The Mugham Encyclopaedia

  • Project


The Heydar Aliyev Foundation has prepared “the Mugham Encyclopaedia” edition devoted to the Azerbaijani Mugham. On September 17, 2008, presentation of the project was held at Gulustan Palace. First Lady of Azerbaijan, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva attended the ceremony.


The edition includes the Mugham Encyclopaedia and a collection comprised of  recordings of eminent Azerbaijani masters of mugham called “Singers of Azerbaijan”.


A lot of information has been collected in the Mugham Encyclopaedia including some 1300 articles, interpretation of terms related to mugham, information concerning the creative works of mugham performers and composers,  knowledge about great world scholars from the antique to the modern periods, their scientific works devoted to music, views of Azerbaijan’s and foreign countries’   persons of culture about mugham, and information about a series of organizations – music establishments, archives, museums, foundations and music groups.


The book’s editorial board’s chairman and chief editor is Mehriban Aliyeva.


The collection “Azerbaijani singers” is comprised of 6 albums: 5 CD albums called “Singers of Garabagh”, “Sets of Mugham”, “Young singers”, “Virtuosic singers” (men-singers) and “Virtuosic singers” (women-singers)  and the “Mugham Encyclopaedia” multimedia disk.


The 20 CDs included in this collection comprises recordings of one-century long period from the beginning of the 20th till the beginning of the 21st centuries. The collection presents mugham sets, little mughams, “zerbi” mughams, “shikasteh”, “tasnif” (national rhythmical melody) performed by  virtuosic and young singers.


The album “Singers of Garabagh” included in the collection contains  recordings of eminent Azerbaijani singers related to the Garabagh Mugham School. The album includes, in addition to performances of singers related to the beginning of the 20th century preserved in gramophone records, also mughams, tasnifs and popular songs performed by singers of the middle and young generation continuing the traditions of this school.


The album “Sets of Mugham”  contains all sets of mugham, little mughams, “zerbi” mughams“, “shikasteh” and their colourful performance variants that are considered to be pearls of Azerbaijani professional music treasury with oral tradition.


The album “Virtuosic singers” consists of two sections called men-singers and women-signers. In the section of men-singers of the album “Virtuosic singers”,  sets of mugham, little mughams, “zerbi” mughams, “shikasteh”, “tasnif”s and  popular songs performed by men-singers belonging to various generations of  performance schools of Garabagh , Baku, Shirvan and other regions of the republic being of great importance in the development of the Azerbaijani art of mugham are presented.


In the section of men-singers of the album “Virtuosic singers”,  recordings of women-singers that have played a significant role in the development of the Azerbaijani art of mugham have been collected.


In the album “Young singers”, Azerbaijani sets of mughams, little mughams and “zerbi “ mughams  performed by the laureates of the Mugham TV Contests of 2005 and 2007 held by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation are presented.


The multimedia disk  “Mugham Encyclopaedia” is a source providing extensive knowledge of professional music with oral tradition. The primary feature of the electronic edition is that each term’s explanation here is multilayered and linked with other pages, and to explain that word more broadly, photo, audio and video-materials, voice lectures of musicologists and samples of notes are used, and comments presented are revived. 


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