Neotraditionalism and Innovations in Kazakh Instruments and Music-Making

In the XX and XXI centuries, Kazakh music went through three waves of innovations: first, after centuries of solo-only performance, ensembles and orchestras appeared in the first decades of the Soviet period. Then, ethnographic, iconographic, and archaeological research brought back to life lost or nearly-forgotten instruments in 1970-80s, and in the 2000s new types of ensembles and neo-folk instruments appeared under global influences. All these changes were driven by two opposite tendencies: intensive cross-cultural interaction (primarily on the West-East axis) met the growing interest to the nation’s past. This neotraditional mindset influences, on the one hand, to music instrument-making, on the other hand, to performance practice. In the first wave, the need for creating the orchestra of Kazakh folk instruments, declared by Akhmet Zhubanov, caused the foundation of the workshop where standardized dombra (plucked lute chordophone) and qobyz (bowed lute chordophone) were created together with their modernized cousins (prima, alto and bass versions). During the second wave, such prominent scholars as Bolat Sarybayev turned to a restoration of the lost instruments (sherter, zhetygen, saz syrnai, percussionand so on) that were later included in orchestras and ensembles and even institutionalized within the conservatoire’s classes. The third wave is strongly associated with various kinds of popular music. Some ensembles (as Turan and Hassak) moved toward the World music style, others (as Aldaspan) experimented in electronic and rock directions. So, it is obvious that all three waves are interconnected. Unification and experiments with materials in the early Soviet period, as well as the creation of special workshops and laboratories for folk music, have created a systematic cycle of research and reconstructions.