Specific features of magic musical instruments in English and Uzbek folklore

Though English and Uzbek fairy tales were created in different areas far away from each other and different language families, they have some characters with similar functions. Magic musical instruments are one of these characters. Magic musical instruments play very important role in English and Uzbek fairy tales and they make fairy tales more expressive and interesting. But types of musical instruments used in the fairy tales differ according to folk tradition, musical culture and mentality of each nation, because these two nations used different musical instruments. In English fairy tales we mostly meet the musical instruments which are typical for European culture , such as a piano, a harp, a violin, a trumpet, a pipe etc. There are English fairy tales that have magic musical instruments such as magic harp, magic pipe, magic trumpet.

"Jack the Giant Killer" is one of the fairy tales collected by Joseph Jacobs. In "Jack the Giant Killer" a magic golden trumpet is used and its function is to break the black enchantment. The main hero Jack finds this golden trumpet upon the gates of the castle and it was hung by a silver chain, under which these lines were engraved:

"Whoever shall this trumpet blow,

Shall soon the giant overthrow,

And break the black enchantment straight;

So all shall be in happy state" [5, p.85]

After reading these lines Jack blew the trumpet and the castle trembled. The giant and conjurer were in horrid confusion, knowing their wicked reign was at an end. So the enchantment was broken, and all the ladies and lords who had been transformed into birds and beasts returned to their proper shapes, and the castle vanished away in a cloud of smoke. Thus the golden trumpet saved the people.

"The Pied Piper" is a fairy tale about a piper who has a magic pipe with a certain peculiarity. According to the fairy tale the town of Franchville was in trouble because of rats. The town was so infested with rats that it was impossible to live there. The Pied Piper promised the Mayor of the town to get rid of every single rat . As he blew his pipe all the rats of the town came out of each hole and they followed the tune. The piper went into the water and all the rats were drowned.

• "... he was at the water`s edge he stepped into in to a boat , and not a rat as he shoved off into deep water, piping shrilly all the while, but followed him, plashing, paddling, and wagging their tails with delight. On and on he played and played until the tide went down, and each master rat sank deeper and deeper in the slimy ooze of the harbour, until every mother`s son of them was dead and smoothered" [5,p.199] So the town got rid of the rats. But this was not the only

feature of the pipe. After not being paid for his service the piper used another tune, because he could pipe many kinds of tunes. The next tune was joyous and resonant, full of happy laughter and merry play. At first all the children and the elders laughed and mocked and they followed the piper to the cool green forest full of old oaks and wide- spreading beeches. Gradually the laughter of the children broke and fade and died away deeper and deeper as into the green wood the stranger went, the children followed. Neither the children, nor the piper were seen again. The piper was very angry and that`s why he used the next tune for a negative purpose.

"Tatter coats" is another fairy tale with a magic pipe. It is about a girl who was ignored by her grandfather , because at her birth her mother died. He hated her bitterly and would never look on her face. The girl was always in rags and so she was always mocked by others and called "Tatter coats". Nobody made friends with her except a gooseherd. The girl goes to the ball organized by the prince. The gooseherd plays the pipe and the girl`s rags change into beautiful clothes. The prince falls in love with the girl and they marry.

• ".....the Herd boy put his pipe to his lips and played a few low notes that sounded like a bird singing far off in the woods; and as he played, Tatter coat`s rags were changed to shining robes sewn with glittering jewels, a golden crown lay upon her golden hair, and the flock of geese behind her, became a crowd of dainty pages, bearing her long train" [5,p.236]

In some fairy tales such as "Binnorie", "Jack and the beanstalk" we can come across with a magic harp with different functions. In "Binnorie" the harp is made of the bones and golden hair of a princess killed by her sister. And when the harper plays this harp, it retells everything that happened to the princess and that her sister killed her.

"Just then the harp began singing again, and this was what it sang out loud and clear:

And there sits my sister who drowned me

By the bonny mill-dams o` Binnorie

And the harp snapped and broke, and never sang more." [5, p.44]

In "Jack and the beanstalk" the golden harp sings itself when the giant asks to sing. The harp sings very beautifully. When Jack steals the harp, it calls out its master aloud.

"Then he said "Sing!"and the golden harp sang most beautifully. And it went on singing till the ogre fell asleep , and commenced to snore like thunder" [5, p.57].

The sound of hushtak was like the sound of the wind and ancient people considered it as a tool for calling the wind. People were very superstitious about this musical instrument. Till nowadays adults do not allow children to play hushtak in the evenings. Personification of musical instruments are based on the religious view points of the nation. The connection between magic and musical instruments traces back to Shamanism. Shamans used various musical instruments during their magic ceremonies. In the fairy tale "Kimyogar boyning o`g`li" (The son of a rich chemist) father gives four mysterious things to his son. One of them is a magic surnai. Surnai - A flute type instrument made from cane and reeds, also resembling the piccolo. It is especially played by shepherds while attending their flocks. This surnai can defeat thousands of soldiers with its sound. But the son can`t save this instrument and faces difficulties.[1,157-161 ] But finally, the son manages to return his father`s legacy and becomes happy. From the fairy tales it is seen that shamans usually inherited the craft of their father and the symbol of this craft, a musical instrument. If the children couldn`t save their instruments, they faced a lot of difficulties. One more musical instrument popular in Uzbek folklore is nai. It resembles a pipe. There are three main functions of nai in Uzbek folklore: 1) when it is played all dance 2)it encourages people to fight for freedom 3) it becomes the reason of revealing the secret.[2, 20 ]

To sum up, magic musical instruments of both folks in the fairy tales fill the development of events with mysteriousness and strengthen their literary expressiveness. Often they become the factor of the development of the plot and serve to open the characteristic features of the heroes of fairy tales. And they are connected with traditions, mentality and religion of each country. Early beliefs and traditions of the folks are surely the foundation for the personification of the magical objects.