It is known that even the great Mr. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin himself loved to hum a song about the whitish birch under his breath. This is the XIX century, but the song was known before.
For the first time the notes and the text of the song "In the field of birch stood" was published in the collection of Lvov-Pracha, which was published in 1790. In the same year, Radishchev mentions it in his "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow." The collection of melodies for piano, released in 1797, also published a work entitled "In the birch stood a field".
This means that by the end of the XVIII century this song was already common as folk and was well known, therefore, most likely, the history of the song dates back to much earlier times.
Ibrahimov - who is he? And what does this have to do with authorship?
A new version of the song was published in the year 1825 in the well-known journal under the philosophical name "Well-intentioned". Professor Nikolai Mikhailovich Ibragimov (real name Nigmat Mishailovich) wrote the Russian Song. It was a variant of the already existing "birch".
Ibragimov added a couplet about unwanted marriage to the composition. Such motifs were very popular at that time and they were often added as a continuation to already prepared poems and songs. In the end, with the exact establishment of authorship was a confusion.
The meaning of the song "There was a birch in the field"
In Russian culture it was customary to accompany the actions with songs. In the XVIII century, girls were often married forcibly, without their consent. Parents pursued a benefit by arranging their daughter's wedding with a rich elderly man. Ibrahimov touched on this theme in his song “There was a birch in the field”.
The text of the song tells the story of a young girl who married out of necessity for a strictly man. She wants to go to the "white birch zalomati" field and cut off the "three rods" to make the "three beeps", and besides them also a balalaika. The goal of all actions is "Stand up, my old, wake up." That is, the girl wakes up her husband and helps him tidy himself up.
The lines of the old husband sleeping with a hangover, who are another variation of the couplet song, touch on another frequent problem of families - drunkenness.
In the field there was a birch tree - connection with the Russian folk culture
The expression “white birch zalomati” came from the old Russian rite, during which they broke a tree and wove branches with grass: the girls, before the holiday of the Orthodox Trinity (usually on Thursday of the week before the holiday) went to the forest. Having chosen a young tree - a birch tree, they broke the top of it and put a wreath on the tree.
Then the girls started dancing and sang funny songs. Then a cuckoo was made of branches and grass, and a stuffed bird was hung on a birch tree. After the girl "have been kumilis". How? Very simple: they just kissed through a wreath and exchanged crosses. At the end of the ceremony, the girls became close relatives for each other, and the insult or quarrel between them was a terrible sin.
Perhaps the history of the song is connected with another rite, when the birch was broken with songs, and then drowned in the river or scattered its pieces across the field. It was believed that in this way all the energy of a young tree is given to the earth for fertility.
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