Shashmaqom ( ; ; ) is a

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

n musical genre (typical of

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

and

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

) which may have developed in the city of

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

. Shashmaqam means the six Maqams (modes) in the Persian language, dastgah being the name for Persian modes, and ''maqams'' being the name for modes more generally. It is a refined sort of music, with lyrics derived from

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

poems about divine love. The instruments of shashmaqоm provide an austere accompaniment to the voices. They consist, at most concerts, of a pair of long-necked

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

s ( rawap,

tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black b ...

tanbur The term ''Tanbur'' can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a complicated situation. Nowa ...

dutar The ''dutar'' (also ''Dotara, dotar''; ; ; ; ; ; ; ) is a traditional Iranian long-necked two-stringed lute found in Iran and Central Asia. Its name comes from the Persian language, Persian word for "two strings", دوتار ''do tār'' (< � ...

), the dayra, or frame drum, which, with its jingles, is very much like a

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thoug ...

, and the sato, or bowed tanbur.

History

In the first half of the 20th century in

, Abdul Rauf Fitrad, member of the

Jadid The Jadid movement or Jadidism was an Turco-Islamic modernist political, religious, and cultural movement in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century. They normally referred to themselves by the Tatar terms ''Taraqqiparvarlar ...

, was particularly interested in shashmaqam, the traditional music of the Court. In 1927, he wrote a book called ''Ozbek klasik Muzikasi va uning Tarikhi'' (Uzbek classical music and its history), in which he presented shashmaqam as a grand musical tradition of the

Uzbek people The Uzbeks () are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, being among the largest Turkic ethnic groups in the area. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, next to Kazakh and Karakalpak minorities, and also form minority ...

. In the 1930s, during the Soviet regime of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

, Uzbek shashmaqom was seen as an echo of the

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

ruling class and as a kind of music that impinged cultural progress toward adoption of European-style harmony. Finally, in 1951, a decree from the president of the Uzbekistan Union of Composers, reaffirmed by the committee of Uzbekistan, suppressed the maqom and the development of the musical practice. During the mid-50s, the maqam began an ideological rehabilitation. In Tajikistan, the local leadership decided that shashmaqom should form a part of the national traditional heritage. Tension between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan led to the differentiation between the Tajik shashmaqom as developed in

Dushanbe Dushanbe is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 1,564,700, with this population being largely Tajiks, Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe, and from 1929 to 1961 as St ...

, and the Uzbek shashmaqam as developed in

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

. Tajik books made no mention of Uzbek shashmaqam and vice versa. During the 1980s, this artificial division began to change. Uzbekistan began to learn about the Tajik shashmaqam, and Tajikistan learnt of the Uzbek shashmaqom. This has survived to the present, but a surge of nationalism in Uzbekistan may change that: singers on the radio in

, a city perfectly bilingual in Uzbek and Tajik, are using only the Uzbek texts in their shashmaqom music broadcasts.Theodore Levin, The Reterritorialization of Culture in the New Central Asian States: A Report from Uzbekistan. Year of traditional Music, Vol. 25, Musical Processes in Asia and Oceania. (1993) pp. 51-59 This style of music was brought to the Western world, particularly to the United States, by the

Bukharian Jews Bukharan Jews, also known as Bukharian Jews, are the Mizrahi Jews, Mizrahi Jewish sub-group of Central Asia that dwelt predominantly in what is today Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan. The group's name is derived from the E ...

of Central Asia. Many of them were successful performers of Shasmaqom and brought it to the West.

References

External links

Shashmaqam - performed by Bukharian Singers
Adobe Flash; not supported in all browsers) {{UNESCO Oral and Intangible music Music of Tajikistan Music of Uzbekistan Maqam-based music tradition Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity

History

See also

References

External links