Western Opera and Mugham Opera: Similarities and Differences

Western Opera and Mugham Opera: Similarities and Differences

Introduction

In the early 20th century, sharing cultural practices and historical links started to happen between West and East, and taking place in Central Asia. These globalizing processes have resulted an innovative form of fusion that created a new integrity of music traditions. Azerbaijan, one of countries in Central Asia, was also affected by this intense cross-cultural contacts. This caused the unique mixed music genre named as mugham opera, that marked the birth of the national opera and art music in Azerbaijan, and was the first opera in the entire Muslim world. It incorporates quintessential genres of traditional modal music of the East into the format of Western opera.

There is good and bad with the existed of globalization. The good would be the emergence of innovative and collaborative forms of fusion, while on the other hand it could possess a threat to the diversity of music traditions across the world. After realizing this threat, I feel about the importance of preserving of authenticity of traditions or uniqueness of a cultural form. Therefore, this paper is aimed to find the similarities and differences between mugham opera and Western opera, that are helpful to identify which parts have turned into a fusion (similarities) and parts have not emerged (differences) to be preserved.

Main Body

Mugham is the richest, quintessential genre of traditional music of the Middle East based on the classical poetry of the East, and has been an integral part of Azerbaijani culture. This music genre started to exist in the Renaissance era (14th-16th Centuries). Then, in 1599, one century after Mugham existed, was the birth of Western opera that is a dramaturgical work combining words and singing. The first opera was composed by Italian composer, Jacopo Peri.

As mentioned above, the globalization has resulted the blend of mugham and Western Opera which was named as mugham opera. This type of genre was created in the early 20th century by a young intellectual Azerbaijani named Uzeyir Hajibeyli (1885-1948). As the founder of Azerbaijani composed music, his nation also respects him as a national genius who created an evolution to the Azerbaijan music. In 1908, he wrote Layla and Majnun, a musical-dramatic work that pioneered the genre of mugham opera.

Being the combination of two different cultures, mugham opera still shares several similarities with Western opera in obvious ways. The composition is divided into several acts, solo pieces are alternating with small ensembles and choruses created in the folk style, singing is accompanied by orchestra, and lastly both operas still perform dances. Looking to these several similarities, mugham opera still performs the dramatical format of the Western opera.

However, the primary difference is that the musical concept of mugham opera is totally based on mugham which has been presented in its original form – unwritten or non-notated and improvised music. As a result, mugham opera has replaced the classical Western operatic form which is Aria that is fully notated and not improvised. The composer indicates only the names of mughams and the lyrics in the score to be performed, and performers require to improvise on the stage. Other factor that differentiate both of them is in the mugham opera performers are accompanied by traditional instruments, such as Tar and Kemancha. While the Western opera is using symphony orchestra. Lastly, the mugham opera is less dynamic compared to the Western opera.

After looking each similarity and