The classes of Karachay folk music

Let us take a closer look at the tune classes and groups one by one. I give a short description of each of them with some examples. This will give the reader a glimpse of the most important tune forms of Karachay folk music. If one have listened and learnt the examples in the analysis part, he won’t come across striking novelties in Karachay folk music any more. Obviously, all the subtle characteristics of Karachay folk music will reveal themselves to those who study carefully the appended scores and listen to all the tunes on the e-book.

Class 1: Rotating or plagal motion (№ 1−8)

Class 1: Rotating or plagal motion (№ 1−8)

Archaic tunes of diverse origin are gathered in Class 1. It includes tunes rotating round the middle tone of the E-D-C trichord (1), some leaping round the notes of the B-A-E, tritone (8) and some with descending-ascending plagal motion (2-5, Ex.1). What they share in common is being different from the majority of Karachay tunes that are built of descending or convex lines. It is noteworthy that the motif rotating round its mid-tone is a basic pattern of Hungarian children’s songs, and the tune that ends rising is a major form of Hungarian regölés. The relevances to Hungarian folk music will be explicated in detail in the chapter “Connections between Hungarian and Karachay folk music”.

Ex.1. a) Descending-ascending Gollu tune of the old religion,
b) Hungarian regös tune (MNT II, № 866)