'Ene-Sai' Moscow Tour Goes On

The company will offer samples of unique guttural singing. This inimitable vocal music, locally termed "hoomei", is the most expressive and memorable part of folk culture in Tuva, in Siberia's south. The Ene-Sai company emerged, 2001, as the Tuva government ensemble-the republic's longest-established-split in two, one of the resultant companies retaining the previous name.

The program it will offer at next Tuesday's concert comprises folk epic songs, romantically tinged and full of lyricism. As the custom demands, folk dances accompany the singing. Some of these dances belong to sacral rites, and have a mystical undercurrent. Others, as the Steed Dance, are of the secular tradition.

Ethnically close to Central Asia, Tuva has folklore as no other. It stands out among the widely diversified folk genres and styles of the region's arts. Central Asian tunes, songs and dances have come down from the hoary past. Lovingly passed from generation to generation, they bear an imprint even of primitive cultures. Beautiful as they are, they are still more precious as mementoes of spirituality of times immemorial.