Article

Name: Shamanic invocation of Khan-Suyla: on the problem of analysis of early sound records

Authors: G. B. Sychenko

In the section Этномузыковедение

Abstract: The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of two variants of the anecdote about smart faithless wife, record-ed from the Khakas-Sagais and Tuvinians-Toju in 1996 and 1999 respectively. The first one was published recently in the volume “Khakas Folk Tales” in the series “Monuments of Folklore of the Peoples of Siberia and Far East” (vol.33), the second one is being published in the present article. Both texts are expressed in the form of narrative with the sing-ing episode. The analysis of motives shows that two texts are closed to each other and only vary in small details. The examining of the singing episodes represented by a genre of lullaby demonstrates that in each case they are close to the lyric song poetry of Sagay and Toju cultures. Moreover, they use poetical, verse, rhythmical, modal and melodic struc-tures typical for the so-called “model tunes” of the related traditions. But all these features of the musical episodes demonstrate quite a number of details which distinguish them from the proper model tunes. On the other hand, in both cases one may find also traces of the lullaby genre, but expressed in a rather formal way. That stresses the fact that the performance of the lullaby in this narrative is aimed not to a child, but to a lover, being a message warning him about the husband‘s presence. In conclusion, the author tries to explain how this story could be distributed among two Turkic peoples living rather far from each other. The article is devoted to the problem of analysis of early sources on traditional music, early sound records in par-ticularly. On the example of the sample of shamanic invocation recorded by Anokhin in 1910 in the Mountain Altai the methods of work with its verbal and musical parameters are demonstrated. Thus, comparative textual analysis of the sounding and written versions, as well as musicological analysis of the notation made by the author are carried out. General and musical composition, verse, syllable rhythmic and pitch (modal intonational) organization of the piece are analyzed. All available information concerning this sample (published data, materials of manuscript and sound ar-chives) is brought together and examined. On the basis of the analysis the author makes some important conclusions. Thus, the hypothesis about the methods of work of one of the first Siberian ethnomusicologists is expressed. The text most likely was not recorded during a real shamanic séance. A.V. Anokhin probably worked with shaman afterwards and recorded in his field notebook a short version without repetitions, vocalizations and so on. Ethnic attribution of the piece was made, but the analysis shows that main characteristics of the text demonstrate similarity with shamanic repertoire of the Turkic peoples of Sayano-Altai. It has many common traits with shamanic heritage of the Kumandins, Chalkans, Shors, Sagais, Toju people.

Keywords: shamanism, folklore music, Siberia, Аnokhin, archive sources, early records, Turkic peoples, Altaians, Altai-kizhi, Tuba

Bibliography:

Anokhin A.V. Materialy po shamanstvu u altaytsev, sobrannye vo vremya puteshestviy po Altayu v 1910–1912 gg. po porucheniyu Russkogo Komiteta dlya izucheniya Sredney i Vostochnoy Azii [Materials on Shamanism of the Altais]. Leningrad, Publ of RAN, 1924, 152 p. (Sbornik MAE pri Ross. Akademii nauk [Collection of Museum of Amthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences], vol. IV, pt. 2)

Molchanova О.T. Toponimicheskiy slovar' Gornogo Altaya [Toponymical Dictionary of Gornyi Altai]. Ed. A.T. Tybykova. Gorno-Altaysk, Gorno-Alt. otd-e Alt. kn. izd-va, 1979, 400 p.

Sychenko G.B. Metodologicheskie problemy izucheniya shamanskikh tekstov tyurkskikh narodov Yuzhnoy Sibiri [Methodological problems of study of shamanic texts of Turkic peoples of South Siberia]. Narodnaya kul'tura Sibiri: Materialy XXI nauchno-prakticheskogo seminara Sibirskogo regional'nogo vuzovskogo tsentra po fol'kloru [Folk culture of Siberia. Procs. of the XXI-th scinetific and practical workshop of the Siberian regional university center of folklore studies]. Ed. T.G. Leonova. Omsk, Publ. of OmGPU, 2012, pp. 67–71.