Kurdish music (Sorani Kurdish:میوزیکی کوردی) refers to music performed in theKurdish languages andZaza-Gorani languages.[1][2] The earliest study of Kurdish music was initiated by the renownedArmenian priest andcomposerKomitas in 1903,[3] when he published his work"Chansons kurdes transcrites par le pere Komitas" which consisted of twelve Kurdish melodies which he had collected.[4] The ArmenianKarapetê Xaço also preserved many traditional Kurdish melodies throughout the 20th century by recording and performing them.[5] In 1909, Scholar Isya Joseph published the work "Yezidi works" in which he documented the musical practice of theYazidis including the role of the musician-likeqewal figures and the instruments used by the minority.[6]
Kurdish music appeared inphonographs in the late 1920s, when music companies inBaghdad began recording songs performed by Kurdish artists.[7]
Traditional Kurdish music is culturally distinct fromArabic,Armenian andTurkish music,[12] and mostly composed by people who remained anonymous.[13] Thematically, the music were ofmelancholic andelegiac character, but has since then incorporated more upbeat and joyous melodies.[14]
Moreover, there are religious-themed songs (lawje)[16] seasonal musical topics, for example "payizok" that are songs about the return to the summerpastures performed in autumn.[17] Kurdish improvisations are called teqsîm.[18]
In Iraq, tolerance for Kurdish music ceased with theSaddam regime (1979–2003) which put in place restrictions against Kurdish culture.[19] Between 1982 and 1991 the performance and recording of songs in Kurdish was also banned inTurkey.[8]
^Robert F. Reigle (2013). "A brief history of Kurdish music recordings in Turkey".Hellenic Journal of Music Education, and Culture.4 (2).ISSN1792-2518.
^Eliot Bates (2016).Digital Tradition: Arrangement and Labor in Istanbul's Recording Studio Culture. p. 289.ISBN9780190215767.
^Wendelmoet Hamelink (2016).The Sung Home. Narrative, Morality, and the Kurdish Nation. p. 164.
^Abdul Mabud Khan (2001).Encyclopaedia of the world Muslims: tribes, castes and communities, 2.University of Michigan: Abdul Mabud Khan. p. 799.ISBN8187746084.
^Lokman I. Meho, Kelly L. Maglaughlin (2001).Kurdish Culture and Society: An Annotated Bibliography. p. 218.ISBN9780313315435.
Skalla, Eva and Jemima Amiri. "Songs of the Stateless". In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.),World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, pp 378–384. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books.ISBN1-85828-636-0
Dr. D. Christensen,Tanzlieder der Hakkari-Kurden, Eine material-kritisch Studie, in Jahrbuch für musikalische Volks-und Völker-Künde, Berlin i, pp. 11–47, 1963.
Edith Gerson-Kiwi,The Music of Kurdistan Jews. A synopsis of their musical styles, in Yuval, Studies of the Jewish Music Research Centre, ii, Jerusalem 1971.
Vartabed Comitas,Quelques spécimens des mélodies kurdes, in Recueil d'Emine, Moscow 1904, and re-edited in Erivan in 1959.
Hassanpour, A."BAYT".Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved2016-04-11. , "BAYT , a genre of Kurdish folk art, an orally transmitted story which is either entirely sung or is a combination of sung verse and spoken prose."
