THE GENRE PROJECT - January 10 - Tajik Music

Genre of the Day - Tajik Music

Album of the Day - Tajikistan: Classical Music and Songs by Abduvali Abdurashidov (January 10)

Today’s genre was interesting because it not only reminded me that regional music will likely be overwhelmingly the main genre category that appears over the course of this project because the regional music overarching genre on RYM happens to contain over 1,000 subgenres. As huge a number as that is, the moniker regional music alone obfuscates the fact that there are then so many genres within each of those genres, showing the astounding depth of music across the world. While the streaming economy poses so many problems to the music industry, it is an incredible fact that anyone can experience subgenres within subgenres of so much music from anywhere on earth. 

Case in point: today’s genre I randomly selected was Tajik Music, which doesn’t even have subgenres officially on RYM, but then I went down the rabbit hole of the specific album that is #1 within the Tajik Music category and found out that it’s really a niche subgenre of music within Tajikistan on its own. Today’s music is a variant called shashmaqam, a traditional type of music in both Tajikistan and Uzbekistan—which I found interesting because the genre is lyrical but they don't share a language—that was suppressed in Uzbekistan in the 1950s because it was seen in this newly Soviet-pilled Central Asian nation as music of the ruling feudal class and inhibiting progress. Tajikistan, despite also being Soviet-pilled, did not take this path at all and Tajik music books proceeded to pretend Uzbekistan had never had shashmaqam music, just cutting them out of the picture entirely. 

This hilarious power move from Tajikistan really resonates with me because I was actually supposed to spend a summer in Tajikistan for a Persian-languages State Department program (the only other major Persian-speaking nation is obviously Iran which Americans can’t quite easily go to) but this was 2021 and COVID vaccines hadn’t widely dropped in Tajikistan yet so it was virtual. Even virtually, though, getting to know a culture that isn’t represented in American media really at all was lovely, but I can’t say we were exposed to much music so this was a particularly personally salient listen for me. Unfortunately, I feel I didn’t progress as far as I wanted to because the program was online and obviously much less immersive, and Tajik learning materials are kind of few and far between, so I fear I don’t really remember much of the language, apart from the spare word I recognized once a song here. 

The music here feels totally distinctive from anything else I’ve listened to in this project so far. Not only is this album a shashmaqam revival of sorts, it’s also a showcase mostly of one specific instrument—the sato, a lute with an insanely long neck (on the album cover, the neck just soars over him)—by a rarefied player, Abduvali Abdurashidov who is considered the most important sato teacher and shashmaqam composer. While most of the albums I listen to in this project are invariably seen as pioneers or masters of their genre being that I’m selecting the #1 album, it’s cool to see one specific regional instrument being so fondly appreciated as to learn and dedicate one’s musical life to it. It translates to the impassioned music—the sound of the string is distinctive, with significant vibrato and resonance to its sound. The selection of music also feels varied nicely, with sparser, lonelier sato arrangements (Chuli irâq, Kholam mapurs) being contrasted against the fast-paced drumming and speedy string plucking (Qosh tar). In showing all of the sato’s abilities, it makes the unfamiliar listener appreciate it much more. This was a lovely listen in all; while I may have forgotten to apply for the Central Asia Maymester my university does (who puts a during-Thanksgiving deadline for any program application) and it seems the universe doesn’t want to bring me to Central Asia at this juncture in my life, a boy can dream with the power of music.