The Uyghur Music Art of Kazakhstan and XUAR Compared and Contrasted

It is a common fact that Uyghur music originated thousands of years ago, deep in history.

[1].

The maturity of music culture in Early Middle Age caused the basis of music theory to form in Central Asia. Sudzup’s theoretic system underlay the Uyghur musical progress.  

Avicenna, a 9^th century scientist, classified musical instruments into chords, winds, and percussion instruments. Music scholars believe the classification by V.Maiyon to be the general classification. The musical instrument researcher V.Maiyon considered the sound produced by instruments to be the chief classification parameter. However, it proved to be insufficient for a universal classification. As a result, the Hornbostel-Sachs system emerged. It includes idiophones, in which the sound produced depends on the design of the instrument, membraphones, which produce the sound with s tightly stretched membrane, chordophones,  in which the sound produced depends on a primary string, and aerophones employing air [4, 13].

The abovementioned musical instruments are used for solo performance, accompanying, and collective performance.

The majority of national Uyghur instruments are chordophones. Their types, shapes, and design (simple and combined) as well as their speech are strikingly authentic and diverse.

It is not only in XUAR and Central Asian Uyghur communities but also in other East countries that chordophones are widely used. Still, a comparison reveals a number of clear similarities and differences between certain instruments. They are mostly attributable to ethnic traditions or geography. Sometimes instruments with similar names and a similar number of strings are to be as different as chalk and cheese. It is our conviction that the nature of an instrument is determined not only by its exterior and design but also by performance, including its repertoire and the thinking behind it.  

The abovementioned characteristic features present a musical way of expressing the very nature of the Uyghur people. The instruments, which possess an authentic speech, should be presented as a potential for musical progress in Kazakhstani Uyghur communities as well as those of XUAR, Middle East, and Central Asia. The art of music and musical instrument is a sphere that contributes to the Uyghur glory as part of ethnic cultural progress.

Domullayeva, Kh.I., Master of Arts,

M.O.Auezov Institute for Literature and Arts

References:

1. S.Kibirova. Abstract. Uyghur Musical Instruments in Traditional Culture. – Leningrad, 1989. – 24 p.
2. Music Studies. / A compilation of Articles by Postgraduate and PhD Students. Issue 5. – Almaty: Principal Printing Office of the State Committee of the KazSSR Council of Ministers for Printed Literature, 1971. – 223 p.
3. Uyghur Folk Songs Recorded by G.Zaynavdinov / Complied by Raziva, N.T., Shklovskaya, A.S., Autova, G.– Almaty: Gylym, 1993. – 60 p. (5 p.).
4. Domullayeva, Kh. Thesis (Master): Stringed Musical Instruments (Chordophones) in the Contemporary XUAR. Almaty: 2010. – 81 p.