Among Zoroastrian burial items, there is a camel-shaped zoomorphic OSTADON lying there. It was found…
Another interesting phenomenon of the musical culture of that time – ceremonial court music – which, as before, consisted of performances by a special military ensemble, is called naqqarakhana.
It existed in every capital of the Central Asian khanate, and also frequently in their subordinate provinces (bekstvos). From the work of Darvish ‘Ali Changi we know that at some point in time he served as the leader of a naqqarakhana in the city of Andijan. The leader of a naqqarakhana a was called a mehtar (lit.: elder), and in the later period he was typically elected from the performers of surnay plays (before, mehtars were chosen from among the timbal players).
Naqqarakhana was also the name of the special room, where the musicians of this ensemble and their instruments were played. It was normally situated above the gates of the arg (citadel), or the residence of the emir, and was a gallery-like room with an open front wall. Special signals and melodies were not the only performances in naqqarakhana, but instrumental maqoms (with a surnay) that were played in cycles as well. The expenditures of such ensembles were covered by state funds, which can be concluded from the documents discovered in the archives of the Kokand khans, from the period Khudayar Khan’s rule (1866 – 1875).
Later, after Central Asia was conquered by tzarist Russia, other military orchestras were formed in addition to naqqarakhanas, which included various European instruments, both horns and percussions. Such orchestras had a particular repertoire that included an array of military marches. The ensemble of a naqqarakhana performed their own Eastern march-like melodies. One example is Nagmai sarbozi Koukand (“The Melody of Kokand Soldiers”), recorded by August Eichhorn, a march-like melody famous among many Muslim peoples. From what we know today, it served as a prototype for what is known as the “Persian March” by Russian composer M. I. Glinka.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "The Musical Legacy of Uzbekistan in Collections of the Russian Federation" (Volume VI) from the series "Cultural legacy of Uzbekistan in the world collections".
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