Art of Music
( 2005-09-13 )

 Instrumental music

The Uygurs play many forms of instrumental music in diverse styles, many derived from vocal genres. Some of the principal Uygur musical instruments include:

1. Wind instruments

Sunay

-- A small double-reed shawm, its conical wooden body has seven front holes and one thumbhole. It has a metal bell and metal mouthpiece, and is played using circular breathing with a range of over two octaves.

Balaman

-- A short double-reed vertical reed pipe with seven finger holes, tuned by a cross-piece of reed fixed near the mouth end of the instrument. The balaman is now found only in the Khotan region and is used as a lead instrument in the Muqam.

N?y

-- Found in the folk and professional contexts, traditionally the Uygur n?y was a long horizontal flute made of walnut wood, with a soft tone. In recent years the Uygurs have adapted the Chinese bamboo horizontal flute.

2. Stringed instruments

Satar

-- A long-necked bowed lute with one melodic and eight to 12 sympathetic metal strings. The satar plays an important role in the Muqam, usually played by the lead singer (Muqamchi). Its sympathetic strings may be tuned in five different ways depending on the mode of the Muqam being played.

Ghij?k

-- A fiddle with a soundboard of stretched skin, the largest of the Uygur ghij?ks is found amongst the Dolan, with a horsehair melodic string and several metal sympathetic strings. The Qumul ghij?k has two bowed strings tuned a fifth apart, and six to eight sympathetic strings. The earliest Chinese historical records relate that a bowed instrument strung with horsehair was played in the Qumul region, but the contemporary instrument is probably a fairly recent hybrid between the Chineseerhufiddle and the Uygur ghij?k, testament to the Chinese cultural influence in this easternmost point of Xinjiang.