Get started
Work

Письма Р. А. Иванова Н. Ф. Финдейзену (1911–1914): к истории изучения традиционной бурятской музыкальной культуры

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Introduction. Rafail Aleksandrovich Ivanov (1869–1915) was a prominent musical figure of the early 20th century, who lived in Irkutsk from 1900 to 1915 and had a significant impact on the development and study of Siberian musical culture. He was one of the founders and directors of a private music school, a composer, a piano teacher and a music theorist, a lecturer, an educator, a music critic, a musical ethnographer, and a photographer. The purpose of this article is to introduce new archival documents into scientific circulation that reveal the least studied area of R. A. Ivanov’s work: the study of Buryat traditional musical culture, for which he conducted several ethnographic expeditions in 1909–1914. Additionally, these are the first personal documents related to the musician. Materials. Letters from R. A. Ivanov to the editor of the Russkaya Muzykalnaya Gazeta, N.F. Findeisen, from 1911 to 1914, which are stored in the Department of Manuscripts at the National Library of Russia, as well as Ivanov’s articles on music and ethnography in periodicals. Results. The analysis of the letters has shown that the documents are significant sources in two research areas: the discovery of new facts and the clarification of previously known information about R. A. Ivanov’s biography (one of the letters even includes a brief autobiography), as well as the study of his expeditionary activities. R. A. Ivanov was the first professional musician to conduct a series of expeditions to the indigenous Buryat region in order to discover and analyze the Buryat traditional musical culture as a holistic phenomenon that includes folk and religious music, as well as vocal and instrumental music. The results of the expeditions and observations made at the ethnographic evenings were reflected in the printed articles; the letters reveal the course of the musical and ethnographic work, as well as the difficulties that arose during the study of traditional Buryat music. In addition, the documents reveal R. A. Ivanov’s involvement in the formation of the collection of instruments by N. F. Findeisen.
DOI: 10.22162/2500-1523-2026-1-141-154
Language: Russian
Subfield: Music
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7206200854
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: 10