If you've always wanted to see a Kyrgyz komuz, a kind of three-stringed lute played one-handed, upside-down, and with elaborate gestures that look like a hand ballet; and if you live in the United States - you may be in luck. The Bishkek-based ensemble Ordo Sakhna is on its second tour of the US, and over the next three weeks, it will perform in Chicago, Missoula, and a variety of venues on the West Coast.
The group plays a mixture of traditional tunes, original compositions, and even some covers. (This is your chance to catch a rendition of "Strangers in the Night" on three komuzs, two cello-like kyaks, two choop flutes and a set of percussion instruments that include a horse-hoof sound-maker.) But perhaps the most unusual part of the set is an eight-minute excerpt from the world's longest epic poem, the more than 500,000-line-long Manas, by dedicated troubadour, or manaschi, Raspay Isakov.
Isakov, who grew up in southern Kyrgyzstan, recites the Manas by heart, having learned it that way in his native village. He believes he was chosen to be a manaschi by the spirit of Manas - the epic's hero - when he was a child and began performing the epic at the age of 12.
"Manas is our greatest treasure," Isakov says. "It's everything: philosophy, life. [...] [In Ordo Sakhna], we put together the old, the new, and we pass it on so the tradition does not get broken."
The rest of the Ordo Sakhna program ranges from a traditional harvest song called Op Maida; to a cycle dedicated to the world's famous horses, including the mustang; and a piece that features one of the world's oldest instruments, the zhygach komuz, a kind of wooden mouth harp that the group's director, Cholpon Djaparova says, dates back 3,000 to 5,000 years. ("Komuz" means instrument in Kyrgyz.)
"The Kyrgyz are a very ancient people," Djaparova says of their nomadic traditions. "We go to the mountains, people sing to us, everything's put down as sheet music. We've received an enormous inheritance."
In addition, Ordo Sakhna performs an array of Soviet-era Kyrgyz compositions, including the beautiful "Sary-oi," or "Yellow Memory" by the actor and composer Orozbek Kutmanaliev.
The performance schedule, as well as several recordings, are available at the group's English-language website.
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