Oriented on making people closer

...In the 1930s, such professional musicians and craftsmen as B. Nurali, G. Ugurlyev, S. Tumanyan, G. Arakelyan and A. Petrosyants began the reconstruction of Turkmen national musical instruments. The main goal was to enrich the sound of the orchestra of Turkmen folk instruments. As a result, such varieties of the dutar family as prima, second, viola, plector dutar, prima plector, bass and double bass dutar appeared. They entered the practice of dutar musicians and began to be used for solo performances, in ensembles and as part of orchestras.

Since then, a wealth of methodological material has accumulated, which a young teacher at the department of folk instruments of the Turkmen National Conservatory named after Maya Kulieva decided to systematize and adapt for the younger generation of musicians, focusing on one type of dutar. And now the Turkmen State Publishing House published the book “Bass Dutar” by Yakupmyrad Sytdykhov.

The new manual is intended for children's music schools and art schools, and will also be useful for those who want to learn how to play the electric bass guitar, those who are interested in folk performance and the development of traditional playing techniques.

The book introduces the structure of the bass dutar and the features of playing it, performing techniques. The author gives information about the varieties of musical clefs and bass clef, duration of notes, bar lines, sizes, pauses, accidentals, intervals, modes and keys, major and minor scales, chords and triads, tempo, dynamics, melismas and their rich colorful diversity.

Exercises are provided for left and right hand performance, legato and triplets, etudes and scales. There are also sections of the book with musical notations that will help enrich the concert repertoire of young performers. Here are arrangements of folk melodies and works by composers D. Ovezov, N. Mukhadov, Ch. Babaev, V. Akhmedov, A. Agadzhikov, D. Nuryev and others. These are such musical works as: “Merry Melody”, “Lullaby”, “Bibidzhan”, “Sing Dutar”, “Mashalak Yar”, “Sen-sen”, etc. As well as works for bass dutar and piano - “Little Waltz”, “Play My Dutar”, “Old Coast”, “Impromptu”, “Concert Poem” and others.

Jemal AGADJANOVA

Photo: by the author