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https://doi.org/10.29013/EJA-20-1-74-80
Madumarova Charos Ilkhomovna, Teacher of the Lyceum of Gifted Children at the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan of the Department "Academic Vocal" E-mail: kiras91@mail.ru
THE GREAT UZBEK OPERA "BURAN"
Abstract. This article discusses about the bright moments of the awakening of the Uzbek opera. As an example, one of the notable and significant for the Uzbek opera art is discussed and considered - the opera Buran Ashrafi and Vasilenko. The reader can easily penetrate into the deep essence of the opera, as well as get acquainted with the special harmonization and other nuances of the Uzbek opera.
Keywords: "Buran", M. Ashrafi, S. Vasilenko, Uzbek Musical Theater, Nargul, doyra, gyjak, «Leili and Majnun», «Farhad and Shirin».
Uzbek opera "Buran". A new opera by M. Ashrafi and S. Vasilenko was staged in the Uzbek Order-bearing Musical Theater. According to the prophecies of some critics, the new opera was supposed to fail, but fortunately the opera was an outstanding success. The authors of "Buran" were scolded for libretto, for music, and for allegedly moving away from the principles of nationality. There were critics who claimed that the opera Buran has nothing to do with Uzbek art, and that its musical quality is generally low.Getting closer to the opera, I realized all the foolishness of such conversations. The reason for them, in my opinion, is the fear of innovation and a tendency to old, obsolete traditions. The Uzbek opera has achieved great success. Only five to six years ago, the orchestra in the Uzbek Musical Theater, which was played by ear, consisted of ancient oriental instruments, ranging from ancient trumpet-karnays and ending with reed-flute. The orchestra performed in unison popular folk tunes. The peculiarities of playing individual instruments - double notes, thirds and Gyjak's flakolets, trellis, permanent organ point of the dutar, and the constant tonality of karn created the impression of a kind of harmony and polyphony. This colorful orchestra accompanied singers who sang melodies of popular folk songs, used as insert numbers in performances.
Figure 1. M. Ashrafi I must say that such musical performances were good in due time. The performances of «Leili and Majnun», «Farhad and Shirin» made an unforgettable impression on me. But still, in order for the
Uzbek musical art to move forward, it was necessary to fundamentally change the methods of composers' work on the creation of a national opera. Good luck didn't come right away. Composers who worked on new Europeanized versions of the first Uzbek operas lacked in-depth knowledge of Uzbek folklore and knowledge of the peculiarities of the Uzbek folk orchestra. The authors of "Gulsara" and "Farhad and Shirin" approached the re-creation of these musical performances fully armed with European technology. But with this European sonority, they somewhat upset the balance between the original national melody and its processing; there was a leveling of sonority, the melody in some places lost its brightness. Listeners, accustomed to a one-voice performance, did not immediately catch familiar folk melodies in a variety of colors of the polyphonic palette, in the sounds of a European orchestra. Having paid the main attention to harmonization and orchestration, the authors of «Gulsara» and «Farhad and Shirin» did not touch on the form of the opera performance, which essentially did not change, as before, representing not a developed type of big opera, but a combination of famous folk songs. Such a simplified form was undoubtedly determined by the youth and immaturity of the performing apparatus of the Uzbek Musical Theater in the early stages of its development. A more perfect opera form required a different musical development, and this was taken into account by Ashrafi and Vasilenko. The construction of the opera Buran is fundamentally different from the compositions «Farhad and Shirin» and «Gyulsara». Its basis is not separate, alternating songs, but the free use of the characteristic intonations of the Uzbek national color, which enabled the authors to create an opera national in music and developing according to the principles of an international opera form. The authors of most national operas written in recent years, accompanied by a symphony or folk orchestra, are found in the opera as separate episodes.
Figure 2. S. Vasilenko
The Uzbek opera Buran adheres, unfortunately, to a well-known standard. This is expressed, firstly, in the fact that national melodies are most often taken in their pure form, "quote", without their organic development; secondly, the fact that these melodies are harmonized for the most part in a kind of "universal" abstract style that does not always correspond to the nature of national music. The success of the opera Vasilenko and Ashrafi is due to the fact that they managed to violate the standard that was outlined in the pale of the first national operas.
M. Ashrafi in 1916, the tsarist government announced the mobilization of the indigenous population of Central Asia. In response to art, popular uprisings broke out. Many tales and songs about the bloody reprisal of the royal satraps with the rebels are now sung by singers and storytellers of the Central Asian republics. These events formed the basis of the opera Buran (libretto by Yashen Nugmanov). The farmer, ruined by the bays, Buran marries his son
Dzhuru on the girl Nargul. At the height of the wedding, bailiffs read the royal decree on mobilization. The Bayes do not want to send their sons to war, trying to hire the sons of the poor in return. Jura must go to war for his father's debts. But Nargul redeems Jura, giving the bays his necklace. The discontent of the people is growing. Farmers do not want to obey the royal decree. At their head is Buran. Fleeing from the punitive detachment, farmers go to the mountains, leaving women and children in the village. The officer of the punitive detachment, not finding Buran in the village, is mocking Narpol and her father. Russian soldier kills an angry executioner. Nargul, unable to bear dishonor, loses her mind and she runs to the mountains, to Jura. Russian workers join the rebels. When the gallows are already prepared in the village and the captive farmers are put on their heads, the Buran squad brings salvation to the condemned, which brings salvation to the condemned. The new that Ashrafi and Vasilenko contributed to the opera Buran immediately catches the eye [2].
The opera begins with a duet ofJura and Nargul. Until now, unison singing prevailed in Uzbek operas; duets were sung on the same text. Duzet Nargul and Jura is already built on the model of European opera ensembles, where each character sings his own melody, each to his own text! Although the melodies of both members of the duet are different, each of them is based on elements of the same folk song [2]. The translation of the opera into Russian (by Yu. Danziger and D. Dolev) was done primitively, naively and anti-artistic; the Russian text can only be approached as a bad interlinear. To make it easier for Uzbek artists to perform their unusual form, the composers duplicated their parts in the orchestra. This principle of duplicating voices with individual instruments has been carried out in opera everywhere where performance difficulties are encountered. The principle of"leitmo-tivity" in the opera "Buran" is applied very sparingly. Each character has his own musical characteristic, which is a group of melodies of the same character or combined in one trick (for example, to draw a musi-
cal image of Amin aksakal is characterized by octave moves). An exception is the characteristic of Nargul. Her theme is a real keynote. This theme sounds in an overture, serves as an introduction to the third picture of the opera, then repeats in its entirety, like the aria of Nargul; it also built the scene of the craziness of Nargul (in the mountains, in the 4th picture). Her echoes are heard in the last appearance of Nargul in the 5th picture. Nargul's theme is essentially a heavily revised folk song. Only the first three measures of the melody remained from the song; everything else was written by composers, in compliance with the laws of classical Uzbek music. The groans of Nargul against the backdrop of stony strings are extremely expressive.
The groans of Nargul against the backdrop of stony strings are extremely expressive. There are a lot of such purely graphic moments in the opera. In the opera Buran, polyphonic episodes of an almost strict style are repeatedly found. Such, for example, is the 11-voice final choir. The most successful seems to be the puffy choir in the 4th picture (a scene in the mountains). This rebel choir sounds sternly and menacingly, driven to the limit of despair and ready to fight. For the musical image of a single rush of rebellious masses, the fugue was an exceptionally successful form. The construction of the classical form can be schematically depicted as follows: the first part of the work is built on the tonic of the fret, constantly returning to the first step of the fret. Then the melody is transferred to the quart and tonic is already the quart of the fret; by the end of this part, a return to the first step of a new fret is necessary. Then again a return to the tonic, the melody rises an octave and a return to the tonic [1].
Again in the theme that characterizes Nargul, the individual elements of the song are reduced to a minimum. The first six measures are built on a stable tonic of re (in this case, the fret "Cargoch"). The next stretch is only two bars, with a steady quart of salt. In Uzbek unison music, this segment should have been many times longer, but the authors set forth the whole Nargul song in G minor.
The time required for the quart to remain in the listener's memory was reduced, and this made it possible to reduce this part to two measures, without disturbing the equilibrium of the classical form. In the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th measures we have a traditional return to the tonic of the fret. In the last segment of the melody, the fifth and octave development of the melody is combined. Again, this became possible only thanks to European harmonization. Stable A (quint) of the 13 th and 14th measures is supported by a D minor; at the same time, in the 12th measure, the melody rises an octave. This change of two segments partially violates the classical form, but thanks to harmonization, in which one chord creates a stable tonality and thus replaces a long melodic construction, it is achieved that the whole Nargul theme sounds like a truly folk classical melody. This does not interfere with her movement in the last bars down, and not up, as in the classical samples, one of the great innovations introduced by Ashrafi and Vasilenko into Uzbek music [1].
One of the best scenes of the opera, reading the royal decree on mobilization. Here, the composers faced very great difficulties, if only because a similar dramatic construction was used in the reading scene of the manifesto in the opera "Quiet Flows the Don" by I. Dzerzhinsky. In Buran, the decree is also read against the backdrop of the choir, but the authors found a new resolution to this topic. If in the "Quiet Flows the Don" the choir accompanying the reading of the royal manifesto is imbued with the intonations of a groan, crying, then a similar choir from the "Buran" reflects a whole gamut of folk moods. The chorus begins with pianissimo bass, gradually, while reading the decree, all voices are included. Crescendo achieves such strength and power that the voice of the reader is lost in this outburst of popular anger. So begins the uprising of de-hkans. In Uzbek folk music there is one characteristic method of polyphony of rhythms [3, P. 63-71]. Very often 4-beat melody is accompanied by 3-beat and 6-beat rhythms. This rhythmic polyphony is
clearly manifested in the solo performances of tambourines (doyrachi). One of the tambourines accompanies another, performing only one, more or less complex rhythm throughout the performance [3, P. 85-103].
Another performer (soloist) changes rhythms all the time either passing directly from one to another, or resorting to special rhythmic transitions to distant rhythms called "Chakhr". This technique of rhythmic polyphony is also used in the opera Buran. The main part of the 2nd picture (wedding) is built on it. In this example, three metric sizes are connected: (choir melody), (orchestral accompaniment, with the rhythmic support of the doira).
Here we are also dealing with a folk theme revised by composers. Without changing the melodic and rhythmic pattern of the melody, they transferred it to major, superimposing other rhythmic and melodic elements on it. In addition, the composers complemented the melody with the middle part (solo Kumush-oh) [3, P. 85-103].
The sharp interruptions in rhythm and melody, even more emphasized in the production of the Uzbek theater by the wonderful dance of Mukaram Khanum Turgunbaeva, leave an indelible impression. In the wedding scene, we meet another new technique of polyphony, namely the polyphony of the dance. The fact is that each of the many rhythms of Central Asia has its own choreographic embodiment. In Central Asian classical choreography, there are movements that come from imitating the movements of animals, fluttering flowers, hunters hunting down game (for example, moving the head to the right and left without tilting), etc.
Each movement has its own specific rhythm. When several different rhythms sound simultaneously, it becomes possible to translate this rhythmic polyphony into a dance. In the opera "Buran", in the wedding picture, the scene is divided in half: on the left side, the half representing the male dancing bachi (boy-dancer); on the right female side, the girls and the bride's girlfriend Kumush-oi dance.
Each group of dancers embodies in dance only one particular line rhythms developing in an orchestra. So, for example, girls dance to the rhythms that the Uzbek instrument of the soot knocks out; Bachi dancing accompanied by zurna and karnay. Mukaram-khanum to the rhythms of the choir, doira and his song. Everything as a whole creates an extraordinary sight. This interesting technique of dance-rhythmic polyphony undoubtedly deserves the attention of the masters of Soviet ballet. There are very successful directorial finds in the production of the opera. Such, for example, is the final scene of the opera. Mother - the old Zibi-Nisa weeps over the corpses of the deceased Jura and Nargul; its tragic groans coincide with the very culmination of the victorious anthem of the rebel farmers. This combination of opposing feelings - the triumph of victory and the boundless despair of the mother - makes an amazing impression. The artist Fatima Borukhova with her wonderful play perfectly emphasizes the director's intention. Her song is full of deep sorrow. People's Artist of the USSR Halima
Nasyrova perfectly holds the tragic role of Nargul. This role allows her to fully deploy her huge talent. The entire cast involved in the play "Buran", striking a deep, soulful game. Unfortunately, not all opera artists possess direct experience. The playing methods of the Uzbek artists therefore deserve special study. The creative community of two talented composers proved fruitful. The first-class composer technique S. N. Vasilenko, his sense of form, the colorfulness of the orchestration, were enriched by the melodic talent of Mukhtar Ashrafi, his magnificent knowledge of folklore, the richest national rhythms, and instinctive understanding of the features folk harmony and polyphony. As a result, a beautiful opera was created. I attribute this opera from a scientific point of view to the very best and well-created operas throughout Central Asia. In the opera "Buran" there are all the canons by which the operas of Western countries were created, but at the same time we can hear and feel the zest that is characteristic only of the great Uzbek culture. Uzbek flavor, Uzbek soul and melis-matic.
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