Kyrgyz folk instruments are an essential part of the national artistic culture — both as attributes of musical creativity and as creations of applied art. In modern society, they function in various aspects and situations. They are played solo, as well as in ensembles and orchestras, during home music-making and at public concerts. Music schools, studios, and secondary and higher educational institutions introduce children and youth to instrumental performance or provide opportunities to acquire higher professional qualifications. Competitions and festivals serve as showcases for the results of this work.
In traditional, patriarchal society, the forms of existence of musical instruments were no less diverse. In everyday life, during leisure, games, folk-sport competitions, military campaigns, at holidays and funerals, the living "voices of the centuries" sounded, for Kyrgyz folk instruments have preserved not only their unique intonation but also their construction and methods of sound production over many centuries.
At the same time, Kyrgyz musical instruments are evolving, albeit slowly in earlier eras, as they were perfectly adapted to a nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyle. For this reason, the instruments had a relatively modest appearance and did not require particularly careful maintenance. Currently, the range of instruments is updated much more quickly, both in general nomenclature and individually. Their artistic and technical parameters are changing and expanding.
In the consciousness of the people, instruments are a kind of material symbol of their spiritual and aesthetic relationship to the surrounding world. It is no coincidence that musical instruments, such as the komuz, were revered as national relics and often placed in the most honorable spot in a yurt or home. The so-called konguroo — bells — were used in traditional migrations as the best musical decoration of a caravan journey. The sounds of special Kyrgyz jingles — zhylaazhin — were considered beautiful, akin to a gentle female voice.
The significant role of musical instruments in the life of the Kyrgyz is evidenced by their repeated mentions in the trilogy "Manas," with almost documentary characteristics of their structure and expressive capabilities. For example:
He played the komuz,
Covering it with a cloth.
He placed it on a high stand,
Made its sound deep and resonant.
He tightened the strings well.
He made the sound resonate,
He liked the sound of the spruce.
The komuz is carved from apricot wood,
The neck is made from a small chest.
Its bowl is deeply carved,
The string holder is low,
The strings are made from intestines.
They played the komuz this way and that,
Those who listened to the melody approved.
(Translation by G. Baisabaeva)
The performing arsenal of the Kyrgyz can be divided into instruments that have an artistic function, those with purely practical purposes, and ritual instruments that combine both. The aesthetic and practical role of the performed music is the main criterion in determining the instrumental genre (kuu). In the parts of instruments of the first group, the intonational line and rhythm usually bear the main load, in the second group — the extra-musical timbre, and in the third group — rhythm and timbre.
At the same time, the boundaries between the groups are conditional. Even in ancient times, some wind and percussion instruments expanded their functions from signaling to artistic. Nowadays, applied and ritual instruments have either disappeared along with the previous way of life or are used in concert practice, for example, the bell — konguroo or the ritual "musical staff" bakshy — asa-musa. Children's "musical toys" (such as chopo choor) have become solo and ensemble instruments.
Thus, historical musical practice influences the function of the folk instrument, and consequently, its appearance, structure, and timbre.
From the perspective of organology, Kyrgyz instruments are classified into four main groups, namely:
1) string instruments (kyl aspaptar — chordophones), whose sound source is a stretched string;
2) wind instruments (uyloome aspaptar — aerophones), for which the sound source is a column of air enclosed in the instrument;
3) percussion instruments (urma aspaptar — membranophones) with a sound source in the form of a stretched membrane;
4) self-sounding instruments (kakma aspaptar — idiophones), where the source of sound vibrations is the body itself.
