On the Structural and Semantic Features of Nanai Songs of the Agbaba Historical Region

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to study the archaic features of the Nanai musical language, which is one of the genres of authentic musical folklore of the Agbaba historical region. Agbaba is one of the ethno-cultural zones of Azerbaijan, distinguished by its diverse genre system of musical folklore. It should be noted that the Agbaba region is now part of the Republic of Armenia and has been called Amasia since 1930. Historically, this region was inhabited by ancient Turkic tribes, which played a significant role in the ethnogenesis of Azerbaijan, and until the end of the twentieth century was famous for its cultural and ethnographic traditions. Research methodology. The article analyses from the semiotic point of view the samples of one of the genres of authentic folklore of the region – Nanai. According to the author, the use of semiotic methods of analysis can help to identify archetypal patterns of samples of the Nanai genre. Based on the analysis of the fretting and metro-rhythmic features of the musical language, the general typological model of the studied genre is determined. The scientific novelty of the research is that for the first time in ethnomusicology, the semantic analysis of samples of the Nanai genre, which was an integral part of the ceremonial culture of ancient Azerbaijanis, is carried out in this article. Conclusions. Based on the collected musical and ethnographic material and the analysis, it was concluded that the peculiarities of the Nanai musical language played an important role in the semantic content of various rites, distinguished by their syncretic nature. Notably, signs of syncretism are also manifested in the peculiarities of the musical language of Nanai samples that have survived to this day. For example, some kinetic musical signs testify to the applied function of Nanai samples. This fact eloquently testifies to the fact that the Nanai genre is of considerable interest from the point of view of modern ethnomusicology.