Echoes in exile: an Armenian instrumentalist from Azerbaijan

Hollis, Jonathan L.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129872 Copy

Description

Title

Echoes in exile: an Armenian instrumentalist from Azerbaijan

Author(s)

Hollis, Jonathan L.

Issue Date

2025-07-17

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Buchanan, Donna A

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Buchanan, Donna A

Committee Member(s)

• Greenberg, Jessica
• Meyers, John P
• Maureen, Marshall

Department of Study

Music

Discipline

Musicology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Duduk
• mugham
• Armenia
• Armenian music
• Azerbaijan
• Azerbaijani music

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on Armenian musicians who perform mugham, a genre deeply associated with the ethnic and national identity of Azerbaijan, a neighboring country which is in a de facto state of war with Armenia. Studying this musical tradition, its history, and the lived experience of its musicians in the context of inter-ethnic conflict allows me to contribute to studies of borders, music and nationalism, conflict and displacement, and the politicization of cultural heritage. Through ethnographic, oral history, and archival research, I explore how musicians view the ethnic divide between Azeris and Armenians in cultural and historical terms. Mugham is a genre related to many similar musical practices throughout the Near East and Central Asia. In the Azeri performance context, it combines sung poetry, instrumental improvisation, and fixed melodic elements, and its stylistic presentation has deep connections to Islamic sonic practices. It is considered the most important national musical tradition of Azerbaijan, and has been heavily promoted both locally and abroad by state cultural policy, including being inscribed by UNESCO on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2008. The course of this research and its presentation has demonstrated the highly politically charged nature of mugham, particularly with regard to Armenian practice of, and belonging within, this musical genre. The heart of this study is Georgy Minasov, a master of the duduk (Azeri balaban), a double reed aerophone common throughout the region. Minasov’s life spanned nearly nine decades of Soviet and post-Soviet history in the South Caucasus. As the last living member of his generation of musicians, his recollections and lived experience illuminated the social changes to music making and inter-ethnic relations during this period. Recording and investigating his story, in the form of oral history interviews, also shed light on the lineage-based nature of music teaching and learning in the region, and especially in the tradition of mugham. This research therefore represents the first in-depth English language profile of a family of ethnically Armenian musicians in Azerbaijan. This research involved applied study with Minasov of performing mugham on the duduk, addressing the pedagogical methods used in this tradition from an Armenian perspective. In addition, fieldwork conducted on the process of duduk and reed making allows me to speak to the traditional art of instrument making, and its place in the global marketplace for traditional musical instruments. My study also investigates the place of mugham in contemporary Armenian life, where it has been performed by musicians born in Azerbaijan but displaced to Yerevan and other Armenian locations after 1988. How do Armenian audiences and musicians perceive mugham, and what are its historical and political associations? Building on the writings of ethnomusicologist Rik Adriaans (2018) concerning the controversies surrounding Armenian rabiz popular music and its association with Azeri and Turkish “others,” what is the place of mugham in Armenia? What role does improvisation play in the music of Armenia, and how do the rules and concepts of mugham inform Armenian musicians stylistically? How has the experience of displacement and war affected how musicians approach performing and teaching this musical practice? And what does the genre signify to them?

Graduation Semester

2025-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129872

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2025 Jonathan Hollis

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