Shashmaqom: how to listen to the six maqoms
UNESCO’s recording introduces Shashmaqom, the classical music shared by Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. A plain guide to what it is and how to listen.
The recording on this page is titled Shashmaqom Music. UNESCO published it on its official YouTube channel. The tradition it presents is inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as the shared heritage of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Shashmaqom is the classical music of the old cities of Central Asia. This guide explains in plain terms what the word means and how the music is built, so that a first hearing has something to hold on to. You do not need any musical training to follow it.
What Shashmaqom is
The name means six maqoms. UNESCO describes the tradition as a fusion of vocal and instrumental music, of melodic and rhythmic patterns, and of poetry. It took shape over many centuries in the towns of the region, and UNESCO names Bukhara as its historical and spiritual centre.
It can be performed by one musician, or by a group of singers with an ensemble of lutes, fiddles, frame drums and flutes. The poetry matters as much as the melody: the words are sung, not spoken over the music. UNESCO also notes that over the centuries the tradition was shaped by the study of music, by poetry, by mathematics and by Sufism.
This is music that is learned from a person, not from a page. Standard notation can record only its basic framework, so the detail of how a phrase is shaped passes by ear from master to student. UNESCO calls this handing-on the principal way of preserving both the music and its values.
How to listen
Start with the shape of a performance. According to UNESCO, performances generally open with an instrumental introduction, which is followed by the main vocal section, known as the nasr. Notice the moment the voice enters and how the instruments change their role once it does.
Then listen for the frame drum, which keeps the rhythmic cycle beneath the melody. In this tradition a sung line often climbs gradually towards a high point before it comes to rest. Do not try to catch every word on a first hearing: much of this music unfolds slowly, and a second listen gives more than a strained first one.
