Dr Anna Senarslan, Azerbaijan Archive of Sound Recordings
2007 award – pilot project
£9,648 for 3 months
The ashug art is a 500 year-old narrative and musical tradition that has survived in the mountains of Azerbaijan. The core of the art is the “dastan” epic that is told to the accompaniment of the Azerbaijani lute by an ashug, a minstrel who must train many years with a master in order to learn the art. These lengthy epics, which combine Caucasian folklore with Sufi philosophy, have been passed through generations for hundreds of years. Ashugs also engage in contests called “deyishme” in which they pose riddles intricately woven in improvised verse. There are many regional schools of the art, each of which has its own repertoire and music. Continuing a traditional method of encoding and communicating information over time, dastan contain layers of cultural, linguistic, and historical information about the peoples and microcultures of the Caucasian mountains. Every ashug performance is based on verbal improvisation within a traditional framework, thus every recording represents an artistic moment which will never be repeated.
Because this art is often dismissed as back-country folklore, there has been little effort by state cultural organs to preserve its traditions. Contemporary ashugs concentrate on short lyric songs in order to compete in the profit-centred entertainment marketplace, and many original features of the art are rapidly disappearing. Tragically, due to the territorial wars of the past 20 years, whole regional ashug schools have been wiped out, their surviving members dispersed as refugees. In addition, because of enduring economic crisis, the population has shifted to Baku , further undermining cultures of the rural regions. Today, epic dastan, deyishme, and the subtleties of regional variants are only known by the oldest ashugs, and this living heritage may be lost within the next 10 years.
Thanks to the efforts of Archive Director Madatov, the Azerbaijan State Archive of Sound Recordings has a significant collection of ashug arts of the past 70 years recorded on phonograph records, magnetic tape, and video. They also house a collection of photographs and field recordings. These holdings include more than 100 dastan, as well as deyishme and songs performed by ashugs from all regions of Azerbaijan . As the 20 th century witnessed several waves of dispersion and destruction of archives, many of the recordings are unique representations of a specific dastan or a great master ashug. Because these holdings are stored on media that is vulnerable to embrittlement over time, it is important that they are copied to digital media, both as a method of preservation and as a way to make the collection available to the public. Thus, the first goal of the pilot programme will be to identify the 50 most voluble items related to the ashuq art and to create digital copies.
The second goal of the project will be to identify other collections of significant ashiq materials (which can include recordings, photographs, and perhaps manuscripts). Potential institutions with large collections include the Museum of Musical Culture under the direction of Allah Bayramova, the Folklore Institute under the direction of Huseyin Ismailov, the Azerbaijan State Radio “Gold Fund,” and the Museum of Ashiq Arts in Tovuz. In addition, there are many scattered collections of very rare materials that are being kept by folklore enthusiasts, families of ashugs, and regional cultural centres throughout the country. Accordingly, regions of Azerbaijan will be visited to identify these collections and reach an agreement with the owners and will be used as the basis of a future major project.
