Yakut toyuk of the vilyuy regional tradition

This article examines the Yakut toyuk of the Vilyui regional tradition. The authors identify the main criteria for the transmission of the Yakut toyuk within this tradition. The first criterion of tradition is identified as the continuity of the Vilyui regional song tradition, which lies in the oral transmission of the toyuk performance. The second criterion is the system of imagery in the Vilyui toyuk. One of the central images in the toyuk of the Vilyui regional tradition is the image of the girl Suokhaldyiya Tolbonnookh (The Luminous). The third criterion of the Vilyui regional tradition is defined as the compositional and stylistic system. It consists of three parts: an introductory beginning, a main part, and a concluding part. The poetics of the Vilyui toyuks  are characterized by epithets of complex structure–extended and layered epithets. The fourth criterion of the Vilyui regional tradition is a specific singing style – eten yllyyr (literally: singing by pronouncing the words). Musicologists such as E. E. Alekseev, G. G. Alekseeva, A. S. Larionova, and others emphasize this stylistic feature as being unique to the Vilyui song tradition. In the process of mastering continuity, an interaction occurs between the old and new traditions, whereby the new tradition is built upon the foundation of the old one. The transmission and preservation of the Vilyui regional tradition of the Yakut toyuk lie in the actualization of its continuity, its system of imagery, and its compositional and stylistic features.

1. Maak RK. The Vilyuy district. Moscow: Publishing House “Iana”; 1994:592 (in Russian)

2. Middendorf AF. Journey to the North and East of Siberia, Part II. St. Petersburg; 1878:350 (in Russian)

3. Seroshevskii VL. The Yakuts: an essay in ethnographic research. Moscow: Publishing House “Moskovskaia Tipografiia”, “Rossiiskaia Politicheskaia Entsiklopediia”; 1993:713 (in Russian)

4. Pekarskii EK. Dictionary of the Yakut language. Vol. III. Moscow: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences 1959:710 (in Russian)

5. Pekarskii EK. Dictionary of the Yakut Language. Vol. I. Moscow: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences 1959:715 (in Russian)

6. Ergis GU. Essays on Yakut folklore. Moscow: Publishing House “Nauka”; 1974:402 (in Russian)

7. Kondratiev SA. Yakut folk song. Moscow: Publishing House “Sovetskii Kompozitor”; 1963:178 (in Russian)

8. Folk Singers. Yakutsk: Yakut State Publishing House; 1947:100 (in Yakut)

9. Popov PN. The Suntars are singing. Yakutsk: Yakut State Publishing House; 1963:43 (in Yakut)

10. Yakut folk songs. Vol. I. Yakutsk: Publishing House “Yakutskoe Knizhnoe Izdatel'stvo”; 1976:230 (in Russian)

11. Yakut folk songs. Vol. II. Yakutsk: Publishing House “Yakutskoe Knizhnoe Izdatel'stvo”; 1977:422 (in Russian)

12. Yakut folk songs. Vol. III. Yakutsk: Publishing House “Yakutskoe Knizhnoe Izdatel'stvo”; 1980:295 (in Russian)

13. Yakut folk songs. Vol. IV. Yakutsk: Publishing House “Yakutskoe Knizhnoe Izdatel'stvo”; 1983:280 (in Russian)

14. Mukhopleva SD. Yakut ritual songs. System of Genres: Candidate’s dissertation (Philology). Moscow: 1987:23 (in Russian)

15. Zhirkov MN. Yakut folk music. Yakutsk: Yakut State Publishing House; 1981:116 (in Russian)

16. Alekseev EE. Yakut songs in the light of the theory of melodic modes: Candidate’s dissertation (Arts). Moscow: 1970:16 (in Russian)

17. Alekseev EE. Problems of formation of mode. Moscow: Publishing House “Muzyka”; 1976:288 (in Russian)

18. Alekseev EE, Nikolaeva NN. Samples of Yakut song folklore. Yakutsk: Publishing House “Yakutskoe Knizhnoe Izdatel'stvo”; 1981:100 (in Russian)

19. Alekseev EE. Folklore in the context of modern culture. Moscow: Publishing House “Sovetskii Kompozitor”: 1988:237 (in Russian)

20. Sheikin YuI. Musical culture of the Peoples of Siberia. A comparative historical study of instruments, onomatopoeia, and songs. Doctor’s dissertation (Arts). Moscow: 2001:16 (in Russian)

21. Pokidko EB. Toyuk and its realization in the work of composers of Sakha (Yakutia). Candidate’s dissertation (Arts). Novosibirsk: 2001:23 (in Russian)

22. Larionova AS. Yakut musical folklore. Yakutsk: NEFU Publishing House; 2014:82 (in Russian)

23. Sheikin YuI. History of the musical culture of the Peoples of Siberia. Moscow: Publishing House “Vostochnaya literatura”; 2002:716 (in Russian)

24. Mukhopleva SD. Yakut folk ritual songs. Novosibirsk: Publishing House “Nauka”; 1993:110 (in Russian)

25. Chistov KV. Folklore and people’s traditions. Leningrad: Publishing House “Nauka”; 1986:304 (in Russian)

26. Anikin VP. Theory of folklore tradition and its significance for the historical study of bylin. Moscow: Publishing House “MGU”; 1980:330 (in Russian)

27. Samoilova GA, Egorova NA. Suntar – the Land of Olonkho. Yakutsk: Publishing House “Bichik”; 2010:196 (in Russian)

28. Zverev SA. Two centuries. Yakutsk: Yakut State Publishing House; 1964:100 (in Yakut)

29. Boeskorov GK. S.A. Zverev – the Yakut folk singer. Yakutsk: Yakut State Publishing House 1956:63 (in Russian)

30. Efimova LS. Lexical and stylistic features of the language of Yakut round dance songs. Candidate’s dissertation (Philology). Yakutsk: 2004:20 (in Russian).