Country in the Caucasus of Central Asia of 86,600 km2, with an estimated population of 7·83 million (2000). Since 1828 Azerbaijan has consisted of two parts; one forms a province of Iran, whilst the other, which was a Soviet socialist republic from 1920 onwards, became independent in 1991.
JEAN DURING/R
The varieties of music found in Azerbaijan can be found across an area which extends to Kurdistan in the south and Zanjan and Ghazvin in the east. In terms of ethnicity, culture, religion and politics the Azeri are musically much closer to Iran than Turkey. Their mugam music also formed part of the Armenian repertory for a long time. However, there has been a tendency among the Armenians for some decades now to reject this music because of the growth in nationalism on both sides which resulted from the geopolitical division of Transcaucasia in 1917. Moreover, some popular bards (ashyg) belong to the Syrian Christian minority in southern Azerbaijan. Although the urban music of Azerbaijan is clearly differentiated from the music found in Central Asia by its characteristically fast rhythms, it has spread in Khiva (Chorasm) and has reached as far as Bukhara and Tashkent.
The music which has been described as ‘professional’ by Soviet musicologists can be divided into two distinct types, namely that of the ashyg and that of the musicians who practise the mugam. A further variety corresponds to urban music which borrows elements from the ashyg and mugam traditions as well as from the music of the Middle East and south-western Asia and the West. Finally, as a result of Soviet rule, there came into existence at the beginning of the 20th century an Azeri symphonic repertory, which draws on the mugam tradition.
Mugam predominates in the north of the region and in the Karabakh mountain range. It is not common in Azeri Iran, where the musicians prefer the Iranian style (School of Tabriz). The music of the ashyg is mainly to be found in the south, above all in the Kirovabad (north-east, Tauus, Kazakh), Karabakh and Nakhcivan (south-west) districts of the Republic of Azerbaijan as well as in Salyany (south-west) and in Azeri Iran in Tabriz, Karadagh, Maraghe, Khoy and as far as Orumïye (Rezaye). In certain regions such as Ganja both traditions exist alongside each other. Ashyg tend to perform in rural and provincial regions. Mugam, by contrast, has a largely urban audience. Apart from gatherings of experts, the festivities which are organized at weddings (toj) are preferred opportunities for performance in both genres.
Mugam and the music of the ashyg, which were less shielded from each other in the past, still share common characteristics, which are also found in Iran. These include the initial range, which is restricted to a pentachord (jins), readily identifiable modes, melodic lines consisting predominantly of sequential notes, time signatures (4/4, 6/8, 3/4), brevity of compositions, arrangements of dance melodies, tone colour, the dragging of the voice and vocal techniques which are similar to those of popular singing and small instrumental ensembles (three or four musicians).
In addition to these formal similarities, some pieces have their origins in popular music and mugam preserves a lasting influence from popular music. Zarbi-mugam are compositions which contain instrumental refrains and melismatic vocal parts in non-metrical patterns, and certain songs (täsnif) lend themselves to being inserted into the free interpretation of a mugam. The instrumental dance forms reng or diringi represent a further form which is equally likely to be found in the repertory of both ashyg and mugam groups. Despite these similarities the two genres remain quite distinct from each other.
In the performance of song both male and female voices must be high and powerful. They make use of the technique of yodelling, changing from the chest to the head register with the help of appoggiaturas. This technique is also found in Iran, Kurdistan and some regions of Iraq.
The repertory of the ashyg. consists of short lyric poems on amorous, moral or religious subjects and of long lyrical or epic ballads (dastan). The most famous of them are Koroghlu, Asli vä karam and Lejli vä mägnun. The metre is for the most part syllabic (barmag, heja) and the commonest form is the lyrical poem of the goshma variety, made up of four-line verses with 11-syllable lines, or its variants, such as the bayati and the mukhämmäs. There are also the specific genres of the ashyg.: the tajnis and its variants, the gärayli, the divani (rare) and the gazal. These follow the rules of classical prosody (aruz).
Great bards of the past include: Ashyg Gurbani (16th century), Ashyg Abbas Tufarganlu (17th century), the Armenian Sayat-Nova (18th century), Ashyg Äläskär (19th century), Ashyg Talyb (his son, 1877–1979), Ashyg Abbasgul (early 20th century), Ashyg Mirzä Bayramov (1888–1954), Ashyg Islam Yusuf, Ashyg Shämshir and Edälät Nasibov (second half of the 20th century).
The art of the ashyg consists of readily identifiable melodic types, which are individually named and collectively known as ashyg havasi. It is possible to set different texts to individual melodies. The repertory of an ashyg is reckoned to contain about 30 melodic types; there are approximately 100 in all. These melodies are only played on the saz, or at the festivities which take place in the open air by ensembles of zurna, nagara and/or balaban. The ashyg play pieces known as hava, each of which is a melody containing a hierarchical pitch set, a set melodic range, a drone pitch, a preferred tuning and a forud or cadential formula (C. Albright-Farr, 1976). Most of the schools use approximately six to eight different modes, most of which are borrowed from the mugam. The most important among them are rast, segah, shikästeyi fars and shur modi.
Each hava consists of two or more separate parts. They are repeated in a specific sequence, nonetheless with considerable scope for variation. Between these sections improvised passages can be inserted. The most common time signatures are 2/4, 4/4, 3/4 and 6/8.
The mugam music of Azerbaijan draws on the music of the Iranian-Arab-Turkish maqām, whose important theoreticians were above all Safi ad-Din al-Urmawi and Abd al-Qadir Ibn Gaibi al-Maragi (14th–15th centuries). They came from Urmiye and Marage in Azerbaijan. However, the music of today differs from that which Ibn Gaibi described, and it is thought that the traditional form of transmission was interrupted in the 18th century. This period, which remains poorly researched, was followed by a revival at the beginning of the 19th century, during which the mugam were collected and systematized, above all in collectors’ circles such as the one based around Mir Möhsun Nävvab (1833–1918) from Susa, the author of the Vizuh ul-Aghram. The names of forms were retained, but due to the influence from other local musics the actual forms described by them sometimes varied from one tradition to another. Older rhythmic cycles (usul) were dropped in favour of formulas in 6/8 and 4/4 time. Instruments such as the ‘ūd, qānūn, santūr, ney, tanbur and setār disappeared in favour of a new lute, the tar, which together with the kamanca constitutes the main instrument of the contemporary mugam. This process of revival also spread to the western centre of Iran as well as Fars and what is now contemporary Azerbaijan. In northern Azerbaijan the focus of musical life around 1880 was the city of Susa in the Karabakh, but it was in Tiflis, the cosmopolitan centre of Transcaucasia, and later in Baku, that Azerbaijani musicians were able to gather a much larger audience.
The modes of Azeri music are always heptatonic and reflect the division of the octave on the fingerboard of the tar. The tradition of musical theory handed down by B. Mänsurov (1911–84) and his predecessors distinguishes 13 main mugam: rast, mahur-hindi, segah-zabol, cahargah, humayun, shushtar, bayati shiraz, shur, bayati, kurd, bajati gajar, rähab and nava-nishapur. The following eight mugam are regarded as secondary: dilkesh, kurd-shahnaz, dogah, gata, isfahan, cupan-bayati and transpositions or variations of mahur and segah. Apart from the latter a number of other mugam exist, which are generally played in connection with a more important mugam: vilayati, khojaste, shekästeyi fars, mobärrigä, ärag, pänjgäh, rak, hissar, mukhalif, mänsuri, saranj, ushshag, simai shams and bästä-nigar.
All the mugam (with the exception of variants or transpositions) can serve as models for compositions such as songs (täsnif) and songs for dance accompaniment (räng). A mugam has a maye, a fundamental modal ‘substance’ as well as individual characteristics (sho' be: ‘supplementary aspects’, gushe: ‘corners’), which reveal themselves in the course of its exposition. There are approximately 100 of these melodic types (sho' be and gushe), which do not serve as models for compositions, but which are played during the development of the principal mugam. Each of them has a name. Some of them are melodic types, others form interludes set to a certain rhythm in a fast tempo. Each of the 13 main mugam contains between ten and 20 of these. Some sequences can appear in other contexts. The important mugam are called dästgah (modal system), when they combine a certain number of secondary mugam, sho' be or gushe.
The improvised interpretation of the mugam requires a precise knowledge of the gushe and its particular technique of ornamentation. Nevertheless, this model is by and large so flexible that several levels of improvisation are possible (including the details, the sequence of the musical components, the modulations and the pieces which connect the musical components). In this way the musician can either play the model which he has learnt by heart or distance himself from it and merely retain the modal colouring (maye).
Some pieces in canon form should be mentioned in connection with the mugam. They are called zärbi-mugam (‘rhythmic mugam’) and are fixed compositions for voice and an instrument, which originate from the old repertories of the ashyg. They are the arazbary, osmanli or mani, ovshary, herat-kabuli (an instrumental piece), ärag-kabuli, samai shäms, mänsuriyyä, heydäri, uzzal-zärbi and garabag-shikästesi.
Apart from these, which are essentially non-metrical pieces, there are a very large number of pieces set to a certain rhythm, which do not conform to a strict rendition of a mugam and its attendant gushe. The main genre is the täsnif, a song in one of the most important mugam in triple, quadruple or sextuple time and in different tempos. It is divided into two to six sections. Täsnif from the mugam tradition are written in accordance with the rules of metre (aruzi), whilst those which come from other local traditions are structured syllabically. The sagi-name, which no longer exists, was a form of the täsnif without a percussion accompaniment.
Other pieces are of an instrumental nature and in the performance of a mugam form a prelude (bardast, därämad and pisro) or an interlude in dance rhythms (diringi, räng), likewise in triple, quadruple or sextuple time. These pieces set to a certain rhythm can be accompanied by the däf (frame drum, often played by the singer, khanändä) and interpreted by a group. Pieces set to certain rhythms, which form sequences known as chahar-mezrab, are performed by a solo tar. Even if most of the gushe from which the mugam are composed are not subject to metre, they nonetheless possess a specific rhythm and a phrasing of their own, which in certain cases corresponds to a regular beat or a metrical cycle.
Uzeir Hajibeyov (1885–1948), was the first Azerbaijani composer of symphonies and operas. In his earliest stage works the music was left to the judgment of traditional singers, who drew on the ta'ziye, a Shi'a religious music drama. The only instructions concern the mugam in which the scenes are to be sung. Later he composed works of his own, whose themes and elements he borrowed from traditional sources. He eventually studied composition in St Petersburg and went on to write operas which only showed traditional influence in their melodic material (Sheykh Sanan, 1909; Rustam i Zohrab, 1910; Asli i Kerem, 1912; Kor-oglï, 1937). His first works were performed by an ensemble consisting largely of traditional instruments. Later works were written for a symphony orchestra augmented by Azeri instruments (the tar and kamanca among others). In 1945 Hajibeyov composed the Azerbaijani national anthem. He attempted the creation of a ‘national music’ by appropriating elements of the mugam, and this ‘synthesis’ between Western and the Azerbaijani musics was continued by the composers Muslim Makomayev (1895–1937), Asef Zeynally (1909–32), Niyazi Zulfugaroglu (1912–84), Ahmet Hajiev (b 1917), Kara Karayev (1918–82), Sultan Hajibeyov (b 1919), Jahangir Jahangirov (b 1921), Fikret Amirov (1922–84), Suleyman Äläskärov (b 1924), Arif Melikov (b 1933), Vasif Adygözälov (b 1935) and Agshin Alizadä (b 1937).
The introduction of Western music led to the founding of musical institutions: the Akhundov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet (1920), the Hajibeyov symphony orchestra (1938), the Mamedgulizad theatre in Nakhcivan and the Gurbanov Theatre of Musical Comedy in Baku. Musicological research is carried out at the Hajibeyov Institute for Azerbaijani Art at the Academy of Science of Azerbaijan, Baku. The institutionalization of musics led to the use of musical notation by traditional musicians. Nearly all contemporary interpreters of the mugam have spent at least a few years studying in an institution and have some knowledge of Western musical notation, even if they never make use of it.
The tar is the principal instrument used in the mugam music of Azerbaijan and Iran (fig.1; Tār). This long-necked lute related to the rabāb probably arrived in Iran at the end of the 18th century. Around 1870 Sadyg Jan Asadoghlu gave it its Azerbaijani form and added to the five traditional strings four or six sympathetic strings. The tar has an octagonal body made of mulberry wood with rounded corners. The top part of the body is made from two different surfaces, which are covered by the fine skin of a cow's heart. The neck has 22 movable frets, which cover an octave and a fourth. The kamanca is a spike fiddle with four steel strings. The body of the instrument, which is turned from a block of walnut-tree wood, is covered with a thin sturgeon skin. The instrument is held upright when played.
The däf (or gaval) is the most widespread percussion instrument (see Daff). It consists of a circular wooden frame with a diameter of 38 cm, over which the skin of a catfish is stretched. Rings are attached to the inside of the wooden frame which act as jingles. The tar, the kamanca and the däf (the latter is played by the singer) form the traditional range of instruments for the classical music of the Azeri. The double-headed drum nagara is played with the fingers in the same way as the däf or with sticks. Other drums include the double-headed käs, and the gosha nagara, a pair of small kettledrums made of clay.
The cogur or saz is the lute of the ashyg (fig.2; Saz). In its most widespread form it has an overall length of approximately 105 cm, but there are also two other forms, which measure approximately 130 cm and 70 cm respectively. Its pear-shaped body, which is made of mulberry wood, is made up of narrow slats which are glued together. The soundboard is also made from mulberry wood. It is strung with three sets of three steel strings (although in Rezaye it is strung with two sets of three strings), which are tuned according to the mode. The balaban is an oboe originating in Central Asia, whose wooden body with a large double reed is 27–38 cm long with eight finger-holes (see Bālābān). The saz, balaban and däf are most commonly used by ashyg, especially in Iran.
The repertory of the ashyg and traditional songs can also be played on other instruments without a vocal part, for example on the oboe zurna or gara zurna and the double clarinet zammare (more often found in Iran). Other traditional aerophones include the bagpipes (tulum), the recorder (tutäk), the transverse flute (ney) and a small ocarina with two holes (tutäk).
The accordion or bandoneon (garmon) is also very popular, as are the clarinet (klarnet) and the western oboe (gaboy), which are occasionally used to perform mugam. Instruments probably introduced by Armenian musicians include the ‘ūd and the qānūn. It is rare, however, that these instruments are used to perform mugam. (See also Armenia, §I, 2 and 9; Georgia, §II; Iran, §III, 1, 3 and 4.)
Grove6 (‘U.S.S.R.§II’, Y. Gabay and J. Spector; also ‘Iran§II’, S. Blum)
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J. During: ‘The Modal System of Azerbaijani Art Music: a Survey’, Maqam, Raga, Zeilenmelodik: Konzeptionen & Prinzipien der Musikproduktion, ed. J. Elsner (Berlin 1989), 133–45
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