Mugham | |
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![]() Mugham performer khananda Seyid Shushinski (second from left) with his ensemble in 1916 | |
Native name | Muğam |
Other names | Mughamat |
Cultural origins | Middle Ages |
Typical instruments | Daf, Tar, Kamancha, Balaban, Qanun, Oud, Çeng, Qosha Naghara |
Subgenres | |
Dastgah, tesnif, zerbi mugham, reng | |
Fusion genres | |
Mugham opera, symphonic mugham, jazz mugham |
Mugham (Azerbaijani: Muğam موغام) or Mughamat (Azerbaijani: Muğamat) is a major genre of Azerbaijani traditional music. It is a multi-part vocal and instrumental work that is considered the Azerbaijani people's classic musical and poetic art. Mugham is also the common name for Azerbaijani music modes.
Mugham is a type of improvisational melodic development based on a specific mugham fret. It is performed entirely (dastgah) or in sections by a singer-soloist (khananda) with instrumental accompaniment, or as a solo instrumental piece (on tar, kamancha, etc.). Azerbaijani mugham triads are made up of a singer who also plays the daf, a tar player, and a kamancha player.
Mugham is an Azerbaijani variation of music-making practise that is common in Near Eastern cultures. In earlier periods, mugham was studied as part of a single musical tradition alongside Arabic and Turkish maqam, Persian dastgah, and other local representatives of the mugham-maqam tradition, and it was not exclusively associated with Azerbaijani culture. However, the post-Soviet period theoretical and musical works of Azerbaijani mugham masters and musicologists have created an opportunity for Western listeners to learn mugham as a part of contemporary Azerbaijani life. UNESCO designated the Azerbaijani mugham as a masterpiece of humanity's oral and intangible cultural heritage in 2008.
Overview
editThe term "mugham" refers both to the mode of Azerbaijani music and the musical genre as a whole. Only seven major modes have remained since the twentieth century, despite the fact that there were originally more. Furthermore, the concepts of mode (as defined by the mugham scale) and mugham (as defined by melodic and thematic features) do not always coincide.
The seven major modes of Mugham are segah, chargah, rast, bayati-shiraz, shur, humayun and shushtar. In addition to the seven major modes, Azerbaijani folk music contains over 70 secondary modes and sections. In his 1945 work "Fundamentals of Azerbaijani Folk Music," prominent Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov describes each mode in figurative terms: "By its nature (aesthetic and psychological order), 'Rast' evokes a feeling of courage and cheerfulness, 'Shur' - a cheerful lyrical mood, 'Segah' - a feeling of love, 'Shushtar' - a feeling of deep sadness, 'Chargah' - a feeling of excitement and passion, 'Bayati-Shiraz' - a feeling of sadness, 'Humayun' - a deep or, compared to 'Shushtar', a deeper sadness". According to Hajibeyov, the shur and segah modes are used in the vast majority of Azerbaijani folk songs and dances, with the humayun mode being the least popular. Furthermore, he noted that the segah mode has a lyrical-love meaning, which is why all tender love folk songs are built in this mode, and that authors, when transmitting love scenes in their operas, resorted to this mode, whereas they used chargah for images of the oppressed state of the people.
Both large and small mughams are made up of several sections (shobe). At the same time, unlike sections of small mughams, sections of large mughams can be independent. As a result, almost all small mughams (except the Choban-bayati mugham) are included as sections in large mughams.
Etymology
editThe word "mugham" comes from the Arabic word "maqam", which means "place" or "location". In some Middle Eastern countries, as well as Central Asia and India, the term is known as "makon".
A number of mughams' names are linked to numbers. For example, "dugah" is derived from the Persian words "du" ("two") and "gyah" ("moment", "place", "position"), which means "second position" or "second place". Similarly, "Segah" means "third place," "Chargah" means "fourth place," and "Penjgah" means "fifth place".
Toponyms, country and city names are also reflected in the names of mughams such as "Azerbaijan", "Hijaz", "Zabul", "Bayati-Shiraz", "Bayati-Isfahan", "Arag" (or "Iraq"), "Arazbary ", "Eyrati", "Kabili", "Karabakh shikestesi". There are also mughams and sections, the names of which are derived from historical figures and performers: "Mansuriyya", "Heydari", "Baba Tahir", "Hadji Dervish", "Hadji Yuni", and "Shah Khatai" are examples of such works. Other mugham names are associated with the names of various Turkic tribes: these are the "Bayati" and "Bayati-Turk" mughams, which are associated with the name of the Bayat tribe, "Ovshari" ("Afshari") mughams, which are associated with the Afshar tribe, and "Bayati-Qajar" mughams, which are associated with the Qajar tribe.
Mugham names like "Simai-Shems", "Shur", "Humayun", "Shahnaz", "Dilkesh", and "Dilruba" are associated with the figurative content of the music. Some mugham sections are concerned with animals. Among these sections are "Balu-kebuter", which means "swallow wings", and "Zengi-shotor", which means "camel bells".
History
editEarly period
editThe precise time when mughams first appeared is unknown. The first cyclical forms, the ancestors of modern mughams, were supposedly created at the end of the sixth–seventh centuries by Barbad, the court musician of Shah Khosrow II of Iran. The performance of the mugham genre had already begun by the 11th century. The 11th-century mugham works are known to us from the Persian "Qabus-nama", which were the rast, bade, iraq (arag), ushshag, zirafkand, busalik, sipanakh (isfahan), nava, and beste. These were most likely improvised sections that alternated with lyrically lucid forms. In other words, the mugham genre was already being practised in the performing arts in the 11th century, but its concept had not yet been theoretically understood. Ibn Sina mentions 2 mugham names in his writings: Isfahan and Salmak. In his poem "Khosrow and Shirin", Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi mentions four more mugham names: Novruz, Rakhovi (Rahab), and Khesar (Khasar). Various Tabriz school miniatures depict musical scenes with ensembles of musicians playing the daf or the kamancha to illustrate poems from Nizami's "Khamsa". Thus, 13 mugham names were known by the 12th century, which were denoted at the time by the term "parde", sometimes "rah".
Safi al-Din al-Urmawi developed a system in the 13th century that included 12 basic mugham-modes and 6 derivatives (avaze). This system was built around a 17-step octave scale. The Persian musician and music theorist Abd al-Qadir Maraghi continued Safi al-Din's system in the second half of the 14th–first quarter of the 15th century, analysing in detail the second group of mugham derivatives—24 shobes. Only in the 14th century did the term "mugham/maqam" become widely used in musicology. Prior to this, Iranian and Arabic terms such as "rah," "parde," "daira," "shadd," and "jam" were used. The term mugham is expanded upon in the writings of Abd al-Qadir. However, in the Middle Ages, the names of forms and genres differed from the names of modes that underpin them; it was only later that they began to coincide. This resemblance has survived to the present day.
14th–18th centuries
editWith the formation of the Azerbaijani Turkic-speaking ethnos in the 14th–15th centuries, its culture also emerged. The emergence of mughams is linked to the growth of urban culture in the Middle Ages. There was an extensive mode system in Azerbaijani music in the 14th century, but despite the presence of a wide variety of scales, there were only 12 main modes: ushshag, nava, busalik, rast, arag, isfahan, zirafkand, buzurk, zangula, rahavi, huseyni and hijaz, with many side mughams and 6 avazes. The euphony of the modes and the wide possibilities for the formation of derivatives of the shobe modes were the primary selection criteria (the so-called modal "branching"). According to the treatise of Abd al-Qadir Maraghi: "The Turks prefer to compose Ushshag, Nava, and Busalik in mughams, although other mughams are included in their compositions".
During the reign of the Safavids in the 16th century, the mugham genre, which was closely associated with classical poetry, flourished. The performance of the mugham work "ushshag" is mentioned in Sharafkhan Bidlisi's work "Sharafnama", which describes the feast given to Shah Ismail I, during which "beautiful singers and sweet-sounding musicians with high and low voices began the melody ushshag".
Mugham was a popular art form in the 18th century. Mughams were frequently performed with tesnifs during this time period. Until the 19th century, the art of mugham was primarily cultivated at the courts of feudal lords, which left a well-known imprint on it due to the limitation of love-lyrical and philosophical-edifying themes, frequently mystical and erotic images.
19th century
editLiterary and musical circles (majlis), which emerged in cities such as Shusha, Baku, Shamakhi, Ganja, and others beginning in the 1920s, played an important role in the spread and professionalisation of mughams. Majlis were one of the primary venues for public mugham performances in the nineteenth century. "Majlisi Faramushan ", "Majlisi Uns ", and "Society of Musicians" in Shusha, "Beytus-safa" and "Mahmud Agha's Majlis" in Shamakhi, "Divani Hikmet" in Ganja, and others were among the most famous. Poets, writers, musicians, classical poetry and music connoisseurs gathered to these majlises. However, the traditions of Majlis soon started to fade due to the processes of democratisation in Azerbaijani music life and the appearance of concert forms of music performance at the beginning of the twentieth century.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, a significant revival in Azerbaijani musical art was observed. The work of khanandas and sazandas was one of the directions in which Azerbaijani music developed. This path represented the most difficult path of musical creativity. The sazandas' ensemble consisted of a tar player, a kamancha player, and occasionally a qosha naghara player. In the period prior to the Russian Revolution, the art of the sazandas and khanandas was highly developed. They performed at folk festivals, weddings, and private homes. These groups performed mugham, tesnif, diringe, and oyun havalari, as well as dastgah, a cycle of musical instrumental and vocal numbers. One of the most well-known khanandas of the nineteenth century was Sattar , whose performances at Tiflis meetings and public concerts were highly praised by Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Khachatur Abovyan, Georgiy Eristov, Nikoloz Baratashvili, Yakov Polonsky, and the press of the time. Yakov Polonsky even dedicated a poem to him called "Sattar".
During this period, there was also a quantitative increase in mughams-destgahs, as well as an enrichment of their constituent parts. Numerous segah, rast, mahur, and other mugham variants began to appear.
Khananda ensembles quickly gained popularity, first in cities, then in villages, where they gradually replaced ashiq ensembles. The second half of the nineteenth century saw the rise of khanandas, who became well-known not only in the Caucasus but also far beyond it. Kharrat Gulu, Sadigjan, Haji Husu, Mashadi Isi, Jabbar Garyaghdioglu, Ala Palas oglu, Shakili Alasgar, Kechachioghlu Muhammed, and others were among them. During this time, tar player Sadigjan was well-known. His name has become synonymous with the radical reconstruction of tar. Sadigjan added an octave and four tuning strings to the tar strings, resulting in a full-sounding instrument with eleven strings. Furthermore, Sadigjan is regarded as the author of the mugham Mahur-Hindi .