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Power, Authority and Music in the Cultures of Inner Asia1

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17411910500336273

1741-1920

Jean During,

Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

Abstract This article examines the relationship between power, authority and musical practices in Central Asia with a special focus on their frequently bilateral nature. The enforced secularization of the Inner Asian states led to the abandonment of the Arabic script which is fundamentally linked to Islam. The introduction of Latin and Cyrillic scripts led to phonological changes that are mirrored in the musical changes to intonation and intervals which accompanied the introduction of Western musical theory. The development of the concept of nation accentuated the separation, along linguistic lines, of repertories which were originally shared. On the principle that each nation required musical forms not less imposing than those of the West, the cultural authorities imposed the formation of large-scale ensembles whose impact on the aesthetics of performance is analysed here in detail. Such large-scale ensembles or orchestras are typically the product of authoritarian decisions, and do not appear spontaneously from purely aesthetic motives. In the contemporary Central Asian states, in spite of the weakening of the cultural authorities, the prestige of these large ensembles is preserved and, although they offer scant financial rewards, they continue to attract musicians. Keywords: Inner AsiaMusical ChangeNationalismMusic and Language Notes 1. The term Inner Asia refers to a wider geographical region than Central Asia, including Iran, Azerbaijan and Pakistan. 2. Transoxania (in Islamic sources mâvarâ an-nahr) means ‘beyond the Oxus river’, and refers to the territory of contemporary Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The term is widely used in these countries. 3. Shamanism, which in an Islamic form is widespread in Transoxania, was suppressed by the Soviets. Male ritualists suffered the most because local custom, which was stronger than the Soviet revolution, kept strangers away from female circles. Thus today most shamanic ritualists (bakshi) are women. 4. In both Uzbek and Tajik the long â is transcribed o, as in bolshoï in Russian, which has eventually made people pronounce the â like an o. The instruments that are called satar and rawap in Uyghur are pronounced sato(r) and rubob in Uzbek and Tajik. The Arab h is frequently mixed up with the x (kh). A notice at the entrance to an Uzbek bazaar for example may read haridaringiz ucun raxmat instead of xaridaringiz ucun rahmat (‘thank you for your shopping’). The analogy with musical intervals is striking: the Azerbaijani A half-flat disappeared in the 1930s or 1940s and sometimes turned into an A, sometimes an A flat. Uzbek and Tajik scales have suffered from the same slippage towards the tempered scale. Certain instruments (or musicians) have kept something of the old intervals: thus the scales of the dutôr and rabâb (whose status is less canonical) are tempered, while that of the tanbur is not. When the dutôr and tanbur are played together, the player compensates for the inequalities by playing with the left hand by pulling and pushing the strings. 5. The canonical repertoire (radif) was published for the first time in 1962, very late for a country with such enthusaism for academic publications. M.T. Mas'udie's transcription of the sung radif was not published until 1978, and During's transcription of the most widespread radif in 1991. 6. After independence there were moves towards Persianizing the Tajik language, but official directives have sought to reverse this trend, to the extent that it is now forbidden to use the Arabic script in public places. Modern Persian terms, such as dâneshgâh (university) or havâpeymâ (aeroplane), were adopted then abandoned again and their Russian equivalents reinstated (universitet, samaliot). The clumsiness of Iranian diplomacy is in part responsible for this rejection. 7. He played a Uzbek dutôr melody in which the third fret, corresponding to an E flat minor third (if the instrument is tuned in C) had to be played a quarter-tone higher. As this fret no longer exists, the master gave us an idea of this interval by playing an E flat F flat vibrato, which corresponds exactly to the blue note in blues guitar music. Uyghur instrumentalists playing the Muqam on taäbür or satar also commonly use this kind of vibrato. 8. In this regard the following dialogue between the author and a young Bukhari woman is revealing: ‘Are you Uzbek or Tajik?’ ‘Uzbek of course: I live in Uzbekistan.’ ‘Do you speak Uzbek or Tajik?’ ‘Uzbek more, especially as all the lessons at school are in Uzbek.’ ‘Which language do you speak at home?’ ‘Tajik.’ ‘So your family is Tajik?’ ‘We're Bukhari, so we know Uzbek, Tajik and Russian.’ She had also learnt Arabic through reciting the Koran with her grandmother. 9. Biô ke zolf-e kaju o chashme sormasâ injâst … . 10. The state radio paid them according to a precise hierarchical system of relatively generous payments, particularly for the most famous artists. Today, in contrast, musicians pay to be played on the radio or appear on television, because they regard it as a publicity operation. 11. Even though certain orchestral arrangements possess some charm. This comes from the polyphonic potential of Kazakh and Kyrgyz music developed in the interactions of long-necked lutes (dombra, komuz). The Uzbek, Tajik and Uyghur traditions do not have the same potential. 12. On the occasion of a concert organized by an NGO in 2001 in one Kazakh town, the governor had the consideration and courtesy to requisition a whole barracks, giving the young soldiers a few hundred armchairs, so that the foreign organizers would not be humiliated by having a hall only a quarter full. 13. In spite of this fault, an official decision was not the cause of the spontaneous appearance of the Uzbek rubôb in the 1930s. Rather, it came about as the response to a need which was later satisfied by adopting the Azerbaijani târ. 14. Sympathetic strings generate natural frequencies that reinforce diatonic intervals. However, they produce dissonance when they are tuned in three-tone or five-quarter scales (Near Eastern and Iranian scales). Thus instruments with resonating or sympathetic strings are found only in diatonic systems, i.e. India, Afghanistan, Xinjiang, 18th-century Europe, etc. This is why the Iranians wanted to get rid of these strings on the rabâb and the sorud (or qeychak). One understands as well that, by abandoning popular melodies in order to follow the Indianized manner of Kabul, Herat dotar players transformed their two-stringed lute with ‘Iranian’ intervals into a sort of ‘Indian sitar’ with sympathetic strings. The same process ended up by transforming the Tajik satâr. 15. The satô players to whom I lent traditional Middle Eastern bows were convinced of their superiority over the ones that they normally used. However, that was not enough to make them change their ways. In Central Asia profound change very often comes about through official directives because strength of custom generally dominates personal initiative. 16. Without forgetting the worst of all: the eradication of music by the Talibân. 17. Interestingly, the Azeri tars played in Transoxania preserve several of the original frets (tone minus one or two commas, weak minor third, etc.) but these are never played. Very rarely does a player have the idea of removing these useless frets. The foreign product is kept in the state it was when imported, just as they do not take off the labels stuck on radio-cassette players or the nylon covers on new cars. 18. Sâdeq Asadoghlu invented the Azeri târ around 1870 to replace the Persian târ in the Caucasus. Apart from its intrinsic merits as an instrument, it had the advantage of strengthening the identity of the young Azeri nation, whose political links with Iran had been cut in 1828. 19. This comes from the fact that the violins produced in Central Asia are often of low quality, as well as from the construction of the qijak (its skin, strings, bridge, etc.) which produces a more aggressive sound than that produced by its Persian and Azeri equivalents. 20. However, more than 60 years ago the two silk dotâr strings were replaced by steel ones in the Turkish, Kurdish, Tajik, Turkmen and Qaraqalpak traditions of Greater Khorasan. Gut, silk or, if this is unobtainable, nylon, but never metal, strings are still used on the similar Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz and Uyghur lutes. 21. Principally the Göklen and Yomud ethnic groups. 22. A rare exception is the five hours of film of the masters Turgun Alimatov (sato, tanbur, dutôr), Abdorahim Hamidov and Shuhrat Razzaqov (dutôr) that, thanks to a small subsidy from AKMICA, we recorded with Bertrand Duageron. These unique recordings, which could play an important role in transmitting the instrumental art, have never been copied or broadcast because of a lack of support. The same is true of a four-hour video recording I made, which was synchronically filmed by Saodat Isma'ilova, of the great Kyrgyz komuz masters Nurak Abdurahman and Balosh Madazimov (who died soon after the recording). 23. Students from other towns and cities are not allowed to reside in the capital after their studies unless they join an institution or gain a place on a doctoral course. 24. He was so popular that people changed, the name of the city from which he hailed (Taraz), into his own name (Jambul). 25. I have noticed this several times. Once, when filming, a famous bard was asked to play with his closest disciple. Not only did they not make sure their instruments were in tune, but, one playing and then the other replying, each sang in their own key without making the least effort to find the other's pitch. The famous Turko-Kurdish bard Soleymâni often performs with his son in the West, but their dotârs are never properly in tune with each other and their frets give slightly different notes. 26. Turgun plays the tanbur with a satô bow equally marvellously and also has his own style of dutôr playing. 27. This honour was created for Shoberdi Bakhshi (Baltaev), and was also given to the Qaraqalpak Jumabey Bazarov and the Khwarazmi Nôrbek Bakhshi. 28. All instrumentalists read musical notation but, staying faithful to the spirit of tradition, they use it very little, simply as an aid to memory. The instrumental masters of the old generation whom I have known, such as Shahnâzi, Fortuan, Hormozi, Ebâdi, Borumand, Bahâri, Kasâi, Bigjekhâni and others, had nothing to do with musical notation. Today, however, notation is sometimes used in private teaching at elementary level. It seems that middling musicians want to give themselves some legitimacy by resorting to notation as a symbol of ‘scientific’ music. 29. This famous rhythm must have appeared strange to early musicologists because Ouspensky transcribed it in 8 beats (in 1924). Later it was decided that it was made up of two sections: 3/4 and 3/8, and it has been written in this manner ever since. This comes down to cutting it simply into 2 + 1. Now, a rapid phenomenological or comparative examination has led me to conclude that the measure should be heard as 2/2 (or 4/4) + 5/4, with a stress on the first and fifth beats. This structure is in fact typically Turkic. It is the foundation of the Anatolian zeybek genre, and is also found in the Mevlevi ayin (usul Evfer), and in certain Ikkinchi dastan näghmä of the Uyghur On ikki Muqam. The master Abdurahim Hamidov was convinced by my argument and decided to transcribe the Shashmaqom Sawt in 4 + 5. 30. There are a few cases when he accompanies himself on a fiddle, such as the Qaraqalpak zhyraus (singers of epics) and certain Baluchis. 31. For more details on the question of intervals, see During (Citation1999, Citation2004). 32. In particular the measures given by Mehdi Barkeshli. 33. It should be stressed that Turkic musical traditions are based on intervals from the diatonic scale and do not have three-quarter tones. Exceptions (in a part of Anatolia and in the maqâmic music of Turkey and Azerbaijan) are due to loans and the return to diatonic intervals can be seen as a strengthening of a feeling of identity. That, in any case, was the opinion of Turkish intellectuals at the time of Ataturk. 34. In most cases, income from foreign sources is subject to heavy taxes. 35. In order to be discreet and to respect this person's art we will not divulge any names. 36. Azerbaijan = Alim Qasimov, Iran = Shajarian, Uzbekistan = Monajat Yulchieva, Pakistan = Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (since his death no replacement has yet been found), Afghanistan = Khoshnavâz, South India = Subramaniam, North India = one soloist per instrument, etc. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJean During Professor Jean During was born in France in 1947. As a director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, he spent 11 years in Iran and five years in Uzbekistan. He has written twelve books on the musical traditions and cultures of Inner Asia, more than a hundred articles in specialized revues and encyclopedias, and has released around 30 CDs. Three of his books have been translated into Persian; one is in press in Azerbaijani. His fieldwork covers many traditions of Inner Asia. He studies not only musical forms but also Sufi and Shamanic rituals and the cultural traditions related to musical practices