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| Raushan Orazbaeva 13 x 7.5 inches, oil on board, 2018 |
The instrument depicted in the painting, and played by Raushan Orazbaeva on The White Swan, is a qyl-qobyz. The qyl-qobyz is considered a sacred instrument and "only shamans or people who are close to the spirits could play it." [Orazbaeva quoted by Theodore Levin in Where Rivers and Mountains Sing] Raushan's grandmother was a famous Kazakh shaman. The swan is a sacred animal not touched by the hunters, the qobyz, when played transforms into a swan. The tradition of the instrument is rumored to be thousands of years old. The information provided comes from a chapter that deals with animal mimicry in shamanism and traditional music of central Asia in the book Where Rivers and Mountains Sing (Theodore Levin with Valentina Süzükei, Indiana University Press, 2006). The origin of music in traditional central Asian shamanic tradition is animal imitation. Here's Orazbaeva again quoted by Levin: "When I go into trance—I don't know how else to explain it—when I reach a kind of summit; when I'm really alone in myself and no one else is interfering; when I detach myself—then I really give myself with my soul and heart to this instrument."
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