Mamadysh Kriashen Folk Music Traditions in Contemporary Recordings (review of materials collected in 2013)

Abstract

The article characterizes folk music traditions of Kriashens, the Christianized Tatars of the Volga-Ural region. The author focuses on materials collected during an expedition in 2013 to the Mamadysh region of Tatarstan, Russia. Recordings of music and poetry samples, notation, transcription of verbal texts, and photographs were made by the author. The author presents remarks on the genre structure of the material (including lore associated with calendric rites and divination; life cycle rites; game and dance songs; childlore; religious lore as well as the instrumental musical tradition) and discusses the current state of the Mamadyshsky Kriashen tradition. In the villages of Vladimirovo, Iukachi, Ziuri and Komarovka the core of the folk music tradition is mainly composed of ritual songs. In the village of Nikiforovo, liturgical chants (a folk version of Orthodox prayers) tend to dominate the tradition.