Musicology Annotation << Back Eduard Voltaire – collector and scholar of Baltic folklore Anastasia Y. Patoshina The article presents an overview of Eduard Voltaire’s legacy as a researcher of the folk art of the Baltic peoples. The relevance of the study and its scientifi c novelty consists in a generalizing analysis of diverse folklore activities of the scholar. At the end of XIX – beginning of XX centuries E.A. Voltaire made several ethnographic trips, during which he recorded about two thousand tunes of folklore art of different genres. He was the fi rst collector of Lithuanian folk music using Phonographic rollers in the history. E.A. Voltaire used his own expedition materials, studies and folk song collections compiled by other scholars, as well as data obtained through Ethnography and archaeology, linguistics and textual studies for a comprehensive study of Baltic folklore. The object of our research is the scientifi c researches by Voltaire, dedicated to Lithuanian and Latvian folklore. The subject is the collection and research activities of the scientist in this fi eld of activity. The aim of the study is to study E.A. Voltaire's scientifi c contribution to the national folklore of the late XIX – the fi rst half of the XX centuries. After the 1917 revolution, Voltaire and his family were forced to emigrate from Russia. Most of the scientifi c works of the researcher devoted to folk songs, mythology, holidays, rituals and customs of the Baltic peoples in our country were unfairly forgotten. The research fi ndings of this outstanding scholar are very impressive. The depth and diversity of E.A. Voltaire's approaches to folklore studies made him a major milestone in the history of folklore science. Keywords: E.A. Voltaire, ethnographic expedition, phonograph, Latvian and Lithuanian folk songs, traditional rite. Contacts: E-mail: patoshina.au@yandex.ru Pp. 09-15.