Musicology Annotation << Back Traditions of book singing as an object of comic transformation of spiritual characters in the Bashkir national Opera Galina Gul’naz S. The specific recitative forms assimilated on the Bashkir national soil include some genres of Arabic music, which were embodied in the professional music of Bashkortostan. As in a number of other Muslim republics of the former USSR, attributed by the author to the second wave of the formation of national schools of composers (NKSH), the most important importance for the Bashkir national Opera was the recitation of munajats (spiritual poems) and baits (couplets, a genre of national poetry), a less significant role – Quranic recitation and azan (calls to prayer). The article considers for the first time the principles of refraction of these genres in the national Opera, the formation of which took place in the context of Soviet cultural construction, since the 30s of the last century. The concept of "Book singing" – an analogue of the Orthodox psalmody-is theoretically substantiated. The main conclusion made by the author in the process of consideration is that in the conditions of atheistic and ideologized Soviet art, the genres of book singing were used only for accusatory purposes and only in relation to the images of spiritual priests and religious people, unambiguously referred in musical and theatrical genres to the images of counter-action. Melodic-rhythmic distortion and some other techniques of comic characterization were aimed solely at ridiculing the characters. The article also notes the trend towards a positive embodiment of Quranic recitation, which was planned in the post-Soviet period due to the changed social relations, and not only in Opera, but also in other genres of Bashkir music of the academic plan. Keywords: Bashkir national opera, book singing, Music of Islam, the Koranic recitate, munajat. DOI: 10.25791/musicology.11.2019.1015 Contacts: - Pp. 03-11.