Nikolay Goholev

Nikolay Ilyich Gogolev — Bychaa Uus — is a Folk Master of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) from Vilyuysk. He was born on 24 March 1948 in the Yokyundyun Nasleg of the Vilyuysky District. Gogolev began making khomuses later in life: in 1993, he began studying at the school of Ivan Fyodorovich Zakharov — Kylyadjy Uus and at the same time started forging instruments on his own. His work has been entered in competitions at various levels since 1995.

At the 2016 Moscow competition for makers of bow-shaped jaw harps, Gogolev’s khomus took second place in the “Lower World” category for low-pitched instruments with fundamental frequencies from 42.4 to 63.5 Hz. More than thirty makers entered 82 jaw harps, which were evaluated by 21 experts. This result is particularly significant for low-register instrument making, where sustain and stability of sound depend substantially on the balance between reed mass and elasticity, frame stiffness and gap precision.

Gogolev’s work is not limited to musical instruments made for competitions. In 2017, he was among the craftspeople who re-created an ancient method of smelting iron from local ore at a blacksmith festival. In the artistic composition “Tabyk and Khomus”, presented in 2025, the maker combined carbon steel, brass, birch wood and leather. The GN227 “Sungasa” khomus currently listed in the catalogue demonstrates another side of his work: classic proportions, a thin frame, a soft, light reed and high responsiveness. Its timbre changes noticeably after a strike — the loud secondary tones fade sooner than the fundamental, dividing the sound into two successive phases.

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