BAIK

“BAIK” (“Bajyk”), is 1) a Bashkir ethnic song, kyska-kuy style. First the melody was written down by S.G. Rybakov in 1892 in the Kazakkulovo village of Verkhneuralskiy District (current Uchalinskiy District of RB) from a the quray (national instrument) player Islam Muratov. It was published in “Music and songs of the Ural Muslims and their household description”. According to the legend, Baik- Aydar dedicated “B.” to Bashk. victorious soldiers who’d returned from the Patriotic War of 1812. The melody of the song has a clear marching rhythm, square structure and wide jump­like moves. It has several variants: “Old Baik”, “Kinyabay Baik”, “Mushtar Baik”, “Forest Baik”, “Baik of Khaybulla” and others. The “B.” melody is used in “Crane song” ballet by L.B. Stepanov and Z.G. Ismagilov.

2) Bashk. ethnic dance (solo). Initially the dance was heroic and epic. It existed in a syncretic unity of poetic text, music, elements of drama play and pantomime. In the 19th c. it became an independent genre and lost its connection with epic. It appeared on the professional stage in the 1930’s and was performed by G.G. Ushanov who created the original version of the dance. Usually it is performed by a mature dancer humorously expressing a skillful young man, a warrior­rider, an old man with great life experience but still cheerful and optimistic. The climax is accompanied by exclamations or quatrains. M.R. Idrisov presented his own variant of the dance called “Old Baik”.