Russian folk songs were divided into two groups:one of them is associated with calendar rites like a sowing, harvest, hay-making, etc., while the other has to do with family rituals(as wedding, birth, burial, etc.).More individual are lyrical songs. The epoch of Old Rus is characteristic of heroic ballads sensing the praises of noble princes and instrumental music (pipes, horns, tambourines and kettle-drums).

There were songs which belonged to calendar cycle; it consists of smaller cycles definitely timed to seasons and pagan festivals (often overlaid with Christian holidays). These songs are peculiar for strict regulation and rigidity of short tonal and rhythmic formulas in every cycle; they retain the oldest non-semi-tonal and narrow scales. Individual songs are also made, mainly ballads about heroic characters in life. The calendar-based songs are very short, narrow and face very strict regulation. The calendar song cycle features smaller cycles timed to the seasons and to pagan festivals. The epic genre of music, such as bylinas and spiritual verses, has remained steadily popular from the beginning of Russian Folk music to the present.


Some songs were singing on the pagan festivals.The followers of paganism build copies of old pagan monuments of wood and stone and then gather for some rituals. When Slavic Rus adopted Christianity, many of the new religion’s holidays were grafted onto old pagan ones. Today, traditions still endure that trace their roots back to pagan practices. Maslenitsa, which is still celebrated in Russia today, is a more pagan than Christian holiday and was originally held to mark the vernal equinox. The festival is now celebrated seven weeks before Easter. Originally, Maslenitsa marked the imminent return of the sun and the end of the winter. People always burn scarecrow of winter, eat pancakes and have fun.

The pagan festival of the summer solstice — Kupala — was merged with the holiday of John the Baptist on June 24. Kupala comes from the Russian verb “kupat”, meaning to bathe, and mass baths were taken on the morning of this holiday. According to pagan beliefs, this is when the sun dipped into the sea, imbuing all water, and thus all who bathed in water at that time, with power. In the night people jump over the bonfire, guess and laugh.

http://www.music-folk.com/russian-folk-music/
http://russia-ic.com/view/culture_art/music/folk_music/
http://englishrussia.com/2007/07/23/christianity-vs-paganism-in-russian/
http://www.passportmagazine.ru/article/1317/