This post is the third in a series featuring annotated bibliographies on performing arts inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. To promote open knowledge and preserve these traditions through scholarly writings, Bibliolore offers monthly posts over the course of one year. This post is published in conjunction with the International Day of Intangible Cultural Heritage, observed globally every 17 October.
In 2025, UNESCO inscribed two fiddles on its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding: the Karakalpak ķobyz and the Albanian lahutë. Though separated by mountains and seas, these bowed string instruments have both transmitted epics across centuries, while today the musical practices associated with them share the risk of neglect and disappearance.
The ķobyz is a two-stringed bowed instrument carved from wood, with a partially open soundbox, a fretless neck, and a pegbox. An ancient instrument of the Turkic peoples, it is an essential part of musical traditions of Central Asia, including Karakalpakstan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. In Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan, it is used to accompany the žyrau tradition of singing and storytelling, the raspy vocal timbres of which resemble the tones of the ķobyz. In neighboring Kazakhstan, the ķobyz was traditionally employed by performers known as baqsy during shamanistic rituals. Its sounds imitated the cries of animals and other sounds of the natural world, serving as a vessel for communication and a means of passage into a metaphysical realm.
The Soviet era brought repression of Indigenous cultures, alongside the swift transformations of modern life and increased urbanization. Shamanic practices were suppressed, the repertoire handed down grew thinner, and today few ķobyz performers remain. The chain of oral transmission is broken, scattered by a world that moves ever faster.
The lahutë is a single-stringed wooden fiddle, with a wooden body and a soundboard fashioned from stretched animal skin, and it is native to the regions across northern and northwestern Albania. Its repertoire includes epic songs and verses performed by epic singers known as rapsods, a term from which the songs themselves take the name rapsodi. The repertoire has also widened in recent decades to embrace more personalized lyrics, giving voice to practitioners’ experiences and the shifting social and political landscapes they inhabit. The lahutë also belongs to the same family of instruments found across neighboring countries—Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina—where it is known as the gusle. In essence, the status of the instrument in Albania and other Balkan countries as a national symbol has grown, appearing in visual depictions and national programs; nonetheless, its everyday use, particularly from the second half of the 20th century onward, has declined.
Today, lahutë playing, the recitation of epic songs, and the making of the instrument all stand at risk. These traditions are confined to certain regions and families of limited means, and the Communist period’s censorship of religious celebrations and a scarcity of resources have further weakened them. Today, transmission rests on shifting forms and contexts, with social media increasingly shaping how recordings and videos of the practice reach new audiences.
The state and status of these two instruments mirror the rapidly shifting attitudes toward rural and nomadic life in an increasingly urbanized world. Their shift from practical tools in community celebrations and healing ceremonies to symbols laden with nationalist ideology marks a profound transformation: They no longer belong to the natural world that first gave them voice. Today, community members, educators, and policymakers in their respective countries strive to help these instruments not merely survive but thrive by implementing community-based documentation initiatives, dedicating income to musicians, creating opportunities and awareness campaigns, and developing safeguarding plans. In this endeavor, researchers and writers also have a role—not only as observers, but as custodians of memory and advocates for living heritage.
RILM Abstracts includes dozens of references to scholarship on the two instruments, in different languages. The writings cover the instruments’ history, social and ritual uses, and techniques for making and playing them.
Annotated bibliography
The ķobyz
Gábry, György. “Egy hangszertípus útja Ázsiától Európáig. I” [The journey of a type of instrument from Asia to Europe. I], Magyar zene: Zenetudományi folyóirat 20:4 (December 1979) 350–373. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 1979-6652].
Explores the genesis and development of the archetype of the violin called the ķobyz and its role in Hungarian music history. According to László Lajtha, the instrument existed in both bowed and plucked forms and may have been brought from the early homeland. Werner Bachmann proposed that the oldest string instruments correspond in form, structure, and tuning to the early medieval plucked instruments of Central Asia. Central Asian sources mention the qobuz or kobuz as early as the beginning of the 10th century; some references suggest it was plucked, while others hint at the use of a bow.
Gábry, György. “Egy hangszertípus útja Ázsiától Európáig. II” [The journey of a type of instrument from Asia to Europe. II], Magyar zene: Zenetudományi folyóirat 21:3 (September 1980) 223–248. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 1980-6748].
Discusses what the archetype of the ķobyz, a Central Asian string instrument, may have looked like around the millennium. The Hungarians maintained both the name ķobyz and the instrument itself. In the 14th century, the ķobyz is mentioned among the professions, and the term hegedűs is also traceable (initially fiellator in Latin). Regarding the proliferation of the archetype in Eurasia, one must distinguish at least two types: Eastern and Western, respectively; thus we see influences first from East to West, then from West to East. The basic type of the ķobyz survived in its rounded variant as a bowed instrument. This type might have been identical with the instrument called the hagadő. The origins of the word hegedű are discussed.
Junussova, Balzhan, Dinara Bulatova, and Saule Utegalieva. “Kazakh prima-kobyz and Kyrgyz prima-kyyak: The experience of the comparative study”, Musicologist: International journal of music studies8:2 (December 2024) 210–232. [RILM Abstracts of Music LiteratureRILM 2024-21387].
Considers the improved (or prima) models of the Central Asian bowed chordophones ķobyz (the Kazakh version) and ķyyak (Kyrgyz). The primaķobyz and primakyyak were invented in the 1930s and have not yet been widely studied. Similar instruments became widespread in many Turkic republics of Central Asia as part of the creation of folk orchestras. Later, musicians used them actively in ensemble and solo practice. Their popularity and available repertoire make it possible to study them more closely.
Khodzhaniiazov, Ihor. “Cobuz cumanicus: Reconstructing the instrument”, in Rabab, Rubeba, Rubāb: Fellbespannte Streichinstrumente im historischen und kulturellen Kontext [Rabāb, rubeba, rubāb: Skin-covered bowed string instruments in historical and cultural context], ed. by Thilo Hirsch, Marina Haiduk, and Thomas Gartmann. Ergon Verlag (Baden-Baden: 2025) 319–328.
The Cumans, also known as Kipchaks and Polovtsians, were a nomadic Turkic people who lived in the western Eurasian steppes from the 11th to the 14th centuries. Written sources, rare images, and archaeological artifacts document their main musical instrument, the ķobyz. Its traces appear in several folk traditions of the region, and related instruments include the South Asian sārindā and the Tibetan kokpo, among others. Researchers excavated two Cuman ķobyzes (dating from the 13th to 14th centuries) from archaeological sites in modern-day Ukraine and Russia and reconstructed them, though a lack of detail makes the results ambiguous. The ķobyz remains relatively unknown among other researchers and the public. New, detailed reconstructions of the ķobyz are proposed based on comparisons with a wide range of instruments. In addition, drawings of two reconstructed instruments are presented to better convey their structure. Another aim is to contextualize the ķobyz within similar traditions. This can help bolster our ideas about the instrument’s reconstruction and offer clues for reconstructing its repertoire.
Sajžan, Almat K̦arasaju̇ly. “Kazahskoe kobyzovoe ispolnitel’stvo: Problemy terminologii i applikaturnyh pozicij” [Kozakh ķobyz performance: The problems of terminology and fingering positions], Saryn art and science journal1:34 (March 2022) 15–22. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2022-18453].
The ķobyz is one of the oldest Kazakh instruments and one of the world’s earliest bowed chordophones. The traditional ķobyz is unique in that, unlike other Kazakh (wider Turkic) instruments, it has not evolved to the present day. To this day, it remains relevant in all spheres of Kazakh music. Moreover, this instrument is widely used both in solo and ensemble practice. The teaching methods of the Kazakh ķobyz school and techniques for playing traditional and modern works are examined, along with topical issues in ķobyz performance and ways to address them. A new approach to pedagogy and the development of performance techniques in general is proposed. Consideration of this technique will significantly facilitate mastering both the instrument itself and the performance of modern works, large forms, and parts in orchestras and ensembles. The traditional and modern ķobyz terminology is addressed. The ķobyz hand positions and fingering principles are seen from a new perspective. A comparative analysis of the teaching aids for playing string-bowed instruments is included. Its results were adapted and introduced into ķobyz performance practice.
Šaripbaeva, Aknar Tattibaevna. “Nositel’ tradicij muzykal’no-ispolnitel’skogo iskusstva v sociume: Na primere kazahskih kobyzistov i ukrainskih kobzarej” [The bearer of the music performance traditions in society: Example of Kazakh ķobyz players and Ukrainian kobza players], Opera musicologica: Naučnyj žurnal Sankt-Peterburgskoj konservatorii12/4:46 (2020) 92–112. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2020-14115].
Explores the functions of kobzars and ķobyz players in traditional society. The historical characteristics of the kobzar tradition, its genres, and its practices are described, with reference to the prominent ethnographers Filaret Kolessa and Taras Ševčenko. The Ukrainian kobza and the Kazakh ķobyz, it is argued, share a common Turkic origin. The activities of ķobyz players are characterized with reference to the work of the prominent ethnographers Alʹkej Xakanovič Margulan and Aleksandr Fëdorovič Ejxgorn. Examples of blind ķobyz players in Kazakh history, including Nyšan and Šože, are discussed, along with a lineage of ķobyz performers beginning with Yxlas Dukenov. Commonalities and differences in the historical development of folk performance traditions associated with the kobza and kobyz are explored, while the possibilities for supporting and reviving these traditional performance styles in modern society are considered.
The lahutë
Ahmedaja, Ardian. “The lahutë between everyday practice and symbolism”, Music in art: International journal for music iconography38/1-2 (2013) 144–160. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2013-8655].
The lahutë is a single-string fiddle used by Albanian lahutarë to accompany epic songs (kângë, kangë, and këngë). Its different images are influenced essentially by the connection with ideas of cultural heritage and national culture, particularly since the independence of the country in 1912. The instrument is made from a single piece of wood with a skin soundboard. The scroll on the neck of the lahutë can be shaped as a heart, a leaf, or a goat head with antlers, symbolizing the helmet of the Albanian national hero Gjergj Kastrioti, known as Skanderbeg (Skënderbeu; 1405–68). The gusle, the same instrument used by the Albanians’ Slavic neighbors in Serbia, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which during the second half of the 20th century was decorated with likenesses of politicians and nationalistic symbolism, political figures or singers have rarely been portrayed on the lahutë neck. The lahutë’s bow is frequently made in the form of a serpent, possibly symbolizing the snake as a protector of the house. In the first half of the 20th century, the lahutë and the këngët e Mujit e Halilit (songs of Muji and Halili) accompanied by it became Albanian national symbols in public discussions, publications, and works of art. An example is the poem Lahuta e malcís (The highland lute, 1937) by the Roman Catholic priest Gjergj Fishta (1871–1940), where the instrument’s name represents the art of telling and the paean is based on songs accompanied by the lahutë, which the poet had learned from the highlanders living in northern Albania. The lahutë has no place, however, in Lyra shqiptare (1940) by Pjetër Dungu, the first Albanian melody collection, which contains music from the Albanian urban areas. Therefore, it is surprising to find with the melody no. 20 a drawing of a lahutar. Here, the instrument relates to traditional national culture broadly rather than illustrating a particular song or its origin. Understanding the lahutë as part of local musical practice gradually gained importance in the second half of the 20th century, although its everyday use decreased. The lahutë is also disappearing from television and radio programs and commercial recordings, despite its continued presence on the Internet, at folklore festivals, and at public gatherings of lahutarë, where only short song fragments are now played.
Ahmedaja, Ardian. “Songs with lahutë and their music”, in Balkan epic: Song, history, modernity, ed. by Philip V. Bohlman and Nada Petković. Scarecrow Press (Lanham: 2012) 101–132. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2012-911].
The songs with lahutë, also known as rapsodi because epic singers called rapsods sing them, are notable not only for their local presence in the Albanian-language repertories of the Balkans, but also for the multiple levels at which they represent local ritual and tradition. Performed by professionals at family and social gatherings, the songs with lahutë honor guests and invest ritual with celebratory functions. Rather than as single epic songs, the songs draw upon many different subgenres and subrepertories, most of which contain narratives about individual heroes and events in Albanian history. The rapsods often distinguish among different historical moments, for example, the earliest struggles over agricultural land, followed centuries later by conflicts between Christian and Muslim forces as the Ottoman Empire stretched across Albania. Musically, too, the Albanian epic songs show more local ballad traits than the Slavic repertories (e.g., verse structures), while also relying on more extensive, elaborate improvisation. Each rapsod employs his own melodic formulas and modal-harmonic structures, delaying the feeling of arriving at the tonic until strategic points at the beginning and end. So concentrated are the local and personal elements in the songs with lahutë that they have come to map very specific areas of historical and cultural exchange in northern Albania, as well as the areas of Albanian settlement in Kosovo and Montenegro, while distinguishing the ritual and history of those areas from the other regions of Albania, which have their own, albeit distinctive, repertories of traditional song.
Cestino, Giovanni. “Beyond the words: Framing non-verbal aspects in the performance of songs with lahuta”, Etnografie sonore/Sound ethnographies 5:1 (2022) 35–54. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2022-19116].
Scholars in epic studies have long recognized the relevance of various elements in epic singing that go beyond the verbal poem. Yet even though the field has already shifted from text to voice and from voice to singing, a voice-centered approach persists. Switching the perspective from (sung) voice to non-verbal aspects such as timbre, instrumental technique, and gesturality highlights how they relate to the voice and to one another. A Balkan repertoire of songs with lahutë and gusle is examined along with the impact of classical studies on new fieldwork data. The specific case of Kosovar singer Isa Elezi-Lekëgjekaj is discussed in detail and used as a model for mapping the non-verbal aspects of epic singing.
Čolović, Ivan, Dušan Mihailović,and Sanimir Resic. “Who owns the gusle? A contribution to research on the political history of a Balkan instrument”, in The Balkans in focus: Cultural boundaries of Europe, ed. by Sanimir Resic and Barbara Törnquist-Plewa. Nordic Academic Press (Lund: 2003) 59–81. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2003-42738].
Examines the Balkan folk musical instrument, the gusle, from a standpoint of political anthropology, with emphasis on political symbols, myths, rituals, and other forms of expression emerging from an imaginary political corpus.
Dietrich, Wolf. “The singing of Albanian heroic poetry”, in The oral epic: Performance and music, ed. by Karl Reichl. VWB: Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung (Berlin: 2000) 83–94. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2000-38436].
Examines not epic singing itself, but rather the music of the Roma groups in the country, using recordings made with a family in the village of Balldre, north of Lezhë. The epic tradition, the lahutë, the myths themselves, and musical performances are discussed.
Pettan, Svanibor. “Singing epic songs with bowed lute: A vignette from Croatia”, in Balkan epic: Song, history, modernity, ed. by Philip V. Bohlman and Nada Petković. Scarecrow Press (Lahman: 2012) 262–276. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature RILM 2012-916].
Why do Roma, despite their central role in so many Balkan musical repertories, rarely sing epic songs accompanied by bowed lute in many parts of the region? Other minorities, as well as women, similarly perform within many Balkan traditions but far less frequently in epic traditions. These questions require considering how tradition does not simply exist but is created and maintained to meet different requisites of ownership. With epics, those requisites extend further still—to the ways in which ownership seemingly generates power, and power, in the post-Yugoslav arena, eventually leads to the nation and the state. The case study of Mile Krajina, a Croatian epic singer who moves between tradition and state politics, illustrates this process. As exceptional as that journey may appear, it is not unique, and the discussion concludes with a challenge to recognize the remixing of modern narratives in epics to include minorities and majorities, the powerless and the powerful.
