Candidate of Philological Sciences, Udmurt Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Ural Branch of the RAS, Izhevsk, Russia [email protected]
Abstract:Since ancient times the images of birds have taken an important place in the religious and mythological worldview of the Udmurts, as evidenced by numerous ethnographic, linguistic and philological data. However, an ornithomorphic topic has not been covered adequately in researches into the Udmurt traditional instrumental culture, with the exception of a few latest articles of the Udmurt ethnomusicologists. This article is devoted to identification of the sound patterns of bird in the Udmurt instrumental folk tunes. Three types of program tunes on an ornithomorphic theme were revealed. Bird sounds are better produced in tunes played on the aerophones which are usually used by hunters and shepherds (a grouse call «syala pellyan / syala chipson», a natural longitudinal pipe «chipchirgan», and a cow horn «skal syur») and played during calendar holidays (a clay whistle «syuy shulan»). The study of musical samples has allowed the author to identify a connection between two types of birds – the grouse and the swan which take an important place in the Udmurt mythology. Other examples create a typified musical symbol of the bird, which may indicate a more archaic method for exploring and reflecting the surrounding world. The «bird» subject of the instrumental tunes is not explicit. It is made manifest due to the analysis of the melodic-rhythmic and timbral-dynamic components of their structure and performing techniques.
Key words: Udmurt folklore, aerophones, instrumental folk tunes, ornithomorphic images, mythological folk beliefs, onomatopoeia, performance techniques, composition.