Osadcha V. The Folk Song Culture of the Slobodska Ukraine.

In the present thesis the author deals with the problem of the specific features of genre and style of the folk song in the Slobodska Ukraine and the nature of its existance in the frames of modern culture. The social and historical conditons in which the regional folklore tradition was formed were such that this tradition can be determined as the "new-settlers'" one. There is a phenomenon of crucial importance for the Slobodskian folk song culture. This is the phenomenon of "areals" or "environment". Within such areals the existing song volume is preserved and the genre system becomes functionally stable, from one side, and the means of expression as well as the original singing techniques acquire some typical features, from the other. This results in the creation of new song types and determines the transformation of singing styles within separated areals. The Slobodskian musical dialect becomes very specific due to the existance of active intonational tradition connected with a genre system which fo rms the styles of lirical songs. The domination of the lirical songs over the ritual ones and the melodic and intonational unity of the genres having different origin together with the specific nature of their rythms and intonations supports the dominating role of the lirical mode of thinking in the song texts and the coexistance and development of several song layers as well; namely, the songs based on modal thinking, strophical constructions and the new variants borrowed from the chants and romances.