Religious-mythological songs in honor of Falar in Ossetian tradition

The article discusses the issues of functioning, as well as samples of texts and melodies of religious-mythological songs dedicated to a representative of the Ossetian pantheon – the patron of sheep and small cattle – Falvar. The sources for this research include archival records and field materials collected by the author in 2025 in the territory of North Ossetia. The main body of materials is concentrated in the Scientific Archive of the North Ossetian Institute of Humanities and Social Research named after V. I. Abaev. The analysis also includes transcriptions of archival audio recordings stored in the phonogram archive of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House), copied in 2012 for the multimedia system "Musical Culture of the Ossetians," created within the framework of the Russian presidential grant "Origins of Culture – Preservation of Civilization." The approach to solving problems of musical-typological study of the religious-mythological song Falvaraiyza Zarga is related to the application of methods developed in the works of Russian researchers in the field of ethno-musicology. The comprehensive involvement of data from ethnography, philology, folklore studies, and ethnolinguistics ensured the study of the cult in a historical and ethnographic perspective. The relevance of the research is emphasized by the absence of specific scientific studies in this area of musical folklore. All transcriptions of the samples were made by the author of this work and are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The goal of the work is to identify the musical and poetic features of the song Falvaraiyza Zarga. As a result of the research, it was found that the studied melodies are characterized by a texture typical of the folk song polyphony of the Ossetians. The overall logic of tonality in the melodies is associated with the alternation of two tonal functions: primary and secondary. In addition, songs of this genre are characterized by a stable musical-rhythmic structure of cadences in each line of verse. The socio-cultural significance of the research is underscored by the almost complete disappearance of the cult of the patron of domestic animals, which has led to the threat of a complete loss of the layer of religious-mythological songs associated with it.