PEROVSKIY, song

“PEROVSKIY”, “Perovskiy march”, Bashkir ethnic naigrysh melody. First registered by K.B. Shubert, published in the book “Music and songs of the Ural Muslims and their household description”. Naigrysh resembles a dancing march. Its origin is connected with the expedition led by V.A. Perovskiy in 1853 to the Kokand fortress Ak-Mechet. According to one of the  egends, the unit of Perovskiy’s warriors included 20 kuray players. They had been playing the quaray all the way to Ak-Mechet, and so the soldiers conquered the fortress without fighting. During the celebration of the victory a quaray player Makhmut-sesen composed a melody and played it to Perovskiy, after whom the music later was named. The variant with poetic lyrics was registered by A.S. Klyucharyev from I. Zaynetdinov in Uchaly District BASSR. The lyrics registered by S.A. Galin express the army’s dissatisfaction with Perovskiy. The base of the melody is re-intonated hopak; it is characterized with active strong-willed intonation; the melodic structure is characterized with regularity. The melody of “P.” was used in Schubert’s string quartet “My trip to the Kirgiz steppes”, L.B. Stepanov and Z.G. Ismagilov’s ballet “Crane song”. There is a self-titled military-hunting ethnic dance (solo). It appeared in the 19th century. According to one of the versions it was choreographed by Yusuf Karamyshev who participated in the campaign. It was first performed on the professional stage by F.A. Gaskarov in 1932 in Ufa. Much attention is paid to hand gestures: they imitate hunting skills (stringing a bow, archery, lashes, hunting birds’ flight imitation and others); they are accompanied with stumpling. In the 1950s appeared an advanced variant of the dance, which was named “The hunter”.

G.A. Ishkinina, L.A. Nagaeva