who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

51polifonia”, which was considered to be the “trademark” style ofRussian national polyphony). Drone polyphony is present in someisolated “pockets” in the western (Bryansk district) and the southern(Voronezh and Belgorod districts) regions of Russia. There is a specialsubtype of drone polyphony in Belgorod district – double drone on thefifth, framing melody from both sides (from below and above).Zemtsovsky also distinguishes so-called “fake” drone, where “no onevoice sings the drone, but the illusion of a drone emerges from thecombination of voices” (Zemtsovsky, 2000:757);(4) Another polyphonic type (Engovatova mentions this type as “dishkantpolyphony”, Engovatova, 1989:24) involves singing in twofunctionally different parts: the main melody and the contrasting part.There are three regional subtypes of this type of polyphony, and themain difference between them is in differences between the versions ofthe accompanying (top) part. The top part has three regional versions:in southern Russia, among the Cossacks, the accompanying high voiceis performed by a soloist (called “golosnik”, or “dishkant”), who singsanhemitonic tune without text” (Zemtsovsky, 2000:757); In CentralRussia the top voice (“podvodka”) is also solo. In northern Russia (themost monophonic region of Russia) the top part is performed by agroup as well and it represents the octave doubling of the mainmelody. The main melody, on the contrary, is everywhere performedby the majority of participants (both male and female) and is in fact thelower part. This part is called as “bass” or “tolsty” (“thick”) voice. M.Engovatova suggested distinguishing a version of this style –polyphony with “podvodka” (always performed solo by the alto voice)in lyrical songs with extremely wide distribution throughout Russia(including the entire Siberia, and excluding only the northern Russia.Engovatova, 1989:23-24). T. Digun wrote about the importance of theinterval of the fifths for the heterophonic “beam” of the melody inSouth Russian tradition (Digun, 1987: 30)(5) The most complex type of Russian traditional polyphony is three-partpolyphony. This type is represented in central and southern Russia(Belgorod, Voronezh, Riazan districts and among Cossacks living inthe basin of the river Don. As in most other types of Russian traditionalpolyphony, in this type the majority of singers perform the mainmelody (called bass). The second part (“golosnik”) is in fact the topvoice. It represents the drone and is singing sometimes without thetext. The third part (tonki golos – thin voice) is “performed by two ormore women in a tense voice in heterophony with the bass voice”[“bass voice” meaning the main melody] (Zemtsovsky, 2000:757).Dmitri Pokrovsky discovered an interesting version of this polyphonictype (among Cossacks): a four functional parts, consisting of the bass,relatively independent “dishkant”, a previously unknown part thatcoordinates the other parts, and a fourth part “tenor”, which is singingthe version of the third (previously unknown part)