Kazakh Music

Kazakh music is the traditional music of the Kazakh steppe, built on three pillars: the kui, a programmatic instrumental piece for the two-string dombra that narrates battles, hunts, horses and heroes without words; epic singing, in which zhyrau bards deliver long zhyr narratives; and lyric song (än). Its instruments — dombra, bowed qobyz, sybyzgy flute, zhetigen zither — carry a repertory systematised in the 19th century by *Kurmangazy* and *Dauletkerei*, preserved through Soviet folk orchestras, and renewed today by ethno-ensembles such as *Turan* and *HasSak*.