Musicology Annotation << Back Structural and Intonation Foundationsof Karachay and Balkar Traditional Vocal Polyphony Liliya Vishnevskaya The article is dedicated to the understudied layer of North Caucasus traditional music culture. A research of intonation peculiarities of solo and group songs allows to prove the archaic ‘age’ and the specific structure of the vocal polyphony of Karachays and Balkars. An element that unites vocal polyphony of different song genres is drone: a structural universal of early forms of polyphony, a generic indicator of instrumental and vocal polyphony of Turkic peoples. ‘Drone’ and ostinato – the main expressive characteristics and structural principles of a group tune ezhyu – bring the typological understanding of Karachay and Balkar drone on a new level: drone as an «entity» and drone as a «principle». Intoning on the verge between speech and music singles out the vocal polyphony of Karachays and Balkars as a source of features of early folk polyphony. The overlapping of the monodic tune of the soloist and the harmonic ‘drone’ ezhyu has formed a homophone specifics of Karachay and Balkar vocal polyphony. Keywords: Karachays, Balkars, vocal polyphony, drone, ostinato, «pedal-drone», early folklore intoning, heterophony, diaphony, homophony. Contacts: E-mail: liliya-vishnevskaya@yandex.ru Pp. 22-26.