BDB Bertsolaritzaren datu-basea

The different angles from which the phenomenon of mugham creativity can be approached all point to the significance of sung ghazal poetry. Even in instrumental renditions of mugham, the overriding presence of sung texts manifests itself through the musical structure, pace, technique and, most importantly, an imaginative and interpretive engagement with meanings that musicians undergo. In this dissertation, the link between music and poetry and its role in mugham creativity are investigated from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives. First, pre-Soviet, Soviet and post-Soviet contexts are examined to reveal how changes in musical and textual parameters influenced creativity and shaped its historical trajectory in Azerbaijan. Second, native terminology, musical examples, characteristics and experiences of creativity are explored using hermeneutic phenomenology in order to shed light on the creative process in the moment of performance. It is my contention that interpretation based on meanings in ghazal poetry that are rooted in Islamic sciences opens up both musical and ontological possibilities for musicians embarked on the mugham journey. This creates a state that is often difficult to express discursively as musicians themselves resort to phrases such as “revelation”, “explosion of thinking”, and “the self is taken from the self” that show only the limits of language to explain what goes on. The dissertation concludes with questions about how scholarship can further our understanding of the enigmatic flashes of musical discovery that are essential to Azerbaijani mugham and to musical traditions across cultures.

Abstract …ii
Acknowledgments ...iv
Table of Contents ...vii
Terminology, transliteration, and translation ...x
List of Tables ...xiii
List of Figures ...xiv
Introduction ...1
Chapter 1 Music and Poetry of Azerbaijani Mugham: the Two Wings of Creativity ...13
1.1 Defining mugham ...14
1.2 The mugham trio ...17
1.3 The Azerbaijani tar ...21
1.4 Dəstgah...24
1.5 Ghazal poetry ...31
1.6 Əruz ...36
1.7 Guşə, cümlə, and avaz ...42
1.8 Case Study: Şur ...46
Chapter 2 Pre-Soviet Shusha and Baku: the Burgeoning of Mugham Creativity ...67
2.1 Nationalism and cultural enlightenment in pre-Soviet Azerbaijan ...67
2.2 Shusha‟s Sadigjan ...74
2.3 Shusha‟s xanəndə traditions ...84
2.4 Baku məclis tradition ...89
2.5 The tarzəns of pre-Soviet Baku ...96
2.6 Şur dəstgah in Pre-Soviet Azerbaijan ...100
Conclusions ...107
Chapter 3 National in Form, Socialist in Content: the Sovietization of Mugham Creativity ...108
3.1 Uzeyir Hajibeyov and the aesthetics of socialist realism ...109
3.2 Institutionalization of mugham...115
3.3 The battle for mugham and tar ...119
3.4 Sovietizing mugham repertoire: standardization, Westernization, temperament ...122
3.4.1 Standardization ...124
3.4.2 Westernization ...137
3.4.3 Temperament ... 140
3.5 Soviet tar lineages: Bahram Mansurov, Ahmad Bakikhanov, and Haji Mammadov ... 144
3.5.1 Bahram Mansurov (1911-85) ... 145
3.5.2 Ahmad Bakikhanov (1892-1973) ... 148
3.5.3 Haji Mammadov (1920-81) ... 151
3.6 Sovietizing mugham singing: language reforms and secularization ... 152
3.6.1 Language reforms ... 153
3.6.2 Secularization ... 157
3.7 Hajibaba Huseynov (1919-93) ... 160
3.8 The underground conservatory: the role of Absheron towns ... 162
3.9 Khrushchev‟s Thaw... 167
Conclusions ... 168
Chapter 4 Post-Soviet Nativism and Nationalism:
Rediscovering Mugham Creativity ... 170
4. 1 Post-Soviet nativism and nationalism: Azerbaijan‟s identity in flux ... 172
4.2 Nativism and mugham: Islamic revival ... 175
4.3 Mugham Məclisi project ... 178
4.4 Weddings and məclises in the Absheron region... 181
4.5 “Eastern” and “Azerbaijani” mugham on the tar ... 184
4.6 Mugham as national art ... 197
4.7 The Karabakh crisis ... 199
4.8 Westernization and the Soviet legacy ... 203
4.9 Decolonial creativity ... 207
Conclusions ... 210
Chapter 5 Articulating Creativity:
Native Terminology for Mugham Creativity ... 212
5.1 Creativity versus improvisation ... 213
5.2 Mugham təfəkkürü and vəhy ... 217
5.3 Musical structures of creativity ... 220
5.4 Characteristics of creativity ... 225
5.5 Terminology in the post-Soviet context ... 228
Conclusions ... 229
Chapter 6 Performing Creativity:
Musical Possibilities Within and Beyond the Mugham Model ... 230
6.1 The model versus beyond the model ... 231
6.2 Variation ... 234
6.3 Idiosyncratic style ... 244
6.4 Creation of unique cümlə and guşə ... 255
6.5 Modulation ... 263
6.6 Incorporation of non-mugham genres and styles ... 269
Conclusions ... 270
Chapter 7 Experiencing Creativity:
Ontological Possibilities of Mugham Within and Beyond Discourses ... 272
7.1 Characteristics of creativity ... 273
7.2 Meanings take centre stage ... 279
7.3 The mugham journey: interpretation and imagination ... 282
7.4 The ontological shift... 288
Conclusions ... 299
Chapter 8 Conclusions:
Discourses versus Experiences of Creativity ... 300
Bibliography ... 305