Outstanding mentors of Ersary’s style

   The musical culture of the Turkmen people is characterized by an abundance of genres and performing traditions. Ersary is one of the largest Turkmen tribes living in the Lebab velayat (region). Bakhshy (traditional singers) Ersary’s singing style is distinguished by a peculiar soft and melodic delivery of voice, which distinguishes them from other local schools. A number of articles by local journalists are devoted to the musical and poetic heritage of bakhshy Ersary. There are articles published in newspapers and magazines memoirs of the elders about individual bakhshys and bearers of the epic tradition. At the same time, special studies that reveal from a scientific point of view the entire panorama of the existence of the Ersary school (Ersary Yoly), repertoire, timbre originality and other performing features of the bakhshys of this direction have not been undertaken to date.
   The purpose of this article is to describe the prominent representatives of the Ersary Yoly, observing the chronology of their life, to characterize the genre repertoire and the originality of the performing style of this school.

   To achieve this goal, historical and comparative-typological research methods were used. For the first time, an attempt has been made in the work of a musicological analysis of issues related to the performing repertoire, genre diversity and stylistic features of bakhshy Ersary.

   The novelty and relevance of the article lies in the fact that it contains information about the richest fund of genres that are typical for this region, but have not yet been introduced into scientific circulation.

   The presented information about the performing style of the Ersary will fill the gap in the description of the unique directions of the Turkmen bakhshy schools. The results of the study present the chronological information about the mentors and followers of Ersary Yoly, as well as a description of their performance features. The genre varieties of bakhshy Ersary described in the article are of interest both to musicologists and to folk performers of other schools. The remoteness of the Lebap region from the capital center of Turkmenistan influenced the preservation of original vocal, instrumental and epic genres by Ersary performers. Similar genre varieties, with their specific features, were also widespread in other performing areas, but most of them have now come out of performing practice.

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