Homo Lyricus, or Lyric Song in the Ethnomusicological Stratigraphy of “Folkloric Culture”: Notes for a Monograph (part 2)

Abstract

"Authors concentrate on the very fact that there existed among the cultures of Eurasia songs resembling Japanese oiwake, this uniquely sophisticated form that were also in some respects analogous to it in significance. That solo-performed lyric “long” song is an international phenomenon, one that is found to this day along practically the entire length of the Great Silk Road. Such masterworks constitute one-of-a-kind creative products that are, as it were, Mona Lisas of oral tradition. Authors gave the creator of lyric songs, the lyric singer and poet, the name Homo Lyricus. The article consists of six sections: Just how unique is oiwake? (preface); Methodological foundations (after Boris Putilov); Toward future research: hypotheses and limitations; Lyric drawn-out song in the great expanse of typological succession; On the problem of authorship in Eurasian drawn-out song; Some concluding theses on freedom as the essence of lyric song; and a musical supplement. Note: “folkloric culture,” as opposed to “folk culture,” the term is Boris Putilov’s. Keywords: ethnomusicology, folkloristics, lyric singer and poet, lyric long solo song, drawn-out song, oiwake, urtyn duu, ozyn кüi, hora lungă, typological succession, Great Silk Road, Eurasia, Boris Putilov. "