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ASTANA – An interaction of musical efficiency and a tiny little bit of puppetry magic is unveiled within the historic Kazakh conventional orteke artwork type, which final month was included within the United Nations Instructional, Scientific and Cultural Group’s (UNESCO) Consultant Checklist of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The key to a masterful orteke efficiency additionally lies within the talent of the grasp woodcarver. Photograph credit score: Studio Mergen, ich.unesco.org.
Within the palms of a skillful dombra (Kazakh conventional instrument) participant, the inanimate objects on the floor of a drum start to tackle a mysterious dance of their very own. From afar, the performer may seem like a magician or a snake charmer taking part in the flute to a wriggling snake.
But there isn’t any magic. The precept of orteke could be very easy: the participant controls the puppet (often a wood goat) by a string tied to his or her finger that performs an instrument, mostly a dombra. Whereas taking part in the musical instrument, the puppet performs rhythmic actions intact with the melody.
Some say the Kazakh puppet theater originated with orteke, however sure variations prevail. In classical puppet theaters, the puppet actor leads the puppets instantly himself or herself, in orteke puppetry, the musician conducts the determine or a number of figures not directly by the instrument.
In 1935, Akhmet Zhubanov, a well known researcher and scientist within the subject of music, revealed an article within the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper, describing the orteke artwork type.
“Throughout the play, the figures soar, bend, and make varied twists and turns. Generally, the figures of horses, women and men are utilized by the participant as nicely. They dance to the rhythm of the music. The skillful performer created a temper and introduced the above-mentioned figures to completely different shapes, generally leaping up and generally operating,” he wrote.
Zhubanov talked about such an beautiful and strange artwork type is nothing with out an equally proficient dombra participant. Previously, musicians may play as much as five-eight figures of goats concurrently, which was thought of an indication of a masterful efficiency.
Orteke puppetry, nevertheless, has turn out to be far much less seen in the present day, as solely few individuals can interact multiple determine in a efficiency. The truth that UNESCO has added the style to its assortment of intangible cultural heritage reveals that the artwork type is deemed worthy of safety and promotion sooner or later.
Symbolism in orteke
Orteke has absorbed the musical, playful, however on the identical time sacred parts of the traditions of the nomadic individuals. In line with Yerkin Zhuasbekov, a famend Kazakh theater playwright and an artwork historical past scientist, orteke has introduced all kinds of theatrical kinds and distinctive “steppe theater” to Kazakh folklore.
Orteke may function a window into the as soon as flourishing Kazakh hunter expertise, symbolizing the actions of a trapped mountain goat. Photograph credit score: Studio Mergen, ich.unesco.org.
The phrase orteke derives from two parts: “or” is, on this case, a prefix, which suggests a pit, ditch, ravine, lure, and grave, and “teke” means a mountain goat.
Right here one can see a transparent resemblance to searching experiences, the place an animal trapped in a pit, often a mountain goat-teke attempting to free itself, would soar, twirl and carry out different abrupt actions, which in all probability shaped the idea of orteke.
Orteke thus may function a window into the as soon as flourishing Kazakh hunter expertise.
Regardless of the wealth of element behind the efficiency, the expertise is kind of calming and meditative, with regular rhythms which might be additionally rooted within the historic shamanism practices within the tradition of the nomads.
Moreover preserving the Kazakh searching phenomenon, orteke additionally strives to symbolize historic symbols in photos of animals, significantly the mountain goat.
The custom of depicting zoomorphic photos in Kazakhstan has an historic historical past starting with petroglyphs of the early period and ending with the normal Kazakh ornamentation the place the ornaments of goat horns prevail.
From historic instances, the mountain goat symbolized man’s energy, and its horns have been understood as an adjunct of the chief or strongest warriors.
However, the goat was additionally symbolized as a service of divine chaos. In orteke, a person can management it, delivering a message {that a} man can management the goat’s “wild” nature if essential.
A puppet might be a much more compelling story narrator than an actor. Strings pulled by a skilled musician and backed by dance make the inanimate doll relay a message like no reside actor can. The goat is a crucial and common character in Kazakh fairy tales and is commonly portrayed as clever and witty: it usually helps and guides the slow-witted rams.
The orteke dance provides a singular taste to the expertise of a story-telling style.
An artwork type that requires mastery of all
The celebration of tradition will not be solely current within the music or puppetry of orteke, but in addition different vibrant components of the manufacturing — from the making of a doll to the selection of supplies and the desk.
Orteke elements are carved out of wooden and require craftsmanship mastery. Photograph credit score: Studio Mergen, ich.unesco.org.
The key to a masterful efficiency additionally lies within the talent of the grasp woodcarver. The Orteke doll’s joints have to be cell in order that the determine can soar and gallop like an actual mountain goat. That is achieved by the particular engineering of the orteke’s joints, that are divided based on the animal’s anatomy into a minimum of three elements.
Previously, the shifting elements have been related by intestine strings. Trendy craftspeople favor to lock them with wood rivets. The legs of the determine are hooked up to the physique loosely, dangling. Solely the physique of the animal is strong within the doll. The top of the goat with horns is carved collectively. The neck part is sawn out individually and hooked up to the physique with rivets. The entire determine is then mounted on a metal pin.
The flat floor of the sphere on which the orteke dances is often a round or quadrangular leather-based membrane manufactured from wonderful goatskin. Along with their data of leather-based dressing and drying, nomadic Kazakhs have been well-versed within the acoustic properties of leather-based.
On account of its materials properties of thinness, sturdiness, and soundness, goatskin continues to be extensively utilized in many cultural traditions worldwide in making musical devices, significantly drums. Goatskin enabled musicians to make their devices sound resonant, vivid, and clear, whereas the thinness and sturdiness of such leather-based allowed a large sound vary to be produced.
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