Vikár László: Cheremis folksongs (Budapest, 1971)
L. VIKÁR AND G. BERECZKI CHEREMIS FOLKSONGS The “Cheremis Folksongs” summarizes the results of a long research accomplished in common by ethnomusicologist László Vikar and linguist Gábor Bereczki, whose attention was directed by Zoltán Kodály to this domain. They together visited six times during 13 years the Finno- Ugrian and Turkic peoples living in the Central-Volga region. Of their extensive original collection some 320 folksongs give here a comprehensive picture of the musical dialects of the Eastern, the Forest and the Mountain Cheremis. The characteristics of Cheremis folk music are thoroughly analysed in an introductory essay, containing a critical survey of the former collections, too. The method of arranging the material deviates from earlier practice: the tunes follow each other in a musical order so as to simplify identification and facilitate comparison with foreign musical styles. The textual part has also been given special treatment in an introductory study clarifying questions of dialectal separation of Cheremis idiom, folklore beliefs and customs and their social-historical background. All song-texts are transcribed according to international practice. The commentary notes contain data of melody and text and references to earlier-published variants. As regards the song-texts, the book is trilingual inasmuch as also word-by-word translations