study-music
Kyrgyz tradition
Sample YouTube query, another YouTube query, some playlist
(Caution: radical oversimplifications below.)
The most popular Kyrgyz traditional instrument is komuz. While it’s fretless, the tradition around it isn’t part of maqam traditions, the music is rather standard diatonic. The standard way of performing on komuz is playing solo. Virtuoso players are called komuzchu “комузчу” (plural komuzchular “комузчулар”), they are also composers of new pieces.
There are songs and instrumental pieces. Instrumental pieces are called küü “күү” (plural küülör “күүлөр”) and comprise a core of the tradition (standards). There’s around 200 of popular ones, with the core of around 50 is the most popular. Some of them are traditional, some of them are composed by composers of the 20th century. The names of popular standards split by genres are given here. Their recordings can be found on YouTube.
The book “Балбай Алагушов. Антология кюу для комуза” (unavailable online, its CDs and DVDs are also unavailable) contains scores for many of them. Here’s a first part of photos (the second half to be photocopied):
Some speculations (to be carefully verified using the scores):
- pieces are primarily melodic, the melody is performed on two strings using several positions (six positions are recognized in total)
- the third string is used for droning most of the time
- sometimes the melody is doubled in fourths or fifths, depending on the tuning
- melodies are in diatonic modes, with no strict emphasis on the Western major/minor or functional harmony
- melody usually stays within the small range of notes (say, from tonic to fifth), rhythm is usually simple, meter may change every bar, the pace of performance is pretty fast. the expressive emphasis is thus on the meter and the right-hand technique:
Speculations came from skimming В. Виноградов, Киргизская народная музыка, 1958 г. (not avaiable online).
The Anthology of Alagushov
The book of Mariyam Korpobaeva
- Mariyam Korpobaeva. Musical analysis of genres of komuz kuus - A great book that analyzes distinctive features of four main types of kuus. The book is in Kyrgyz, you can read it by copy-pasting the text into Google Translate. It has the score for many standards starting from the page 53.
Here comes the list of YouTube videos that closely match the scores from the book:
- Сынган бугу, p. 66-71
- Салтанат шыңгырама, p. 72-73
- Чоң кербез (Токтогул), p. 84-85
- Жаш кербез, p. 89-91
Kerbezim
Kerbezim is a short piece by Toktogul Satylganov. It uses the first five notes of the A major scale (A-B-C#-D-E). The strings are tuned E3-A3-E3. The unusual sound comes from the droning fifth degree (not a tonic) - the upper E3 string. The lower A3 and E3 strings are used for the melody in the second (or the third?) position using the (imaginary) frets 4, 5 and 7. The A is played with the second string open (making a unison), on all other notes one of the two melodic strings is muted.
Books for middle school students
https://kitep.edu.gov.kg/kg/catalog?search=%D0%BC%D1%83%D0%B7%D1%8B%D0%BA%D0%B0