History of mugam and stages of development- Part 2

Beginning from the 7th century the art of mugam moved to a new stage of its historical development. This stage is mostly connected with Islam. Thus, beginning from the mid 7th century, Islam starts to cover all areas of Atropatena and Albania. Before the 7th century, Arabian art including its music art was not so developed as Azerbaijani. Therefore, Arabs did not hold a destructive approach to the rich professional music of the countries where they spread Islam, including Azerbaijan. They tried to learn this culture and spread it among themselves. Despite spreading Islam in Azerbaijan in the 7th century, the professional music continued developing in palaces. Though Islam had a definite influence on the art of music especially on mugam it even enriched in the period of Islam. To sing Koran was the main provision and requirement of Islam religion. A strong voice is considered a priority in Koran singing. Koran was sung with the rhythm, intonation and the structure of the Arab language. But those Azerbaijanis who followed Islam sung Koran with the mugam intonation. Thus, Koran singing was much influenced by Azerbaijani mugam. This influence was also observed in Islam traditions and ceremonies, for example, singing azan. Thus, religious songs were performed on the basis of Azerbaijani mugam melodies. In the 7-9th centuries a new genre starts to form in the literature of Azerbaijan. The formation of the genre of qezel’s strongly influenced the development of Azerbaijan’s art of mugam. Thus, the genre of qezel gradually transformed into a poetic base of Azerbaijani mugam. qezel’s influenced the rhythm features of mugam and turned into a rhythmic basis of mugam. Moreover, qezel’s also had a positive influence on the literary content and emotionality of mugam. qezel’s written in the lyrical, lyric-philosophical and religious terms required the corresponding music performance, performance features and musical characters and this caused a new content and form of the musical language of mugam.

History of mugam and stages of development-Part 1

Every art has its own history of creation, formation and development consisting of definite stages that are interconnected. This can also be attributed to mugam. The history of mugam covers various wide issues. The history of mugam is among the most modern and urgent problems of the contemporary music science. One of the most important aspects in the history of mugam is related to its geographical coverage. The art of mugam that is considered to be Eastern music and eastern culture has its national forms and genres as well as names peculiar of all eastern people. The history of Azerbaijani mugam dates to the ancient periods. As a genre the creation and formation of mugam coincides with the establishment of ancient states and cities. All historical areas of formation of the Azerbaijani people and their living can be considered the geographical area of mugam. All Caucasus people listened and assimilated the art of mugam only as Azerbaijani mugam which was the founder, the main carrier and distributor of the art of mugam in Caucasus region.