Bowed Instruments of the Turkic-Mongol Peoples of Siberia from the Collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of one of the largest collections of traditional musical instruments — the collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography. The attention of the authors is drawn to the bowed chordophones of the Siberian Turkic-Mongolian peoples. The most historical and culturally valuable part of this collection is represented by the earliest exemplars collected in the first half of the 20th century: two Tuvinian (Soyots) igils and byzaanchy (the collection of F. Ya. Kon, 1902); Mongolian Khuur (the collection of S. A. Kondratiev, 1923); Tuvinian (Todzhintses) igil (the collection of M. G. Levin, 1926); Khakassian yykh (the collection of L. N. Terentieva, 1939). The history of the acquisition of the bowed chordophones collection of the Siberian Turkic-Mongolian peoples, аn ergo-morphological description detailed of the instruments representing the culture of the Tuvinians, Altaians, Khakas, Mongols, Yakuts are given. The studied chordophones belong to the following organological types (according to the musical instruments systematics by E. fon Hornbostel and K. Zaks): the necked lutes (321.32): the necked bowl lutes (321.321: igil, yykh, ikili-topshur), the necked box lutes (321.322: kytiya khyryppa); (321.31): spike box lutes (321.312: khuur, byzaanchy, igil), spike tube lutes (321.313: byzaanchy). The authors draw conclusions about the ergo-morphological features of the instruments: the types of the resonator, the length of the neck, the types of heads and peg boxes, the location of the pegs, the material of the decks and the features of their fixation, the material of the strings, etc.