Zaur Nagoy Glory of one singer

ZAUR NAGOY: THE GLORY OF ONE SINGER

Interview with performer of Adyghe folk songs, musician, honored worker of culture of the Republic of Adyghea (RA) Zaur Nagoy

"The singer's glory is as highly appreciated as a glory of warrior, and is especially high if these qualities are combined in one person.  Singing is highly appreciated, and, as a rule, warlike and love songs are performed; at the same time, there are sung the beautiful past or the present. The singer often acts as an improviser and therefore he can sing all that they propose to him. When well-known songs are performing, the attention of the whole society is attracted more by the fact that certain words or poetry are recited " /Karl Koch, 1836-1838/

- In the ancient times, as different sources indicate, folk singers were highly appreciated. In your opinion, is the authentic performance highly appreciated today? Is it prestigious? Is it in demand?

Z. N.: I’ll answer short. Yes! Recently we participated in one concert in Moscow. I was surprised that the public was largely not the Circassians and people of other nationalities. And they asked such interesting questions that even we were surprised. They asked questions directly and specifically. It was evident the audience understood quite well the subject. We didn't even know that they were so interested in the method of singing a particular song. Of course, the conclusion is it’s necessary to familiarize people with folk songs. And I really liked this dialogue with the audience.
Honestly, I can't say whether it's prestigious or not. Personally, I perform old songs because I like it. Singing Adyghe songs is not a job for me. I like this. I love them, so I perform them.

- Adyghe singers have always been great improvisers and they have known to "sing all that they proposed them." Why did they do it then? And today do performers of authentic singing do it?
Z. N.: Yeah, they are always improvising. For example, one abadzeh called Khartsyz Ale Dzhanchatov, who was one of the most famous riders of Cherkessia, was just a great improviser. But today, when we perform old songs, we try not to change anything in them. So, I myself and all artists I know, we are trying to keep ancient texts and melodies. Today we try not to improvise, but to perform an original version of song accurately as possible.

- Is it possible to say that in ancient times they improvised to talk their own story that was experienced by them?

Z. N.: So, we will define what means an "improvisation". If it's relative to words or melody, of course, we improvise a little. Sometimes. Before, I used to sing word for word, note for note. But with the time, I understood it isn’t necessary. It's very hard to perform a song exactly like that. And it will not work, no matter how hard we will try. It's a live performance. Therefore, sometimes we change a little, add or omit something from original text. In fact, the main thing is that we sing with soul. And to improvise in the sense that you mean, we need more knowledge of material. The actual state of song folklore has not reached the critical mass which could give in his environment the great improvisers. Although this doesn’t mean that talented performers can’t appear. To think about it, it’s necessary to know well culture, to listen constantly old performers, to "be in material". But today they aren’t enough.

- The camping trip song... James Bell called it "the military aria of highlanders." What are features of Adyghe campaign song? Did it serve to raise the spirit of soldiers or just to accompany them on trips?

Z. N.: We can say both. As it was described by those same travelers, there were the dzheguakos who during the battle, standing at full height in the saddle, started to sing a song and warriors confused came to themselves, took the order and happily came out of difficult situation. And it was a demonstration of courage and bravery. Meanwhile, the Circassians had another interesting manner of performance of songs, so-called "tsape wered". Do you know what it is? It's when they sing on the road, sitting in the saddle. Tsape means a tip of tooth. This singing is executed less than in hushed tones. This song accompanied horsemen on the trip.  And the sound was produced in such way that it wasn’t clear whether the words were pronounced or not. But later, in khachesh (in the house for guests), after such training, it was possible to perform any song safely and in full voice.
Interesting fact is some of the most famous performers in khachesh were paid. And there was no shame.

- Do you have in your repertoire songs where you recite more than sing, so, you perform in manner of recitative? Do you have many such songs? And do you like this manner of performance?

Z. N.: Yes, I like this manner, I like to perform recitative. If you ask where it started, I will answer as follows. A few years ago, when I began to study more closely the songs of the Narts epic poetry, I began to find special fascinating lyric texts, and then I faced with the manner of recitative. No, of course, there were more chant among them. But less. I have known the songs from the epic poetry were performed more often with recitative. That's first! Second, I must be honest, I don’t have a very subtle hearing. For execution of more chant versions, it’s enough for me that
I have, but no more. But the recitative is a clear and rhythmic way of performance allowing giving a lot of emotions to text. And I really like it very much.

– At one time, European travelers considered Adyghe folk music monotonous, and its mood melancholic. As a professional folk singer, do you agree with this?

Z. N.: Yes, it’s right! Then the main thing in the song was words, not melody. In fact, today few of the Adyghes can accurately understand texts of ancient songs, not to mention the epic poetry. And it’s composed with a beautiful, imaginative language. Few people read the Narts epic poetry. Namely, reading it, telling it, we come to its deeper understanding. For example, the audience understands 20-25 percent of 100 percent of the text during recitation. And then we begin to analyse it. We say each word separately, we ask what it means, and we see it’s already clear about 80 percent of text. The remaining 20 percent are words that have been out of use for a long time. So, just constantly reading and analysing the epic poetry, we can understand it. In addition, it can greatly enrich the modern language. For Russians and representatives of other peoples who don’t know our language, it’s difficult to appreciate the Adyghe folk song. The whole sense is in text. It has a big meaning! How beautiful is the Narts epic poetry, and its songs!  There are fascinating imagery, rhythm, phrase’s length, combination of sounds in words ... Yeah, it’s no matter what kind of songs we will take. We have a lot of heroic songs of the Caucasian war period, ritual, comic and many others songs. Words, combination of words, their rhythm and structure create a beautiful presentation of the whole song.

- Today it’s raised a question about creation of the musical Khachesh in Adygea? In your opinion, is it necessary, will it be in demand?

Z. N.: As they say, good luck! It’s interesting what it would be like. I have no idea yet. But if it appears, I will definitely perform there.

- In the same 30-ies years of the 19-th century, as Karl Koch noted, it was extremely difficult to record separated samples of Circassian songs, examples were known thanks to De Marigny, Bell, Neumann and other researchers. Were those songs you successfully perform today recorded in that period? Or did the people preserve them: from generation to generation?

Z. N.: Yes, we have songs that we know today thanks to European authors. They are interesting, first of all, by possibility of their comparison with modern recordings. I don't understand much in that, but as experts say, it is quite difficult to record Adyghe songs with the musical notation. And when we try to learn a song “at sight”, it always lacks something. The soul? Therefore, the songs I sing were taken from the expedition audio recordings of our ethnographers (thank them very much), or directly from the authentic holders. Whatever we say, the song culture of the Adyghes is a result of creativity of the written-free people. And it should be sounded, first of all. Therefore, I have a great dream to vocalize the Narts epic poetry, the whole. All known texts. Today, thank God, we and Kabarda, and even abroad have performers who are able to do it. Shapsug texts will be sounded by the Shapsugs, Kabardians texts by the Kabardians, etc. There is a big work, but, in my opinion, it’s very worthy.

- In the Adyghe singing culture, it was common singing motif or zhyu (a knight's cry or choral supporting voice). And they said it: "he accompanies him with his voice and he beats clearly tact with every single note" (James Bell).Is this authentic singing manner inherent only to the Adyghe people? And what association do you have with the word "Zhyu"?

Z. N.: Zhyu had a great importance. When the men were going to hike, they called each other by a cry "zhyu". To date, there were done many studies on the meaning of zhyu in the Adyghe folk song. We are talking about works of our researchers on collective singing. I will not name them specifically just right now, but they are available. Read them! Many of them are very well and cleverly written. You need to read them. I want to tell only one thing: an old man said: "Circassian song without zhyu is like a soup without potatoes." So, zhyu is very important. Today, any authentic song isn’t performed without zhyu. And so it should be! What kind of folk song was taken: heroic, campaign, wedding or gybze (a cry), all of them are accompanied with choral supporting voice.

- Thank you.