Who are buffoons? Buffoons: the history of the emergence of the phenomenon of buffoonery and its musical features Communication of the art of buffoons in Rus'.

Buffoons appeared in Ancient Rus' as itinerant actors, singers, performers of skits, acrobats, wits. Vladimir Dal characterizes buffoons as "thriving in dancing with songs, jokes and tricks."

Buffoons are popular as characters of Russian folklore, heroes folk sayings: “Every buffoon has his own hoots”, “Don’t teach me to dance, I’m a buffoon myself”, “Buffoon fun, Satan’s joy”, “God gave the priest, damn buffoon”, “Buffoon ass is not a comrade”, etc.

The exact appearance of buffoons in Rus' is unknown, but in the original Russian chronicle one can find a mention of buffoons as participants in princely fun. In ancient manuscripts, there are many testimonies about buffoons as gifted storytellers and actors.

For their trade in Rus', buffoons gathered in the so-called squads and roamed the world in organized bands. It is believed that the art of buffoons settled in the everyday life of the Russian folk life already in the 11th century. Since that time, the art of buffoons has taken on an independent development, taking into account local conditions and the nature of the Russian people.

In addition to wandering buffoons, there were sedentary buffoons (princely and boyar), thanks to which a folk comedy appeared. For a long time, puppet comedy has been shown in Rus'. They were especially popular here. puppet characters a bear and a goat beating spoons. Later, buffoons-puppeteers presented household tales and songs to the people. In Russian epics, you can also find a mention of buffoons. Here they gained fame as folk musicians.

Village holidays and fairs could not do without buffoons. They also penetrated the church rituals. Actually, buffoons gave performances of two types of arts - dramatic and circus. There is information that in 1571 there was a recruitment of "merry people" for the amusement of the state. And in the 17th century, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich created the Amusement Chamber, which included a troupe of buffoons. In the same period, the troupes of buffoons were also among the princes Dmitry Pozharsky and Ivan Shuisky. The "court" buffoons in Rus' remained at a limited level, as a result, their functions were reduced to the role of domestic jesters.

Among the Russian buffoons there was a significant number of folk mercenaries. They were engaged in the so-called "demonic" craft. They wore short-brimmed clothes and masks at a time when in Rus' it was considered a sin. By their behavior, buffoons opposed the generally accepted way of Rus'. Approximately in the middle of the 17th century, wandering buffoons gradually ceased their activities, and settled ones were transformed into musicians of the Western European type. From now on creative activity buffoons ends, although some of its species continue to live among the people for a certain period of time.

Buffoons are healers and performers of ritual songs that remained after the Baptism of Rus' by Vladimir. They wandered around the cities and towns and sang ancient pagan songs, knew a lot about sorcery, were playful hypocrites. On occasion, they could heal the sick, they could tell how with good advice, and they also entertained the people with songs, dances and jokes.

IN literary monuments XI century, there is already a mention of buffoons as people who combined the qualities of such representatives artistic activity as singers, musicians, actors, dancers, storytellers, acrobats, conjurers, jokers and dramatic actors.

The buffoons used such things as twin pipes, tambourines and psaltery, wooden pipes and Pan's flute. But the harp is considered the main instrument of buffoons, because they are depicted in different historical monuments in the context of musical and buffoon creativity, for example, on frescoes, in book miniatures, and also sung in epics.

Together with the harp, the authentic “beep” instrument was often used, which consisted of a soundboard that had a pear shape; the instrument had 3 strings, two of which were bourdon, and one played a melody. Also buffoons played snots - longitudinal whistle flutes. It is interesting that sniffles and psaltery in ancient Russian literature often opposed to the trumpet, which was used to gather warriors for battle.

In addition to buffoons, next to the harp, the image of a gray-haired (often blind) old man was also mentioned, who sang epics and legends about past deeds, about exploits, glory and the divine. It is known that such singers were in Veliky Novgorod and Kyiv - and have come down to us.

Parallel among European musical-sacred currents

Similarly to the buffoons, there were musicians and singers in other countries - these are jugglers, rhapsodists, spiermans, bards and many others.

The Celts had a social stratum - bards, they were the singers of the ancients, people who knew the secret and were revered by the rest, as they were considered messengers of the gods. A bard is the first of three steps to becoming a druid, the highest in the spiritual hierarchy. The intermediate link was the phyla, who were also singers (according to some sources), but took a great part in public life, in the arrangement of the state.

The Scandinavians had skalds who had great power to burn the hearts of people with a verb and music, but music was not their main occupation, they cultivated the fields, fought and lived as ordinary people.

The extinction of the tradition of buffoonery

The church actively persecuted buffoons, and their musical instruments were burned at the stake. For the church, they were outlaws, remnants of the old faith that needed to be weeded out like a weed, so buffoons were persecuted and physically destroyed by the Orthodox clergy.

After certain punitive measures, the pagan musicians were completely exterminated, but we still have songs that were transmitted orally, we still have legends and images of funny guslars. And who were they really? - We do not know, but the main thing is that thanks to these singers, we have left grains of sacred memory.

From time immemorial in Rus', the people of buffoons have amused. There are many wonderful legends about them in folklore. So, near the village of Shapkino, near Mozhaisk, there is a mysterious place - Zamri-mountain, on which buffoon gatherings took place several centuries ago. They say that real miracles could be observed there these days ... A well-known historian, ethnographer and traveler Andrei Sinelnikov told our correspondents about this.

Secrets of Freeze Mountain

- Andrey, tell us what Zamri-mountain is famous for.

- Firstly, it is the highest point of the Moscow region. So to speak, the top of the Smolensk-Moscow Upland. Secondly, not far from Zamri Gora, the Moscow, Protva and Koloch rivers originate. The watershed of the basins of the Baltic and Black Seas is also located there.

In ancient times, almost no one lived in these places. But even then there were rumors about Zamri-mountain. Today it is just a big hill. However, in the past, according to residents of the nearby villages of Uvarovka and Khvashchevka, it was actually a mountain. Then she either sank or shrunk, and nothing was left of her but her name.

The name of the mountain is due to the fact that once a year, on Ivan Kupala, buffoons organized their holiday here. On this day, they came here from all over Rus' and performed their mysterious rites at the top.

- Did the buffoons have their own rituals? Please tell us more!

— In pagan times, there was a cult of the god Troyan, who patronized buffoons. According to ancient legend, Troyan once traveled from warm countries to the north and sat down to rest by a large hill ... Suddenly he felt sad, because he had only gone half way, and was tired, as if he had gone all the way ... And then, out of nowhere, appeared before his eyes funny company colorfully dressed people who danced, sang, whistled ... All night long they amused Troyan, and as a reward for this, at dawn, when the dancing ended, the pleased god treated the merry fellows with southern wine and said: “Grapes do not grow in your lands, but there are many honey. Your honey sweeter than any berries, and cook “pouring fun” from it. Then Troyan took out a silver mask from his bosom and handed it to the leader of the buffoons, promising that this mask would drive away any evil from them and punish anyone who plots evil against them ... Subsequently, the mask turned out to have another feature - with its help, any buffoon could change your appearance and voice...

The Troyan went on his way, and the buffoons hid a valuable gift on the top of Zamri-mountain. And since then, once a year, on Ivan Kupala, when, according to ancient beliefs, day is equal to night, and fire and water purify a person, they came there to perform their rituals in honor of Troyan ...

"Mountain, grow!"

Is this just a legend, or did someone really observe the rites of buffoons?

“Now, of course, there is nothing like this, but the old people said that before the revolution, buffoons from all over Mother Russia really flocked here. They kindled bonfires at the top and performed various rituals: they jumped through the fire, doused themselves with night and dawn water, danced, and also burned and drowned effigies of their enemies in the river ...

And then they allegedly began to dance and sing a song, calling: "Mountain, grow!". And after a while, the mountain really began to grow! When its peak was already hidden behind the clouds, one of the buffoons said: “Mountain, freeze!”. And she froze ... At the same moment, a spring began to beat on its top. According to legend, its water, if you bathe in it, gave wisdom to young buffoons, youth to the old, healing to the sick ... And also cleansed from all evil eyes and spoilage ...

Just before dawn, the main sacrament came - the main buffoon took out a silver mask from the hiding place, lifted it up, read the plot, and after that the mask went from hand to hand. Each of those present tried it on for themselves, while some asked to change their appearance, others - their voice, others - to punish their enemies ... And the mask gave everyone what they wanted. With the first rays of the sun, the Troyans' gift was again hidden in a hiding place, and the tired buffoons fell asleep. The mountain slowly descended and by morning again became a hill.

- But after all, buffoons were just jesters and hypocrites, and here it turns out that they are some kind of magicians ...

“Maybe wizards… Take, for example, a deck of Tarot cards. It is believed that the system of divination using these cards arose in medieval Europe based on Hebrew Kabbalism, which, in turn, relied on an even earlier occult tradition ancient egypt. Our playing cards This is a truncated version of the full Tarot deck. The very first card in a full deck depicts young man standing in the garden with his right hand raised up, in which a magic wand is clamped. It is called Mage or Wizard. In modern decks, sometimes - Magician. So, in the Tarot decks that were in circulation in European Middle Ages and in Russia before the revolution, it was called the Jester!

Artels, squads, gangs ...

- And how did buffoons appear in Rus'?

“I had to study this issue a lot. I believe that buffoons were indeed priests of the pagan cult of the god Troyan. In Veliky Novgorod, this three-headed winged deity was revered under the name Lizard-Veles-Svarog. But much more it is known in folklore like the Serpent Gorynych. He also had other names. However, being a very resourceful deity, closely associated with cunning and deceit, Troyan apparently also performed the function of the patron of merchants and thieves, like the crafty ancient Roman god Mercury and the ancient Greek Hermes.

Most likely, the persecution of Troyan began under Prince Vladimir the Red Sun, before the introduction of Christianity in Rus'. Everywhere the idols of this deity on the temples were defeated and replaced by images of the god of thunder and lightning Perun. The priests of the cult were faced with the task of survival. And the solution was soon found.

In 988, the Baptism of Rus' takes place, and in 1068 the first mention of buffoons is found in the annals. They wandered around Rus' in artels (at that time they were called squads) of several people, sometimes united in gangs of up to 70-100 people, had neither property nor family ... As far as one can judge, "cultural and entertainment" activities were just a cover for them.

"God gave the priest, and the devil - buffoon"

- What were they really doing?

- Sorcery! They walked around Rus' and “ruled the world”, healed, predicted the future, performed youth initiation rites, sacraments associated with marriage, and many other rituals. The "acting troupe" often included a learned bear. But the bear among the ancient Slavs has long been revered as a sacred animal! Among other things, he was also a participant in many magical rites. Here is just one example. In a young peasant family, the birth of a male child, support for parents in old age was considered very important ... For this, as our ancestors believed, the expectant mother had to touch the bear. And you could find it with buffoons! Much later, when the buffoons were gone, for the same purpose, Russian women put a toy bear, ceramic or wooden, under the pillow ...

On certain days of the year, buffoons gathered in the places of the former Troyan temples, performed their rituals and dispersed to wander further. Of course, this side of their activities could not remain a secret. Power - secular and spiritual - took up arms against them. "God gave the priest, and the devil - a buffoon" - such winged saying lived in Rus'. It became dangerous to wander along the dusty roads under the guise of buffoons, and then it was decided to choose a new disguise. And they went along the same roads from village to village, from fair to fair, ofeni-peddler, walkers-lotoshers ...

What about Freeze Mountain? Perhaps, still somewhere in a secret place, a magical silver mask that grants wishes is kept on it. But for a long time no buffoon dances have happened on the top of the mountain, so the mask does not show its strength to anyone ...

buffoons (skomrahi, fools, goosemen, gamers, dancers, funny people) - wandering actors in ancient Rus', who acted as singers, wits, musicians, performers of skits, trainers, acrobats. According to the dictionary of V. Dahl, a buffoon is “a musician, a piper, a snorter, a horn player, a piper, a harper; earning this, and dancing, songs, jokes, tricks; joker, whacker, gaer, jester; bear cub; comedian, actor, etc.

Buffoons were carriers of synthetic forms folk art that connected singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, bear fun, puppet shows, performances in masks, magic tricks. Buffoons were constant participants in folk festivals, games, festivities, various ceremonies: wedding, maternity, baptism, funeral. “The buffoons combined in their art the skill of performance with a topical repertoire, which included comic songs, dramatic scenes - games, social satire - slander performed in masks and a “buffoon dress” to the accompaniment of domra, sniffles, bagpipes, surnas, tambourines. The buffoons directly communicated with the audience, with the street crowd, involved in the game.

Known since the 11th century. They gained particular popularity in the 15th-17th centuries. They were persecuted by ecclesiastical and civil authorities.

F. N. Riess. Buffoons in the village. 1857

Etymology

There is no exact explanation of the etymology of the word "buffoon". There are various versions of the origin of this word:

• "Skomorokh" - re-registration of the Greek. skōmmarchos "master of a joke", reconstructed from the addition of skōmma "joke, mockery" and archos "chief, leader".
• From Arab. mascara - "joke, jester."

According to N. Ya. Marr, "buffoon", according to the historical grammar of the Russian language - plural the word "skomorosi" (skomrasi), which goes back to the Proto-Slavic forms. In turn, the Proto-Slavic word has an Indo-European root common to all European languages- "scomors-os", which was originally called a wandering musician, dancer, comedian. From here come the names of folk comic characters: the Italian "scaramuccia" (Italian scaramuccia) and the French "scaramouche" (French scaramouche).

A. P. Vasnetsov. Buffoons. 1904.

Rise, rise and fall

Buffoons arose no later than the middle of the 11th century, we can judge this from the frescoes of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, 1037. Buffoonery flourished in the 15th-17th centuries. In the 18th century, buffoons began to gradually disappear under pressure from the tsar and the church, leaving some traditions of their art as a legacy to booths and districts.

Buffoons - wandering musicians

Buffoons performed on the streets and squares, constantly communicated with the audience, involved them in their performance.

In the XVI-XVII centuries, buffoons began to unite in "troops". The church and the state accused them of committing robberies: “buffoons, “combining in gangs of up to 60, up to 70 and up to 100 people,” in the villages of the peasants, “they eat and drink heavily and rob their stomachs from the cages and smash people along the roads.” At the same time, in the oral poetry of the Russian people there is no image of a buffoon-robber robbing the common people.

Buffoons in Moscow

In the work of Adam Olearius, the secretary of the Holstein embassy, ​​who visited Muscovy three times in the 30s of the 17th century, we find evidence of a wave of general searches in the homes of Muscovites in order to identify "demonic buzzing vessels" - musical instruments of buffoons - and their destruction.

At home, especially during their feasts, Russians love music. But since they began to abuse it, singing to music in taverns, taverns and everywhere on the streets all sorts of shameful songs, the current patriarch two years ago at first strictly forbade the existence of such tavern musicians and their instruments, which would come across on the streets, ordered to immediately break and destroy, and then generally banned all kinds of Russian instrumental music, ordering to take away musical instruments in houses everywhere, which were taken out ... on five wagons across the Moscow River and burned there.

— Detailed description travels of the Holstein embassy to Muscovy ... - M., 1870 - p. 344.

In 1648 and 1657, Archbishop Nikon achieved royal decrees on the complete prohibition of buffoonery, which spoke of beating buffoons and their listeners with batogs, and destroying buffoon equipment. After that, "professional" buffoons disappeared, but the traditions of buffoonery were preserved in traditional culture Eastern Slavs, influenced the composition of epic stories (Sadko, Dobrynya, disguised as a buffoon at the wedding of his wife, etc.), customs of disguise, folk theater("Tsar Maximilian"), wedding and calendar folklore.

Over time, buffoons turned into bear cubs, puppeteers, fair merrymakers and showmen.

Musicians and buffoons. Draw from the fresco of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. 1037

Repertoire and creativity

The repertoire of buffoons consisted of comic songs, plays, social satires ("glum"), performed in masks and "buffoon dress" to the accompaniment of a beep, gusel, pity, domra, bagpipes, tambourine. Each character was assigned a certain character and mask, which did not change for years.

In their work there was a significant proportion of satire, humor, buffoonery. Buffoons are credited with participating in the composition of the epic "Vavilo and Buffoons", ballads of a satirical and comic nature (for example, "Guest Terentishche"), fairy tales, proverbs. The art of buffoons was associated with ancient paganism, free from church influence, imbued with a "worldly" spirit, cheerful and mischievous, with elements of "obscenity".

During the performance, the buffoon communicated directly with the public and often represented merchants, governors, and representatives of the church as satirical characters.

In addition to public holidays, weddings and homelands, buffoons, as connoisseurs of traditions, were also invited to funerals.

There is no doubt that here the buffoons, despite their comical nature, dared to come to the sad zhalniks from the old memory of some once understandable rite of commemoration with dances and games. There is no doubt that the people allowed them to visit the graves and did not consider it indecent to be carried away by their songs and games, according to the same old memory.

- Belyaev I. About buffoons // Vremennik of the Society of History and Russian Antiquities - M., 1854 Book. 20

Adam Olearius. Puppeteer. 1643

Church attitude

Most of the church, and then, under the influence of the church and state testimonies, are imbued with the spirit of intolerance for folk amusements with songs, dances, jokes, the soul of which was often buffoons. Such holidays were called "stingy", "demonic", "blameless". The teachings were repeated from century to century, borrowed from Byzantium, distributed there from the first centuries of Christianity, censure and prohibition of music, singing, dancing, dressing up in comic, satyr or tragic faces, horse dancing and other folk entertainments, in Byzantium closely associated with pagan traditions, with pagan cults. Byzantine views were transferred to Russian circumstances, only some expressions of Byzantine originals were sometimes altered, omitted or replenished, according to the conditions of Russian life.

Cyril, Metropolitan of Kiev (1243-50) - among the ordeals he calls "dancing in feasts ... and satanic fables whimperingly." In the Word of the Christ-lover (according to a manuscript of the 15th century), demonic games are called at feasts (and weddings), but these games are: dancing, buzzing, songs, snuffles, tambourines. According to the “Charter for the Great Lent” (from the Dubno collection of rules and teachings of the 16th century), “sin is a feast to create with dancing and laughter on fasting days.” The Domostroy (XVI century) speaks of a meal accompanied by the sounds of music, dancing and mockery: as the smoke will drive away the bees, so the angels of God will depart from that meal and stinking demons will appear.

In the royal charter of 1648, it is ordered that buffoons with domras, and with harps, and with bagpipes, and with all sorts of games, “do not call to your house.” “You will learn ... the worldly people of those buffoons (with harps, domras, surns and bagpipes) and bear leaders with bears to let them into their homes” (we read in “Memory of Metropolitan Jonah”, 1657).

Dancer and buffoon Lubok

Proverbs and sayings

• Everyone will dance, but not like a buffoon.
• Don't teach me how to dance, I'm a buffoon myself.
• Every buffoon has his horns.
• Skomorokhov's wife is always cheerful.
• A buffoon will tune his voice on the whistle, but he will not suit his life.
• And the buffoon sometimes cries.
• Buffoon ass is not a friend.
• God gave the priest, damn buffoon.

Valery Gavrilin. Oratorio "Buffoons" (fragments)

Poems by Vadim Korostylev and folk.
Perform Eduard Khil And symphony orchestras under the direction of A. Badkhen and S. Gorkovenko.

Gavrilin: In "Skomorokhi" there are samples that come directly from folk peasant creativity. For me, the people themselves were represented as a huge, cheerful buffoon, who laughed through his tears. Visible laughter through invisible tears. And then all the people who one way or another showed the world some kind of discovery of the truth turn into buffoons. These are portraits of composers Modest Mussorgsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, my teacher and friend Georgy Sviridov.”

At the mention of the word buffoon, the first image that arises in the head is a brightly painted face, ridiculous disproportionate clothes and an obligatory cap with bells. If you think about it, you can imagine next to a buffoon some musical instrument, like a balalaika or a harp, there is still not enough bear on the chain. However, such an idea is quite justified, because back in the fourteenth century, a monk-scribe from Novgorod depicted buffoons in the margins of his manuscript.

True buffoons in Rus' were known and loved in many cities - Suzdal, Vladimir, the Moscow principality, throughout Kievan Rus. However, the buffoons lived most freely and at ease in Novgorod and the Novgorod regions. Here, no one punished the merry fellows for unnecessarily long and caustic language. The buffoons danced beautifully, provoking the people, excellently played the bagpipes, psaltery, pounded wooden spoons and tambourines, blew horns. The people called buffoons "merry fellows", composed stories, proverbs and fairy tales about them.

However, despite the fact that the people were friendly towards buffoons, the more noble strata of the population - princes, clergy and boyars, did not tolerate cheerful scoffers. Maybe this was due precisely to the fact that the buffoons ridiculed them with pleasure, translating the most unseemly deeds of the nobility into songs and jokes and exposing common people for ridicule.

Buffoon art developed rapidly and soon buffoons not only danced and sang, but also became actors, acrobats, jugglers. Buffoons began to perform with trained animals, arrange puppet shows. However, the more the buffoons ridiculed the princes and deacons, the more the persecution of this art intensified. Soon, even in Novgorod, the "merry fellows" could not feel calm, the city began to lose its freedom and liberty. Novgorod buffoons began to be oppressed throughout the country, some of them were buried in remote places near Novgorod, someone left for Siberia.

A buffoon is not just a buffoon or a clown, he is a person who understood social problems, and in his songs and jokes ridiculed human vices. For this, by the way, persecution began on buffoons in the era late medieval. The laws of that time prescribed buffoons to be beaten to death immediately upon meeting, and they could not pay off the execution. Now it doesn't seem strange that gradually
all the buffoons in Rus' have vanished, and instead of them wandering jesters from other countries have appeared. English buffoons were called vagrants, German buffoons were called spielmans, and French and Italian buffoons were called jongers. The art of wandering musicians in Rus' has changed a lot, but inventions such as puppet show, jugglers and trained animals remained. Just like the immortal ditties and epic tales that the buffoons composed remained.