M.N. Zhirkov – the first researcher of the Yakut khomus: questions of origin, execution, existence

Abstract

The article is devoted to a previously unexplored problem - M.N. Zhirkov's study of the Yakut khomus, the study of which he undertook for the first time in the history of Yakut musical culture. The author of this article summarizes for the first time the aspects posed by the researcher about the Yakut khomus. The subject of research is the scientific views of M.N. Zhirkov about the Yakut musical instrument - the khomus. The object of study is the scientific heritage of the first Yakut composer and an outstanding musical figure. The main results of our research are the following theses. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was an increase in interest in traditional musical instruments and their performing practices. This statement is also relevant in relation to the Yakut khomus, which in modern conditions is experiencing its revival and active introduction into musical and cultural turnover. The article uses a retrospective and historical-comparative, as well as a comprehensive research method, in which the khomus is considered as an integral part of the traditional, and now wider, musical culture of the Yakuts, taking into account the data available today from archaeology, ethnography, and history. M.N. Zhirkov is presented as the first researcher of the Yakut khomus and as the composer and founder of the national school of composition. In the fundamental work "Yakut folk Music", published only after almost half a century after author's death (a new edition of this study dates back to 2022, made in an edition preserving the style and position of M.N. Zhirkov from the standpoint of the historical time when the famous scientific work was created), its author for the first time turned his gaze to the issues of the origin, existence, and functioning of the khomus in the traditional musical culture of the Yakuts. The materials presented by him have not previously been generalized in the scientific literature and are of great interest to modern researchers of the Yakut Khomus.