Feminine images of the Dutar

We may detect an implied equation between the Dutar and the female role, which respects male authority. The relationship between the Tanbur and Dutar corresponds with idealised notions about masculinity and femininity, according to which men lead and women follow.

The Uzbek Dutar was and is widely used infemale performance. The long-necked plucked, fretted lute, has interesting historical connections with women’s domestic music, women performers, female poets and poetic images of femininity, including the Sufi one. In many contexts, it is the only acceptable melodic instrument for use in female performance. Uzbek musicians consider the shape of Dutar, with its light elegant body, long slim long neck and round belly, to be similar to a stork’s image. Its tender sounds are associated with sounds of a cooing flying flock. The Dutar is an ancient instrument. Some scholars link it to the Tanbur that existed in Khorasan, a historical cultural area covering Turkmenistan, western Afghanistan and eastern Iran.

The name Dutar means “two strings”. There are several distinct regional types of Dutar. Of these the Uzbek Dutar is comparatively large, being about 125 cm in length

(Akbarov 1987:108-110). The Uzbek Dutar has retained its two silk strings, whereas other types of Dutar may have more strings, and use materials such as wire, gut or nylon. The Dutar seems to have been one of the main instruments for all entertainment events in the cities and villages of Uzbekistan. Used by both male and female professional and amateur musicians it was a general instrument in all kinds of settings. Because it has silk strings and a soft sound, it was played indoors, and its muted sound made it suitable for the quiet home atmosphere. Its role has been to accompany the voice or other instruments. In the classical Maqam tradition, which has been dominated by male professional specialists, the Dutar has an accompanying role providing background support to other instruments.

It is important to remember that, for centuries, women in Muslim Central Asia, and particularly in Uzbekistan, were largely segregated from men, keeping within secluded parts of the home. Islamic law and local interpretations of Islam meant that many classes of women were traditionally subordinated to male power and authority, although female members of royal and aristocratic families were actively involved in literature and the arts. The chronicles of Uzbek history were written by men, and in musical treatises many men have been identified as great masters of Dutar, but the role of women with regard to Dutar, as well as other music has been largely unrecorded. Nevertheless, drawing on a variety of sources, including literature, painting and the oral tradition, we can trace evidence of women’s historical involvement with this instrument. Other types of long-necked lute, similar to the Dutar are depicted in fifteenth and sixteenth-century miniature paintings, which depict musical entertainments inside palaces. The evidence suggests that during that period, women played various instruments, including long-necked lutes, in indoor court music. It is likely that they were both aristocratic women and professional entertainers. Central Asian poets have traditionally recited their poetry aloud, and in Ferghana the Dutar may well have had a role in performances by female poets. In past and present Uzbekistan, it has been quite common to see romantic miniature-style images of beautiful women playing the Dutar, and a poetry collection of Nodira’s work contains an illustration of her composing poetry with a female companion playing the Dutar ( Nodira 1980:3-6). Given that so many outstanding women poets lived in Ferghana, it is not surprising that female Dutar traditions in Sufi music have been particularly strong in that region. Girls and women created music at their own private gatherings (gap). A gap is any convivial gathering for men or women, either with or without music, very often bearing the traces of Sufi gatherings. The Dutar’s softness made it suitable for female gatherings at any time of the day or night, while its percussive quality (from the fingers plucking the strings) gives sufficient rhythmic support for dancing and singing in small indoor spaces. Late nineteenth-century photographers have captured images of young women holding Dutars. One such photograph was taken, not later than 1896, by the Russian traveller, Voljinski, in Khiva, the capital city of Khorezm (Cagatay 1996: 52–53). Sitting in an opulent setting, a group of five elaborately dressed young girls pose holding a Dutar, a frame drum (Doira), a book for singing poetry, and flowers. From their clothing and demeanour I conclude that these were professional entertainers. It is very likely that they played the Dutar in connection with marriage ceremonies or female Sufi events.[1]

We find descriptions of amateur female Dutar playing in early twentieth centurynovels. The novel O’tkan kunlar (“Days gone by”) by the eminent author Abdulla Qadiry (1893–1938) has a scene set in nineteenth-century Margilan, a town in the Ferghana Valley. This depicts the beginning of a wedding ceremony with a female party in the women’s area of the house known as ichkari. In an amateur capacity, and in the context of celebration, Qadiry’s female characters – Zebi, Qumri and others – play songs and dances accompanying themselves on the Dutar (Qadiry 1974:97). Another description occurs in a novel by the eminent Uzbek writer Abdulhamid Cholpan (1895–1938), Kecha va Kunduz (“Night and day”). His heroine Zebihon and her female companions play music to make the journey to another village exciting and lively; they play the Dutar and sing songs as they travel in a private enclosed ox-drawn carriage (Cholpan 1991:48). The Dutar remained especially prominent in Ferghana’s female professional traditions.

The British National Sound Archive houses recordings byTajiniso, a famous female performer, whose semi-classical and folk pieces on the Dutar were recorded in 1906 by the British company, Gramophone. For some time at the beginning of the 20^th century, female actresses played the Dutar on stage in the Theatre of Musical Drama in Andijan (Ferghana Valley’s largest city), which was established in 1920. By 1997, the theatre had become moribund, but one old retired actress, Sharopat Ahmedova (b. 1907) still maintains her skill as a Dutar player. During my research on female Dutar players in 1996, she told me that all actresses were required to be Dutar players. The dramas were heavily interspersed with musical interludes, and some sections were purely musical, so the actresses sang and played the Dutar on stage. Various female professional performers from Ferghana became prominent. Muhtaram Azizova (1930–1995) and Kimsanhan Ahmedova (b. 1942–2004) sang in the demanding improvisational style of Katta ashula or Juranavoz, a classical genres from the Ferghana-Kokand court tradition . Juranovoz, which is also a remnant of Sufi Zikr, is usually performed by two highly-skilled musicians singing alternate verses. The world of Uzbek music rests on many multifaceted ideas, myths and legends, some of which hint at interesting connections between the Dutar and women or the female role.

We also find associations between the Dutar and the female role in poetry.The early nineteenth-century Sufi woman poet from Ferghana Valley, Uvaysiy, evokes this relationship in a ghazal about the sorrow of separation. In the first and principal line of the poem (which is constantly repeated in performance), she refers to the traditional pairing of the Dutar with the Tanbur ( Uvaysiy 1980:):

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 956