By Carol Hiltner | President, Altai Mir University
The epic hero Shunu rescued the Altai people from a dungeon by playing the 7-stringed dyadagan---a musical instrument out legends. Remnants of the instrument, unearthed from a kurgan in 1939, were recently rediscovered at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. A local Altai artisan of traditional instruments attempted a reconstruction of the 2500-year-old instrument, but the sound quality falls short.
As part of Altai Mir University's ongoing efforts to revive the venerable Altai culture, our Altai project leader Svetlana Katynova is organizing a research project to analyze the fragments, in hopes of reconstruction an instrument worthy of the legends. The dyadagan was hollowed out from a piece of solid wood, was wrapped with a thin piece of skin.
A legend tells of a Khan of Altai who had seven sons. When an invasion wiped out all of his people, he made his seven sons into a musical instrument and hid it in the cleft of the mountains. The instrument absorbed all the sounds of nature and could play by itself, emitting marvelous melodies. There are many related legends from Altai oral history, including one about a constellation of seven "men of power."
Recently, I was sent a video shot next door to Altai in Mongolia where the music is in the same tradition. The video is in Dutch, but the music is fabulous, showing the richness and the international impact of the musical renaissance we are fostering in the Altai Mountains. The link is attached.
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