In 2017 a concert marking Kenzhebek Kumysbekov’s ninetieth birthday took place in the Mangystau Regional Philharmonic hall. The Abyl Tarakuly Orchestra of Kazakh Folk Instruments performed music from different years. The jubilee programme included the kui-poem Farabi Sazy.
Almost four decades separated that evening from the date given by the researcher E. K. Sapiyev. Kumysbekov first created a dombra kui, he writes, then arranged it for an orchestra of folk instruments. What survived this transition? Sapiyev seeks the answer in the movement of the poem itself — from bas buyn to sagha.
The name of al-Farabi
In 2020 the newspaper Ana Tili devoted a page to al-Farabi’s musical legacy. Farabi Sazy was among the works from Kazakhstan that it named as responses to the philosopher’s image.
Sapiyev dates the kui-poem to 1978. He associates the impulse behind its creation with Anuar Alimzhanov’s novel The Teacher’s Return, published in the same year. In his analysis, the title establishes the work’s programme: a meditation on al-Farabi and the distant past.
Sapiyev describes the philosopher’s image as calm, poised, filled with deep reflection and worldly wisdom. The measured narrative and songlike nature of the themes also belong to his musicological reading. Here the researcher also states the work’s origin precisely:
“The composer first created the dombra kui Farabi Sazy, then arranged it for an orchestra of folk instruments.”
— E. K. Sapiyev, “Features of Compositional and Orchestral Writing in the Poems of Kenzhebek Kumysbekov,” printed p. 113
According to Sapiyev, both versions — the dombra kui and the orchestral poem — remained in circulation in 2017.
Shertpe and tokpe
The dombra kui has two distinct manners of movement. In the shertpe tradition, the strings are plucked individually and the music unfolds like a calm narrative. Tokpe is dominated by broad strokes of the wrist, momentum and movement towards a high climax.
Sapiyev associates the main character of Farabi Sazy with shertpe: the plucked technique and songlike nature of its themes. In tense sections, however, he hears features of tokpe — wrist strokes and more rapid development. Kumysbekov, himself a dombra player, joined both performance traditions in the orchestral poem.
From bas buyn to sagha
Sapiyev reads the form through four zones familiar to a dombra player. Bas buyn is the low-register introduction and beginning of the narrative; negizgi buyn is its principal statement; orta buyn is the middle zone of intensification; and sagha is the upper register and climax. Within the first zone, the material develops, returns and prepares the next:
| Zone | Musical features in Sapiyev’s analysis | Role in the poem’s movement |
|---|---|---|
| Opening bas buyn | Low register, figures within the span of a fourth and fifth, centred on D in G Dorian | Introduction and an image of the distant past |
| Middle bas buyn | Range expands to a seventh, transition to D minor, development of opening intonations | Development of the material |
| Return of bas buyn | Shortened and altered opening material | Preparation of negizgi buyn |
| Negizgi buyn | Ascending leaps of a minor sixth and seventh, followed by stepwise filling | Principal meaning, the image of al-Farabi |
| Orta buyn | Sequential development through C minor and C major | Growing agitation |
| Sagha | Canonic unfolding of one intonation in the syrnai section | Climax |
In Sapiyev’s scheme, the low introduction widens its range and prepares the principal theme; the middle zone heightens the agitation, and sagha becomes the climax. Bas buyn and an abbreviated negizgi buyn then return. The orchestral development thus preserves the order of the dombra form.
Another work — Kui. Separate from Farabi Sazy, Alibi Abdinurov examines Kumysbekov’s chamber-orchestral Kui. He places the composition in the history of the symphonic kui — a single-movement orchestral form that grew from the intonations and structure of the traditional dombra kui.
The jubilee evening
In the 2017 programme, Farabi Sazy appeared beside the symphonic poem Dala Syry, Amanat, Bishi Qaiyn and a poem about Korkyt. The Abyl Tarakuly Orchestra presented Kumysbekov’s music in several genres.
The orchestral poem sounded at the jubilee concert. Yet Sapiyev described its inner path in the language of the dombra: bas buyn, negizgi buyn, orta buyn, sagha. Almost four decades later, the story of Farabi Sazy joined orchestra and kui in a single programme.