Ashig music
Musical poetic creativity of ashigs singers-storytellers, khenende (singers), poets telling epos forms a brunch of oral tradition of professional music. The ancestors of ashugs in Azerbaijan were ozans. Ashug performs his story while accompanying it by playing the saz. The art of ashigs consists of easily recognizable melody, which are known (individually and together) as ashig havasi. The most popular and widespread genres are: dastan (heroic epic story), deyishme (contest), ustadname (moral admonition songs), gezelleme (songs – dithyrambs), shikeste, misri (lyrical songs).
Professional ashigs are classified into two categories: ashigs -performers and ashugs-poets. Due to their individual abilities, ashugs-performers bring in their own narrative variations and modifications, in particular, in prose form. Ashigs- poets, besides the narrative activity, they are engaged in poetic creativity. Such ashigs are named ustad - “great master”. These ustads had their own schools.
In 2009, the art of Azerbaijan ashig was inscribed in the list of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
