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I found it in one choir in Mussorgsky's Хованщина. The song goes like this:
Плывёт, плывёт лебёдушка, ладу, ладу,
плывёт навстречу лебедю, ладу, ладу.
etc.; the „ладу, ладу“ is regularly repeated at the end of every line. What does it mean? (And does it mean anything at all, or is it only an interjection like "fa la la" in English?)
E: Thank you both. Since they both are very good, I just accepted one randomly.
Unfortunately nobody can tell you for sure what the word ладу in the refrain means. It has been mentioned though that it's not connected with the goddess. What is well known is the fact that such refrains are used in three types of folk songs:spring, summer and wedding songs. That means they were devoted to some customs and traditions and were khorovod songs which included some movement to the music. Those words helped the rythm or the beat.Used in other parts of the song the word лада meant dear, beloved.
In this song (and in many other folk songs) it's just a refrain.
As for it's origin there are several opinions what "ладу", "ладо", "лада", "дид-ладо" means.
Nothing - it's just a refrain, like "fa-la-la" (I guess most scientists agree on this)
There is a word ладо/лада is also used in folk poetry meaning "beloved" or "spouse" (Ushakov's dictionary):
ЛА́ДА, лады (нар.-поэт.).
- жен. Милая, возлюбленная, жена.
- муж. и жен. Милый, возлюбленный, мужск. Мой лада или моя лада.
I think this connection makes sense, because лебедь (swan) and лебёдушка (pen) here are used to tell a "love story".
For more details see Wikipedia (in Russian) English article is less detailed and says nothing about invention of a goddess name.
Addition: Лад – old Russian word (maybe even Slavic word). Лад is not only about love. Лад also means peace, harmony, order, consent. All connected with the word лад means something good: verb поЛАДить (make peace, get along (with), get on (with), come to an understanding), adjective ЛАДный (harmonious).
