| Shashmaqam | |
|---|---|
 Shashmaqam in Tajikistan | |
| Native name | Шашмақом / Shashmaqom |
| Cultural origins | Tajik andUzbek music |
| Typical instruments | Long-neckedlutes,dayra, andsato |
| Shashmaqom music | |
|---|---|
| Country | Tajikistan and Uzbekistan |
| Reference | 00089 |
| Region | Asia and the Pacific |
| Inscription history | |
| Inscription | 2008 (3rd session) |
| List | Representative |
Shashmaqom (/ˌʃæʃməˈkɒm/SHASH-mə-KOM;Uzbek:[ˌʃæʃmaˈqɒm];Tajik:[ʃɐʃmɐˈqɔm]) is aCentral Asian musical genre (typical ofTajikistan andUzbekistan) which may have developed in the city ofBukhara. Shashmaqam means the sixMaqams (modes) in thePersian language,dastgah being the name for Persian modes, andmaqams being the name formodes more generally.
It is a refined sort of music, with lyrics derived fromSufi poems about divine love. The instruments of shashmaqоm provide an austere accompaniment to the voices. They consist, at most concerts, of a pair of long-neckedlutes (rawap,tar,tanbur ordutar), thedayra, or frame drum, which, with its jingles, is very much like atambourine, and thesato, or bowed tanbur.
In the first half of the 20th century inUzbekistan,Abdul Rauf Fitrad, member of theJadid, was particularly interested in shashmaqam, the traditional music of the Court. In 1927, he wrote a book calledOzbek klasik Muzikasi va uning Tarikhi (Uzbek classical music and its history), in which he presented shashmaqam as a grand musical tradition of theUzbek people. In the 1930s, during the Soviet regime ofJoseph Stalin, Uzbek shashmaqom was seen as an echo of thefeudal ruling class and as a kind of music that impinged cultural progress toward adoption of European-style harmony. Finally, in 1951, a decree from the president of the Uzbekistan Union of Composers, reaffirmed by the committee of Uzbekistan, suppressed the maqom and the development of the musical practice.
During the mid-50s, the maqam began an ideological rehabilitation. In Tajikistan, the local leadership decided that shashmaqom should form a part of the national traditional heritage. Tension between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan led to the differentiation between the Tajik shashmaqom as developed inDushanbe, and the Uzbek shashmaqam as developed inTashkent. Tajik books made no mention of Uzbek shashmaqam and vice versa.[citation needed]
During the 1980s, this artificial division began to change. Uzbekistan began to learn about the Tajik shashmaqam, and Tajikistan learnt of the Uzbek shashmaqom. This has survived to the present, but a surge of nationalism in Uzbekistan may change that: singers on the radio inBukhara, a city perfectly bilingual inUzbek andTajik, are using only the Uzbek texts in their shashmaqom music broadcasts.[1]
This style of music was brought to the Western world, particularly to the United States, by theBukharian Jews of Central Asia. Many of them were successful performers of Shasmaqom and brought it to the West.
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