Crane tunes and dances in Kalmyk traditional culture

Abstract

The article is devoted to the documentation of music-related phenomena of the Togrun Bi (Crane dance of Kalmyks). The traditional music of Kalmyks is deeply rooted in the culture of Oirad. The new geographical and ethnic environment changed and transformed it. The most obvious shift took place in the dances and musical instruments (their organology, performing style, and tunes). At the same time, on this outskirt of the Mongolian world, some unique forms and genres have been preserved. The sources of the present research are field materials collected by author in late 1990 th in Kalmykia: non-fiarytale prose, two-string dombra tunes with singing, onomatopoeia, and round dances. The participants of Сrane praising ritual were women and children. Similar components are revealed in the ritual Togrugan biilulkhm (Force Crane to dance) and Ova täkh (a sacrifice to a host-spirit of the place). In personal stories and memoires, the mythologic idea of the curse cast by cranes made a connection to arrests, exile and other tragic events in the history of the Kalmyks in the XX century. Characteristics of Crane dances is presented in the musical notations (made by author) and their description. There are the similarities between the Kalmyk round dance with imitations of Crane movements and calls (video recording from the settlement of Yashkul) and circular dances of Evenki, Yakuts, and some other Turkic-languages peoples of Siberia. These rare elements of Kalmyk tradition trail to the regions of South Siberia and Central Asia, from where some Oirad groups brought it to Volga region.