Musical Instruments of the Peoples of Siberia

Abstract

This work encompasses the topic of Siberian musical instruments outside the framework of their use in religious rituals. The paper contains interesting information about the instruments of the Siberian Turkish peoples namely as Altays, Hakkas, Tuvans and Yakuts and the musical tools indigenous to these people. In the Turkish epic tradition, different instruments have importance. Today's Siberian Turkish people and their surrounding people's instruments used in modern music performances and orchestras and instruments considered prototypes will draw attention of everyone. Percussion instruments can be divided into several groups: stringed, woodwinds, percussion and self-playing. Only, each group of instruments has different ways of being played; for example - one might play the stringed instrument in different ways - with a bow, or by using the pizzicato (by plucking the instrument with one's fingers), or shelpe - by percussive tapping. Woodwind instruments also had some variations, some of these musical instruments were played by exhaling, i.e. blowing into them, and other instruments were played by inhaling. As an example of the diversity of the instruments, some people played these instruments for festival celebrations, some in their daily lives, some used the instruments during a hunt to imitate the noises of various animals, some instruments could be played by everyone, and some were used in epic tale songs (musical sagas) here the instrument was chosen to accommodate the story being told. In this study, the way the instruments were made, the materials they were made of and their particular specifications, their way of being played, structures, their ways of tuning, and the kinds of sounds they produced are studied. It is clear to see that Siberian's Turkish and other neighbouring people's instruments resemble each other in many ways. Some instrument's sound quality and playability have been improved. This work also touches on the need to quickly make recordings of the rarest of these instruments to establish and preserve them.