THE MAESTRO'S MISSION

Azerbaijani musical instruments are born in this laboratory. All of them are alive. Each of them has a name and a soul, and they need people to give that soul a voice. The Regionplus correspondent talks to the head of the Scientific Research Laboratory for Upgrading Azerbaijani Folk Music Instruments, Mammadali MAMMADOV, about how these musical instruments are created, how they are restored and upgraded.

- How long have you been making folk music instruments? Was this a family business or did you decide to take it up yourself?

 -I was born in Salyan. There were no musicians in our family, but folk music could always be heard in our house. At the age of 10, I learned to play the tar, the saz and the guitar on my own. I was easily able to play the familiar tunes by ear and played them for my relatives and friends. When I finished secondary school, I went to Baku and started to go to evening classes at the Azerbaijani Petroleum and Chemistry Institute. I worked during the day and studied in the evenings. I worked at the Institute of Deep Oil and Gas Field Problems attached to the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR [Soviet Socialist Republic], and then moved to the Fuel Committee. I was very active as a young man, chairman of the komsomol [Communist Youth] organisation and played in different student bands at institutions of higher education.

At that time, an ensemble existed at the polytechnic headed by Nariman Azimov. I played the guitar, and Javanshir Mamedov, who subsequently became a famous singer and Merited Artiste of Azerbaijan, played the accordion. We used to give concerts, combining work with our interest in music. We had so many plans, which, alas, we were not fated to fulfil. Owing to the well-known events at the beginning of the 1990s and the collapse of the USSR, my career was ruined. I had to leave my profession. In order to feed my family, I decided to start up my own business, I rented a small premises where I began to repair old musical instruments, invent and create new ones. By that time, my hobby had become my profession. When I was little and played the tar, I secretly studied this instrument, how it was made, how it worked and how to make the sound pure and intense. 

I now found all that knowledge useful in my new job. But I wanted to extend my activity and work for the good of the country. I applied to the Heydar Aliyev Foundation for sponsorship, which in its turn asked our Ministry of Culture [and Tourism] to assist me in this matter. They created the conditions for me to work, and I am grateful to everyone for that. This is how I found myself at Azerbaijan's National Conservatory, which was set up by decree of our national leader, Heydar Aliyev, approximately 14 years ago and is one of the top institutions of higher education in the country to begin operating in the period of independence. "The Application of National Music" and "Study of National Musical Instruments" scientific laboratories were set up for the purpose of combining education and science-based skills at the National Conservatory.

In these laboratories particular attention was paid to the restoration of ancient folk music instruments, improving them, using them for performances and teaching them. The collecting of folk music instruments, registering them, taking down the musical compositions and using them in the teaching process is one of the very serious trends in the scientific and practical activity. The Conservatory's rector, People's Artiste Siyavus Karimi, has created all the conditions for organising top-level classes. Thanks to his support and involvement, our laboratory is fully provided with special equipment and all the materials needed for our work on restoring ancient folk music instruments, upgrading them and using them in performance and coaching. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism have also provided us with enormous support and assistance in doing this. I note that, from the moment of its creation, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation has played a very important part in developing Azerbaijani culture, promoting the folk music and mugam.

- Which instrument did you make first?

- That was the classical guitar. It is still hanging up in my workshop.

- Tell us about the stages in your work on the tar. Do you have a definite system when you make this musical instrument?

- As a rule, the wood of the mulberry tree is used in making the body of this instrument. The neck and head are made of walnut.  Walnut or pear are used for the tuning pegs. The bridge is made of mulberry, apricot or walnut wood. The strut is made from pine wood, and this is precisely what makes it possible for the strings to produce a long-lasting sound. The Iranian "shirazi tar" does not have this. When you run your fingers across the strings of your tar, the sound lingers. Cow or ox pericardium is stretched across the open side of the instrument. Azerbaijani tars are made by carving them out from solid pieces of timber of definite sizes.

The piece of timber is hollowed out, and the outside is fretted down to the required thickness. In filing down the whole body, the season has to be taken into account, as well as when the chosen type of tree was cut down. The tree that is destined for the body, needs to be cut down in January and February, when the resin content is at its lowest, so that the body does not crack and warp when it dries out. After it has been fretted down, the body of the instrument is dried out naturally in a dark, closed place for two to three years at a prescribed temperature. The trunk of the felled tree is cut in half, then the centre of it is removed. The surface of the parts are burnished. Then the outline of the intended instrument is drawn on it, and the interior of each half is hollowed out.

The strings of the tar are made from metal, gut or silk. The strongest and purest sound is produced by metal strings, but for the fingers that play them, they are harder to the touch than silk or gut strings. The tar has 11 metal strings of varying thickness. The ancient tar had from four to six strings. At the end of the 18th century the great tar player Sadigcan [Mirza Sadig Asad oglu, 1846-1902], who subsequently came to be called the father of the tar, changed the number of strings to 11. The tar was previously larger in size and was held on the knees. Sadigcan made the tar smaller, so the tar began to be held at chest level when it was being played.

- We have heard that completely new, unusual musical instruments "come into being" in your workshop…  

- Yes, I like to make something new and original. I have tried to upgrade my own instruments and have developed the electric tar, along the same lines as the electric guitar. Modern musicians didn't like it. A guitar with two finger-boards and a double-sided kamancha are among the latest instruments to appear in the workshop. Both instruments can simultaneously be tuned in two harmonies, which means that the number of performers in an ensemble can be reduced. Besides this, I have developed new musical instruments, based on our folk instruments that are well-known to us. Changes have been made both to the external appearance of the instrument 

The new instruments have a particular quality: when we pluck the strings, they have greater resonance than the sound from other plucked instruments does. This effect has been achieved thanks to an upgraded technique, on which I worked for a long time. In my collection I have 17 types of unusual musical instruments which I have patented. I possess documents certifying my exclusive right to the authorship of these instruments. These are the kaman guitar "Qarabag", the "Man" ud [oud], the "Hasa" two-chamber musical instrument, the "Sevgililar" two-handed ud, the unusual base tar electric instruments, the "Azarbaycan", the electric kaman guitar "K+A", the "Ramis", "Tac", "Cang", "Ay-Ulduz", the six-string and two-chamber kamanca [kamancha] and the reconstructed tar and kamanca.

- Is the "Ramis" musical instrument named in honour of a quite well-known guitarist? It would be interesting to learn what Remish muallin thought of that. 

- He really welcomes it. He called in at my workshop and even managed to play on this musical instrument. This musical instrument sounds just like an electric guitar.

- Which famous musicians have acquired instruments made by your own hand?

- The People's Artistes Ramiz Quliyev, Agasalim Abdullayev, Mohlat Muslimov, Vaqif Abdulqasimov, students from the National Conservatory, musicians "specialising in folk music" from various ensembles and orchestras. Instruments that I have made are on display at the State Museum of Musical Culture and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

- The Armenians are falsifying history and claiming that Azerbaijani music and musical instruments are in fact Armenian. What can you do about this?

- Every time Azerbaijan should raise this issue on an international level and make sure that the requisite documents are adopted. In order to stop Armenian piracy in the future, we need to sign into law the rights to our musical instruments. To put it clearly, we need to patent the rights to them. Just as UNESCO registered Azerbaijani mugam, the art of playing the tar and the ashugs, on the list of non-material cultural heritage.

- Which instrument do you think is the most difficult to make?

- It is hard to answer this question. The making of any musical instrument takes a lot of effort, time and energy. Working on each one is complicated and at the same time interesting. If you make a really professional instrument, and not just a wooden souvenir for decoration, and at some stage it does not turn out the way you wanted it to, then you begin all over again. So, this is a fairly long process. Each instrument is made of its own wood. The sound of the instrument depends on that. Thus, the kamanca and the cang are made of nut wood and the tar of mulberry wood. We make them in same way as our ancestors did.

You know, the sound of the folk instrument should be such that the very first notes touch the human soul. It is like the lullaby that a mother sings to her child. When you are a child, the lullaby is simply "a song that mummy sings", but when you become an adult and hear a familiar melody, certain special feelings are awakened in you. You understand that you are returning to your roots. I remember when Habil Aliyev used to play on the kamancha, my mother, who lost her beloved brother in the Great Patriotic War [World War II], used to weep. The sounds of the kamancha "took her back" to the past, when her brother was alive, back to her childhood. This music is in our blood, in our genes. And we should pass on our love for it and our memory of it to future generations. This is my purpose, my mission.