One of the ancient layers of Kyrgyz instrumental music in the oral tradition is associated with the kyl kyak. It clearly lags behind the komuz in popularity among both performers and listeners. It is indicative that at the first All-Kyrgyz Olympiad of Folk Musical Creativity, held in the capital of the republic in 1936, out of thirteen instrumentalists, ten played the komuz, two played the temir komuz, and only one played the kyl kyak.Nevertheless, this instrument, along with the genres associated with it, occupies its own place in national culture due to its unique sound and artistic properties.
The music for the kyl kyak is two-voiced, which is related to the presence of only two strings on the instrument. The upper voice is the leading one, while the lower voice serves as a background, accompaniment, or doubling (usually in a pure fifth or fourth).
Pieces for the kyl kyak can be divided into two genre groups: those of vocal and instrumental genesis.
The first category includes instrumental works that often bear the same titles as Kyrgyz folk songs or dastans that served as the basis for the instrumental version. Kyl kyak players use the themes of traditional ritual, lyrical, labor, and humorous songs as prototypes. The original song is immediately and unmistakably recognized by listeners, but instrumentalists introduce slight changes and additions related, in particular, to the special type of two-voiced texture. The kyuu of song genesis often takes the form of a theme with variations. They are characterized by sound imagery, the embodiment of everyday situations, and special occasions from folk life.
It should be noted that the kyuu for the kyl kyak is much closer to folk song, vocal origins than the kyuu for the komuz, and therefore the musical material in them undergoes significantly less instrumental development.
Kyuu of the second category for the kyl kyak typically consist of several parts that follow one another according to a specific program: images of nature, labor, everyday life, rituals, and games. In the pieces by M. Kurunkeev "Night Scene in the Mountain Pasture" ("Kechki zhayloodo") and "The Death of the Bay Horse" ("Torukashka at kokuy"), "The Horse Went" ("At ketti"), in the piece by Zh. Boogachinov "Prize" ("Baige"), the pictorial program is already declared in the titles themselves, and the "plot" forms a kind of contrastive-composite structure. The structure of the kyuu of instrumental genesis becomes more complex in accordance with a specific programmatic idea. Such pieces are usually performed by professional musicians.
The titles of many pieces in the second category often coincide with the titles of kyuu for other folk instruments — komuz, choora, surnai, sybyzgy. These coincidences are most often related to the universality of ethnomusicological genre terms such as "botoy," "kerbez," "tolgoo," and "kairyk," which extend their influence across different instrumental spheres. For example, one can mention the kyl kyak kyuu by M. Kurunkeev "Murataalynyn botoyu" and "Murataalynyn kyzy kerbez."
A number of sound recordings of kyl kyak pieces are stored in the fund of the Kyrgyz National Television and Radio Corporation, recorded in the interpretation of professional folk musicians. In the work on the musical transcription for this instrument, A. Zataevich, V. Vinogradov, and B. Chytyrbaev participated at various times.
