Topic: Raushan Orazbaeva

[Nichi]

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Swan song
Raushan Orazbaeva playing the Kobyz
The Ancient Viol of the Shamans

Kobyz (Kazakh: қобыз) is an ancient Kazakh string instrument played with a bow. It has two strings made of horsehair. The front-bottom part is usually covered by goat leather.

Traditionally kobyzes were sacred instruments, owned by shamans and bakses (traditional spiritual medics). According to legends, the kobyz and its music could banish evil spirits, sicknesses and death.

Review of her cd, "Akku":

Born and raised in a family of artists from Southwest Kazakhstan, RAUSHAN ORAZBAEVA is the greatest living interpreter of a highly singular instrument known as the kyl-kobiz, a kind of cello with two strings held vertically, close to the body and bowed in such a way that during performance it seems almost to become an extension of the musician’s own body. Almost completely forgotten during the years of Soviet occupation, legend has it that it was the first instrument to be invented by Korkyt, a mythical figure who is credited with having discovered music in general in the region. The kyl-kobiz is thus an instrument that has been surrounded since time immemorial by a sacred, shamanic aura, though this is no doubt partly also due its unique and unmistakable sound, similar at some moments to that of the human voice.

More recently, during the 19th century, a musician and composer by the name of Ykhlas systematically structured the kyl-kobiz repertoire and inaugurated an instrumental style called küy, which today still stands as the exemplary expression of an entire people, evoking the element of nomadism that is such an important part of Kazakh culture.

Though in some ways the natural heir to this millennial tradition, RAUSHAN ORAZBAEVA has also been able to subvert it, since it is only recently that Kazakh women have been allowed in to study the kyl-kobiz. Thanks to her virtuosity and dedication, she has managed to renew the music of her homeland, adding to its traditionally shamanic and curative functions (protecting the newborn, preventing natural catastrophe etc) that of pure listening and appreciation for its own sake.

It’s no surprise then that among the pieces she has selected for this CD, RAUSHAN ORAZBAEVA has decided include several originally intended for the dombra, the two or three string lute which is the principal instrument of Kazaki music and which most families keep at home, a choice that testifies to her ability to transcend the limits of tradition through her own originality.

Yet none of this alters the fact that the whole CD remains steeped in the tradition of Kazakh culture. The experience of listening to these lovely melodies is akin to floating away on a mysterious musical journey of myriad different colours and shadings.

[Nichi]

Sumptin is going on here...
(Stumbled-upon...)

[Michael]

Love that hat. Interesting sound and playing.