Essay #8 (Music)

It's hard to actually listen to a song objectively here, but with the help of boredom and earplugs, I've finally been successful. I attended the infamous "toi" yesterday. The word is used for any big party but mostly for weddings. The musicians consisted of an electric guitar player, a synthesizer, a singer, and someone doing something unknown to me but on stage nonetheless. The dislike of the toi music spreads pretty wide among PCVs, and even the locals admit freely that "it's just too darn loud!" The beat varies somewhat, but it almost always uses a fast beat with a 2 against 3 feel. The melodic instruments play in three but the beat always makes listeners clap in 2 (which amazingly enough, they do consistently at the right time). The melody is played by a synthesized sound much like an accordion or oboe. The melody is improvised upon, and here's where the description gets fuzzy. I'm not sure if they follow a key or set of notes or if the choice is random. They are not in a single scale, and sometimes I'm convinced the keyboardist can't hear the background he's on top of. The mode, if there is one, may be drowned out by the fact that the beat comes from a button on the synth or a taped recording. Many times on TV the instrumentalists merely play over a prerecorded song, so I have yet to learn the real intricacies of Turkmen music.

Traditional music exists here and is a far cry from the horror of the toi. The group is made of a single drum held on one's lap and played with the hands, an erhu-type violin with four strings tuned in fourths, and a dutar, which is a small pear-shaped guitar. They play melodies on both, and I've only heard a couple of songs by this type of group. The music schools teach these instruments and have cancelled most Western music programs. I look forward to learning the erhu, as Balkanabat has a music school. My hope is that the country continues their traditional music and people start either to develop past, or to regress from, synthesizer music. I know if I ever marry a Turkmen, there will be no blaring synthesizer at my wedding. :)