Turkmenistan Folk Music

The Concept of Journey (ol) in Turkmen Music Tradition
Author(s): Sawomira eraska-Kominek

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Spring - Summer, 1998), pp. 265-282
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology
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VOL.42, NO. 2
ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
1998
SPRING/SUMMER
The Concept of Journey (Yol) in

Turkmen Music Tradition
SLAWOMIRA
ZERANSKA-KOMINEK
he pivotal category of the Turkmen theoretical system is designated

with the word yol,' whose oldest meaning known to linguists as "aholy
place," "a road leading to a god," "a shaman's journey." The word referred
to magic-religious experiences of ancient Turks. The concept relating to
shamans' ecstatic journeys to the other world formed the basis of the Turkmen musical concept, developed and realized by the baggy, a figure whose
origins lie in Turkmen ancient religious beliefs and practices.
Turkmen music is transmittedverbally and there are no written records
of its theoretical-aesthetic doctrine comparable to the European or Asian
theories. Despite this, in Turkmen tradition the rules relating to the basis
of composing and the criteria of music interpretation are precisely defined
in music terminology which forms a logical and internally cohesive system
of concepts. In this article I will show that this system is built on the semantic
variants of the word yol which means "road,""journey,"and "travel,"and
is a metaphor of the various facets of music structure and performance.
Yol: The Etymology
of the Word
The common meaning of yol as "road"or "journey"in modern Turkic

languages dates back to at least the eleventh century, as is evident in the
definition provided by Mahmud of Kashgar in his Diwan Lughat at-Turk
(Vocabularyof the Turkic Languages)(Tryjarski1993:173-174). Before that,
however, the word described religious phenomena, practices, and experiences among the ancient Turks, as illustrated, for example, in the old Turkish Book of Prophecies (eighth-ninth centuries), written in runes (Stebleva 1976:198-200; 117-118):
? 1998 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
265
266
Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1998

II.
5. Ala atlyy jol tiarri man
I, the god of fortunes on a piebald horse
6. Jaryn kica auiir man.
Gallop in the morning and in the evening.
XVIII.
266. Qara jol taiiri man.
I, the black god of fortunes
267. Synuqynyn sapar man.
That which is broken in you I put back together.
268. iuzukirjinulajur man.
That which is torn in you I bind back together.
In the above quotations the term yol denotes "a god of fate" (cf. Shcherbak et al. 1969), most probably two idols, each boasting different attributes
and functions. Constantly moving, the god on a piebald horse resembles
Manichean Zervan, who, in Iranian tradition, was believed to be the patron
saint of eternally passing, infinite time. Researchers associate the god of the
black road with evil Erlic who, in Altaic people's beliefs, inflicts diseases
and misfortunes on people (Stebleva 1976:117-118). The journey to meet
gods or spirits who exercise control over the course of earthly events and
Man's fate combined the spatial dimension of traveling (sacrificial pilgrimage to a place of worship) and the religious-spiritual aspect. Shamans possessed the secret knowledge about the roads leading to all kinds of supernatural beings. They regularly traveled to the other, secret reality, hidden
away from normal perception, in search of solutions to a range of practical and existence-related problems their communities were beset with.
Shamans' ecstatic journeys form the core of shaman rituals in all cultures
the world over (Eliade 1994; cf. also Wierciniski 1989; Wasilewski 1979).
It has to be noted here that the Altaic people believed that a black road led
to Erlic and that there were seven obstacles on that road representing seven increasingly difficult stages of the journey. Ket shamans traveled along
seven roads, each going in a different direction. A beginning shaman had
to find his own and only road out of the seven (Alekseenko 1981; Eliade
In the belief of the Tuvinian people shamans journeyed
1994:232-239).
along twelve roads, the hardest one leading to the underworld (Dyakonova 1981). The road and journey concept represents the very essence of
religious experience in shamanic practices of the Buryats (Mikhailov 1987;
Eliade 1994:130), the Yakuts (Eliade 1994:235), and the Kazakhs (Castagne 1930:53-151). In Turkmen tradition the making of a sacrificial offering
to a god (spirits) before a shaman began his medical ritual was called huday
yoly (literally: the road of god) (Basilov 1986:100).
The metaphorical extension of the term yol to include music was
achieved through shamanic rituals enriched with theatricals and music, and
The Concept ofJourney
in Turkmen Music Tradition
267
closely related mythological narratives which in Turkmen culture were

performed by professional reciters of epic tales, musicians and singers called
bag?ys.
The bag?y
The etymology of the word bag?y remains a subject of dispute. Some
researchers believe that it comes from Chinese boshi (teacher) which came
to be used in the Turkic languages via the Mongolian language (Mikhailov
1980; Clauson 1972; Radloff 1893; Mustafaev and Starostov 1969). According to Orhan Hancerlioglu (1975; cf. also Mustafaevand Starostov 1969) and
Edige Tursunov (1995:297), this term has its origins in the old Turkishverb
bakmak meaning "to look carefully," "to watch," "to investigate," "to read
the future from the water surface." Uzbeks living in the village of Karamurt
in Kazakhstan (Sayramcounty, Chimkent province) and in some places in
Uzbekistan called the shamanic healing ritual and the ceremony of blessing a shaman (a man or a woman) bokim (bokmok=bakmak) (Tayzhanov
and Ismailova 1986:110-138). Among the Kazakhs(cf. Tursunov 1995), the
Kirghiz and the Uighurs the word baksy (baksa) also denotes "shaman,"
"fortune teller," "witch doctor." The Karakalpakbag?y is a singer and dutar player, his Tatar counterpart is a folk sage, while the Nogai bag?y is a
musician, a master.
Being a musician, poet and reciter, the Turkmen bag?y is distinguished
from his community by a gift for poetry which he receives from his patron
saint (pir) in his sleep. The calling to poetry in the initiation sleep is closely related to the magic-religious election of shamans and changes the social status of the chosen person, who, in Turkmen tradition, is transformed
from an ordinary human being into a musician, or from an ordinary musician into a real bag?y. This is how Ayytmamet Pirnazarow-Gyjakcy,a longtime accompanist of Altybay-bag?yof the Arabacy tribe, described his master's initiation illness:
Once Altybay-bagsykept a watch over a flock of sheep grazing in a desert.
Suddenly he fell and immediately fell fast asleep. In his sleep he saw all famous
bagsys singing at a toy [family feast] and himself among them playing the shepherd's stick. Then an old, white-bearded man appeared and gave him a cup of
wine [Serap] to drink. When they found him the following morning, Altybaybag,y was a different man. For the next three months he suffered from a mental illness. His family called an izan who for six weeks prayed for his recovery. Upon recovering, Altybay-bag,y became attracted to music. He could
remember every song after hearing it just once. So he was sent toJumbay-bagsy
to receive training in music and poetry. Jumbay-bagsytaught him for three years
and gave him his blessing [pata]. Altybay-bag,y knew sixteen dessans. (pers.
com. 1991)
268
The election of a baggy in his sleep is not always a spontaneous event

and is frequently preceded by many years of hard work and spiritual refinement of the candidate who tries to reach the initiation vision at the place
of cult relevance to one of the two patron saints of poetry and music: Baba
Gammar (southern and eastern Turkmenistan) or AsykAydyfi (northern
Turkmenistan).2 Apart from developing their artistic skills, young candidates
for bag?ys regularly make pilgrimages (called huday yoly) to the grave of
one of the saints, where they make sacrificial offerings. Some believe that
it is best to make the pilgrimage on Wednesdays, several times in a row. In
the evening the pilgrim should sit down at the saint's grave and play the
dutar "with faith" till dawn or till he falls asleep. The saint should appear
in his sleep and offer him wine or water to drink. "If you drink it all, you
will become a bag?y. If you don't, you'll wake up and be only a musician"
(Basilov 1970:55). Sometimes the saint gives the pilgrim a dutar, a spade,
or a stick. Before Baba Gammar appears, the pilgrim has a nightmare in
which a snake, a viper, or a giant camel frightens him. If the pilgrim is not
frightened, Baba Gammar comes to him and gives him his blessing. If the
pilgrim gets scared, he may become insane. According to one of the accounts, before falling asleep the pilgrim should make a circle around himself as protection against evil spirits (candidates for bag?ys may have visions
also when they are awake): "Three men came to Baba Gammar's grave and
played their dutars at night. Suddenly a weird apparition appeared. One man
ran away terrified. The second was scared but did not run. He may play now
although his head shakes when he plays. The third was only a little frightened and Baba Gammar turned up the peg on his dutar. Now this baggy
plays the dutar beautifully" (Basilov 1970:56).
The election "from above" and the gift for poetry and music which a
bag?y receives mark the beginning of a new path through life which he will
follow protected by superhuman, supernatural forces. Because of this, the
path, or road, is called yol. Hence yol means the direction and the end (destination) of the road which the chosen man must take, as he represents and
realizes the sacred reality through the mysterious gift for art he has received.
In the professional sense, a bag?y's road may be of two kinds: he may be a
reciter of epic tales called dessans (dessanfy or kyssafy bagqy) or a singer
(tirmefy bagqy). The recitation of dessans is typical of bag?ys in the north
of Turkmenistan, where virually all of them are dessancy bag?ys. In other
regions most of the singers are tirmecy bag?ys, literally "collectors," who
perform only songs from dessans and verse by a wide range of poets. This
division into specializations and, consequently, types of bag?ys, extremely
important in Turkmen music tradition, is referred to as yol, meaning "direction of the artistic road," "specialization." Hence Turkmen bag?ys travel along
either "the dessan road" (dessan yoly) or "the song road" (tirme yoly).
The Concept ofJourney in Turkmen Music Tradition

Magic journeys
269
of the bagsys
Recitation of the dessan

The word dessan is of Iranian origin (dastan) and describes the creation of epic tales, both in folklore and in the writings of the educated classes of the Near and Middle East. The word is used to distinguish a part of a
large literary work (such as Firdausi'sThe Book of Kings [Shahname] from
the tenth-eleventh centuries) dealing with an event or the life of a hero.
Turkmen dessens originated from ancient myths, legends and tales, orally
passed down from generation to generation, describing the heroic history
of their ancestor Oghuz (c.f. Reichl 1992:119-143). These narrativesare a
continuation of Oghuz's age-long epic tradition governed by the rule of
alternating prose and verse. The narrative (kyssa) is in prose, while verses
with the strophic structure (aydym) include the heroes' words, dialogues,
and songs. An overwhelming majority of the lines have a metric structure
consisting of seven, eight, or fifteen syllables.
Turkmen bag?ys use the word yol while referring to dessan or its performance. This may appear to be an obvious reference to the links, commonly known and described in prolific literature,between shamans'ecstatic
journeys and epic tales. In the cultures of many Turkic peoples the epic
tale was the god's word and was performed not only for artistic-aesthetic
purposes, but primarily for religious-magic purposes. Tales narrated by
Buryat uliger, Yakut olonkhosut (Szynkiewicz 1984:250) or Kazakhzhrau
were accompanied by various religious rites, and the words spoken by epic
tellers were considered sacred, just like the words of the shaman's hymn
worshipping a god, or his prayer (Mikhailov 1987:504). Images from epic
tales go beyond the limits of the real world, revealing to the listeners' imagination the secret side of reality to which they travel, following the reciter, and thus become participants in the presented events. Reciters of epic
tales were believed to be persons chosen by gods because, just like shamans, they guided human souls to the worlds which were outside the
bounds of normal human perception. Recitation of an epic tale, which was
full of motifs, figures, and images derived from shamans' visions, was "a
journey" similar to the ecstatic journeys of shamans to the superhuman
reality (Eliade 1994:504). Even today the narrationof dessans includes many
features typical of shamanic mysteries. The bag?y carefully prepares for his
performance at a toy, where he is the main figure and the guest of honor.
He comes to his host's house spiritually "pure"and before the recitation,
in most cases to celebrate a wedding, stays away from the other merrymakers and has a meal made especially for him (Zeraniska-Kominek1992).
Very often the bag?y takes opium because, according to bag?ys, opium
makes it easier to enter "the great path" of dessan and to travel in the state
270
of profound creative inspiration. The listeners who follow the bag?y during this magic journey prompt him with the words "baqla-ver," meaning
"begin."In old Turkish the word "basla" (from bas = head, beginning) also
meant "to show the way" (Tryjarski 1993:173-174).
The poetry-and-music
concert
Since time immemorial epic tales have been recited to musical accompaniment. Adding music and rhythm to recitation has been closely related
to the structure of the poetic language of the tales and has performed a
mnemonic function, making it easier for singers to memorize the vast repertory, which sometimes includes tens of thousands of lines. On the the
hand, music highlights and strengthens the sacral dimension of both the
epic tale and its narration. The oldest form of adding the musical element
to narrationis beyond doubt rhyhmicised melorecitation, preserved till the
present day, such as in the performance of the KirghizManas. As the composition of epic tales developed, and prose and poetry grew separate, the
music layer graduallybecame autonomous. Musicallyarrangedin an increasingly exquisite way, the verses and songs became separate pieces contrasting with the prose episodes in the narration.The Oghuz epic tale from The
Book of Korkut was one of the first to be recited in this way, and so were
all dessans preserved in Turkmen epic tradition to the present day. The
increasingly expressive musical arrangements of the verses within a dessan resulted in the emergence of a wide song repertory, which with time
became more and more autonomous and began to function independently of the original source and the narrative content.
Songs taken from dessans, to which were added verses written by
outstanding Turkmen poets since approximately the eighteenth century,
are presented by tirmecy bag?ys during concerts lasting several hours,
which, just like the recitation of a dessan, are referred to as yol. In Turkmenistan, the bag?ys's performances of poety and music are perceived in
terms of traveling which has a status and a goal similar to those of the recitation of epic tales, a magic journey in space and time. Beginning his concert, the bag?y becomes a traveler who is searching for the "right road"
which he finds only after some time, after singing several or even a dozen
songs. The Turkmen equivalent of the word "song"is "aydym" (in northeastern Turkmenistan another term, nama, is also used). Turkmen bag?ys
sing "songs"(aydymlar), which generally means "vocal pieces with lyrics."
However, the song in which a bag?ys finds his road is referred to as yol. In
this context yol refers to the aesthetic-emotional value of the performance.
Yol means a well performed or beautifully sung song, a song through which
the baggy chooses the right road which takes him to the destination of his
271
musical journey. Every song sung by the bag?y may become a yol, although
this very special moment of acquiring the right spiritual-condition and creative inspiration cannot be predicted. This is the reason why no one can
guess beforehand how many songs (aydymlar) and how many "truesongs"
(yollar) the bag?y will manage to perform during a concert.
The dramatic structure of epic narration, based on the concept of the
shaman's journey to increasingly remote worlds inhabited by supernatural
beings, has become for Turkmen bag?ys the model of purely musical performances, which are based on the general pattern of "journeying"into the
innermost recesses of the tonal space. Penetration of the tonal space, which
in Turkmen tradition is associated with a gradual buildup of emotional tension to reach the culmination in the finale, is done by raising the pitch of
the instrument (dutar) which accompanies the bag?y during a concert. At
the beginning of a performance the musicians tune the dutars to the lowest possible pitch, adjusting them to the lowest register of their voices. Now
and again they raise the pitch by a quarter or half tone, which the listeners
welcome because they wait for the buildup of expression and, consequently, emotional tension of the concert (Zerafiska-Kominek1990). This is why
a frequent tuning of the dutar is considered to be an element of bag?y art.
Some experienced masters believe that the instrument's pitch should be
raised approximately seven times during a concert. In practice, however,
this rule is not observed and the dutar may be tuned with varying frequency during a concert. Figure 1 shows the way five bag?ys tuned their dutars.
The singers are marked with Roman numerals while Arabic numerals mark
consecutive songs performed during the concert. The "steps"illustrate the
retuning of the dutars.
Despite the fact that during a concert the dutar may be tuned several
times and the buildup of the absolute pitch is a continuous process, in
theory Turkmen musicians distinguish only three main tunings: (1) low (pes
fekim, literally "the weakest stretching of the strings"), (2) middle (orta
fekim, literally "the medium stretching of the strings"),(3) high (beik fekim,
literally"the strongest stretching of the strings").However, there are no clear
divisions between the tuning ranges of the dutar. The three tunings have
their equivalents in three stages of the "journey"in the tonal space. The
lower zone of the tonal space is used in the first phase of the concert. In
the second and third phase the musical events move up to the middle and
higher zone. The three tunings and the three corresponding phases of the
concert are associated in Turkmen theory with the three stages of the magic
journey and three types, or spheres, of emotions. The first phase serves as
an introduction and preparation for taking "the right road." This happens
in the second phase of the concert, which is also the longest. The third
phase means reaching the destination, finding ecstatic fulfillment at the
272
Figure 1. The tuning of the dutar during a concert played by five bag?ys.
V
I
13
5
2
3
IVV~~~~~~~~~
10
'O
,'
10
11
11
12
11
12
11
12
13
14
1'2
'3
1'
,'5
16
1'
12
13
14
15
16
17
13
14
15
16
17
13
14
15
16
17
15
16
17
IV
'
'
~i
1'I
10
,7.
,8.
III
1
I I
II
,.
10
highest possible point in the tonal space and symbolizes transcendence of

ordinary reality (Zeraniska-Kominek1990).
The System of Ordering Songs
The bag?y's musical journey is a well-organized process, governed by
a clear set of rules relevant to the way of sequencing the songs. The "right"
or "correct"road (yol) along which the Turkmen singer travels is nothing
but the performance of several songs in an orderly and systematic manner,
in line with the rules. Yol, meaning "system,""order,""rule"(c.f. Mustafaev
and Starostov 1977), forms one of the most important concepts in Turkmen music theory.
273
As previously mentioned, the very general plan of musical "journey"

construction is carried out by a systematic raising of the pitch, which means
that each consecutive song is placed higher than the preceding one in the
tonal space, so that there is an ascending sequence of songs. The buildup
of the absolute pitch, achieved by tuning the dutar, is correlated with the
growing "width" of the song-its range, which in Turkmen music theory
is measured by the number of frets (perde) on the dutar neck. Since the
range may be wider or narrower, songs are divided into three groups, each
allocated to a zone in the tonal space: (1) narrow songs with a range of four
or five notes (a fourth or a fifth) include the first five or seven frets and are
allocated to the lower zone of the tonal space; (2) songs with a medium
range, almost an octave, cover ten perde and are allocated to the middle
zone; (3) wide songs with a range exceeding an octave are allocated to the
high zone in the tonal space. Narrow songs are also low songs (yapbyldak)
because they belong to the lower zone of the tonal space and are placed
in the lower part of the neck of the dutar. Accordingly, songs with a medium range are medium high (orta aydymlar) and wide songs are high
(fekimli aydymlar). In the course of a concert the songs follow each other in line with the widening-range rule, from the narrowest to the widest,
and from the lowest to the highest: narrow songs, to be sung in the low
register, are performed in the first phase of the concert, followed by medium-range songs (to be sung in the middle register), making the second
phase of the concert, and by wide songs to be performed in the high register in the third phase.
The gradual widening of the range of the songs in the course of the
concert causes their actual movement up the tonal space, even if the absolute pitch is not raised. This happens because, for reasons of their own,
bag?ys sometimes choose not to tune the dutar at all, and yet their musical
journey is "ascending" because the tonal range of the performed songs
widens upwards.
Song Structure
The term yol, which forms the conceptual core of the theoretical system of Turkmen music, has yet another meaning: "song structure."The song
is "ashort road"along which a bag?y travels in keeping with a relevant rule.
According to Turkmen bag?ys, each song has its yol (literally "road"),or
"order"which determines the sequence of the segments defined on the
basis of their width, or range, measured by the number of frets on the dutar
neck. The concept of song structure ("order")therefore is nothing but the
transfer of the concert-arrangement rule to the lower level, that of individual songs. Selected in this manner are songs consisting of only one segment
274
Ethnomusicology,
Spring/Summer
1998
with a range equaling a fourth or a fifth and usually based on single melodic-motivic material, songs with two segments and a joint range reaching an
octave and with melodic-motivic material different for each of the segments,
and songs whose three segments exceed an octave. The type of structure
is closely correlated with the position of the song along the bag?y's musical journey. One-segment "narrow" structures occur in the low song group,
two-segment structures (medium range) occur in the medium high group,
and three-segment structures are typical of high songs. This structural rule
does not correspond to the formal structure of songs, although they are
closely interrelated. The form of the bag}y's songs depends primarily on
the verse form and on the way verse fragments are musically arranged.
To sum up: bag?ys can be said to know two basic techniques correlated with each other, designed to realize the concept of the musical journey
in the tonal space: the raising of the absolute pitch by tuning the dutar, and
the widening of the song range. The theoretical pattern of the musical structure of a bag?y's concert is shown in Fig. 2. The horizontal axis represents
the dutar neck with thirteen frets providing the chromatic scale of the instrument. The vertical axis shows the conventional set of tones organized
from the lowest to the highest. The points on this axis indicate the tunings
of the dutar, chosen by the bag?y, whose absolute pitch is of no practical
consequence because the tuning standard is qualitative in nature and relative to the zone. The horizontal lines represent the consecutively performed
songs.
Figure 2. The bagWy'sconcert structure.
SECOND PHASE OF THE

CONCERT
ZONE OF MIDDLE TUNIN GS
MIDDLE
SONGS
FIRST PHASE OF THE

CONCERT
ZONE OF LOW TUNINGS
LOW AND NARROW
SONGS
The Concept of Journey in Turkmen Music Tradition
275
Musical structure understood as a journey means moving down the road

from the starting point to the destination. Therefore it represents a movement, an effort to achieve an aim and a dynamic process. The composition
which develops in time is actualized during its performance and in oral tradition its final form is never designed beforehand. Music does not exist as a
static object, but is understood exclusively in terms of its performance which
becomes real in time. Planninghis concert a Turkmen bag?y never says what
the "object" of his concert will be, only how long it will last. Similarly,he
never asks: "Whatam I to sing?"but "How long is it to last?"Performersdo
not measure their repertories by the number of memorized songs, but by
the total time of their duration. Therefore they do not say, "I know 200
songs," but "I have a repertory for twenty-four hours of performance."
The basic factor organizing the progress of the musical journey in time
is the interaction between the composer/performer and his audience. The
performer must come up to his listeners' emotional and aesthetic expectations and feels compelled to develop a personal, direct relationship with
them and to adjust himself skillfully to the circumstances. Therefore in preparing his repertory he has to take into account the age, sex, and social status of his listeners, their preferences and musical tastes (c.f. Lord 1991).
Hence the performance is adjusted to suit the requirements of the audience
and is determined by its active perception of the musical progress, which
is a spontaneous sequencing of the autonomous and independent musical/
expressive wholes, the songs. The sequencing of songs always has an improvisatory nature because the performer selects and organizes the songs
from his repertory in a totally free manner. This composing/performing
process takes the listeners down the musical road, drawing their attention
to the relations existing between the following segments, while adding or
leaving out a segment is never perceived as something that upsets the cohesion of the entire composition. Listening is "taking delight" in the very
process of sequencing the songs rather than waiting for the conclusion, for
the closing of the expected structure (Reckow 1986). Traveling along the
road places the listeners within the time frame of the musical present and
does not require of them either to remember past or to anticipate future
events. Listening to music which is created during the very process of its
performance means savoring the individual tonal images which move before the listeners' eyes, not being bound by any cause-and-effect relations.
This, however, does not mean that the musical process is chaotic or
lacks cohesion. A Turkmen bag?y's journey may be longer or shorter and
may be composed of various elements, but it will always adhere to the same
rules which, while not determining the concrete tonal form of performance,
do influence its general organization and are the landmarks on the road
along which the bag?y is taking his listeners. In the course of those long
276
concerts, often lasting several hours, their participants occasionally stop

listening to the music, go out or start conversing or doing other things.
These temporary breaks do not have any effect whatever on the listener's
reception of the performance as a whole. The listener may rejoin his or her
fellow travelers at any moment, at any point of the well marked road. Every bag?y organizes his concert differently; its duration, form and-content
depend both on local tradition and the tastes and temperament of the singer
and his audience. However, the general rules of those musical journeys are
strictly observed in Turkmen tradition, while the knowledge of them is an
indicator of the performer's mastery.
Style of Performance
In Turkmen tradition the term yol also denotes the style of performance
in a very broad sense of the bag?y's "poetic-musical lifestyle." In this meaning yol includes the repertory (a collection of dessans and songs which the
musician has memorized), his body movements during the concert (especially gesticulation and facial expression), and the musical and technical
means of performance (tempo, intonation, articulation and voice timbre).
Turkmen bag?ys distinguish at least eight regional styles (see Figure 3):
Figure 3. Distribution of the Turkmen music styles according to bag?ys.
277
Yomut-Gklefi yoly, 0owdur yoly, Ata yoly,3 Arsary yoly, Salyr-Saryk yoly,
Ahal-Teke yoly, Damana yoly, Kazanjyk yoly. The last one is also referred
to as the Yomut style (southwestern Turkmenistan).
Except for the Persian term damana (literally "the foot of a mountain"),
all other names are ethnonyms and seem to signify the differentiation of
styles according to tribal criteria. However, the history of Turkmen, especially the permanent reorganization of their family/tribal structure, inevitably led to the blending of traditions and a gradual disappearance of differences that may have existed before. Two conventional kinds of musical
behavior can presently be distinguished, each being relatively stable, recognizable, and repeated in performances (Uspenski and Belaiev 1928): the
Yomut-Gkleii style (northeastern Turkmenistan) and the Salyr-Saryk style
(southeastern Turkmenistan) (Niewiadomska-Bugaj and Zerafiska-Kominek
1997). In southeastern Turkmenistan the instrumental section consists of
one, two, or, exceptionally, three dutars. This extremely soft-toned instrument repeats the melodic line of the song and keeps up its rhythm. The
bag?y gently plucks the strings to produce a beautiful sound. In the northeast of the country the dutar is played as a rhythmic instrument in place of
drums which have never been used in Turkmenistan. The bag?y's playing
is sharp, and the tones of the dutar are short and dry. The melody of the
song is set by the gyjak (spike-fiddle), always slightly ahead of the other
instruments. In southern Turkmenistan the gyjak is used by back-up groups.
Its high and shrill sound frequently dominates performances in the north,
increasing their intonational and melodic precision. An important element
differentiating the northern and the southern style is the internal tempo of
the sound events. Melismatic intensity, the glissando, "sobbing" combinations of sounds, which upset the rhythmic pulse, and the protracted, vibrating tones account for the fact that the internal tempo and the density
of events are perceived as slow or very slow in southeastern-type performances. A strongly syllabic use of the text, a multitude of additions (embellishments, exclamations, etc.) and the purposefully distinct rhythm, typical of the northeastern style, all add up to a fast or very fast tempo.
One of the greatest peculiarities of the bag?y's vocal art is a whole
wealth of sound effects which may be traced back to shamanic spell-casting practices. These effects largely depend on the individual preferences
and tastes of bag?ys, although general conventions are also important here.
It would be impossible to list and to systematize all vocal sounds which are
heard in Turkmen music. They can roughly be divided into three types: (1)
murmurs (hoarseness of the voice, sighs, humming), (2) calls/exclamations,
and (3) barking/hiccuping effects which in Turkmenistan are onomatopoeically referred to asjuk-juk. Murmurs and cries are typical primarily of the
northeastern style. The southeastern style bag?ys are rather restrained and
make the effects sound more "musical" by producing them at a definite
278
pitch. Hoarse sounding murmurs, characteristic of northern Turkmenistan,

in the south are replaced with humlemek (humming) or hulemek (singing with closed lips or singing the hi syllable in a slightly hoarse voice) at
a definite pitch and in a low register. All kinds of cries, calls, and exclamations produced in the northeastern style, usually at a hard-to-define pitch,
appear less frequently in the southeast and are almost always articulated
at a definite pitch. Juk-juk is Turkmen performers' favorite embellishment
which appears in both styles.
There are marked differences between the northeastern and the
southeastern style as regards voice production and tonal color. In the
southeastern part of the country bag?ys sing in a rather broad, resonant,
and slightly nasal voice. Relaxing their vocal organs and using the head
as a resonator, they gain a finer use of the vocal technique, especially in
high registers. These bag?ys specialize in very high register singing. The
northeastern type of singing is characterized by a throaty, flat, stifled, and
hoarse voice whose recitative often lacks intonational precision. The fast
tempo and the parlando kind of articulation frequently take distinctness
away from the melodic line. Sometimes singing in high registers turns into
screaming.
A major criterion for distinguishing the two styles is the manner of
articulating non-musical effects, especially juk-juk. In the southern style, jukjuk effects are pronounced very narrowly (usually with the use of the vowel
i or u) and very deeply, from the diaphragm. In the north, juk-juk effects
are shallow and throaty, produced with the use of the broader vowels, e,
a, and u. Southern bag?ys produce this effect sparingly and very expressively, as if after giving it some thought, while in the north singers do it
spontaneously, or even casually.
The style of performance employed by half of the professionally active
Turkmen bag?ys escapes classification because it is not based on any clearly
definable and repetitive pattern. What these unconventional performances
have in common is the fact that each represents a different combination of
various elements of the northern and southern styles. Bag?ys who claim to
represent the Ahal-Teke style combine the wealth of non-musical effects typical of the northeast with the sing-song quality of performance popular in the
southeast. The western style (Gazanjyk) is characterized by distinct hoarseness of the voice, which brings it closer to northeastern-style performances.
On the other hand, however, the effects and their articulation resemble the
southeastern style of performance. Bagsys representing the Damana style sing
in a very high register and exercise restraint as regards embellishments. And
yet they produce juk-juk effects in keeping with the southeastern style. Singers who claim to represent the Arsary style (eastern Turkmenistan) are known
279
for the most heterogeneous performances.Manyalternatebetween the northeastern and the southeastern style in the course of one concert.
The most important influence on the overall tonal impression of the
bag?y's musical and poetic creation is beyond doubt his personality and artistic individuality, both of which prevail over the "tribal,"local, or regional stylistic convention. The performances of singers who claim to represent
the same style may largely differ in many important respects. A significant
role in shaping the individual styles of bag?ys' musical journeys is played by
the greatest masters/teachers (halypa) who create new "roads"and "directions" (yollar), which their disciples subsequently develop and modify.
Conclusion
In Turkmen musical terminology the word yol has eight meanings:
(1) The bag?y'spath through life. A person becomes a bag?yafter being
elected by supernatural powers and his path through life (or "road"),just
like the road of a shaman, differs from the lives of ordinary mortals. The
very essence of electing a bag?y is a gift he receives "from above" for making magic journeys, whose aim is to establish contact with the supernatural reality. The bag?y's main occupation is telling epics and performing
music and poety concerts.
(2) The bag?y's professional specialization. Turkmen bag?ys are divided into epic tellers (dessancy bag?y), who travel along the dessan road
(dessan yoly) and singers (tirmency bag?y), who travel along the "song
collection" (tirme yoly). This division is a result of the development of
Turkmen-language classical poetry, which began to flourish in the eighteenth century. Many of the greatest poets themselves were also bag?ys.
They represented a new group of "collectors"(tirmecy bag?y) who may not
have been known before.
(3) The epic tale and its recitation. The epic tale (dessan) is called
"road,""journey,"or "greatjourney" because of its genetic links with religious myths. Thus the narration of epics was closely related to shamans'
religious experiences during their magic journeys.
(4) The poetry-and-music concert. There is an analogy between the
way the bag?y's concert, which originated from epic narration, and the
recitation of the dessan are perceived: both are compared to a journey or
moving in a definite direction with a definite aim. In this context the road
concept takes on a new, metaphorical meaning, that of a tonal space organized from the lowest to the highest tone. In theory the tonal space is divided into three different-level zones represented by three tunings of the
dutar and having different emotional intensity.
280
Ethnomusicology,
Spring/Summer
1998
(5) The songs. The singer is a traveler searching for the "right" road.
Yollar are the songs of "the only road" which leads the singer to his destination. The term yol relates to the emotional-aesthetic quality of performance.
(6) The system of organizing the songs. The system of sequencing the
songs is based on two main, interrelated rules: the songs move from the
lowest to the highest in the tonal space, and the songs move from the narrowest range to the widest.
(7) Song structure. In Turkmen theory the song structure is referred
to in terms of register segments. There are songs with one, two, or three
segments, which, accordingly, have a narrow, medium, or wide range. The
second rule concerning the concert structure also determines the sequence
of songs which corresponds to their internal structure. One-segment songs
precede those with two segments which precede songs having three segments. In practice this means that each following song is more complicated than the preceding one.
(8) Style of performance. Yol meaning "style" determines the way the
journey is effected, or, in a broad sense, the way the bag?y behaves musically. The style concept includes a very wide repertory of gestures and
technical (mainly vocal) means of performance, which constitute the most
important factor shaping the Turkmen music idiom. The various components of the style and the criteria of its "tribal," local, or regional differences are not verbalized in Turkmen tradition and, to a large extent, are treated individually by performers. The style of performance provides the main
element of artistic imaginativeness which prevails over the more general
convention in the bag?y's musical journeys.
Notes
1. In this article all Turkmen terms are given in their original form, in accordance with
the new rules of Latin writing adopted for the Turkmen language in 1993.
2. There are two places of the Baba Gammar'sworship in Turkmenistan. One is in the
Kopet Dag Mountains, twenty kilometers south of the village of Many?, near A?gabat. The
other, more popular, is Baba Gammar's grave on the Murgap bank in Yoloten etrap. This is
the usual site of Turkmen bag?ys'pilgrimage. The place of A,yk Aydyfi'sworship is in a desert,
not far from Ak Depe etrap in northeastern Turkmenistan.
3. The Yomut-G6klefi, 4(owdur, Ata styles are closely related to each other. They form a
musical-stylistic feature distinctly characteristic of Turkmen Khorezm and this is why they are
marked as one on the map.
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The Concept of Journey (ol) in Turkmen Music Tradition

Author(s): Sawomira eraska-Kominek

The Concept of Journey (Yol) in

he pivotal category of the Turkmen theoretical system is designated

The common meaning of yol as "road"or "journey"in modern Turkic

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1998

The Concept ofJourney

in Turkmen Music Tradition

closely related mythological narratives which in Turkmen culture were

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1998

The election of a baggy in his sleep is not always a spontaneous event

The Concept ofJourney in Turkmen Music Tradition

Recitation of the dessan

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1998

The Concept ofJourney

in Turkmen Music Tradition

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1998

highest possible point in the tonal space and symbolizes transcendence of

The Concept ofJourney in Turkmen Music Tradition

As previously mentioned, the very general plan of musical "journey"

Figure 2. The bagWy'sconcert structure.

SECOND PHASE OF THE

FIRST PHASE OF THE

The Concept of Journey in Turkmen Music Tradition

Musical structure understood as a journey means moving down the road

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1998

concerts, often lasting several hours, their participants occasionally stop

The Concept ofJourney

in Turkmen Music Tradition

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer 1998

pitch. Hoarse sounding murmurs, characteristic of northern Turkmenistan,

The Concept ofJourney in Turkmen Music Tradition

The Concept ofJourney

in Turkmen Music Tradition

Basilov, Vladimir Nikolaevich. 1970. Kul't svyatykh v islame. Moskva: Mysl.

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