https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3470-5474
E-mail: agiki@mail.ru; dvaryae2012@mail.ru Tel.: +7 (411) 234-44-60
4, Ordzhonikidze str., Yakutsk, 677000, Russian Federation
PhD in Arts, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts
Nadezhda N. Varlamova
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5488-7042
E-mail: nadikanaspirantura@gmail.com Tel.: +7 (964) 415-11-35
23a, Kirov str., Yakutsk, 677027, Russian Federation
Postgraduate student, Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts, Teacher, Department of Solo and Choral Folk Singing, M. N. Zhirkov Yakutsk Musical College
The Northern Sakha, whose nearest neighbors are the Evens and Evenki, indigenous small-population peoples of the North, are natives of the Arctic and Subarctic uluses (districts) of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). This article deals with the varieties of “degeren” style chants with specific types of phonation that exist in the traditional song culture of the Northern Sakha people. These include chants with guttural wheezes (khabargha yryata), palatal singing (tangalai yryata), nasal singing (murun yryata) and twangy singing (khongsuo yrya). Unlike chants with similar types of phonation in central Yakutia, the northern Sakha chants are characterized by a ceremonial function. Chants in the manner of tangalai yryata, khabarga yryata and khongsuo yrya have special timbre preambles with specific sounds of inhalation and exhalation. A distinctive feature of the manner of murun yryata is the intonation of the whole chant in a nasalized manner. The article is based on the authors’ field materials recorded in 2014 and 2024 in the Abyisky and Verkhoyanskiy uluses of Yakutia; field materials collected by Yu. I. Sheykin; and the existing secondary literature. It attempts to draw conclusions on the varieties of degeren-style songs with specific types of phonation that appear in central and northern Yakutia. Further, it juxtaposes an analysis of Northern Sakha songs with their manner of performance in terms of intonation type and genre specificity; notations of previously unstudied songs are given, and the term “murun yryata” is clarified.
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