Soviet Union 1964

Recordings made in Central Asia, Siberia, and Russia, collected in 1964.
In 1964 Alan Lomax visited the Soviet Union to attend the International Anthropological and Ethnological Congress in Moscow and to gather recordings for his comparative research on folk song style. Ethnomusicologist Anna Rudneva guided Lomax through ethnomusicology archives in Leningrad and Moscow, where he made copies of recordings from former Soviet nationalities and ethnic groups, including Tatar (c. 1956); Chukot, Ket, and Koryak (collected by Boris Mikhailovich Dobrovol’skiǐ, c. 1956); Chukchee (collected by the Moscow Conservatory, c. 1939 and Eduard Yefimovich Alekseyev, c. 1960); Ostiak (collected by Beryozov and Salekhard, c. 1952); Uzbek; Kazakh; Kirghiz; Buryat; Chuvash (c. 1958); Georgian (presented by the Georgian Union of Composers, edited by Grigol Z. Ckhikvadze, A. Georgeashvili, and Vladimir V. Akhobadze); Bashkir (c. 1958); Tajik; Turkmen; Kalmyk; Tuvin; Russian; Mansi; Samoyede; and others held in the Rudneva Collection, the Moscow State Conservatory Collection, the Georgian Conservatory of Music, Radio Moscow, the Recording Archives of the Russian Institute of Literature and other repositories. Alan Lomax was also presented with materials by the collectors themselves, including Ossetian recordings (from Madam Kseniya G. Tskhurbaeva, collected in Ossetia region, U.S.S.R., c. 1960); Mordva recordings (given to Lomax by Georgii Ivanovich Suraev-Korolev); Yukaghir, Yakut, and Even recordings (from Eduard Yefimovich Alekseyev). Lomax himself recorded and interviewed artists from Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Russia. There are approximately ten hours of material altogether.

ACE has preserved and made high quality digitized copies of this superb collection. While only a small portion of it was recorded by Alan Lomax, this is a rare opportunity to make these materials available. The documentation was sparse, but thanks to Eduard Yefimovich Alekseyev and Ted Levin, most of the songs and collectors have been identified.

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Session Region,Country Date
Azerbaijan 8/64 Azerbaijan (unspecified), Azerbaijan 8/13/1964
Bashkir 8/64 Bashkortostan, Russia 08/1964
Buryat 8/64 Buryatiya, Russia 08/1964
Georgian 8/64 Georgia (unspecified), Georgia 08/1964
Georgian II 8/64 Georgia (unspecified), Georgia 08/1964
Georgian III 8/64 Georgia (unspecified), Georgia 08/1964
Kalmyk 8/64 Kalmykiya, Russia 08/1964
Kazakh 8/64 Kazakhstan (unspecified), Kazakhstan 08/1964
Kirghiz 8/64 Kyrgyzstan (unspecified), Kyrgyzstan 08/1964
Mordva 8/64 Mordoviya, Russia 08/1964
Ossetian 8/64 Severnaya Osetiya-Alaniya, Russia 08/1964
Russian I 8/64 Moskovskaya Oblast', Russia 8/13/1964
Russian II 8/64 Russia (unspecified), Russia 8/24/1964
Tajik 8/64 Tajikistan (unspecified), Tajikstan 08/1964
Tatar 8/64 Tatarstan, Russia 08/1964
Turkmen 8/64 Turkmenistan (unspecified), Turkmenistan 08/1964
Tuva 8/64 Tyva, Russia 08/1964
Uzbek 8/64 Uzbekistan (unspecified), Uzbekistan 08/1964
Various Soviet Union I 8/64 Russia (unspecified), Russia 08/1964
Various Soviet Union II 8/64 Russia (unspecified), Russia 08/1964
Various Soviet Union III 8/64 Russia (unspecified), Russia 08/1964
Various Soviet Union IV 8/64 Russia (unspecified), Russia 08/1964
Yakut 8/64 Armenia (unspecified), Armenia 8/9/1964
Yukaghir and Even 8/64 Sakha, Russia 08/1964
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