Music of Turkmenistan

The music of the nomadic and rural Turkmen people is closely related to Kyrgyz and Kazakh folk forms. Important musical traditions in Turkmen music include traveling singers and shamans called bakshy, who act as healers and magicians and sing either a cappella or with instruments such as the two-stringed lute called dutar.

Turkmenistan's national poet is Magtumguly Pyragy, from the 18th century, who wrote four-line goshuk lyrics. The Central Asian classical music tradition mugam is also present in Turkmenistan by name as the mukamlar [1].

Folk music

According to Soviet musicologist Viktor Belyayev, Turkmen folk music is directly descended from Arabic music as taught and performed in Khorezm, particularly in Bukhara, which was the musical center of the Islamic world in the 13th century. The Turkic tribes of Central Asia, including the predecessors of today's Turkmen, abandoned their own culture in the 9th century and shifted to Arab culture, including music, with their adoption of Islam.The Arabic musical tradition at that time bore Greek influences on local music dating to the 4th-century conquest by Alexander the Great as well as some Christian influence from the pre-Islamic period. Belyayev notes later influences of Azerbaijani and Afghan music as well. Belyayev also remarked that it is difficult to separate Arab from Persian influence, noting that kidnapped Persian brides were doubtless a source of Persian influence on Turkmen folk music, given the prevalence of certain Persian melodic influences, including the existence of the augmented second in Turkmen music and use of three Persian musical modes.

Belyayev asserted that Turkmen love of music is rooted in the lack of other entertainment options while pursuing a nomadic lifestyle in the broad steppes.

Turkmen folk music is vocal, the chanting of poems while the singer (Turkmen: bagşy) accompanies himself on a dutar. Poetry is not simply read; it is sung or chanted to music; Belyayev described it as "halfway between declamation and singing." All music thus features lyrics, which in reality are highly structured poems. Belyayev and Uspenskiy identified six major themes of Turkmen folk songs:

• religion
• disillusionment with life (the dominant theme)
• military, criminal, or hunting subjects
• love
• curative (not lacking in shamanist undertones)
• history

They noted that humorous songs also exist but that "bagşy generally do not sing them."

Turkmen musical tradition lacks choral music, dancing, and percussion instruments. The main instrument is the dutar, a strummed, two-string member of the lute family. The primary wind instrument is the tuiduk (Turkmen: tüýdük), a type of flute. The dutar is traditionally played solo; if in a duet, the musicians (Turkmen: dutarçylar) take turns, and normally play in competition to determine which is the better.

Other instruments include the gyjak, a bowed string instrument, and the dilli tuiduk, a reed instrument.

Musical form

The principal form follows this structure:

1. başlamak (beginning or introduction)
2. ýappyldak (first movement, slower and usually in a lower register)
3. şirwan (climax or culmination, the middle movement)
4. çykmak (a calming close, the last movement)

Improvisation does not exist; musicians adhere strictly to traditional forms that have been preserved for centuries.

Turkmen poems consist of separate stanzas, "each itself consisting of four or five lines." The last line of each successive stanza repeats the rhythm of the last line of the first stanza; other lines follow the poem's general rhythm. The fourth stanza contains a radif (Russian: редиф), a feature of Arabic and Persian poetry.

Scales and modes

Uspenskiy and Belyayev identified seven basic scales, five of them analogous to Greek scales:

1. Phrygian scale
2. Eolian scale
3. Doric scale
4. Mixolydian scale
5. Hypophrygian scale

Scales 6 and 7 have no analogues:

6: A, B flat, C, D, E, F sharp, G, A, B
7: augmented second, A, B flat, C sharp, D, E, mordent

They note that scales 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7 have alternate forms. The origin of these scales is uncertain, but most probably from the ancient Greeks and Arabs.

Many songs use only 5 or 6 notes, and some are limited to 3 or 4 notes. Belyayev concedes that "to the inexperienced ear [Turkmen music] can seem monotonous and uniform" due to the "figurative severity of the coloration and the absence of any calculation of the external effect."

Dynamics

The bagşy chants loudly, a legacy of performance in the open air of the steppes, and "is devoid of any bravura". Turkologist Ármin Vámbéry described a bagşy producing "gutteral sounds resembling more the trilling of larks than a human singing." Chanting of poetry involves significant tension of the vocal cords and use mainly of the upper register.

National anthem

As a Soviet Republic, Turkmenistan's national anthem was "Turkmenistan", composed by Veli Mukhatov with words by Aman Kekilov. In 1997 (well after independence), the anthem was changed to the "National anthem of Independent, Neutral, Turkmenistan", the music and lyrics of which were written by President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov.

Dutar

Main article: Dutar

The dutar is the most representative instrument of Turkmen folk music. It is used in many styles, ranging from the mukamlar and saltıklar to the kirklar and navoi. These are performed by professional musicians called sazanda.

Tuiduk

Main article: Zurna

Tuiduk is a wind instrument (similar to Zurna). In Turkmen folklore, an ancestral belief posits that Adam, crafted from clay, lacked a soul until the harmonious tunes of the tuiduk, played by Archangel Gabriel, breathed life into him. A Turkmen legend attributes the invention of the tuiduk to the devil. Preserving ancient traditions, a ceremonial ritual invites guests to celebrations, where two tuiduk players face each other, elevating their instruments and harmoniously playing in unison. While doing this they perform magic circular movements which remind that this ritual used to be linked to shamanism.

Dili tuiduk

Main article: Dili tuiduk

The Dili tuiduk is a Turkmen woodwind instrument. It is a clarinet-like, single-reed instrument used mainly in Turkmen folk music. The instrument's range is greater than its six finger holes would suggest, the upper registers being attained by breath control. Dili tuiduk of the Turkmen can be carved in a couple of minutes by a shepherd in the springtime, when reeds grow tall, but a set of brass instruments for a police band needs an investment of money and time to arrive in town.

Gargy tuiduk

Main article: Ney

Gargy-tuyduk this is a long reed flute whose origin, according to legend, is connected with Alexander of Macedonia, and a similar instrument existed in ancient Egypt. Gargy means in the Turkmen language "reed".

Bakshy

Main article: Bakshy

Bakshy were formerly the most important musicians in Turkmen society, along with tuidukists. They played the dutar to celebrate weddings, births, and other events.

Mugam

Main article: Mugam

Mugam is a pan-Central Asian style of classical music, performed in Turkmenistan by a dutarist and gidjakist, or by an ensemble of just dutarists [2].

References

• Broughton, Simon and Sultanova, Razia. "Bards of the Golden Road". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 24–31. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0

External links

• BBC Radio 3 Audio (105 minutes): Turkmenistan – Christmas in Ashgabat. Accessed 25 November 2010.
• Listen and watch Turkmen music and videos. Singers from Turkmenistan.
• Photos of Turkmen musical history
• Turkmen music site
• Bar mi?
• Küşt depti