What is the relationship between folk music and traditional music? Can folk music that is arranged by conservatory-trained musicians still be considered folk? How does folklore play into the construction of national identity in the states that were once part of the Soviet Union and essentially colonized by Russia? Exploring the art of women performing traditional, folk, classical, pop, and wedding music in Tashkent, Tanya Merchant’s book problematizes these questions while also taking into account issues of gender in a predominantly Muslim state. It is the interplay between changes in attitudes toward proper gender roles and the relationship between folklore and national identity that take center stage in this book. According to the Soviet doctrine of the post-Stalin era, artistic expression was supposed to be national in form and socialist in content. This meant that the various nationalities of the Soviet Union were supposed to toe the Soviet ideological line. At the same time, they were allowed to express their adherence to Soviet Socialism using their own traditional artistic forms, typically equated with folklore. One problem with this approach for many Soviet republics was the definition of folklore used by the Soviet state: it linked anything folk with the peasant and the past. This allowed Soviet authorities to label the various “nationalities” that constituted the Soviet Union as backward and in need of guidance if they were to achieve the bright socialist future. As a result, the attitude toward folklore in many Soviet republics, especially once they became independent states, was ambivalent. Folklore showed what was characteristic and unique, and people were proud of features which were distinctly theirs. At the same time they resented being labeled as backward, striving constantly to prove that they too were capable of great literature and art and music, that folklore was not their only means of artistic expression.

Because the musicians discussed in this book are all women, their attitude toward the Soviet Union and the colonial status that it imposed on Uzbekistan is more positive. They are grateful for the hujum, a policy that sought to educate women and to bring them into the public sphere. It was this policy that allowed them to get a conservatory education and to perform in public. Had it not been for the Soviet Union and the hujum, they would still be confined to the courtyard that appears in the title. The women discussed in this book are all professional musicians, conservatory trained, and, with one exception, performing in scripted contexts where no improvisation is allowed. They are city musicians, and Tashkent is the only location used as a source of data for this book. The author begins by recounting how she became interested in Uzbek music. She describes her meeting with Razia Sultanova while studying in England. She details the difficulties of learning to play the dutar, the instrument of primary concern in this book, thus highlighting the differences between Uzbek and Western musical training.

Much of the rest of the introduction is devoted to history and describing the social context of contemporary Uzbek music. The author provides brief histories of the pre-Soviet, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods, explaining the hujum and its effect on women. She talks about Shashmaqom, a traditional form of musical expression, and again emphasizes the differences between Western and Uzbek aesthetics. One of the important pieces of information here is that the maqom was primarily a male genre, with women expected to participate as singers and dancers, but not as the people playing musical instruments. It was only the Soviet policy of hujum that broke the gender barrier and allowed women to join maqom ensembles as instrumentalists playing the dutar. Some gender distinctions have not been dissolved and women are still charged with performing nationalism, especially in their dress and behavior. Men can wear Western suits, but women are supposed to don Uzbek national dress and exhibit proper modesty. Finally, the author describes her fieldwork, lists her approaches to her work, and gives a brief summary of each of her chapters.

The first and the longest chapter is devoted to the maqom, also known as Shashmaqom. Merchant calls this traditional rather than folk music because it is defined as a separate category by the Uzbek State Conservatory, where all of the women who were her respondents trained. In the pre-Soviet period, maqom was court music, and because it was linked to Uzbek identity, it was among the first forms to be written down through a system of notation. Suppressed during the early period of Soviet rule, it was later encouraged as an art form characteristic of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Its link to national identity has guaranteed its success in the period of Uzbek independence. And, with the prestige assigned to this genre, it has attracted women as well as men. Merchant details the career of Malika Ziyaeva, her primary teacher in Tashkent and the first woman to appear as a performer on the dutar in an ensemble that was featured in radio broadcasts. Voice is important not only as a traditional area of women’s musical expression but also as a way to understand the particular features of maqom instrumental music, and the author talks about Komila Aminova and the music lessons she received from this specialist. As primarily a men’s genre, male masters of the tradition are important, and Merchant describes some of the most outstanding ones, focusing also on the master/apprentice system of training characteristic of maqom, a system replicated by female masters who themselves learned from men. Some of the women Merchant worked with became particularly sought-after masters, known for their ability to work with students, and Merchant attended both the students’ classes and their recitals.

The second chapter is about arranged folk music. During the Soviet period, in all republics of the Soviet Union, ensembles that performed highly choreographed folk music were prestigious. It is this type of folk music that is taught at conservatories and studied by Merchant. Borrowing the term “reconstructed” folk music from Soviet Russian scholarship, the author distinguishes this from the music played by the people (halq) themselves. Reconstructed folk music is played on reconstructed instruments, meaning dutars that come in a variety of sizes to achieve a symphonic effect. Women’s performance of this type of music is widely accepted, and all-girl dutar ensembles are common. Again, Merchant attended classes where reconstructed folk music was taught and interviewed leading performers and instructors. She attended performances, including those at various foreign embassies and businesses. She notes that many women take particular pride in this music and see it as a way to showcase their culture on the international stage. Performances at foreign establishments would often include a selection of musical pieces from the culture of the audience, thus placing Uzbek music on a par with the music of the other nation. This chapter also includes a brief account of several leading Soviet-era innovators and of private ensembles which perform reconstructed folk music. Most reconstructed folk music ensembles are state sponsored, but several private organizations have been successful, providing additional performance opportunities for women.

Western art music, meaning European classical music, is also taught at the conservatory in Tashkent, and the brief third chapter is dedicated to its female performers. The women profiled in this chapter consider themselves on a par with international leaders in all fields and feel that they are advancing the Uzbek cause by being Uzbeks who can perform on the international stage. Their emphasis is on technical excellence rather than Uzbek content. They are the most likely to see themselves as part of what is called the intelligentsia and to speak Russian.

Chapter 4 is about pop music, where women performers are extremely popular, drawing huge audiences, often of girls. Pop singers specialize in songs with a sentimental content, new compositions blending Uzbek and Western elements, a blend reflected in the clothing worn by these performers. Some pop musicians have made it to the international stage and, like the women who play classical music, feel that they are contributing to their nation by showcasing modern Uzbekistan beyond its borders. While they often are not as highly valued as musicians performing other types of music, their popularity with the general public cannot be denied: Merchant says that songs performed by this category of musician were aired almost constantly over the radio, at least in the homes that she frequented.

The final chapter is about women performing at weddings, playing musical instruments and singing. For musicians, this is a very attractive venue because they can earn better pay than through their various official state jobs. Also, performing at weddings encourages creativity because songs need to be modified and made appropriate to the particular event and to the various people addressed during the celebration. At the same time, weddings have many drawbacks, demanding that musicians work long hours. Furthermore, while all women performers run the risk of being accused of loose morals, weddings are the worst in terms of bringing a woman’s chastity into question. Pop music performers have some of the same problems, but the common perception is that they are at least protected from unwanted male attention by the stage, whereas wedding musicians are right there mingling with the people and subjecting themselves to the greatest risk. Merchant attended a wedding with a musician and gives a detailed description of the event. The book concludes with a summary describing the current state of conservatory-trained women and their perception of their role in promoting Uzbek nationalism.

Precisely because of the complex attitude toward folklore that arose in the wake of Soviet Socialist dominance of so many non-Russian peoples, exploring the attitudes of these people toward their lore is crucial to our understanding of post-Soviet culture among the nation states that emerged once the Soviet Union collapsed. Merchant provides a welcome step in this direction. The book is readable and useful not only to those interested in the legacies of Soviet rule, but also to ethnomusicologists and scholars interested in gender issues. I did notice a few problems with the Russian used in the book; my Uzbek is not good enough to comment on the citation of Uzbek terms. But the transcription errors are a minor issue and do not detract from the book as a whole or reduce its value.

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[Review length: 1717 words • Review posted on September 26, 2017]