Country in Central Asia, formerly part of the USSR. It is bounded by Uzbekistan to the west, Kazakhstan to the north, China to the east and Tajikistan to the south.
5. Opera, ballet, orchestral and chamber music.
/MARK SLOBIN/ALMA KUNANBAEVA (1–4), SUBANALIYEV SAGYNALY/DYIKANOVA CHOLPON (5)
When Central Asia was reorganized territorially on a national basis in 1924, Kyrgyzstan was separated from Turkestan and formed into an autonomous region within the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic (see fig.1). It is perhaps not surprising, then, that musical styles within a republic with such recent political borders express affiliations with those of its neighbours. Three musical styles may be identified: in the northern area (the Issyk-Kul and Naryn regions and the Chuy valley), styles are similar to those of neighbouring Kazakhs; Kyrgyz clans in the mountains of the north-western area (the Talas and Chatkal valleys and a part of the Fergana valley) use styles that seem more obviously indigenous; and the styles of those in the southern area (the Osh region) share features with neighbouring Uzbeks. In general, recitative styles prevail in southern Kyrgyzstan while more melodic styles are found in the north.
Music, both vocal and instrumental, plays an important role in Kyrgyz life.
Early European accounts of the Kyrgyz continually refer to the local habit of extempore singing for all occasions. When two Kyrgyz meet, they exchange formalized greeting-songs to place each other in terms of clan or family affiliation. While working, or to pass the time while walking, the Kyrgyz improvise song texts to stereotyped melodic motifs. This practice, known as kaila, is also found among other Central Asian Turks (notably the Kazakhs), although early Western travellers asserted that the Kyrgyz had developed such extemporization most extensively.
There are several major folksong genres. The important work songs are the dambir tash, an incantation to the spirits of agriculture and livestock; the shirildang, a cowboy song; the bekbekei, a shepherdess’s song; and the op maida, a ploughing and harvesting song probably related to the Uzbek genre of the same name. Among ritual songs the zharamazan, sung during the Muslim month of Ramadan, zhar-zhar (wedding songs) and the koshok, a versatile genre heard both as a funeral lament and as a wedding song, are most important. Other named genres include three types of love-song reflecting different aspects of love (küigön, arman, seketbay); age-graded categories (qizdar iri, kelinder iriand jigitter iri for girls, women and youths respectively); and two important contemporary genres (kolkhoz iri about collective farms and jashlik iri about the youth movement). There are also lullabies (beshik iri) and a wide variety of game songs, such as the selkinchekswinging song.
A whole group of traditional song types is the exclusive domain of the professional minstrel (akyn). This includes the arnoo, a panegyric for the singer’s patron; the kordoo, defaming the musician’s or patron’s enemies; the congratulatory kuttuktoo; and the didactic sanat or nasiat. These frequently reached their highpoint of development in traditional singing contests (aitish), akin to similar competitions among the Kazakhs. Rules for the contests demanded excellence in improvisation in stated forms, such as songs with specific alliterative patterns or on given topics. Instrumental virtuosity might also be the point contested. Performers built their reputations on a series of victories.
Manas is the central Kyrgyz heroic epic cycle performed by male manaschis or Manas bards (known as zhomokchu in pre-Soviet times). Orally transmitted, its manner of recitation could sometimes enable the bard to enter into a dissociated state or ‘trance’. Many manaschis described being called to their trade in dreams by the spirits of the hero Manas and his 40 companions. If they attempted resistance, it was met with severity and threats from Manas. After a period of initiation and a pilgrimage to Manas’s shrine, the musician became a manaschi for life. These experiences, together with the bard’s change of consciousness, are evidence of the believed spiritual power of epic performance. Manas also had ethnic significance as a chronicle of the Kyrgyz people. Both of these associations led to its performance being forbidden at times during the Soviet period. In contemporary Kyrgyzstan, Manas is taught in schools. Manaschis remain particularly highly esteemed musicians, often achieving great renown; in pre-Soviet times, such celebrated reciters could become ‘tribal’ leaders.
Manas is an encyclopedic epic, including all the major genres of Kyrgyz oral expression, although the people themselves clearly separate epic from other types of song and narrative. Mime and dramatization are important components of performance. Manaschis can recite the tale almost indefinitely; a 20th-century version of 400,000 lines was transcribed from the bard sayakbai Karalaev. Manasconsists of three cycles, the first dealing with Manas himself and the second and third with his son Semetey and grandson Seytek.
Manas performances are built up by combining a variety of reciting styles without instrumental accompaniment. The manaschi keeps his hands free to enable a series of gesticulations and mimetic poses that relate to the epic’s narrative. These gesticulations and poses, together with other techniques, such as the gradual intensification of their recitatives, are taught to pupils according to different traditions. Performance of the epic involves a solo dramatization of multiple roles within a traditional form of ‘musical drama’.
Manas has no prose sections but is recited completely in verse. There are four main types of recitation: emotionally excited, exalted speech (practically impossible to notate using European musical transcription); the musical tirade, an indefinite number of poetical-musical lines joined by one rhyme, with single shouts in-between; musical phrases reminiscent of the Kyrgyz genre of lamentation, koshok; and the ‘musical call’ of 4 + 3 or 5 + 3 syllables that forms the structural core of the epic. V.S. Vinogradov stated that an evening may begin with the zhorgo syoz manner, characterized by a measured pace and gradually evolving melodic line; this pattern may also occur in mid-tale as relief from the more active sections, which consist of long recitation, increasing in intensity, of single melodic motifs. At other points more prosaic narrative styles may predominate, such as the zheldirme (gallop), a type of rapid agitated recitation. The manaschi’s skill resides in controlling the audience’s mood carefully through a flexible narrative style.
The Kyrgyz term zhomok includes epic and all other narrative genres (zhoo zhomok, fairytale, tamsil, fable, tabishmak, riddle), and is opposed to ir, or song in the sense of a poetic form (a division which may be difficult for outsiders to grasp). Obonis the term for tune. An akyn usually used 15 to 20 obon but often applied the same obon to different song texts.
The Kyrgyz lute, the komuz, unlike any neighbouring lutes of Central Asia, has three strings; in the most common tunings the middle string is the highest in pitch. Other unusal aspects are its lack of frets and its emphasis on varied right-hand strokes (fig.2). One piece (Mash botoi) consists of a simple tune repeated many times, each with a new stroke, as a test of the performer’s skill and creativity. There are two other principal Kyrgyz instruments, both of which are directly related to those of the Kazakhs. These are the kiak (fig.2), a two-string fiddle akin to the Kazakh Qobuz(see Qobuz (and possibly the West Mongolian ihil), which has a body shaped like a ladle and strings of horsehair, and the choor, a long, open end-blown flute with three or four finger-holes. The metal jew’s harp (temir komuz) is also used. The number of instruments used by the Kyrgyz was formerly expanded by borrowings from the military bands of the nearby Uzbek kingdoms, including the Surnāy (shawm), sarbasnai (an end-blown open flute about 60 cm long with fingerholes and one thumb-hole) and doolbas (small kettledrum).
Kyrgyz instrumental music has a narrative emphasis, in that nearly every piece contains an implied story. This is also true of Kyrgyz decorative art, in which each facet of ornamentation on a rug or necklace can be read as a symbol, the whole constituting a precise scene or story. The programmatic approach is well illustrated by the following widespread tale forming the basis of a komuzpiece called Aksak kulan (‘The Lame Wild Ass’):
A khan forbade his favourite son to hunt wild asses. Disobeying his father, the youth was killed by a wounded animal while out hunting. Fearing the worst, the khan decreed that anyone bringing bad tidings would have his lips sealed by a dipperful of molten lead. The ruler’s favourite minstrel then rose and played an instrumental piece depicting the son’s fate, including the ride through the steppe, encounter with wild asses and subsequent tragedy. True to his word, the grim khan fulfilled his promise and silenced the messenger of bad news by pouring the molten lead into the soundholes of the minstrel’s komuz.
The same legend is popular in Kazakhstan with reference to the dömbra tradition.
Komuz pieces are the heart of Kyrgyz instrumental music. Although they often have genre names (e.g. kerbez, shingrama, botoi), definition of the genres remains unresolved. A structural approach frequently employed by komuz players is the variation of a small, compact melodic kernel in tempo, dynamics, rhythm, melodic register and the contrast of monophonic and polyphonic texture up to three parts.
The career of toktogul Satylganov (1864–1933) exemplifies the transition of a major Kyrgyz artist from pre-Soviet to Soviet times. Exiled to Siberia in 1898 because of his political beliefs, Toktogul became a firm supporter of emerging Soviet Kirghizia after the October Revolution of 1917. He is cited as being the most versatile and outstanding performer of the transition period; many of the celebrated folksingers and instrumentalists of later decades were his pupils.
The early Soviet years were marked by intensive collecting of traditional Kyrgyz music, notably by A. Zatayevich, whose anthology (1934, 2/1971) remains the principal collection. Kyrgyz-Russian collaboration in the composition of music in European genres (such as opera, symphony and chamber music) also began in the 1930s. Vocal polyphony was developed initially by analogy with the polyphonic instrumental styles of the komuz and kiak; the latter instruments were remodelled to play in orchestras of folk instruments. Today the Kyrgyz Philharmonia presents concerts in a wide variety of styles, ranging from that of traditional storytellers and minstrels to arrangements of folksongs and major concertos for komuz, as well as Westernized popular songs.
There was no professional art music before 1917, and little before the crucial period of 1932–41. In 1936, the Musical Drama Theatre (restyled an opera house in 1942) and the Philharmonic Society were founded; the Union of Composers and Musicologists was established three years later.
In 1939 three composers, Abdïlas Maldïbayev, V.A. Vlasov and V.G. Fere, collaborated on the first Kirghiz opera, Aychurek(‘The Moon Beauty’), based on a Kirghiz epic. All three had previously worked in ‘musical drama’, a specific creation of the Soviet period based on traditional musical genres, such as epics, musically and politically reworked. Vlasov and Fere went on to produce the first Kirghiz ballet, Anar (1940), and the opera Manas (1946), which joined Aychurek as an essential part of the Kirghiz repertory. Other operas include N. Davlesov's Kurmanbek, M. Abdrayev's Before a Storm and Oldjobay and Kishimdjan (1965), A. Amanbayev's Aidar and Aisha (1952) and S. Osmonov's Seyil, and among later ballets are M. Raukhverger's Cholpon (1943), Kaly Moldobasanov's Materinskoye pole (‘Mother's Field’), a distinctive fusion of oratorio and dance, and the works of E. Jumabayev.
Orchestral music has its origins in the same period of 1932–41, and was assisted in the early 1950s by a generation of composers trained at the Moscow Conservatory, including T. Ermatov, A. Tuleyev and M. Abdrayev. The orchestral repertory includes Vlasov's Overture on a Kirghiz Melody, the first symphonies of H. Rakov and Tuleyev, Jumabayev's ‘Epic’ Symphony and V. Jusev's Viola Concerto. There are string quartets by Amanbayev, Ermatov and S. Aitkeyev, and a set of 24 piano preludes by J. Maldïbayeva. Ceremonial cantatas and oratorios, though often created to order during the Soviet era, have held their place. Other composers include A. Jumakmatov, B. Feferman and J. Kanimetov.
Kirghiz musicians, trained in the former Soviet Union, perform in the State Opera and Ballet Theatre (founded in 1955 and named after Maldybayev in 1978) and the State Philharmonia (named after the traditional musician Toktogul Satylganov), which has two concert halls. There is a State Academic SO and a chamber chorus run by the broadcasting company.
The first music school, providing specialist instruction at secondary level, was in Frunze (Bishkek); similar institutions later opened in Osh and Karakol. Higher education is provided at the State Institute of Art, founded in 1967, and the National State Conservatory, which opened in 1993.
See also Kurenkeyev, Murataaly; Orozov, Karamoldo; and Orozbakov, Saghimbai.
A.V. Zatayevich: 1000 pesen kirgizkogo naroda [1000 songs of the Kyrgyz people] (Orenburg, 1925, 2/1963 as 1000 pesen kazakhskogo naroda)
A.V. Zatayevich: 250 kirgizskikh instrumental'nïkh p'yes i napevov [250 Kyrgyz instrumental pieces and melodies] (Moscow, 1934, rev. 2/1971 by V.S. Vinogradov as Kirgizskiye instrumental'nïye p'yesï i napevï)
V.S. Vinogradov: Kirgizskaya narodnaya muzïka (Frunze, 1958)
M.I. Bogdanova, V.M. Zhirmunsky and A.A. Petrosyan, eds.: Kirgizskiy geroicheskiy epos Manas [The Kyrgyz heroic epic Manas] (Moscow, 1961)
G.S. Golos: ‘Kirghiz Instruments and Instrumental Music’, EthM, v (1961), 42–8
N.K. Chadwick and V. Zhirmunsky: Oral Epics of Central Asia (Cambridge, 1969)
M. Slobin: Kirgiz Instrumental Music (New York, 1969)
K. Diushaliev: Kirgizskaia narodnaia pesnia: issledovanie [The Kyrgyz folksong: a study] (Moscow,1982)
R. Urazgil'deev: Kirgizskii balet: stranitsy istorii kirgizskoi khoreografii [The Kyrgyz ballet: pages from the history of Kyrgyz choreography] (Frunze, 1983)
R.Z. Kydyrbaeva: Skazitel'skoe masterstvo manaschi [The mastery of the reciters of Manas: manaschi] (Frunze, 1984)
V. Vinogradov: ‘Napevy “Manasa”’ [The tunes of Manas], Manas: kirgizskii geroicheskii epos [Manas: the Kyrgyz heroic epos], ed. A.S. Sadykov and others, i (Moscow, 1984), 492–99 [incl. transcriptions]
A.S. Sadykov, S.M. Musaev and A.S. Mirbadaleva, eds.: Manas: Kirgizskiy geroicheskiy epos [Manas, Kirghiz heroic epos], vols 1–4 (Moscow, 1984–85) [Russ. and Kyrgyz]
S. Subanaliev: Kirgizskie muzikal'nye instrumenty: idiofony, membranofony, aerofony (Frunze,1986)
R. Urazgil'deyev: Kirgizskiy narodnïy tanets [The Kyrgyz folkdance] (Moscow, 1986)
A.T. Hatto, ed.: The Manas of Wilhelm Radloff (Wiesbadne, 1990) [in Eng. and Kyrgyz]
Musik der Kirghisen, Adevaphon 002 (1978)
Antologiya kirgizskikh instrumentalnïkh programnïkh pier zapisannïkh v 1940–70 gg. [Anthology of Kyrghyz instrumetnal programmatic pieces recorded in 1940–70] (Freunze, 1984) [7 LPs]
Melodii Ala-Too: Antologiya kirgizskoy narodnoy muzïki po zapisyam 1930–80 gg. [Melodies of Ala-Too: Anthology of Kyrgyz folk music recorded in 1930–80] (Frunze, 1987) [10 LPs]
Musiques du Kirghizstan, Musiques du monde, Buda Musique CD92631-2 (1995)
Turkestan: Kirghiz komuz and Kazakh dombra, coll. J. During, Ocora C 560121 (Paris, 1997)