Musical folklore of the Yurt Tatars and the Nogai-Karagash of Astrakhan oblast as a marker of ethnocultural identity

The study aims to describe the common and unique genre and style characteristics of the ethnomusical heritage of the Yurt Tatars and the Nogai-Karagash, peoples similar in ethnolinguistic terms, and to analyse the influence of these common characteristics on their ethnocultural identity. The basis for the research was the field materials collected over the past decades by researchers of the traditional culture of the peoples of the Lower Volga region and the results of research by ethnomusicologists, ethnographers, ethnologists, linguists, and literary scholars. Of great importance are the field data the author collected in Astrakhan and in settlements previously traditionally considered villages of the Yurt Tatars. The methodological basis is an approach within a constructivist framework where ethnic identity is seen as a construct formed under the influence of numerous factors, including traditional musical culture. Another methodological basis directly related to the objective component of the problem under study is transcultural diffusionism. The research consists of two successive stages: the first reveals the ethnohistorical aspects of the problem, the second presents the ethnomusicological research. At the first stage, the author (1) reconstructs the process of settling the Lower Volga region from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 19th century, (2) reveals the features of contacts between the ethnic groups inhabiting the region, (3) determines the features of the peoples’ ethnic self-identification, which intensively developed in the last quarter of the 20th century, and (4) identifies the modern level of the development of the ethnic identity of the Yurt Tatars and the Nogai-Karagash. At the second stage, the author carries out ethnomusicological analysis of two genres characteristic of both the Yurts Tatars and the Nogai-Karagash: the epic khushavaz and the instrumental sazda soyleshu genres. The comparative analysis of the genres shows that the common features at the genre, musical-lexical and performing levels are directly related to the ethnic identity of these peoples and are ethno-uniting features that developed during close interethnic interaction. Local samples of works, their plots and content are often unique for each ethnic group and thus play an ethno-differentiating role.