Chapter 07
Twenty-Four Performances Across Turkmen Music
8 min
The sequence begins with five contrasting examples of bagşy and epic song, then restores what a dutar-only map misses: women bagşy, kushtdepdi, flute, solo gyjak and instrumental dutar. Its second half moves through orchestra, opera, song, Ashgabat fusion and six current or diaspora productions. Spellings follow the cited releases, so variants may appear elsewhere.
1. Sahy Jepbarow: “Näler görüner”
Begin with Magtymguly’s poetry carried by voice, dutar and gyjak. Hear how Jepbarow’s rising intensity is prepared by the instruments. The accompanists are partners in the performance, not an anonymous background.
2. Muhammetgeldi Geldinejad: “Tä men gelinçäm”
A more recent solo recording places voice and dutar in direct relation. The right-hand pulse and articulation explain how two strings can support a long vocal argument.
3. Ashyrmämmet Dawudow: “Akmeňli”
Kemine’s love poem enters a Balkan-region performance recorded in Gazanjyk. The gyjak sustains what the dutar releases quickly. Follow how each return to the beloved’s name changes emotional pressure.
4. Musaguly Ýazmyradow: “Ýusup soltanym”
This tirme from the Ýusup-Ahmet epic shows how one sung episode can travel outside a complete dessan. Its narrative address becomes clearer when placed within the larger story of the epic.
5. Yagshygeldi Garashov and Otuz Matgeldyev: “Chapar arlaya-arlaya”
A leaping, neighing horse appears through pattern and vocal motion. No literal effect is necessary. The musicians make speed and muscular force emerge from repeated attack.
6. Djamala Saparova and Akmurad Chariev: “Qashliyar”
This farewell song immediately widens the bagşy line. Saparova controls a flexible, unhurried vocal contour while Chariev’s dutar marks the ground beneath it. Listen to how separation is carried through pacing rather than theatrical volume.
7. Shemshat Hodjaeva and Akmurad Chariev: “Kim Beler”
An excerpt from “Layla we Majnun” places a woman’s voice inside epic and romantic narration, not outside it in a separate domestic category. Hodjaeva’s rubato line bends around the text while the dutar keeps its own articulated motion.
8. Leila Shadurdieva and Akmurad Chariev: “Kerem Geldi”
Shadurdieva’s epic excerpt completes a three-singer comparison without pretending that one album contains every women bagşy lineage. Attend to the grain of her higher phrases and to Chariev’s response between vocal lines.
9. Abadan Halmedova: “Kushtdepdi”
This 2021 studio single is a compact arrangement of a much larger singing-and-dancing practice. Hear the insistence of pulse and call, then compare it with community documentation where singers, dancers and duration respond to one another in real time.
10. Charyyar Dzhumaev: “Menzer”
Kargy-tüýdük replaces plucked attack with breath. Dzhumaev shapes the old song melody through air pressure, fingered pitch and a soft halo around each note. The flute does not need a singer to carry a vocal memory.
11. Allaberdi Ataev: “Sallana”
Ataev’s three-string gyjak finally moves from accompaniment to the centre. Follow the continuous bow, narrow ornaments and changes in pressure. The sustained line makes a different kind of time from the dutar’s repeated release.
12. Annaseiit Annamuradov: “Bichare”
An instrumental dutar solo completes this four-part change of texture. Without a voice, right-hand articulation and the relation between melody and drone become impossible to miss. Its dry attack contrasts with Dzhumaev’s breath and Ataev’s bow.
13. Nury Halmammedov: “Dutar (from Turkmenistan)”
The orchestra translates an instrumental image into another scale. Compare its gestures with Annamuradov’s solo. What has been amplified, abstracted or newly invented?
14. Medeniyet Shahberdiyeva: “Shasenem’s Aria”
Coloratura technique, Turkmen diction and national opera meet in one trained voice. Hear dramatic character rather than only high notes. The aria belongs to theatre even when removed from the stage.
15. Chary Nurymov: “Toý aýdymy”
Composed song addresses the public life of celebration. Follow melody and arrangement before deciding whether it sounds folk or classical. Nurymov worked precisely across those institutional categories.
16. Firyuza: “Native Land”
Long instrumental development replaces the short vocal form. Gasan Mamedov’s violin, guitar, keyboards and rhythm section treat homeland as a space for fusion, not a ceremonial chorus. The corrected violin credit matters because the instrument carries structural work.
17. Gunesh: “Baikonur”
Drums and ensemble changes drive a futuristic frame. Hear Turkmen melodic identity inside jazz-rock scale without searching for a token dutar. Modernity is built in the arrangement.
18. Rishad Shafi and Gunesh: “45° in the Shadow”
Keep the composer and the band in the credit. Shafi’s drums and scat pull recordings from the 1984–1990 period through abrupt sectional turns. The desert-temperature title opens atmosphere, but percussion provides the argument.
19. Myahri: “Alaja”
Contemporary pop uses a culturally resonant title without claiming to reproduce traditional music. Listen to vocal polish, hook and digital arrangement. The track opens a substantial later singles catalogue.
20. Azat Dönmezow and Kuwwat Dönmezow: “Dostum”
This jointly credited 2024 single makes a current pop network audible. Azat wrote the lyrics, Ibrat Azamatov and Javohir Kenjayev composed the music, and BAMMUSIC produced and mixed it. The smooth exchange of voices belongs to a team, not one isolated star.
21. S Beater featuring Myahri: “Baby”
The producer and beatmaker hold the lead credit. The 2023 track leaves space around Myahri’s phrases and makes the electronic frame audible as authorship. Current music is made by networks even when public attention foregrounds singers.
22. Azat Dönmezow featuring Myahri: “Ömrümiň Manysy”
This 2023 collaboration changes the distribution of attention again: Dönmezow holds the lead credit while Myahri’s featured voice supplies the answering colour. The word “featuring” names a duet logic that is fully audible inside the studio arrangement.
23. Myahri featuring BAMMUSIC: “Aşgabat”
The May 2026 single brings a production collaborator into the title and makes the capital a current pop subject. Compare the foregrounded vocal and clean sectional lift with “Alaja.” Six years of catalogue growth become audible without declaring either track the sound of the country.
24. Azad Sesh: “Hollow Ground”
The sequence ends in diaspora with a release from May 2026. Sustained electronic layers and a darker vocal space resist bright resolution. The track remains open-ended, located between memory, migration and authored studio work.
A Practical Listening Sequence
In Ashgabat, begin with current announcements from the Turkmen National Conservatory, Palace of Mukams and state cultural institutions. Programmes may include bagşy, orchestral music, opera excerpts, youth competitions or popular song. Verify whether an event is public; a venue’s existence is not a standing invitation.
For dutar and epic singing, a named master and regional school matter more than a large gala title. Ask which poem or dessan is being performed, who accompanies on gyjak and whether the set is a short stage excerpt. In Mary, Balkan, Lebap, Dashoguz and Akhal, local context can reveal differences hidden by national ensembles.
Kushtdepdi is best understood through a community-led public presentation that identifies the singers as well as dancers. Do not enter a wedding or private rite as an observer without invitation. Respect restrictions on photography and recording.
The documented collections Music of Central Asia, the Köroğlu anthology, Songs of Bakhshi Women and Instrumental Music of Turkmenistan preserve names, places, translations and contrasting performance roles. Halmammedov, Firyuza and Gunesh then open orchestral and fusion histories. Myahri, Azat and Kuwwat Dönmezow, S Beater, BAMMUSIC and Azad Sesh bring the chronology into current pop, production and diaspora without making any one artist a complete scene.
“Hollow Ground” is deliberately not a conclusion. Placed beside Dzhumaev’s breath, Saparova’s farewell or Shafi’s drums, it changes the map again. Turkmen music becomes legible through those differences: a repertory carried by named people, social occasions, institutions and studios, never a single sound waiting to be summarized.
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about Twenty-Four Performances Across Turkmen Music
1. What is a Turkmen dutar?
The Turkmen dutar is a two-stringed long-necked lute whose making, playing and associated singing form a connected body of knowledge. Makers shape wood, soundboard, frets and response for performers. Players create melody, drone, pulse and resonance through fingering and right-hand articulation, both as soloists and with voice or gyjak.
2. What is a bagşy?
A bagşy is a singer and dutar player whose role can join poetry, repertory, musical memory and social authority. Some perform shorter songs, while a dessançy develops extended epic narration. Regional schools differ in tuning, vocal production, instrumental attack and choice of poetry.
3. What is a dessan?
A dessan combines narrated prose, poetry, dialogue and sung episodes in a long epic performance. A bagşy controls the transition among them and uses the dutar to mark character, tension and changes of scene. A full performance may unfold over hours, while recorded excerpts preserve only part of that social and dramatic scale.
4. What is kushtdepdi?
Kushtdepdi is a rite of singing and dancing especially associated with western Turkmen communities. Respected women traditionally establish wishes, moral messages and pulse before dancers enter and the gathering intensifies. Community practice and staged presentation can both be skilled, but they do not have the same purpose or social relationship.
5. Which instruments are heard besides dutar?
The gyjak is a bowed spike fiddle that can accompany voice and dutar or perform solo. Kargy-tüýdük and other flutes introduce breath and sustained tone. Handclapping drives kushtdepdi, while orchestral, popular and fusion music add strings, winds, keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and electronic production.
6. Did Turkmenistan develop opera and orchestral music?
Yes. Soviet-era conservatories, opera, orchestras, radio and cinema created new Turkmen repertories and careers. “Şasenem-Garyp,” Maya Kuliyeva, Medeniyet Shahberdiyeva, Nury Halmammedov, Chary Nurymov and other composers and singers joined Turkmen stories and language to trained voice, theatre and orchestral form.
7. Who were Firyuza and Gunesh?
Firyuza and Gunesh were Ashgabat bands that placed Turkmenistan firmly inside late Soviet jazz-fusion and progressive music. Firyuza's 1979 album developed long violin-, keyboard- and guitar-led forms. Gunesh built a broader history through jazz-rock, vocals, percussion and the formidable drumming and composition of Rishad Shafi.
8. What does contemporary Turkmen music sound like?
There is no single current sound. Myahri represents polished singer-centred pop; Azat and Kuwwat Dönmezow and BAMMUSIC reveal collaborative songwriting and production; S Beater foregrounds beatmaking; Azad Sesh brings Turkmen memory into electronic, ambient and R&B textures in diaspora. Bagşy, classical performers and wedding musicians remain active alongside them.
9. Why are some current artists difficult to document?
State media frame much public culture, independent documentation can be difficult to follow, and many releases circulate through local, private or regional networks. Latin, Cyrillic and Russian spellings may identify the same artist differently. Uneven international visibility is therefore not evidence that musical activity is absent.
10. Where can I hear music in Turkmenistan?
Current announcements from the Turkmen National Conservatory, Palace of Mukams and state cultural institutions may include bagşy, opera, orchestra, competitions and popular song. Regional schools in Mary, Balkan, Lebap, Dashoguz and Akhal offer different histories. Confirm that events are public, and treat weddings or community rites as invitation-only unless hosts state otherwise.
