Author's song as an intangible cultural heritage in the context of the centuries-old oral song culture

Consideration of a Russian author´s (bard) song of the second half of the twentieth century in the context of a centuries-old song culture gives the reason to identify this phenomenon as an intangible cultural heritage, dating back to the ancient times of human existence. The article shows that the main feature which draws together the songs of the people in a preliterate culture and modern songs of the "bards", is the belonging of both to the oral song tradition. Public recognition of the values accumulated by an art song for more than half a century necessitates carrying out the research and implementing practical actions aimed at the preservation and systematization of the currently available array of these songs recorded on modern storage media.