Kazakh kubuzi

Name of Chinese national intangible cultural heritage: Kazakh kubuzi

Applicant: Yili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

Project No.: 1085

Project No.: Ⅱ - 155

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: Traditional Music

Region: Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

Type: new item

Applicant: Yili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

Protection unit: Yili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture song and Dance Troupe

Brief introduction of Kazakh kubuzi

Applicant: Yili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

Kubuzi is an ancient stringed instrument of Kazakh nationality. The body of the instrument is made of wood, and it is composed of the rod, string shaft, bow and speaker. Kubuzi mainly spread in the Kazakh inhabited areas in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture and Balikun Kazakh Autonomous County. It is also distributed in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and Mongolia. The Kazakh kubuzi project includes three parts: kubuzi production technology, kubuzi performance skills and kubuzi music.

There are different views on the origin of kubuzi. Most scholars think that kubuzi's founder and disseminator are kuoerkut's sages. However, some people insist that the creation time of Kazakh kubuzi can be traced back to the third century BC, far earlier than the seventh to eighth century of kuoerkut's life. In ancient times, kubuzi was mostly used by the Kazakh baksi (shaman wizard) in practice ceremony, and it was mainly handed down by oral and psychological teaching.

Kubuzi plays with a bow in his right hand and touches the strings with the fingernails of his index finger, middle finger and ring finger in his left hand. His playing techniques are flexible and diverse, including kneading, vibrato, overtone, double tone, gliding, percussion and other left hand skills, as well as string pulling, string skipping, string plucking and other bow skills, which make the melody of kubuzi beautiful and rich in connotation. A variety of different playing techniques make the rhythm of kubuzi music very rich. All kinds of single beat, multiple beat and mixed beat are common in kubuzi music. Some music through a variety of beat, rhythm combination, promote the development of music, resulting in a strong artistic effect, sometimes the value-added beat, but also brings a unique charm to the music.

The common modes in kubuzi's music are do and sol with the characteristics of major mode and La and re with the characteristics of minor mode. Transposition and detuning are also important means to promote the development of music and produce artistic expression.