Sybyzgy and Kazakh folklore 12+

It is impossible to imagine the everyday life and art of the Kazakhs without music. One of the oldest Kazakh musical instruments is the sybyzgy.

Playing the sybyzgy is a sacred art that makes a person spiritually rich. Playing the sybyzgy is an art that can be mastered with great enthusiasm and diligence. In addition, the ability to play the sybyzgy is passed down from generation to generation.

Although there is a lot of material for making sybyzgy, it is not so easy to make it "accessible" in a modern language, but it seems to be the most difficult thing to set it up and play music on it.

For example, it is quite possible that anyone will be able to master playing the dombra at a low level, and start playing simple songs and melodies. And it takes a lot of skill and practice to make a sound while playing the sybyzgy. In any case, sybyzgy is a complex tool that is not suitable for everyone at once. That's probably why very few people play the sybyzgy.

Sybyzgy is a wind musical instrument, which has long been a faithful companion of nomadic Kazakhs. Shepherds are craftsmen, they cut out an ordinary reed from the field, make holes and, having processed it a little, immediately begin to play a beautiful melody on it. Kazakhs are a people who love cheerful songs and touching melodies. A lot can be said through the flute. Sadness and sorrow. Joy and happiness.

It can also be made from wood, brass, bone, and other hollow materials. The length of the sybyzgy varies from 600-700 mm, if taken with a clear size.

On the modern territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, there are only two varieties of sybyzgy associated with different performing traditions. Their variety: for example, the eastern sybyzgy has a cone-shaped, slightly shorter in length and small in diameter, and the western variety is larger and longer.

The number of holes is 3-4. In some cases, the number of holes can be up to six. It is said that sybyzgy with 6 holes was played by a prominent musician sybyzgist Sarmalai, a representative of the Western school of sybyzgy.

The sound range is diatonic, the volume is 2, 1/2 octaves. Sybyzgy was the entertainment of a shepherd grazing cattle on long summer, autumn and spring days, a horseman guarding his cattle on dark nights.

Although the sybyzgy was widely used in all corners of the Kazakh world until the first half of the 20th century, in the second half of the century this national wind instrument was gradually forgotten.

Until the last few years, the game of sybyzgy was not very popular in the eastern region of Kazakhstan, and there were periods when this tradition was on the verge of being lost. And it is clear that the tradition of playing sybyzgy among Kazakhs abroad, in particular in Mongolia and China, has been well preserved, which contributed to the revival of the Kazakh wind instrument sybyzgy. Let's try to find answers to the questions of when and in what era sybyzgy appeared, what written data about it are printed on a book, on stones, etc.

One of the traditional musical instruments of the Kazakh people, sybyzgy, is undoubtedly the most ancient spiritual instrument. With the help of this simple instrument made of reeds with five holes, folk craftsmen pour out wonderful melodies, fill the ears of the listener and cause their hearts to beat faster.

Sybyzgy is the simplest and most versatile wind instrument. The melody that comes from the flute is a combination of three different sounds to form a pleasant melody.

These are: the sound of the trunk, the echo of the mouth and the sound of the musician's larynx. The sybyzgist creates or performs the melody as much as possible, mastering these three different sources of sound.

It can be said that a musical instrument similar to the flute exists in all corners of the world. Despite some differences in the technique of making and making reeds, they are all basically similar. Among the Turkic peoples, the Altaians, Bashkirs and Kazakhs are engaged in the art of playing the sybyzgy. It is not for nothing that the peoples of the Urals: Bashkirs and Tatars call the flute instrument "kurai".

Also, musical instruments similar to the Kazakh sybyzgy exist among many Eurasian peoples. For example, the Hungarians, Moldavians and Bulgarians have kaval, the Volga Tatars and Bashkirs have kurai, the Turkmens have gargy tyuduk, the Mongols and Kalmyks have tsoor, the Altaians have shoor, the Kyrgyz have chor and many others.

V. Dahl in his book "Explanatory Word of the Living Great Russian Language" writes about sybyzgy: "Sopil. Sopelka, sopilka, snot, pipe, sipovka, chibizga, chakan made of elder's stick, bark from willow, etc. Pipe, tube, barrel. A folk musical device among shepherds, children, the poor, rarely used in conjunction with other instruments; It is made of elderberry, reeds, with willow bark removed in early spring (sipovka, sopelka, chibizga)." There is no exact information about when the Kazakh flute, sybyzgy, appeared. If we consider it from the point of view of common Turkic and universal nomadism, then in the Chinese chronicles of the early Xiongnu period there are records of the existence of a spiritual tool similar to sybyzgy. In particular, in 198 AD, King Lindi of the Eastern Han Dynasty drew attention to the clothing of the Huns, the yurt, the khan's throne (throne), their food, as well as the kung hou and flute, and ordered them to be taken to the royal palace (Han Surname XXIII, 1894, 108p)

When he gave a sybyzgy: "Tsar Alexander the Great has a horn!" - it is said that he screeched, according to legend. Of course, this is a legend, but it is clear that there is a meaning behind it. From this legend we know that in the time of Alexander the Great (Alexander the Great) there was a flute-sybyzgy.

In 2011, during the excavations of the early Turkic underground complex of Shatyrtau, it turned out that a horse warrior found in the panorama of the mausoleum had a sybyzgy sculpted in his hand. This corresponds to 680-630 BC.

Even among related Turkic peoples, sybyzgy is called differently. For example, the Bashkirs call it Sbyzgy, the Nogais call it Sybyzgy, the Tatars call it Sibigzi. In addition to the Turkic peoples, the neighboring Slavic and Mongolian peoples also have a wind instrument.

Foreigners who listened to the flute instrument recorded the characteristics of its design in their works. Ivan Lepekhin (1740-1802), a well-known Russian naturalist, who traveled to the west of the Kazakh steppe in the second half of the 18th century, wrote the following description of the flute, its structure and the production of sounds by playing. It has a trunk like a sunflower stem, also called sybyzgy... The thin end of this instrument has three grooves, which the musician alternately opens and closes with three fingers of one hand, and with the other hand, if necessary, the oval groove at the bottom of the tuba is closed.

The wide mouth of the tube is located on the upper teeth and touches the upper lip and tongue. To play such an instrument, you need special training: if it is played by a master musician, the voice will sound like a small travesty flute." Therefore, four centuries ago, foreign researchers clearly understood that playing the sybyzgy is not so easy.

In the 19th century, to be precise, in 1803-1804, in the Kazakh steppe, in the middle of the Small Zhuz, the works of Dr. Bolshoy Savva mention the instruments of the Kazakhs - sybyzgy, kobyz and dombra.

Philip Nazarov, a translator of the Special Siberian Corps, who came to the small hundred clans in 1813, writes about the life of the local people and emphasizes that the sybyzgy is an instrument of shepherds, and sad melodies are played on it.

In his work "Description of the Kyrgyz-Cossack, or Kyrgyz-Kaysatsky, Hordes and Steppes", A.I. Levshin writes that he was at the court of the Khan of the Small Horde Shergazy Aishuakov, and about the peculiarities of the musical way of life of the Khan's aul at that time: "I asked the Sultan: do you have music? At that moment he came out without answering and entered with a simple Kazakh holding a hollow reed clay tool cubit long, with three grooves, without other valves and internal parts.

It is the only wind instrument called sybyzgy."

Then the scientist emphasizes that this sybyzgist is a "miracle worker". The word "the only Kazakh wind instrument here" can be understood as the most common among the people. A.I. Levshin comes to the conclusion that the main musical instruments of the Kazakhs are dombra and sybyzgy. Foreign researchers say: "Kyrgyz musical instruments are not interesting.

They have only tambourine, jibizgi and dumbra," he says in his scientific work "Kazakh Musical Instruments. - Alma-Ata, 1978" by Professor B. Sarybaev, the revival of Kazakh musical instruments.

It is a well-known fact that European and Russian musicologists and some Russian specialists who studied in European schools, under the influence of the concepts of Eurocentrism and Russocentrism, are often neglected for the original Kazakh musical heritage and instruments.

Regarding the attitude of European society to the sybyzgy and other national musical instruments, the following opinion of art historian Akseleu Seidimbek comes to mind:

"There is one negative feature that influenced the cultural and spiritual nature of the Kazakh people in the 20th century. The beauty of folk art is usually compared with the art of foreign countries, especially with examples of Euro-Russian art. According to this, if your songs, posture, compositions, clothes, food, houses and possessions are similar to the Euro Russians, then you are "cultured". All this is recognized as a "classic" model. And everything that does not resemble the cultural model of the Euro Russians and has a clear national origin (original) is called "primitive art" or "folklore".

Behind such notions is hidden the meaning of "backward" and "wild". Traditional Kazakh musical instruments and traditional music are no exception to this half-hearted taste and knowledge." We refrain from minimizing and denying the possibilities, achievements and heights of classical European music and musicology. However, there is no doubt that the propaganda and popularity of Kazakh domestic musical art is no worse, if not less, than theirs.

And to the question of where the word "sybyzgy" came from, we can say that the following conclusion of the famous philologist Kudaibergen Zhubanov gives a clear answer: "One of the Kazakh instruments is "sybyzgy". The word sybys ("whistle") is pronounced with a soft sound, and if you turn a soft "z" sound into a strong "s" sound, you get "hearing".

"Sybys" is a branch of the Kazakh word "dybys", and since this sybyzgy is made of reeds, reeds were first called by this word. One of the names of reeds in the Kazakh language is hearing. In many places the word has not been preserved. Thus, the word "sypyzgy" is, on the one hand, a sound, on the other hand, the name of the instrument that makes this sound, and on the third hand, the name of the thing that this instrument represents is a name. of reeds."

There are many legends about the origin of sybyzgy, that is, its first creation. And they are common to the Turkic and Mongolian peoples. The following legend has been preserved about the origin of sybyzgy among the Altai Kazakhs. There: once upon a time, a woman and her son lived on the Irtysh River. The son feeds his mother by hunting in the mountains of the Great Altai and picking fruits in the forest. The water of the river, which originates in the sacred Altai, flows down from the mountain. The sound of the waterfall captivated the young man from childhood and carried him away into some kind of sweet fantasy. It was a wonderful feeling. Abyz Altai sang gloomily, and an unknown sweet melody floated in the air. When he is free from hunting, he walks all day long to the shore of the waterfall and listens to his voice and listens to his wonderful music.

Sometimes he didn't even notice the sunset. Walking in this way, one day a beautiful girl with the mouth of the moon and the eyes of the sun came out of the foot of the waterfall. The guy is surprised, opening his mouth and closing his eyes. Then the girl:

"Young man, do you come here every day and listen to the sound of the waterfall?" "Tell me the reason?" he says. Then the guy got confused and said:

- From the sound of this waterfall, it seems to me that I hear the voice of the beautiful Irtysh River in Altai. Everywhere I go, that voice never leaves my ears! -Says.

"Then I will teach you to carry this sound with you forever!" - it is said that if you cut down a reed that grows in the valley of this river and blow on it, all the sounds you want will come out of it. The mermaid disappears from view. Then the guy cut down the reeds and plays the "Irtysh Wave", "Altai Tolgauy" on the sybyzg. It is said that then this kui spread throughout the country. This legend is shared by the Kazakhs and Urankai people living in Altai. And the above-mentioned melodies are sung by both peoples on their flutes and sybyzgy.

The mermaid disappears from view. Then the guy cut down the reeds and plays the "Irtysh Wave", "Altai Tolgauy" on the sybyzg. It is said that then this kui spread throughout the country. This legend is shared by the Kazakhs and Urankai people living in Altai. And the above-mentioned melodies are sung by both peoples on their flutes and sybyzgy.

In ancient Kazakh epics about the melodies of musical instruments, sybyzgy is found to a greater or lesser extent. An example of this is Alpamys, in the epic "Alpamys Batyr", when he was captured by the Kalmyk Khan, he made sybyzgy and played it.

The plot of the story: Alpamys batyr was in prison, one day a boy named Keykuat, who was grazing a goat of the Khan's daughter, one goat jumped and fell into a well in the dungeon where Alpamys was. Alpamys ate a goat and forced Keykuat to hand over the goats and ate all his goats one by one.

When Keykuat asked what to do now, since you had already eaten all the goats, Alpamys made him a whistle called "Shildarman" from the bones of a goat. He gave it to Keykuat and said, "Put him in the way of the girls who are walking." The girls came up, took it in their hands and asked, "Who did that?" Then don't tell your secret to anyone but the Khan's daughter. Keykuat held a pipe in his hand and blocked the way of the girls.

"One day, when the girls were going to the lake, they played sybyzgy," he said. In this regard, I would like to say that the Kazakh people had a variety of sybyzgy, called "zhilik sybyzgy", which was used until recently. According to the well-known ethnographer Bikumar Kamalashula, sybyzgy is made from tendons and bones of animals and birds. Zhilik is one of the traditional wind instruments of the Kazakh people.

It turns out that each musical instrument affects a specific system in the human body. According to musicologists, acousticians and specialists, listening to a piece played on the piano brings harmony to the psyche, is very useful for restoring the functioning of the kidneys, improving the functioning of the urinary tract, and cleaning. thyroid. And listening to an organ, a giant musical instrument, is considered good for brain function.

Stringed instruments, such as guitar, harp, violin, stringed instrument, normalize the work of the heart and blood vessels. The sound of instruments such as drum, dangira, taituyak restores the heartbeat and improves liver function. Any music relieves muscle tension and increases activity. And wind instruments, such as sybyzgy, flute, kurai, lute, trumpet, improve the functioning of the respiratory tract, cleanse the lungs and bronchitis, and have a very good effect on blood circulation.

Stringed instruments such as guitar, harp, violin, string instrument normalize the functioning of the heart and blood vessels. The sound of instruments such as drum, dangira, taituyak restores the heartbeat and improves liver function. Any music relieves muscle tension and increases activity. And wind instruments, such as sybyzgy, flute, kurai, lute, trumpet, improve the functioning of the respiratory tract, cleanse the lungs and bronchitis, and have a very good effect on blood circulation.

Let's try to find an answer to the question of when and to what extent sybyzgy and the art of playing sybyzgy spread in the Kazakh steppe. In our opinion, there is reason to suppose that in all regions there was a tradition of playing sybyzgy, but in the modern East Kazakhstan region, in the language of today's Kazakhs, it was "head and shoulders above" other regions. The reason is that among the Kazakhs who settled in the Altai and Tarbagatai regions, the game for sybyzgy did not stop until recent years.

In addition, some of the extant Sybyzgy chants are associated with the names of places and waters in the region of Eastern Kazakhstan.

If we pay attention to the content of the legends about Sybyzgy, Markakol, Irtysh, Kaba, Buktyrma, etc., we see that this legend is associated with the rivers and waters of Altai. "Where the horse rolls, the hair stays," says the Kazakh. According to the veracity of this statement, well-known sybyzgists performed in the East Kazakhstan region until yesterday.

According to Taliga Bekkozhina, an art historian who made a great contribution to the collection of Kazakh music, in her work "Dalam Nazdy Sazdary" (Almaty, "Oner", 1966), famous sybyzgists lived in the region of Eastern Kazakhstan. Sherubai, his son Bikan Sherubaev and his student Shanak Auganbayevli from Katonkaragai.

At that time, Shokan Valikhanov, the first Kazakh scientist, donated sybyzgy to the St. Petersburg museum.

It is not known to whom it belongs, but it is an ordinary sybyzgy made of reeds, with three grooves and an iron ring attached to a wooden box in three places. We learn that in Syrymbet, where Chokan was born and raised, his relative was a well-known sybyzgyshy named Kangozha.

By the end of the last century, in many regions of Kazakhstan, playing sybyzgy is gradually becoming more and more rare, and even in many regions there is a situation when a person playing sybyzgy is not exposed to this influence at all. The requirements of the epoch include the fact that the tradition of playing sybyzgy in Kazakhstan in the second half of the 20th century reached the level of extinction.

The reason is that this was a time when false slander and open insult to the nation's heritage and values were gaining ground, claiming that it was "a tool of ancient rich feudal lords and witches." And it can be said that sybyzgy lost its existence and significance as a musical instrument in many regions even before this era.

Even today, there are many areas where sybyzgy is not often used in creative groups, orchestras and ensembles. Therefore, it is difficult to believe that in the near future the seeds of the flute tradition will take root and penetrate deeply into these regions.

And even within the musical world, of the same nation, musical instruments specific to each region have an area of distribution and a level of use.

Accordingly, if you think about it, you can see that the game of sybyzge has taken root in the west and east of the Kazakh steppe since ancient times. While the tradition of the Kazakhs of the western region has been almost completely destroyed, the tradition of playing sybyzgy in the eastern region has retained its originality.

Here, the "eastern region" refers to the eastern region of Kazakhstan and the adjacent territory, where the Kazakhs of modern China and Mongolia live. This is due to the fact that since time immemorial, these regions have been the ancestral homeland of the Turks and Kazakhs.

Now it is considered to be the territory of another country, then the Kazakhs living there in the patrimony of their ancestors. The Kazakhs live until the beginning of the twelve tributaries of the Irtysh. The valley of the Kobda River is not alien to the Kazakhs. In these regions, which were the golden cradle of sybyzgy, today this instrument is played by a large number of schoolchildren. They will undoubtedly pass on our original art to the next generations.

Regarding the combination of sybyzgy and dombra, one thing should be noted: such a "duet" does not have fast and expressive rhythms. Only click states are received. In the musical traditions of the Altai-Kobda region, the rhythm of the pensive and playful brown clicks of the page seems to ask for a duet. In the middle of the performance of the duet of sybyzgy and dombra, it vibrates and sings in harmony, involving the listener in a circle of different feelings, and the song continues to the music.

In a word, since the times of the ancient Huns, the precious heritage of sybyzgy and dombyr, passed down from generation to generation, has become one of the inseparable spiritual values of the Kazakh people and has served and will serve the spiritual world of our people for thousands of years.

Literature and music are twins, a tandem. We will get acquainted with the past history of our people by considering the Kazakh wind musical instrument - the flute and mythical legends about it.