Dutor made in Tashkent

Today this dutar, like other examples of the Eichhorn’s collection of musical instruments of Central Asia is located in the All-Russian Museum Association of Musical Culture (VMOMK) named after M. I. Glinka of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

His own recollections on the item were that it was “a beautifully decorated copy purchased from a noble young woman in Tashkent”. The instrument is made in the classic traditions of dutars, preserved in the 19th – early 20th century in Tashkent and other large cities of Turkestan. The Tashkent masters know its upper body part (kosa, kosakhona), to which the plates (kovugra) are attached, and referred to as bogiz. It is decorated with a sophisticated and detailed incrustation, but does not appear saturated. The oblique ornamented trapezoidal plate of white bone is situated on the outer (front) side of the bogiz, from its deck to the neck (dasta), to highlight this transition. Such plates were a traditional decorative element in the dutars and tanburs of old Turkestan. 

The ornament consists of circles cut out on the plate with a dot in the middle, traditionally called balyq kuz (fish eye). An arrow-shaped figure, also from white bone, goes along the neck under the ornamented plate. Unlike the bogiz, the neck of this instrument is not decorated. The back of the bogiz is also decorated with a chain of white, bone triangles, which designate the transition from the bogiz to the glued-together body of the instrument.

You can learn more about the development of music in the book-album "The Musical Legacy of Uzbekistan in Collections of the Russian Federation" (volume VI) in the series "Cultural legacy of Uzbekistan in the world collections."

The general sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.