THE TABLE REPERTOIRE OF THE INHABITANTS OF MEZEN VILL AGES IN THE 20TH AND THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Offering a fresh perspective, this article explores collective singing at the festive table with relatives and neighbors as a local community practice. Russian philological folkloristics typically focuses on the texts of songs, leaving the practical aspects of singing essentially unexplored. Singing at the table represents one of the types of singing practices that modern residents of villages located on the Mezen River and its tributaries in the Arkhangelsk region engaged in. This type of singing has survived the destruction of the traditional village way of life that began a century ago. The memories of local residents, the earliest of which date back to the 1930s, allow us to compare the practice of table singing in the past and present. This article presents the results of this comparison and, using one example, shows what meaning can be attached to singing at the table.