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For many centuries, Belarusian songs and folklore have been one of the strongest, most developed forms of national art, playing an important role in the preservation of national traditions and acting as an inspiration to Belarusian professional musicians (composers and performers).
To this day the Belarusian people have managed to preserve certain age-old rites and customs: for example, songs for springtime and Easter, ritual songs about rusalki or water-nymphs, songs celebrating birth. Indeed, the sources of Belarusian folk art are as inexhaustible today as they were many years ago.
The young artists of the folk ensemble GRAMNITSY have a great desire to learn and experience their national culture. They strive to preserve the songs traditions of their country and make them more widely known.
In the Belarusian folk calendar GRAMNITSY (group’s name) is the day when winter meets summer. It is celebrated on 15 February, and precedes and anticipates the Shrovetide carnival (last week in February). The peasants urge the spring to come by means of ritual ceremonies and song.
It was originally a pagan celebration in honour of the heathen god Gramunick, the god of thunder and storms and, in accordance with peasant belief, also the god of spring: he gives warm rain and wakens the land from its winter sleep. In pagan times, it was the day of sacrifice to the god Gramunick, but now celebrations bear a strong Christian influence.
The central symbol of the Gramnitsy celebration is the candle, which is the church on that day. Every peasant keeps one of these candles in his home; it is lit during ritual ceremonies (for example, when someone has died, or when the cattle are taken out to pasture after the winter). The candle is symbol of the sacred fire, warding off evil — or, according to pagan belief, evil spirits — throughout the year.
“GRAMNITSY” was founded in 1994 by the Faculty of Folk Arts at the Belarusian University of Culture and Arts. It is S+M+D ensemble. GRAMNITSY consists of instrumental part (violin, flute, cimbalom, guitar, bass, piano, drums) and singers-dances artists.
We play, sing and dance Belarusian traditional music and songs (calendar and wedding, ritual and non-ritual) and folk-modern.
Ensemble took part at the International Folklore festivals in Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Russia, Great Britain. GRAMNITSY took part at the Andong Mask Dance Festival and Ceramic World Exposition 2001, “Jeonjeu Sori Festival 2002”, Rites of Passage Festival 2003 in Korea, Dranouter Festival 2003 in Belgium, Bydgoszcz Musical Impression 2005 in Poland, and Skansen Bazaar 2005 in Sweden.
The group’s repertoire includes arrangements of Belarusian traditional songs, dances, instrumental folk music and Belarusian hymns. Distinctive feature of GRAMNITSY's style last years is the fusion of a traditional manner of the Belarusian national singing and instrumental arrangement in different contemporary styles.
Vladimir Zenevitch
Professor Vladimir Zenevitch was born in the Gomel region (Belarus) in 1955. He studied choral conducting, folk music and aesthetics at the Belarus University of Culture and at the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences in Minsk.
He is artistic director of ensemble “GRAMNITSY” at the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts and teaches Belarusian traditional music, aesthetics, musical arrangement and choral conducting.
Contact information:
Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts
Rabkorovskaja street, 17
220001 Minsk,
Republic of Belarus
Tel: 00375 17 222 24 09
Fax: 00375 17 222 24 10
Artistic Director Prof. Vladimir Zenevitch
Bogdanovich street, 53-338,
220123 Minsk, Republic of Belarus
Tel.: 00375 17 313 02 21
Fax: 00375 17 222 24 09
E-mail:
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web: gramnitsy.at.tut.by
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