Musicians of The Academy of Maqâm - Music of Central Asia Vol. 2: Invisible Face of the Beloved
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Artist: Musicians of The Academy of MaqâmBrand: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Edition: Music CD
Format: CD
CD Release Date: 2006-03-14
Model: SFW40521
Music Label: Smithsonian Folkways
Soundtracks:
- Solo on the SATO (bowed TANBUR)
- Sarakhbor-i Râst
- Tarona 1
- Tarona 2
- Tarona 3
- Tarona 4
- Tarona 5
- Talqin-i Ushshâq
- Suporish Talqin-i Ushshâq
- Tarona
- Nasr-i Ushshâq
- Tarona 1
- Tarona 2
- Nawroz-i Sabo
- Talqincha-i Sabo
- First Suporish
- Ufor-i Ushshâq
- Final Suporish
Music reviews of Music of Central Asia Vol. 2: Invisible Face of the Beloved
Music Review: Lovely modal melodies and classical Persian poetry presented with a huge amount of background for Westerners
Rating: 5 Stars
This may be the most important series of world music CDs ever. The Music of Central Asia initiative was set up by the Aga Khan and the Smithsonian Insitution to document the surviving folk music traditions of that rich part of the world, and to present it to the global community with enough background to get the most out of it. Each volume in the series comes with a substantial booklet, as well as a DVD with a short documentary film.
Volume 2 of the series features music by the Academy of Maqam, a Dushanbe-based ensemble dedicated to the classical tradition of Uzbeks and Tajiks. This tradition, called shashmaqam, consists of six types of suites where great Persian poetry is combined with powerful modal melodies. The instruments we hear here are the dutar, a two-string long-necked fretted lute; the sato, a long-necked bowed lute; the tanbur, a long-necked plucked lute with one string and a number of sympathetic strings; and the doira, a frame drum with jingles. Five vocalists, two men and three women, sing verse from the Persian mystical love poet Hafiz and folk song.
The suite we hear on this disc is called Maqam-i rast, and its construction is immensely elegant. A brief solo on the sato serves to tune the singers. We then enter into "Sarakhbor-i Rast", a Hafiz setting, where successive couplets are sung in a continuously developing melody builds toward a climax on the second to last couplet, and then returns down to the start point on the last. There then follow several short songs called taronas, typically folk song, which serve as moments of relaxation between the spiritual ectasy of the classical poems, and as melodic and rhythmic transitions. Another type of transitional movement is the suporish, which serves to quickly move between one meter and another. I especially like how, in the very last movement of the suite, the climax couplet from the first poem returns, and will be unmistakable even if you don't speak a word of Persian.
The booklet contains a presentation of the musical instruments, a description of each movement of the suite, and a general introduction to maqam. Students of Persian will be happy to find the text of the songs given in both transliterated Persian and English translated. The documentary on the DVD is concerned mainly with the efforts of Abduvali Abdurashidov, the founder of the Academy, to transmit shashmaqam to the next generation. We hear his thoughts of what shashmaqam means to him personally, and see bits of suites other than the Maqam-i rast presented on the CD.
If you are interested in indigenous musical traditions, the Persian language, Central Asian culture or are just a simple music fan on the lookout for something cool, I cannot recommend this disc and the whole Music of Central Asia series enough.
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Description of Music of Central Asia Vol. 2: Invisible Face of the Beloved
Amid the mosques and minarets of Samarkand and Bukhara, generations of vocalists set the mystical, Sufi-inspired verse of Hafiz and other classical poets to lyrical melodies, creating a spiritual art music of great refinement and sublime beauty called Shashmaqâm, confirming its important place among the great art music traditions of Euasia. 18 tracks, 70 minutes, 44-page booklet, photos, and bilingual lyrics; DVD contains series introduction, 24-minute film, interactive glossary, and map.Music of Central Asia is a co-production of the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia, a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. The aim of the series is to present leading exponents of Central Asia's rich and diverse musical heritage to listeners outside the region.
Shashmaqam, the classical music of the Uzbeks and Tajiks, can best be described as a highly evolved relation of romantic lieder, in which the poem becomes the music and vice-versa. This Grammy-nominated second installment reveals still more of the passion and melodic genius inherent in traditions of Central Asia, as sinuous mixed voices keen and soar over plucked, strummed and bowed strings (the tanbur, dutar, and sato, respectively) and clopping, rattling doira frame drums. If the scales feel unfamiliar and take some getting used to, and the vocals, with their minutely calibrated hair-spin curves and call-and-response patterns, seem a bit strange, a single thorough listen will not only acclimate the ear but reveal a myriad of unexpected delights. The universal preoccupations of love and sex are described amid images of flower-bedecked, blushing girls and sighing swains. But the music emanates from someplace more primal, from the very life-force capable of driving men and women mad with bliss and fruitless longing. Co-produced by The Aga Khan Trust for Culture and Smithsonian Folkways, this ongoing series is helping to de-mystify a proud, tender, magical and ineffably beautiful family of traditions. The exhaustive liner notes and an invaluable accompanying DVD showcase the present performers, their history, and repertoire. Fascinating geographical and cultural information and glossaries are also provided. --Christina Roden
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