Along with song and dance music, genres of oral professional traditions of the people lived and developed in the musical folklore of Azerbaijan. The most important of them were mughams. Mughams are the pinnacle of national classical music of Azerbaijan, as well as the peoples of the Middle East, the highest creative example of folk vocal instrumental composition with deep, complex content, ideas, emotional meaning.
From ancient times, the gradual development of mugham over the centuries has led to its formation and perfection. In Eastern classical music, mugam, mugham set (literally a set of siulin, literally a set), 12 mughams – Ushshag, Nava, Abusalik, Rast, Iraq (Iraq), Isfahan, Zirafkend, Buzruk (Bozorg), Zangula, Rahavi, Husseini, Hijaz , – consists of 24 sections, 48 corners, 6 voices, colors and classifications. In Azerbaijani music, the term mugham is used in two senses. The first is the same as the term fret. At present, there are 7 main modes or mugams in Azerbaijani folk music: Rast, Shur, Segah, Chahargah, Shushtar, Bayati-Shiraz, Humayun and a number of additional mugams. Second, mugham is an extremely complex and interesting piece of music with a multi-part form, with only a unique structure. Mugham is also compared to suite-rhapsody and symphony in terms of its form. This work itself is based on a mood, mugham, and develops within the established strict rules of mugam. Mugam singers, on the other hand, are singers and their accompanying musicians (trio-tar, kamancha, daf) or solo instrumentalists, who, depending on their creative imagination, ability and talent, have made various changes, new shades, points, bells, etc. to this mugam work over the centuries. included. Singers perform mughams on lyrical and philosophical ghazals of famous poets – Khagani, Nizami, Nasimi, Fuzuli and others.
In mugam instruments, the improvisational parts of the mugam alternate with vocal classifications and instrumental colors, which are precise metrorhythmic parts of the instrument. In Azerbaijani mughams, unlike mughams of other nations, improvisation is more and brighter. Therefore, professional mugam singers also act as the creators of these mughams. One type of instrumental vocal mugams in Azerbaijan is percussion mughams. These include: “Heyrati”, “Arazbari”, “Ovshari”, “Mansuriyya”, “Simai-shams”, “Karami”, “Kesma-shikesta”, “Garabagh shikestasi”. The main distinguishing feature of these mughams is that the singer’s vocal mugam improvisational part is accompanied by a precise metrorhythmic accompaniment. In the accompaniment, the main place in the trio of musicians is given to “drum” or “drum” and “drum”. The size is often double-stressed. The rich ornamental melody, which begins in the upper register, is typical for the vocal part of percussion mughams.