Shashmaqam

Shashmaqom is a special kind of music from Central Asia, mainly from the countries of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It might have started in the old city of Bukhara. The name Shashmaqom means "the six Maqams," where Maqams are different musical styles or modes.

This music is very beautiful and thoughtful. The words in the songs come from old Sufi poems. The music uses simple instruments to go with the singing. These instruments include long-necked lutes like the rawap, tar, tanbur, or dutar, a frame drum called the dayra that sounds like a tambourine, and the sato, which is a bowed tanbur.

History

In the early 1900s, a person named Abdul Rauf Fitrad wrote a book about the traditional music of Uzbekistan. He showed how important this music was to the Uzbek people.

Later, when a leader named Joseph Stalin was in power, this music was not liked because it was seen as old-fashioned. But in the 1950s, people in Tajikistan began to see it as important to their culture. This made a difference between how Tajikistan and Uzbekistan saw the music.

In the 1980s, both countries started to learn more about each other's music. Today, this special style of music is known in faraway places, like in the United States, thanks to performers from Central Asia.