The Fifth International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony ...

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Alla Sokolova
one singer should stop, and who would be the next 7 .
<strong>The</strong> above examples show that until the 20 th century different variants of Amoebean singing had survived:
antiphonal-heterophonal (two soloists singing alternately and together) and solo-drone singing (the song is
performed by the soloists accompanied by the zhyu, one or several singers being soloists). Is it possible to
reconstruct one of the most ancient forms of Adyghe singing on the basis of these “remnants”? Is it possible
to assert that in the past the Amoebean form of performing occupied a more significant position in the Adyghe
musical culture? <strong>The</strong>re is not sufficient musical material to give a positive answer to these questions, though
“the remnants” of Amoebean form of singing reveal new aspects and characteristic features of the traditional
Adyghe culture.
It should be noted that in this paper the genre zefeuse is not touched upon, firstly because it has been
thoroughly studied in scholarly literature (Naloev, 1978; Unarokova, 1998, 2004; Unarokova, Shipkishekher,
1999: 92), and secondly the dominating performing form of this humorous genre is alternate singing of a
soloist without the choir accompaniment and without joining the voices in the ensemble. My attention is
focused on the male solo-group and solo-ensemble singing, when two soloists sing both in turn and together.
In my opinion, alternate singing does not only have ancient roots but it also manifests a definite social
timing to some event. <strong>The</strong> popular manner of performing songs by two soloists must be associated with the cult
and magic of collective labour of peasants, meaning practical “passing on the baton”. <strong>The</strong> Amoebean singing
accompanying hard physical work provided the necessary respite to a group or a separate person.
Alternate interchanging of soloists is natural in the songs consisting of many stanzas, which take a long
time to perform and have a free metric-rhyuthmical character: I conventionally call these songs lengthy 8 .
Two soloists make is easier for each other to perform long epic songs, providing a concert drama element, a
game-competition, mutual challenge. <strong>The</strong>y allow each voice to rest, to physically and emotionally “tune up”
for performing new stanzas.
Alternate singing also has a definite relation with the device of direct speech, characteristic of the poetic
texts of many epic, historic songs, gybze (funeral dirges) and especially of the so-called purifying songs, in
which the good name of the hero is “restored”. In the songs in my possession direct speech is present in the
performance of one soloist, but when the song was divided into stanzas and sung by different soloists, it can be
concluded that some time, when direct speech was used, the second or the third soloist would begin singing.
<strong>The</strong> direct speech per se in the male solo-drone singing may have been ascribed to different heroes, among
them to women, lifeless things and natural phenomena as well. With some caution it may be conjectured that
greater part of direct speech in old Adyghe songs is not only a poetical device, but also a rudiment of the
Amoebean performance.
In a sense alternate performing of a song is an expression of Adyghe ethos, indicating what distinctive
features should be characteristic of an Adyghe man. Knowing the legend the song was based on and the
song proper was a must within the Khacheshch for a warrior-man. Alternate singing of the stanzas meant
that each member of the group associated himself with the traditional community. A good memory and the
ability to catch up the song at a suitable moment meant “elevating” the man to the equal position with worthy
members of the community. <strong>The</strong> one present at Khacheshch was trusted to sing certain stanzas only if he
was believed to know the words and could perform the song properly. This trust facilitated each participant’s
greater responsibility for deep and exact knowledge of the song’s content (musical and poetical) and for the
artistic level of its presentation. High-quality performing of the song in the Adyghe culture of the period of
chivalry meant that the man had the virtue equal to horsemanship and a skilful use of military weapons. In a