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Safiaddin Urmavi and Uzeyir Hajibayov

Author:                   City : Baku   Country : Azerbaijan
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The only mugham that could stand against the crushing influences of time and events was "Rast". The ancient musicologists called "Rast" the mother of all mughams. The mugham "Rast" has retained up to now not only its name and the structure of its gammas, but the pitch of its tonic as well".")9

Analysing "Rasts" presented by Urmavi and by Hajibayov we may say the mode of "Rast" had no change from the XIII to XX century (Here we are presenting the scales of both "Rasts":

Both modes keep the consequent order of perfect quarts. According to Halibeyovs conception, the scale of Azerbaijan "Rast" consisted of three equal tetrachords built on the formula 1 - 1 - 1/2. If we take away the lower tetrachord, we can see that Urmavis and Hajibayovs "Rasts" are the same as they have both the structure of two equal tetrachords and the conjoint combination. The only difference is some uncoincidence of the third and sixth tone at the pitch. In Azerbaijan music the major third is shorter (bam), the minor third is a semitone wider (zil) than the temper third.

We should note, that avazes appeared later than modes, i.e. they are included in the second group of modes of 17 graded system. If we look at the scale of every six avazes shown in Urmavis tables, we can see all of them in general move in the descending direction. This peculiarity is revealed in the musicians playing. Usually they start playing avazes from above.

We should remember, in his treatise Abdulgadir Maraghai wrote that it was very difficult to compose in the style of the mugham "Salmak" and the exception was the author of the book "Circles" Urmavi, who composed "Nouba" consisting of 4 parts. Maraghai himself composed some musical works - Nouba, Basit, Amal, Sout, Pashrav in the style of that mugham.

As the problems raised in theVII - XII-th Chapter of the book "Kitab al-Advar" have not taken a special place in the book "Principles of Azerbaijan folk music", we do not consider them either. And the problem of polyphony investigated in "Principles of Azerbaijan folk music" is not considered in "Kitab al-Advar".

The XIII-th Chapter of "Kitab al-Advar" was dedicated to one of the most important problem of the theory of music - the theory of rhythm ("iga"). It is known that Urmavis predecessors - scholars al-Kindi, al - Farabi, Ibn Sina and others studied that problem and presented its functional significance, determined its rhythmic formulas (mizan - method) and so on. In his treatise Urmavi developed their theory and presented his own sense of rhythm. In his book Urmavi introduced six kinds of wide spread rhythmic circles: 1. first - hard heavy (sagili - avval); 2. second - hard heavy (sagili - sani); 3. hafif - heavy (hafif - sagil); 4. ramal; 5. hafif ramal; 6. hazaj.

We should note that in some of the copies of "Kitab al-Advar" the scholar gave information of the rhythm "Jahar - zarb" and wrote that it was composed by an Azerbaijani rubabist named Mohamed Shakh. DErlange who used the copy being kept in the British Museum wrote in his comments that non arabic musicians considered that it was the hardest rhythm. They even said that it was twice as long as the double rythm "ramal" known as the most difficult before.

In his book "Principles of Azerbaijan folk music" Uzeyir Hajibayov also wrote about the rhythmical peculiarities of Azerbaijan music. According to its metrico - rhythmical structure he divided Azerbaijan folk music into two parts. The first one is music with conspicuously expressed metrical measure and the latter - music without any metre. Music with conspicuously expressed metrical measure is represented by the folk songs, all type of folk dances and also "tasnifs" (vocal music) and ranghs (instrumental music). The metre of these forms are equal to 6/4, 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 4/8, 6/8, 3/8.


Urmavi dedicated the ×ØÌ Chapter of "Kitab al - Advar" to the emotional effect of modes. He wrote "each sadd (dastgah or lad) can make a good impression on listeners but in different ways. For example, some of them evoke the feelings of strength, bravery and joy. There are three of them: Ushshag, Busalik and Nava. Such modes as Rast, Novruz, Irag and Isfahan have the effect of pleasant and not very strong joy. Such modes as Buzurk, Rahavi, Zirafkand, Zangula and Huseyni cause sorrow, sadness, grief".

In his book U.Hajibayov also considered the aesthetic - psychological impressions of the modes. He wrote, from the aesthetic -psychological point of view, "Rast" evoked the feelings of fortitude, courage and cheerfulness, "Shur" - cheerful lirical spirits, "Segah" - the feeling of love, "Shushtar" - the feeling of deep sorrow and grief, "Chargah" - the feeling of excitement and passion, "Bayati - Shiraz" - the feeling of melancholy and sadness, "Humayun"- the feeling of deeper sorrow than in "Shushtar". We can see with the years some changes took place in the structures of the modes and at the same time their aesthetic - psychological impressions changed too.

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9 "Principles of Azerbaijan folk music", p.19


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