Abstract:

This research considers the genre of Russian war songs not only as a specific part of folklore, but as a part of Soviet and post-Soviet musical culture. There are several types of songs, which depict the war in different dimensions: marches and patriotic hymns; factual portrayals of combats; and personal expressions of soldiers’ feelings and memories. The research defines these genres and gives examples of war songs, which illustrate the specificity of the groups. The songs are divided through the medium of social existence in a historical context, to take into account the social diversity of content, themes and motifs in a chronological framework. Songs are also divided to take into account the diversity of song genres, the conditions of their existence and the circumstances of execution: choral, wedding and lyric, and further, that division allows you to see the different social origins of song genres.

An author gives an overview of the song’s genre for theoretical materials to provide the basis for seeing well-known material from new perspectives and helping to create new ideas and approaches. The definitions, specific traits and roles of songs are considered in social life and as a part of the cultural heritage. Special attention is paid to a new song genre, “the Soviet mass song” that was created during the times of the Soviet Union. The observation presented in the research is based on professional dictionaries and theoretical sources that consider the genres of song in general, and the Soviet mass song specifically.

As an example of the research application the author presents an educational project when students of a music school have been preparing to perform war songs in a form of an arts integration concert. A process of preparing and running the project took two years and included video conferences with teachers and students, rehearsals, lectures, historical and cultural studies, performances, and an international contest of students' creative works. The research and the project can be the base for a curriculum of studying a folklore genre either in music or other performing arts education with following applications of students' cultural awareness, knowledge, and performing skills.

Keywords:

Russian culture, war songs, folklore, historical and cultural context, music education, the method of arts integration.