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Santa Fe New Mexican , Feature >>
Robert Benziker
The New Mexican
Tengir-Too-tapping
In January, Adrian North of England's University of Leicester announced a study of modern music listeners that found the "iPod generation" perceives music as a commodity and appreciates it as such and that there is no longer an aura surrounding music and deep emotional connection to it in our society. The research methods were a little suspect (psychologists only monitored 346 people in the study), but there is a grain of truth to this. In a culture that allows any pop song to easily be downloaded and put into a pocket-sized device with 10,000 other songs, something is lost in the process.
I couldn't help but think of this study as I pored through the wealth of music on Smithsonian Folkways' Music of Central Asia, Vol. 1-3. The musicians of Central Asia (here defined as Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan. Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) are experiencing a rebirth after decades of Soviet rule, which sought to replace folk traditions with nationalized music forms (though some traditional folk songs were allowed to continue with new lyrics that celebrated Soviet economic glory).
Consider Kyrgyz musician Zainidin Imanaliev, a virtuoso player of the komuz (a three-stringed, fretless lute) who put the instrument away and began drinking when the Soviets banished traditional folk music. He even denied he ever played the komuz when Western musicologists tracked him down few years ago. Now he's playing once more and teaching a new generation of musicians. He's but one of the musicians featured on Folkways' beautifully packaged, exquisitely recorded collection of music. Besides the music, each CD comes with a book, a glossary of instru ments, and a DVD that takes you from the mountain steppes of Kyrgyzstan to the schools of Tajikistan. Smithsonian Folkways is one of the most reliable record labels in the country, and its clearly outdone itself here.
New Mexico residents are fortunate, however, to not have to rely on these albums to get sense of the region's rnusic. The Tengir-Too (pronounced TEN-geer TOE) Ensemble from the mountains of Kyrgyzstan performs March 25 at the KiMo Theatre in Albuquerque, one of just five cities the ensemble plays on its tour through the United States.
Theodore Levin, an expert on Central Asian music, introduces the band and translates question-and-answer session with the seven- piece ensemble at the KiMo show. He also shows a brief DVD and guides the audience through an overview of Central Asia. Surrounded on all sides by diverse modern, urban, and rural centers as well as varying climates, govern ments, ideologies, religions, and races, its fascinating region that is too often infamous for the war in Afghanistan but otherwise overflowing with life.
Of course, such diversity can only mean good things for the musical development of region. After the fall of the Soviet Union and its restrictions in 1991, Tengir-Too founder Nurlanbek Nyshanov saw a chance not to re-create, but to innovate, weaving separate solo compositions into ensemble pieces. The result is a music that seems to pull equally from traditions all over the world. "Jangylyk" (Novelty) was composed for a trio of metal and wooden jews-harps, or komuz, often used as solo instruments; traces of American Appalachia haunt the piece. "Erke Kyz" (The Spoiled Girl) takes a solo composition for the komuz and colors it with strings and flutes, resulting in something akin to Irish dance music. Despite these Western flourishes, all the songs naturally take root in sounds of the Far East, Middle East, and Eastern Europe.
Because the music of Central Asia relies so much on improvisation, it was traditionally not written down only passed on orally. Schools are cropping up all over the region to save the tradition (the Folkways DVDs even walk us through some lessons). The music serves to re-enforce Central Asians' societal values, bring them closer to God (or Allah), and keep the legacy of the ancestors and the oral tradition of their stories alive. Rysbek Jumabaev who performs at the KiMo show can recite an epic poem that is 30 times as long as The Iliad. His oratorial style is rhythm-based and relies on many movements and facial expressions to perform. To watch this man. and the Tengir-Too ensemble, is not to watch a group of people playing instruments solely for the sake of enter tainment. Some Central Asian musicians say the solo, improvisaiional nature of their music has an almost religious aspect to it. They are speaking to their spiritual side and channeling centuries of their (nearly forgotten) ancestry. It is safe to say that none of them consider music to be merely a commodity. 03/17/06
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