Kalmyk songs from the repertoire Sanji Manjikov in the recording of Ts.-D. Nominkhanov (1962): the preservation of the text in time

This article continues the research and introduction to academic circulation of Kalmyk folk songs. The purpose of the article is to study the long-drawn-out songs “ut dud” from the repertoire of the storyteller Sanji Mandzhikov (1881–1965), recorded by the orientalist Tseren-Dorji Nominkhanov in 1962 in the village of Bashanta (now the city of Gorodovikovsk), Republic of Kalmykia. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that the author, for the first time, compares the lyrics of Sanji Manjikov’s songs with early archival recordings of Kalmyk songs of the 19th–early 20th centuries and she finds out the origin, preservation of the text, content, compositional structure and genre specifics of the songs of the Don Kalmyks. The material for the study was the manuscript of Ts.-D. Nominkhanov “67 songs and 5 good wishes recorded by S.I. Manzhikov from April 18 to July 18, 1962”, kept at the Kalmyk Institute of Humanitarian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. As additional materials for comparing the texts, archival recordings of songs were used, deciphered and published by the author of this article in the monograph “Kalmyk folk songs and melodies of the 19th – early 20th centuries: research and materials” (2023) and the collection “Kalmyk folk songs and melodies of the 19th century” (2015), as well as the texts of Kalmyk songs, recorded on the Don in 1902 by A.M. Listopadov and in 1927 by Ts.-D. Nominkhanov. The article uses methods of comprehensive research, including comparative historical, descriptive, linguistic analysis, as well as synoptic analysis of texts, which allows us to identify common and local features of Sanji Manjikov’s songs. Results. The study found that many of Sanji Manjikov’s songs recorded in 1962 are “fragments” of songs recorded in the Kalmyk steppe in the past centuries. A comparative analysis of the songs allowed for a deeper understanding of the origin, preservation, content, compositional structure and genre specifics of the artist’s songs. The results obtained will add to the knowledge of Kalmyk song folklore.

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