Philosophical Problems of Being in the Art of the Kazakh Kyshi

Author(s): Asiya Mukhambetova

Source: Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 22 (1990), pp. 36-41
Published by: International Council for Traditional Music
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/767930
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PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS OF BEING IN THE ART

OF THE KAZAKH KUYSHI
by Asiya Mukhambetoval

The question of good and evil, of man's place in the world an

relations to the superior powers always played an important role

traditional arts of the Kazakh. The instrumental music of the Kazakh with

its distinctive genre-kiiy-has embodied philosophical issues as fully as

the verbal genres. In Kazakh culture, the connection between instrumental
music and dance, movement and gesture is not important. For centuries,

instrumental thinking has been formed in close connection with the

narrative genres-myth, epos, historical legends, and stories about the

life of the kiiyshy.

The word, with all its abilities to reflect life, had a decisive influence
upon instrumental thinking. Expressions like "the dombra tells", "the

sibizghi says" are not accidental in the language. Having finished playing,

many dombrists say: "Depti"-which means "the dombra has said so."
One of the highest praises for a musician's skill is to say: "His dombra
speaks". Many legends tell us about conveying information by playing

musical instruments.

1. A sibizghi player is playing kiiy and a boy wonders that the musician

has expressed his question, "6rel ker kirding beh?"-"have you seen my

horse" on the sibizghY.

2. Four judges gathered to decide a case. Three decided to shift the blame
on a jigit, a noble young man. The fourth, Beikenbe Bei, understood that
the jigit was not guilty and played a kiiy where there were words "Tansansi

oybay, tansansi", i.e. "Don't plead guity", and the jigit was acquitted.
3. Tesek-batyr who stole a herd of horses comes on his way home to

a yurta and while his companions are drinking kumiss [gimiz: fermented
mare's milk] he plays the dombra. The daughter of the family wakes her

father: "Wake up, father, your horses have been stolen by the enemies.
Their leader has told us about it on his dombra" (Bekkhozhina 1966).

The most remarkable legend of this kind is "Aqsaq qulan". While

hunting, the khan's son was killed but nobody dared to tell the khan about
it because he had promised to pour molten lead into the throat of anyone

who would bring him bad news. The old kiiyshy decided to help them.
He came to the khan's yurta and began to play the kily. Having listened
to it the khan exclaimed: "My son is dead. You will be punished", to which
the musician answered: "It is not me who said it, it's my instrument" (in
different legends it may be either a dombra or a qobYz). And then the khan

ordered to pour molten lead into the instrument which since that time
has had a hole in the upper sounding board (see Beliaev 1975:90-92).
The connection with the word created a particular form of instrumental

music in Kazakh culture: a distinctive combination of narration and music.

Striving to become equal to the word, instrumental music absorbed

rhythms, intonation and syntax of poetic and prose speech, it learned to
convey images and plots of the narrative genres. It learned to reflect the

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MUKHAMBETOVA KAZAKH KOYSHI / 37

peculiarities of thinking processes and

philosophical ideas. Transformations o
various song genres and ritual melodic

with the semantics of these genres, and u

Representation of philosophical ideas i

on the religious systems that prevailed
Kazakh society. The ancient shamanic

found its expression in qobiz kiiys was fo

As the young Kazakh scholar Gulzada O

in multithematic kilys such themes fol
beginning the theme of evil (using the in
the theme of overcoming evil, followed b
finally the theme of blessing.
The peculiarity of the shamanic philos
itself in the necessity of the equilibrium

over the negative forces was understoo

former but as the establishment of the n

opposing forces. These theme-symbols are
intonational and rhythmical combination

by the plot of the legend. In the kiiy

overcoming mean Death and Qorqit's p

kily "Shingriw" (about a snake stealing th

themes depict a snake and a man coming
of opposing forces, the shaman plays an

evil, and change events to make the w

theme, that of blessing, is the establishm

in the world, useful to people. In shaman

meant to create and not to destroy.

The shamanic conception of the world
in a different way:

a) by means of a transformation of th
into musical images.
b) by means of relating the plot of th
form. The settled order of the music

transformed the sounds of the kiiy into o

The "correct" reproduction of the plot as

the order and harmony in the world.

shamanic "beginning of the world", to th

of the qobiz. Looking for immortality, Q

world but everywhere he met Death. The

Death could not approach so long as Q

as Qorqit fell asleep Death turned into

The playing of kilys corresponded

shamanism-to guard the world from

neutralize evil by actions, a goal which
of Qorqit himself showed: evil cannot b

of its antiquity this conception of a worl

is to create equilibrium between different

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38 / 1990 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

for modern society which in its excessive striving to destroy everything

it thinks objectionable, brings disaster upon itself.

Shamanism is the oldest religion of Kazakhstan. In the 8th century, Islam

was brought to the country. Thanks to its tolerance of shamanism a

other old cults of the Kazakh, by the 17-18th centuries Islam had w
a firm position in traditional society. Islam introduced a new system

views which affected also the instrumental music of the Kazakh. In the

18-19th centuries, the dombra gained a leading role in Kazakh musical

culture, and the new philosophy became embodied in kiiys for the dombra.

The new concept of the world gave rise to new themes and images:

meditation about the suffering which Man experiences in his life and with

which he must reconcile himself (Dauletkerey's kiiy "Jiger", "Energy";

Dauletkereky Shagaiev, 1820-1887; see Aravin 1984); the endless and rapid

succession of events into which Man is drawn in spite of himself (kiiy

"Domalapigh"-"The Whirling" by Dina Nurpeisova [1861-1955] and

Qanzanghap Tilepbergenov; see A. Rayimbergenov 1984); regret about

the rapidity of life which is only an instant in eternity, (e.g. "Otti dauren,

ketti diuren"-"The life has passed, the life is gone" by Qazanghap);

elusiveness of this world where Man is so lonely (Ekindede el izdegen"-"In twilight I don't find the people" by Espay). According to the Qur'an,
suffering is the lot of Man in this perishable world, and to overcome it
he must be both humble and strong. Islam does not give Man any hope
for a change of the outer world but pre-determines life as the comprehension and acceptance of the laws of the world and spiritual perfection.
Patience (sabr) is the main virtue. The personality ethics of Islam brought
to the art of dombra music a psychological depth which it had not known

before.

These kilys are usually accompanied by narration, and in the correlation

of the narration and the kily we see a new side of the interaction between

word and music. The Kazakh manner of speech is characterized by the

use of allegory in order to display symbolic thinking. Allegory was a
natural form to express symbolism because just as the outer world was
the manifestation of the divine, so the spoken is the manifestation of the

unspoken. The double meaning of speech goes back to the ancient laws

of taboo. The establishment of Islam with its inclination toward abstraction

resulted in the development of allegorical speech and the capability of the

Kazakh to treat any texts symbolically. The allegorical explanation of

occurrences, the double meaning of oral information are widely used in
everyday language and are considered the standard in fiction. The
occurrence is not referred to directly, one has to trace it through the
lacework of hints and figurative descriptions. To talk about something

means to invoke it without using its name. Many kiiys are the very essence
of what is not mentioned in the narrative but what is meant by the kily,

i.e. the deciphering of the symbolic meaning of the narration.

"One day, Qazanghap challenged a girl-dombrist (Dina Nurepeisova)
to a contest. She answered laughingly: 'I'll spin a top and if you are a
good dombra-player, play such a kiiy which will coincide with the spin
of the top. Many tried to carry out my wish but they failed.' The girl spun

the top and Qazanghap played the new kily "Doma latpigh".

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MUKHAMBETOVA KAZAKH KOYSHI / 39

If we take the words of the gir

difficult as to have all players fail.

be astonished by such a meaning

toy. The girl's words and her reques

meaning. Her question is a riddl

the secret meaning of her reques
the circle of life, its endless sorrow
words to the silent question, in acc
There is a legend about Espay's kii
which says that Espay made it wh
from one place to the other. He l
in the darkness (oral communica
the music reveals the true meani
is both the old age of the musici
The kily is about the sufferings

who lose true moral values and because of that cease to be a nation. The

old man does not see the nation in the crowds of people around him. Such

is the theme of the kiiy, the sad conclusion of his life.

The ease with which any event of life receives a figurative explanation
in the spirit of Islamic ethics is remarkable, as seen in the following tale

about the kiiyshi Qurmanghazi Saghirbayev (1806-1879):

"While hunting, Qurmanghazi bet with his friends which of them was
the best shot. Wanting to show his skill he shoots at the herd of running
antelopes and kills one of the animals. His friends tell him that it was by

chance. He kills another antelope. His friends tell him: 'The antelope was
destined to die, that was the will of Allah'. The herd was already far away,
but one antelope lagged behind and Qurmanghazi says to his friends: 'Tell
me, in what leg shall I wound it?' At their request he wounds it in a hind

leg. The antelope runs after the herd limping".

This legend could be the basis for a heroic kiiy glorifying the pre-Islamic
ideal of a hero: brave, strong, deft. But the end of the legend shows that

the ancient heroic ethos can change its sense, in the spirit of Islam.
. Lowering his rifle, Qurmanghazi exclaims: "Oh, poor thing, how
terribly it suffers" and makes the kily "Aqsaq kiyik"-"Lame antelope".
This kiiy is about the suffering of the unhappy in this world and about
great sympathy with them.
In the 20th century, the traditional culture of the Kazakh became part

of their tragic social fate. Until 1945, the number of Kazakh steadily
diminished. During collectivisation in 1932, 50% of the population died
of hunger, 15% went to China, Afghanistan and other countries, not to
return. The rest had to live through the purges of 1937 and the Second
World War. Traditional culture experienced ideological pressure. Professional musicians were persecuted and even killed. Some pieces of music
were banned because they had been composed by musicians from the
wealthy class, or because they did not suit the ruling ideology. The wealthy

class which had formerly supported musicians was destroyed. On the

whole, traditional art and its representatives were treated as inferior and
as non-professionals. All this resulted in the degradation of the traditional

culture. Another factor was that many talented musicians turned to

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40 / 1990 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

European style music which for a long time had been officially consider

the only possible style for a professional musician. Nevertheless, t

tradition of meditation on life survived in music. It was connected with

the new social and historical experience. In the 20th century, new musical
works were created (though not so many as before) and among them there

are pieces full of great pain and compassion with Man.

In Sugur's kiiys (d. 1953, Chimkent oblast) the ancient lament intonatsia
of qobiz music is heard again although other theme-symbols are not found
there, because the musician does not see the equilibrium of forces in the

world.

When Islam and the traditional forms of ideology lost their leading role,

the most ancient conception of life-the ethics of family relations and

kinship-became important again. This was a reaction to social problems
and the need of survival. The most ancient conception of the world

according to which the individual was part of his kin, was always

important for the Kazakh, and it always determined and controlled their

everyday life and activities. This conception always preserved its sacred
meaning as part of the higher strata of the traditional ethics. With the
degradation of the higher forms of ideology, however, tribal ethics became

the leading part in the formation of the world outlook.

Many musical compositions of the new time, songs and kiiys, are
addressed to the father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, children,2
grandchildren. They symbolize warm relations between people and at the
same time they show that the circle of images of the traditional art grows

narrower, loses true philosophical perspectives, scales down the outlook

on the world and Man. But at the same time this archaisized consciousness

gave birth to compositions which became very popular, such as Temirjan

Akhmetov's kily "Jetim bala"-"Orphan" referring to the mass social

phenomena of the 1930s. By thinking about Man as part of his kin and

his family, musicians helped people to resist the ideology which considered

the individual a small part of a gigantic machine easily sacrificed to the

class struggle. Turned away from the center of social and artistic life, the

musicians did not lose their kindness and sympathy for the people.

NOTES

1. Special thanks to Dr. Walter Feldman for transliteration and verification of Ka

names and terms, and for editorial contributions.

2. During World War II, the kiiyshi Turash Abuov (d. 1986) was an officer in the ar
One day, a company of young soldiers arrived to his command. "The Komsomo
Kazakhstan" was written on their tanks. On the day of their arrival the boys m
fires, cooked the meat they had brought with them, played the dombra, sang. Be
young, they did not know what war means and, as was natural at their age, m
merry. On the following day, Turash received the order to send them to the front

attack. He knew that they would all be killed, but he could not but carry out the or
In the morning, singing songs, they left for the front. Within a few days, the fr
in this area was broken, and when Turash with the army went through the form

battlefield he saw only burnt tanks with the words "The Komsomol of Kazakhst

on them. In his kiiy "The Komsomol of Kazakhstan" (private collection of

Rayimbergenov), Turash mourns the perished soldiers as his own children, crea
the world of their young lives that they did not live.

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MUKHAMBETOVA KAZAKH KOYSHI / 41

REFERENCES CITED

Aravin, P.V.

1984 Dauletkerei i Kazakhskaia muzyka XIX veka, Moscow.

Bekkhozhina, Tamara

1966 "Kiui legendy," in Narodnaia Muzyka v Kazakhstana, Alma-Ata.

Beliaev, Viktor

1975 Central Asian Music, Translated by Mark Slobin, Middletown.

Omarova, Gulzada

1989 Kazakhskaia kobyzskaia traditsia, Avtorefirat kanditatskaia disertatsia,

Leningrad.
Rayimbergenov, A.
1984 Kiiyler, Alma-Ata.

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