Lullabies of the Ainu

Альманах
Key words
lullabies, mythology, Ainu, Sakhalin
Author
Natalya A. Mamcheva
About the Author
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5775-8598
E-mail: mamcheva@mail.ru Tel.: +7 (4242) 43-42-88
6, Chekhov str., Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 693020, Russian Federation
PhD in Arts, Teacher, Sakhalin College of Arts
Received
Date of publication
DOI
https://doi.org/10.26158/TK.2024.25.3.007
Body

This article examines the lullabies of the Ainu, an aboriginal people of the Far East. It is based on an analysis of the author’s musical transcriptions as well as domestic and foreign secondary literature and introduces new facts about the song folklore of the Ainu. Focus is on patterns associated with the music and lyrics of lullabies, which have not yet been considered in scholarship. The Ainu belong to the peoples of a “cradle civilization” whose spiritual culture is based in mythology. Their musical culture is closely connected with the peculiarities of their worldview. The texts of lullabies use magical motifs and have a close connection to Ainu mythological ideas. For the first time in Russian musicology, the characteristic features of Ainu lullabies in the field of timbre, pitch, mode, meter, rhythm, and composition are analyzed in detail. Close contacts of the Ainu with various ethnic groups, especially the Nivkhs and Uilta (Oroks), led to the interpenetration of their cultures, directly reflected in the similarity of their lullabies.

References

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For citation

Mamcheva N. A. Lullabies of the Ainu. Traditional Culture. 2024. Vol. 25. No. 3. Pp. 99–110. In Russian.