Instrumental Musical Heritage of the East Turkistan Kazakhs

Since ancient time, it has been known that nomadic peoples living in the vast space between Tanirtau, Altai and Tarbagatay, the Sayans and Khingan in the West and the Carpathian Mountains in the East, left a rich cultural heritage that has a lot in common with the today s Kazakh traditions. This was the great period of the union of tribes called Scythians and Sakas. These tribes had strong state structures dating from the 3rd-1st centuries BC, as evidenced by various historical sites. They laid the foundations of their spiritual culture. It can be understood that the history of instrumental music and indigenous national instruments of the Kazakh dates back to very early cultural times. It should be noted the common history and cultural development of the Turkic- speaking peoples over many centuries and their common spiritual heritage. Although the main characteristics of the Kazakh people were fully defined in the 15th century, it is obvious that cultural relics were formed in tribal art even before self-determination. In the 14th-15th cc. the composition of the Kazakhs was determined by the ethnic community of Turkic-speaking tribes living in the Akorda region from the Syrdarya valley to the Altai Mountains and from the Southern Urals to Zhetysu. Its spiritual culture has developed multifaceted to date. The nomadic lifestyle, which forms the basis of instrumental music, which occupies a special place in the spiritual culture of the Kazakhs, had a great influence on the formation of a united nation. The instrumental music of the Kazakhs of East Turkestan, which is the basis of the article, is considered as a major performing school that has preserved the traditional character of the Kazakhs as a nation. In the study of instrumental music of Kazakhs in Turkestan, the analysis of the structural features of dombra kyuis and study of differences in tonality are of great importance. From this point of view, the Chinese research studies, collections of sheet music and journalistic works preserving the traditional culture of Kazakh Turks are of great importance in the study of instrumental music of the Kazakhs of East Turkestan. Baksylyk saryn (a ritual song of shaman) had a great influence, which until the middle of the 20th c. maintained a nomadic lifestyle and were the source of instrumental music of Kazakhs in East Turkestan, developed according to the kuimakulak method (a way of listening and transmitting oral musical art by ear). Tribal and community structure of the Kazakhs in this region influenced on the formation of distinctive regional performing schools of instrumental music. The instrumental music that originates from the melodies of the old shamanic saryns, kara olen, synsu, passed down from generation to generation, mainly, by the national dombra and the sybyzgy instrument made of natural kurai. The Kazakhs in East Turkestan had the keyboard system of the old dombra consisting of 12, 13, 14, 15 keys, a register feature completely separate from the modern dombra construction was preserved, which the masters of that time made with their own hands and formed the dombra in accordance with the specifics of each region. This feature is very close to the system of old dombras preserved in the east of Kazakhstan and in Zhetysu and also shows differences and similarities in the performance techniques of dombra kuyis of the Kazakhs of East Turkestan, compared with the performance specifics of the Eastern region of Kazakhstan and Zhetysu. The dombras presented in our article are ancient examples of dombra common among Kazakhs living in three regions: Ili, Altai, Tarbagatai of East Turkestan.