The book titled “Theory of Turkmen Music” was released in Turkmenistan. This encyclopedic work was penned by Sukhan Tuyliev, a famous composer, scientist, teacher, who has been studying the theoretical features of Turkmen folk music for over thirty years.
The significance of the release of this large-scale profound work is comparable to the appearance of the almost century-year old classic two-volume book titled “Turkmen Music” by Viktor Aleksandrovich Uspensky (1879–1949) and Viktor Mikhailovich Belyaev (1888–1968), which was published later in the Turkmen language under the scientific editorship of Tuyliev, serving as a reference book for several generations of representatives of musical art.
In 2024, Turkmenistan celebrated the 145th anniversary of the birth of the People’s Artist of the country, musicologist and ethnographer Viktor Aleksandrovich Uspensky, who is recognized as one of the founders of the collection and study of traditional music of Central Asia. In 1918, fate brought the Russian composer to this region, and he devoted his entire life to preserving the musical folklore wealth of the peoples inhabiting it.
Beginning 1925, Uspensky carried out three musical-ethnographic expeditions to various parts of Turkmenistan. Over the course of four years, sometimes in very difficult and life-threatening journeys, despite the heat and lack of water, he reached the most remote villages with guides. Only a true enthusiast, such as Viktor Aleksandrovich, could do this. His personal charm and interest in music won the hearts of local musicians, and they were happy to provide all possible assistance to him.
Uspensky met with famous bakhshi, collected various information about the musical art of the Turkmen people, and put more than 350 Turkmen folk songs and instrumental melodies on sheet music. In 1973, director Alty Karliyev shot the feature film “Secrets of Mukam” in memory of this feat in the world of Turkmen folk music.
The main part of the folk melodies transcribed to sheet music was included in the monograph “Turkmen Music”, which Viktor Uspensky published in co-authorship with Viktor Belyaev.
Speaking about his predecessors in Turkmen musicology, Sukhan Tuyliev notes that this work has become a monument to Turkmen music. The first volume of the book includes 115 arrangements of music on sheet music and 277 in the second volume. According to Sukhan Allyevich, Uspensky’s major achievement was that he “deciphered” folk music. A graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he had an absolute ear for music. He was able to appreciate and explain the non-tempered structure of Turkmen music. Many instrumental melodies and songs were perceived as folk, but they originally had authors. Passed on by generations of bakhshi musicians, they became folk. Uspensky provided valuable information about the authorship of this music in his work, and this information is an invaluable document.
“Turkmen Music” was the first documentary study of all the main genres of Turkmen folk music in terms of breadth of coverage. The systematic description and exhaustive analysis of the materials collected by Uspensky was carried out by Viktor Mikhailovich Belyaev. A world-renowned musicologist, he prepared a fundamental basis for the study of Turkmen music and became its promoter. The first volume of the book was published in the USA in English.
In the 20th century, thanks to Uspensky-Belyaev, many composers turned to Turkmen music and began to create their own works on its basis. This was also facilitated by the contest announced in the 1930s to create academic music based on national Turkmen music.
In 1935, a Turkmen studio was created at the Moscow Conservatory that raised a whole galaxy of talented Turkmen composers. Viktor Mikhailovich Belyaev was the first director of the studio. He provided significant assistance in establishing and developing Turkmen professional music. It should also be noted that such prominent musicians and composers as Klimentiy Korchmarev, the founder of Turkmen ballet music, Adrian Shaposhnikov, Yuliy Meytus, Boris Shekhter, Alexander Znovsko-Borovsky and others had a fruitful influence on the development of Turkmen musical culture in the 20th century.
“Turkmen Music” by Uspensky-Belyaev became a reference book for students at music schools and conservatories, and introduced the world to the richness of Turkmen musical folklore art.
Sukhan Tuyliev, the author of textbooks and collections of vocal compositions, as well as more than forty scientific and popular articles dedicated his book “Theory of Turkmen Music” to these famous musicologists, as well as folk musicians.
The new book was published by “Planeta Muzyki” publishing house in St. Petersburg. It is based on the scholar’s monograph, which was published in Turkmen as a textbook a decade ago. The new 600-page edition, published in Russian, has been significantly expanded. Its breadth and multi-vector coverage of the topic is striking. The new study is unique in its scale and depth of the analysis of Turkmen music in all its genre and stylistic completeness. The book consists of two parts, each of which is accompanied by rich reference material containing information about folk music performers, composers and musicologists.
The first part “Features of Turkmen Folk Music” has eight chapters devoted to theoretical aspects of folk music with the whole complex of issues relating to ontology and gnoseology of Turkmen musical art. They present the specifics of folklore genres, programmatic nature, the use of verse forms in Turkmen folk music, the significance of the dutar as the basis of the national worldview and a large-scale complex of problems that fit into the concept of “modal structure of Turkmen music.”
The second part “Influence of Folk Music on Composer’s Creativity” features seven chapters that make it possible to trace not only the theoretical aspects of the influence of folklore on the work of Turkmen composers. The comprehensiveness of the author’s approach allows him to reveal the topic using vivid examples from his compositions and the music of modern Turkmen composers of different generations. The structure of the monograph includes sheet music samples (about four hundred examples), including extended fragments of folk and folk-professional music types and compositions by Veli Mukhatov, Dangatar Ovezov, Nury Khalmamedov, Chary Nurymov, Rejep Allayarov, Rejep Rejepov.
The book comes with a map of prevalence of performing styles in Turkmenistan, musical examples, diagrams, drawings and tables. According to the author, the map gives an idea of the “musical galaxy” of Turkmenistan, which is made up of “planets” – specific musical styles characteristic of regions and even individual localities of the country. The appendix provides the basic sheet music on folk music and large fragments from composers’ works.
Tuyliev’s teacher, Svetlana Nikolaevna Ivanova – musicologist, the oldest teacher at the Department of Music Theory of the Turkmen National Conservatory named after Maya Kulieva is the scientific editor of the new edition. The new edition, published in Russian and distinguished by the simplicity of presentation of theoretical material and the author’s knowledge of historical, cultural, ethnographic, philological sources, will make it more popular among readers, those who professionally study the history and theory of Turkmen music and those who have an amateur interest in the musical culture of the Turkmen people.
In his review of the book “Theory of Turkmen Music,” Doctor of Art History, Professor Vladimir Gurevich speaks of it as a work whose importance is hard to overestimate, because “the book covers various aspects of one of the most vibrant and distinctive musical cultures of Central Asia – the music of the Turkmen people.” According to the professor, what is especially important is that there is every reason to say that Tuyliev’s monograph marks the beginning of a new qualitative stage in the evolution of Turkmen musicology.
As Gurevich notes, “the author’s truly encyclopaedic knowledge makes a powerful impression. Tuyliev’s vision covers hundreds of works of various genres. He knows them from the inside, and he is able to discern and – most importantly! – hear in them that inner subtext which constitutes the essence of a true artistic act. One can sense that this research is not simply the result of a period of scientific research, but the work of the scientist’s entire life.”
And this is true. Sukhan Tuyliev’s composing and scientific activities mutually complement his music work, which is characterised by high professionalism and devotion to the folk roots of Turkmen music.