Kiui Legends Kazakh folklore is inseparably linked with music in all forms. Not only ritual and historical songs were created on the basis of musical melody, but even great epic poems were performed escorted by the dombra on the melody chosen by akyn himself. The role of music in the Kazakh folklore was particularly emphasised exactly by these kiui legends, which themselves became the means of description of events and feelings, acquiring the subject program character.
Usually before performing a kiui on the dombra, sybyzgy or kobyz the kiuishi (composer and virtuoso) told in a brief the story of the given kiui, finishing it with the traditional phrase: «And now listen to what the dombra tells you about it». In an ancient kiui legend of an unknown author «Boz-Torgai» this story tells us about the skylark which defended its nestlings from a snake attack. The musical play itself reproduced in the dombra’s sounds the fear and despair of the sky-lark, the hissing of the snake, the cheep of the nestlings, the mother-bird’s wing quiver, trying to draw away the snake’s attention from the nest. The play ended with the death cry of the bird, selflessly throwing itself into the snake’s mouth in order to save its nestlings.
The kiui legend «Kobyk-shashkan» («Foam and Sprays») serves as an example of a more complicated illustrative music. It was composed
at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century by the famous composer Kurmangazy on the occasion of disastrous flood on the Caspian Seashores which destroyed a great number of auls (villages). In that case the kiui wasn’t limited by a musical image of the infuriated elements, yells, moans of people and animals, but it was raised to the tragic sight, reproducing in the sounds the horror and despair of ruined people, the depth of the sufferings, going on to the complicated musical poem.
The authors of the musical plays could not be considered only as composers. Each of them created parallels with the music legend accompaniment, having independent artistic meaning. Thus in the kiui-legend of a nameless author «Karazhorga» a splendid, picturesque story took place. The legend was about an ambler horse, rescued by Ablai-Khan’s Kazakh warriors in the battles with Kalmyks. Another famous kiui legend «Aksak-kulan, Zhoshi-khan» was accompanied by the following story. Zhoshi-khan demanded of his subordinates to inform him why his son did not return from the hunt and threatened that those who dared to inform him about his son’s death would have molten lead poured into their throats. Then an old kiuishi played on the kobyz a dumb melody and Zhoshi-khan hearing it understood that his son was killed by a lame kulan (a wild horse), and wishing to keep his word ordered the punishment of the kobyz. That’s why as it was said in the legend the upper part of kobyz burnt by the lead remained open. The beautiful and moving legend accompanied the kiui of Saimak «Sary-Uzen». Saimak escaped from the prison with Kalmyk girl who was in love with his music. But he couldn’t find his aul in his native places and at the girl’s request he expressed his grief in the sounds of sybyzgy. Each of musical plays of the well-known Kurmangazy are based on his own stories. Those are «Ksen-ashkan» («Broken shackles»). In that novel Kurmangazy described his escape from the czarist prison. In the novel «Laushkin» he told about his beloved Russian girl Lavochkina who helped him in the prison. All the typical forms of Kazak folklore were mixed in the kiui legends. In the form of the novel we find here tales about animals («Boz-Torgai»), the historical song («Kobyk-shashkan»), zhoktau («Sary-Uzen»), yestirtu («Zhoshi-Khan») and others. The particular meaning of that interesting form of Kazakh folklore was the music retained in people’s memory. Owing to that music the beautiful legends linked with it reached us and the remarkable ancient images and the names of the authors who created them remain in the memory of people up till nowadays.
The lucky combination of the valuable qualities of music master and master of the word together rare in the history of the art is observed in all the historical way of the Kazakh art.