Kalmyk Cultural Heritage Project (MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS): Recent Episodes
Cambridge University
Many musical instruments traditionally used in Kalmykia are also common among other nomadic peoples in Central Asia. Materials used in the making of musical instruments are various, including animal skin, hair, wood, not to mention stones, shells, and metals.
Kalmyk musical instruments can be divided into religious and folk instruments. The former were used during religious festivals and celebrations, whereas the latter at various social occasions such as weddings, concerts, competitions or simply for private entertainment. Due to dramatic social changes in the past century, many traditional musical instruments along with accompanying melodies have either disappeared or are on the verge of being forgotten.
On this page, you can watch videos of various musical instruments and listen to stories, legends, and myths about them.
Religious (musical instruments)
In the past monastic orchestras usually consisted of about two dozen different musical instruments, but during daily rituals the number of instruments was less. The most frequently used instruments can be divided into the following two categories:
Percussion: Khonkh (bell), kenkrg (drum with drumsticks), tsan (small sound plates), denshya (consists of two brass plates, the knobs of which are connected by means of a short leather string), dodrm (wooden frame with copper brasses inside), and damaru (small drum).
Wind: Dung (white shell), bishkur (wooden pipe), ganlin (horn made of human thigh bones or wood, covered with silver), burya-bishkur (short pipe), ukr burya (long and heavy clarinet, resembling an elephant’s trunk), and burya (middle-sized clarinet).
Folk (musical instruments)
It was in the Soviet period that many folk instruments disappeared being either relegated to museum shelves or left only as pictures on the pages of historical documents. As a result, today the number of instruments in everyday use is minimal, with dombra being the most popular. Dombra, a long-necked string instrument, is used as a solo as well as an ensemble instrument. Khur, a fiddle instrument, is used less often.
In Kalmykia the revival of musical instruments began in the 1980s. In the Elista School of Arts of Chonkushov, a class was opened to teach traditional instruments, including dombra, yochin (dulcimer), yatkha (zither), khuchir (bowed musical instrument), morn khur (horsehead fiddle), and limbu (flute). Today in Kalmykia there are several orchestras and ensembles, including Tyulpan, the National Orchestra of Kalmykia, Oirat, Jangar, and Erdm, that use traditional instruments in their repertoire.
Elvik says that the yochin is a string instrument originated from China. It is also popular in Mongolia and Buryatia. The first among Westerners to mention the yochin was Alexander Duma who visited Kalmykia in 1858. In the past this instrument was mainly used by the aristocracy. Following the revolution of 1917, the instrument gradually became forgotten. In modern times, the first yochin instruments were produced in Belarus in the 1990s according to the drawings of Elvik. The Kalmyk yochin, called ‘jingnur’, has a number of distinctive features that renders it deferent from its Chinese, Mongolian and Buryat versions.
Elvik says that the morn khur is a widespread instrument among all Mongolian groups. According to one legend, the first morn khur was made by a young man from his magical winged horse that he had received from his beloved woman. Like many musical instruments, morn khur disappeared in Kalmykia in the 20th century. The first musician to teach morn khur in modern Kalmykia was a Mongolian man called Sampilnorov Choijamts who taught it in the 1990s. Today another man from Xinjiang called Tavkin Namjil teaches the instrument at the musical college.
Elvik says that techniques used for playing the dombra is similar to that of playing the Russian balalaika. The dombra is mainly used to play dance music. Elvik recounts a legend about a khan who warns anyone against bringing bad news about his son on the pain of being executed by filling the messenger’s throat with hot lead. One day the prince dies during a hunting trip, and nobody dares to tell the khan the bad news. The royal servants send instead a dombra player who plays sorrowful tunes to the khan. After learning about the prince’s untimely death from the music, the khan orders that the dombra is filled with hot lead.
Elvik has been working as a music teacher at the Elista College of Arts since 1990. Born in the village of Artesian in Chernozemelsky rayon in 1962, he went to the musical school No 2 in Elista where he studied how to play the accordion. Afterwards, he studied at the Musical College in Elista under Anatoliy Vinogradov. After graduating from the Krasnodar Institute of Culture, Elvik taught the accordion class in the music school No 3 in Elista. After graduating a conservatory in Minsk, in 1990 he opened a class in Elista to teach the yochin (dulcimer). Elvik also talks about other musical instruments, including byuv, limra, tsur, byushkyur, tsang, dung, gangling, and Saratov harmony.
Elvik recounts a legend about a woman, who wishing to stop her husband going away on a long military campaign, lies down on his lap, turning into a musical instrument. Her body turned into the yatkha instrument, her hair into its strings, and her bones into the string plates.
Elena explains the difference between Torghut and Derbet styles of playing the dombra instrument.
This video features a concert held at the Central Temple in Elista in June 2015 with the participation of 300 dombra players.
This video features a concert held at the Central Temple in Elista in April 2016 with the participation of 500 dombra players.
Sergei plays the following melodies:
Shavash Tsagan nurin shkol A musical piece from Bulgun Mandzhurakova’s concert Buurla bi Buynta Biildg ays Al’mn
Khargchin recalls how in the 1990s she witnessed lamas playing instruments in a temple in Elista.
Bembya relays a legend about the tsan musical instrument as mentioned in Kim Shovunov’s book The Kalmyks as Part of the Cossacks: The Second Half of the 17-19 Century (1992). According to the legend, in the past the Kalmyks used to bring these musical instruments from Tibet. Upon their arrival in Tibet, Kalmyks were left in an empty room. After putting silver or gold coins on the table, the Kalmyks would leave the room. After some time, they would be invited back into the room to find tsan instruments laid on the table. It was considered that the instruments were a gift from Buddha. Sometimes instruments were cut into pieces. In this case the Kalmyks were supposed to leave more coins on the table in order to secure fully working instruments.
The concert shown in this video is performed by the Kalmyk National Symphonic Orchestra. The soloist is Arslan Shavgurov, an Honored Artist of Kalmykia. The composer and director is Savr Kataev. The concert consists of three parts. Part One is dedicated to the heroic deeds of the Kalmyk people. Part Two shows the time of repressions and the deportation of the Kalmyk people. Part Three is a dance finale reminding the present generation about the importance of safeguarding the cultural treasures of the Kalmyk nation and about the upcoming bright future. Part Two and Three are accompanied by a dombra.
Nina briefly explains the structure of the dombra and relays a legend about this instrument.
Arslan plays several melodies on a dombra, including Dargin, Chechen, Adygei, and Kalmyk melodies. Arslan relays that according to a legend, the Russian balalaika originates from the Kalmyk dombra. One day Peter the Great organized a public event and invited musicians from all corners of the country, including the Kalmyks. In the beginning, the balalaika had two strings. Later Andreev added one more string and turned the balalaika into a three-stringed instrument.
Alena plays Kalmyk melodies on the dombra instrument, including Siberian melodies and those of the songs ‘Okonov Naran’ and ‘Kotush’.
According to Konstantin, dombra is not only a musical instrument, but its structure contains information on the history of the Kalmyks. For example, a hole in the middle represents Lake Baikal in Siberia; marks underneath the two strings show the number of battles fought by the Kalmyks on their way from Dzungaria to Kalmykia; the first string symbolizes the route of the Kalmyks to Kalmykia, south of Russia, while the second string symbolizes the exodus of half of the Kalmyk population back to Dzungaria in 1771; the upper part of the instrument’s body represents Kalmykia.