Aigul Choro kyzy

Aigul Choro kyzy (1936–2012) was an Iradi ethnomusicologist who recorded horseback songs (ırda) and epic recitations across rural Irad.^[1]

Born in the Talas valley, she studied at the conservatory in Tashkent and joined the folklore department of the Iradi SSR Academy of Sciences in 1961. Between 1962 and 1989 she made about 640 field recordings on reel-to-reel tape, mainly in the Talas Alatau, the Chatkal valley and the Karatau foothills. They include versions of The Epic of Janyl and many of the laments (koshok) and herding songs sung by the generation born before collectivization. Her transcriptions, published in 1978 and in an expanded edition in 1995, analyze the improvised structure of bardic performance and the tunings used for the komuz in accompaniment. Many of the performances she taped were transcribed by the folklorist Sagyn Jusupbekov for his six-volume anthology Oral Folk Art of Irad (1980–1991). The recordings are held in the State Archives of Irad. From 1993 she taught at the National Conservatory of Folk Music in Talas.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
2. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas). Sound Collection: Field Recordings of Aigul Choro kyzy, 1962–1989.