Have you heard of throat singing? Throat singing is practiced in many parts of Central Asia, most commonly seen in the Tuva Region of Russia, Mongolia, and Western China (Tibet). In this story, I’ll talk about the byzaanchy, one of the main instruments used in Tuvan throat singing. Anyways, let’s learn what the byzaanchy is.

So what is the byzaanchy? The byzaanchy is a bowed 4-string instrument from Southern Russia. Tuva, the region the byzaanchy was made in, is known for its throat singing since it’s very common and they have lots of instruments to go with it, including the igil, doshpuluur, chanzy, xomus, and as you might have guessed, the byzaanchy. The front of the byzaanchy’s sound box is covered in goat skin and the back is uncovered. The weirdest part, in my opinion, is that the bow is weaved between the strings of the byzaanchy when it’s made, and you bow it to make it produce sound. This is pretty common within the huqin family of instruments.

Where did this instrument come from? As I mentioned in the last paragraph, the byzaanchy was first made in Tuva Republic, Russia. The byzaanchy was invented by nomadic herders. It isn’t really known when the byzaanchy was made because nomads didn’t document things that much. I would think that the byzaanchy was made sometime after 1279 A.D., since the first huqin-styled instrument, which the byzaanchy is a later version of, was made around that time.

Tuva has instruments that go with their throat singing, and so does Mongolia. They use the morin khuur in Mongolia, another instrument in the huqin family. It has many similarities to the byzaanchy, like the horsehead on top, and as I mentioned before, being played along with throat singing. The two also have many differences, like the morin khuur having a box shape, and the byzaanchy being a much higher-pitched instrument. I prefer the sound of the morin khuur since it sounds really smooth while the byzaanchy sounds a bit scratchy sometimes.

Overall, the byzaanchy is pretty cool. I really like how well the byzaanchy and the sound of throat singing work together. The byzaanchy will probably become a thing of the past with climate change making nomadism almost impossible since livestock have to migrate with the rapidly growing temperatures. Despite the byzaanchy going away, it will still remain a big part of Tuvan’s music culture. Toodles.