Ways of Emulating and Mastering Traditional Singing Styles by Non-Authentic Performers

The aim of this article is to describe the ways of mastering local performance styles by urban folklore ensemble singers who are detached from the natural acoustic environment of the authentic singing tradition, resulting in a poorly developed internal sense of the sound ideal of the traditional locus; in particular, methods of working on the vocal and performing features of the tradition and the timbre and stylistic authenticity of singing.

Results. The article examines various performance aspects of mastering the tradition by urban singers, including the issues of "stamped" and artificial, unnatural sound production and ways to address them; mastering the dialectal language characteristic of a particular local performance tradition; achieving the necessary timbral and stylistic authenticity of the singing, and developing an internal sense of the traditional sound ideal, among others.

Scientific novelty. The article identifies the methods and approaches used by urban performers folklorists in preserving and reconstructing folk songs with the aim of presenting them to the audience in their original form or approaching the sound ideal of the local tradition.

Conclusions. Achieving a certain level of individual skill in traditional singing should be accompanied by the development of a particular sense of the ensemble, based on the acoustic perception of ensemble intonation purity, musical and psychological coordination of singers, their interconnection and interdependence, which is manifested at different levels (timbre ration and combination of voices in the ensemble; the degree of their variational mobility; the desire to fully realise the intonational and textural potential of the singing; the advantage of rhythmic polyphony over the same rhythm; emotional, psychological, and energetic support among ensemble members, etc.). In addition to mastering the principles of folk performance, an urban singer-folklorist should have an understanding of the special features and fundamental principles of folk traditional culture, perceiving folk traditions as productive experience that is viable and relevant in contemporary conditions.