A. Klimenko

Wind Instruments in the Military Music of Ancient Rus

Since their origin wind instruments have been inseparably associated with the military music and traditions. In Russia these traditions were formed during quite a long period of time, from the occurrence of the first witnesses of the wind instruments usage in everyday life of the early Slavs until the period of formation of the Russian composers’ interest in wind instruments and appearance of the specific repertoire for military wind orchestras. Primarily we talk about marches and pieces of music, written specially for accompaniment of the military rituals. Military band music was one of the main spheres of the wind instruments application in various historical periods of time. The main idea of the article is to consider the earliest period of the wind instruments functioning within the frames of the military band practice –the period of Ancient Rus, and also the beginning of the 17th century – the period of appearance of the West-European instruments and their gradual popularization in the military band music. One should note, that for a long time the military music existed in its oral form, so the following factors are of great importance in its research: works of pictorial art: fresco paintings, miniatures of ancient records, iconographic sources; oral folk arts: epic poems, proverbs, folk sayings, songs; the Ancient Rus manuscripts of educational character: abecedaries; facts and analogies from the history of other countries; testimonies of the contemporaries: chronicles, diaries, letters, notes. All these sources allow us with a due degree of confidence to learn more about functioning of the wind instruments in the ancient military music.

Key words

wind instruments, Russian folk instruments, percussion instruments, military music.

• Read full article