Introduction The ballad in Renaissance and during Modern times

The ballad in Renaissance and during Modern times

The European folk song endured the highest blossoming in the XIII—XVI centuries though in the different countries and different regions the specified temporary borders could be displaced in this or that party or extend on extent. Of the XV—XVI centuries the extensive quantity hand-written (and then and printing) collections of songs (for example, in Germany, France, Spain) where also many texts of ballad character contained remained. During this era of the ballad occurred and were sung in the widest layers of urban and country people. In the brochure published in 1509 in Mainz "Christian manual for just life", for example, was told: "When two or three will gather, they have to sing, and all of them sing in operating time, houses and in the field, during a prayer and just affairs, in pleasure and a grief, in grief and on a feast". The largest researcher of the German national songs Ion Mayer emphasized: "The knowledge of texts and melodies was widespread in all layers of the people to such an extent that we hardly in forces to imagine today it". In a number of countries of Western Europe it was the era of decline of feudal knightly culture and raising of culture city, early bourgeois, burgher. It was Renaissance which in Germany, France, Spain, to Italy and England was expressed in wide interest of a people at large in richness of spiritual culture including to the song. In ballads of the South Slavic people very rich and various according to the contents, after a victory of Turks over Serbians on Kosovo a field (1389) motives of fight against overseas aggressors began to take an important place³.

In XVII and in the first half of the XVIII century interest in ballads in the literate of the population dies away a little. Villages and city suburbs where a peculiar genre of a ballad viewing city street song which in Germany was called "бэнкельзанг" gradually develops become keepers of songs of ballad type; performance of similar songs usually was followed by music (a harmonica, a street organ) and display of the "flying leaves" printed in printing house — texts with the pictures illustrating the executed plot — which right there at the similar price were on sale everyone. In the city street ballad both ancient and medieval plots were in own way processed. But in it there was a new operational genre which received the name "newspaper song", "newspaper ballad". Street singers, using popular forms and motives of a folk song, told "about events in the world" to listeners who often and weren't able to read. Street city ballads are very numerous, different genre and are very various on the art advantages. On a thematic sign from them, perhaps, especially it is worth allocating extensive group of songs about terrible murders, about kind and angry robbers; the important group in this type of ballads was made by songs responses on the current historical events — in Germany, for example, it is songs of an era of Great peasant war and Thirty years' war, in Russia — songs about Stenke Razin and Yemelyan Pugachev, and also about Ivan the Terrible. Among all these numerous songs the texts very close to ballads meet. "Flying leaves" with texts of ballad character were printed in the XVI—XVII centuries in Germany approximately on 100000 copies annually. Founders and performers of "flying leaves", as a rule, preferred to an ancient folk song more topical plots and looked for for them the form capable to satisfy to tastes of diverse exhibition crowd. But at the same time traditions of "benkelzang" didn't die, and in the XX century this genre as if would revive in sharp social ballads and "zongakh" Frank Vedekind, Bertolt Brecht, Curt Tukholsky and Erich Weinert⁴.
Wide public interest in the national song, and, perhaps, first of all to the ballad, a little decayed as it was already told, in the XVII century, started over again to wake up at educated public in the second half of the XVIII century against the wakening interest in history, in the national past, to russoistsk to treated "nature". The first success fell to lot of the ingenious fakes of the ancient Celtic epos James McPherson published in 1760 — 1773 and which gained the world fame under the name of "Ossian's Poems". According to the latest researches, many episodes of "Ossian's Poems" — that other, as free transposition of the ancient Scottish ballads at different times heard and which are written down by McPherson. "Ossian's poems" were met with huge enthusiasm first of all in Germany where until the end of the XVIII century four of their are published the full translation and 34 partial; Ossian carried away Herder, Goethe, Lenz, the Burgher and some other writers. With big delight slightly they were accepted later and in Russia where there were their full and partial translations, and also many works in imitation "Ossian's Poems" or for their motives were created. Against so impressive success of McPherson (and not only in Germany and Russia) a little the remarkable work of the bishop Percy of "A relic of ancient English poetry" (1765) containing many original Scottish ballads remained in the shadow. It was followed also by other collections of ballads from which it is important to mention "The Minstrelsies of Scottish Border" (1802 — 1803) which are written down and published by young Walter Scott here⁵.
The new civil consciousness which arose during the Education era in the second half of the XVIII century included also understanding of identity of a historical way, language, culture, ethnographic signs of each people. In libraries, in monasteries — ancient manuscripts, until then unknown, nobody read were found everywhere. In 1757 Swiss I. Ya. Bodmer found the manuscript "Song about nibelungs", become in the XIX century a perennial spring of plots for playwrights and poets (F. Hebbel, R. Wagner etc.) . In Germany Herder acts as the passionate propagandist of national poetry and in 1778 — 1779 publishes the collection "National Songs" which included the German, English, Spanish, Greek, Scottish, Scandinavian, Lithuanian, Estonian songs — the edition keeping enduring value up to our days: not incidentally later the collection received other name — "Voices of the people in songs".
After Herder Clemence Brentano's romantics and Akhim von Arnim collect and publish the German national songs "Magic Horn of the Boy" (t. 1—3, 1805—1808). In 1817 in Vienna it was found and then it is published medieval mythologically - the fantastic epos "Kudruna", in 1837 in Paris "The song about Roland", been a source of numerous literary ballads in the different countries was for the first time published. In a year of death of Byron (1824) who was actively participating in fight for freedom of Greece in France there were "National songs of Greece". For ten years the Serbo-Croatian songs of Vuk Karadzic with delight met by poets and specialists in folklore of all Europe were published earlier. In Finland at the end of the XVIII century begins record of separate runes of the "Kalevala" which gained then the world fame in E. Lyonrot's processing. In Russia the "Collection of different songs" (p.1 — 4, 1770— 1774) M. D. Chulkova containing along with literary texts and originally national including ballad songs testified to serious interest in folklore. In 1804 in Moscow "Ancient Russian poems" were published. This collection better known according to the name of the second edition "The Ancient Russian Poems Collected by Kirsheyu Danilov", showed really inexhaustible richness of the Russian songs: epic and mythological and historical, love, satirical, comic. This wealth was noticed also by Karamzin writing "History of the state Russian", and Zhukovsky which not only excellent translated "Tale of Igor's Campaign", but also constantly worked itself on creation of the national Russian epos, and Pushkin who was attentively reading this collection and many other Russian poets, writers, scientists: from A.X. Vostokov and V. K. Küchelbecker to I.S. Turgenev, L.N. Tolstoy and M. Gorky. V. G. Belinsky wrote about "the Collection Danilov's Kirsches": "It is the book a precious, true treasury of the greatest richness of national poetry which has to be shortly familiar to any Russian person if the poetry isn't alien to his soul and if all related to the Russian spirit forces to fight his heart more strongly⁶".
In all enormous flow of publications of ancient texts of the epic and balladno-song contents (here we were limited only to separate examples) ballads took nearly at once a special place, having played in many European literatures a role of a peculiar catalyst in searches of new expressive opportunities of the poetic diction. Though initial impulses in this direction came from Spain and England, the first European significant results in creation and judgment of the genre of the literary ballad were reached in Germany. The huge role here already in the period of "A storm and an impact" was played by I. G. Herder, I. V. Goethe and G. A. Byurger.
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744 — 1803) who began under the influence of McPherson and Percy to translate from the end of the 1760th years at first the Scottish and Scandinavian ballads, and then and songs of other people, handled an appeal to collect and write down as well the German national songs. The first the young Goethe who wrote down in the summer of 1771 in Alsace 12 folk songs together with melodies responded to this appeal. Thus he carefully considered structure of the small meeting lying at the sources of modern folklore studies in Germany. To Goethe, all life, like Herder who was engaged in studying, collecting and transfer of song creativity of various people, the early address to folklore allowed to avoid pretentious style of poetry of rococo and already in the cycle "Zezengeymsky Songs" at the beginning of the 1770th years to create original poetic masterpieces. From all folklore genres of Goethe with special attention I treated the ballad, calling it that "a live germ", "prasemeny" all poetry, an art prototype, its primary national form. In 1821, already having an extensive experience of own ballad creativity behind shoulders, Goethe generalized the thoughts about this unique genre in special article about the ballad. He saw specifics of irresistible art influence of the ballad in connection of epos elements in it, dramas and lyric poets. In early ballads of Goethe ("Fisherman", "The forest tsar", "the Fulsky king") synthesis of lyrical and drama elements, in late ballads ("The Corinthian bride" prevails, "God and a bayader", "Ballad") a lyrical element is considerably forced out by the epic⁷.
For development of the theory of the ballad I. G. Herder's supervision in the 1770th years connected with his work on the collection "National Songs" have enduring value. Don't lose the value for modern folklore studies and Herder's idea about importance for a national song of "tune", "harmony". "A being of a song — in a tune, but not in a picture — Herder in 1779 wrote — its perfection is defined by the melodic movement of passion or feeling which it would be possible to designate the choice ancient word a harmony. If the song is deprived it if it doesn't possess the tonality, poetic modulation, doesn't maintain process of this modulation — that how many pictures, what combination of pleasant paints it would comprise, it any more not the song". Thus it is important to understand that Herder, speaking about "harmony", "tonality" and "modulation", speaks not only (and in this case, probably, and not so much) about a melody motive, but also "about a melody as immanent property of poetic fabric of a song, internally to it the inherent melodiousness doing the text to "melodious⁸". Herder aspiring and first of all to transfer tone, melodic intonation of foreign language in the translations of songs of the different people, in the concept of the ballad (which he called "the ancient song") I was guided, first of all, by the Scottish ballads from Percy's collection, I emphasized that "the lyrical, mythological, drama and epic elements making national difference of English poetry arose from this ancient heritage of ancient singers and poets". Including in "ancient heritage of ancient singers and poets" Chaucer, Spencer, Shakespeare, Milton and other English writers, Herder not only destroyed a barrier between the folk and literary song, but also raised very vital issue of a national originality as necessary and integral quality of originally national poetry: "On language, on tone and the contents these ancient songs represent original thinking of the tribe, or as if the trunk, a nation core. Who a little or absolutely sees nothing in them, shows thereby that has with it nothing in common. Who neglects them and doesn't feel them that show that he so wallowed in empty imitation to all foreign, so got confused in weightless tinsel of a foreign masquerade that forgot to appreciate and feel everything that makes a nation body". Herder's anger was directed, first of all, against dominating then in the German literature of the anakreontichesky poetry and poetry of rococo focused on the French samples and neglecting the appeal to national sources of own national poetry.
The angry word of Herder fell to a fertile field. It was heard by young Goethe, the whole group of poets of "A storm and an impact", among which in formation of a genre of the literary ballad the outstanding place belongs to Gottfried to Augustus Byurger (1747 — 1794) who created "Lenora" (1773) worthy sample of the literary ballad, many threads of the folk song connected with century traditions with folklore motives and national beliefs, widespread not only in Germany, but also in all Europe. The widest, it is possible to tell, the pan-European resonance of "Lenora" of Byurger proceeding over 50 years speaks as high art advantages of this ballad, and by that its motive taken in a basis about return of the dead (or about the groom dead person) found compliances in songs, fairy tales, legends, beliefs practically of all European people (roots of these beliefs go to Ancient Greece and the Ancient East) and could be easily recreated on any national soil. In parallel with transfers of "Lenora" there were also, national versions of the ballad, as, for example, (1808 — 1812) V. A. Zhukovskogo' "Svetlana" or some Polish processing of "Lenora⁹".