Music in Azerbaijan has been developing since 3-5 millenniums
B.C. At that time people of the Stone Age used to play musical
instrument called "gaval-dash" (stone-tambourine)
in place Gobustan (not far from Baku). From those times
a lot of different national musical instruments have been
played. The most popular national musical instruments nowadays
are tar (a stringed musical instrument played by plucking),
kemancha (a string musical instrument played with a bow),
balaban (a woodwind instrument), def (a percussion instrument),
saz (a string instrument played by plucking with a plectrum)
and other types. In music an ancient tradition was carried
into modern times by ashugs, poet-singers who presented
ancient songs or verses or improvised new ones, accompanied
by a stringed instrument called the kobuz.
Another early musical form was the mugam, a composition
of alternating vocal and instrumental segments most strongly
associated with the ancient town of Shusha in Nagorno-Karabakh.
At the close of the eighteenth and at the beginning of the
nineteenth centuries, famous Shusha singers Shakhsanam oglu
Yusif, Mirza Husryn Gasanja, Mirza Ismail widely popularized
classic mugams and laid the foundation of the Khanende -
singer's art, when the singer performs mugams with perfect
mastery.
There are 7 classical forms of mugam. These are: Rast, Shur,
Seygah, Chaargah, Bayati - Shiraz, Shushter, Humayun. At
the same time, each of these mugams has a fixed number of
parts. And only singers, who could perform all parts of
all of the mugams correctly, deserved the name Khanende.
An independent area of the Azerbaijan musical folklore is
a dancing music distinguished by its diversity and relief
of rhythmic figures.
Azerbaijan music could be also divided into two categories:
Asian influence music and European influence music. Mugham,
ashugs music and folk dancing music are formed under Asian
influence. Another baranch of Azeri music that includes
Azeri opera and ballet is formed under European influence.
Azeri opera and ballet started to develop in the XIX century.
The great Azeri composer Uzeir Hajibeyov was the founder
of first Azeri ballet and opera. Famous Azeri opera Leyli
and Majnun, written by Uzeir Hajibeyov in 1907 was the first
opera written not only in Azerbaijan but also in the East.
Leyli and Majnun is a tragic love story set in the XII century
and written by great Azeri poet Nizami. The following works
of Uzeir Hajibeyov such as Husband and Wife opera (1909),
O Olmasin, Bu Olsun (If Not That One, This One) music comedy
(1911), Shah Abbas and Khurshid Banu opera (1912), Arshin
Mal Alan (The Cloth Peddlar) music comedy (1913) and Keroglu
(Son of a Blind Man) opera (1937). All his works have a
great success and are often performed in the Opera and Ballet
Theatre.
Another great Azeri composer is Gara Garayev (1918-1982).
He wrote more than 110 pieces, including ballets, operas,
symphonic and chamber pieces, piano solos, cantatas, songs
and marches. The most famous among them are opera "Vatan"
(Motherland) (1945), ballet Seven Beauties (1952), ballet
Thundered Path (1957), opera Nargiz (1957).
Fikret Amirov (1922-1984) was another famous Azeri composer,
who left a profound imprint on Azerbaijan's music. Amirov
composed symphonic music, vocal chamber music and piano
music mainly. In his works he uses a lyric tone as basis
and transposes elements of the tradition of Azerbaijan in
his music. The most famous Amirov's works are "Robbers
of the Heart", musical comedy (1944), "Happy News",
musical comedy (1946), "The Seagull", opera (1948),
"Shur", symphonic mugam for orchestra (1948),
"Syevil", opera (1953), Arabian Nights (1001 nights),
ballet, (1979).
Western influence on Azerbaijan music reflects not only
in development of opera and ballet but also in the development
of jazz music. The most famous Azeri jazzman is Vagif Mustafazade
(1940-1979). He was the first jazzman in the world that
created the style of "jazz-mugam", a blend of
jazz and Azeri folk music. His works had a great success
not only in Azerbaijan but also around the world. Vagif
Mustafa Zadeh won first prize at the 8th International Music
Festival in Monaco in 1978. He composed a great number of
jazz works mixing different syles of jazz with various elements
of Azeri folk music.