Karagandy craftsman revives of Kazakh musical instruments

This sazsyrnai, a wind musical instrument, reproduces the singing of a snowcock. It was made by a master from Karagandy region. The collection of Azamat Bakiya contains over 700 types of the national wind instrument. Some he collected, but most of them he made himself. The craftsman says that it does not take him as much time to create a single sazsyrnai as it does to roasting and drying, which takes a whole week.

“I put 10 sazsyrnais in the form of a snowcock in the trees of Ulytau. This bird has been very rare in our mountains lately. I want such pleasant finds to cheer up travelers. And I hope they learn to reproduce the singing of a snowcock by playing sazsyrnai,” the craftsman said.

Overall, in Bakiya’s collection, there are more than a thousand different instruments, including several sybyzgy, dombyra and kobyz. The recent achievement of the craftsman is an improved orteke. That’s what you call a device where you tie a puppet in the form of an argali to the fingers of a dombyra player. A musician moves the animal by picking the strings.

Bakiya intends to revive the popularity of ancient Kazakh musical instruments, including forgotten ones.

“I set myself the goal of reviving Kazakh musical instruments, and I am working in this direction. I mean, I intend not only to preserve them, but also to popularize them,” Bakiya shared.

Translation by Assem Zhanmukhanova

Editing by Galiya Khassenkanova