Kai of Altai

Kai is the most ancient art of the Altaian. Its secrets remain still unlearned. Being an independent music style, it requires special attention from scientists and art historians.

Many people share an opinion that kai is a kind of throat singing. But it is not above criticism, since kai is not only a singing, but also unique and inimitable one. On the one hand, it has the meaning of masterly performance and, on the other – it is profoundly philosophical, moral perception of life. What is an epic singer, kaichi-narrator and a kaichi? These three terms seem to have no difference, but it is a wrong belief…

The Altaian and their music tradition throw back to their history. Nobody could tell exactly now what year or epoch is to be the appearance of the Turkic peoples` relic – the legends about epic heroes. It should be admitted that kai is mentioned in all the legends – they narrate about a hero riding across the Altai and suddenly hearing kai…

The Altai Republic is very rich in famous kaichi-narrators. They revealed themselves mostly in the 1920s. Forever their names went down in history: Kalkin Grigory Alexeyevich, Chachiyekov Tabar, Yalatov Shunu. Especially noticeable one is Kalkin Grigory, who was appreciated at true value and called Homer of the 20th century. He knew by heart more than 5 thousand lines of the altai legends. The 12 volumes of epic legends were published with his help, some of them were republished 2-3 times. Nowadays another 7 legends are being prepared for publication, and each one consists of more than a thousand lines. And 10 of his legends are not finished still. The phenomenon of Kalkin`s kai-narration is that he could lead listeners into the world of the legends, recited with more than 5 thousand lines, besides any of his intonations was accompanied by masterly playing the topshuur, also he could narrate one epos 4-5 days – what a bewitching power and narrative skills he had!

Kaichi is both a kai singer and an expert of legends. Eelu-kaichi or foreteller is also a clairvoyant treating spiritual and physical diseases. It is Kalkin who was such person. He had a gift of curing people, contacting with spirits of the dead, predicting an approaching day. No doubt, he was a kaichi-narrator. Everyone, who used to gather in order to listen to him, lost their sense of time. To the sounds of topshuur listeners and the performer flew into the skies, wandered in ancient mountains, walked down into underground kingdom and came back to the sunny-lunar Altai. During the epic performance kaichi seemed fallen into trance, but he never gave a confused story. Course of events always developed evenly and accurately. The great kaichi Kalkin was a gifted narrator and a carrier of the old mysterious and sacred culture of the Altaian. He said, he had to make no mistakes, otherwise «epic heroes would disturb him».

Speaking of kaichi, we cannot help mentioning about his primary sacred instrument called topshuur. Topshuur is the object worship for a kaichi. Before kai starts, kaichi blesses his topshuur. By the sound of the instrument he calls upon listeners to hear a great legend, afterwards he devotes some words to people surrounding him and then the legend begins. Smoothly he manages to tell 7-8 lines. The performance beginning is amazing: kaichi passes from words to a long sound «o-o-oh», then without a pause he continues narrating. At the same time all his words, breath and pauses are skillfully tinged with topshuur background.

Topshuur is two-stringed musical instrument similar to kazakh dombra, but a bit smaller, especially in size of fingerboard. The body and fingerboard are carved from one block of wood. The surface of the oval hollowed out body is covered with a slender plank or a raw calves` leather. Twisted of tail horsehair, two strings look like slender little ropes and are attached with leather straps to the body on one side and to wooden pins – on the other. Thoroughly chosen horsehair is mainly white. On the upper sounding board there are cutout air hole and a support for strings. The fingerboard has no fret. The sound elicited from the strings resembles tight thread sounding, but a bit clearer and brighter, that is why topshuur does not resound much. Manners of playing can be various: clang, tremolo and pizzicato. Before playing, leather upper sounding board of topshuur is dryed a bit over the fire. There is no certain pitch for topshuur. The strings are tuned up in fourth as much suitable for a singer as possible. The used range rarely exceeds octave. The Altaian say, topshuur of a great kaichi can resound tunes by itself. Women and children are not allowed to touch it.

Kaichi is closely related to animate nature, to the Altai spirit. The kaichi-foreseer Kalkin used to say that its spirit prefers listening to topshuur. The Altai tribes realized the topshuur miraculous power usage and preserved the old rite. From their point, the master of taiga listened with delight to wishing well and topshuur tunes, and as a reward and tribute for his pleasure he sent his animals and birds to hunters to make their successful. 

There is another one kai peculiarity – its styles diversity. There are 12 types if kai. Moreover in 1908 Anokhin mentioned of its types – they are koomei-kai, sybysky-kai, karkyra-kai and so on. Here in Altai is usually performed karkyra-kai.

There is a significant difference between kaichi and narrator. I rate myself only to kai-singer. I am not a narrator. As for the kai fortune, it was rather tragic. It suffered persecution during the Soviet period. Despite everything, kai restored – God-given talent cannot disappear. But people have missed a lot. They have lost outstanding narrators who could not completely pass on their mastery to us. Attention of well-known art historians to kai all over the world gives us hope. I believe that folklore – ancient kai – will remain on Earth. 

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Bolot Bairyshev, 2002