Music of Azerbaijan | |
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General topics | |
Genres | |
Specific forms | |
Traditional music | |
Subgenres | |
Media and performance | |
Music festivals | |
Music media | Medeniyyet TV |
Nationalistic and patriotic songs | |
National anthem | March of Azerbaijan |
Azerbaijani music (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan musiqisi) is the musical tradition of the Azeri people, from Azerbaijan and Iranian Azerbaijan. It builds on folk traditions that reach back nearly 1,000 years. For centuries, Azer music has evolved under the badge of monody, producing rhythmically diverse melodies. Music from Azerbaijan has a branch mode system, where chromatisation of major and minor scales is of great importance.
In 1920, Azerbaijani classical music had undergone a renaissance and Baku Academy of Music was founded to give classical musicians the same support as folk musicians. Modern day advocates of Western classical music in Azerbaijani include Farhad Badalbeyli, Fidan Gasimova and Franghiz Alizadeh.
The emergence of opera and ballet in Azerbaijan is associated with the Imperial Russian and Soviet era of Azerbaijani history when Azerbaijani musicians became exposed to European music traditions first-hand. The very first documented performance of an opera in Baku took place in May 1889 when Alexey Verstovsky's opera Askold's grave was staged at a circus arena in Baku (on the site of the current Azerbaijan Carpet Museum building), accompanied by the folk choir of Dmitry Agrenev-Slavyanski. Beginning in 1900, opera troupes toured Baku on a yearly basis (except 1901 and 1913), featuring prominent singers of the time such as Natalia Ermolenko-Yuzhina and Antonina Nezhdanova.