Article

Name: The sound organization of the songs of the Tuvans of Tsengel (Mongolia) and the Republic of Tyva (Russia): a comparative study

Authors: L. I. Kardashevskaya

Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts, Yakutsk, Russia

In the section Этномузыковедение

Abstract:

This article presents an analysis of the sound organization in the folk songs of the Tuvan people residing in Tsengel sum, Bayan-Ölgii aimag, Mongolia, based on materials collected during a folklore and ethnographic expedition in 2024. For comparative purposes, the study draws on Tuvan folk songs from the collection “Yrlazhyly” (1959), which represents the tradition of Tuvans in the Republic of Tyva (Russia). The analysis establishes that the songs of both groups are characterized by the predominance of anhemitonic scales (hexachords and heptachords) spanning a wide ambitus (from an octave to a tenth), structured around 2–4 modal cells, with quartal and quintal leaps playing a significant role in the melodic contour. The key distinction lies in the type of pentatonic organization: the songs of the Mongolian Tuvans predominantly feature a minor pentatonic scale expanded upward by 2–3 steps, as well as an abbreviated major pentatonic. In contrast, the songs from Tuva employ both major and minor pentatonic scales expanded downward by 2–3 steps. The findings confirm the systemic stability of the core elements of Tuvan songwriting, specifically, the anhemitonic scale with numerous steps and quartal-quintal intonation, which persists across groups separated by a national border. The observed variations in pentatonic structure are interpreted not as evidence of the decline of tradition, but as a consequence of its adaptive evolution and the emergence of localized variants shaped by diverse cultural and historical contexts (Mongolian and Russian). This underscores the internal richness and dynamism of a unified Tuvan musical language.

Keywords: Tuvans, Mongolia, Tuva, folk songs, musical scale, pentatonic

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