MADINAKAY
“MADINAKAY”, Bashkir ethnic song, uzun-kuy. First registered in the 1940s by Z.G. Ismagilov, published in “Bashkort khalk yirdary” collection. The song is based on the legend about a girl called Madina and her sad destiny. She was forced to marry a man she did not love and soon she became a widow. According to the tradition, she married her dead husband’s younger brother. According to another version of the legend, Madina married again a beloved person, but envious rich men’s sons caught and murdered her husband. Unable to live through this terrible grief, Madina died. The song is lyrical, it has a variable metro beat structure. The melody is richly ornamented with intramural chants sung in fifth and sixth intervals. The gradually ascending and descending movement of the melody makes the song especially expressive.
G.A. Ishkinina