Music of Russia

Okay, so this may be a bit different than some of the other Asian music we've been looking at, but I couldn't pass up this opportunity to look at Russian Music. First off, I think it's only fair that I include the most popular Russian song in our generation. And please feel free to get up and dance!

If you didn't get up and dance to this amazing song, I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. Nah, I'm just joking... or am I?

Let's talk about instruments. I was really curious to see what kind of instruments the Russian culture has created and their most popular ones. Every culture we have talked about has special instruments, so let's see what Russia has. There's this really cool percussion instrument that Hello Music Theory talks about, called a treshchotka, which translates to "rattle." Unlike the shakers and rattles of the Native American world, a treshchotka makes a clapping sound. Different versions/sizes have different sizes and numbers, but the overall idea is that there are small, thin wooden slats that are connected at the top with string, sometimes with beads between them. This video shows different sounds you can make with a treshchotka. Fair warning, it's in Russian and the translation kind of sucks. 

Fun fact: it is a Russian tradition to play the treshchotka at a wedding to ward off evil spirits from the happy couple. 

Next, we have a zhaleika or a Russian folk clarinet. This is one of the most popular wind instruments in Russia. It's a wooden aerophone with holes that are used to produce different pitches. Its single reed is typically made of cane or a goose feather. Some zhaleikas use a cow horn for the bell. As you'll hear in this next piece, there is a drone that stays in the background. Enjoy!

We're gonna move on to modern Russian music. Russian singers like to follow global trends, and often fall into certain genres, like pop, rock, and rap. Such artists also make very high-quality music videos. The first artist is named Монеточка, or Monetochka, for us English speakers. It translates to Little Coin. She's a pop artist that's only a few years older than us. To me, she looks like Kristen Stewart. This is her song Нимфоманка, which translates roughly to Nymphomaniac. It's honestly a bop. 

Another artist is Хлеб, which means Bread, who collabed with Cream Soda and released a song in April of 2020 titled Crying Under Techno. The nation ate it up and it went viral virtually instantly. Here, have a listen.

Since this song became so popular so quickly and everyone was stuck inside because of the pandemic, there was a challenge that became popular on social media. Named the balcony dance challenge, people videoed themselves dancing on their balcony like in the music video. This kept spirits high and kept away the spicy sadness. 

The last thing I want to talk about is the folk dance of Russia. As with many cultures, the costumes for dancing were very special. In Russia, clothing was based on specific events. Many of the costumes incorporated the color red because it is seen as the color of beauty in Russian culture. There are tons of traditional dances, but I am going to focus on one called Khorovod, which is a dance coming from the Slavs. It involves both singing and dancing, and it's performed at folk festivals and pagan rituals. 

The dance usually starts with a few young girls and marriageable girls from the neighborhood standing in the middle of the street. They start singing and acting out the lyrics. Eventually, other girls joined, then the young men (often playing accordions, violins, or tambourines). The people dancing are in a circle, and often, a girl and a guy would go to the center of the circle and dance together. The dance symbolizes unity and friendship. Dancers typically hold hands or link pinkies. 

Welp, that's all I have for you this time! Hope you learned something and enjoyed the music!