First Even Composer Panteleimon Starostin as a Repeater of Spiritual Culture of Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples of the North

The article is devoted to the life and work of the first Even composer Panteleimon Starostin (1944–2013). His role as a repeater of the spiritual culture of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North is considered by the example of the traditional culture of the Evens. With the general tendency towards extinction of the musical tradition of the small peoples of the North, its figurative content, themes, main motives were comprehended and embodied in the work of the professional Even composer P.M. Starostin. The author of the article believes that the distinctive features of the composer’s style were shaped under the influence of the ethnocultural conditions where the composer’s personality was being formed. At present, his works are producing the spiritual values of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, and above all the Evens, into the world culture space. The article examines the works of the composer, written by him in various genres: opera, chamber instrumental, chamber vocal and piano works, songs, etc. The main findings are supported by specific examples.


Introduction
The spiritual culture is an area of human activity that refers to various aspects of the intangible cultural values of a person and society. It means a set of knowledge and worldviews that are characteristic of specific historical, cultural and ethnic communities.
The small indigenous peoples of the North are a group of peoples settled in a large area of tundra and mountain-taiga regions, lying mainly in the Arctic zone. Some of them continue to lead the traditional way of life of hunters, fishermen and reindeer herders. That part of the representatives of these peoples who live in large settlements and cities, over the past century, have lost their traditions associated with the management skills and the peculiarities of the worldview. This was especially pronounced during the Soviet period. In modern conditions, those traditions of the named peoples that are associated with the spiritual sphere acquire special significance.
Currently, the cultures of the indigenous smallnumbered peoples of the North are under the influence of active processes of globalization and industrialization. Moving to cities, changing the way of life change the perception of the world. Their behavior is transformed. Education in a modern school, where studies are conducted mainly in Russian, as well as the specifics of the Soviet system of boarding schools, leveled the educational process. Such peoples, for example, the Tungus-speaking, who previously actively roamed the vast territories of the North, are now scattered over a large area of the northeast of Russia (they have settled and assimilated in a multiethnic environment). The transition to the language of communication between neighboring, larger peoples also has an irreversible effect on the small peoples of the North.
In connection with a serious change in the way of life of these ethnic groups, the traditional cultures of these peoples are actually under threat of extinction. The continuity of cultural phenomena has been violated, since traditions, being the core, the center of culture, containing its main value-semantic guidelines, are gradually eroded, losing the natural environment of their existence. In the past, the reproduction of culture was based on the natural habitat and in the usual sphere of communication. Folklore has been largely reduced.
In Soviet times, samples of folklore of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North were recorded, the language, ritual, epic heritage, song, dance genres were studied, which currently serves as a good source study base for research carried out in this area. There are amateur folklore groups that reproduce concert forms of oral tradition. In these conditions, the role of performers is great -the carriers of the remaining elements of the tradition. Amateur authors, folk singers, melodists, as well as professional composers from among the representatives of this ethnic group play an important role as the repeaters of the traditional culture of the indigenous peoples of the North.
This statement is also true for the culture of the Evens -a small Tungus-speaking people settled in groups in the northeast of the Russian Federation -in the Magadan region, Khabarovsk and Kamchatka territories, Here, in the Soviet period, comparatively favorable conditions were preserved in the development of traditional forms of economy and the upbringing of the younger generation following the traditions of their people. Here, among the almost three thousand population, more than half are representatives of the Even ethnos. Among the local municipalities, the Tyugasir national heritage stands out. This is where the first Even composer Panteleimon Starostin (1944Starostin ( -2013 comes from. His homeland is the Batagai-Alyta village, the administrative center of the aforementioned nasleg. The father of the future composer, who came from the Tyugasir clan, being a hunter, instilled in his son the traditional skills of the inhabitants of the mountain-taiga regions of Verkhoyansk. The peculiarities of the local culture of the Evens of the Verkhoyansk Region under the influence of a modernizing society are quite well presented in the special literature [1]. His mother, E.I. Starostina, was born in another northern region, i.e. Bulunsky Region.
It should be noted that, starting from the first years of Soviet power, as well as throughout the country in Yakutia, a robust system of education had gradually developed, including creative and aesthetic education. Young Panteleimon, while studying at the Sakkyryr secondary school, managed to get the initial skills in music. In 1976, he graduated from the Choral Conducting Department of the Yakutsk Musical College named after M.N. Zhirkov. By that time in the Republic there was a state system of training music personnel at the initial and secondary special levels of training. It was also possible to get a professional musical education without leaving Yakutia, which was very important for the applicants because not all representatives of the indigenous minorities the peoples of the North had the opportunity to receive education outside the Republic from an early age.
By that time, the embodiment by P.M. Starostin of the folklore of his people was expressed in the composition of a number of songs that received public recognition. During this period, the formation of the leading composers of the Yakut national school of composition -A. Sozonov, V. Ksenofontov, P. Ivanova, K. Gerasimov, who studied at the Ufa Institute of Arts, took place. In fact, it was a targeted enrolment by the Ministry of Culture of the Yakut ASSR. P. Starostin followed the example of his senior Yakut comrades. He was well trained by renowned teachers and professors who taught him how to work with folk song and melody material (1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987). His development as a composer fits into the framework of the characteristic tendencies in the development of young national composer schools of the East [2].
This Respect for the legacy of ancestors, appeal to traditional song genres such as good wishes (hirgechen), round dance genres (hede), legends, images of sacred animals and birds, a pronounced ethnic origin -these are the characteristic features of the best works of the composer P.M. Starostin.
Love for the homeland, respect for nature, observance of the customs of the ancestors permeates all the work of the composer.

Materials and Methods
The purpose of the article is to consider the role of the Even composer P.M. Starostin as a repeater of the traditional spiritual values of his people and the indigenous small peoples of the North, in general.
The materials for the research were the composer's unpublished works stored in the author's personal archive. Besides, there was unique sheet music published during the composer's lifetime. The article is based on materials from the interviews and conversations between the author of the article and P.M. Starostin, dating back to 1990-2000. The materials are stored in the personal archives of the author.
The author's work in the field of musical culture of the Evens were used [3,4]. In the process of preparing and writing this article, the following methods were applied: general scientific -methods of scientific observation, generalization of available information, analysis of literature on the topic of research, descriptions of the subject of research, logical method -a method of classification and typology, cultural -a comparative historical method, a biographic method, interviewing method. The methods of musical analysis were used -the consideration of musical works as integral objects of culture.

Results
The research undertaken in this article is one of the first in the study of life and work, as well as creativity of the first Even composer Panteleimon Starostin (1944Starostin ( -2013. The study examines his creative heritage, produces a genre classification of the composer's musical works, considers their content, themes and images.
As a result of the study, the author came to the conclusion that the first Even composer, relying on the spiritual wealth of the traditional cultures of the peoples of the North, carried out their retranslation into the cultural space in his work. The modern generation of listeners perceives the originality of the traditional cultures of the indigenous peoples of the North, especially the Evens, through the prism of the author's perception of the original composer Panteleimon Starostin.
In the article, the author discusses a number of issues related to the creative heritage of the first Even composer P.M. Starostin. In our opinion, it is no coincidence that the work of the Even composer Panteleimon Starostin is a distinctive phenomenon of the culture of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) -the Evens also live in the Magadan and Khabarovsk territories, in Chukotka. However, perhaps only in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), in the process of historical development, the conditions were created for the development of composers from among the small peoples of the North. These processes took place under the conditions of state cultural establishment in the Yakut autonomy in accordance with the general processes of the development of the Yakut national school of composition. Since the 1940s, in the YaASSR, children's music schools and art schools began to be actively established. They were available not only in the cities of Yakutia, but also in almost every large regional center and their branches in the settlements of regional formations of the Republic. A great result was given by teaching music in secondary schools based on the D.M. Kabalevsky system, subdivisions of Yakut choral society under the leadership of the first Yakut choirmaster F.A. Baisheva, development of forms of amateur music, including the children one.
At the same time, with the processes of familiarizing the small peoples of the North with the achievements of the world culture, the development of professional forms of creativity, irreversible processes of loss of their traditional culture, the extinction of the main genre formations, the violation of traditions and transfer of spiritual knowledge to the next generations have emerged.
In this regard, the spiritual leaders of the small peoples of the North, representatives of their creative intelligentsia -writers, poets, melodists. Сomposersincluding the first Even composer Panteleimon Starostin -understood their special mission in preserving the spiritual culture of their native ethnic groups and became a connecting link in the intergenerational transmission of traditional values.
Although P.M. Starostin is a representative of the Even people, but he was worried about the fate of the cultures of the small peoples of the North, for which he felt responsible, in particular -the Chukchi and Nanaiin his work he refers to the folklore heritage of these peoples.
Let us turn to his chamber opera Sulkenes (1987), which means Legless. The opera lacks extensive crowd scenes, choral performances, or symphonic episodes. Minor characters are not detailed vocal parts, except for the main character's wife. In fact, the genre of this work can be defined as a mono-opera, which tells about the personal feat and the stamina of a person in cold conditions. The composer wrote this stage work for his own, author's libretto. It shows the confrontation between the Chukchi hunter Suglyagin and the act of nature. When a blizzard overtook him during the hunt, he could not find his way for several days? Which he finally lost. Food stocks ran out, he froze his legs, but the song helped him to withstand the elements. He was able to wait for help -he was found. Dying, he sang a song to his family and friends, to all future descendants. He bequeathed it as an order and the last parting word. It should be noted that this kind of practice really exists in the traditional culture of the peoples of the North -the transmission of a personal song to descendants. After the death, a person is remembered by the tunes that remain after him, which bear the name of the creators. Before singing the songs on holidays, they must say whose song it is. In the Even musical tradition, there is a genre of hirgechen -an incantation, goodwill, prayer, blessing with similar functions. Obviously, in this opera, it received its original reading.
The Tale of Mergen who Lived in the Sun is of great interest. It was written based on the Nanai folk tale, which tells about the clever and strong Mergen, who saved his wife Pudin from evil spirits. This is a work of mixed genre for the reader, the singer performing the part of Pudin and the pianist.
A special place in the work of P.M. Starostin takes the symphonic poem Tyugyasirskaya. It tells about the ancient Even family tyugyasir, to which the composer reckons himself. The well-known tune of the traditional Even circular dance with the specific singing words dehondi-dehondi was chosen as the main theme. The famous Soviet composer who lived and worked in Yakutia in the 1960s, Grant Grigoryan, mentioned him in his first notes on Even folk music [5]. The symphonic poem has no conflict, drama. It is a narrative and tells about the life of the Even people. The dehondi-dehondi dance theme, accompanied with a syncopated rhythm, is performed by various groups of the orchestra. The rhythms are colored with bright timbre colors. The symphonic poem Tyugyasirskaya ends with a solemn joy.
The traditions of epic storytelling are embodied in the Even suite for the woodwind instruments Khaniloi Denturam (Tale), which contains four parts: Part 1 is Kaniloi Denturam (Tale), Part 2 Kaku (Cuckoo), Part 3 Dorovo, khoҥachan (Hello, deer), Part 4 Khedye. They represent the embodiment of traditional genres of Even folklore -legends, song improvisations, round dances. The main themes are primarily associated with nature, the embodiment of images of the animal world representatives, i.e. the cuckoo and the deer, which are sacred symbols of the Even people.
A pronounced ethnic origin is present in a series of piano works by the composer, in particular, in Variations on the Even folk theme, Far in the North, the play Hunter, etc. [6].
The author came to the conclusion that in many works of the composer P.M. Starostin preserved the folk character of the distinctive features of the Even spiritual culture. By means of professional music, he managed to convey the charm and originality of the traditions and customs of the peoples of the North. Let's look at specific examples.
A special place in the chamber-vocal work of the first Even composer Panteleimon Starostin (1944Starostin ( -2013 is occupied by the vocal cycle Three Romances based on the poems of Even poets, created by the composer in April 1985 (Ufa). This cycle includes the following works: 1. Romance to the lyrics by Andrey Krivoshapkin (in Even).
2. Beat of the Heart (ballad) to the lyrics of Vasily Lebedev (in Russian).
3. Song of the Even to the lyrics of Platon Stepanov-Lamutsky (in the Yakut language).
All songs in this cycle are different in content. They are not connected with each other by a single storyline and are sketches of several states of the human soul in different life situations and together they form a single whole. At the same time, there is a certain logic in the architectonics of the cycle: the first part is a calm lullaby, the second is the dramatic culmination of the cycle, the third is a bright, positive ending that balances the composition. The cycle is formed according to the principle of comparison. 1. Romance to lyrics by Andrey Krivoshapkin.
The genre basis of the first number of the Romance vocal cycle is a lullaby -babecheng, where the mother wishes her child to grow up strong and successful so that he can make all his dreams come true. In terms of semantic content, it is rather a wish -hirgechen, akin to the Yakut algys -a wish to the son of a happy good lifeprogramming him for good luck, determining the algorithm of fate.
Come After a short two-bar introduction of the piano, the presentation of the main theme begins in a lulling tempo. The opening of the range of a second to a fifth, and then to an octave, decima and duodecimo occurs through the interlocking of progressive 'swaying' intonations and reaching a culminating peak in the deployment of the vocal part. The form of a simple period expands due to the developmental elements. The 'texture' of Romance is quite transparent, the accompaniment part is dominated by empty quarto-fifth sounds and chords with a second filling.
2. Heartbeat (in Russian). The author of the lyrics, Vasily Lebedev, defined the genre of this work as a ballad, dedicating it to the human heart, which in happy moments beats similarly with the rhythms of the surrounding life, "striking sparks from stone, from songs, from snow", but freezes and mournfully silent, knocking heavily when someone passes away ...
My heart is beating To the rhythm of a deer To the rhythm of rain To the rhythm of old songs. My heart is beating And make the sparks ignite Of stone, of songs, of snow And my voice is weak to sing. My heart is beating Loudly and globally And suddenly someone's groan Makes it stumbles. And if it freezes, it is silent So someone is gone, Someone's time has come Return to the ground. My heart is beating too hard. An important role in this part of the cycle is played by the rhythmic principle through which the beat of the human heart is transmitted in the piano part. The rhythmic figure of the eighth and two sixteenths passes ostinato in the accompaniment part, which brings a kind of unified, unifying principle to the texture. The vocal part is characterized by an arioso and declamatory presentation, culminating with the following words: ... and suddenly someone's groan.... The piece ends with the remark: ... my heart is beating too hard.
3. Song of the Even to the lyrics of Platon Stepanov-Lamutsky (in the Yakut language) brings bright final note to the sound of the vocal cycle.
My deer is flying Snowball whirling I am going fast and Even's song is sung when driving: heedye, heedye heedye, hehedye! I realized the beauty of The Even's song Heedye, heedye heedye, hehedye! (translated by T.V. Pavlova-Borisova). The piano part is designed to embody the hastless running of the deer, conveying the rhythm of the race and the ride. The melody of angemitonic structure is light and gives a feeling of joy. The culmination is the introduction of elements of exclamatory intonation to the words heedie! heedye! Heedye!, heedye!, supported by the juicy sound of chords of the second structure. This number completes this cycle on a bright, festive note.
Thus, Panteleimon Starostin's vocal cycle Three Romances based on poems by Even poets is an original work of the first Even professional composer, reflecting the state of mind of a modern person -a representative of the Even ethnos, which defines himself in the world around him. Traditional values, relationships with society and future that he sees in the younger generation are important for him. This vocal cycle was practically not performed, it is waiting for its interpreters to be presented to a wide audience.
Thus, the study showed that the multifaceted work of the first Even composer P.M. Starostin is an example of how in modern conditions a retransmission of the spiritual culture of the indigenous peoples of the North, which has undergone assimilation and has lost many of its traditional features, can take place. The analysis of some of the composer's brightest works, in particular, the opera genre, chamber instrumental music, piano compositions revealed such ideological and behavioral attitudes as respect for nature, the spiritualization of the forces of nature, harmony of man, society and nature.