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Armenian and Azeri Music in Derbent

by Ored Recordings

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about

The Kagramyans Workshop

The last point of our expedition was Derbent - the tourist gem of Dagestan and the oldest city in Russia. According to the banners and local stories, Derbent is somewhere between 2000 and 4000 years old. We were also amused by this scatter in the dates in the official history.
In Derbent we met with Arkady and Arseniy Kagramyan - Armenian masters of flute-pipes and douls production. The father and the son take custom orders and repair tools together. It turned out that they do not play music often - only in a close circle of friends and only for their own pleasure. Playing for the recording seemed awkward for them, firstly because it was unusual, and secondly, Kagramyan family, apparently, did not consider themselves as strong enough performers to be released on any label.


But they agreed. Son, Arkady, played the duduk, Arseny accompanied on the vibraphone. It was a wedding and popular dance music. Some of them are typical for Tbilisi Armenians.
Despite the modesty of the performers, the recording, as it often happens, got a nice sketch of a particular situation. After the record session, over a nice cup of tea Kagramyans advised us to record their friends - the ensemble of the Azerbaijani theatre in Derbent .
It’s a great portion of luck when musicians advise other performers. What is more, the situation was doubly surprising, because after the Karabakh conflict, Armenian-Azerbaijani relations can hardly be called warm. And yet in Derbent they turned out to be good neighbors, no matter how bittersweet and pacifist it may sound.

Azerbaijan theatre of the Republic of Dagestan

On the next day we arranged the recording session with the Director of the Azerbaijani theater. Ashug Mahir and traditional music ensemble were performing there. Mahir showed us a familiar ashug tradition, but the ensemble presented music that we had not heard before.

Azerbaijani mugham is the music of oral professional tradition. At the time of recording, we didn't know much about this culture, so we were very surprised how melodically and technically complex “folklore” can be.
Mugham is a genre of vocal and instrumental works performed by professional ensembles. Canonical mugam ensemble includes tar, kamancha and a lead singer - hanende. Researchers attribute this genre to a higher class of music and often oppose it to the folklore and folk tradition. But classical mugham melodies often cross the ashug genre, which is considered to be folklore by the vast majority of ethnomusicologists. What about us, we believe that this high-low genre segregation is an ideological construct.

Azerbaijani mugham is fair to be considered as a part of supranational Eastern musical culture. This genre with its own characteristics can be found in the Iranian musical tradition, Arabic, Uighur, Tajik and many others.


At the Azerbaijan theatre of Derbent we recorded two pieces of music: the Karabakh Shikestesi and Bayati Shiraz. The first is a short rhythmic mugam (Zerbi-mugam), which is popular amongst the ashugs. Bayati-Shiraz is believed to be the one of the main mughams, which is often used in traditional, symphonic and even local jazz music.


One of the special features of Derbent mugham ensemble is not quite canonical ensemble: kemancha, accordion, clarinet and nagara. At the time of recording there were no professional tar player in the team and therefore the sound of the release can not be considered as a classic one. Ashug Mahir performed one song with the accompaniment of this ensemble, and then his colleagues asked him to sing it solo, with the accompaniment of saz. According to their asseverations, that’s what ashugs do.

It is impossible to describe the complex relationship of tradition and professionalism, folklore and folklore, national and supranational systems based on the experience of one expedition.
But because of this expedition we were able to raise these questions. Although the main value – amazing music of the region.


Sound: Timur Kodzoko,
Sound editing: Timur Kodzoko
Image: Elizaveta Wdowina
Cover art: Milana Khalilova
Notes: Bulat Khalilov
Special thanks to Shamil Sherifaliev and Alexander Efimov

Recorded in Derbent, Dagestan
04.2016

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released July 22, 2020

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Ored Recordings Düsseldorf, Germany

Traditional and local music from the Caucasus and beyond

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