How a komuz is made
31 August 2008
Apricot wood drying behind the house. Two years until it is ready.The body of the komuz is cut from one piece, a log of apricot or walnut, hollowed with a small adze. Never glued, never joined. The neck and the body are one piece, like a person. The old masters dried the wood for three years in the shade, "so that it forgets the tree and remembers the song".
I cannot make one now, my hands are not steady. A young man in Kyzyl-Adyr makes them and sells them at the bazaar for 60 som, and I tell him that the price is a shame, and he does not listen.
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Jumabai ata, I am the nephew of Saltanat eje. The komuz maker is my cousin. He listened. He raised it to 80 som.
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