E-mail: t-kaneva@yandex.ru Tel.: +7 (8212) 390-308
55, Oktyabrskii av., Syktyvkar, 167000, Russian Federation
PhD in Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian Philology Pitirim Sorokin Syktyvkar State University
This article is devoted to the folk song tradition of the Siberian village of Ovsyanka as depicted in his short story “The Last Bow (Posledny poklon” by V. P. Astafiev (whose 100th anniversary is celebrated this year) This song tradition occupies a special place in the work, characterizing a community and specific people, depicting an era, and conveying the special mood of the characters. On the pages of “The Last Bow,” songs, mostly of later provenance, are mentioned or sung. These include reworkings of authorial poems and urban and prison songs; out of almost two dozen, only two drawn-out (protyazhnye) songs and a playful one can be described as traditional. Singing and songs of various length are part of the narrative, from a laconic reference and citation of one or two lines to elaborate scenes with longer quotations. In addition, the quotations may be considered as a source for the study of local folklore. However, the songs cited in “The Last Bow” have not attracted much attention, including by those who provided commentary for the 15-volume collection of the writer’s works. This article offers annotations on nineteen song quotations from “The Last Bow,” including attribution of the song plot, a note about the publication of the song in collections of Ovsyanka folklore and links to close variants These links connect to a large range of sources, including regional collections as well as anthologies of Russian folk songs. One of the annotations contains the lyrics of the song “Uzh ty, sad, ty moi sad…,” performed by a relative of the writer and based on an audio recording from the collection of the V. P. Astafiev Library-Museum. The article thus introduces the Ovsianka version of this rather famous song into scholarly circulation.
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