The Turkmen dutar is a long-necked, two-stringed lute distinguished by its pear-shaped resonating body and thin wooden soundboard. Both the body and soundboard are carved from mulberry wood, while the neck is crafted from the dried trunk of an apricot tree. To construct the instrument, the mulberry wood is carefully rounded, hollowed out, and polished to shape the body. The soundboard wood undergoes a drying process—baked for up to 24 hours to eliminate moisture—before being affixed over the hollowed chamber using traditional bone glue. Traditionally tuned a fourth apart, its two strings serve distinct musical functions: the higher-pitched string carries the primary melody, while the lower-pitched string is often muted by the thumb of the playing hand to produce a shifting parallel melody. Alternatively, the lower string may ring open to function as a drone in certain pieces or passages. Believed to descend from ancient Babylonian and Egyptian lutes, the dutar today is primarily used to accompany Turkmen bards known as bagşy (or bakshy). In the south central Ahal region of Turkmenistan, however, dutar players have cultivated a solo instrumental repertoire. Historically passed down orally, this body of music has, in recent decades, seen partial transcription into a modified form of Western notation for pedagogical purposes. Formally sophisticated and largely through-composed, the repertoire still allows space for variation and interpretive flexibility.
Oghlan Bakhshi (middle), a virtuoso Turkmen dutar player, performs with his group.
In Turkmen music, the term hasap, which literally means account or reckoning, carries a range of other nuanced meanings. In everyday use, one might request a hasap when settling a bill at a restaurant or inquiring about the score of a game. Within musical contexts, hasap denotes various interpretive and structural concepts. Musicians may refer to a particular master’s hasap for a given piece, or more generally to the shared hasap of a composition. Along with related terms such as nusga, forma, and skema, hasap can indicate a skeletal melodic framework that individual performers elaborate through ornamentation and stylistic variation. Comparative transcriptions of extended passages–whether interpreted by multiple dutar players or revisited by the same performer–often reveal consistency in underlying structure, with variation appearing primarily in melodic embellishment, rhythmic phrasing, and the treatment of the lower string.
Excerpt from the song Balsaýat, transcribed by Ýazmyrat Rejepow.
Turkmen dutar players navigate the dual imperative to both preserve and creatively reinterpret traditional repertoire. To do so, they draw on a repertoire of internalized formulas, compositional schemas, and aesthetic principles to generate new musical material–whether in improvisation or composition. These strategies parallel those found in other music traditions, such as Hindustani music, Persian classical music, and jazz, where deep immersion in a musical system enables spontaneous creativity within established boundaries. Like Persian musicians who internalize the radifthrough prolonged apprenticeship, Turkmen performers absorb such frameworks, often without formal codification. Turkmen dutar players, however, tend to reapply these principles not just in improvisatory spaces, but within the reinterpretation of the inherited compositions themselves.
This according to “Principles of transmission and collective composition in Turkmen dutar performance” by David Fossum (Analytical approaches to world musics 5/2 [2017] 37 p.; RILM Abstracts with Full Text, 2017-43691) and the entry on the dutar in Musical instruments: A comprehensive dictionary (1964); find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias.
The Turkmen dutar is on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Below, Oghlan Bakhshi performs the traditional Turkmen song Boy bibi. The video after it, created by UNESCO, is on dutar making and performance.
The 42nd session of the General Conference of UNESCO in November 2023 designated October 17 as the International Day of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Today marks the inaugural celebration of this significant day. To commemorate the historic day, we explore research on China’s ICH, which boasts the highest number of recognized ICH items, as examined by both Chinese and international scholars.
– Mu Qian, Editor, RILM
Xiang, Yang. “Dui ‘huo huashi’ yuezhong de sikao” (Thoughts on “living fossil” musical genres), Zhongguo yinyue/Chinese music 2/90 (2003) 12–15. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2003-18281]
Abstract: Numerous musical genres of remote historical periods continue to exist in China, such as guqin music, Fujian nanyin, Xi’an guyue, and the Buddhist ritual music of Wutai Shan in Shanxi province; these provide valuable evidence of the history of the imperial court, local governments, military and religious establishments, and social change. Through a comprehensive account of such genres, the system of Chinese music can be deeply analyzed and the characteristics of traditional Chinese music culture understood. If they are not carefully studied and protected, the cultural tradition of Chinese music will be irremediably lost; legislation at the national level is needed to declare them as part of the “oral and intangible heritage”.
Wang, Yong. “Guojia yujing zhong de fei wuzhi wenhua yichan: Yi guqin wei ge an yanjiu” (Intangible cultural heritages in the nation-state context: A case study of guqin), Nanjing Yishu Xueyuan xuebao (Yinyue yu biaoyan ban)/Journal of Nanjing Arts Institute (Music & performance) 3/121 (fall 2009) 111–117. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2009-7652]
Abstract: The emphasis on national cultures of a nation state is a sign of the use of state power. Nation states make requisitions of historical and cultural resources to create cultural images of the state, integrate nations, reinforce national pride, and acquire international prestige and resources. Therefore, arts have political overtones. In the theoretical frame of sociology, this study inspects the renaissance of intangible cultural heritage, the universal imagination of national culture, and the power of the state in arts in the context of nation states. The focus of discussion is the relationship between the image of the state and the ideology of arts.
Geographic distribution of ICH sites in China (2021). Source: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (https://www.geodoi.ac.cn/WebEn/doi.aspx?Id=1925)
Yao, Hui. “Pochu ‘pochu mixin’: Dui Jing xi minjian Foshi yinyue baohu qianti ji fangfa de tanjiu” (Breaking the “breaking the superstition”: An investigation into the premises and methods of protecting Buddhist music in west Beijing), Zhongguo yinyuexue/Musicology in China 1/106 (2012) 14–23, 31. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2012-27995]
Abstract: The idea of “breaking the superstition” is the primary obstacle to the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of west Beijing, and breaking the “breaking the superstition” is a premise for all the protection work of Buddhist music and religious ICH. The theoretical and ideological discussion in this paper demonstrate the relationship between religion, funerary customs, and superstition. On this basis, it is argued that the safeguarding of Buddhist music in west Beijing cannot be separated from the cultural whole that religion and mourning have built together, and corresponding countermeasures for the problems existing in the safeguarding of Buddhist music and religious ICH in west Beijing are proposed.
Hu, Xiaoman . “Cong hunduanzi kan min’ge Jicheng baohu wenhua yichan de queshi” (The lack of preservation of cultural heritage in the traditional song Jicheng from the perspective of erotic songs), Renmin yinyue/People’s music 6/566 (2010) 48–50. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2010-31307]
Abstract: The publication of Zhongguo minjian gequ jicheng (Collection of Chinese traditional song) has become a landmark achievement in the preservation of China’s musical and cultural heritage. While we rejoice in such an achievement of traditional song culture, we should also see its shortcomings. The Jicheng‘s shortcoming in documenting musical heritage is examined in terms of the absence of erotic songs to promote the in-depth development of musical heritage preservation.
Rees, Helen. “Intangible cultural heritage in China today: Policy and practice in the early twenty-first century”, Music as intangible cultural heritage: Policy, ideology, and practice in the preservation of East Asian traditions, ed. by Keith Howard (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012) 23–54. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2012-6419]
Abstract: Reflects on how attitudes towards local and traditional music have changed and evolved over a 25-year engagement with Chinese music. Noting the legacy of Mao Zedong’s 1942 Zai Yan’an yishu zuotanhui shang de jianghua (Talks at the Yan’an forum on literature and art), in which artists were required to guide the masses, she explores how attitudes began to shift from developing and modernizing arts (including music) towards an acceptance that something needed to be done to encourage the performance and transmission of traditional music. She sets out the major official policies that have been enacted and outlines the discussions and rhetoric that surrounds them. She then offers three case studies to illustrate practice on the ground, which lead her to conclude that the shift in attitudes can be put down to several factors that include nationalism and international competitiveness, the rise of the market economy in China, and the emergence of environmental and ecological agendas. Her first case study concerns ritual music in Yunnan, specifically the dongjing associations (dongjinghui) of lay musicians and ritualists that have a documented history among Han Chinese and certain minorities stretching back some 450 years. In some areas these amateur groups are flourishing today, while in others they are on the decline. Rees explores the social and economic reasons for this and focuses on two groups and traditions that are being maintained, noting their historical depth as well as their close ties to place and their community cohesion. Her second case study concerns the Naxi ethnic minority, the majority of whose members live in Lijiang county, Yunnan. She considers the survival and use of folksong and folk dance, the revival underway in the training of young dongba religious specialists, and the grassroots use of the Naxi dongjing tradition for tourism—initially local, but then showcased in international tours, and coupling to changed contexts for performance and pride in music as intangible cultural heritage. Her third case study moves to the world of the literati, and the music of the seven-stringed zither, guqin (or qin). Rees learned the guqin at the Shanghai Yinyue Xueyuan in the late 1980s, when it was marginal and had little presence within the institution; today it is a UNESCO Masterpiece, and many studios flourish in Beijing and Shanghai that teach and sell the instrument. Antique instruments are highly sought, and new instruments have multiplied in price some 60 or more times over two decades.
Kuutma, Kristin. “Inside the UNESCO apparatus: From intangible representations to tangible effects”, Safeguarding intangible heritage: Practices and politics, ed. by Laurajane Smith and Natsuko Akagawa (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018) 68–83. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2018-100476]
Abstract: Explores the case of Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in translating the term “intangible cultural heritage” to illustrate how translations can vary, even when the same target language is used, revealing the complicacy of cultural politics. To many people in Asian regions, cultural heritage is a translated term. Variations in the translated expression mirror diversified notions of intangibility rooted in different knowledge traditions, which in turn may lead to distinct policies implemented and heritage discourses. Which translation to adopt reveals something of the cultural politics at the state level. In the first place, which source language version among the authoritative texts is taken as the base for translation is indicative of diplomatic relations, knowledge genealogy, and often postcolonial interconnections. For numerous local or Indigenous communities, gaining recognition of their intangible cultural heritage would entail a formidable process involving re-translation, re-interpretation and negotiation, inevitably endowing power to those eligible to translate.
Su, Junjie. “Understanding the changing intangible cultural heritage in tourism commodification: The music players’ perspective from Lijiang, China”, Journal of tourism and cultural change, 17/5 (2019) 247–268. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2019-19251]
Abstract: While intangible cultural heritage (ICH) has been an emerging topic in the fields of heritage studies and tourism studies, the relationship of ICH and commodification is still under-researched. The tension between protection and commodification of ICH is intensified when the term “heritage” is used as a form of protection and a resource for commodification. Using musical elements of ICH in Lijiang, China as a case study, a critical heritage studies approach is used to investigate the values and components of ICH from the perspective of musicians. The study shows that the musicians construct their own values of ICH in a diverse and dynamic process. Commodified forms of performance are not clearly differentiated; rather, they are regarded as equally important to realize musicians dynamic and subjective needs. This study reveals the dynamic aspects of ICH, rethinks the commodification of ICH, and examines the creation of ICH from a critical approach.
D’Evelyn, Charlotte. “Khöömii, chooryn duu, and dissonant heritage in Inner Mongolia, China”, Asian music: Journal of the Society for Asian Music, 52/2 (summer-fall 2021) 139–169. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2021-5617]
Abstract: Sheds light on the logics that informed China’s 2009 successful application and nomination of höömii as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of China. It explores how bureaucrats charged with overseeing cultural heritage applications, while expertly aware of the requirements to satisfy the terms of the UNESCO Convention, often unknowingly distance and disenfranchise local knowledge in the process. Just such a phenomenon occurred in Inner Mongolia, in which bureaucrats created a new musical taxonomy to justify the existence of and need for safeguarding of höömii in China. Offering a close investigation into the UNESCO application, this article spotlights the practice of chooryn duu (tsooryn duu, chogur-un dagu) and the logic through which it became strategically subsumed within and conflated with höömii for the purposes of the UNESCO application.
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