PRINCIPLES OF GENRE CLASSIFICATION OF KOMUZ MELODY
Abstract and keywords
Abstract (English):
This article attempts to investigate the problem of genre classifica-tion of komuz music (kyuu) in the context of the general theory of genres, which was developed in the works of foreign and Soviet musicologists and which served as a methodological and methodical basis for studying the genre system of Kyrgyz traditional instrumental music.

Keywords:
genre, classification, methodological, kyuu for komuz, musical psychology, artistic creation, the process of multiplication
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Kyuu should be understood in two ways - in the narrow sense of the word and in the broad. In the narrow sense, kyuu is a singular piece performed on an instrument. In a broad sense, kyuu is a collection (or combination) of pieces intended to be performed on one instrument or by instrumental ensembles. In other words, kyuu is the main genre of instrumental kyuu creativity and has been awarded a special genre status by folk musicians in Kyrgyz classical traditional music. In the national music of the oral tradition, the kyuu genre is an important independent sphere (or part) of folk art, which has its own specifics of formation and development in connection with the historical, geographical and socio-cultural circumstances in the life of the Kyrgyz. Kyu as a key word - the term of Kyrgyz traditional instrumental music means both a work and a genre at the same time.

              Kyut creation is, as it were, a term that reappeared in Kyrgyz ethnomusicology. It means the author's and performing activity, which is carried out in the genres of Kyrgyz folk music of the oral tradition and which was most manifested mainly in the work of the komuzists (and kyl-kyakists), as the most developed in quantitative and qualitative relations.

              From the genre point of view of kyuu in national traditional instrumental music, in the long history of komuz art, such great komuzists as Niyazaly Boroshev, Kurenkey Belekov, Toktogul Satylganov, Shekerbek Sherkulov, Karamoldo Orozov, Atay Ogonbaev, Ybraem Tumanov and others have created outstanding classical masterpieces that demonstrate the truth of major achievements in this area and the high level of national art. This allows us to say that the best examples of Kyrgyz traditional kyuu have been awarded the status of national classical music, and deservedly call it a worthy genre of creativity of international importance. It is known that Hindus, Turks and other eastern peoples have long called their traditional instrumental works national musical classics and with such an official genre name they are popular all over the world.

              Genre is a phenomenon of artistic creation associated with general concepts of spiritual culture. Art is an integral part of socio-cultural activities arising from the need to create in order to satisfy the spiritual interests that exist in the social memory of mankind and are of vital importance. The genre originally arose in the world on the basis of the spiritual production of the artistic activity of people, and was a significant folk artistic category, acting in the form of a naive creative concept. Therefore, the genre, as one of the main and systemic components of artistic creation, is a special spiritual category of artistic culture, from antiquity to our time. In the folk art of antiquity, when before the advent of writing prevailed, an exclusively oral form of thinking and the concept of a genre was very primitive and had an archaic, immature, elementary character without any scientific character.

              The beginning of understanding the genre as a scientific category corresponds to antiquity, when scientists appeared for the conscious perception of the ideological and meanings and expressive means of folklore and professional creativity of oral traditions. Such genres as poetry, epic, theater, music, architecture of ancient Greece and Rome were developed, both in a practical and theoretical sense. The great thinkers of the ancient East Pythagoras, Aristotle, Al-Farabi, Abdrakhman-Jami and others were the first scientists who turned their attention to folk art, in particular, to its genre issues. For example, Aristotle opened the scientific study of Greek myths and epic stories in terms of genre characteristics and categories.

              Subsequent periods of history, in the eras of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment, when, with the development of scientific thought on art, attitudes towards the concept of the genre changed and it gradually became one of the main strategic and key problems of culture. Due to the fact that artistic creativity has received significant development in various types and kinds of artistic activity, and the science of folk and professional culture has achieved certain success with the establishment of a more differentiated research approach to issues of the genre of vocal and instrumental music of the peoples of the near and far abroad.

              With the opening of universities in European countries, music departments appear, which train young music researchers, as a result of which national schools of musicologists studying folklore and professional creativity are created. In the footsteps of ancient and European scholars, in parallel with the study of genre issues, there was a study of folk instruments, in which the German-Austrian scientists-instrumentalists S. Sachs and E. Hornbostel stood out. Based on the analysis of instruments by their sources of sound production, they established an organological system of four groups of folk instruments: 1-string group (chordophones), 2-brass group (aerophones), 3-percussion group (membranophones), 4-self-sounding group (idiophones). In the field of studying the genres of folk traditional instrumental music in distant foreign countries, the following works have been published in foreign languages. Vuile G. Dances, their history and development from ancient times to the present day. SPb., 1902; Guy de Maupassant. The novel "Mont-Oriol". Complete collection of works. M, 1958; Chekanovska A. Musical Ethnography: Methodology and Technique. M., 1983.

              In the Soviet and post-Soviet times, social and humanitarian science, including music, progressed in breadth and depth, and against this background of general development, genre problems and aspects of artistic creativity were adequately studied and examined. Much later, almost a dozen centuries later, from the second half of the XIX century, the study of traditional musical culture (including epic) began, which took place with the acquaintance of Russian and foreign researchers with the traditional music of the Kyrgyz (mountain nomads, as they then wrote) and then collecting and publishing folk songs and kyuu performed by folk singers and musicians.

              The genre is called "qenus" in Latin. It translates as "species" or "genus". In Kyrgyz it coincides with the word "tүr". Let us turn to the large explanatory dictionary of two large parts by K. Yudakhin, professor, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz SSR "Kyrgyz-Russian Dictionary" and "Russian-Kyrgyz Dictionary" (old edition), where the term genre is translated in several versions: 1. In the literal sense as a kind peculiar to art and 2. In a figurative sense as a style or usually. To this it can be added that in order to continue the search for an adequate and equivalent translation of the terms "qenus", "species", "genus" into the Kyrgyz language, the word "kѳrѳnүshү" should be used, since it most closely matches the meaning of the Russian term "species". In our opinion, the terms "genre" and "type" have the most similar features and nuances. There is reason to consider them as synonyms. At the same time, there is a certain difference between these terms, since "genre" as a term of Latin origin "qenus" ("genus") is allegorical, has an allegorical meaning. Translated into the Kyrgyz language, it is also used in a figurative sense and means the species concept "kѳrүnүshү", that is, "species". Hence, it is obvious and understandable that the "genre" entered the socio-cultural consciousness of the peoples of the world, regardless of who and where it is accepted as an international genre term for many centuries and has become a universal character and status.

              Since the genre and its theoretical understanding is an extremely important artistic concept, we will try to understand its essence and scientific significance. In artistic creation, both in oral and in writing, the genre concept is determined by a certain mysterious force that arises in the process of emotional movement and aspiration of a person through his creative thinking and feeling and which is formed by his internal energy. It is clear that the energy of his thoughts and feelings in artistic creation is born by an inner desire and willfully. Consequently, creativity is an energy source, a source of thinking and spiritual inspiration of a person. This is the energy of his creative nature and activities with a specific artistic direction. Creativity itself is a kind of sign (or code) for the manifestation of a person's spiritual talent and ability, a property of his artistic creation. And spirit and spirituality are that aesthetic phenomenon that is born as a true artistry and a high gift of nature. It will not be superfluous to say here that artistic creation is a genetically generated spiritual activity that is predetermined by nature or God. Comparing it with the biological and physiological world, one can understand that the spirituality of a person personifies the sacredness not only of his artistic gift, but also of a truly healthy state. As the folk wisdom says: "A healthy mind in a healthy body", and paraphrasing it in another way "Healthy creativity in a healthy soul", it can be argued that artistic creativity is a manifestation of spirituality and largely depends on people's health. Biological scientists have studied the spiritual abilities of a person in connection with the physiological characteristics that manifest in his body. Continuing this analogy between the genre of artistic creation and the human body, we can say that the genre directs and regulates the overall content of the work and, similarly, in the human body, hormones regulate and control its metabolism and cellular functions.[1]

              Turning to the main objective of the article, we note that the problems of the genre are to some extent comparable with the human body in the sense that genres and genre varieties are in the aggregate one whole, consisting of "large" and "small" interconnected parts of it.

              At the same time, it is natural that in the study of the structure of the species composition in the genre organization of artistic creativity, the way methodological and methodical systems are used is taken into account. Research works on this issue mainly use methodological and methodical experience developed in European and Soviet ethnomusicology and folkloristic science. This science in the USSR was sufficiently developed by musicologists to the smallest detail, headed by Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union B. Asafiev and professors, doctors and candidates of science in art history. Through the efforts of these scientists and their disciples-followers, a powerful musicological school was created, within which separate scientific divisions were formed in each republic of the country. Due to the flexibility and effectiveness of the all-Soviet ethnomusicological methodology and methods, the problems of science in musical folklore and oral-professional music of different ethnic groups have been successfully investigated in all directions, including genre issues.

              On the basis of this methodological and methodical system, collectors and researchers of Kyrgyz traditional music A. Zataevich, V. Vinogradov, V. Belyaev, B. Alagushov, K. Dyushaliev, S. Subanaliev, R. Amanova, G. Baysabayeva, M. Kasey, A. Abatekova, M. Korpobaeva and others worked and are working in this direction. Methodological and methodical principles and paradigms of Soviet and post-Soviet musicological science are projected in studies of the genre structure of traditional Kyrgyz songs and kyuu and play a leading role. We can assume that work in this direction is going in the right direction. But at the same time, one circumstance should be taken into account, which needs to be known and studied. Using the existing resources and means of analyzing the genre structure of the Kyrgyz music of the oral tradition and equally applying it for the classification approach to both vocal and instrumental genre branches can cause a certain contradiction. In songwriting, music and poetry (melody and words) are interdependent and organically combined with each other due to the natural method of syncresis and synthesis, and it is not so difficult to determine the genre content of songs than in kyuu. Clarity and clearness of the ideological and thematic content of songs and such important performing components as time, season, situation, setting, condition, etc. directly influence the research process by genre. In this respect, there is a certain methodological convenience for studying songs and no delusion is allowed.

              In instrumental music, however, genre research, as practice shows, the composition of genres of komuz music has its own specifics and presents a certain difficulty to the analyst. In overcoming these specific genre problems of music for the komuz, no matter what analytical principles and criteria we applied, it is all the same, attributing komuz pieces to only one genre or one kind of genres of traditional instrumental music is easy in some cases and difficult in other cases. Therefore, in such dubious and controversial cases, kyuu can be interpreted according to the principle of bi-genre and can be argued with the concept of genre variation (or variance), which does not contradict the theory of genres and the genre system in music.

              It is quite natural that when studying kyuu for komuz, as well as for other folk instruments, a researcher has the right to choose a method of analysis convenient and suitable for his scientific position, which corresponds to the nature and primordial folk traditions living among the indigenous population and developed in the work of komuzists for many centuries since the formation of the Kyrgyz people. Such multidimensionality, polyplanarity, and sometimes hidden mystery of the program content of kyuu for komuz is perceived by listeners with psychological activity and with deep faith in the truth of the reflection of images and characters in their auditory consciousness. This shows a kind of special phenomenon of instrumental music, including traditional music, in which the theoretical development of its genre structure is the factor that determines the complexity of the problem posed.

              Considering the genre issue in strategic and tactical terms, one can notice its special functional quality, which informs about the presence of a guiding and regulating categorical property of the genre in the compositional structure of kyuu. This property sets it apart from other expressive means of works that participate in a holistic analysis of their content and formative components. In a comprehensive analysis of the works of instrumental music of the oral tradition, its genre components are first considered: general ideology and themes, content orientation, and then plot-figurative and program-compositional details are revealed. If a similar sequence of logic of analytical rules is observed in the research process, the genre category plays the main and leading role of the compositional construction of kyuu.

              The performing life of kyuu for komuz takes place in different situations: in all kinds of spaces and conditions, in pastures, yurts, mountainous areas, houses, festive toys, concert halls and venues, abroad, traditional funerals and commemorations, etc. In centuries past, Kyrgyz kyuu were performed exclusively by ear and orally, and only in the XX century, starting from the 30s from the moment of the organization of a small orchestra of Kyrgyz folk instruments, where musical notation was gradually introduced and folk musicians tried to play by sheet music and then in music studios and technical schools introduced a new musical system for teaching Kyrgyz folk musicians with a dual methodology, when the training took place in two ways: on the one hand, they played kyuu only by ear, on the other hand, they tried to play from the notes. It turned out, as it were, a mixed system of teaching methods with double pedagogical practice. Conducting such a mixed form of kyuu teaching methodology, first in the central educational institutions of the capital, in the theater, in the philharmonic society, and then in the peripheral music schools of the regions and districts of the republic, formed a new, modern and promising musical educational system. This was an achievement that was created by combining two historically different, traditional and conditionally non-traditional (innovative) approaches to the issues of Kyrgyz national musical pedagogy of the Soviet era. It was in a way the beginning of a new progressive musical educational and pedagogical system with a double standard, in the good sense of the word, which continues with success and efficiency to this day.

              With the help of technical and technological invasions that appeared in Kyrgyzstan, the komuz kyuu began to make physical and mechanical recordings on tape recorders, in cassettes, disks, pocket phones, the Internet, tablets, and were published in musical collections. All this is in the work of the komuzists in terms of the form of existence and performance of kyuu, and in terms of the figurative and typological characteristics, a wide road has opened for the formation and development of analytical interpretation work. In such conditions, on the basis of a scientific point of view, with the help of theory and practice in the field of author's composition and performance of "new" and "old" kyuu, various kinds and character of works appeared, having musical images such as "cheerful", "gentle", "comic", "solemn", "sorrowful", "sad", "tragic" and the like, which are an indicator of the diverse artistic characteristics of kyuu and demonstrate the richness of its genre types and contents.

              In this mainstream, the leading figures of the researchers of the Kyrgyz ethnomusical culture A. Zataevich, V. Vinogradov, V. Belyaev worked, who laid the foundation for national musical folklore studies and B. Alagushov, K. Dyushaliev, S. Subanaliev, M. Kasey, A. Abetekova, M. Korpobaeva, S. Kochorbaev, Ch. Turumbayeva and others continued their activities, and now they work on the knowledge of the world of traditional music for the komuz. They, relying on the general theoretical position adopted in the creative, performing and pedagogical practice of professional komuzists, having analyzed kyuu in the socio-historical aspect, applied the grouping genre classification system of komuz works by clarification and approval. At the same time, their method of classification by groups and names of kyuu gave a positive result. In traditional instrumental music, the art of composing and performing kyuu, as a single creative process, as two organically interrelated and independent aspects of creativity, was established in the mass consciousness of the people under the genre names "Kambarkany", "Botoi", "Shyӊgyramy", "Kerbezy" and, accordingly received an adequate genre definition with the same terms.

              Further, with the growth and development of social consciousness and the creative imagination of the people, these works progressed quantitatively and qualitatively in the process of collecting and gradually multiplying the same kyuu. This led to the unification of works of the same name around each specific genre type and to a steady process of genre typification. This progress was conditioned by the growth of the musical psychology of the komuzists and testified to the establishment of typical folk genre classification traditions in them. In the formation of this tradition, the main role was played by the bearers of komuz creativity. As a result, a convenient, real and effective genre classification was formed in komuz music, and against its background elements of genre forms and styles appeared. The further rise in the development of komuz music was accompanied by a differentiated approach to its study, which set new tasks for musicologists: to continue, expand the development of the problem of genres, styles and forms of komuz creativity in theoretical, historical and aesthetic aspects.

              In other words, the komuz terms "Kambarkan", "Boty", "Shyngyram", "Kerbez" by the national definition and by the definition of researchers and professional komuzists simultaneously acquired the status of a genre system. With the growth and development of the social and artistic-aesthetic consciousness of the people and the creative imagination of the komuzists, the process of genre typification of kyuu progressed quantitatively and qualitatively, as a result of which its multi-vector genre formation proceeded more intensively and purposefully, which led to the unification of traditional komuz works by the method of collecting and multiplying them around the thematic name of each of the genre species. Thanks to such not only auditory, but also mental "projecting" in the logic of musical thinking of komuzists of different generations, including amateurs and professionals, the generally accepted classification scheme has been strengthened everywhere. This socio-cultural progress was determined by the growth of musical psychology both in the field of writing and in the field of performance and testified to the establishment of the traditional genre policy of komuz music. The main and leading role in the formation of this genre classification tradition was played by professional carriers of the komuz musical culture, true masters of creators and performers of oral tradition music.

A further rise in the creative activity of komuzists and researchers of kyuu is accompanied by a more differentiated approach to its study, and as a logical way out of komuz music, it gives opportunities to set new creative tasks, the solution of which will reveal in more detail the peculiarity of each of the genre types and kinds in this iconic branch of the Kyrgyz national culture.

              In the XX century, famous Soviet musicologists-theorists A. Sokhor, V. Tsukkerman, L. Mazel, A. Popova, I. Zemtsovsky, A. Aranovsky, V. Nazaikinsky, E. Tsareva, Z. Alekseev, A. Sokolov and others, developing the problem of genre theory, noted the difficulty and complexity of its research. In their works devoted to this problem, the genre and genre system of musical creativity are presented as a living and dynamic socio-cultural organism, which consists of dialectically interrelated parts, united around one or more of one genre center, reflecting the general content-semantic idea of ​​the works included in its composition. According to their theory, the genre system is presented as a set of "large" and "small" genres, which are united objectively and naturally and which are conveniently combined with each other.

              Among the researchers of the genre problem in music, a more accurate description of the genre was given by the doctor of art history, professor of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory L. Mazel, who wrote that "Musical genres are genera and types of musical works historically formed in connection with various social (in in particular, the social and common, socially applied) functions of music, in connection with certain types of its content, its life purpose, the conditions for its performance and perception".[2]  Taking into account the generalizing theoretical definition of the genre in the music of Professor L. Mazel and using it in order to study the issues of the genre system of the traditional instrumental music of our republic, it is not useless to project it in relation to kyuu for komuz.

              The genre system of Kyrgyz komuz kyuu is a set of genre types and subspecies of music for komuz, created by instrumental musicians, who in their creative and performing creativity reflect the artistic and aesthetic relations between people and nature, thoughts and feelings of a person with the help of typical techniques and expressive means of komuz games developed in the history of Kyrgyz traditional instrumental music.

At the end of the article, based on its content, we can give some final conclusions:

  1. The study of the theoretical problems of komuz creativity contributes to the identification of its substantive properties and a new view and approach to substantiating the ways of forming the genre system of kyuu.
  2. Determination of the historical organizational process of the system of genre varieties of kyuu makes it possible to bring the genre theory of komuz music to a scientific level.
  3. A research attempt was made to prove that the creative principle of multiplying the number of genre varieties of kyuu through frequent and systemic repeated-variant performances of the same genre played a large role. On the basis of this principle, a target accumulation of works in each of the genre varieties of kyuu was carried out, as a result of which there was a natural process of its subgenre grouping, formed by stratification and arrangement of komuz works according to their purpose and goal-setting.
  4. The genre system of kyuu is such a system that was formed in the historical and artistic process, where at first the natural evolutionary accumulation of works took place, which concentrated around separate species groups having different names, traditionally established in the musical thinking of the people and professional komuzists. Then, with the accumulation and development of experience in playing the komuz for various genre types, a unified and diverse system of genres was finally established.
  5. In the history of the kyuu genres for the komuz of the prefeudal, feudal and socialist eras, the evolutionary development of the genre system of komuz music proceeded according to the laws of dialectical formation and according to the rules of genre stabilization and the general ethnomusical method of collecting and multiplying works. In our time and in the future, the state of writing and performing kyuu, including its genre component, will grow and increase due to the socio-economic support from the government and due to the activation and transformation of the creativity of the komuzists of the younger generations.
 
References

1. Mazel L.A. The structure of musical works. M, 1979.

2. Vinogradov V.S. Kyrgyz folk music. Frunze, 1958.

3. Dyushaliev K. Song culture of the Kyrgyz people. Bishkek. 1999.

4. Dyushaliev K. Traditional music: theory and methodology. Bishkek, 1912.

5. Tsareva E. Musical genre. In the book: Musical encyclopedia. Volume 1, 1974.

6. Zuckerman V.A. Musical genres and foundations of musical forms. M.,1964.

7. Sokhor A.N. Theory of musical genres: tasks and perspectives. In the book: Theoretical problems of musical forms and genres M., 1971.

8. Vuile G. Dances, their history and development from ancient times to the present day. SPb, 1902.

9. Guy de Maupassant. The novel "Mont-Oriol". Complete collection of works. M.,1958.

10. Chekanovska A. Musical ethnography: Methodology and methods. M., 1983.

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