The small epic encompasses a total of about 30 separate dastans and poems. While it significantly lags behind the large epic in overall volume, it surpasses it in the richness of themes, plots, and musical arrangements.
The small epic originates from heroic, socio-domestic, fairy-tale-fantastic, lyrical, and ritual folk musical genres and tales. There is also a certain interconnection between the large and small epics. For example, "The Mourning for Koketey" is often recited by manaschy as a complete poem, and the hero of the dastan "Er Teshstuk" is simultaneously one of the characters in the epic "Manas".
Significant features of the small epic that determine its kinship with the large epic include the type of content and principles of form formation. In terms of content, common genre characteristics include mythological plots, hyperbolization of images, and idealization of positive heroes. The narrative of specific events is set against a broad historical backdrop. The structure of the whole is also contrastive-composite, but the sections into which the dastan is conditionally divided are significantly more compact.
The small epic has its own specific traits. It pertains to the diversity of thematic content of dastans and poems and their performance variants. Thematically, the collection of tales can be divided into fairy-tale-fantastic, heroic-epic, lyrical-romantic, socio-domestic, historical, and tragic. At the same time, the boundaries between them are transparent. For instance, the heroine of the poem "Zhanil Myrza", an Amazon of the Kyrgyz mountains, faces a difficult choice between her natural destiny—love, motherhood—and the duty of a tribal leader. The characters of the lyrical-tragic poem "Ak Meer" are real historical figures.
Based on the content, scholars determine the approximate "age" of each epic. The dastan "Kozhozhash", dedicated to the social problem of the relationship between man and nature, and the fantastic "Er Teshstuk" with its continuation "Zhodarbeshim" are rooted in the ancient mythology of totemism. "Zhanish-Baish" (about brother-heroes) and "Zhanil Myrza" are heroic dastans from the period of the transition from tribal structures to feudal relations. "Kurmanbek" and the poem about his son "Seiitbek", "Er Tabyldy" and "Er Soltonoy" are about military conflicts with the Kalmyks.
Later periods include socio-domestic and historical dastans, which emphasize lyrical-romantic and psychological motifs: "Kedeykan", "Sarynji-Bekey", "Kulmurza menen Aksatkyn", "Olzhobai menen Kishimzhan". They are accompanied by lyrical poems of small volume such as "Gulgaaky", "Ak Meer", "Ak Bermet", "Karagul botom", "Mendirman", "Shyrdakbek".
In the 20th century, the process of creating small epics continues, and, as a rule, it reflects events from relatively recent history ("Taylak batyr").
The degree of dissemination of the small epic varies. Alongside dastans like "Kurmanbek", "Olzhobai menen Kishimzhan", "Ak Meer", and others, which are widely known in Kyrgyzstan, there are also tales of local significance.
The Kyrgyz small epic also includes dastans that are common to various Turkic peoples—Tatars, Bashkirs, Karakalpaks, Kazakhs. These include "Narikbay", "Munduk—Zarlyk", "Kyz Darika", "Alpamish", "Kozu Korposh, Bayan Suluu", "Kyz Zhibek", "Edige". The intonational level of the storytelling manner is regulated by the phonetic characteristics of each language individually.
By now, some popular poems—"Kozhozhash", "Ak Meer", "Shyrdakbek"—have instrumental variants. Others have gradually lost the characteristics of the storytelling genre and have become instrumental pieces—programmatic "Sary Solton", "Taybala", non-programmatic "Kambarakan", "Botoy".
The small epic was presented to listeners by professional storytellers known as jomoknu (now dastanchy). Unlike manaschy, these are folk poets and musicians (akyns) and singers (yrchy) who perform as storytellers. Dastanchy is not as rare and specific a creative profession as manaschy. However, he must also possess a vast epic and poetic imagination.
In the small epic, there are two verbal (word-based) and two musical means of narration: melodic verse, artistic-prose speech, as well as vocal and instrumental components. Three forms of dastan performance have developed in creative practice—verbal, musical, and mixed.
The first form is poetic, non-musical performance. The dastan is recited from beginning to end with theatrical techniques—gestures, facial expressions, and movements. This form is closer to the storytelling of the large epic. An example can be cited from one of the variants of the heroic dastan "Zhanish-Baish".
The second form is the vocal performance of the dastan accompanied by the komuz or (less often) the kyl kyak. The dastanchy sings the entire text of the poem or part of it with his own instrumental accompaniment. Here, theatrical-actor elements are absent, at least in noticeable manifestations.
The third, most common form of storytelling the small epic is mixed, combining verbal and musical elements. Prose inserts and comments from the author-narrator conditionally divide the musical dastan into parts. Furthermore, the transition from prose to singing and vice versa has a vivid artistic effect, welcomed by the audience.
Each dastan, or poem, in which the musical component participates, contains a main theme on which the entire complex of its intonational development is based. The theme is usually melodically original. In addition, dastanchy has a favorite melodic phrase that he may use in several poems.
Like the large epic, the small epic is intonated according to the individual melodic style of the improvising storyteller. For example, the melody of the dastan "Sarynji-Bekey" performed by Bolush Madazimov (audio recording) differs from the melody of the same dastan performed by another outstanding akyn, Alymku Kul Usenbaev (sheet music by V. Vinogradov). There are known cases of using thematic elements from song genres. For instance, one of the variants of the dastan "Zhanish-Baish" performed by Tuuganbay Abdieva sounds with the theme of the cult song "Kulpendi". Thus, in the small epic, there is only partial fixation of the melody. An exception is the poem "Kurmanbek", the melodic material of which belongs solely to this dastan.
The role of the musical instrument—the komuz or kyak—in the small epic is subordinate and limited to two functions: solo (introduction, conclusion, filling vocal pauses) and accompanying.
The largest genre variety of the small epic is the heroic-epic. It consists of a large number of epic dastans: "Er Tabyldy", "Kurmanbek", "Zhanish-Baish", "Er Soltonoy", "Zhanil Myrza", and others.
One of the most popular in this series is "Kurmanbek". The dastan relates to the period of wars with the Kalmyks in the 16th-17th centuries and, alongside the heroic theme, develops the theme of "fathers and children". Kurmanbek, against his father's will, builds his own destiny and the fate of his people: he chooses as a friend the Kashgar ruler Akkhan, marries the daughter of the Afghan khan Kanyshai, and challenges the Kalmyk khan Dolopu.
Among the several available variants of the dastan and its fragments, a musical transcription of an excerpt performed by T. Abdieva, which was recorded in the Kyrgyz Radio fund and later on a gramophone record, is proposed. The duration of the excerpt is about 20 minutes out of the total duration of the dastan (2 hours). In all variants, there is the same pop song—a seven to nine-syllable verse in the volume of a large sixth with signs of Dorian mode, with a quintal foundation. According to V. Vinogradov's classification, the intonation of the pop song refers to the third-fourth types of epic recitation. The intonationally and rhythmically strict, clear pop song, slow tempo, and academic improvisation style, characteristic of all variants, harmonize well with the content of the dastan.
A feature of the musical performance of this variant is that it sounds accompanied by the komuz. The accompaniment synchronously duplicates the vocal part. The presence of a rich arsenal of performance strokes and techniques plays an important role in creating the artistic images of the dastan.
The fragment of "Kurmanbek" has a developed contrastive-composite form, in which the episodes are monologues of the characters. Such a structure is typical for many examples of the small epic.
For lyrical genre varieties of the small epic, ideologically meaningful stereotypes such as the drama of social inequality of loving people, forced loneliness in a foreign land, fateful actions, etc., are characteristic. The manner of performing these poems is deeply sincere and heartfelt. The main musical means of expressiveness is melodic musical recitation of the fourth type.
Lyrical (lyrical-romantic) tales include "Olzhobai menen Kishimzhan", "Gulgaaky", and "Ak Meer".
The epic poem "Ak Meer" about a girl who was forcibly married and died of grief exists in several variants performed by different storytellers. Among modern variants, the interpretations by Tuuganbay Abdieva and Asylbek Eshmambetov have gained the most popularity.
Comparing these two variants in general terms, one can identify characteristic features of the performance style of Abdieva and Eshmambetov. The former sings strictly, restrainedly; his style is distinguished by clarity and precision of musical intonation. The author's intonation and diction are well developed. This is the so-called academic manner.
A. Eshmambetov sings "Ak Meer" in a different style. His singing is lively and virtuosic. In fact, this is a bright individual improvisational manner, which is also characteristic of his playing on the komuz. Asylbek Eshmambetov is an example of the universality of a folk-professional musician performing in different genres of the national culture of oral tradition.
"Ak Meer" in Eshmambetov's interpretation is a vocal-instrumental poem consisting of 68 poetic lines and as many melodic phrases. In addition, the poem contains several prose fragments that perform an explanatory function. These comments complement and connect different sections of the poem and organically enter into its semantic structure.
The main pop song of the poem in Eshmambetov's performance consists of typical for folk vocal cantilena melodies, intra-syllabic recitations, descending and wave-like, in a wide range of a large ninth. The poem is permeated with intonations of "sigh" (descending minor second), melismas, and other properties of lyrical melody. Furthermore, it has a well-developed komuz part: in addition to duplicating the leading voice, it contains elements of counterpoint polyphony.
In the structure of "Ak Meer", there are two parts, each of which is further divided into sections. Compositionally, it resembles an expanded vocal-stage dialogue of asynchronous type between two characters—Ak Meer and her beloved Bolot.
Speaking of the musical characteristics of Ak Meer and Bolot in terms of expressive means, it is worth noting their great similarity. Firstly, there is a common pop song, and secondly, a unified modal-intonational and rhythmic principle of developing musical speech.
At the same time, certain differences are found between the two parts, which individualize each of them. In particular, in the "part" of Ak Meer, the musical-poetic constructions are shorter, more flexible, and more diverse than in the "part" of Bolot.
Thus, the small epic is a collection of diverse in content, medium-scale works of epic folk-professional musical-poetic creativity, performed by improvisers-dastanchy with their own instrumental accompaniment or without accompaniment.
