Review

Reviewed Work(s): Muzykal'naia kul'tura drevnego Khorezma by R. L. Sadokov

Review by: Tamara S. Vyzgo, Galina A. Pugachenkova and Barbara Krader
Source: Asian Music, Vol. 7, No. 1, Southeast Asia Issue (1975), pp. 69-74
Published by: University of Texas Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/833929
Accessed: 03-01-2019 14:56 UTC

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R.L. Sadokov, Muzykal'naia kul'tura drevnego Khorezma. Moscow,
1970. 137 pp. illus. By Tamara S. Vyzgo and Galina A.
Pugachenkova.*

While the history of architecture and figurative art of

Central Asia has been broadly treated in the scholarly
literature, the musical heritage of the Central Asian peoples
has to a considerable extent remained a blank spot on the map
of the history of world culture. Sadokov's book is therefore
of great interest - one of the first attempts to probe the
sources of Central Asian music.

As Sadokov writes, his work "is dedicated as a whole to

characterizing the music of ancient Khorezmia according to the
ancient figurative art" (p. 10). This defines the content of
the book, basically a treatment of the musical instruments whose
images are preserved in wall frescoes and objects of clay and
silver. As the author correctly states, "the musical past is
made up not only of musical instruments, but is the entire
complex of ancient conceptions of music" (p. 34), and he tries
to show the place of music in the life of the ancient
Khorezmians, its link with rituals and ceremonial occasions,
and to reveal the types of music-making that existed. Yet
Sadokov's book is above all about music instruments. This is
not at all a criticism. The study of Central Asia's musical
past is perfectly justified in starting with the musical
instrumentarium as precisely in this area much material has
been amassed from the archeological discoveries of the last
decades.

What does the investigator working with the monuments

of ancient Khorezraian culture have at his disposal? It appears
that the number of images of instruments is not so great -
nineteen altogether. What is important is that they enable us
to reconstitute string, wind and percussion instruments of
ancient Khorezmia.

A large (indeed the largest) place is given by the author

to the harp (pp. 43-78), as the instrument fully deserves.
One of the most ancient musical instruments of mankind. . it
has survived to our time, with improvements over the centuries.
The early stages of the historical evolution of the harp are
usually associated with Egypt and Sumer-Babylonia (or Assyrian
Babylonia). In fact archeological data confirm the early
existence of the harp in these countries (a depiction of an

*Review taken from Sovetskaia Etnografiia 1973 No. 1, 177-80.

Translated by Barbara Krader.

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arched harp has been found in the ruins of a Sumerian temple in
Bismaya, dated at 3-4 millennia before our era). The original
form of the harp was arched. Somewhat later the so-called
angular harp appears. According to Curt Sachs, "the angular
harp was found everywhere in the Assyrian epoch, from Egypt to
Iranian Elam, and in a later period it was found over the
entire cultured world from Spain to Korea." (Sachs 1937:105)
But neither Sachs nor other music historians (including our
contemporaries) say a word about the use of the harp in Central
Asia. Yet drawings of this instrument discovered by Soviet
archeologists not only in Khorezmia but also in Bactria and
Sogdial provide indisputable evidence of harp playing among the
peoples of Central Asia. Sadokov studies in detail the images
of the Khorezmian harps, reconstructing a general form of the
instrument from the fragments preserved, calculating the
measurements of the whole and its parts. Within a broad out-
line of the distribution of the harp he discloses the instru-
ment's connection with rituals. His reasoning is convincing
with regard to the difference of the two basic harp types
(arched and angular) from the point of view of their historic
fates and social function (p. 63).

Of particular interest is the description of the

Khorezmian terracottas - musicians with dombra-like and lute-
like instruments (pp. 78-89). As is known, little figures of
musicians are represented in quantity in the terracottas of
Afrasiab (old Samarqand city).2 The Afrasiab instruments,
however, are of a completely different type than the Khorezmian,
although both belong to the plucked-string group. Further,
the Sogdian musicians played differently. Defining the
Khorezmian two-stringed instruments as dombra-like (pp. 78-83),
Sadokov correctly notes that parallels to them must be sought
in the north of Central Asia (p. 84). In fact, archeological
material from Sogdia and Bactria do not contain close analogies
to the "Khorezmian two-stringer", which is linked, apparently,
with the musical practices of the nomadic steppe, and this
gives the author ground for viewing the instrument as an
ancestor of the modern Kazakh dombra (p. 84). It is indica-
tive that even the lute-like instruments of the Khorezmian
terracottas (pp. 87-89) are markedly different from Afrasiab
terracotta lutes: their body has another form, the neck is
longer. The musicians of Khorezm hold their instruments not,
as in Sogdia, holding them horizontally to the chest (see p. 40),
but with the neck downward, i.e., just as they hold their
dombra-like instruments (see p. 87). These data, and others
later developed from analysis of illustrations of other instru-
ments (especially of the two-sided drum, pp. 103-107), support
the author's deduction "of an organic confluence" on the soil
of Khorezm of two streams of different directions: one linked
with the culture of agricultural oases of thE south - the
other with the life of nomadic tribes (p. 107).

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 Curious in this connection are the terracotta statuettes
from the Parthian region of Margiana-Merv, neighboring Khorezm.
They are musicians with stringed lute-like instruments of
various forms, which are played by the performers in the same
manner as the Khorezmian musicians.3 It is noteworthy that
in several cases these musicians are horsemen, indicating
their tie with steppe traditions. They obviously portray
wandering bakhshi - singers, reciters and instrumentalists who
rode from camp to camp, taking part in festivities, funeral
feasts or ordinary banquets.

The range of comparisons of the ancient musical instru-

ments of Central Asia with contiguous countries could be
enlarged on the basis of figurative art. Thus, a cycle of
musical instruments -- drum, cymbals, lute, double oboe, flute
(svirel'), kithara, long trumpets-is represented in the scenes
depicted on rhytons (drinking horns) of the 2nd century B.C.
from the Parthian Nisa, a site now in the Turkmenian SSR. And
although the question of where theso rhytons were made is not
yet finally solved, their Asian origin is beyond doubt.4

Sadokov, in tracing how the instruments changed form

over the centuries, unfortunately omits the medieval stage of
the llth to 14th centuries. Yet various musical instruments
are depicted in ceramics and artistic metal relief: stamped
ceramics from Merv5, hanging light fixtures from Rey, Kashan
and other Iranian centers, decorative metal vessels and so
forth.6 Of course this is a special subject of study, but one
would think this material would help the author fill the gap in
his book between the data on ancient and modern Central Asian
instruments.

Not everything in Mr. Sadokov's book is indisputable.

For example, it is difficult to agree with his conception of
the historic fate of the harp. Its departure from Khorezmia
Sadokov'sees as a "catastrophe" which struck Central Asia in
connection with the Arab conquest (p. 76). But it is known
that in many countries of Asia even after the adoption of Islam
the harp continued to be a leading musical instrument. There is
evidence of this in the artistic metal reliefs in the llth-12th
centuries, and in numerous miniatures in Iranian and Central
Asian manuscripts of the 14th-17th centuries. In keeping with
the astrological views of the ancient Orient, the harp (chang) -
the instrument of the "heavenly musician", of the planet Venus
(Zukhra) - was venerated by poets and artists of the medieval
Orient. Why should Khorezmia be an exception? Why just here
should the historical path of the harp have been cut off? Would
it not be more likely that the harp, appearing in Khorezmia as a
result of cultural ties with the ancient civilizations to the
south, gradually disappeared when these ties began to weaken?
Also unconvincing is the author's attempt to present the modern

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Uzbek chang as the "second life" of the Central Asian harp
(p. 77). The coincidence of the names does not prove anything
yet (such examples are not wanting in the history of organology).
According to the way the sound is produced (the usual basis of
classification of musical instruments) the modern chang belongs
to a different group of instruments than the harp. (struck
zither--editor's note)

In spite of the disputability of some positions, the

basic historic-archeological, part of the book undoubtedly
deserves high esteem. Less satisfactory is the first section
of the monograph, entitled "A History of the Study of Music of
Khorezmia", in which the author attempts to characterize the
folk music on the basis of the sources he has used. Here quite
often quotations from musicological works concerning details
are a substitute for characterizations of actual features of the
subject under examination. Thus, relying on an article on Uzbek
folk music, (Ashraf and Kon 1955) the author tells us that
Khorezmian songs are distinguished from Bukharan by the "often
used 6/8 measure and the melodic interval of the augmented
second" (p. 7). But this detail, true in itself, does nothing
to advance us toward the given goal - to show the unique
character of Khorezmian music, its difference in style from
other musical styles of Central Asia. The 6/8 meter is by no
means the prerogative of Khorezmian music, while the augmented
second is a typical feature of the modal structure of Pamir
songs and quite widespread in the music of Turkmenia.
Here, as in some other cases, the author appears to have
been taken captive by sources which are either rather out of
date or else not authoritative enough. In our view, the author
could have handled this question more successfully if he had
used the musical material published in the multi-volume work
Uzbekskaia Narodnaia Muzyka (Uzbek folk music), of which
volumes six and seven treat Khorezmia and contain thorough
introductory articles by I. Akbarov and IU. Kon. (Akbarov 1958,
1960).

The effort to underline the unique character of Khorezmian

music, while proper in itself, leads sometimes to unjustified
extremes. For example, one can hardly explain the Khorezmian
makoms as "... by right exclusively the legacy of the peoples
of Khorezmia" (p. 9), if (and the author himself recognizes this)
the Khorezmian makom cycle is a variant of the Bukharan
"Shashmakom."7 It is quite obvious that Khorezmia, and Bukhara
to an even greater degree, played a role in creating and
perfecting these monumental memorials of the past, whose lawful
heirs appear in our days in Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan. And in
general, it is scarcely appropriate to place so much stress on
the features differentiating the music of Khcrezmia from the
adjacent Central Asian musical cultures (p. 9). We believe it

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would be more correct methodologically to show, along with the
differences, what is common, what brings together the music of
the Central Asian peoples, living in close and constant inter-
course over many centuries.
Some conclusions of Sadokov have been reached too
hastily, in our view. For example, is it possible to explain
in absolute terms, as he does, the fact of exchange of the
ghichak for the violin in modern folk usage as based on the
higher quality of the violin (is this always the case?) and its
cheaper cost? "Musical instruments made in factories using the
latest calculations and technology", states Sadokov, "have
greater acoustic and expressive possibilities than handmade
ones." (p. 16.) But this assertion does not always hold:
"factories" and "the latest calculations" still do not define by
themselves the qualities of a musical instrument. We know that
the tone quality of violins made by Amati and Stradivarius are
unsurpassed even today; yet they were made by hand. Too, one
should scarcely welcome the exchange of the ghichak for the
violin, for if we proceed along that path, it will be easy to
reach a complete substitution of general European instruments
for the local folk instruments. This would hardly aid the pre-
servation of the uniqueness of the national musics of the
peoples of the Soviet East.

FOOTNOTES

1. We have in view the representation of a woman harpist in

the sculptures of Khalchaian, (1st century A.D.), in
terracotta from Dalverzin-Tepe lst-2nd centuries, A.D.
on the Airtam frieze (2nd century A.D.) and on the wall
fresco of Pendihikent (4th century A.D.).

2. See V.A. Meshkeris. "Terrakotovye statuetki muzykantov iz

sobraniia Muzeia istorii" (Terracotta statuettes of
musicians from the collection of the Uzbek Historical
Museum), Trudy Muzeia istorii Uzbekskoi SSR, vypusk 2,
Tashkent, 1954. Also by her, Terrakoty Samarkandskogo
muzeia. Leningrad 1962.

3. See G.A. Pugachenkova. Iskusstvo Turkmenistana (The Art of

Turkmenia), Moscow 1967, p. 87, illus. 76; V.N. Pilipko,
"Terrakotovye statuetki muzykantov iz Merva", Vestnik
drevnej istorii 1969, No. 2, p. 100.

4. M.E. Masson, G.A. Pugachenkova. "Parfianskie ritony Nisy",

Trudy Iuzhno-turkmenskoi arkheologicheskoi kompleksnoi
ekspeditsii (TIUTAKE), vol. 4, Ashkhabad 1959, p. 211.

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5. S.B. Lunina. "Goncharnoe proizvodstvo v Merve X - nachala
XI v. (Pottery work in Merv in the 10th to the beginning
of the llth century), TIUTAKE, vol. 11, Ashkhabad 1962,
p. 330.

6. Numerous examples of Iranian instruments can be seen in A.U.

Pope, ed. A Survey of Persian Art, vols. 5, 6. London-New
York 1939.

7. See I. Radzhabov. Makomlar masalasiga doir. Tashkent

1963, p. 245; also by him, Makom Abstract of doct. diss.
Tashkent-Erevan 1970, p. 194.
WORKS CITED

Akbarov, I.A.
1958 Uzbekskaia narodnaia muzyka, vol. VI: Khorezmskie
makomy. Tashkent.

1960 Uzbekskaia narodnaia muzyka, vol. VII: Khorezmskie

pesni. Tashkent.

Ashrafi, M. and Kon, Iu.

1955 "Narodnoe muzykal'noe tvorchestvo" (folk music) in
Muzykal'naia kul'tura sovetskogo Uzbekistana.
Tashkent, 33-62.

Sachs, C.
1937 "Muzykal'naia kul'tura Vavilona i Assirii" in
Muzykal'naia kul'tura drevnego mira (Music of the
Ancient World), ed. R.I. Gruber. Leningrad, 105.

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