Music of Turkmenistan

The music of contemporary nomadic and rural Turkmen people is closely related other Central Asian folk forms and is descended from Arab and Persian forms of the Middle Ages. 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 accompanied by the dutar, a two-stringed lute.

Turkmenistan's national poet is Magtymguly Pyragy, who wrote four-line goshuk lyrics. The Central Asian classical music tradition, mugam, is also present in Turkmenistan under the name mukamlar.

Folk music

According to Soviet musicologist Viktor Belyayev, Turkmen classical 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.

Gullyyev and Rejepova assert that the epic poem Gorkut Ata reveals the names of early medieval instruments, the gopuz, surnaý, bory, and nagara, but concede that information on Turkmen musical culture of the 9th through 15th centuries is virtually nonexistent.

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 classical 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 folk 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. The appearance of dutars playing in ensemble, or performing purely instrumental music, is a relatively recent phenomenon not in keeping with tradition.

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.

Gullyyew and Rejepowa note the influence of Turkmen poet laureate Magtymguly Pyragy on musical form beginning in the 18th century, when, they postulate, bagşy split into two groups, the dessançy (reciters of poetry) and tirmeçi (singers). In the 19th century bagşy began favoring performance of poetry by Mämmetweli Kemine, Seyitnazar Seydi, Zelili, and Mollanepes.

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.

Folk instruments

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. Dutar means "two strings" in Persian.

Gyjak

The gyjak is a bowed stringed instrument which Turkmen folk musicians adopted only in the 19th century, first by the Khiva Turkmen, later in what is today western Turkmenistan, and only toward the end of the century in the Ahal tribal area. The gyjak was traditionally made out of a pumpkin shell or imported coconut hull, and was strung with three silk strings. In the 20th century mulberry wood replaced the pumpkin shell and silk string gave way to metal. The gyjak is tuned in fourths and is played as part of an ensemble with one or more dutars, or as a solo instrument, typically performing songs written for the dutar.

Tuiduk

Tuiduk (Turkmen: tüýdük) is a type of flute. 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.

Dilli tuiduk

Main article: Dilli tuiduk

The Dilli tuiduk (Turkmen: dilli tüýdük) 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. Dilli tuiduk of the Turkmen can be carved in a couple of minutes by a shepherd in the springtime, when reeds grow tall. Dilli means "with tongue" in Turkmen and refers to the reed.

Gargy tuiduk

Main article: Ney

Gargy-tuiduk (Turkmen: gargy tüýdük) is a long reed flute whose origin, according to legend, is connected with Alexander the Great. A similar instrument existed in ancient Egypt. Gargy means "reed" in the Turkmen language.

Shamanic instruments

Shaman bagşy exorcised evil spirits through use of specific instruments, including the dep or deprek, the Central Asian tambourine which descended directly from the Parthian tambourine depicted on rhytons found in ancient Nisa; the şaldurak, a stick with jingling noisemakers; the jaň, a small bell hung around the neck of the lead sheep in a flock or the lead camel in a caravan; the düwme, miniature tambourines hung on an infant's cradle or stitched to children's and women's clothing to protect them from evil; the üsgülewük, a children's whistle molded from clay in the form of a mountain goat or bird; and the gopuz, or Jew's harp.

Mugam

Main article: Mugam

Mugam is a pan-Central Asian style of classical music, performed in Turkmenistan by a dutarist (Turkmen: dutarçy) and gyjakist (Turkmen: gyjakçy), or by an ensemble of just dutarists (Turkmen: dutarçylar)[1].

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