Gusli. History of the ancient instrument

... The bowstring rang,

Arrow shot...

Gusli. History of the ancient instrument

Gusli is an ancient musical instrument. Thousands of years of human history have hidden from us both the age and place of their birth. In different countries and among different peoples, this instrument was called differently. Among the Slavs, the name of this instrument, I think, is associated with the sound of a bowstring. The same string that was pulled over the bow.

In ancient times, the elastic bow string was called differently - "gusla". Here is one of the hypotheses for the origin of the name of the instrument. And by attaching a hollow vessel to a string, we get a primitive musical instrument. So: strings and a resonator that amplifies their sound is the main principle of this plucked instrument.

In the Old Russian manuscript, “The Tale of a Belarusian Man and Monasticism”, the miniaturist depicted in the letter “D” the figure of the king (possibly the psalmist David) playing the harp. Their form corresponds to the instrument that existed in those days in Russia. These are the so-called "helmet-like" harps. The shape of their body really resembles a helmet. Subsequently, the shape of the flat resonator box changed. Trapezoidal gusli appeared. The number of strings on the instrument has decreased, and the shape of the body has also changed. So the winged gusli appeared.

Back in the 9th century, the Slavs surprised the kings of Byzantium with the harp. In those distant times, the psaltery was made from dugout dry boards of spruce or maple. Maple "Yavor" is especially loved by music masters. This is where the name of the harp comes from - “Yarovchatye”. / And as soon as the strings began to be pulled from metal, the harp rang and began to be called “voiced”.

The fate of this instrument has long been associated with the folk song and epic tradition. For centuries, craftsmen have passed on the secrets of making gusli. Goose tunes, songs of singers, were loved by both the people and the kings. But often folk singers sang unflatteringly about the authorities.

... About the will, about the share, the epic will sing,
And the heart will call to the free will, will call.
Grandees and kings reared with great malice,
So that in Russia vagabonds guslyars will appear.
But the sonorous harp sang, and their harmony was harsh,
And there were violent riots from the songs of the guslars.
I. Kobzev
These persecutions of the harpists (this is how the word sounds correctly), or, as the harpists began to be called disparagingly, did an unkind service to the fate of the instrument. Interest in his improvement was not the same as he was in the fate of the violin. But time has changed this ancient instrument. Its design, body shape, wood processing technology, varnishes, decorative finishes - all this has long removed the harp from the category of an archaic, purely folk instrument, turning it into a stage professional instrument with a rich and unique sound.

Today, every orchestra of folk instruments includes a plucked harp - a table-shaped harp and a keyboard harp. The sound of these instruments gives the orchestra a unique flavor of ancient goose chimes.

Currently, interest in the harp has grown markedly. Modern harp players appeared - storytellers who set out to recreate the ancient tradition of both playing the harp and singing to the harp. Along with three types of plucked harps, the main technique of playing which is plucking and rattling, keyboard harps also appeared. The mechanics installed on them, when you press the keys, open the strings, and makes it possible to select the desired chord. This greatly simplifies playing the harp as an accompanying instrument.

Unfortunately, if you want to buy an instrument, you have to talk about small workshops in Russia where the harp is very rarely made as separate copies. In the whole world, it seems to me, there is not a single factory where this unique instrument would be produced. The money is used for anything: wild entertainment, wars, pleasures... The diversion of funds for the manufacture of at least one ground-to-air combat missile would be more than enough to build a small music factory. How sad and painful it is to realize today. But ... the harp sounds and will sound forever!

In the article we will analyze the meaning of the word gusli, and also talk about the features of this instrument. The term has Old Slavic roots. It is associated with the word "hum". This is a Russian folk stringed plucked musical instrument of the zither type. The name is found already in the sources of the XI century. It could historically refer to a variety of musical instruments.

It should be said separately about the modern use of this term. Now the gusli is a musical instrument that is stringed, plucked and has a trapezoidal shape. Similar to citrus. Musicians who play such a musical instrument are called harpists. Details below.

Story

To understand what a harp is, you should know that it is a musical instrument, the varieties of which include zhetygen, psaltery, lyre, kithara, harp. The Iranian santur and the Armenian canon also have similarities with it. The musical harp was used by the heroes of the epic Russian epic: Nightingale Budimirovich, Dobrynya Nikitich, Sadko.

Researchers of the early twentieth century drew attention to an amazing detail. They noted the similarity of the Mari and Chuvash gusli with the drawings of the instrument we are considering on the pages of medieval Russian manuscripts. In these images, the performers hook the strings with their fingers. They hold the instrument itself on their knees. The Mari and Chuvash played in the same way at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The number of strings was not always the same. Psalter-shaped harp, according to researchers, was brought to Russia by the Greeks. The Mari and Chuvashs borrowed this instrument from the Russians. Clavier-shaped gusli were found at the beginning of the twentieth century mainly among the Russian clergy.

This instrument consists of a special rectangular resonant box, complete with a lid, which is placed on a table. A number of round cuts are made on the board - voices. A pair of concave wooden bars is attached to it. Iron pegs are screwed into one of these elements. Metal strings are wound on them.

The other bar serves to attach the strings. Clavier-shaped harps have a piano system. In this case, the strings that correspond to the black keys are placed below those that correspond to the white ones.

Notes were created for clavier-shaped harps. There was also a school, which at the beginning of the twentieth century was founded by Fyodor Kushenov-Dmitrevsky. This person is also the author of a tutorial dedicated to this instrument.

Pterygoid

Considering the question of what a harp is, it should be noted that they are yarovchatye. Historically, this type of musical instrument is the first. As a rule, such harps accompany the singer's voice or solo. They have a diatonic scale.

The winged harp is an instrument that was widespread in the 19th-20th centuries in the northwestern territories of Russia, bordering Finland, Karelia and the Baltic states. Related instruments are found there: cannel, kantele, kokles, kankles. The largest number of instruments was found by researchers in the Novgorod and Pskov regions.

Winged gusli have a variety of shapes. The strings are stretched fan-shaped and taper towards the “heel”. You can select tools that have a beveled body. It narrows as it approaches the tailpiece. The thickness of the tool varies between 4-6 centimeters, and the length does not exceed 800 mm.

A special feature here is a thin postcard - about 6-11 mm. During the game, it is used to support the left hand. After all, she quickly gets tired of hanging over the strings. This type of harp has 5-17 strings. More often they are from 6 to 9. They are tuned in accordance with the steps of the diatonic scale.

The top or bottom end strings can be tuned as bourdon strings, which constantly sound during playing. There are about twelve different methods for tuning the harp. On winged instruments, as a rule, they play by touching all the strings at once. This technique is called "rattling". Unnecessary strings are muted with the fingers of the left hand.

This is achieved by placing three or four (rarely) fingers between the strings. This approach allows you to change chords with particular speed. The blow usually comes from top to bottom. Also here you can achieve greater smoothness of the sound. To do this, strikes from the bottom up are added, equal in strength to the first. Melodies can also be played on this instrument. Sometimes techniques are used to pluck sounds with the fingers of the left hand. As a rule, it is large and unnamed.

Helmet-shaped

For a long time, historiography was dominated by the idea of ​​the ancient Russian origin of this instrument. Later, an assumption arose about borrowing this design from the peoples of the Volga region. Modern researchers who are wondering what a gusli is, and what are the features of this particular species, take a more cautious view.

At the same time, they point to a possible relationship between this instrument and the Western European psaltery. Attention should be paid to the point of view of the historian A. A. Novoselsky. In his opinion, this type of harp used in music was borrowed from Western European peoples. This is indicated by the name and resemblance to the psalterium.

Helmet-shaped harp originated in Russia in the nineteenth century. Five images of musical instruments were found in Veliky Novgorod. All depict a musician with an instrument similar to a helmet-shaped harp. Such a performer was called a buzzard.

Lyre-shaped

In music, this type of harp is also called a playing window. They were common in Ancient Russia, as well as in Poland in the XI-XIII centuries. The earliest finds came from Novgorod and the Polish city of Opole. They date back to the 11th century. Such harps in the upper part have an opening. This feature makes such finds related to other lyre-shaped structures.

Stationary

Answering the question of what a harp is, it should be noted that they are table-shaped, rectangular and clavier-like. All of them are also called stationary. They have a chromatic scale. The instrument was developed in the 16th-17th centuries on the basis of helmet-shaped and voiced harps. It also existed as a portable instrument, which was horizontally placed on the musician's knees.

Plucked

Such harps, together with keyboards, can also be called concert or academic. The range and structure here does not have pronounced features. It is the same as that of the keyboard harp. This assumes a more complex technique of the game. The strings are plucked with both hands. The left one creates the accompaniment, the melody is played by the right one.

Keyboards

Such a harp was created in 1905 by N. P. Fomin on the basis of rectangular ones. They are used by orchestras of folk instruments, mainly for playing chords, as an accompanying instrument. The performer presses the keys with his left hand, plucks the strings with a leather pick with his right hand, less often without it. The main technique of the game is arpeggio - the transition to the upper sound from the lower one.

Data

The musical instrument gusli, in essence, is a purely Russian phenomenon (if we talk about the form that we talked about above). Various Slavic peoples have instruments that have similar names. This applies to Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs. These tools are varied. They are often bowed.

In 1980-1990, in the course of frontal work by the folklore expeditions of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory, headed by Anatoly Mikhailovich Mekhnetsov, the remains of an archaic type of gusel game were revealed in the Pskov and Novgorod regions. By the way, when the Bible was translated into Russian, kinnor was called gusli.

Gusli, which you can buy from us:

ancient harp

“Goose board”, “goose board” - under this name the instrument and its components are mentioned in songs and epics: “board”, “pegs” (the name of the pegs in epics that served to “adjust” scabs, otherwise settings), strings. The body of the harp consisted of several planks, which were then assembled into a wide and flat box with a resonator cavity inside. In the old days, sycamore (a kind of maple with white wood), mountain ash, apple tree, and spruce served as material for manufacturing. The strings on the harp were tuned with the help of pegs. Five strings were installed on the body of the ancient harp.

More recently, during archaeological excavations carried out in Novgorod (1951-1962), musical instruments were also found among objects made of leather, bone, fabrics and wood in the cultural layer of the 11th century. Among the finds were details of the most ancient gusli.

Fragments of a five-stringed harp with the inscription "SLOVISHA", discovered by archaeologists in the Troitsky excavation site in the 11th century layer of Novgorod.

The main parts of the instrument were also found - the upper soundboard and the string holder. On one of the parts of the harp, the inscription "Slovisha" was carved. According to the assumptions of the researchers, perhaps this is the name of an ancient gusli and at the same time the master who made the harp. There were no holes on the top resonator deck yet.

The authentic harp of the first half of the 12th century is of particular value to archaeological excavations in Novgorod. The body of the instrument is made of a wooden bar in a more elegant form. This is a flat trough with grooves for six pegs. The left side of the instrument has a sculptural design in the form of the head and part of the body of a lizard. On the back there is an image of a lion and a bird. Ornaments on the harp testify to the pagan cults of ancient Novgorod. The material for the manufacture was birch, mountain ash, spruce wood.

From above, the cavity was closed with a spruce soundboard, which intensifies their sound. In the lower part there was a round roller, the so-called. string holder, in the upper - wooden tuning pegs of the instrument. Metal strings (from 4 to 6) mounted on the instrument enhanced its sound. This simplest form of the harp contributed to the fact that the players could wear the instrument “under the bosom”, “under the arm”.

Musicologists believe that the five-string gusli corresponds to the five-tone mode of the Russian song. The game was accompanied by the singing of slow songs and dance melodies. The fingers of the left hand of the player were placed between the strings so that during the game they freely and alternately pressed the strings, and with the right hand they rattled the strings, extracting simple successive chords.

Over the centuries, the harp has been improved by changing the shape, increasing the number of strings, decorating with carvings and paintings. There are helmet-shaped, triangular, trapezoidal, rectangular (plucked) harps.

Varieties of gusli

Gusli helmet-shaped, or " psalter", had a helmet-shaped glued body made of thin boards, usually spruce. The dimensions of the instrument were 900 mm long, 475 mm wide, and 1000 mm high. The number of strings is from 11 to 36.

The 20-25-jet harp was very popular among the people. The sound range is diatonic. The strings on the instrument were set with vein, so the sound was quiet and soft.

The trapezoidal gusli were designed in the 16th-17th centuries on the basis of the voiced and helmet-shaped gusli. They are much larger in size - length 1500 mm, width 500 mm, height 200 mm.

The soundboard is made of spruce and has a resonator round hole. On the outer side of the deck, two arcuate planks are reinforced. Metal pins are fixed in one for attaching strings, metal pegs are screwed into the other. The number of strings is from 55 to 66. The system was diatonic at first. Late chromatic. They did not receive wide distribution in folk music making.

Gusli pterygoid(or voiced) consist of a slotted or glued flat wing-shaped body, on the soundboard of which from 4 to 9 metal strings are stretched. Dimensions - length 600 mm, width 250 mm, height of the shell (side part) 45 mm. Some samples of the XI-XIV centuries had 9 strings, in the XVIII century already from 5 to 14 strings, and a range from a quart to two octaves. Their structure was diatonic, usually in a major scale, and low sounds formed a fifth bourdon in relation to the main scale.

Over time, musical works of an epic-singing nature are replaced by song folklore, which caused the emergence of new musical instruments. The existence of the harp is preserved only in the northern regions of Russia - Novgorod, Pskov, Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Kostroma, etc. Over the past two centuries, folklore and ethnographic expeditions have found a large number of both the instruments themselves and the gusel tunes, playing techniques on them.

Tool setup

The results of the research showed that in all varieties of the instrument, the basis is a resonator body with stretched strings designed to extract sound of only one height. If on the ancient harp the number of strings is 4-5, then the harp of a later period had 7-9 strings of different lengths, which were stretched parallel to one another.

For the performance of folk music, such a sound range was considered sufficient, since folk performers usually use two or three keys when playing. Gusli had the following formations:

• the five-stringed harp was tuned according to the sounds of the third row (la (1), do (2), mi (2), salt (2), la (2));
• seven-strings had a diatonic system, in which the lower string was a bourdon and was tuned to a fifth in relation to the diatonic scale;
• sometimes the harp was tuned to a minor scale.

At the beginning of the 20th century, improved harps appeared, the body of which was glued together from thin planks (details), and the number of strings increased to thirteen.

Ways to extract sound

When playing the harp, the performer is in a vertical position, the upper corner of the instrument is slightly pressed against the chest. The knees are the main support for the harp; during the game they are slightly apart.

The fingers of the left hand are on the strings (when playing, they muffle the sound of unnecessary strings), the fingers of the right hand strike the open strings. Fingers are always located at the resonator hole. Slightly bent, without tension, fingertips touch the strings.

The movement of the hand during impact should be directed to the right corner of the instrument.

They play the harp with a mediator.

This is a small oblong plate with a pointed corner, made of bone, plastic, plastic. Plectrum dimensions: length does not exceed 25 mm, width 20 mm, thickness 1 mm, oval shape. They play with a mediator from two ends: a pointed edge gives a sharp sound, an oval one - a softer one. For a soft sound, the mediator is slightly compressed, loosening the fingers of the right hand. The left hand, when moving the fingers on the strings to different positions, muffles those strings included in the chord that should not sound.

Game techniques

The sound on the instrument is produced in the following ways:

• rattling- alternating blows with a mediator on the strings down and up;
• arpeggio- sequential extraction of sounds included in the chord, from low to high sounds, the same in reverse motion;
• glissando- fast sliding of the mediator along the open strings;
• tremolo- rapid alternation of light blows with a plectrum on the strings, with a certain frequency, alternately up and down;
• pizzicato- reproduction of individual sounds or chords by pinching the fingertips of the right or left hand;
• extracting chords- made by blows of the mediator down.

The strike on the string is done more sharply and strongly, accentuating.

The device and the main parts of the tool

The harp consists of three main parts (parts): body, string holder, tuning pegs; metal strings. There are samples of gusli, on which instead of wooden string holders and pegs, metal ones are installed - more durable, withstanding the load when the strings are pulled.

For the body of the harp, a dried board of birch, mountain ash, maple, and spruce is used. The surface of the wood must be even, the board must be smoothly planed on four sides (two faces and two edges) and sawn to size.

1. Top and bottom deck; 2. Resonator holes; 3. Pins; 4. String holder; 5. Strings.

The production of the tool is carried out in the following sequence:

• wood (board) must be of high quality, without rot, cracks and falling knots;
• a recess is made on the end side of a smaller straight or semicircular chisel (you can hit it with a wooden mallet). This operation is then performed from the other end;
• an oval recess is hollowed out or selected from the ends to the middle, and then the protruding middle is cut down with the same chisel;
• the traces of cuts, furrows, roughness remaining after processing are carefully cleaned with sandpaper, first with a large grain, then with a fine one. Perfect grinding of the inner containers is achieved by round discs consisting of strips of sandpaper. During operation, the nozzle is inserted into the chuck of an electric drill;
• as a result of such processing, an oval or rectangular recess is formed in the workpiece (board), which should have an allowance in the thickness of the walls and bottom from about 3 to 5 mm.

Thus, four walls are obtained from the side and end sides of the board. The end sides should be wider.

Next, pegs are installed on the end or kapkovy bars in the upper part of the future instrument, and a string holder (a metal bar or a tube of strong steel) in the lower part, capable of withstanding a fairly strong string tension. Before installing the pegs and the string holder on the body, which has a rectangular cavity and four walls, an important part of the instrument, the soundboard, is glued.

Deca(from German Decke, lit. - cover) - a necessary part of the body of stringed instruments, which serves to amplify and reflect the sound. It is made from resonant wood, but plywood is also used.

The vibrations of the strings are transmitted by the deck through the bridge. The upper deck of the instruments has resonator holes. To prevent the soundboard from deforming when the strings are pulled, it is glued to wooden planks (springs) passing inside the body.

With the help of pegs, strings are tensioned. The pegs on the body of the harp are set approximately to a depth of 30 mm at a slight angle for a more stable and reliable stop.

Tool pins

Peg- a small metal cylinder, in the upper part it has a four-sided head with a hole for the string, in the lower part - a very fine notch or fine thread. The diameter of the peg is 7 mm, the length is from 50 to 60 mm. The pegs are mounted on the wide side of the instrument. For a more durable fastening of the pegs in a rectangular cavity, you can insert into the place of their installation, and then glue a bar of more durable wood (beech, maple).

The role of the pin, for which the strings are tied, is performed by a metal bar (tube). Its ends are inserted into the holes of two so-called. "cheeks" made of wood. With the help of spikes, they are glued to the body on top of the deck. The string holder is mounted on the narrow side of the body.

Sometimes a bent steel tube is used, at the ends of which notches are made for firm fixing in the body. The diameter of the holes drilled in the bar must be less than the diameter of the tube. The string holder is installed in the holes with epoxy glue.

The density of the wood, the size of the holes, and the degreasing of the pins determine the force of friction between the walls of the hole and the pin, and, accordingly, the tuning and cleanliness of the instrument's system. The diameter of the holes should be less than the diameter of the peg by about 1.5 mm. Due to friction, the resistance in the socket of the tuning pin exceeds the tensile force. It should be noted that the frequent unscrewing of the pegs from the body of the harp leads to a weakening of their firm fit.

strings

The sound of the harp depends on the quality of the strings. On modern harps, the strings are made of wire made from special grades of steel. The strings differ in length and have a section - from thin 0.30 mm to more thickened 0.70 mm. In this example, the strings stretched on the harp do not have a stand, and their sound is gentle and ringing.

Dimensions of the main parts of the tool

The device of the harp shown in the figure is different in that the strings are installed on the spring, which runs diagonally along the instrument and is fixed on the body. Conventional manufacturing options - the tuning pegs are at the top of the body, and the tailpiece is at the bottom.

We examined a method for making a ten-string harp from a whole wooden blank.

Joining workpieces with glue

In the example above, a blank from a whole board was used in the manufacture of the harp. Its dimensions, especially the width, were sufficient for work. But in order to make a larger tool, the width of one board is not enough, so the workpiece is glued into a small shield consisting of two boards. At home, this work is done in a simple press (the so-called vayme) as follows:

As shown in the figure, beech plates are fixed: 1) at the bottom of the harp for attaching the string holder; 2) in the middle diagonally for attaching pegs; 3) in the upper part of the harp there is a small bar for strong gluing of the deck. Diagonal bar 2, into which the pegs are inserted, has this shape. It simultaneously serves as a spring for the deck glued to the bar.

The compression of the boards is carried out by two wooden wedges hammered towards each other. The adjoining edges of the boards are lubricated with PVA, carpentry, casein glue; when gluing, cardboard is placed under the boards so that they do not stick to the shield.

When driving wedges, the boards to be glued may bend upwards. To avoid this, you need to put a load on top of the planks. Woodworkers distinguish between the right and left side of the boards. The right side is located closer to the core of the trunk, the left - to its bark, so the correct gluing is when the right and left sides are glued together. For the strength of the bonding, the edge of the knife makes scratches on both surfaces to be bonded. After drying (12 hours), the workpiece is processed, removing glue residue.

In order to secure the pins more firmly, the holes in the body on the left side are drilled 1.3 mm smaller than the diameter of the pins themselves.

The end pins are at a distance of 75 mm from the edge of the sides. The distance between the pegs is 25 mm. The pins for fastening the strings are installed at a distance of 15 mm from each other, a. extreme located at a distance of 45 mm.

The upper and lower decks are fastened with springs from the upper and lower sides of the body. Springs increase the resistance of the deck and evenly distribute sound vibrations over it. They are glued to the deck and are also attached to the body of the instrument.

Varieties of gusli, the body of which is made by chiselling (sampling) wood from a blank:

The dimensions of the case can be different, for example: 1) length 70 cm, diagonal upper part 20 cm, lower 12 cm, pegs 9 pcs. 2) length 50 cm, diagonal top 30 cm, bottom 15 cm, pegs 13 pcs; 3) length 45 cm, width 15 cm, pegs 9 pcs; 4) length 60 cm, top 12 cm, bottom 7 cm, pegs 6 pcs. Width also ranges from 35 to 45 cm.

A sample of gusli made from boards using glue

In order not to muffle the sound of the strings, metal plates in the form of a corner are installed at the corners of the two end sides, and two stands made of hard wood (beech) for strings with an acute angle are placed on the soundboard. The number of strings is 10 pieces.

Even in ancient times, the repertoire of the gusel game was formed: these are song, dance and dance tunes, polkas and waltzes.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the musician-ethnographer N. I. Privalov and the guslier O. U. Smolensky improved the gusli: the triangular body was glued together from wooden parts, the number of strings was increased from 5 to 13, and ensemble varieties were created - piccolo, prima, viola and bass . According to the device, the harp differs only in the size of the body and parts, the diameter of the strings.

Currently, prima's harps are mainly used, having 15 strings and a diatonic system.

In concert activities, there is a meeting with colleagues - Valery Garanin, Lyubov Basurmanova, Maxim Gavrilenko, Vasily Zhdankin and guitarist Ivan Smirnov. He takes an active part in festivals of sacred and traditional music. His cultural mission to Serbia at the beginning of 2005 turned out to be very important for the spiritual unity of the Russian and Serbian peoples, which resulted in the concert “Russians for the Children of Kosovo”.

Singer-gusliar Andrey Baikalets. Came to Moscow on foot from the ancient city of Irkutsk, from the sacred waters of Lake Baikal. Guslyar-singer from the hinterland, from the thick of the people. His unexpected appearance was a joyful event for many. And his appearance is open, and the harp is sonorous, and the voice itself - all this harmoniously merging together, awakens the living pictures of antiquity. Spiritual songs, epics performed by him disturb, warm the soul, remain in memory for a long time. The abundance of his repertoire, the maturity of the Christian worldview are surprising. He knows what needs to be done, where to go and what awaits us ahead. In his songs, anxiety, an appeal sound, and at the same time, they contain hope, faith and love for one's neighbor. The most popular is his album "Paradise my Paradise". You can watch his almost last video lesson.

Gusli is one of the most famous Russian folk instruments, whose history dates back thousands of years. From time immemorial, Russian gusliers have been famous for their enchanting playing, which wins the hearts and souls of all who hear it.

Gusli is a stringed plucked instrument. The name, apparently, comes from the word "gusla", which was called the sounding bowstring. There are 2 main types of gusli: helmet-shaped and wing-shaped, differing from each other in shape, number of strings and the principle of play. The helmet-shaped harp has 10 to 30 strings and is played with plucks. Pterygoid harps have from 5 to 14 strings, along which they rattle with the whole brush. A little later, the Russian clergy will have clavier-shaped psaltery, which are sometimes used today.

Although different types of gusli differ from each other, their design is almost the same. They consist of a resonator-box, which is placed on the floor or on your knees. On the top deck there are round slots, and two bars are attached to it, on which the strings are stretched.

The first reliable mention in Byzantine manuscripts of the harp dates back to the 5th century. Also, the guslars are described in the ancient epic and chronicles, for example, in the writings of Cyril of Turov. In many countries, there were musical instruments similar to the harp, such as the ancient Greek harp and cithara, the Iranian santur, the Armenian canon, etc.

Since ancient times, all Russian folk festivals have been accompanied by playing the harp. The tunes on this instrument were loved by both ordinary people and royal persons, although there were those who persecuted the harpists.

Today, the harp is a rare instrument, but not completely forgotten. Only a few small workshops are engaged in their manufacture in Russia, so it is almost impossible for a simple layman to purchase them. But you can hear the sounds of the harp in the orchestras of Russian folk instruments.

Funny and curious on our site

Hello dear readers! Today in this short article we will talk about the Russian folk musical instrument gusli. Probably, this name is familiar to many, but not everyone has an idea about this stringed instrument, so let's get to know each other better.

Now few people know about such an ancient, surprisingly sounding instrument as a harp. It is mainly associated with the hero of the epic epic gusli Sadko. But at certain points in history they were very popular among the people.

They were distributed in the northern territory of Russia. Recently, during excavations, they were found in the cultural layers of the 11th century. Along with archaeological exhibits, you can also find real, “sounding” instruments. Nowadays, specialists studying folklore in the Russian outbacks find folk performers and bit by bit collect, once rich, material. In addition, at the beginning of the 20th century, academic harps were designed. They transferred the folklore tradition of the northern lands of Russia to the walls of the conservatories.

The root "gusl" is found in all Slavic languages. Accordingly, many other peoples have instruments similar to the harp. Since ancient times, two types of instruments have been known - pterygoid and helmet-shaped.

Pterygoid psaltery most often had from 6 to 9 strings tuned to diatonic, this number was quite enough to perform various tunes for pensions or dances. The resonator case was hollowed out from a single piece of wood, covered with a soundboard from a milestone, and stretched. In parallel, the version of the instrument is helmet-shaped with the number of strings of 20-25 pieces. They were made by gluing or gouging. Both tools have evolved and improved over time.

Currently, interest in this tool is steadily growing. At festivals and near folklore events, you can meet craftsmen who arrange master classes in making harp on their own. Genuine specimens are taken as the basis, and minimal shape adjustments are made in order to improve the sound. As a rule, these instruments are distinguished by their bright timbre and authentic shape. In addition, the manufacturers themselves give initial lessons on mastering the game. Folklorists also adapt the material collected in the villages and create video lessons based on genuine folk tunes.

With the advent of the accessible Internet, it becomes possible for the gusli to reach the wider masses. The magical sound attracts any sophisticated listener Mastering the skills of playing is much easier than with other instruments because the original folklore is taken as the basis for the training material. This gives hope for a wider distribution of the harp not only among the narrow circle of professionals, but also among a wide range of music lovers.