“Sung Poetry” of the South Siberian Turks: Interrelations between Music and Poetry

Year 2018, Volume: 2 Issue: 2, 150 - 165, 29.12.2018

Galina Sychenko

https://doi.org/10.33906/musicologist.493184

Abstract

The article is devoted to the so-called ‘sung
poetry’ of several Turkic-speaking peoples of South Siberia. The author’s main
focus is on the problem of metric organization of poetic and musical parameters
and the interrelations between them.

The author starts with a discussion of some
methodological issues, in particular, what can be regarded as ‘meter’ in vocal
folk music. Contrary to some authors, who attribute this term exclusively to
poetic expression, in this article it is understood in a broader sense: as a
system of temporal organization.

In Altai, Tuva, Shor, and Khakass song
traditions, there is a ‘syllabic rhythmical formula’ (SRF), which corresponds
to the verses, as well as to the melodic line. The SRF, following the author’s
opinion, can be regarded as a meter for a song, or the song as genre. It
usually regulates number and quality of musical units in correspondence with
the syllables.

This common and rather simple picture, nevertheless, becomes
more complicated when the author starts to describe some particular cases. The
traditions of the Telengits, Chalkans and Kumandins, Shors, and
Khakasses-Sagays are chosen to demonstrate a variety of arrangements of the of
‘sung poetry’ of the South Siberian Turks.

Keywords

music, poetry, song traditions, Turkic peoples, South Siberia

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