The music of modern nomadic and rural Turkmen people is closely connected to other Central Asian folk traditions and has roots in Arab and Persian music from the Middle Ages. Important musical traditions in Turkmen music include traveling singers and spiritual leaders called bagshy, who serve as healers and magicians. They sing without instruments or with a two-stringed lute called the dutar. The classical music tradition known as mugam is also found in Turkmenistan, where it is called mukamlar.
Classical Turkmen folk music
According to Soviet musicologist Viktor Belyayev, Turkmen classical folk music has its roots in Arabic music from Khorezm, especially in Bukhara, which was a major musical center in the Islamic world during the 13th century. In the 9th century, Turkic tribes in Central Asia, including ancestors of modern Turkmen people, stopped using their own culture and adopted Arab traditions, including music, after converting to Islam. At that time, Arabic music had influences from ancient Greek music, which came to the region during the 4th-century conquest by Alexander the Great, and some influences from pre-Islamic Christian traditions. Belyayev also noted later influences from Azerbaijani and Afghan music. A terracotta figurine from ancient Merv, dating to the 2nd through 4th centuries CE, shows a wandering musician holding an instrument similar to the dutar.
Belyayev pointed out that it is difficult to separate Arab and Persian influences on Turkmen music. He suggested that kidnapped Persian brides may have introduced Persian musical elements, such as the use of an augmented second and three specific Persian musical modes, into Turkmen folk music.
Gullyyev and Rejepova said that the epic poem Gorkut Ata mentions early medieval instruments, including the gopuz, surnaý, bory, and nagara. However, they noted that very little is known about Turkmen musical culture from the 9th through 15th centuries. Musician and musicologist Mamed Guseynov stated that Turkmen love of music comes from the lack of other entertainment during their nomadic lifestyle in the steppes.
Turkmen classical folk music is vocal, with poems being sung or chanted by a singer called a bagşy, who accompanies himself on a dutar. Poetry is not read but sung or chanted to music. Belyayev described this style as "halfway between speaking and singing." All traditional music includes lyrics that are highly structured poems. Belyayev and Uspenskiy identified six major themes in Turkmen folk songs: religion, disillusionment with life (the most common theme), military, criminal, or hunting subjects, love, curative songs (which sometimes have shamanist elements), and history. They also noted that humorous songs exist, but bagşy generally do not perform them.
The Soviet Turkmen Academy of Sciences classified folk music into categories such as halk aýdymlary (folk songs), läle (maidens' songs), monjugatdy (fortune-telling songs), hüwe (lullabies), ýaremazan (caroling), oleň (wedding songs), and agy (mourning songs). More recently, Turkmen composer and musicologist Suhan Tuýlyýew grouped folk music into two categories: folklore, which includes lullabies, work songs, ritual songs, lyrical songs, children's songs, and legends, and professional music, performed by bagşy and involving recitations of dessan, traditional epic poetry. Turkmen musicologist Şahym Gullyýew generally agrees with these categories, though he places lullabies among children's songs and includes all songs with legends in professional music.
Turkmen folk music usually does not include choral singing, dancing, or percussion instruments. The main instrument is the dutar, a two-stringed lute played by strumming. The primary wind instrument is the tuiduk (a type of flute). The dutar is traditionally played alone; in a duet, musicians take turns and compete to see who is better. Playing dutar in groups or performing purely instrumental music is a recent development not part of traditional practices. Percussion instruments, such as the tambourine, are rarely used and mainly appear in areas influenced by Uzbek music.
Other instruments include the gyjak, a bowed string instrument, and the dilli tuiduk, a reed woodwind.
The main structure of Turkmen music follows four parts:
1. başlamak (beginning or introduction)
2. ýappyldak (first movement, slower and in a lower register)
3. şirwan (climax or middle movement)
4. çykmak (calming close, final movement)
Professional bagşy do not improvise; they follow strict traditional forms that have been preserved for centuries. The Smithsonian Institution describes Turkmen music as "highly structured and harmonically organized," with the dutar's pitch raised "as many as seven times" during a performance and the bagşy saving "the most emotionally charged poetry" for the highest pitch.
Turkmen poems are made of separate stanzas, "each itself consisting of four or five lines." The last line of each stanza repeats the rhythm of the last line of the first stanza, while other lines follow the poem's general rhythm. The fourth stanza contains a radif (a feature
Women's songs
British sociologist Carole Blackwell explains that folk songs sung by male bagşy and Turkmen women serve "important but different roles." Folk songs sung by men, such as dessan poems, describe "epic, historical, and mythical events." Women's songs include läleler, which are songs by unmarried girls and often express sadness; toý aýdymlary, which are wedding songs; hüwdüler, or lullabies; agylar, which are songs sung at funerals; and monjukatdylar, fortune-telling songs performed during the Novruz holiday. These last songs are often sung in private, away from men, because they "express emotions…that Turkmen women were not supposed to have, or admit to." Although the Soviet government tried to stop these traditions, since Turkmenistan became independent, efforts to support Turkmen culture have helped preserve these folk songs.
Modern Turkmen classical music
Before 1919, there were no music schools in Turkmenistan. In 1919, the Proletarian Conservatory of Transcaspian Oblast was established in Ashgabat, with a branch in Mary beginning in 1920. The Turkmen Artistic Technicum, which included a music department, opened in Ashgabat in 1929. Children's music schools were created in several cities in 1935. An opera and ballet studio was opened in Ashgabat in 1937. In 1935, a Turkmen department was added to the Moscow Conservatory, where talented children were sent for training. Victoria Clement noted that the Soviet government tried to control all symbols of power, including music.
By the end of the 1930s, graduates from these institutions began composing music in the style of Europe, using European scales and modes but including Turkmen musical themes. These composers included Weli Muhadow, Daňatar Öwezow, and Aman Gulyýew. After World War II began, many Russian and Ukrainian composers and musicians moved to Central Asia, including Turkmenistan. This influenced Turkmen music, leading to the creation of European-style operas based on Central Asian stories, such as Shasenem and Garyp, Leyli and Mejnun, and Zohre and Tahir.
In 1941, the Turkmen State Orchestra of Folk Instruments was founded. This group created modern versions of traditional folk music. By the 1950s, Soviet Turkmen composers shifted from arranging traditional stories into music to creating songs that praised Soviet power. These works included Bagt kantatasy (Joy Cantata), Kommunistik partiýa hakynda kantata (Cantata about the Communist Party), Lenin barada oýlanma (Thought of Lenin), and Salam Moskva (Hello, Moscow).
In the 1970s, Turkmen composer Nury Halmammedov became the most well-known European-style classical music composer in Turkmenistan. His works used Western orchestration but included traditional Turkmen rhythms. Turkmen singer Medeniyet Shahberdiyeva, who performed his music, said, "The rhythms of Nury's works are Turkmen, but the harmony uses styles from around the world." However, Halmammedov was not widely recognized until after his death in 1983.
In 2001, then-President Saparmurat Niyazov banned opera and ballet to "protect Turkmen culture." These performances remained illegal until 2019.
As a Soviet republic, Turkmenistan's national anthem was "Turkmenistan," composed by Weli Muhadow with lyrics by Aman Kekilow. In 1997, after independence, the anthem was changed to the "National Anthem of Independent, Neutral, Turkmenistan." The music and lyrics were claimed to be written by President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov, but in reality, they were created by a group of composers led by Rejep Allaýarow.
Mugam is a more modern style of classical music common in Central Asia. It is performed in Turkmenistan by a dutarist (Turkmen: dutarçy) and gyjakist (Turkmen: gyjakçy), or by a group of dutarists (Turkmen: dutarçylar).
Contemporary popular music
During the Soviet period, the Güneş Ensemble was the only popular music group that combined progressive rock, jazz, funk, and Turkmen vocals. The group created about 20 long-playing record albums between 1970 and 1986 under the Soviet Union's Melodiya label. Over about 15 years, Güneş changed from performing Turkmen folk songs and Soviet compositions to playing genres like jazz fusion, ethno jazz, and progressive rock. The group ended in 1986, and some members later created Turkmen folk music with heavy use of synthesizers, featuring traditional male vocals with special effects and very fast rhythms using drum machines and synthesizers.
These music styles were banned after Turkmenistan gained independence in 1991, when President Saparmurat Niyazov prohibited several art forms, including lip-synching, karaoke, ballet, and opera. After Niyazov died in 2006, pop songs with Turkmen lyrics began spreading in Turkmenistan on cassette tapes and CDs, mostly copies of popular songs from other countries translated into Turkmen. Today, Turkmen pop music is mostly made up of copies of foreign pop songs from around the world, especially from countries where laws about music rights are not strictly followed.
Folk instruments
The dutar is the most important instrument in Turkmen folk music. It is used in many styles, such as mukamlar, saltıklar, kirklar, and navoi. These styles are performed by professional musicians called sazanda. The word "dutar" means "two strings" in Persian. The term "dutar" first appeared in a book called "Scientific and Practical Canons of Music," written by Zainulabiddin al-Husayni, a Central Asian scholar and musician who lived in the 15th century.
The gyjak is a bowed string instrument that Turkmen musicians began using in the 19th century. First, the Khiva Turkmen used it, then in what is now western Turkmenistan, and later in the Ahal tribal area. Traditionally, the gyjak was made from a pumpkin shell or imported coconut hull and had three silk strings. In the 20th century, mulberry wood replaced the pumpkin shell, and metal strings replaced the silk. The gyjak is tuned in fourths and is played in ensembles with one or more dutars or as a solo instrument, often performing songs written for the dutar. Guseynov describes it as having a rich sound and being loud.
The tuiduk (Turkmen: tüýdük) is a type of flute. In Turkmen folklore, it is said that Adam, made from clay, received a soul when the tuiduk was played by Archangel Gabriel. A Turkmen legend claims the devil invented the tuiduk. In traditional ceremonies, two tuiduk players face each other, hold their instruments high, and play together in harmony. They also move in circles, a practice linked to shamanism. Guyseynov describes the tuiduk as made from the hollow stem of a plant called gargygamyş, with six holes: five on the front and one on the back.
The Dilli tuiduk (Turkmen: dilli tüýdük) is a woodwind instrument similar to a clarinet. It is used mainly in Turkmen folk music. The instrument can produce notes beyond what its finger holes suggest, using breath control to reach higher pitches. Turkmen shepherds can carve a Dilli tuiduk in a few minutes during spring when reeds are tall. The word "dilli" means "with tongue" in Turkmen, referring to the reed. Guseynov notes that the Dilli tuiduk is one of the oldest musical instruments in human history. It is small, no longer than a pencil, with a hollow reed stem, a notched single reed, and three holes.
The Gargy tuiduk (Turkmen: gargy tüýdük) is a long reed flute. According to legend, it is connected to Alexander the Great. A similar instrument existed in ancient Egypt. The word "gargy" means "reed" in Turkmen.
Shaman bagşy used specific instruments to drive away evil spirits. These included the dep or deprek, a Central Asian tambourine that evolved from the Parthian tambourine shown on ancient artifacts from Nisa; the jaň, a small bell worn by the leader of a sheep or camel group; the düwme, tiny tambourines attached to a baby’s cradle or clothing to protect against harm; the üsgülewük, a clay whistle shaped like a mountain goat or bird; the gopuz, or Jew’s harp; and the şaldyrak, a stick with a heavy stone base, a copper ball containing small stones, and bells or metal pendants. Guseynov describes the şaldyrak as a rattle. Tuýlyýew includes çemçeler, or spoons, as a folk percussion instrument.