History of Shashmaqam
History of Central Asia and its Classical Music
Central Asia is surrounded by the countries of China to the east, Europe to the west, and India to the south, each with their own unique cultures. Those countries were linked by the Silk Road: ancient trade routes that allowed merchants and travelers The Silk Road Central Asia Map
to make their way across Central Eurasia. One of the two main routes of the Silk Road had a great influence on the diverse cultures and societies of this region. The history of Central Asia has been shaped by two axes of civilization with nomads in the northeast and sedentary-dwellers in the southwest. The northeast consisted of nomadic Turkic and Mongolian tribes and clans, and the southwest included the Persianate world with its sophisticated urban cultures (Karamatov 1972). These opposite aspects, sedentary vs. nomadic and urbanite vs. stepped-dwellers, affected not only life styles and cultures of the Central Asian peoples, but also their musical traditions.
The Silk Road Picture from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Silk_route.jpg
Central Asia Map from http://kocicka.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/map-of-central-asia/
to make their way across Central Eurasia. One of the two main routes of the Silk Road had a great influence on the diverse cultures and societies of this region. The history of Central Asia has been shaped by two axes of civilization with nomads in the northeast and sedentary-dwellers in the southwest. The northeast consisted of nomadic Turkic and Mongolian tribes and clans, and the southwest included the Persianate world with its sophisticated urban cultures (Karamatov 1972). These opposite aspects, sedentary vs. nomadic and urbanite vs. stepped-dwellers, affected not only life styles and cultures of the Central Asian peoples, but also their musical traditions.
The Silk Road Picture from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Silk_route.jpg
Central Asia Map from http://kocicka.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/map-of-central-asia/
The time of the appearance of the most powerful empires in Central Asia, ruled by Emperor Timur, was from 14th to 15th centuries. He made the city of Samarkand the capital of his empire. In order to embellish it, he gathered the finest artists, architects, craftsmen, and musicians from his immense kingdom. This made the city culturally diverse. By the end of his reign in the fifteenth century, Timur’s empire had dissolved into small emirates ruled by local dynasties. Those emirates are the ancestors of the Uzbeks (Levin and Sultanova 2002, 910). Uzbekistan is the core nation of contemporary Central Asia. People settled on the territory of Uzbekistan centuries ago. They built the beautiful cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, and others. This land was the crossroad of the great Silk Road, connecting Asia and Europe.
The people of this region had a court music called Shashmaqam. The roots of shashmaqam are strongly linked with Samarkand and Bukhara because those cities were historically multicultural. Moreover, Shashmaqam is the joint cultural property of the Uzbeks and Tajiks, who lived side by side in the multiethnic cities of Bukhara and Samarkand.
Emperor Timur
Shashmaqam is based upon classical poetry on the languages of Uzbek and Tajik, and it was performed at the court of the ruling emirs. Therefore, it was the music for intellectuals, and not everyone could understand it. To understand the poetry, listeners needed to be educated. The singers were typically bilingual in Uzbek (a Turkic Language) and Tajik (an Iranian language), and they could switch unconsciously from one language to the other language.
However, during the Soviet era, they were not allowed to sing the bilingual art song repertoire because the Soviet bolstered national identities. Soviet cultural policy intended to break up ethnolinguistic and cultural continuities in Central Asia, with the goal of forging separate national identities (Levin and Sultanova 2002, 903) Therefore, the bilingual songs were instead divided into two separate entities, ‘Uzbek classical music’ and ‘Tajik classical music,’ each of which had poetic texts in the respected national language (Levin and Sultanova 2002, 903).
By the early 1980s, Shashmaqam began to reflect this political nomenclature, so it also split into two entities, ‘Uzbek Shashmaqam’ and ‘Tajik Shashmaqam’. The Uzbek Shashmaqam was published in Tashkent, with exclusively Uzbek-language poetic texts, and the Tajik Shashmaqam was published in Dushanbe with exclusively Tajik-language poetic texts. In both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, the local version of the Shashmaqam served as a symbol of national cultural identity (Levin and Sultanova 2002, 917-918).
picture from http://www.s9.com/Biography/Tamerlane
The people of this region had a court music called Shashmaqam. The roots of shashmaqam are strongly linked with Samarkand and Bukhara because those cities were historically multicultural. Moreover, Shashmaqam is the joint cultural property of the Uzbeks and Tajiks, who lived side by side in the multiethnic cities of Bukhara and Samarkand.
Emperor Timur
Shashmaqam is based upon classical poetry on the languages of Uzbek and Tajik, and it was performed at the court of the ruling emirs. Therefore, it was the music for intellectuals, and not everyone could understand it. To understand the poetry, listeners needed to be educated. The singers were typically bilingual in Uzbek (a Turkic Language) and Tajik (an Iranian language), and they could switch unconsciously from one language to the other language.
However, during the Soviet era, they were not allowed to sing the bilingual art song repertoire because the Soviet bolstered national identities. Soviet cultural policy intended to break up ethnolinguistic and cultural continuities in Central Asia, with the goal of forging separate national identities (Levin and Sultanova 2002, 903) Therefore, the bilingual songs were instead divided into two separate entities, ‘Uzbek classical music’ and ‘Tajik classical music,’ each of which had poetic texts in the respected national language (Levin and Sultanova 2002, 903).
By the early 1980s, Shashmaqam began to reflect this political nomenclature, so it also split into two entities, ‘Uzbek Shashmaqam’ and ‘Tajik Shashmaqam’. The Uzbek Shashmaqam was published in Tashkent, with exclusively Uzbek-language poetic texts, and the Tajik Shashmaqam was published in Dushanbe with exclusively Tajik-language poetic texts. In both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, the local version of the Shashmaqam served as a symbol of national cultural identity (Levin and Sultanova 2002, 917-918).
picture from http://www.s9.com/Biography/Tamerlane
After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Central Asian nations declared their independence. In this period, many Russian and other European musicians left the region out of a fear for the consequences of nativism and nationalism. Furthermore, Central Asian musicians started seeking to recover and reanimate their cultural heritage. Bukharan Jews who left Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to resettle in New York City and Tel Aviv in the mid-1970s established institutions and ensembles to perpetuate the tradition of Shashmaqam outside of Central Asia. For example, Ilyas Malayev, who was an Uzbek musician and poet, led the Ilyas Malayev Ensemble and performed Shashmaqam all over the world. The Shashmaqam was only transmitted by the oral traditions, but in order to perpetuate it, people began to use musical notation, audio, and video recording.
Ilyas Malayev
picture from http://www.amazon.com/At-Bazaar-Love-Timeless-Centr/dp/B000000E43
Additional Links
Ilyas Malayev http://ilyasmalayev.com/
Smithsonian Folkways http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=3116
Ilyas Malayev
picture from http://www.amazon.com/At-Bazaar-Love-Timeless-Centr/dp/B000000E43
Additional Links
Ilyas Malayev http://ilyasmalayev.com/
Smithsonian Folkways http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemid=3116
History of Performance Practices
Shashmaqam was the court music tradition of the Bukharan emirs. It was under strict social regulation, meaning that where, when, and by whom it was performed was limited. Also, it used to be performed by a single singer or by two or three singers who would trade vocal lines and to be accompanied by a few instruments, such as the tanbur and dayra.
During Soviet times, schools started teaching Western classical music, which is a written tradition. Shashmaqam could not be taught in schools because it was transmitted orally, and the Soviets not only did not consider it to be a professional music, Soviet authorities prohibited people from performing it for many years.
Since Uzbek musicians started transcribing their traditional music into staff notation during the Soviet era, it has enabled musicians to learn the music in less time and to teach more people. This aspect spurred the creation of large orchestras and choirs that were modeled on European ensembles in the 1920s (Sultanova, 2005). The state-run Uzbek radio, in Samarkand, organized a national folk ensemble in 1927 under the direction of Yunus Rajabi. As compared to the pre-Soviet Shashmaqam ensembles, Rajabi’s ensemble was like a chamber orchestra. He added more instruments, including the tanbur, dayra, rabab, nay, ghijak, and chang. Also, the vocal parts were performed by a mixed chorus of male and female voices rather than by one, two, or three singers (Levin and Sultanova 2002, 919).
From the beginning of the post-Soviet period, the Shashmaqam began to be played at all celebrations, such as weddings, memorials, and birthdays. Nowadays, Uzbeks try to share their great heritage to the others. For example, they organize ensembles to perform their traditional music in Uzbekistan and nations throughout the world, and they make recordings to share with others and to hand down to subsequent generations. Moreover, they have established institutions to educate and cultivate the younger generations, such as ‘The Academy of Shashmaqam’, which was created by Abduvali Abdurashidov and ‘The Aga Khan Music Initiative’ in 2000.
Yunus Rajabi
from http://oriental-traditional-music.blogspot.kr/2012/03/shashmaqam-of-bukhara-box-of-16-lps.html
During Soviet times, schools started teaching Western classical music, which is a written tradition. Shashmaqam could not be taught in schools because it was transmitted orally, and the Soviets not only did not consider it to be a professional music, Soviet authorities prohibited people from performing it for many years.
Since Uzbek musicians started transcribing their traditional music into staff notation during the Soviet era, it has enabled musicians to learn the music in less time and to teach more people. This aspect spurred the creation of large orchestras and choirs that were modeled on European ensembles in the 1920s (Sultanova, 2005). The state-run Uzbek radio, in Samarkand, organized a national folk ensemble in 1927 under the direction of Yunus Rajabi. As compared to the pre-Soviet Shashmaqam ensembles, Rajabi’s ensemble was like a chamber orchestra. He added more instruments, including the tanbur, dayra, rabab, nay, ghijak, and chang. Also, the vocal parts were performed by a mixed chorus of male and female voices rather than by one, two, or three singers (Levin and Sultanova 2002, 919).
From the beginning of the post-Soviet period, the Shashmaqam began to be played at all celebrations, such as weddings, memorials, and birthdays. Nowadays, Uzbeks try to share their great heritage to the others. For example, they organize ensembles to perform their traditional music in Uzbekistan and nations throughout the world, and they make recordings to share with others and to hand down to subsequent generations. Moreover, they have established institutions to educate and cultivate the younger generations, such as ‘The Academy of Shashmaqam’, which was created by Abduvali Abdurashidov and ‘The Aga Khan Music Initiative’ in 2000.
Yunus Rajabi
from http://oriental-traditional-music.blogspot.kr/2012/03/shashmaqam-of-bukhara-box-of-16-lps.html
Additional Videos
1. Revitalizing Shashmaqam: Court Music of Central Asia
by Smithsonian Folkways
1. Revitalizing Shashmaqam: Court Music of Central Asia
by Smithsonian Folkways
2. Performing Shashmaqam by Bukharan Jews
3. Shashmaqam Museum of Yunus Rajabi
References
Karomatov, Faizullah. “On the Regional Style of Uzbek Music.” Asian Music 4, no. 1 (1972): 48-58.
Levin, Theodore, and Razia Sultanova. “The Middle East: Central Asia.” In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, edited by Virginia Danielson, Scott
Marcus, and Dwight Reynolds, 894-920. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Sultanova, Razia. “Music and Identity in Central Asia: Introduction.” Ethnomusicology 14, no. 2 (November 2005): 131-142.