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Heritage
Safiaddin Urmavi and Uzeyir Hajibayov
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City
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Baku
Country :
Azerbaijan
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(comparative analysis of Urmavis treatise "Kitab al-Advar" and U. Hajibayovs book "Principles of Azerbaijan folk music)1
It is already more than 7 centuries that scholars both in the East and in the West have been learning very valuable "some things" as the great musicologist Safiaddin Urmavi modestly called his innovations in music presented in his treatises "Kitab al-Advar" and "Sharafiyya" and his continuing doctrines.
The English scholar George Farmer noted that all the Arabic, Persian and Turkish authors had been followers of Urmavis theory. We may list Mohamed Jurjani, Abdulgadir Maraghai, Gutbaddin Shirazi, Mahmud Amuli, Abdulrahman Jami, Zeynalabdin Huseyni, Kavkabi Bukhari, Darvish Ali, Mirza bey, Mir Mohsun Navvab and the great scholar and composer of the XX-th century Uzeyir Hajibayov. Breaking the darkness of the Medieval Ages Urmavis treatises are still alive as unique scholarly works and kept as valuable manuscripts in the libraries in New-York, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Cairo, Istanbul, Sanct – Petersburg,Tehran, Baku and so on.
The famous European scholar Rafael George Kizevetter called Urmavi "Zarlino of the East". The great English scholar Charles Parry considered Safiaddins table to be the most perfect of all ever invented. George Farmer compared Safiaddin to a shining star and called him the founder of "the School of systematization".
Safiaddin Urmavis works open a new period in the theory of oriental music, in the development of musical scholarship. He entered musical scholarship as the founder of "the School of systematization" and inventor of tabulaturas.
Urmavis great achievement was the arranging of the oriental sound system. 17 graded gamma which is the base of his system is differed from both al-Kindis 12 tone chromatic gamma and al-Farabis 22 tone gamma. He presented the scales of 12 mugham circles and 6 avazes of oriental music within a diatonic gamma.
In the treatises using "Abjad" note signs Urmavi was able to write down ancient melodies giving them immortality.Following him up to the XVI century the scholars broadly used that note system. Besides, Urmavi is known to have been the inventor of such musical instruments as "Mugni" and "Nuzha" and an outstanding musician playing the ud.In the East there were legends about his brilliant playing as well as calligraphers and ornamentors skills!
Seven centuries later, in other words, in the middle of the XX century Uzeyir Hajibayov wrote in his book "Principles of Azerbaijan folk music": "In the history of the development of the theory and practice of the music of the peoples of the Near East two Azerbaijan musical theorists stand out conspicuously in world renown Safiaddin Abdulmomin ibn Usif al Urmavi (from Urmiya) - XIII century and Abdulgadir Maraghai (from Maraga) - XIV century”. ")2
While working on his own book U. Hajibayov realized the significance of "Kitab al-Advar" among a great number of other books, took its photocopy from Nurosmaniya library, brought it to Baku and studied it. The book "Principles of Azerbaijan folk music" by Hajibayov is very similar to "Kitab al-Advar", with regard to avestions formulared and problems resolved, structure and the style of writing. The influence of "Kitab al-Advar" is particularly great on the theory of mode system in Hajibayovs book. The latter work continued the scholar tenets of Urmavis treatise meeting the requirements of contemporary Azerbaijan music scholarship. That is why we may call "Principles of Azerbaijan folk music" a modern treatise.
1 We carried out the comparative anilise basing on the following: "Kitab al-Advar", Istanbul, Nurosmaniya, ¹3653, 3654 and "Principles of Azerbaijan folk music", Baku, 1950.
A talk on the theme “Safiaddin Urmavi” and Uzeyir Hajibayov” was given on the 16th of January 2005 in Tehran in the world congress.
2 U. Hajibayov. "Principles of Azerbaijan folk music", Baku, “Yazichi”, 1985, p.18
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