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Today, the Turkmen people inhabit northwestern Afghanistan and northern Iraq as well as most of Turkmenistan. This ethnic group currently makes up 85 percent of Turkmenistan’s population and are well-known for their unique musical performers, called “bagshy”. Countries such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan also have similar terms to describe a bagshy which they refer to as an epic reciter or a shaman. The dual meaning of their respective terms suggests that one person once filled the roles of both an epic reciter and a shaman, but the tasks were later separated into two roles (Gubanova 109).
oems and shorter songs while also playing the dutar. A bagshy can be accompanied by other musicians, called sazanda, but bagshy are typically trained in solo performance. As with many other types of musical performances along the Silk Road, the bagshy have “the ability to communicate with spirits and to affect people’s psyche through spoken words and verbal eloquence” (Gurbanova 111). Bagshy is an oral tradition between a master, known as “halypa”, and a student, commonly called “shägrit”.
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Baghsys were traditionally male but today many female students have begun learning bagshy.
Students of bagshy rs, often living in their master’s home until their training was completed. Baghsy training not only included vocal and instrumental skills but also exercises in memorization and performance technique. To complete their training, bagshys would travel to the shrines or Baba Gambar and Ashyk Aydyn Pir. At these places, they would perform bagshy pieces and make sacrifices as a rite of passage.
When they returned, a ceremony would be held where their master would give the student their blessing which allowed them to begin their career as a bagshy. The bagshy were highly respected guests wherever they traveled. It was not uncommon for a bagshy performance to last an entire evening until dawn, and all patrons were expected to stay for the duration of the performance.
Turkmen bagshy can s: Yamanchy, Tirmenchi, and Dessanchy. Yanamachy bagshy consists of a vocalist accompanied by at least one instrumentalist who plays the gargy tuýduk (a flute) or the dutar. The vocalist sings long phrases with much ornamentation, which is common among all types of bagshy. In tirmechi bagshy, the singer plays the dutar and is accompanied by a dutar or ghijak player. A tirmechi bagshy performance begins with songs in the lower register. Each note in a piece is no further than four steps away from the previous note. As the performance continues, the distance between pitches increases, the structure of each piece is more widely varied, and the dynamic differences are more noticeable than at the beginning of the performance. The performance reaches its climax at the end with songs sung in a high register which forces the singer to use their highest possible voice.
The lyrics of tirme Turkmen poems and epics. Bagshys perform the poetic sections but another performer reads the narrative sections. For a Dessanchy bagshy performance, a bagshy performs both the poetic and narrative sections of Turkmen epics and will often play the dutar or ghijak during the poetic sections. Prior to the main performance, the bagshy will warm up by playing ten to twenty narrative pieces which combined take multiple hours to complete. Dessanchy bagshy help spread Turkmen epic poems by singing them to the tune of well-known folk songs.
Example 7.3, “Jan js performed by Muhammetgeldi Geldinejad. Geldinejad is a bagshy from the Golestan province of Iran who graduated from the D. Öwezow Turkmen National Musical Vocational School in 2013. The beginning of Jan jan includes a dutar instrumental section that does not have a clear meter. However, it is clear that Geldinejad is playing a limping rhythm, used to bring the audience into a transcendental state. When the introduction finishes, Geldinejad sings in a timbre that sounds as if he is sobbing or wheezing out the words. The lyrics of the poem he is performing describe the feelings of a man who has fallen for a woman and is so desperate to be with her he says he will sacrifice himself for her.
Geldinejad shows thbres of his voice as well as his physical demeanor. This style of performance is similar to that of Uyghur muqam in that the performers’ physical move with the music and are emotionally invested with the piece. If the piece is sad, as is the case in example 7.3, the performers will be visually distressed, as if they are experiencing the same feelings and emotions as the person whose perspective the poem is written from. Geldinejad exemplifies many qualities of a bagshy including his ability to sing and play the dutar simultaneously. He also learned his repertoire orally from his teacher, which is traditionally how bagshy music is passed down, and he shows much emotion while performing. Muhammetgeldi Geldinejad truly exemplifies the bagshy tradition which is full of passion and dedication to performance. This art form requires not only exemplary musical talent but also a large amount of memorization to deliver a powerful, moving experience to the audience.
The Groups Of Turkmen Bagshy. (2024, Feb 17). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-groups-of-turkmen-bagshy-essay
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