ASTANA – An exhibition recently opened in Atyrau’s local history museum on the history of the Kazakh folk instrument, dombra.
A dombra is a round and flat two-stringed instrument made of pine, maple, hazel and oak.
The exhibit includes 65 dombras and discusses the evolution of the instrument and how it is made.
“Dombra is one of the most ancient musical instruments in the world. Its first cave paintings date back 4,000 years and refers to the Neolithic period,” ethnographer Utepbergen Alimgereev said.
This exhibition is not only on the history of the musical instrument. It is also on the history of the Caspian region, which is closely connected with famous dombra musicians Kurmangazy Sagybayev and Dina Nurpeisova.
“Dina Nurpeisova’s dombra is the pride of our musical instruments collection. Accompanied on this dombra, she performed her kyuis (musical compostions) such as ‘Bulbul,’ ‘Toibastar,’ ‘Baizhuma,’ ‘Asekonar’,’ director of the local history museum Rashida Kharipova said.
Equally interesting are the instruments played by Karshiga Akhmedyarov, Nurgisa Tlendiyev and Salamat Mukashev. The exhibit also includes a copy of Makhambet Utemisov’s famous dombra. That dombra is from the 19th century and is made of oak and inlaid with silver and bone. Soon the exhibition will also include other rare instruments, such as the dauylpaz, dangyra, syrnai and asatayak.
