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"Once our forefathers took long, long songs from the boundless steppes, and from the banks of meandering rivers they brought fast and joyful tunes. Having washed them in the waters of the Caspian and Black Seas, having refreshed them with the winds of the Urals and Caucasus, they left them by will not just to us. They left them to the whole of Russia. Our forefathers' melodies having no end. Our grandmothers' tunes coming from the very hearts of theirs…" said Tatar writer Gayaz Iskhaki about his native music.
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The song lore of the Volga Tatars is a unique blend of singing traditions of the ancient Orient and artistic techniques of the European music culture. The custom of solo signing with rich sound ornamentation is an evidence of deep Asian roots. A singer leads the melody decorating every syllable with fanciful and fine sound patterns. The art of melismatics, or decoration of tune, has been respected and valued by singers and lovers of genuine Tatar song alike. The art of ornamentation reached in the genre of ozyn kyuye, or drawling song (The Ouyel River, In the Fields, Old Dark Forest). Drawling song has become a distinctive 'symbol' of the Tatar music art owing to its deep lyricism and a high degree of originality and national uniqueness.
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Ozyn kyuye is considered to be most difficult for singing, exclusively performed in one voice and demands high vocal skills and artistic taste from the singer.
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The signs of Europe as an enlightened and rational influence revealed in structural logic and architectonics of lyrical and comic songs so loved by the Tatars. When in the 19th century the Tatar towns and then villages discovered the garmon (button accordion), it turned out that that it was perfectly in tune with the form and pitch of the Tatar village melodies (avyl kyoy) and urban lyrical songs. The garmon came to stay, and now it's a must whenever Tatars sing. At present, particularly on stage, the bayan (another variety of button accordion) is more frequent as it's an instrument possessing a large range of performing capacities. The melodies of Tatar songs performed with the garmon and bayan with their virtuosic improvisation and endless energy and temperament won hearts. However, the keyboard and wind instruments have not supplanted older timbres of such folk instruments as kubyz (a kind of jew's harp) and kuray (end-blown flute). The kuray sounds are able to decorate a lyrical song in a tender and light manner, while the kubyz is an excellent instrument to support the rhythm of jolly and comic short tunes (kyska kyuye).
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What makes the Volga Tatars' music so original are a pentatonic scale adds to as it is the case with Chinese, Japanese or Mongolian music, abundant decoration with syllabic chant as it is the case in Arabic, Persian and Indian songs, and an organ sound of the accompanying bayans.
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What do the folk songs tell about? About something that is dear and intimate, about something the soul is filled in the times of sorrow and joy. The beauty of the native land is a beloved subject – thick forests and berry glades, crystal ringing of numerous springs, stars shining brightly in a dark blue sky, warble of the nightingales (Through a Dark Forest, A Very Cold Spring, Stars in the Skies). Perhaps there was a time when each aul created its own songs devoted to the native land. That's why tunes with the names of Tatar villages are so frequent – Karachtau Village Tune, Yonsa Village Tune, etc. Many of the songs are simply titled A Village Tune.
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Love lyrics have found a wide representation in the folk music. An unbelievable number of Tatar songs were named after beloved ones – Alfiya, Saniya, Beautiful Zeynab, Firdaus and, indeed, Galiyabanu. The texts of the love songs are distinguished with a great deal of poetic comparisons, colourful epithets and good wishes to the loved one.
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Short tunes kyska kyuye, an incarnation of popular merriment, take a special place in the Tatar music folklore. However, it isn't a devil-may-care kind of merriment but delicate and graceful, full of humour and joke characteristic for the Muslim town residents (Apipa, Yes, Of Course, Stone Bramble). The melodies of the short tunes were a basis for a tremendous number of dance and instrumental variations, primarily, for the garmon and bayan.
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The discs of The Anthology of Folk Music feature Tatar songs of various genres performed by well-known and loved singers – People's Artists Ilkham Shakirov, Gabdulla Rakhimkulov, Alfiya Afzalova and Gulsum Suleymaniva. The voices of Rafael Ilyassov, Flera Suleymanova, Masgut Imashev and other popular artists interpret the folk song classics.
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Besides, The Anthology includes recordings of instrumental versions of folk songs played on the garmon, kubyz and kuray.
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