ARCHAIC INDO-EUROPEAN ELEMENTS OF MUSICAL FORMS OF UKRAINIAN FOLK CALENDAR AND RITUAL SONGS

Abstract

The article analyses the musical forms of a number of ancient Ukrainian calendar and ritual songs, which date back to the pre-Christian era, and several significant Indian sacred musical compositions. The article reveals related complex musical structures that are probably inherited from a common Indo-European musical idiom. It is noted that each of these works uses certain modes, which Plato and Aristotle defined as ethical, as well as structurally related tetrachords, which we have named mirror-symmetrical to ethical modes. Thus, the Dorian and Phrygian modes are traced in the vesnianka "Dove". In the hayivky "Kostrubonko" and "Mak", the Lydian and Dorian modes are traced, and the upper tetrachord is mirror-symmetrical to the Lydian mode. In the wedding songs "Oh in the garden a dove is humming", "Hops in the meadows" and "Fate", the Dorian and Lydian modes are used, as well as tetrachords mirror-symmetrical to the Dorian and Phrygian modes. It was found that in the "Gayatri Mantra" the Lydian mode is used twice, and there is also a tetrachord mirror-symmetrical to the Dorian mode, and in the mantra "Jai Radha Madhav" the Phrygian mode is used three times. In the mantra "Hari Hari Bol", the Lydian mode and a tetrachord mirror-symmetrical to the Phrygian mode can be traced. The features of the combination of tetrachordal structures are also noted. It has been found that in the Gayatri Mantra the composition ends in the Lydian mode, similarly to the hayivky "Mak" and the wedding song "Fate", which also end in the mournful female Lydian mode, and in the mantra "Hari Hari Bol", as in the wedding song "Oh, in the garden a dove is humming", the mirror-symmetrical tetrachord to the Phrygian mode turns into the Lydian mode. It is also shown that in this mantra the Dorian mode shade appears in combination with the upper ascending tetrachord mirror-symmetrical to the Dorian mode, and it is indicated that the opposite phenomenon is observed in the wedding song "Oh in the garden a dove is humming", where the upper tetrachord mirror-symmetrical to the Dorian mode is smoothly transformed into the Dorian mode. Based on the study of the above musical texts, it is concluded that the method of structural analysis of musical forms is a promising approach to identifying elements inherited from the common Indo-European musical idiom.