Music of Kazakhstan

The modern state of Kazakhstan is home to the Kazakh State Kurmangazy Orchestra of Folk Instruments, Kazakh State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kazakh National Opera and the Kazakh State Chamber Orchestra. The folk instrument orchestra was named after Kurmangazy, a famous composer and dombra player from the 19th century. Other Kazakh composers include Tattimbet, Sougur, Almaz Serkebayev, Tles Kazhgaliev, Makhambet and Bayserke.

Folk music

Main article: Kazakh folk music

Kazakh music is nomadic and rural, and is closely related to Turkmen and Kyrgyz folk forms. Travelling bards, healers and mystics called akyn are popular, and usually sing either unaccompanied or with a string instrument, especially a dombra or qobuz. Akyn performance contests are called aitys; their lyrics are often social or political, and are generally improvised, witty remarks.

Traditional Kazakh music includes ensembles using instrumets like the qobuz or dombra, as well as kylkobyz, sherter, sybyzgy, saszyrnay and shankobyz; the most common instrumental traditions are called kobizovaia, sibiz-govaia, and dombrovaia. Many songs are connected to ancient mythology and folk religious beliefs (kui), while others were composed after the rise of authored works (kuishi) by early songwriters (jiray) like Mahmud Kashgari, Kaztygana, Dospanbeta, Shalkiiza and Aktamberdi. The kuishi tradition is said to have peaked in the 19th century, often composers like Kurmangazy, Madi Baliuly and Birjan and singers like Ahan were active. In the 20th century, the first major star was the singer Mayra Shamsutdinova, who was, unusual for the time, a woman. You can obtain some of Kazakh music at Named link: SRP

References

• Broughton, Simon and Sultanova, Razia. "Bards of the Golden Road". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 24–31. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1–85828–636–0