Musicology Annotation << Back Karachay and Balkar Historic and Heroic Song in Time and Space Liliya A. Vishnevskaya The article deals with understudied issues of transmitting Karachay and Balkar singing tradition in time and space. On the example of the songs of the historic and heroic genre – one of the most extensive and popular in Karachay and Balkar and – broader – in North Caucasian culture – a comparative study of their musical text in diachronic (time) and synchronic (space) aspects is undertaken. The research material is presented by the songs “Gapalau” and “Kyanamat” (the names of folk heroes) existing in North Caucasian republics of Karachay and Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and also in Turkey; the songs have multiple musical, poetic and performance versions. The research results are summed up in the following conclusions. Karachay and Balkar singing tradition exists in the interaction of the stable and mobile, invariant and variant structures of the musical text. This feature has predetermined the possibility of its flexible transmission in time and space. The time transmission of the performance, structure and intonation invariant is inherent in the existence of the song in the space of Karachay and Balkar. A variant ‘interpretation’ of the tradition is shown in the modern performances of the Karachays’ and Balkars’ descendents living in other countries, in Turkey in particular. The most vivid features of the reinvention of the genre in time and space focus in the performance sphere, they are characterized with a shift of the modern model of national music culture from the vocal to the instrumental and dancing one. The latter specifi es adaptational reserves, appears as a return to the epic (nart) genre sources of historic and heroic songs and is determined by the Eastern Turkic mentality of Karachays and Balkars. Keywords: Karachays, Balkars, historic and heroic song, time, space, musical invariant, musical variant. Contacts: E-mail: liliya-vishnevskaya@yandex.ru Pp. 41-52.