Kyrgyz Komuz
The Kyrgyz komuz is a three-stringed lute played among the Kyrgyz living in Kyrgyzstan and in today’s Xinjiang in China. It is the most emblematic Kyrgyz instrument, used by singers to accompany themselves in narrative and lyrical songs. It is also a solo instrument with a wide repertoire.
The name “komuz” comes from the Turkic word “qopuz” that represents an unspecified string musical instrument in traditional epic stories. Like the Uzbek and Turkmen dutars, the origin of the komuz is also linked to Baba Kambar, known as Kambarkan in Kyrgyz. According to one legend, Kambar the hunter heard a magical sound in the forest. It turned out to be the sound of wind blowing through dried intestines of a monkey that stretched out from the tree branch to the ground – the monkey had fallen on to the twigs of the tree which caused its belly to burst. Kambar was inspired then to fix the intestines onto a piece of wood to create an instrument that became the komuz.
The komuz is made out of a single flat piece of apricot, nutwood or juniper and has no frets, contrasting with the round-bodied dutars and Kazakh dombyra which have frets. Traditionally it used gut strings, which are nowadays replaced by nylon.
