1918, by Antsaw), Minsk (1919), Homel' (1919, by Turankow) and Babruysk (1921), with classes in composition and performance, generally based on Russian models. After the creation of a Belarusian Soviet Republic in 1919, Belarusian composers shared the experiences of their colleagues elsewhere in the Soviet domains. A celebration was held in Moscow in 1941 to mark the ‘first decade’ of Soviet music in Belarus, reunited with its western territories formerly under Poland. During the German occupation (1941–4) composers who had avoided evacuation to Siberia were now free from Soviet censorship and turned to patriotic themes; examples include Shchahlow Kulikovich’s opera Usyaslaw the Enchanter and Turankow’s songs. A gradual relaxation of official controls after the death of Stalin in 1953 led to the formation of numerous guild and workshop orchestras, ballet companies, brass bands and choirs throughout Belarus. International tours by some of these, as well as the activities of émigré composers and performers (Ravensky, Shchahlow Kulikovich, Karpovich, Barïsavets, Selakh-Kachansky), helped promote a knowledge of Belarusian music abroad.
20th-century composers of orchestral, chamber and piano music include N. Churkin (Sinfonietta, 1925), Ye. Tikotsky (six symphonies, 1927–63; Trombone Concerto, 1934), M. Aladau (Piano Quintet, 1925; ten symphonies, 1921–71), Shchahlow Kulikovich, A. Bahatïrow, L. Abeliyovich (four symphonies, Piano concerto, chamber music), Mdzivani and D. Smol'sky (four symphonies, 1961–86, three concertos for dulcimer and folk orchestra, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto). Most operatic and choral music was officially sponsored, frequently didactic, set to warped texts and speedily dated. Best remembered are Antsaw’s Requiem, Ravensky’s Hapon, Aladau’s Taras na Parnase, Bahatïrow’s U pushchakh Palessya, shchahlow Kulikovich’s Katerina, Turankow’s Kvetka Shchastse and more recently Smol'sky’s Sivaya Lyagenda (1978) and Frantsisk Skarina (1980). A younger generation has turned increasingly to national pre-Soviet themes, and adventurous works have been produced by A. Bandarenka (The Prince of Navahrudak 1987), A. Litsvinowsky (Francisco Misterioso 1989), Ya. Paplawsky (Choral Symphony ‘Lux aeterna’), S. Bel'tyukov (Hravyurï) and A. Khadoska (Holy Liturgy).
The present discipline and quality of Belarusian choral singing owes much to the work of R. Shïyrma, V. Rowda (State Radio and Television Choir), M. Drinewski (State Academic Folk Choir), I. Matsyukhow (State Chamber Choir) and K. Nasayew (Unia Choir). Outstanding soloists in the past have included the legendary diva Larïsa Alyaksandrowskaya (1904–80) and the tenor M. Zabeyda-Shumitski. From the 1960s, after years of official disfavour, jazz concerts by amateur groups have flourished. A jazz club was founded in Minsk in 1978, and since 1979 an international festival of rock and popular music, ‘Slavyansky Bazar’, has taken place each year in Vitebsk.
See also Minsk.
M. Kulikovich: Belorusskaya muzïka (New York, 1953)
M. Kulikovich: Belorusskaya sovetskaya opera [Belarusian Soviet opera] (Munich, 1957)
D. Zhuravlyov: Kompozitorï Sovetskoy Belorussii [Composers of Soviet Belarus] (Minsk, 1966)
H. Hlushchanka and others: Historïya Belaruskay Savetskay muzïki [A history of Belarusian Soviet music] (Minsk, 1971)
L. Kostyukavets: Kantovaya kul'tura v Belorussii [Popular hymns in Belarus] (Minsk, 1975)
D. Zhuravlyov: Soyuz kompozitorov BSSR [The Composers’ Guild of Belarus] (Minsk, 1978)
I. Nazin: Belorusskiye narodnïye muzïkal'nïye instrumentï [Belarusian folk instruments] (Minsk, 1979)
V. Rowda: Khorovaya polifoniya [Choral polyphony] (Minsk, 1981)
Y. Yasinovsky: Belaruskiya Irmaloi: pomniki muzïchnaha mastatstva XVI–XVIII stst. [Belarusian heirmologion as monuments of musical art in the 16th–18th centuries] (Minsk, 1984)
T. Dubkova: ‘Muzïka’, Entsïklapedïya litaraturï i mastatstva, iii (Minsk, 1986)
V. Martïnenka and A. Myalhuy: Praz rok-pryzmu [Through the prism of rock] (New York, 1989)
L. Kastsyukavets, ed.: Belaruskaya muzïka XVI–XVII stst. (Minsk, 1990)
V. Dadzyomava, ed.: Instrumental'naya muzïka belarusi XVIII st. [Instrumental music of Belarus in the 18th century] (Minsk, 1991)
A. Akhvierdava and others: Pomniki muzïchnay kul'turï Belarusi [Monuments of the musical culture of Belarus] (Minsk, 1993)
I. Churko: Belorussky balet (Minsk, 1993)
I. Hlushakow and others: Muzïchnï teatr belarusi [The musical theatre of Belarus] (Minsk, 1993)
H. Hlushchanka and K. Stsepantsevich: Belaruskaya muzïchnaya litaratura (Minsk, 1993)
T. Likhach: Liturhichnaya muzïka Belarusi XVIII st. [Liturgical music of Belarus in the 18th century] (Minsk, 1993)
W. Newdakh: Arhannaya kul'tura na Belarusi [Organ music in Belarus] (Minsk, 1993)
G. Picarda: ‘The Evolution of Church Music in Belarus’, Christianity and the Eastern Slavs, i: Slavic cultures in the Middle Ages, ed. B. Gasparov and O. Raevsky-Hughes (Berkeley, 1993), 328–56
Although the roots of Belarusian traditional music are ancient, they are maintained in living traditions. The art of singing occupies a central place within these traditions, embracing two historical styles which in turn correspond to different eras. The oldest style, the roots of which go back to old Slavonic times, consists of songs of the calendar and agrarian cycles and those celebrating family rites.
Calendrical songs correspond to the four seasons. The winter cycle includes kolyadki (carols) and shchedrovki (New Year songs), sung during kolyada (the festivities of the winter solstice), which, owing to calendar changes, coincides with Christmas. The spring cycle consists of maslenichnïye pesni (Shrovetide songs), which are mostly performed on all kinds of swings; incantations and invocations of spring; volochebnïye pesni (trailing songs) from the verb volochit'sya (to trail about) during which the performers wander about in groups from village to village announcing the approach of spring and later the advent of Easter; yur'yevskiye (St George) and troitskiye (Whitsunday) songs, including kustovïye songs, performed as a kust or bush – that is a girl dressed up in greenery – is led through the streets, and rusal'nïye songs performed on Whitsunday and Whit Monday. The summer cycle includes kupal'skiye songs which are performed at the festivities of the summer solstice; zhnivnïye or reaping songs performed when winter crops are gathered in; and dozhinochnïye (songs sung for the end of reaping). The autumn cycle includes yarnïye songs performed when spring crops are gathered in; l’novïye songs sung during the gathering of flax and songs about the autumn season itself. Calendrical and agrarian songs also include spring and summer round-dances and winter game-songs. Themes concerning work, common to all calendrical songs, are interwoven with themes of everyday life and ancient rituals, including personified forms of both nature and the festivity itself, e.g. Kolyada, Maslenitsa, Vesna, Kupala and Sporïsh (with a double ear of corn as a personified symbol of fertility).
Family ritual songs include svadebnïye (songs for weddings) and rodinnïye (songs for births), as well as funeral laments. Kolïbel'nïye (lullabies) are also associated with this cycle. Svadebnïye, central to family ritual songs, are sung during all stages of the marriage ritual. These songs embody three emotional states: a ritually uplifted and solemn state (the glorification of the young couple and of the ritual bread, a round loaf); a lyrical and dramatic state (including the devishnik – the ‘Saturday gathering’ and the bride’s lamentations); and a humorous state associated with ritual laughter, which takes the form of a contest between the two families, the match-makers and the bride’s and groom’s parties. The rodinnïye (songs for births) include the ritual glorification of the parents of the new-born and of the midwife, and also humorous songs aimed at the midwife and particularly the godparents. The cycle of songs for births have been absorbed to a great extent into the so-called besednïye songs (from the word beseda, in the sense of a ‘communal feast’).
Laments are called golosheniya (from the verb golosit meaning to express grief vocally) and are performed in an improvised and dramatized sung recitative. In extreme circumstances such as great disasters, the lament has found new life in the form of a collective golosheniye-oplakivaniye (bewailing). Thus, after World War II, this genre found a new form as the collective lament of partisans and the inhabitants of burned villages performed at the side of memorials to those who had perished. After the catastrophe of Chernobyl in 1986 a collective prichet-golosheniye (lament) for the forest polluted with radio nuclides emerged in the southern and eastern regions ‘I nash les chyornïy, i nasha zemlya chyornaya!’ (And our black forest, and our black earth!).
A specific feature of songs from calendar and family ritual cycles is the strict observation of the appropriate time and circumstances for their performance. This same feature governs the formation of standard polytextual melodies which are highly condensed, invariable melodic formulae. Each such melody has symbolic significance within the limits of its prescribed area (e.g. a song is not just a spring song, rather it is a musical symbol of spring). Despite their seemingly slender expressive means, a limited range and unsophisticated stanza form, song melodies using this ancient style have great strength of expression owing to the semantic weight of each melodic part and the equal dramatic force given to all means of musical expression: melodic (modal and rhythmic), embellishment and timbre.
Calendrical and family ritual songs are generally performed by women, except for volochebnïye and kolyadnïye songs, the ritual greeting songs used to accompany the practice of going around the yards of people in the same village, in which men also play an important part. Antiphonal singing is characteristic of the northern region (the Poozer'ye), whereas in the southern region (the Poles'ye) communal singing of calendrical and family ritual songs is generally heterophonic. Two variants of heterophonic style are known in this region: a droning diaphony and a polyrhythmic monody (ex.1).
The second and more elaborate stylistic group of songs created by the Belarusian people consists of non-ritual songs, which ethnomusicologists believe date back to the 14th century. The culmination of their development was the era of the Cossack peasant uprisings between the 16th and 18th centuries. Besides non-ritual lyrical songs on the themes of love and everyday life, as well as songs with a ballad-like content, lyrical folk poetry of a social kind sung by men is widely found among this music, for example chumatskiye songs (the chumaki were peasants who drove ox-carts to the Crimea for salt), burlatskiye (barge haulers’ songs), Cossack songs and songs about military events and about the leaders of peasant uprisings. As distinct from the older type of songs, they are not tied to calendar events and are encountered over a wide area. Marked by a vivid individualization of the musical and poetic idea, the melodies of these songs are marked by an internal contrast of intonation and by a well-developed sense of stanza structure.
The songs of this second stylistic type (for both male and female voices) are associated with an established polyphonic style, which has a supporting voice in the polyphonic manner, and are widespread in the southern, eastern and central regions of the country. The choral scoring of these songs consists of two obligatory parts (in the folk definition ‘voices’), each one having a clear character of its own. The main melody, sung by the chorus, is always in the lower voice (it can often divide), while the upper solo voice sings in counterpoint (ex.2).
The Soviet period in the development of the art of folk singing can be seen as a kind of amalgamation of peasant oral traditions with urban traditions of literary origin. This showed itself especially clearly in the partisan songs which have occupied a prominent place in latter-day Belarusian song composition.
The instrumental folklore of Belarus is distinguished by its rich traditions. Musical instruments include both ancient instruments (the earliest archaeological finds date to the 2nd century ce) and those of more recent origin. The Cimbalom (tsimbalï) and violin (skrïpitsa) have gained the most widespread currency and social significance among string instruments but the basetlya (a bass fiddle with three or four strings tuned in 5ths or 4ths) is also found, as are the Balalaika (fig.1) and mandolin. In earlier periods the ‘wheel’ lyre (kolaveya lera) was known. This was a wooden, stringed instrument played with a wheel, which was attached to the lower section. A handle moved the wheel which then rubbed the strings. There are various types of traditional flute including single and double pipes made from reeds and the ocarina (vessel flute). Instruments with an embouchure include the horn (razhok), trumpet (truba), reed instruments, among them various types of zhaleyka (fig.2) (made from rye stems and rushes) and the clarinet. Until recently the duda (bagpipes) and dudka (duct flute) were also to be found, as well as the garmon' or garmonik (a kind of accordian) and later the bayan or accordion. The most widely found membranophones are the tambourine (buben) and the drum with cymbals (baraban z talerkami). Of the idiophones the zvon (bell), zvanochki (handbells), brazgotki (rattles), sharkhunï (tinkling bells), stal'ki (a triangle made from a rod of bent steel) as well as spoons and certain other everyday objects used in ensemble playing are known.
In village music-making instruments are used both for solo and ensemble playing (for instrumentals and vocal accompaniment). The most popular ensembles consist of different permutations of two or three instruments: the violin (or garmon') and the tambourine; the violin and garmon' (or cimbalom); the violin (or fife) and cimbalom (or garmon') and tambourine. Ensembles consisting of four instruments – the violin, cimbalom, garmon' and drum or two violins, cimbalom and tambourine – are also known. In the western region ensembles made up of even more instruments are found.
On the whole, Belarusian instrumental music is inseparably linked to the traditions of dancing and singing. In the performances of skilful musicians song melodies are distinguished by a fair degree of freedom in both intonation and embellishment (in terms of ornamentation and rhythm). The skill of the folk musicians as improvisers shows itself to its greatest extent, however, in instrumental melodies. These melodies have come to be called sam pa sabe (‘on my own’) because they are performed without any set plan or regulation in the improvisations (ex.3).
Besides existence in original forms musical folk art in Belarus at the end of the 20th century is also known through secondary forms (organized amateur collectives and amateur performances). Professional collectives have also been set up to perform folk music, including the G. Tsitovich State Folk Choir, the G. Shirma State Choral Academic Cappella and the I. Zhinovich State Folk Orchestra.
The origins of Belarusian ethnomusicology are associated with folksong collecting, which became more intensive, particularly in the second half of the 19th century when a whole group of Belarusian ethnographers and folklorists came to the fore including P. Sheyn, M. Nikiforovsky, Ye. Romanov, N. Dovnar-Zapol'sky and others. The first publications of the material gathered by these folklorists were of a linguistic nature with short appendices of musical examples. The establishment of Belarusian ethnomusicology proper is associated with the work of Nikolay Yanchuk (1859–1921). Besides Belarusian musicians, folklorists and ethnomusicologists (including Yanchuk, A. Grinevich, M. Goretsky, G. Shirma and G. Tsitovich), an important role in consolidating Belarusian ethnomusicology has been played by Polish ethnographers and ethnomusicologists (including M. Moszinski, N. Federowski and O. Kol'berg), the Czech artist and scholar L. Kuba and the Ukrainian ethnomusicologist K. Kvitka. The St Petersburg school of intonation organized by academician B. Asaf'yev and his pupils (the ethnomusicologists Ye. Gippius, Z. Eval'd and also F. Rubtsov) had a particular importance for Belarusian musicology.
At the present time Belarusian musicology is represented by two centres: the Institute of Art History and the Ethnography of Folklore at the Academy of Sciences of Belarus (by Z. Mozheyko and T. Varfolomeyeva, and earlier by V. Yelatov and I. Blagoveshchensky); and by the Belarusian Academy of Music (by the scholars T. Yakimenko, I. Nazina and L. Kostyukovets, and earlier by L. Mukharinskaya).
R. Shïrma, ed.: Belaruskiya narodnïya pesni [Belarusian folk songs] (Minsk, 1959–1976)
M. Ya. Grinblat: Belorusï: ocherki proiskhozhdeniya i ėtnicheskoy istorii [The Belarusians: essays on their origins and ethnological history] (Minsk, 1968)
G. Tsitovich and others: Antalogiya belaruskay narodnay pesni [An anthology of Belarusian folksong] (Minsk, 1968)
L.S. Mukharinskaya: Belorusskaya narodnaya pesnya: istoricheskoye razvitiye (ocherki) [Belarusian folksong: its historical development (essays)] (Minsk, 1977)
V.I. Yelatov: Pesni vostochnoslavyanskoy obshchnosti [Songs of the Eastern Slavonic community] (Minsk, 1977)
Z.V. Eval'd: Pesni belorusskogo Poles'ya [Songs of the Belarusian Poles'ye] (Moscow, 1979)
I.D. Nazina: Belorusskiye narodnïye muzïkal'nïye instrumentï: samozvuchashchiye, udarnïye, dukhovïye [Belarusian folk instruments: idiophones, percussion, wind instruments] (Minsk, 1979)
Z.Ya. Mozheyko: Pesni belaruskaga Paazer'ya [Songs of the Belarusian Poozer'ye] (Minsk, 1981)
I.D. Nazina: Belorusskiye narodnïye muzïkal'nïye instrumentï: strunnïye [Belarusian folk instruments: strings] (Minsk, 1982)
Z.Ya. Mozheyko: Pesni belorusskogo Poles'ya [Songs of the Belarusian Poles'ye] (Moscow, 1983–4)
Z.Ya. Mozheyko: Kalendarno-pesennaya kul'tura Belorussii: opït sistemno-tipologicheskogo issledovaniya [The culture of calendrical songs in Belorussia: an attempt at a systematic and typological investigation] (Minsk, 1985)
Z.Ya. Mozheyko, T. Yakimenko, T. Varfolomeyeva and others: Belorusskaya ėtnomuzïkologiya: ocherki istorii (XIX–XXvv) [Belarusian ethnomusicology: essays on its history (19th–20th centuries)] (Minsk, 1997)
T. Varfolomeyeva: Pesni Beloruskaga Panyamonnya [Songs of the Belarusian Ponemon'e] (Minsk, 1998)
Z.Ya. Mozheyko and T. Varfolomeyeva: Pesni Beloruskaga Padnyaprouya [Songs of the Belarusian Podneprov'e] (Minsk, 1999)