CHASTUSHKA

CHASTUSHKA is a dancing song; a genre of musical-poetic folklore. Bashkir and other C. were first recorded on phonograph on the territory of Bashkortostan in the late 19th c. By S.G. Rybakov. In 1929-31 they were registered by I.V. Saltykov and G. Bereczki, L. Vikar, A.F. Yurtov, V.G. Rodionov, F.K. Kamayev, Kirey Mergen, I.Y. Karpukhin, S.A. Galin, B.S. Baimov, S.S. Sabitov, R.S. Suleymanov, Y.Y. Yalkayn, etc. C. is a response for an occasion, an event of a day. It is created by poetic improvisation. Usually the first verse calls-invited people to start the performance and then it continues as a song or a dance. Semantically there are several types of C.: lyrical, dancing, merry, satire, praising, suffering; in connection with rites and games there are wedding, game round dancing C. C. can be characterised by recitative and song-recitative melodical styles.

Poetical texts of C. are quatrains which can be divided into couplets consisting of 8-7 syllables, less often the texts are triplets; they correspond to the 2-part chants basing on different angemitonic sound ranges and having an ambitus equal to an octave, less often equal to a tenth. C. were used during healing rituals, as a singing insertion to the epics (“Kara-yurga”) or to fairytales about animals (“Four friends”), etc. C. are usually sung during solo or collective dancing and are accompanied by ethnic musical instruments, household objects (spoons, plunger, a bucket, a tray) and harmonica. There are the most popular Bashkir, Russian, Tatar, Mari, Chuvash etc. C.: “Karabay”, “Sonayim”, “Yuasa”, “Kosilka, molotilka”, “Shal vyazala”, “Podgornaya”, “Tsyganochka”, “Semyenovna”, “Serbiyanka”, “Yedet von mashina”, “Poy uzh, poy, vy govorite” etc. There are also school C. in Bashkortostan – a kind of genre of adult C. They are related to the international art (see National and international folklore) In order to make the genre more popular there are Holiday of Russian songs and chastushkas, “Play, Mordovian sgueezebox!” events, different holidays, contests and festivals. C. are a part of folklore collective repertoires.

I.E. Karpukhin, T.G. Minniyakhmetova, L.K. Salmanova