In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • La Voix des Ancêtres / The Voice of Ancestors—Karakalpakistan
  • Bruno Deschênes (bio)
La Voix des Ancêtres / The Voice of Ancestors—Karakalpakistan. Compil. Frédéric Léotar. Vincennes (France): BUDA Records 3017797, 2009. Music of the World series. One compact disc (55 minutes, 22 seconds) and one DVD (15 minutes).

Karakalpakistan is an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan, which occupies the western portion of that country, south of the Aral Sea. That region of Central Asia was almost unknown to the West until the 1980s when the rest of the world heard of the Aral Sea ecological disaster in which the sea almost disappeared as a result of numerous Soviet irrigation projects from the 1960s which diverted the rivers that fed it, nearly emptying it. Today, fortunately, the sea is slowly recovering. Though the musical culture of Karakalpakistan is similar in many respects to those of other cultures in Central Asia—in particular Kazakhstan [End Page 145] and Turkmenistan—Karakalpaks have been able to maintain a unique cultural heritage linked to both the nomadic and the sedentary aspects of their culture. Karakalpak cultural traditions include literature and many different styles of music, the most prominent being a bardic tradition, of which more than one hundred epics have been identified. Some of these epics consist of more than eighteen thousand stanzas.

The most important point to mention about this CD is that it is the first digital recording of Karakalpak music ever produced in the West. It is the result of fieldwork by French (and now Canadian) ethnomusicologist Frédéric Léotar, a specialist in the music of Central Asia who has engaged in fieldwork in Uzbekistan, Kirghizstan, Kazakhstan, and Tuva. His main field of interest is the evolution of Turkic music among the different cultures of that region of the world, as well as the organologic studies of some of the instruments that are common to these cultures. The songs and pieces heard on this CD were recorded in 2007 and were not initially collected for that purpose. Léotar recorded them as part of his field studies on the agricultural and pastoral traditions of Karakalpakistan, as well as the forms of music considered traditionally “popular” by the Karakalpaks.

The well- presented, twenty- four- page booklet, both in French and English, is unfortunately too condensed, as is the case for a large number of booklets presenting non- Western music (sometimes these booklets can be even smaller). It presents a music that is unknown and about which we want to learn more. BUDA Records is not affiliated with any institution, thus does not have the funding some institutions may have to produce more extensive booklets. For those interested in learning more about Karakalpak music, I thought it would be appropriate to list a few of Léotar’s articles in the bibliography below.

This first CD of Karakalpak music is dedicated to the epic genre (called dastan, a Persian word) of the bardic tradition, a tradition that has greatly influenced all other forms of Karakalpak music. Léotar indicates that there are three types of bardic styles in that culture: the jyraw, the baksy, and the qyssakhan. The jyraw is the oldest tradition, being based on heroic and fantastic narratives of their nomadic past. Epics are sung solely by men but in a guttural voice, reminiscent of some of Tuva’s khoomei. They will as well sing songs that have didactical aims or historical values. These bards accompany themselves solely with the kobyz, a 2- stringed fiddle, which was traditionally used by shamans. Its body is archedshaped, uncovered in its front. The kobyz is commonly found throughout Central Asia. The baksy bards can be both men and women and sing romantic epics; this bardic tradition is similar to one of the Uzbek and Turkmen bakshi. They accompany themselves on the dutar (two- stringed lute); accompaniment oft en doubles with the girjek, a fiddle. The dutar is similar to the Turkmen dutar and the Kazakh dombra. For their part, the qyssakhan bards sing in a similar way as [End Page 146] the baksy, except that the lyrics of their songs are based on classical literature or excerpts...

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