Picking up the flower in Turpan Muqam

3 min read

The Turpan Muqam spread in the two counties and the one city in Turpan area are basically similar. There are 11 sets which include Rak Muqam, Qebiyat Muqam, Muxawurek Muqam, Qargah Muqam, Panjiga Muqam, Uluk Muqam, Nawa Muqam, Saba Muqam, Iraq Muqam, Bayat Muqam and Dolan Muqam. Each set of muqam is composed of eight parts: mukaidiman, qiekete, baxiqiekete, yalangqiekete, zhula, sanam, saileke and the end. There are altogether 66 pieces of music in the 11 sets of muqam which will take about 10 hours to sing them all.

There was a detail that has attracted my attention. The Turpan Muqam is still performed in the form of wind and drum music, with one or several sunaiyi playing the melody, three pairs of nagela (iron drum)and one dombak (bass iron drum) beating. This rhythm sounded refreshing. According to the survey of the famous folk musician Mr. Zhou Ji, Turpan Muqam includes the court music of the Lukeqin Mansion of the Qing Dynasty and muqam that enjoys popularity among the people, with a singing style that is more similar to that of Komul Muqam which is geographically close to the inland. Some of its tunes are similar to the tunes of the inland Han music, with frequent appearance of Shaanxi and Gansu folk tunes. Its characteristic is that the first set of mugam has two different performing forms, namely singing form and wind and drum music, the latter features lively rhythm with varying drumbeat, and tunes in cadence with plenty of punch. Turpan Muqam is also unique in the use of instruments. Apart from traditional instruments such as shatar, tambur and dutar, the role of suona, iron drum, dongbagu and big and small hand drums are also stressed.

Another character which also surprised me is in the mukaidiman part, also known as aizele(two lines), which is absent from the mugam of other oasis. The words of songs of Turpan Muqam are composed of classic poems and folk ballads. Besides the two styles, polysyllabic long sentence aizele metrical poem is also adopted, so that words of muqam can appear to both refined and popular tastes.

Each set of muqam includes four qupai: taokuzinengqiekete, yelaqiekete, julusi and sailekai, interspersed with sanam. The introduction of nazirkom is really an eye-opener,which is peculiar to Turpan Muqam.

When it was time for the final mashrap, the long expected nazirkom finally showed itself.

Many young people rushed to the dance pool. Nazirkom is a mimic dance. The dancer can dance as he like, mimicking the move of the chicken or the duck. They only dance without singing. The moves of these young men were so funny that we all laughed. A cheerful atmosphere pervaded in the sky over the orchard.

Turpan was a crossing on the Silk Road with unique beauty. Many people who approached it were touched by it just as they were stunned by the beauty of desolation of Gaochang and Jiaohe. Yet Turpan Muqam would let you forget the desolation and immerse yourself in the sea of joy.