Anisimov Nikolai, Pchelovodova Irina. Songs of Eastern Udmurts / UdmFRC UR RAS; Estonian Literary Museum. 2nd edition. Tartu–Izhevsk, 2025. Issue I. 558 p.: ill. (Udmurt Folklore)
The second expanded edition is the result of many years of scholarly work on documenting, systematizing, and publishing samples of the song folklore of the eastern group of Udmurts (Eastern Udmurts), residing in the Republic of Bashkortostan. This ethnographic group formed in the 16th–18th centuries due to the migration of Udmurts beyond the Kama River, to the territories of modern-day Republic of Bashkortostan, Perm Krai, and Sverdlovsk Oblast. The Eastern Udmurts are distinguished by a unique set of ethnocultural features, including dialectal peculiarities, traditional clothing, the preservation of animistic beliefs, and noticeable Turkic influence.
This publication continues the “Udmurt Folklore” series, which showcases local Udmurt song traditions. The book includes texts and musical notations of ritual songs recorded in 23 villages in the interfluve of the Buy and Bystry Tanyp rivers. It features calendar, wedding, conscription, funeral-memorial, and guest songs. The edition aims to consolidate samples of the song tradition and provide a general characterization of the musical-song folklore of the Eastern diaspora.
The song texts are published in the Udmurt language, preserving dialectal features, accompanied by translations into Russian and English, as well as QR codes and a USB flash drive with field audio recordings.
The book is intended for specialists in ethnomusicology, folklore studies, linguistics, and cultural anthropology, as well as anyone interested in the musical-poetic tradition of Finno-Ugric peoples.
This edition is dedicated to the outstanding folklorist, Doctor of Philological Sciences, founder of the “Udmurt Folklore” series, who made an immense contribution to the work on this publication — Tatiana Vladykina.
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The study was prepared within the framework of the French UIF research project ‘Interdisciplinary study of the animistic minority in Russia: rituals, customs and social activism of Eastern Udmurts today’ (2018-2022).
The project ‘Kaama-taguste udmurtide rituaalsete laulude kogumiku valmistamine’ (‘Preparation of a song collection of ritual songs of the Eastern Udmurts’) was implemented with the financial support of the Estonian Kindred Peoples Programme (Hõimurahvaste programm).
The publication was supported by a research grant from the Estonian Literary Museum (EKM 8-2/20/3) within the framework of Finno-Ugric Studies of the Department of Folkloristics.