An ordinary person may create “new” texts within the traditional frames, but may not change the tunes more than an uncertain memory allows. That does not apply to the akins of a poetic vein, who distinguish themselves among the people by improvising poems and new melodies.

There were Kyrgyz instrumentalists mastering the ability of musical and poetic improvisation probably already in the 6-8th centuries. We have data on instrumental contests from a hundred years ago, e.g. in the works of Radlov (1866-1907). The most outstanding Kyrgyz poets and thinkers, the fathers of today’s Kyrgyz literature, were Togolok Moldo and Toktogul Satilganov.

Toktogul’s creative and performing talent was particularly versatile. Zataevich describes his fascinating originality, subtle musicality, the bredth of phrasing, the freshness of melodies and “the highly inspired and captivating moments in his works”. He did not neglect merry jokes in his pieces, either.

His creativity encompassed all genres of Kyrgyz folk music, promoting their development. Zataevich‘s (1934) notations prove what a wide spectrum of genres his creative and performing talent was demonstrated in (see also Vinogradov 1961 and Slobin 1969).

Noteworthy are also the instrumental pieces he composed, e.g. şingrama, kerbez and kambarkan, programme music, song arrangements (contrafacta) and many other works. He was also interested in the Kyrgyz epic and elaborated a variant of the Kedey khan legend well known among the peoples of the Altay and Central Asia. His crop in the genre of maktoo is outstanding; as regards kordoo, he ridiculed the oppressors of the people, and in the genre of sanat/nasiat he composed works encouraging his people to aspire after creative work and moral improvement. These musical-poetic admonitions are often put into terme or jeldirme form, while he used intricate strophic forms for his lyrical, historical, etc. themes.

Lots of his songs became popular, almost used as folksongs – not accidentally, as his art was closely interlaced with the art of the Kyrgyz people and the akins. He performed the older forms almost unchanged, but he often broadened them and filled them with novel contents.

Toktogul grew up in a poor and simple milieu not in touch with books or intellectuals. His first master was his mother. Burma, the famous koşokçı ‘wailerʼ made up laments and taught lots of stories and songs to her son who had mastered the komuz already as a herder (koyçu) at the age of twelve, and even composed songs.

Toktogul added to his mother’s repertory the songs learnt from Kyrgyz shepherds. He took every opportunity to meet famous ırçıs and komuz players to enlarge his repertory, improve his playing and enrich his style.

He took part in more and more aytışes. Toktogul was not in the service of the mighty. He could be free because he was more and more often called to celebrations, weddings, independent from the bays and manaps.

The greatest fame he won with a condemning song against the famous ­akın Arzimat, the protegé of the mighty Dikanbay, in which he compared the position of akıns eulogizing the mighty to his own independent existence. Dikanbay manap and his four brothers persecuted Toktogul, with doubled vehemence when in 1894 he wrote his song Beş kaman ‘four wild boarsʼ, which made him popular over the whole country all at once.

The melody of Beş kaman well exemplifies the powerful ties between Toktogul’s music and Kyrgyz folk tradition, as its main theme is a Kyrgyz lament consisting of a single varied hill-shaped line with a fourth leap at the end (ex.12, №59-67).

Another example of Toktogul’s art is a terme also used by the Kazakhs. Its musical declamation is close to the intonation and stresses of spoken language (Sipos 2001: 35-42). Let us take a Toktogul composition, entitled “Toktogul greets Alimkul” (Beliaev 1975:ex.40). Upon their first meeting, the akın greeted Alimkul, later his outstanding pupil, in the recitative manner of early ­Kyrgyz terme, basically in seven syllables and free rhythm, close to Kyrgyz speech. The words of the greeting are close to the structure of epic narratives, in free rhythm, with an abundance of assonances and descending melody motion at the end. We find here also the direct use of the Kyrgyz-Kazakh folk tradition.

From Toktogul and his pupils Vinogradov (1961) published several songs, separating two main groups after thorough analyses. One groups is closely connected to the mentioned Kyrgyz laments. The main features are the improvisatory, free parlando-rubato performance, and one or two varied lines on a Major-character scale in most tunes.1 Similarly to Kyrgyz laments, the contour of the first line is a hill-shaped C—F—D, of the second D—F—C. The laments of this type and all genres other than laments but musically related to them constitute a fundamental stratum of Kyrgyz folk music. This tune group alone can prove the strong Kyrgyz bases of Toktogul’s art.

The other group contains heptasyllabic giusto one- and two-lined songs moving on scales of a Major character . The typical motif of the single-core tunes is E-F-F-E | F-E C, while the first line of the two-lined forms reaches the 4th, 5th, rarely 6th or 7th degree usually along a convex curve.2 These songs also have a lot of analogies among Kyrgyz folksongs.

Toktogul’s art spread beyond Kyrgyzstan, in Kazakhstan, too, promoting the cultural rapprochement between the two peoples. Kazakh songs came to be known by the Kyrgyz, and vice versa. Toktogul knew well the famous Kazakh songs and instrumental compositions, the Russian revolutionary songs, and he was interested in the music of neighbouring peoples as well. But first and foremost, his art was genuine Kyrgyz art born of the Kyrgyz soil, inseparably merged with the musical tradition of his people, feeding on it, improving it and inspiring those who come after him with his singular tone.

His name is borne by the Kyrgyz State Conservatory, lots of streets, villages, schools, his portrait and statue can be seen at many places. His poems appeared in several publications, his life and works are researched by historians, musicians, philologists. Like all great artists, Toktogul is not dead, his memory, his legacy survive on the lips of the Kyrgyz people who still speak of him by his nickname “Toko”.

Apart from Toktogul, several musicians have been in some contact with Kyrgyz folk music; for a more detailed list see e.g. the book of Duşaliev, K. and Luzanova, E. (1999). Let me only mention a few names from the early Soviet period.

Muratali Kurenkeyev (1860-1949) was the most outstanding instrumentalist prior to and in the early years after the revolution. He was not only the virtuoso of the two main Kyrgyz instruments (komuz and kiyak), but he also played the çoor and the Kazakh dombra, as the great composer of national instrumental music. He perfected several forms of Kyrgyz folk music as performer and composer, from the simplest to more complex pieces. Beside him Toktomambet Orozov “Karamoldo” (b. 1888) was a great instrmentalist of his age, the master of the komuz.

Both in the years before and after the Soviet revolution, the greatest performers of the Kyrgyz epic traditions were Sayakbay Karalev (b. 1896) and Moldobasan Musulmankulov (b. 1893). Noted song composers, excellent singers and instrumentalists were Musa Baetov (1902-1949) and Atay Ogonbaev (1904-1950). Both rose from the ranks of shepherd to become leading performers of the Kyrgyz Philharmony. Atay Ogonbaev was the pupil of Toktogul; in some of his songs (e.g. Esimde or Küydüm çok) the traditional Kyrgyz song undergoes rich development.