Song-improvisations-aityses An Aitys is a public competition of Kazakh akyns, a tournament of poetic improvisations.The most famous competitions of akyns were passed on in the memory of the people as a particular kind of poem. The poems told of those aityses with the original songs as sung by the contenders. According to ancient tradition, objectivity, modesty and dignity prevented the winner from glorifying his own triumph. This poem had to be composed by the defeated akyn. Thus in the well-known poem «Birzhan-sal and Sara» the story about the competition was composed by Sara, who was defeated. Then there appeared an introductory chapter in the poem, sung by Arip akyn, where Sara’s biography was told.
Aitys poems particularly focus on the reasons of the akyn’s defeat. When nearly gaining a victory over Birzhan, Sara was obliged to become silent in the long logical and poetic, when Birzhan in verse demanded to show him the fiance of such a beautiful girl and a brilliant poet.Sara acknowledged herself defeated, taking into account what a trump card she could give Birzhan in their debate, showing him her hated fiance - a hunchback who was imposed on her by the will of her tribe.The content of aitys was a poetic debate on a particular theme. Sometimes it was a debate about the superiority of one tribe over another, when tribal elders - bais and biis - took part.
Sometimes it was a debate about the rights and status of women when women took part in the competition. There were debates about the power of love, its expression, competitions on the knowledge of riddles, countries, and nations and in general knowledge. Sometimes the aitys was about the personal shortcomings and vices of the contenders themselves.
Aityses had particular social significance when the debate was about the dignity of two tribes. Every akyn had to praise his tribe, famous and rich people, the land, mountains, herds of the tribe and vice versa - to mock and ridicule keenly and neatly everything what an opponent praised. It is interesting that the rulers of both tribes were included in such competitions: every akyn mocking the opponent’s tribe with ruthless sarcasm attacked the proud bias and the tribal elders, mocking their shortcomings and vices, enumerating their evil deeds, violence, cupidity. The self-praising part of competitions are long forgotten, yet the audience - the people - retained only the accusing songs, castigating the vices of tribal rulers.
This kind of aitys was the most popular. It is as if there was a silent agreement between the contending akyns - the form of the aitys itself gave the akyn an opportunity to express everything that the people thought about their rulers and show the greatest wit and elegance. Sometimes such aityses ended in fights. An infuriated bai drove away his akyn who couldn’t defend him from of terrible mockeries of the opposing akyn.
At Kazakh youth gatherings the aitys often turned into a mass competition of many pairs. People’s love to the competitive songs and high regard for the gift of improvisation was a stimulus to every akyn to improve his or her gift. Thus the Kazakh popular singer - poet, akyn or zhyrshi - at all times was a mater of improvisation. The people thought him to be an akyn who could create by improvisation witty and elegant verse. The level of an akyn’s gift was showed by his improvisations, created on unexpected themes in the presence of the audience. By withstanding a great number of such tests the akyn obtained popular recognition. It was a hard and fine school of experience for the poet. Almost all the popular akyn poets began their creative development from aityses. The eventual fate of a young poet was at stake when he or she competed with one of the acknowledged maters. The ranking of the akyn was confirmed by the court of the audience and the estimation of the senior akyn.