The Phenomenon of Variability of the Given Religious Folk Songs in the District of Postavy in Belarus

Abstract

This article is dedicated to research on the religious folk songs of the district of Postavy. The territory chosen for this research has the same borders as the district of Postavy, defined by the Catholic Church authorities. The main sources of the research are primarily catholic communities. The main aim of the given research was to preserve and to document the oral versions of catholic folk religious songs. This article is an empirical observation based on conducting interviews with the local people of these areas. The information received in this way together with the recorded phonic material constitutes the source of material for analysis, the material mentioned in this article is taken from some of the parishes. Most interesting examples of songs have been chosen to analyze. It was also interesting to find songs that can be called contrafactum or disambiguation. Differences have been noticed between the records made during the interviews in the district of Postavy and the hymn book versions by means of comparing melody, metro-rhythmics and form. The research on the religious folk songs of the district of Postavy helps to get the idea of the present state of the catholic music culture in the given region and contributes to the study of one of the features of folk music in the Catholic Church tradition which is called variability.