 |
| Tapchane du grand compositeur Shahidi dans sa maison devenue musée. |
The man who receives us is amazed to see us arriving. It is not every day that visitors are showing their faces here. So he will be taking all his time to show us places, leading us in the rooms where lived the man who is regarded as the father of the Persian symphonic music. Jamshed shows us photos and documents while reporting us on the life of the composer. Davlat, a Tajik student met at the cultural center Bactria, accompanies me. He will be my interpreter.
- Ziyodullo Shahidi moved into this house in 1932, tells Jamshed. He came from Samarkand where he was born in 1914. His parents were confectioners.
Samarkand, a Tajik-populated city anciently attached to the Bukhara Emirate had just been included in the territory of an Uzbek Republic created ex nihilo by the Stalin's cartographers, while the Tajikistan Republic incorporated for its part Uzbek-populated territories from the Ferghana valley. For the Father of Nations, the aim was to thwart the ethnic nationalism. Jamshed shows me an old document written in Russian.
- This is a rehabilitation act signed by Gorbachev. In 1937, Shahidi's father had been sentenced by the NKVD for anti-communist propaganda and sent to the Gulag.
- It must not have facilitate his son's career. What did he become ?
- Nobody knows.
Our guide takes us inside the intrument room, plays some notes on each of them, naming them : ney (shepherd flute), tambur (lute), santur (zither with strings that are struck with the aid of small sticks), setar (three ropes lute) and daf (frame drum) which is playing for the marriages with the karnay (long trunk).
- Shahidi learnt very young to play these instruments, he says. At 25, he was already famous as musician and as composer. He was virtuoso of the maqam which is the foundation of the academic music and which accompanies words from poems.
In Arabic music, a maqam is a set of notes with traditions that define relationships between them, habitual patterns, and their melodic development. Maqamat are best defined and understood in the context of the rich Arabic music repertoire. The nearest equivalent in Western classical music would be a mode (e.g. Major, Minor, etc.) The Arabic scales which maqamat are built from are not even-tempered, unlike the chromatic scale used in Western classical music. Instead, 5th notes are tuned based on the 3rd harmonic. The tuning of the remaining notes entirely depends on the maqam. The reasons for this tuning are probably historically based on string instruments like the oud. A side effect of not having even-tempered tuning is that the same note (by name) may have a slightly different pitch depending on which maqam it is played in. (http://www.maqamworld.com/maqamat.html)
Shahidi did not know the musical notation. He played by ear. One day, during a concert in Lohuti Theater, he noticed a man in the audience writing on a paper while he was playing. Shahidi went to see him after the concert. "I am music professor in this theater, told him the man. I write what you play." Shahidi was totally astonished that the music could be written in a so efficient manner. He began to study the musical navigation and attended Moscow Academy courses.
- Was his music traditional ?
- Not exactly. He used the tradition by introducing it into the European harmony. His musical works were inspired by the study of new forms. He liked very much the vocal art and cooperated with the poets of his time. Many of his songs like Muhabbat (Love) or Zi suzi sina (Fire in the breast) were perfomed by a number of singers and musicians of the former Soviet Union. Today, these songs are known in Iran, Turkey, Russia and in many other countries. You know certainly Romeo and Juliet ? An Iranian playwright called Abdulkadir Bedil wrote Komde and Modan who is inspired by. Shahidi composed from it an opera by transforming the story into a revolutionary fight for the freedom loving, the art and the creativity.
Jamshed begins singing a tune where it talks about "Zafar".
- Who is this Zafar of your song ?
- It is not a person, he says in laughing. "Zafar" means Victory. Shahidi wrote this song during the night of 8 May 1945, after the fall of Nazi Germany. The poet Boqi Rahimzoda wrote the text. The Victory Song !
Jamshed pulls me outside of the house.
- And in closing, here is the Shahidi's tapshan. I arranged for you mattresses and pillows.
I imagine Shahidi there, having his poet friends, meditating and composing his symphonies before playing and transcribing them. I thank Davlat for his help.
- Do you like this music, Davlat ?
- H'm no, he answers frankly. I prefer the Anglo-American pop music.
- Ziyodullo Shahidi moved into this house in 1932, tells Jamshed. He came from Samarkand where he was born in 1914. His parents were confectioners.
Samarkand, a Tajik-populated city anciently attached to the Bukhara Emirate had just been included in the territory of an Uzbek Republic created ex nihilo by the Stalin's cartographers, while the Tajikistan Republic incorporated for its part Uzbek-populated territories from the Ferghana valley. For the Father of Nations, the aim was to thwart the ethnic nationalism. Jamshed shows me an old document written in Russian.
- This is a rehabilitation act signed by Gorbachev. In 1937, Shahidi's father had been sentenced by the NKVD for anti-communist propaganda and sent to the Gulag.
- It must not have facilitate his son's career. What did he become ?
- Nobody knows.
Our guide takes us inside the intrument room, plays some notes on each of them, naming them : ney (shepherd flute), tambur (lute), santur (zither with strings that are struck with the aid of small sticks), setar (three ropes lute) and daf (frame drum) which is playing for the marriages with the karnay (long trunk).
- Shahidi learnt very young to play these instruments, he says. At 25, he was already famous as musician and as composer. He was virtuoso of the maqam which is the foundation of the academic music and which accompanies words from poems.
In Arabic music, a maqam is a set of notes with traditions that define relationships between them, habitual patterns, and their melodic development. Maqamat are best defined and understood in the context of the rich Arabic music repertoire. The nearest equivalent in Western classical music would be a mode (e.g. Major, Minor, etc.) The Arabic scales which maqamat are built from are not even-tempered, unlike the chromatic scale used in Western classical music. Instead, 5th notes are tuned based on the 3rd harmonic. The tuning of the remaining notes entirely depends on the maqam. The reasons for this tuning are probably historically based on string instruments like the oud. A side effect of not having even-tempered tuning is that the same note (by name) may have a slightly different pitch depending on which maqam it is played in. (http://www.maqamworld.com/maqamat.html)
Shahidi did not know the musical notation. He played by ear. One day, during a concert in Lohuti Theater, he noticed a man in the audience writing on a paper while he was playing. Shahidi went to see him after the concert. "I am music professor in this theater, told him the man. I write what you play." Shahidi was totally astonished that the music could be written in a so efficient manner. He began to study the musical navigation and attended Moscow Academy courses.
- Was his music traditional ?
- Not exactly. He used the tradition by introducing it into the European harmony. His musical works were inspired by the study of new forms. He liked very much the vocal art and cooperated with the poets of his time. Many of his songs like Muhabbat (Love) or Zi suzi sina (Fire in the breast) were perfomed by a number of singers and musicians of the former Soviet Union. Today, these songs are known in Iran, Turkey, Russia and in many other countries. You know certainly Romeo and Juliet ? An Iranian playwright called Abdulkadir Bedil wrote Komde and Modan who is inspired by. Shahidi composed from it an opera by transforming the story into a revolutionary fight for the freedom loving, the art and the creativity.
Jamshed begins singing a tune where it talks about "Zafar".
- Who is this Zafar of your song ?
- It is not a person, he says in laughing. "Zafar" means Victory. Shahidi wrote this song during the night of 8 May 1945, after the fall of Nazi Germany. The poet Boqi Rahimzoda wrote the text. The Victory Song !
Jamshed pulls me outside of the house.
- And in closing, here is the Shahidi's tapshan. I arranged for you mattresses and pillows.
I imagine Shahidi there, having his poet friends, meditating and composing his symphonies before playing and transcribing them. I thank Davlat for his help.
- Do you like this music, Davlat ?
- H'm no, he answers frankly. I prefer the Anglo-American pop music.
More photos Duchanbe
No comments:
Post a Comment