The oldest instruments, which are wind instruments, were primarily given practical significance by the Kyrgyz. They performed signaling functions (calling people to public events, moving herds of livestock), and only later artistic, aesthetic functions (rest, entertainment). In ancient times, instruments of this group were included in ensembles during military battles. The epic "Manas" mentions performers on wind instruments, whose playing made a significant emotional impression on listeners. While some instruments were used in ceremonial occasions and court life (surnai, kerney), most wind instruments were an integral part of the democratic environment. Today, with the revival of ensemble forms of performance, some of these instruments are used in a modernized form in concert repertoire.
Choор — a traditional Kyrgyz longitudinal aerophone, which is one of the oldest musical instruments. The performers on it are called choorchu. The choor was more widely used in southern Kyrgyzstan as a shepherd's instrument. In the north, it remained forgotten for a long time, but now, with the increase in the number of folk-ethnographic instrumental ensembles, it is being revived.
Researchers classify the choor as a family instrument, having many varieties depending on the material used for its manufacture, for example: chogoyno choor (thistle), kamysh choor (reeds), shilbi choor (honeysuckle), sary zhygach choor (barberry), baltyrkan choor (made from hogweed and other umbrella plants), zhez choor (copper). However, there is another approach: the basis is not the material but the construction principle. According to the latter, traditional choor and modernized choor are distinguished.
As an example, we present a traditional choor made in 1992 by master and musician Nurlanbek Nyshanov from plastic. The length of the choor is 80 cm, diameter 1.5 cm. It has four holes. It is constructed based on the personal instrument of the famous choorchu Asanbay Karimov from the village of Turk-Abad in the Suzak district of the Jalal-Abad region.
The range and natural sound scale of the traditional choor:
Modernized choor by N. Nyshanov — a chromatic instrument. Made in 1980 by Ukrainian masters. Its length is 85 cm. It has 10 playing holes (kezenek). The sound scale ranges from D of the first octave to A of the second octave.
In the chon choor (large choor), constructed by N. Nyshanov, the properties of folk and modernized instruments are combined. It is also made of plastic. Its length is 100 cm, diameter 3.4 cm. It has five playing holes. In the modal structure, diatonic and chromatic scales are combined. The range is from F-sharp of the small octave to B of the first octave.
Thus, the family varieties of the choor dictate the length of the tube, which ranges from 40 to 100 cm, and its diameter (2-3 cm). In turn, these indicators shape the pitch of the instrument's fundamental tone. The number of playing holes varies from zero to four (up to 10 on modernized versions) and the working range: one to one and a half octaves in the middle register.
The timbre of the choor and its varieties is sharply characteristic — somewhat nasal, buzzing, matte, in the upper tessitura — brighter and clearer. At the same time, the hissing of air directed by the performer into the body of the instrument is clearly audible.
Chopo choor (clay choor) — a type of Kyrgyz folk wind instruments. It was mainly distributed in the southern, agricultural regions of the republic under various names — chopo choor, layak choor. Its shape is arbitrary. One of the ancient samples, located in the collection of Prof. S. Subanaliev, is made in the form of a small sphere from white clay; its height is slightly more than 5 cm. Two playing holes and one mouthpiece hole are arranged in such a way that they can be simultaneously covered by the lips and index fingers of both hands (the instrument is supported by the thumbs).
The folk chopo choor is simple in performance practice. The sound range of the instrument is extremely limited — within the interval of a third-fifth. The timbre is enchanting, soft, deep. It is evident that the chopo choor can serve both as a musical toy for children and as an equal instrument in a folk ensemble.
Currently, the instrument has been improved. Through the reconstruction of its ancient sample, a family of new chopo choors has been created. The basis is the chopo choor that exists in the Batken district of the Osh region. Unlike the Jalal-Abad chopo choors, it has a "ready" sound. The modernized ceramic chopo choors from N. Nyshanov's collection have an elongated shape, eight playing holes, and one mouthpiece hole. The length of the largest of them — chopo choor "D" — is 22 cm, diameter 8 cm, while the smallest, chopo choor piccolo "A" — is 5 cm and 2.5 cm, respectively. All of them are chromatic, transposing, and the name of the instrument's fundamental tone indicates the ascending interval of transposition. These instruments are: chopo choor "D" — range from C-sharp of the first octave to D of the second, chopo choor "E" — range from D-sharp of the first octave to E of the second, chopo choor "G" — range from F-sharp of the first octave to G of the second, chopo choor "A" — range from G-sharp of the first octave to A of the second, chopo choor "B" — range from A-sharp of the first octave to B of the second, chopo choor piccolo "A" — range from G-sharp of the second octave to A of the third.
1, 2, 3, 6 — modernized sybyzgy; 4 — chon choor; 5,7 — modernized chopo choor
Sybyzgy — a variety of Kyrgyz folk wind instruments. Unlike the choor, this aerophone is transverse. It, like the choor, is represented by two types — folk and modernized.
The sybyzgy is made from the wood of mulberry, apricot, barberry, reeds, or from copper, with wooden instruments being fastened with several metal rings. The length of the body is not a constant value and is about 50 cm, diameter — slightly less than 2 cm. The instrument has up to six or seven playing holes, while the modernized version has 10. It is characterized by a somewhat whistling, brighter, and more diverse timbre than that of the choor, and an octave range of sound in a relatively high tessitura. The range of the modernized chromatic sybyzgy is: G of the first octave — A of the third octave.
One of the regional variants of the name sybyzgy — zheznai (copper nai).
Surnai — a Kyrgyz folk wind instrument, representing a tube-like shawm with a double reed, conical channel, playing holes, and a bell. The length of the instrument ranges from 40 to 65 cm, the mouthpiece — 4 cm, and the diameter of the bell is 5-6 cm. It is made from apricot wood, mulberry, copper (tin). The reed is a flattened stem. The surnai with seven playing holes allows for a diatonic sound scale within the octave, in a tessitura above the average. The most common range of the instrument is: D of the first octave — E of the second octave:
The so-called reedsurnai is somewhat simpler in design. It has one reed, three to four playing holes, and lacks a bell. Its length is 25 cm, diameter of the tube is 0.8 cm.
The surnai sounds sharp, with a nasal tone. Previously, its relative loudness allowed it to be used as a signaling instrument, with which people could be gathered for ceremonial or other events at the right moment. Sometimes the surnai was included in military instrumental ensembles. S. Subanaliev writes that "in the composition of the percussion-wind ensemble, it (the surnai) participated in campaigns, battles..., served folk celebrations — toyi, ash, military-sports games — horse races, knight competitions with lances, etc." Such wide capabilities of the instrument are naturally available only to professional musicians, especially since sound production on the surnai requires significant physical effort.
The surnai has practically ceased to exist today, although it can still be found in some places, particularly in the southern regions of the republic. The names of performers on the surnai, such as Turap, Taikozho, Shadykan, Kurkenkey Belekov, who lived in the early 20th century, have reached us along with their creations. The name of the remarkable surnai player Junusaly Kuttubayev, thanks to recordings of his pieces on republican radio and records of his own performances, gained nationwide fame. These include the pieces "White Ram" ("Ak toktu"), "Kyu for Surnai" ("Surnai kyu"), and others.
Kerney — a type of Kyrgyz wind musical instruments, which, like the surnai, has not been modernized for ensemble and orchestral compositions and exists in its traditional form. It is purely a signaling or ceremonial instrument with a strong sound of piercing timbre. There are two types — muyuuz kerney (horn) and zhez kerney (copper, brass), also known as kerney. They differ significantly, but are united by the absence of playing holes.
Muyuuz kerney — the oldest instrument. It was made from the curved horn of a mountain goat, so its length varies between 30-40 cm. This instrument does not have a mouthpiece. On the muyuuz kerney, stored in the folklore cabinet of the Kyrgyz National Conservatory, only a few sounds of thick, soft timbre are extracted — these are the initial tones of the natural scale in the tessitura of the small octave.
Zhez kerney is a longitudinal tube 1-2 m long with or without a mouthpiece.
The diameter of the bell is 20 cm. The similarity of the kerney with the Uzbek and Uighur karnay is explained by the territorial proximity of Southern Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The sound of the kerney (a few tones of the natural scale in the middle range) is very strong, resonant, intended for open space. In the past, its practical function was limited to notifying about important events, but now it is an attribute of large folk celebrations.
The most famous kerneychi at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries were Belek Jan-kishi uulu — the grandfather of Murataly and the father of Kurkenkey, as well as Orozbak — the father of the manaschi Sagymbay.
A separate group of Kyrgyz aerophones consists of instruments that significantly lag behind the main types of folk wind instruments in terms of timbre quality and artistic significance. They can be called noise instruments. They exist in nature, are not made by masters, and produce non-artistic, non-musical sounds. These are the so-called chymyldak (whistle), yshkyrik (whistle), baryldak (free reed aerophone), chynyrtky (hunting call), zhalbyrak (explosive aerophone). They belong to the class of applied folk instruments and often function as peculiar sound toys.
