(b 1820; d 1887). Kazakh dömbra player, composer of kyui and singer. He was descended from khans and sultans of the Junior juz (horde). His father Shigai, a ruler of the Bukeyev horde, died when Shigayev was six years old, and Shigayev was brought up in the family of his cousin M. Bukeikhanov, a hereditary sultan who had had a European education. Shigaev later became the ruler of the Nogai taipa (clan). He travelled extensively, met many famous musicians, attended the coronation of Tsar Aleksandr II in St Petersburg in 1885 and became acquainted with Russian culture.
His creative life may be divided into three stages. During the 1840s and 50s he created melodic kyui such as Kyz Akjelen (‘Akjelen the Maid’), Kos alka (‘Double Necklace’), Jeldirme (‘Gallop of a Speedy Horse’), Kos shek (‘Two Strings’) and Kudasha (‘Sister-in-Law’). During the 1860s and 70s he varied the themes of his kyui; works from this period include Bulbul (‘Nightingale’), created during a famous meeting with the kyui singer Kurmangazy Saghyrbayev, and Salyk olgen (‘On the Death of Salyk’), a mourning kyui composed following the untimely death of his beloved nephew Salyk Babajanov. The last period of Shigayev's creative life was marked by the creation of philosophical works such as Zhiger (‘Strive’ or ‘Energy’), Korogly and Tartys kyui (‘Kyui Contest’). Part of the composer Gaziza Zhubanova's ‘Zhiger’ Symphony was based on Shigayev's kyui of that name. Shigayev was one of the most distinguished representatives of the dömbra tradition of western Kazakhstan.
A. Zhubanov: Gasyrlar pernesi (Struny stoletii) [The strings of the centuries] (Alma-Ata, 1956, 2/1975 in Kazakh), 115–41
P. Aravin: Dauletkerei i kazakhskaya muzïka XIX veka [Dauletkerei and the Kazakh music of the 19th century] (Moscow, 1984)
ALMA KUNANBAYEVA