— Valentina Yurievna, you presented the sum of your understanding of Tuvan musical culture in your book “Musical culture of Tuva in the XXth Century”, which was published in Moscow in 2007.

At first, you used to approach your subject with western education,, with western theory – you asked questions that you were taught to ask, measured by methods and instruments with which you were equipped during your studies.

Later, as you write, you started to comprehend that it is impossible to understand or document this culture by foreign means.

Tell us, please, for those that did no read your book, how did this change come about? What happened?

— That is a very interesting question. I think that my case is an interesting example for analysis of the methods of scientific study and evolution of the researcher herself, as at a certain moment, the material itself pushes her into movement.