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Toorama

music group from Saransk, Mordovia in Russia who perform traditional songs and music of Erzya, Moksha, Shoksha, and Qaratay ethnics

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 6, 2024
Entity authorityQ4460947
Source-derived summary

Torama (Russian: То́рама, alternative name in Erzya: Йо́влат) is a music group from Saransk, Mordovia in Russia, performing traditional songs and music of Mordvin ethnic groups, namely Erzya, Moksha, Shoksha, and Qaratay.

History

Created in 1990 by 4 researchers of Mordvin language and traditions across the USSR, Torama was originally a choir of 9 men. Eventually, Vladimir Romashkin, a researcher and documentary film maker, emerged as the group's frontman. The ensemble Finno-Ugric ties eventually brought forward the Latinized spelling of the group's name via "oo" for long "o" instead of single "o" used in its Russian name Torama. In 2002, Vladimir Romashkin died.

Discography

1996 Toorama — Mordvin Songs — Songs from Erzya Mordvin. MIPUCD 502, 1996. Traditional Erzya songs (recorded and released in Finland)

2000 Toorama — Taga Eriaza Shkai! (in Erzyan language, recorded and issued in Estonia by Eesti erza-moksha söprade selts, Estonian Erzya-Moksha Friendship Association)

2001 MeNaiset & Toorama — Mastorava (an Erzya and Finnish language album in collaboration with Finnish female 8-piece choir MeNaiset (collaboration on compositions 8-12, recorded in Leonora Hall at the Kallio-Kuninkala Course Center of the Sibelius Academy in January 1997.); MMCD1; Label: Sterns.

2002 Toorama — Godspeed (recording: Kallio_Kuninkala, Javenpaa, Finland, IV/1996; recording & mixing: Jouko Kyhala; mastering: Finnvox/Pauli Saastamoinen; produced by Toorama in Moscow and Saransk, in Russia)

2018 Catch Up the Time

Cultural contribution

Polyphonic singing

Finno-Ugric singing tradition is most often described as bivocal, with 2 vocal lines developed in a choir.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Toorama” is music group from Saransk, Mordovia in Russia who perform traditional songs and music of Erzya, Moksha, Shoksha, and Qaratay ethnics. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Toorama, music and group, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1990, 2002, 1996, 2000—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Toorama, music and group is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “music group from Saransk, Mordovia in Russia who perform traditional songs and music of Erzya, Moksha, Shoksha, and Qaratay ethnics” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 6, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q4460947. The first chronological checks are 1990, 2002, 1996 and 2000.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Toorama”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Toorama primary sources, Toorama archive and Toorama research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Toorama”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Toorama” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.