Music and Time Annotation << Back On the verge of folklore and individual creativity: collective principle in the traditional Nanai song improvisation T.D. Bulgakova The article raises the question of the legitimacy of referring the traditional Nanai individual song improvisations as folklore. The collective basis of such creativity is implicit and controversial because of lack of the practice of fixing the texts and transferring them from one singer to another, and because the improvisation replaces the usual variability even when a singer tries to "repeat the song that had been previously sung." Meanwhile, the collective basis of such individual creativity still reveals itself, but only at its deep and essential level. It manifests itself in the widespread of song creativity, which once covered almost the entire population. It also manifests itself in the presence of common regularities that limit the creative freedom, as well as in the unification of individual texts according to the social position of a singer, that is, in accordance with the place of the performer in society and his belonging to a particular Nanai clan. This allows us to consider the traditional song creativity of Nanai not only as an individual, but also within certain limits and as a collective one. Keywords: traditional Nanai folklore, folk singing, improvisation, individual creativity, collective principle in folklore. Contacts: - Pp. 33-36.