Traditional Culture of Khori Buryats: Early Folklore Ritual Genres Revisited

This article continues the study of the traditional musical culture of the Eastern Khori-Buryats, based on rare archival material of the audio collection of the famous orientalist Purbo Baldanovich Baldanzhapov (1921–1991). The research was started by the author in 2014 in the article “Materials of P. B. Baldanzhapov as a source for studying the song tradition of the Khori-Buryats”. The aim of this article is to represent the early folklore genres of the ceremonial traditional music of the Eastern Khori-Buryats. In the article the methods of genre and structural-typological analysis of folklore works recorded by P. B. Baldanzhapov were used. The study of the Khori-Buryat ritual song tradition, as a system, entailed the involvement of a structural and functional method, which allowed us to consider various aspects of the ritual and ritual complex of the eastern Khori-Buryats. The traditional musical culture of the Eastern Khori-Buryats can be divided into two genre groups (ceremonial and non-ceremonial). The ritual music of P.B. Baldanzhapov’s audio collection includes wedding songs (Uusyn duunuud), the ancient ritual dance Neryelge and accompanying songs (Neryelgyn or Neryeenei duunuud), the glorification of the horse by Morinoy solo, Buddhist Maani chants. The second group includes such genres of non-ritual sphere as uligers (Ulgernuud), historical songs (Tuuhyn duunuud) about Shilde Zangi, magtals to parents (Magtaalnuud), ring songs (Beheligey duunuud), comic songs (Shog duunuud). In this article, special attention is paid to the unique, but already lost genres of ritual music of Khori-Buryats – Neryelgyn duunuud, accompanying the ritual dance of Neryelge and the glorification of the horse (Morinoy solo), who won the race. The analysis of the semantics of poetic texts and musical intonations of Neryelgyn duunuud and Morinoy solo allows us to attribute these genres to the early folklore layer of the traditional musical culture of the Eastern Khori-Buryats and to reveal the semantic connection with the mythology and religion of the early nomads. Of course, in the future research it is necessary to continue studying the works of non-ritual traditional music of the Khori-Buryats from the collection of P.B. Baldanzhapov. The analyses of these samples of song folklore might allow to carry out the notation of Morinoy’s solo samples with their subsequent musical analysis and publication. One of the promising areas of research may be the reconstruction of these rare and unique genres of ritual music of the Khori-Buryats in the context of a comparative historical study of the cultural traditions of the Turkic-Mongolian peoples.

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