Music brings us closer

Turkmenistan established diplomatic relations with Japan on April 22, 1992. Over the years, thanks to the firm political will of both sides, trade and economic cooperation has been growing and consistently strengthening. Friendly ties are also reflected in the cultural and educational sphere. In line with cultural interaction was the visit of a delegation of Japanese musicians to the Turkmen National Conservatory named after. M. Kulieva. The guests included the musician Mr. Katsumi Matsumoto, the singer Mrs. Yoshiko Matsumoto and the dancer Mrs. Chiho Komatsu.

Mutual acquaintance with the ancient musical traditions of the two peoples became the idea of the concert, which can rightfully be called a dialogue between two cultures. Turkmen folk melodies “Nergiz”, “Ýar gara gözli”, a fragment of the shadestan “Görogly” performed by students of the conservatory R. Shanazarov (IV course), G. Khodzhamgulyev (IV course), B. Atabaev (I course) and M. Myatgeldiyev ( IV course) aroused genuine interest from the guests from Japan. In his speech, Mr. Matsumoto drew parallels between some methods of traditional performance in the two cultures, noted the timbre similarity of Turkmen national musical instruments with Japanese ones. For example, shamisen is close in sound to dutar, shakuhachi (shakuhachi) evokes timbre associations with tuiduk, and tsuzumi is very reminiscent of dep in its timbre.

Folk melodies performed on Japanese musical instruments opened the amazing world of Japanese traditional music to the students and teachers of the conservatory.

A fragment of the kabuki theater shown by the guests gave an idea of one of the types of classical theater in Japan, combining dramatic, dance and musical elements. The performance expression of this performance echoes the temperament and expression of the Turkmen destan performance.

The points of contact between the musical cultures of two peoples living at a great geographical distance from each other confirm the idea that there are common laws for the development of spirituality and mentality for the entire human formation, and gives reason to think again that we, people, are connected by something much more than we sometimes expect...