World musical instruments to be exhibited in Baku

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

                                                                                                  Without music life would be a mistake...

                                                                                                                                       Friedrich Nietzsche

People have always found music significant in their lives. It is an art of expressing ideas and emotions in significant sound forms.

An exhibition "Musical Instruments: Unity and Diversity" invites you to a wonderful journey through magical world of music.

The last preparatory work is currently underway at the Heydar Aliyev Center, the venue of the event.

More than 170 musical instruments dating back to the 18th-20th centuries will be showcased at the Center.

The exhibition will feature Azerbaijani, Albanian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Dagestani, Afghan, Algerian, Georgian, Indian, Indonesian, Iraqi, Iranian, Cypriot, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Libyan, Hungarian, Macedonian, Moroccan, Egyptian, Mongolian, Uzbek, Pakistani, Romanian, Serbian, Syrian, Tajik, Turkish, Yemeni and Greek musical instruments.

The exhibits will personify the similarity and variety of musical instruments. In accordance with the principle of similarity and diversity, the exposition will be divided into sections.

Azerbaijan enjoys a rich, varied musical tradition. Most of the instruments  appeared in ancient times, while most of them were improved and reached our time. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Kamancha is a bowed string instrument, which is widespread amongst Eastern and Central Asian peoples under a variety of names.

The folk instrument is described in the works of medieval classical poets. Mir Seyid Ali, representative of the 16th-century school of painting, depicted the barbat (lute), daf (frame drum) and kamancheh in his work called "A Musical Gathering".

Naghara is a folk drum that is played with the bare hands. It is one of the most popular percussion instruments of the Azerbaijani folk music.

This instrument was described in the Early Middle Age Azerbaijani literary epic "Kitabi Dada Gorgud."

The rhythmic beat of naghara is believed to strengthen the heart. Gosha-naghara is Azerbaijani version for small kettledrums.

Balaban is cylindrical-bore, double-reed wind instrument with seven finger holes and one thumb hole. When you play balaban you should use fingers of both hands to open and close certain holes. Balaban can be made of mulberry or other harder woods, such as walnut.