Today, in the era of sovereign, independent Kyrgyzstan, there is a genuine revival of the national language and culture. The restructuring of the musical infrastructure in favor of heritage has begun. Folklore competitions are being organized, new ensembles are being created, and talented solo musicians are gaining popularity. Folklore has become the heritage of not only rural but also urban environments, and it has entered the international arena.
Oral folk art has played a huge role in the cultural life of the Kyrgyz, the pinnacle of which is the epic "Manas." It began to take shape a thousand years ago, reflecting the events of the era when the Kyrgyz were a powerful people (9th-10th centuries). In terms of scale, the Kyrgyz epic surpasses all known monuments of world epic creativity. The most extensive version of "Manas" was recorded from the words of the bard Sagynbai Orozbakov and contains about 200,000 verses, which means its volume is 16 times greater than that of Homer's "Iliad."
Since 2000, the cultural elite has attempted to form a national ideology for Kyrgyzstan based on the "seven commandments of Manas." The ideological foundation of the "seven commandments of Manas" lasted until 2005.
Alongside the epic "Manas," which has transformed over a thousand years into a gigantic poetic chronicle, new songs, legends, and instrumental pieces relevant to each era have emerged. They tell of the Kyrgyz's struggle against the Mongols, Kalmyks, and Qing (Chinese) aggression. Many of these have now been recorded from folk musicians and storytellers who carefully carry on the legacy of folkloric memory.
Remaining predominantly an oral art form, folklore is documented in musical collections, scientific literature, and is broadcast on radio, TV, CDs, etc. However, there are fewer and fewer people who carry the "pure" traditions of true connoisseurs of "musical antiquity." In the country, there are more and more bearers of musical "bilingualism," who think freely within the norms of national folklore and the academic European musical language.
In Kyrgyz folk music, there are two major and interacting layers — mass and professional. Between them, there are many mixed forms.
Mass musical folklore is the creativity of the people themselves: lyrical, lullabies, labor, youth, and children's songs, as well as simple tunes played on musical instruments. The love for music has a truly mass character.
Professional folklore is of a higher level of performance and compositional mastery than mass folklore and is held in greater respect by the people. Professional laws of the "yrchy" (creators and performers of songs), "akyn" (creators and performers of socially significant vocal-instrumental compositions), "dastanchy," and "manaschy" (storytellers of small epic poems and the epic "Manas") were established many centuries ago.
