*** Welcome to piglix ***

Mugam

Azerbaijani Mugham
Farzaliyev with his ansemble.jpg
Azerbaijani mugham performers. Early 20th century
Country Azerbaijan
Reference 039
Region Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription 2008 (3rd session)
Music of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani mugam trio in XVI century miniature of Nizami Ganjavi's Khosrow and Shirin.JPG
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

Mugham or mugam (Azerbaijani: Muğam) is one of the many folk musical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrasting with tasnif and ashugs. Mugam draws on Arabic maqam.

It is a highly complex art form that weds classical poetry and musical improvisation in specific local modes. Mugham is a modal system. Unlike Western modes, "mugham" modes are associated not only with scales but with an orally transmitted collection of melodies and melodic fragments that performers use in the course of improvisation. Mugham is a compound composition of many parts. The choice of a particular mugham and a style of performance fits a specific event. The dramatic unfolding in performance is typically associated with increasing intensity and rising pitches, and a form of poetic-musical communication between performers and initiated listeners.

Three major schools of mugham performance existed from the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the regions of Karabakh, Shirvan, and Baku. The town of Shusha of Karabakh was particularly renowned for this art.

A short selection of Azerbaijani mugham, played on the Azerbaijani wind instrument balaban, was included among many cultural achievements of humanity on the Voyager Golden Record, which was attached to the Voyager spacecraft to represent world music.

In 2003, UNESCO recognized mugam as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In the course of its long history, the people of Azerbaijan have retained their ancient musical tradition. Mugham belongs to the system of modal music and may have derived from Persian musical tradition. The Uighurs in Xinjiang (新疆) call this musical development muqam, the Uzbeks and Tajiks call it maqom (or shasmaqom), while Arabs call it maqam and Persians dastgah.


...
Wikipedia

...