Kalmyk traditional music collection, 1990-2002.

Ghilyana Dordzhieva's collection of field recordings highlights the musical traditions of the Kalmyks. The recordings were made in 1990-2002 in Elista and Iki-Burul'skiy, Priyutninskiy, Yashkul'skiy, Komsomol'skiy, Kaspiyskiy, Yustinskiy, Sarpinskiy, Ketchenerovskiy, Gorodovikovskiy, Oktyabr'skiy, Maloderbetovskiy districts of the Republic of Kalmykia, as well as in the Astrakhan region, and in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. The collection includes sound recordings (audio cassettes and DAT tapes), and PAL format (Hi8 and Mini DV) video cassettes. The languages represented are Kalmyk and Russian.

The Republic of Kalmykia (part of the Russian Federation) is located on the vast steppes to the west of the Volga River and the Caspian Sea. At the beginning of the 17th century Oirat tribes migrated here from Central Asia (Dzungaria), and between 1630 and 1724 they formed the Kalmyk Khanate.

The Kalmyk language belongs to the Mongolic language family. According to UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, the Kalmyk language is designated as "definitely endangered." According to the Russian census of 2010, there are only 80,500 native language speakers out of an ethnic population of 183,000 people. The Sovietization of the Kalmyks, including the tragic deportation of the entire people in 1943, and their isolated settlement in Siberia until 1957, led to the destruction of the traditional way of life. Another factor leading to the decline of the Kalmyk language was the primary role given to the Russian language in the educational system.

These field recordings preserve the voices of the last traditional singers and musicians, mostly women born before 1930. The focus of Dordzhieva's fieldwork is Ut Dun (Long Song) – the most representative vocal style of the Kalmyks. These songs are characterized by specific rhythmic and modal systems, and peculiar timbre. The researcher recorded local melodic versions of the epic, historical, religious (chastr), festive (söngin), wedding (uulüldg), calendar (Tsagan Sarin dun), and lyrical songs.

Compared to Ut Dun (Long Song), the Akhr Dun (Short Song) style is rhythmically and melodically ordinary and less complex. Traditional instrumental melodies were performed on two-string Dombra and Saratovskaya harmonica. Dance tunes are the most striking and distinctive genre of Kalmyk music. The collection also includes folk versions of Buddhist prayers, and rare recordings of the Crane Dance and Milk Songs (songs to encourage livestock to feed their newborn). Additionally, there are many interviews commenting on the context of musical performance .