Slavic folk traditional music was written centuries ago but still remains popular. A lot of old songs are performed by friends at a campfire and national dances may be seen in restaurants at parties or weddings. Great examples of national folk may be observed in small town and villages as people who live there tend to remember and honor folk culture.
Most famous national music instruments in Russia
Such melodies are diverse and it includes various instruments one can find only in Russia and they are able to create a unique sound that attracts every music fan. Amid the well-known instruments we can review the following:
Balalaika, which is a three-stringed, triangular sound-board. Musician uses three fingers to play. Balalaikas are known to have various sizes and include Prima, Secunda, Alto, tenor, bass and contrabass;
A seven-string guitar also referred to as semistrunnaya gitara is one of the versions of the acoustic guitar with own unique method of construction and sound;
The Bayan is one of the best known musical instruments; it is a type of chromatic button accordion. This instrument has spread throughout Europe to Poland, Scandinavia, France, Spain and Portugal. Among famous composers along with bayanists we can recall Vladislav Zolotaryov, Albin Repnikov, Alexander Timoshenko etc.
The next Slavic national instrument in our list is buben that is a hand percussion musical one while similar to drums. It has a pair of bells and jingles, often was used as a solo instrument. Buben is widely used in Ukraine and Belarus mostly in dance amusements. Today buben is often used in orchestras of Russian instruments.
Five popular Russian Folk Songs
All these songs were written dozens of years ago but even today they preserved their popularity and a lot of famous performers include them in their concerts.
Kalinka-Malinka was written a century ago by Ivan Larionov is hugely popular- it is the most famous Slavic national song. By foreigners it is associated with Russian restaurants. Another great song Smuglyanka was written in 1940 by Yakov Shvedov and Anatoliy Nivikov and glorifies female partisans and their brave actions during Russian Civil War. The best known Russian romance song is Dark eyes written by Ukrainian poet / writer Yevhen Hrebinka. This song was performed in different styles also by various performers; original version reminds more of gypsy romance than the traditional one.
The great way to have fun and relax is chastushki. This is Russian or Ukrainian humorous short folk song full of satire or irony. It consists of one four-lined couplet that performed with high beat frequency as the rhythm is of the essence here.
The last but not least is Katyusha, written in 1938 gained fame during World War II as it cheered up the spirit of the soldiers with a heroic as well as battle style of performance along with war related lyrics.