Concerning the Issue of Musical Self-Organization of Epic Art (by the Example of the Azerbaijani Heroic Epos)

Abstract

The article analyzes a number of discursive features of the epos “Kitabi Dede Korkud” and
the supposition is brought forward that the basic forms of the Turkic syllabic versification and the
musical types corresponding to them have crystallized themselves in the nonlinear environment
of the alliterative system. The nonlinear processes of development are also characteristic for
the traditional tunes of the “Kyoroglu” epos. Some of the regularities of the musical rhythmical
organization of the Kyoroglu tunes may be explained by their genetic connection with the metro-
rhythmic features of the “Kitabi Dede Korkhud” epos. The author arrives at the conclusion that the
specific features of the self-organization of the heroic epos manifest themselves not only in epic
monuments, but also in the works of Azerbaijani composers, in particular, in the opera “Kyoroglu”
written by the founder of the Azerbaijan compositional school Uzeir Gadzhibeili.
The author brings out the assumption that such foundational concepts for the semantic
organization of the early Turkic epos as the panegyric, lamentation, heroic struggle, etc. carried
out the functions of separate attractors during the course of the subsequent development of epic art.

Keywords: Turkic epos, self-organization, attractor, “Kitabi Dede Korkud,” Uzeir Gadzhibeili,
the opera “Kyoroglu.”