Entre el cielo y la tierra / Aygun Baylar
medieval.org
pneumapaniagua • notas en español
Pneuma «Colección Al-Andalus/Oriente» PN-830
2006
Madrid
Aylun Baygar
Entre el Cielo y la Tierra • Between Heaven and Earth
Mugam de Azerbaiyán
01 - Alagez. Mugam Byaty-Shiraz [11:51]
El primer amor · The First Love
music/música: Babil Aliyev
02 - Deja que el Alma viva · Let the Soul Live
[6:59]
music/imisica: Haji Khanmammadov
lyrics/letra: Mikail Mushvig
03 - Banovsha [9:21]
Danza tradicional · Folk Dance
04 - Mugam Seydah [15:23]
Te fuiste con las aguas · You've Gone with the Waters
Las montañas de Shusha · The Mountains of Shusha
05 - Las noches de Bakú · Baku Nights
[5:29]
music/música: Alekper Tagiyev
06 - Mugam Mahur Rengy. Tesnif [9:03]
¡Cuánta belleza! · Oh, What Beauty!
LIVE concert in Madrid 26 March 2006
07 - Mugam Shushter. Gatar Tesnif [3:37]
Nubes de tu cabello · Clouds of Your Hair
LIVE concert in Madrid 26 March 2006
Aygun Baylar, canto · vocals, pandero· daf
Asadullayev Togrul Mirnazim Oglu, kamanche (violín vertical)
Gurbanov Rovshan Oktay, tar (instrumento de cuerda tradicional)
AYGUN BAYLAR
Aygun Baylar was born in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in the bosom
of a musical family. Her father plays the tar, a traditional
string instrument. As a child she showed musical talent, developing an
extraordinary voice. At the age of 18, the well-known Azeri musician
Baylar Gulliev invited her to join his ensemble as a soloist, through
which she achieved great success both at home and abroad. On the death
of her master she adopted his name in his honour, Baylar. She has sung
the compositions of several Azeri musicians: Uzeyir Hajibayov, Fikrat
Amirov, Gara Garayev, Niyazi, Arif Malikov y Waif Adigezalov. In 2002
she was awarded the title of Honorary Artist of Azerbaijan. She is
currently director of the group Baylar Folk Mugam Ensemble, with
fifteen members, but where she really shows her vocal talent is in the
trio, accompanied by the kamanche (vertical violin) and tar
(a plucked string instrument).
In August 2005 she won the First Prize in Mugam at the Traditional
Music Contest of Central Asia (Sharg taranalari) held in Samarkand
(Uzbekistan).
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan is a small country (the population is about eight million)
with a long history. It lies in the Caucasus region of Central Asia [sic]and
was occupied five thousand years ago by the tribes and states from the
Caspian region, Mannaeans, Medes and Caucasian Albanians. In 550 B.C.
under Cyrus the Great it became part of the Persian Empire. Others were
to pass through these lands, including Alexander the Great (when king
Atropat seized the opportunity to proclaim his ephemeral independence),
his descendants the Seleucids, the Parthians and the Romans. The latter
called it Albania and stayed for 300 years. The 7th century brought
with it the Arab Muslim expansion, and the 11 th century the expansion
of the Seljuk Turks. In the 13th century it was the turn of the
Mongolian Genghis Khan and the Tartar Tamerlane and in the 15th century
the Azeri Safavid dynasty emerged which was to lead the Persian Empire
against the Ottomans, Uzbeks and Portuguese. The 18th century saw the
disintegration of the empire and a new attempt at Azeri reunification
at the hands of Fatali Khan, aborted by the imperialism of the Russian
Tsars who, in turn, lost part of the territory to Iran in 1826. The
part that remained under Russian rule benefited from its wealth in oil
and the capital city, Baku, flourished. From 1920 on it was part of the
Soviet Republic until independence in 1991.
Mugam
Mugam is one of the many musical traditions of Azerbaijan. It is
a highly complex form of art music (as opposed to folk music) with
specific systems and concepts of musical expression that demand of its
performers a very high standard of professionalism
Mugam belongs to the system of modal music and has close ties to
the Persian and Arabian musical tradition. It is therefore
meta-ethnical, because it is not restricted to one particular region
but covers a wide area of the Middle and Far East. The Uighurs in
Xinjian (Sinkiang) call this musical development "Muqam", the
Uzbeks and Tadjiks call it "Maqom" (also "Shasmaqom"), while
the Arabs, Persians and Turks call it "Maqam".
tayikos maqom (así como shasmaqom), mientras que árabes,
persas y turcos lo denominan maqam.
In Azerbaijan the word is Mugam. It is based on many different
modes and tonal scales where different relations between notes and
scales are envisaged and developed.
The meta-ethnicity (and dazzling complexity) of this music also becomes
apparent in the fact that terms such as "mugam", "maqam", or "dastgah",
omnipresent in oriental music, can mean one thing in the Turkish
tradition, while the same term in the music of Uzbekistan takes on
quite another meaning, and yet another in the classical Arabian
tradition. So, in one culture "mugam" may be related to a
strictly fixed melodic type, while in another it is only the cadences,
i. e. the melody endings that are associated with it. In a third
culture it may only correspond to a specific type of tone scales. It is
therefore not surprising that reference works give insufficient
information (if any at all) about the concept, since it is not easy to
define: "[M]usicologists mutter something incomprehensible
(because, with a few exceptions, they don't know either), and the Azeri
people explain it in such a roundabout manner that it is impossible to
work it out". (Skans).
Part of the confusion arises from the fact that the term itself can
have two different, if related meanings. The famous Azeri composer Kara
Karayev has the following explanation:
"The expression 'Mugam' is used in two senses in the folk
music of Azerbaijan. On the one hand the word 'Mugam' describes
the same thing as the term 'lad' [Russian for key, mode,
scale]. An analysis of Azeri songs, dances and other folk-music forms
show that they are always constructed according to one [of these] modes.
On the other hand the term 'Mugam' refers to an individual,
multi-movement form. This form combines elements of a suite and a
rhapsody, is symphonic in nature, and has its own set of structural
rules. In particular one should observe that the 'Suite-Rhapsody-Mugam'
is constructed according to one particular 'Mode-Mugam' and is
subject to all of the particular requirements of this mode".
(Sovietskaya 5 Muzkya 1949:3)
Mugam describes a specific type of musical composition and
performance, which is hard to grasp with western concepts of music in
another respect: for one, Mugam composition is improvisational
in nature. At the same time it follows exact rules. Furthermore, in the
case of a "Suite-Rhapsody-Mugam" the concept of improvisation is
not really an accurate one, since the artistic imagination of the
performers is based on a strict foundation of principles determined by
the respective mode. The performance of mugams does therefore
not present an amorphous and spontaneous, impulsive improvisation.
The songs are often based on the ancient poetry of Azerbaijan, and
although love is a common topic in these poems, to the uninitiated ear
many of the intricacies and allusions are lost. For one, the poems do
not primarily deal with worldly love but with the mystical love for
God. Yet, strictly speaking, this is still secular music/poetry, as
opposed to, say, Sufism. Nevertheless, mugam composition is
designed very similarly to Sufism in that it seeks to achieve ascension
from a lower level of awareness to a transcendental union with God. It
is a spiritual search for God.
This is not to say that traditional folk music is any less demanding in
terms of skills or values! — Azerbaijan also has a great
tradition of composers and musicians of western classical music.
Fikret Amirov (1922-1984) was the first Azeri composer of classical
music to write mugams for symphony orchestras. Such works are
obviously very different from traditional mugam formations but
in fact incorporate many mugam idioms. On the level of
musicians there remains a strict separation between classical and
"traditional" music in terms of training. Even if the musicians are
educated at one and the same conservatory they stick to one camp.
With respect to the concept of improvisation, Mugam music is
compared to jazz, a comparison that is accurate to a certain point
only. Although Mugam does allow for a wide margin of
interpretation, an equation with jazz is oversimplified, since it fails
to account for the different kinds of improvisation for different Mugam
modes. The performance of a certain Mugam may last for hours.
(For the uninitiated listener it is close to impossible to know whether
a musician is actually improvising or playing a prearranged
composition.) Furthermore, as Karayev stresses, Mugam music has
a symphonic character.
Translation: Lesley Ann Shuckburgh
