Chants Kazakh et Tradition épique de
L’Ouest (Various artists) : Ocora C580051 (recorded October 1984 & August 1990)
Mainly devoted to the fine Kazakh music of Western Mongolia this CD recorded by the French Mongol expert Alain Desjacques features only two tracks with Khöömii. Some good translations of the Kazakh songs and also a translation of a section of Altai Magtaal are contained in the liner notes.
1 Man‑man ker (My Bayhorse with
the Peaceful Gait) A love‑song performed by R.
Nurdqaan (vocals and dombra)
A young knight is going to meet his fiancee. On
the way, he compares the majestic beauty of his horse's pace to the love he
feels for the young girl.
2 Ala‑taw (The Varicoloured
Mountain) A bucolic song, performed by Aqman (vocals and dombra)
The
name of a mountain in Kazakhistan, to the Northwest of Alma Ata.
Your peak is covered
with eternal snow
On your flanks,
blooming red and green flowers,
You are the flower and
song of life.
At the sight of you,
my heart is overjoyed,
My beloved mountain.
Your imposing
silhouette reaching up to the sky,
Makes Youth courageous,
But, no‑one knows your secret.
3. Aq Kŭy (The White Tune) Dombra
solo performed by S. Toqtal.
A
well‑known dance‑tune from the kŭy repertoire. The regular
gait and poise of the ambling
horse
is recreated through two alternating parts, which constitute the melody.
4 Aq
bulaq (The White Spring) A song of filial love performed by R. Nurdqaan
(vocals and dombra)
In the mountain,
there's a spring...
I grew up on its water,
Cradled in my parents
love.
Such a pleasant scene,
the lapping of the
water, such pretty music.
My mother goes there
to fetch water,
my father, bringing
the horses to drink...
5 . Bi‑bi (Dance) Dombra solo performed by Aqman
A piece from the kŭy repertoire, dance accompaniment inspired rhythmically by the horse's gallop.
6 Asilim (My Truth) A plaintive love‑song
performed by Aqman (vocals and dombra)
When in summer the
mountain decks its green and flowery coat,
When the birds are
singing, deep in the woods,
I think of you, my
truth, who is away.
Flowers wilt and
winter returns,
The mountain dons a
white coat,
I think of You, My
truth, who are still away.
The steppe is finally
shrouded in snow,
Know, My truth, that
there is no secret between lovers.
7 Irqŭzian
(Irqŭzan's song) Song of celebration, a duo performed of by 0. Sayzada and
R. Nureqaan (vocals and dombra)
How wonderful life is
when our nearest and dearest
Are all joined to
celebrate together.
When the time comes to
suffer,
That will be the time
to remember
These happy days, the
beauty of life
And the closeness of
loved ones.
8. Erkem‑ay (My Little Darling)
Song of celebration performed by Aqman (vocals and dombra)
When they ask me to
sing
I do it like a bird
skimming over the lake.
Wherever I am, it's,
without having to look, on the side of Good.
I sing, accompanying
myself on the dombra.
May today's
celebration be tomorrow's too.
You have to play the
dombra like a virtuoso
To call your little
darling to sing.
9 Sar
biday (Grain of Wheat) A nostalgic song performed by Aqman (vocals and
dombra)
I have settled in this
part of the Bulboskin countryside,
On this piece of paper
I'm writing.
I'm home‑sick.
Here they don’t sing with intelligence.
Visualising my
respected elders, grain of wheat, grain of wheat,
I blossom when I am
with my own people.
When, I think of my
family, I sing, grain of wheat, grain of wheat.
10 Balburauyn
(Dance in Twirling Movement) Dombra solo performed by S. Toqtal
A
piece from the kŭy repertoire whose rapid rhythm is inspired by turbulent
gusts of wind. A brilliant performance calling for a polyphonic playing technique.
11 Dedim
ayaw (My Sweet Protected one) A
plaintive love‑song performed by Aqman (vocals and dombra)
As soon as I saw your
shining face, I melted inside,
My sweet darling,
priceless as white gold.
An armful of gold kept
for oneself loses its value,
But is sadly missed
when it is no longer there.
My sweet protected
one, we have no idea how quickly life passes by..
12 Balzin
ker (My Chestnut Bayhorse) Dombra solo performed by S. Toqtal
A
piece from the kŭy repertoire inspired, yet again, by a horse's gallop. A
complex piece where the performer has to maintain a constant bass‑note on
the low
string
while playing the melodic line on the other string.
13 Dep
saldim ay (This is how I say it) Nostalgic song performed by 0. Sayzada
(vocals and dombra)
A caravan comes from
the mountain
But 1 say that it
carries nothing:
It's the inheritance
of the Moslems, nomads in foreign lands.
This is what I said to
my elderly parents.
I sang them this old
song, telling it like this.
14 Gulder
ayim (The Flower Season) Nostalgic
song performed by Aqlman (vocals and
dombra)
My brother, still an
innocent lad,
I keep watch on your
agitated youth.
Might I hear your
voice in the flower season,
Like the moon at the
height of day.
I have no wings. What
can I do without wings?
Summer has come, a
delight to all, it’s the flower season,
When I think of you,
little brother, I break into this song
When I stop singing, I
hear your high-pitched voice...
15 Zaraii boken (The Wounded Stag) Dombra
solo performed by T. Baydalda
A
piece from the kŭy repertoire, the musical version of a tragic tale of
fratricide: during a hunt, two brothers separate to increase their chances of catching
game.
One
hunts and kills a stag and, the weather being bad, covers himself with the
animals' skin to keep the rain off. Shortly after, the other arrives at the
spot and,
apparently
shooting a stag, kills his own brother.
16 Adem
aw (The Beauty)Love‑song performed by Aqman (vocals and dombra)
When you pass
discreetly by,
Like a furtive flower,
I am like the
nightingale
Swirling around the
flowers of his native nest
If I don't come to
pick you, who else will?
I am strong enough to
bear your torment, Beauty, my Beauty,
Tell me if the songs I
dedicate to you are pleasing to you,
Could it be that you
love me?
You are the haven of
my secret thoughts,
You, summer of my
life, object of my love,
Wherever you are, my
Beauty..
17, Quia ker (My Bayhorse) Dombra duo
performed by 0. Sayzada and R. Nurclqaan
Dance music from the kŭy repertoire performed together by two
instrumentalists. The horse, again, symbolically reproduced through the
galloping rhythm, gives
energetic
impulse to the melody.
18 Laylim
siraq (My Inaccessible Love) Plaintive love‑song performed by R.
Nurdqaan (vocals and dombra)
She cannot marry the man of her heart for she has been promised to
another. Her lover sings for her and, bewailing his own fate, declares his love
for her.
19 Pay‑pay
(Fie!) Complaint performed by
Aqman (vocals and dombra)
When you think how
fleeting life is,
Every day should be an
occasion for celebration
Bringing together a
whole crowd of people, Fie!
It doesn't last
forever like the moon!
I am asked to sing
whether I like it or not, Fie!
That's not like the
respect the moon gets.
20. Aq Bope (Aq Bope's song) Plaintive
love‑song, a duo performed by 0. Sayzada and R. Nundqaan (vocals and
dombra)
The
song of Aq bope, lamenting her former love. Sun, sky and all living beings
partake in her sorrow. She even beseeches those departed souls who never knew
the
beauty of love to join in her sadness.
21 Altay
magtaal (in Praise of Altay) Performed in ayalaq style by T. Enkbalsan
(vocals and tobsuur)
Among the Uryanqai and Zaqchin Mongols, epic song is always preceded by a song of praise dedicated to the Master of Altay, a veritable natural reserve for
wild animals and, therefore, game. The voice's natural timbre gives the singing a melodious style (aya: melody), with rhythmic interest coming from its syllabic
form and instrumental accompaniment.
22 Altay magtaal (in Praise of Altay)
Performed in qaylaq style by T. Enkbalsan (vocals and tobsuur)
The
singer performs here with a deliberately produced timbre. A real vocal
transformation, qaylaq style (lilt: to melt, pass from a solid state to a liquid
one)
appears
as tense, hoarse expression in the back of the throat, not far from the
technique of diphonic singing that the performer uses at the end. The Altay
eulogy,
like
epic song, has a great wealth of poetic imagery
Their silhouettes are
veiled in the morning haze,
They ripple at midday
in the heat of the air,
From time immemorial,
majestic and strong,
They are my two
venerables, Altay and Qangay.
Mountain snow melts
away, drops of tiny pearls,
The cuckoo, happy,
calling out his slender song,
Blue grass, on the
banks of streams, playing in the wind,
Such forceful vigour
in Altay and Qangay,my two venerables.
The reddish mountain
chain touches the clouds,
A scrambling of hooves
and red ibex leap from one summit to another,
On the high, majestic rocky mountains,
Dapple‑brown
ibex bounding onto crags,
What richness of
energy, what astounding beauty they have,
Altay and Oangay, my
venerables, so well endowed.
23 Altay magtaal (in Praise of Altay)
Performed by a choir of four children: E. Gombosuren, E. Gombozav, Q. Andiav
and D. Batmonk (vocals and tobsuur)
Children
(these are between ten and fifteen years old) learn to sing the Altay eulogy in
both ayalaq and qaylaq styles, singing simultaneously in chorus, and
whistling
through the teeth in the finale.
24 Qar
Kökö1 Baatar (The Hero with the Black‑tressed Hair) Performed by Q.
Sesser (vocals and tobsuur)
This Uryanqai tuul’č bard performs, in qaylaq style, the first part
of the first chapter of this epic, well‑known to the Mongols of Altay.
In the beginning of the living world,
When the great Exterior Ocean was but a puddle of water
When the sandalwood‑tree of the World was but a bush
When the great Milky
Ocean was yet a tiny puddle
When the summits of
the mountains were but mounds of earth,
He was born into the
Sunlit World
And through his shadow
the Sunless Continent was born.
At the sole utterance
of his name
All living beings,
even far away, bowed down.
His majestic bearing
held all his own kind[in awe.
He has a horse whose
body is long
As an entire day and
night's journeying,
With six silver
bridles,
With beautiful, large
ears
And beautiful round
eyes.
And he who owns this
precious chestnut stallion,
Is the hero with the
black‑tressed hair.
25 Qar
Kökö1 Baatar (The Hero with the Black‑tressed Hair) Performed by D.
Zanzancoy (vocals and morin quur horse‑hair fiddle)
Here, the same part of the epic is performed by a quurč bard famous
for his talent throughout Mongolia. Passages in verse alternate with prose
passages. The instrumental accompaniment seems in perfect symbiosis with
the voice.
Total Time: 63’33’’
Recorded in October 1984 et August 1990 in
Mongolia
Alain Desjacques (July 1993)
Return to
Mongolian CD’s main page
Kazakh
songs (Tracks 1 to 20)
The distinctive feature of the music of the
Kazakhs is its use of a vast range of diatonic scales and a vigorous, varied
rhythmic palette partly inspired by the different paces of the horse. The
voices are strong, very timbred and yet nuanced. Singers accompany themselves
on the dombra, a lute with a long, braided neck, belonging to the eastern
tanbür family. An ancestor of the modern Russian balalaika, it has only two
strings, originally in horsehair but now made out of nylon, which are tuned
here to the fifth and plucked without a plectrum. Singers differentiate within
their repertoire between the in category of songs with dombra accompaniment and
the küy category which comprises all instrumental pieces, not only those
destined for dance, but also those inspired by tales or legends. The recordings
selected are representative of the art of these singers, all of whom, as it
happens, are amateurs and from the province of Khovd.
Epic tradition of the West (Tracks 21 to 25)
Custodians of a millenary art passed on for generations in the heart of the Mongol steppes, epic singers, or bards, even though they have become scarce, are still called upon to accompany hunters or for important occasions of the Mongol calendar. But nowadays, epics live on only really in the form of long versified fragments, periodically including prose passages, whose performance can demand several nights. Mongols distinguish between different types of rhapsody, depending on the way the epic genre is to be recreated. A specialist in "recitation" of one or more epics is called tuul'č ("he who knows the epic" [tuul']), whereas someone else, who accompanies himself on the fiddle displaying his musical talent, will be called quurč ("he who knows how to play the fiddle" [quur]).
In the high Altay mountains, epic songs and
songs of praise are performed by the tuul'č bards, in a tessitura
restricted to a pentatonic scale. Vocal timbre can be natural (ayalaq style) or
deliberately produced (qaylaq style). The rhythm is syllabic and reinforced by
the instrumental accompaniment of a lute (tobšuur) with two nylon strings.
Mongolia Kazakh songs and Epic tradition of the
West
The repeated waves of
conquering Mongols commanded by Genghis Khan, the most famous of their leaders,
which broke over Asia, the Middle East and mediaeval Europe were dreaded as a
terrible scourge of God. The race was sadly notorious for sowing terror and
disaster in its path. Less well known were their highly refined sense of
organization and their severe discipline, qualities which, nonetheless, failed
to prevent the disintegration of the immense empire at the "Great Khan's
death. Collective historical memory of this ephemeral empire seems,
justifiably, to remember only its ravaging violence, having forgotten the
paradoxical religious tolerance, which reigned, scrupulous and exemplary, at
the imperial court.
The Mongols live
nowadays in three large geo‑political zones: in the ex‑Soviet Union
are to be found the Bouriats, the Touvins and the Kalmuks; eastern and southern
Mongols are centred in the autonomous region of Interior Mongolia in China,
where the Autonomous Region of Xin‑jiang is also home to a few groups of
western Mongols. And lastly, Mongolia, inhabited mainly by Qalq Mongols. A few other
small groups of Mongols are scattered over the Asian continent, living vestiges
of former conquests, mostly in Afghanistan and Tibet.
The Kazakhs have many
different origins. They probably stem from the Persian speaking Sak tribes whom
Herodotus called the Scythians of Asia, but since the 13th Century
when Central Asia was dominated by the Golden Horde, they have also descended
from Turks and Mongols. A Kazakh kingdom was even formed in the 15th Century,
marking a decisive epoch in the formation of this people.
Thus, in this Central
Asian zone, scene of so much cultural interaction, Kazakh music has deep
affinities with that of the other Turkish peoples, both instrumentally and
structurally.
The Kazakhs, singular
in their language, tradition and customs, belong to the Qiptchaq branch of the
great Turkish cultural and linguistic group. The Kazakh people is also
geographically divided: a part lives in China, in Xin‑Jiang, another
forms the quite recent, independent state of Kazakhistan, while another important
Kazakh group inhabits the West of Mongolia, in the Bayan Olghi and Khovd
region, since the second half of the 19th Century. Preserved by the Mongol
milieu, the Kazakhs have been able to keep alive much of their authentic
culture: they have their own schools, their own Kazakh local press and
publishing house, a business manufacturing musical instruments, and their own
mosque. Kazakhs have in fact been converted to Islam, while Mongols are of the
Buddhist faith.
Traditionally nomadic,
Mongols and Kazakhs, breeders of horses, camels, bovines like the yak, sheep
and goats, have an almost identical life‑style, tied to the economic
activities of pastoral nomads and moving according to the rhythm of the
seasons.