Domra: history, video, interesting facts, listen

Musical Instrument: Domra

For a long time in Russia, the common people talentedly displayed their spiritual experiences as well as the events taking place in folk art. Assistants in this were various folk musical instruments, the art of execution of which was passed on from generation to generation. One of these tools was domra - the favorite of buffoon and common people. They sang and danced under her, told fairy tales and epics, her sonorous voice and peculiar timbre attracted the attention of listeners. Domra was often in the center of events, sometimes even dramatic, as a result of which she fell into disgrace and disappeared from folk art for several centuries.

The time has passed, domra was revived and once again conquered the audience with its unusual sound, similar to the voice of a ringing stream. She is capable of displaying both romantic moods and the enchanting beauty of nature. No wonder in the cinema, when it is necessary to emphasize the charm of the Russian land, we often hear the tremulous voice of the domra.

The history of domra and a lot of interesting facts about this musical instrument can be found on our page.

Sound

Domra is a tool with great expressive capabilities, its bright and light voice is easily recognizable. Due to the strong tension of the strings, the sound of the domra is ringing, but quickly decaying. The timbre is warm, soft, radiant, velvety and rich.

Pizzicato, strikes on the strings up and down, tremolo, flageolets and glissandos - such a set of basic techniques used by the domra players.

The instrument is usually played with a mediator. Long notes are only played with the tremolo.

Domra is an instrument with great technical potential, compositions of varying complexity and any stylistic orientation are available to it - these are original works and transcriptions of compositions by classical composers. Virtuoso arpeggiating and passage techniques, complex rhythmic figurations, various strokes, playing with intervals and chords are all techniques that performers have.

Domra are of two types: three-stringed - has a range of "E" first to "E" of the fourth octave; and four-stringed - range from "si" small to "mi" of the fourth octave.

A photo:

Interesting Facts

• Domrochei, so were the domra performers in the old days.
• In the distant past, domra was made from cut in half and cleaned pumpkin.
• Domra and balalaika are two different modifications of the same kind of ancient string-plucked instrument.
• In 1654, by order of Nikon, Patriarch of All Russia, five large, fully loaded carts with buffoon tools, including domras, were brought to the bank of the Moscow River and burned there in public. A huge fire burned for several days.
• Joseph Stalin loved to listen to domra.
• A.A. Tsygankov - a virtuoso musician is called the king of domra, as well as the "Domran Paganini".
• In the United States of America there is an association of domra and balalaika game lovers, which has existed for over 30 years and has 400 members.
• On the four-string domra, which has a violin structure and range, you can play the entire repertoire, written not only for the violin, but also the mandolin.

Design

Domra, like the violin, is a very capricious instrument, and in order for it to sound good, it must be made by a highly qualified master with a delicate ear, as well as a well-seasoned tree.

The design includes a tool body and neck with a head.

1. The case incorporates a body and a deck.

• The body is usually made of curved rivets, forming a hemispherical shape. Rivets are made of rosewood, white maple or wavy birch. On the body are installed tailpiece, called buttons.
• Deca is the front part of the body in the form of a flat oval, covering the body and bordered along the edge of the sidewall. In the center there is a vocalizer - a resonator having a shaped-shaped outlet. On the deck superimposed shell, which protects it from scratches, and stand, lifting the strings and installed in exactly the right place. Deca is usually made of resonator spruce and fir, maple stand, and the shell is made of hardwood or synthetic materials.

2. The neck attached to the body ends with a head with a hammer gear attached to it, which is necessary for string stretching. A pad with handguns is glued to the fingerboard, which separate the frets, which are arranged in a chromatic sequence. Between the head and the neck of the neck is attached the nut, which affects the height of the strings. Highly lifted strings are hard pressed against the frets and complicate the performance of the instrument.

The sound of domra is extracted using a small plate of the mediator - a plectrum, which has an oval shape and the size of which depends on the size of the domra. The tortoise shells are considered to be the best material for mediators, but plectrons are also now made from various polymeric materials.

Varieties

Domra has two types, which differ in the number of strings and in the order.

The three-stringed domra (designed by V. Andreev) in the orchestra is called the small domra, tuned in quarts. The four-stringed domra (the construction of Lyubimov) as a violin has a fifth frame.

Each type of domra also has subspecies that differ in size. In the group of three-stringed domra in the practice of ensemble and orchestral games are actively used: bass, alto, and piccolo; rarely used: double bass, tenor and mezzo - soprano.

The four-string domras (designed by G. P. Lyubimov) have: bass, alto, and piccolo, rare varieties: double bass and tenor.

• Piccolo - it sounds bright and light, its piercing voice very complements and decorates the sound of the whole orchestra.
• Viola with soft and chest sound in timbre is usually used to harmoniously fill between the upper and lower voices, but sometimes he is assigned solo moments.
• Bass - throughout the range has a rich, velvety sound. Being the owner of a weighty, thick and slightly heavy voice, the lower register of the instrument is entrusted with maintaining the bass line. Melodic lines, assigned to medium and high registers, which have a soft and velvety shade, sound very colorful and heartfelt. Because of its large size, bass is technically very limited, because it requires a big stretch of the fingers of his left hand from a housewife.

Application and Repertoire

Initially, during the period of domra restoration by masters under the guidance of a musician, the creator of the balalaika circle and composer V. Andreev, its purpose was defined as melodic in the orchestra of folk instruments. For a long time, the role of domra was precisely this; it plays the same role of prima in the folk orchestra as the violin in the symphony. Domra for a long time remained only an orchestral instrument, and only then it became ensemble, when the domrovo quartet began its concert activity under the orchestra under V. Andreev. The instrument appeared on the stage as a soloist a bit later. It is a pity, but in Russia domra as a folk instrument was no longer used.

As a solo concert instrument domra revealed very brightly, especially for her works began to be composed. Of particular note is the concert work of N. Budashkina, which has truly become a pearl in the repertoire for this instrument, as well as works of a large form by Y. Shishakov, B. Kravchenko, Y. Zaritsky, which further revealed his new artistic possibilities.

Unfortunately, venerable composers who compose in other genres do not show much interest in the domra, and composers - performers usually write works for it, among them: A. Tsygankov, G. Zaitsev, N. Penko, K. Volkov, V. Solomin , V. Sobolev-Belinskaya, V. Pozhidaev, N. Hondo, Y. Semashko, E. Podgaits and others. However, the domra is not offended in terms of the repertoire, the instrument sounds perfectly transcriptions, written by the greatest composers for violin, flute, clarinet, piano. These are masterpieces of such composers as I.S. Bach, PI Tchaikovsky, G. Venyavsky, F. Poulenc, A. Scarlatti, C. Saint-Saens, P. Sarasate, D. Shostakovich, N. Paganini, S. Rachmaninov, C. Prokofiev, D. Gershwin, A. Piazzolla.

Works:

N.P. Budashkin - Concert la domra and orchestra (listen)

Yu.N. Shishakov - Concert for domra (listen)

Performers

After her long-awaited return, the domra immediately found her admirers, who began to actively engage in the development and popularization of the tool. One of the first professional domber-virtuosos was P. Karkin, who developed the basic methods of sound production and, through his tireless work, made a significant contribution to the development of performing skills. The successors of P. Karkin's affairs were F. Korovai, V. Nikulin, R. Belov, Yu. Yakovlev, A. Simonenkov, M. Vasilyev, V. Krasnoyartsev, V. Kruglov, A. Tsygankov, T. Volskaya, V. Ivko, B. Mikheev, S. Lukin, and others.

Today, to be a performer of domraša means to be a proponent of his work, and musicians prove this by creating their own unique performing style. And the result of such enthusiasm is that domra has become a full-fledged academic instrument along with the flute, violin, piano, cello, oboe, clarinet and others.

Story

The historical roots of domra go back to ancient times, but when and where it came from on Russian soil, no one can say for sure. In the ancient, preserved to us chronicles, there is almost no information about it. Different nationalities had instruments that were extremely similar to domra: Turks' follow-up from the Turks, Kirghiz dumra, Tajiks from the Tadjiks, Bashkirs from the Dashkir, Kazakhs from the Dombra. The predecessor of all such instruments is considered to be the oval-shaped ancient Egyptian tanbur, the sound of which was extracted with the help of a small, worn-out stick. Domra also had a great resemblance to him, but on the Russian instrument, carved out of wood, with a stick attached — a fingerboard and strings stretched from the veins — were played with fish bones or feathers.

Domra in Russia was very popular, people shared with her sadness and joy. Under the domra they sang and danced, folded fairy tales and told epics. A tool that was very easy to manufacture was very popular among the common people and amusing people - buffoons. The vociferous and light domra for five hundred years sounded in peasant huts, on the market square and even in the royal mansions. In the 16th century, in order to organize the entertainment of the royal court, the Poteshnaya Chamber was created - a kind of court orchestra of that time, which also included house members, as domra performers were called.

In the 17th century, dark times came for the buffoons, making merry notions and often unseemly teasing ecclesiastical and secular power.

Serious discontent of the nobility and the church resulted in persecution of musicians. By special order of the king in 1648, the buffoons were sent into exile or executed, and the tools, including the domras, called demonic, were collected and destroyed. Domra was exterminated and nobody remembered about her for 200 years. Only at the end of the 19th century, in a remote village, in a remote village, in the attic of a dilapidated hut, was an instrument with an oval body found, and no one even remembered what it was called.

Based on the images in ancient documents, they concluded - this tool is domra. As she managed to survive, so remains a mystery, but the sleeping beauty had to return to life.

The shape of the unique rarity found and the sketches of V. Andreev, the founder of the first orchestra of folk instruments, and with the participation of the enthusiast and patriot N. Fomin in 1896, the master of violin instruments S. Nalimovym domra was recreated. At that time, V. Andreev already organized a balalaika ensemble, which successfully performed in Russia and abroad, but to fulfill his main dream, to create a full-fledged orchestra, a tool was needed that would lead the melodic line beautifully, and the domra was very suitable for that.

V. Andreev together with S.Nalimov developed and then made various types of domra: piccolo, alto, tenor (rarely used), bass and double bass (not used), which became the main toolkit of folk instruments orchestras. Ten years after its revival domra, which has a small range, was used only as an instrument of the orchestra. At the beginning of the 20th century, at the request of the conductor G. Lyubimov, master S.Burov constructed domra, which had not three strings, like Andreevskaya, but four. She tuned in quints like a violin and had the appropriate range. Undoubtedly, the increased range of four-string domra became an advantage, but it was inferior to the "three-stringed" in timbre color. After some time, in collaboration with G. Lyubimov and S. Burov, domras of different sizes were made - from piccolo to double bass, all of them had 4 strings and a fifth frame. These domras became part of the domra orchestra, which, unfortunately, did not last long.

Probably, there is no instrument in the world with such a dramatic fate as that of domra. Being at the peak of popularity, she fell into disgrace, disappeared tragically and was forgotten for a long time. And it was revived again, but only now it does not amuse the people on the bench near the village hut, but submits with its sound the listeners in the huge concert halls.

Today, a domra, a young and promising instrument with significant capabilities, and an academic genre that has risen to the heights, has a very great creative perspective, since interest in it is constantly increasing.