Kirgiz Music

Kirgiz music carries the Manas epic, komuz playing and mouth harp from the northern Pamir.

Related

DombraKouxian (jaw harp)

Time and place

The Kirgiz live mainly in Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, in Artux, Akto, Wuqia and Akqi, with communities in Ili and Tacheng. The Pamir and the southern Tianshan form the core. Kirgiz belongs to the Kipchak branch of Turkic, written in Arabic script and mutually intelligible with Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan. Weddings, Nauryz, circumcision and kokpar are the main occasions, and manaschi sing the epic at gatherings and weddings.

What happened

Kirgiz music centres on epic and plucked-song performance. Manas is sung by manaschi, telling the deeds of Manas and his descendants; it is extremely long and can last several nights. The delivery moves between melodic chanting, which is hard to notate, and passages close to speech, carried by memory. The komuz is a three-string plucked instrument for accompaniment and solo; the kyl kyyak is a bowed instrument with a rough tone; the temir komuz is a mouth harp. From the late twentieth century Manas was recorded and published, and manaschi entered stages and school transmission. Research on differences between Chinese and Kyrgyzstani versions continues.

Musical features

The Manas chant is narrow, repetitive and falling at phrase ends, its rhythm stretching with the words; battle and migration passages speed up and grow louder. The komuz has a bright attack, its tuning and strumming setting the accompaniment. The kyl kyyak is bowed with horsehair and sounds close to a voice. The mouth harp is quiet, selecting overtones with the mouth. Melodies are mostly pentatonic, sometimes heptatonic, with fine ornament.

What to listen for

Hear the repetition and falling ends of the Manas chant, then how the komuz fills the gaps between phrases. Essen-008789 is titled Kezi le bi dai in the catalogue, its language and ethnicity uncertain, a western regional reference only; essen-008754 is a Kazakh song and essen-008753 a Uyghur song, references from Ili and Xinjiang. None is a Kirgiz recording, so a living Manas performance must be sought elsewhere.

Common misunderstandings

The Kirgiz are often taken as a branch of the Kazakh, or Manas is treated as a fixed book. The languages are related but the peoples differ, and Manas is a living epic whose versions vary greatly between manaschi. The komuz is not a dombra either; string count, tuning and timbre differ. Kirgiz music is still sung at weddings and festivals; transmission has gaps, but younger singers are learning.

Sources

• 《中国音乐词典》编辑部编，中国音乐词典（人民音乐出版社）— 柯尔克孜音乐与玛纳斯条目核对，未引用
• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "China" — framework checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.