What is a pathetic musical. What wind instruments are included in a folk orchestra? A few words about chromatic regret

ZHALEIKA, Russian wind reed musical instrument, wooden or reed pipe with a bell made of horn or birch bark... Modern encyclopedia

Russian wind reed musical instrument, wooden, reed, cattail tube with a bell made of horn or birch bark... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Pity, pity, wives. (region). Russian peasant musical instrument, consisting of a cow horn with two reed pipes inserted into it and with several holes; a reed pipe made from a hollowed-out thin tree. Intelligent... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

Pity, and, female. Folk wind reed musical instrument - a wooden tube with a bell made of cow horn or birch bark. Play for pity. | adj. pathetic, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

Pity- a wind musical instrument among the Eastern Slavs, a wooden or reed pipe with a bell made of cow horn or birch bark... Ethnographic Dictionary

Zhaleika- ZHALEIKA, Russian wind reed musical instrument, a wooden or reed pipe with a bell made of horn or birch bark. ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

pathetic- zhaleika, a wind musical instrument among the Eastern Slavs a wooden or reed pipe with a bell made of cow horn or birch bark... Encyclopedia "Peoples and Religions of the World"

Nowadays the zhaleika (otherwise called the keychain) can be seen, perhaps, only in the orchestra of Russian folk instruments. And once upon a time it was widespread throughout Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania. Like her closest relative, the shepherd... ... Musical dictionary

AND; pl. genus. leek, dat. watering cans; and. Russian folk wind musical instrument in the form of a pipe (also common in Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania). ● The zhaleika is a wooden or reed tube with holes on the side (for... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• Folk instruments. Audio Encyclopedia (CD), . A cheerful musical performance in an easy and accessible way will introduce the child to Russian folk instruments and their sound. He will tell you about the history of the appearance of these instruments, about what...
• Velka's childhood, Alexey Oleynikov. In 2007, the collection of stories “Velka’s Childhood” became a laureate of the national children’s literary award “Treasured Dream”. The book tells about the adventures of the boy Velka in the southern...
• Gusli, Saratov accordion, zhaleika, ocarina and balalaika share their secrets, Olga Piccolo. Little listeners get acquainted with a variety of musical Russian folk instruments that are part of three friendly families of the orchestra: wind, plucked string and percussion instruments:...

A cone is fixed into the left chuck of the machine, and a rotating cone into the right headstock, with a drilled workpiece between them. On a machine we process the tube to an ideal state of ø 16 mm, first with a cutter and then with sandpaper of different diameters. The diameter of the tube depends on the outer diameter of the ring!
We make sharpenings for the inner diameter of the ring and horn; the size should be (1/10-2/10) larger than the main size of the ring and horn (see photo 9). The tube must fit into the horn Very tight, then it will enter more freely. The tube, horn and cap should be stored separately for some time. This is due to the fact that the material seems to dry out.

Photo 9. Tubes with rings.

The ring and horn are not put on completely (tightly). At first, you don’t have to adjust everything exactly.
In the first case, the ring and horn will have to be removed during polishing, and in the second, over time, the tube will decrease in diameter in the places where it fits the ring and horn.

Mouthpiece (squeaker)

This is a detail that needs attention. the greatest attention! Depending on how the peep sounds, the pity will work.
Take an ebonite workpiece L = 60 mm ø = 12-15 mm, insert it into the machine and process it to the desired size. Using a 5 mm drill, drill a hole in the center, not all the way to the end. Using a file, we make a small plane 25 mm long and with an inclination L ≈2.3 away from the horn, and with a file we make a groove for the tongue. All dimensions are in mm (see photos 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16).

Reed (tongue)

It is made by me from textolite, although it is possible to find another material. The blanks are cut with scissors and brought to the required size with a file, taking into account the fact that the reed is thinner at one end and slightly thicker at the other, like a clarinet (see photos 17, 18, 19, 20).

Cambric

As stated above, it is a hollow piece of wire insulation (mostly polyvinyl chloride) used by electricians and fishermen. The length and diameter depend on the specific application. You need two of them, one to secure the reed to the mouthpiece (peeper) and the other to adjust the pitch of the sound (see photos 21, 22, 23, 24).

Ready-made squeaker (see photo 23), squeaker with a tube (see photo 24).

Cap

It can be made from various materials. From a garden hose, a sports hoop, just a metal tube or wood. I recommend a sports plastic hoop. Pieces of hoop 50-60 mm long are cut. Straighten them slightly and process them in the machine. The most important thing is that the cap fits tightly into the pity tube and is cleanly processed (see photos 25, 26, 27, 28).

When making a cap from wood, its diameter should be less than the diameter of the tube. The cap must fit into the tube very tight. After some time, heat it on a hot stove (you can use an iron), so as not to spoil it and not to burn the edges. After this, the cap fits into the tube more freely. If this is not done, then after a while the cap begins to sag and wobble. You need to fit all the caps to the tube without a squeak, since with a squeak the diameter of the tube expands slightly.
The wooden cap and tube are soaked in linseed or sunflower oil. Oil is poured into the bath and tubes and caps are placed there for a day, then dried for seven days. The lint is removed with fine sandpaper and the inside is wiped with varnish and alcohol polish. Then, after drying, the pile is removed again. You can also wipe with a cloth soaked in oil. This is done so that the pity is not exposed to moisture (see photo below).

Setting up the pity

Tuning a penny, like any musical instrument, is very important. It requires enormous experience of the master, knowledge of acoustics, and an ear for music. Setup requires a number of plumbing tools. Files, drills, reamers and of course it is advisable to have a sound frequency generator. I recommend setting up in this order.
. Check the operation of the squeaker without a tube. No matter how hard you blow, it should work. The tongue should not squash or stick.
. Together with the pipe, fine-tune the horn (salt or other note). The smaller the horn, the higher the sound.
. Draw a stripe evenly along the tube with a pencil. Then we mark the points of the sound holes (see photo 29). Measurements are taken from the base of the pitty without the horn and squeak.

Then drill the measured holes with a thin drill (2 mm). The beeper, after we install it, should already work on all sound holes.
. Next comes preliminary tuning, starting with the lower sound.
. Smaller hole for fingers means lower sound. Larger finger hole means higher sound.
. Fine tuning is done by listening to the beats of the frequency of the sound of the pity and the generator or other musical instrument. When the beats disappear, the sound is tuned cleanly. If you have lost the moment in which direction the beat frequency decreases between the sound of the pity and the generator (that is, you do not understand the playing holes to increase or decrease), then slightly move the cambric, thereby increasing the length of the reed:
1) if the beat frequency increases, then the playing holes for the fingers should be made larger, but first tune the reed to the basic pure tone of the pity;
2) if the beat frequency decreases, then make the playing holes for the fingers smaller (but how to do this?), You can insert plugs into the holes (with glue, of course) and re-drill and adjust. Or, by moving the cane, adjust this hole purely according to the generator. But then the main tone will not build, you can cut a thin ring from the same ebonite to fit the inner diameter, this will lower the main tone (of course, then adjust it precisely). But other holes may not be built, so everything needs to be checked and adjusted. To prevent this from happening, you need to do the instrument tuning slowly and think with your head. If you are doing it for yourself, then you can experiment, but I had many orders for music schools, colleges, music academies, and if this happened, then I simply threw the workpiece away.
. After setting up the next sound, be sure to check all the others.
. You need to let the pity sit down after it has been tuned (at least two, three days, maybe more), this is necessary so that it dries, and it will slightly change the tuning.
. Then check the tuning again and adjust some sounds.
. We enlarge the sound holes using drills, files, reamers and finally with cutters so that they are perfectly clean and even.

I don’t give exact sizes for each pity, they are always slightly different (even for pities of the same key). Each master must find his own, adhering to those given in the work; this applies to all parameters of the tool.
. If the sound holes were much larger. Then I turned round plugs from hard wood on a machine, or you can, for example, use ebonite. And he inserted them very tightly onto the glue, but not deeply, into the same holes. After drying, the workpieces were processed with a file and new holes were drilled for sound holes.

A few words about chromatic regret

Chromatism can be adjusted in holes 1, 2, 4, 5. In a pity of any key, one hole is drilled from the center of the sound holes to the left and to the right of the line. Diameter 2 mm. It is also necessary to take into account the direction of these small holes and the direction of the recesses for the fingers (see photo 30).

Photo 30. The horn is on the right side of the pity.

Each small hole is adjusted separately in halftones. I also advise you to check each sound hole at intervals of fifths and fourths. For example, in the regrettable SALT, when setting the fundamental tone, check how the interval of fifth (sol - D) and fourth (sol - C) sounds.
And before setting up the tool, you need to make small indentations for the fingers with a semicircular file. This can be seen in photo 30. If you do it later, it will affect the structure of the pitiful!

I offer my drawings of the main working parts

Internal ø 7, external ø 16
Tube L = 150, Pischik L = 40 mm

Internal ø 8, external ø 16
Tube L = 180 - 190, Pischik L = 45 mm

Tube L = 190 - 200, Pischik L = 45 mm

The first hole is made on the side for the right hand of the little finger, 35 millimeters from the base of the pity.
The second one is in the center for the middle finger, 80 mm from the base of the sting.

Internal ø 8, external ø 16
Tube L = 260, Pischik L = 50 mm

The first hole is made on the side for the right hand of the little finger 55 mm from the base of the pity
The second one is in the center for the middle finger, 8 mm from the base of the sting.

Tube L = 300, Pischik L = 55 mm

1, 3, 5 holes are on the right side of the pitty, and 2, 4, 6 are on the left side.

Internal ø 7, external ø 16
Tube L = 11.5, Pischik L = 40 mm

Polishing

It is carried out, like other musical instruments, using a certain technology. A lot of educational literature has been written about this and there is information on the Internet. A few words about how I do it.
. If the piece is made of mahogany, then it is better to first coat it with sunflower oil and dry it in the bright sun. This must be done several times.
. Then it is covered with polish and dried.
. Rub with pumice and dry.
. This can be repeated several times.
. Be sure to wipe the pity from the inside with polish using a long thin stick with a swab.
. Hard wood (maple, apple, beech) is polished in this order (very briefly).
. NC varnish - dry (the longer, the better).
. Sand with fine sandpaper.
. Polish - dry (do this once, twice, three times).
. Treat with fine, dust-like pumice using a swab slightly moistened with polish - dry.
. Dry with pumice once or twice.
. Apply a drop of oil to the swab and polish - dry.
. Repeat many times, then wipe with a dry woolen cloth.

Varnish made from medical alcohol and shellac, you can add other resins, but this is at your discretion. Polishing is carried out with tampons, which you need to make yourself from a washed white cloth (make a square) and add woolen threads, also white.
Instead of thread, you can use cotton wool.
Before polishing, the pity must be sanded thoroughly!
The polishing process is considered complex and responsible, so I recommend that you first study the relevant educational literature or information on the Internet.

Additional material (20.02.2017)

1) I’ll say it again and I can repeat it many times, that for the pike to work well, the main point in making a musical instrument is tuning the peep.
First you need to configure it separately from the pitiful thing itself.
The sound frequency should correspond approximately to the tonality of the pity.
The sound should not be booming, noisy, tight (difficult to reproduce). No matter how hard you blow, the squeak should sound and work easily. But we must take into account that pity cannot sound very loud and very quiet. With strong blowing, the reed (tongue) simply sticks, but with weak blowing it does not wobble.
The sound of the squeak should resemble the sound of a whistle made from an acacia pod. We all remember when in childhood we picked a pod from an acacia tree, broke it in half, removed the seeds and got a whistle.
Next, the squeaker and the pity itself are configured in assembled form. On the playing tube, according to the markings for each key of the pity, we drill holes Ǿ 2 -2.5 mm.
And when we insert the squeak into the tube at one end and the horn at the other, it should immediately work through all the sound holes easily and without stuttering. Especially when they are all open. It is necessary to blow with equal force in all holes and very often at the top sounds the pity beeper stops working. It kind of shuts up (sorry for this terminology) in this case you need to rub it with fine sandpaper from the side of the mouthpiece and the reed. But then adjust the pity to the main tone.

View photos

After that, we proceed to setting up the pity itself, I already wrote about what tools to do this with. I just want to add that for tuning you can use a homemade sound generator configured by temperament.
Or KORG CA40WD tuner (chromatic).

2) I would like to suggest one method of drilling sound holes, which I have been using lately. I do not drill them at a right angle, but tilt them towards the horn 110-120°. What does this give? The air that passes through the squeak and moves through the tube passes more easily and smoothly into the sound holes of the pity. Well, as if improving the answer by sounding pathetic.

View photos

Photos at different stages of production

Is pathetic. It is a wind reed musical instrument that was very popular among the population of Slavic peoples. There is an opinion that the ancestor of such a reed wind instrument with a single reed, like the clarinet, was that very pity. However, this is attributed to both the Hungarian tarogato and the medieval Chalumeau.

general description

Musical instrument The pity is a tube, the material for which is a reed or reed plant, with a bell at the end made from the upper layers of birch bark or animal horn. Sometimes willow or elderberry was used for the main pipe.

Zhaleiki are distinguished (described in the article) by configuration; they can be bifurcated or single-tube. The length of the instrument ranges from 10-20 cm, while the number of holes on the tube for sound extraction can be from three to seven. In some southern territories of Russia, the local population attached a bell to a forked pity.

The pity musical instrument is quite easy to use. Anyone can handle it, since it does not require trained breathing or any other special musical skills.

This wind musical instrument can be used in a solo program, play melodies in a duet, or be part of an ensemble.

Etymology of the instrument

Initially, the instrument was positioned as a shepherd's pity, as it was used to attract attention and gather cattle and sheep by the shepherd himself. Zhaleika has become widespread in the territorial regions of modern Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. Today it can only be seen at concerts held by folk ensembles.

Russian zhaleika is also known as zhalomeyka. Writer and publicist Vladimir Mikhnevich draws public attention to the similarity of the root in the words “zhalenik” and “zhalnik.” The Novgorod people called the ancient pagan mound-type burial ground Zhalnik. Another meaning of the word was associated with an ancient cemetery or graveyard. In this regard, V. Mikhnevich put forward the assumption that the instrument was used during rituals that were carried out in memory of the deceased after burial or at certain times of commemoration.

Historical excursion

Wind musical instruments were the most important component of Russian folk music and an integral part of the national culture. The first musical instruments were reliably noticed by scientists back in the thirteenth century BC. Percussion instruments appeared first, and then wind instruments, various pipes and whistles. In Ancient Rus', musical instruments became widespread among shepherds and court buffoons: zhaleiki, pipes and horns.

Also, these musical devices found use in the military squads of Kievan Rus. At the princely courts, the sound of pity could be heard during various ceremonial meetings and fun.

Some Russian tsars tried to destroy the culture of these musical instruments, persecuted musicians and established bans on the use of musical instruments. At that time, national Russian folk music suffered great losses in musical culture. But the nationwide love for musicians and their creations did not allow their favorite traditions and instruments to disappear.

Folk instrument

At the end of the nineteenth century, interest in its own history and national culture arose in Russian society. This happened thanks to some researchers in the field of various folk instruments. At the same time, the Russian musician, composer and virtuoso balalaika player V.V. Andreev, organizer and director of the first folk instrument orchestra in Russian history, carried out successful work to revive Russian instruments and modernize them. Simultaneously with these works, attempts were made to improve the pity, pipes and keychains.

By the way, a keychain is one of the names for a pity, used in the Tver region. There the instrument was made from willow, or, as the locals called it, bredin. This is where the name of the keychain comes from. Unlike the zhaleika, which was used by the shepherds, the keychain has a more gentle and delicate melodic movement. This is due to the fact that the musical object is made entirely of wood.

In different regions of vast Russia, zhaleika and its derivatives are known under different names. So, in the Kursk region it is called horn, in Gorky region - ladusha, in Belgorod region - pishik, in Penza region - sipovka. A forked zhalenka in the Vladimir region is called dvoychatki, and in the Ryazan region it is called zhalanka, in the Penza region it is called a cane.

Varieties of pity

The zhaleika musical instrument is divided into two types according to its design:

• Single pitiful.
• Two-part.

The sound from different types of pity is extracted according to the same principle. It consists in vibrating the squeak tongue. The instrument has a seven-sound sound system, playing the notes “D”, “G”, “A”, and less often - “C”, “F”, “E”. The sound range is similar to a high-pitched singing voice. To the ear, the sound of the pity song seems sad and very pitiful, the melodies come out sad, but with the right skill they can be quite cheerful.

The zhaleika is widely used in folk orchestras and is a very common musical instrument. The sound of the double-barrelled pity is very similar to the bagpipes. Its lower tones sound at the same height, performing the function of a bourdon. Some people believe that the pity song originated from the bagpipes. There is a noticeable similarity between the bagpipe tube and the pathetic tube itself in terms of design. There is also a sound similarity in the sound character.

Single pity

This musical object looks like a small tube up to 20 cm long, made of willow, elderberry or reed reed. On one side of the tube there is a squeaker, which has a tongue made of goose feather (or reed) in its design. At the other, lower end, a bell made of birch bark is attached. Often the material for such an element is the horn of a large animal, such as a cow. It happens that the tongue on the tube itself is cut.

To obtain a melody, there are holes on the pity tube. Their number varies from 3 to 7 pieces. Single-range voices can be soprano, alto or bass.

Two-piece or paired sting

It consists of paired tubes of the same size, each with its own playing holes, the number of which can differ sharply from each other. One tube can be a leading tube, the other a secondary one, and the first one, accordingly, will have more holes. The tubes are inserted into one common socket.

You can extract the melody of their two-part pity either one by one from each pipe, or simultaneously from two.

This musical instrument is intended mainly for two-voice melodic playing.

Musical instrument: Zhaleika

At one time, Grigory Alexandrov’s wonderful comedy “Jolly Guys” about the funny adventures of the talented and cheerful shepherd Konstantin Potekhin was very popular in our country. There are comical sequences in the film that made the audience laugh uncontrollably.

Kostya's pets: cows, sheep and piglets, hearing the familiar sounds of their shepherd's instrument, who was asked to play a little music during a dinner party, burst into the main hall and committed a grandiose pogrom there. Animals, even those that belong to livestock, are quite intelligent creatures, distinguish well and always follow a familiar sound, so many shepherds used to skillfully play folk wind instruments, as this greatly helped them in their work. The shepherds held special respect for the pipe, horn and zhaleika - an ancient Russian folk instrument, originally used in funeral rites in Rus'. Its interesting name comes either from the word pity, or from the word to regret.

Read the history of the pity and many interesting facts about this musical instrument on our page.

Sound

The sound of the pitiful can be described by such words as loud, shrill, assertive and even noisy. It is practically devoid of overtones and is almost incapable of dynamic shades. The timbre of the instrument has a pitiful and slightly nasal tone.

The sound of the instrument is the result of the vibration of the reed, which occurs under the influence of the air blown in by the performer.

The zhaleika, which generally has a diatonic scale, can also be chromatic.

The range of the instrument, depending on the number of sound holes, is very small and includes only one octave.

Playing the pity is not easy, since accurate intonation on the instrument requires great skill from the performer.

Photo:

Interesting Facts

• The zhaleika is probably the only instrument that has so many names in one country. It is called duda, fletlet, pishelka, keychain, sipovka, zhalomeyka, pishik, ladushka or simply a horn.
• The sound of the pity is so loud that it can be heard six kilometers away.
• In Rus', a shepherd in a village was considered a very important person, whom everyone respected. He got up before everyone else at first light and played the wake-up call on his instrument. Passing by a house, the shepherd performed a certain tune, the hostess, hearing him, knew that it was time for her to drive out the cow.
• The best performers at the zhaleyka in Russia were not professional musicians, but shepherds.
• The shepherd, having played his instrument, could easily gather the animals. Even a lost cow could find its way back to the herd by the sound of a familiar instrument.
• An entire generation of Soviet pop fans remembers well the name of the wonderful singer Valentina Vasilievna Tolkunova. In the artist’s very diverse repertoire there were two very popular songs in which the ancient Russian instrument zhaleika was depicted in a very poetic way.

Design

The rather simple design of the pity includes a tube, a bell and a mouthpiece (pischik).

• The tube, the length of which varies from 10 to 20 cm, has a cylindrical shape. If earlier shepherds used mainly reed reed, willow, maple and elderberry to make it, today the material used is very diverse. This is apple wood, mahogany, as well as ebonite and aluminum. There are usually 3 to 7 sound holes on the tube barrel.
• The bell, which acts as a resonator, is attached to the lower end of the tube. For the most part, it is made from cow horn or birch bark. The junction of the pipe and the horn is usually decorated with a ring, which is usually made of brass.
• The mouthpiece, called the pike, is located at the top of the instrument. This is a small tube of a certain size and shape, made of wood, ebonite, metal or plastic. A single cane (tongue) made of reeds or thin plastic is attached to the pika using two so-called cambrics.

Varieties

The zhaleika family is very diverse and includes instruments that vary in size, pitch, tuning and design.

Zhaleiki, differing in size and pitch: piccolo, soprano, alto and bass.

Tools that differ in design are the keychain and the double sting.

The keychain, unlike the pity, has a softer sound, since the bell is made not of cow horn, but of birch bark, and instead of a single tongue, a double one is used.

A double jig is a tool whose design consists of two tools joined together. It is possible to perform two-voice melodies on a double pity.

Story

Today, unfortunately, we cannot trace the history of the pity from the very beginning of its emergence. Wind instruments have existed on Russian soil since time immemorial. In the era of Kievan Rus, they were used without fail in military affairs: they notified of danger by making so-called protective sounds, and also pleased the princes at feasts and amused the common people at festive festivities. Unfortunately, no one gives us an accurate description of the instruments played by our ancestors, and even in ancient chronicles there is almost no mention of them.

We also know very little about the pity; we have only received information that she was an indispensable participant in funeral rites called “pity.” Perhaps it is because of this everyday custom that the instrument has such a strange name. Also, the pity was very loved by shepherds, who used it not only in their direct work, but also to amuse people at various holidays. In addition, the instrument was in demand among amusing people popular in Rus' in the 15-17th centuries - buffoons, whose performances were very loved by the common people. However, the performances of these traveling artists often contained caustic attacks on secular and ecclesiastical authorities, causing them serious discontent. As a result, buffoons in the mid-17th century during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov were subjected to disgrace and persecution, and their instruments were mercilessly destroyed as the product of demonic forces. Russian national musical culture was then dealt a strong blow, and it suffered great losses. But, nevertheless, the shepherd's pity continued to sound and traditionally greeted the first rays of the rising sun with its sound.

The era of revival of interest in national culture occurred at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Thanks to real patriots, including V. Andreev, N. Privalov, O. Smolensky, G. Lyubimov and other enthusiasts, many Russian folk instruments received a second life. They were not only restored, but significantly improved, and then included in the first orchestra of Russian folk instruments under the direction of V. Andreev. The zhaleika, or, to be more precise, its variety, the keychain, has also undergone some changes and has also found its rightful place in the orchestra. The keychain, unlike the zhaleika, had a softer sound, since it was made entirely of bredina, a type of willow tree, hence the name of the instrument. The improvement of the pity continued; in the workshops of musical instruments created in Moscow by G.P. Lyubimov, an ethnographer, musician, performer and conductor, an attempt was made to create an instrument with a chromatic tuning. Later he became a soloist of the Great Russian Orchestra under the direction of V. Andreev O.U. Smolensky, a guslar and a psaltist, designed instruments of various sizes: piccolo, soprano, alto and bass, which were subsequently used in the psaltery quartet, and then in the famous “horn-player choirs.” Today, the pity is used very rarely as a solo instrument; its sound is mainly used in orchestras of Russian folk instruments, as well as ensembles performing folk music.

Recently, attention to ancient Russian folk wind instruments, including the zhaleika, has been constantly increasing. Many musicians are passionately trying to master the art of playing them. This trend suggests that interest in national culture is growing, and with it in the musical instruments played by our ancestors. Ancient folk wind instruments will not only not be forgotten, but the performing arts on them will also be preserved.

Video: listen to the pity

Zhaleika is an old Russian folk wind wooden musical instrument - a wooden, reed or cattail tube with a bell made of horn or birch bark.

A shepherdess in a green meadow
He made himself a horn from birch bark,
And plays from dawn to dusk,
Even at night the nightingales sing along.

A song flows about how by the river
The girls sat down to weave wreaths for themselves.
And one is so incredibly good
What troubled the shepherd's soul?

And now he can neither sleep nor eat,
And only the sad ringing of songs flows.
Thoughts in my head, and only everything about her,
There is no one in the world dearer to him.

The girl has dark blue eyes,
With a bright bow her blond braid,
You hear, hear, beauty, the horn,
The shepherd plays a song for you.

Zhaleika is the name of a folk wind musical instrument belonging to the reed group. This is a traditional shepherd's instrument. Zhaleika was used mainly by residents of Smolensk, Voronezh, Kursk, Pskov, Tver, Novgorod, as well as Moscow, Ryazan and Tula regions. According to its design, the stings are divided into single and double (paired). This instrument is called differently in the regions of Russia; single - horn" (Kursk region); ladusha" (Gorky region); ,pischik"(Belgorod region); ,sipovka"(Penza region); double - doubles" (Vladimir region); zhalankas" (Ryazan region); , canes" (Penza region)

Two-part pity

The principle of sound production is the same for all pity bugs: it is the vibration of the squeaker tongue.
The word, Zhaleika" is not found in any ancient Russian written monument. The first mention of zhaleika dates back to the end of the 18th century. There is reason to assume that zhaleika was present before that in the guise of another instrument. The origin of the word, zhaleika" has not been established. The scale of the instrument is diatonic, the range depends on the number of playing holes. The timbre of the pitiful woman is shrill and nasal, sad and pitiful. They play tunes of different genres on the penny alone, in duets, or in ensembles.

In a number of regions, the zhaleika, like the Vladimir horn, is called the “shepherd’s horn.” As a result, when a written source speaks of a “shepherd’s horn,” we cannot know exactly what instrument we are talking about.

The scale of the instrument is diatonic, the range depends on the number of playing holes. The timbre of the pitiful woman is shrill and nasal, sad and pitiful. The instrument was used as a shepherd's instrument; tunes of different genres were played on it alone, in duets, and in ensembles.

A double pitty consists of two tubes of equal length with playing holes, folded side by side and inserted into one common bell. The number of playing holes for paired pity pipes is different; as a rule, there are more of them on the melodic pipe than on the echoing one.

They play both pipes at the same time, extracting sound either from both at once, or from each pipe separately in turn. Paired zhaleiki are used for one-voice and two-voice playing. Single stingers are common mainly in the northern regions of Russia, and double ones - in the southern regions.

In the Tver province, shepherds made zhaleiki from willow, locally called nonsense, which is why zhaleyki there began to be called “trinkets.” The entire body of the keychain consisted of wood, which is why its sound was softer.

In 1900, V.V. Andreev introduced an improved type of pity into his orchestra, which he called a keychain. In its appearance, this pity is similar to the folk one; it has a double reed of the oboe type. In addition to the usual playing holes, it has additional ones with valves that allow you to obtain a chromatic scale.

Once upon a time, pity was widespread throughout Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania. Nowadays it can be seen, perhaps, only in orchestras of Russian folk instruments

Making stingers from reeds

Firstly, we need material, that is, reeds. Don’t confuse it with cattail, we don’t need it at all!

The word “reed” refers to many plants, including cattails, reeds, and the so-called “nunts”. We need common reed - a perennial grass, from 1 to 4 meters in height, with panicle inflorescences. It has a hollow, geniculate stem. Reed grows along the marshy shores of lakes and rivers, in swamps.

So, we take a backpack, a knife, put on waterproof shoes and go for the reed (for dry (!) reed). Get ready for the fact that your crazy hands can turn into crazy legs, as you will have to walk for a long time. Once in the thicket of this plant, it is necessary, as Kozma Prutkov bequeathed, to look at the root, since it is at the bottom, near the soil, that the thickest knees are located. We are interested in elbows with a diameter of 7 mm and a length of 15 cm. If you are planning to make a pity, you will also need birch bark from a fallen birch tree (it is easier to remove the bark from it, and in general you need to protect nature!). Now that you have collected a lot of suitable material and warmed up your cold limbs, let’s begin processing it and making a pipe. We need the following tools - a sharp knife, a round or semicircular file (if you have one, if not, no problem), a long stick (you can take the rod from a pen, etc.) and a match.

First, you need to clear the leaves from the reed. Then we separate the knees strictly at the joint!

Since we are consumed by impatience, we do the simplest option. Take a suitable knee (diameter 7 mm, length 15 cm).

We saw off at the break point (you can use a jigsaw).

Take a needle file or a sharpened match and pierce the membrane.

Inside, the reed stem is covered with a thin film that must be removed. To do this, we take a long stick and clean it inside with back-and-forth movements, and then blow out the barrel. Using a sharp knife, remove a thin layer from the edge where the membrane is.

Here you will understand for the first time why you need a whole bag of reeds. A tongue will appear in the cleaned area. The thicker it is, the more force will have to be applied to make it vibrate. The thinner, the more likely it is to stick. The pitch of the sound depends on the length, thickness and width of the reed. The tongue is the main part of the pipe! We make the tongue approximately 2.5 cm long and 4 mm wide. Like this.

Now you can try to extract the first sounds. Does not work? You may have positioned the pipe incorrectly in your mouth. The tube should go quite deep into the mouth in order to allow the tongue (not yours, but the pipe) to vibrate. You must close the hole in the membrane with your tongue. Let's try again. If it works, then you’re great! If the pipe does not sound and air does not even pass through, then the tongue is stuck. We take a linen thread and slip it under it like this.

After this procedure, the sound will definitely appear. Now how to make playing holes. We take a knife and cut according to the following pattern: 1st 3 cm from the edge, 2nd 3 cm from the first, 3rd 1.5 cm from the second, 4th 3 cm from the third. The diameter of the holes is approximately 5 mm. Four holes are enough. In our century there has hardly been a greater scale than tone-tone-semitone-tone. Now you can play and have fun! For those who want to get a little more confused, there is birch bark left. We cut it into strips, coat the edges with glue (as your conscience will allow) and twist the horn. We make a blank pipe with a tongue, but without holes, and attach the horn to it, but not with glue yet. It turns out to be pathetic!

If you are going to build a pity for a certain key, then you have unlimited possibilities - a whole bag of reeds! The pitch of the instrument will depend in this case on:

• instrument length with horn
• tongue
• the force with which you blow

We have already written about the tongue above. Length: The longer the instrument, the lower the sound and vice versa. Tuning is carried out with the horn on. If the sound is low, trim the reed; if it is higher, wind birch bark onto the horn. Having caught the desired note (and this is very difficult to do, because the tongue gets wet and begins to lower, and sometimes stick), we begin to cut holes. They are made according to the same scheme as in a simple pipe. We cut through the first one and adjust it. If it is low, we cut it closer to the tongue, if it is high, to the horn. Having set up the first playing hole, we do all the others in the same way. The holes can be sawed with a semicircular needle file, or even better, burned. It is quite difficult to achieve precise settings, so you will have to “blow” with your breath. The harder you blow, the faster the tongue vibrates, i.e. the sound is higher, but the degree of sticking increases. But you don’t have to rack your brains, but tell others that you have a pathetic untempered system, which is quite historical! True, if you intend to play together with the gusli, they will have to be adjusted to suit you.

The existence of this type of instrument has been proven ethnographically, and its existence in the 9th-11th centuries. seems very likely, because The simplicity of making the hornless version allows you to make a pipe even for a child.