Khakass musical instruments

The Khakas have a variety of musical instruments - percussion, noise, wind, string, including bow instruments. There are about 15 species. The most ancient, probably, should be considered a tambourine - a ritual subject of shamans.

The most common musical instrument of Khakass is called chatan. It is a long hollow box with ends curved in the shape of mutton horns. On the upper side, 7 or 9 strings of wire or lamb intestines are stretched. According to legends, in ancient times the magic chatan was owned by seven eyeless giants (sygyr), it was stolen from them by a smart boy - so the chatan got to the Khakass people.

Without chatan it is unthinkable to perform haya, and hence, the existence of the largest, in fact, leading genre of Khakass folklore - alyptic nymaha. Without the above-mentioned interrelated components (chatkhan-hai-alypty nymah), a hajji (a narrator who owns a khaem, a performer of alyptic nymah) can not be formed - a key figure in the Khakass folk musical and poetic work.

Sagaets Innocent Kotnyakov with chatanom. Sinyavinsky ulus. 1930 A.V. Kharchevnikov

The original art of haya (guttural singing) since ancient times was accompanied by the same game on two-three-stringed hommes. A unique tool, imitating hi, is the reed-timer homys (vargan).

Khomys (topchyl-homys), Khakass national stringed-tweaked two-stringed musical instrument. It is also used as an accompanying instrument in the performance of musical works (alyptic nymah, saryn (yr), tahpah), and as a soloist.

According to the well-known researcher of Khakass music and composer A.A. Kenel, homys was known in the territory of Khakassia since the Scythian time (Tagar culture of VIII-III centuries BC.

The game on hamis played by Kamata Shurishev from seoka purut. 1930. Photo by A.V. Kharchevnikov

The folk wind musical instruments that existed among the Khakas existed already 30-40 thousand years ago. The earliest written evidence of them refers to the Chinese chronicles of VII-VIII centuries BC. Later, news of them is found among Central Asian geographers, in the writings of travelers and scholars of the XVIII-XIX centuries.

Wind musical instruments include flutes - hobrah, syylas, as well as manki, used by Khakass hunters, they are called pygres (on large ungulates, marals), symys-khy (for wild goats), sygyrty (for small animals and birds).

Hobrah

Khobrah - in the world view of the inhabitants of Sayano-Altai is of divine origin. It was through him that the vital energy was transferred to the body of the creator created by the creators. Until recently, it was made from the hollow stem of umbellate or talcum plants, mostly cone-shaped. The sounds of the wind instrument of the hobrah poetize the beauty of the local places of the shepherds

In workshops Khakass masters began to make hobrahi of wood (veneer of ash, mahogany and other breeds), and later from plastic. Initially, the hobrahs did without playing holes. In the 1930s, the hobra began to go out of use. After the formation of folklore collectives, he began to revive. Khakass masters of the hobra were improved, and now it is possible to perform complex works on it.

Syylas

Sylyas is a close relative of the hobrah. It has a similar shape, but it does not have a bevel at the top and there are four gaming holes from the front and one from the back. The sound on it is lower and similar to the sound of the steppe wind.

Pyrgas

The Kyrgyz are the favorite Khakass national wind musical instrument.

It was originally used by hunters as a manga on large ungulates - moose, maral, deer. It was made from two identical cone-shaped wooden plates, tied with birch bark or talc hoops. For sound extraction, the tip is inserted into the corner of the mouth and the air is strongly drawn in; The published sound is similar to the call of the deer or moose. In addition, the pygmy was used in military operations and on major holidays to provide loud signals.

Hunters developed the finest musical ear. Photo from the collection of the Minusinsk Museum of Local Lore. N.M. Martyanov