Akku – Swan Song

This kui (or melody) is lovingly rendered by Yerlan Sabitov on the Kazakh kyl kobyz or fiddle. As with every Kazakh kui, its notes tell a story. Yerlan's version goes like this: There was a famine and the whole village decamped and moved away. They left behind one family - a young man, his mother and his sisters. They were starving. There was a lake close by where swans lived. Swans are sacred among Kazakhs, but the young man decided to violate the taboo against killing them so as to save his family. He went to the lake. A pair of swans saw him and rose up in the air. He pulled back his bow and shot one of them in the heart and it came tumbling to the ground. The swan's mate was so heartbroken that it also fell to the ground as if shot.