GUMEROV

“GUMEROV”,  a  Bashkir  ethnic  song, uzun-kuy. First registered by I.V. Saltykov in 1930 in the Avzelilovskiy District, BASSR. It is published in the “Bashkort khalk yirdary” col­ lection by Z.G. Ismagilov. The song is lyro­-dra­matic. According to the legend, the name of the song is connected with the name of Galoakbar Gumerov, who lived in Rakhmetovo village, Kubelyak­Televskaya county, Verkhneuralskiy District (Abzelilovskiy District, RB). Protect­ ing his people from the local authorities’ op­pression, Gumerov confronted them and had to hide. (According to one of the versions, he was the head of the kubelyak and telyau families). He composed the song before his death. Ac­cording to another variant of the legend, the song  was  composed  by  the  quaray  players Koloy and Ravil as the last wish of families’ head, Gumerov. The main intra­syllabic chant of “G.” melody is based on smooth singing in major pentatonic canons. Then the melody var­ies twice. The final phrase makes the song more dramatic.

G.S. Galina