Yakut toyuk of the vilyuy regional tradition

This article examines the Yakut toyuk of the Vilyui regional tradition. The authors identify the main criteria for the transmission of the Yakut toyuk within this tradition. The first criterion of tradition is identified as the continuity of the Vilyui regional song tradition, which lies in the oral transmission of the toyuk performance. The second criterion is the system of imagery in the Vilyui toyuk . One of the central images in the toyuk of the Vilyui regional tradition is the image of the girl Suokhaldyiya Tolbonnookh (The Luminous). The third criterion of the Vilyui regional tradition is defined as the compositional and stylistic system. It consists of three parts: an introductory beginning, a main part, and a concluding part. The poetics of the Vilyui toyuks are characterized by epithets of complex structure–extended and layered epithets. The fourth criterion of the Vilyui regional tradition is a specific singing style – eten yllyyr (literally: singing by pronouncing the words). Musicologists such as E. E. Alekseev, G. G. Alekseeva, A. S. Larionova, and others emphasize this stylistic feature as being unique to the Vilyui song tradition. In the process of mastering continuity, an interaction occurs between the old and new traditions, whereby the new tradition is built upon the foundation of the old one. The transmission and preservation of the Vilyui regional tradition of the Yakut toyuk lie in the actualization of its continuity, its system of imagery, and its compositional and stylistic features.