The folk creativity of Azerbaijan, being integral and inseparable part of multinational Soviet culture has a centuries - old history and culture to its credit.

Among a host of varieties of kinds, genres, types of Azerbaijanian folk creative work, the musical-poetic ashyg art is one of thе oldest.

The ashyg art comprises a lot of genres, the main one being that of traditional melodies. These melodies, abundant in musical graphic means and artistic generalizations, taken to gather with a esthetical value, chiseled poetic verse, depth of philosophical generalizations, ethical tendency and civicism, make up the oral chronicles of the history of Azerbaijan people.

Like medieval aedes (antique Greek singers), Irish bards, performers of the Southern Slavic epos, the psaltery players, these melodies are sung by the ashygs who are supposed to preserve the oral-auditory popular traditions for the generations to come.

The ashygs art unifies in itself various components, i. e. the ability to play a musical instrument, to sing and recite, that is, it is naturally synthetic. Handing down by word of mouth the traditional melodies, the ashygs strictly adhere to the canons of musical-poetic heritage. Owning to this fact, many tunes, having overcome time, came down to the present day as integral artistic pieces.

Along with the tradition and innovation, continuity and regeneration making up the basis of any form of art, the oral tradition is inevitably associated with improvisational origin. The expressive means of traditional melodies have been polished and perfected in the course of many centuries. For all improvisational nature of the ashyg art, some firm traditional forms of playing music have been worked out, as well as the techniques of modemelodic formation.

In spite of oral character and certain features of improvisation inherent in the melodies, some set, typical variants of these tunes were preserved in the people's memory, and particularly, in the minds of talented ashygs, which passing down from generation to generation, have been kept alive up to, the day.

The folklore traditions of the Azerbaijan people, having survived dozens of generations, form the core of Azerbaijan culture, became accessible to humanity at large, thus reflecting dialectics of the national and the international. The aesthetics of the ashyg art is intended for the audiences, brought up within the scope of this particular musical-poetic tradition. The listener follows both the performance of an invariant which is already known to him, and the correctness of the interpretation, which, in its turn, leaves a certain imprint upon the ashyg's behavior in the given situation, thus inspring him to some new microvariants at the moment of singing, as he strives to keep up the audience's interest. Ashygs not only give a esthetical enjoyment to the listeners, but they also actively spread the works of folklore and classical poetry. Many models of Azerbaijanian oral (syllabic verse) and written poetry (aruz) have become the fundamentals of ashyg melodies.

The traditional ashyg poetry, being integral part of the melodies as a whole, is of normative character. The unified notion about man and his existence, being reflected in the ashyg's conscience as the bearer of the artistic past of the bygone ages, consolidated artistic principles in the form of the a esthetical canon, deeply rooted in the ancient musical-verbal art of Azerbaijan people. Naturally, canonical art limited the poetic language, but at the same time, the ashyg was bound to surpass his predecessors in transformation of the traditional themes, and in doing so, promoted the perfection of poetic style.

Beginning from the times of runic script and up to now, the quatrain in the Turkic (Azerbaijanian) poetry was and is still very popular with the people. Rhyming words together with the redif (Arabic-Persian poetic term, consisting of two words, the first - the rhyming one, and the last repetitional - tr.) in traditional ashyg poetry, being reflected in the melodies, are undoubtedly, semantically linked. The rhyming-parallel movement, sound coincidence of the segments, lying at different poetic levels, leads to semantic contraposition. Identification of the segments at the phonetic level is the expression of the general emotional state of the system, while their opposition carries semantic information at euphonic coincidence. Moreover, each level listed above, is made equal to the constructive constituent, the redif.

The verse of the quatrain, being performed independently (like in pentastich and other poetic forms) is characterized by intonational-syntactic and semantic completeness in the traditional tunes. Besides it is noted for its rhythmical arrangement.

Already the initial texture of the poetic system with its redif formulas is the signal of dividing the quatrain into two periods, this separation revealing parallel-cadential endings, thus making inner boundaries of the development of the text. Therefore, melodies themselves at the moment of their formation, fall into major sections, equal to two poetical periods.

According to the present studies, the completion of any melodico-textual phrase is accompanied with the alteration of the rhythmical arrangement (enlargement of rhythm). It is especially vividly noted in recitative - declamatory singing, when the ashyg, performing the poetic text in a single rhythmical progression, creates the effect of the reiteration, i. e. the feeling of the summation and rhythmical retardation. The rhythmical completion in melodies is also associated with syllabic prosody and a short vowel syllable of quantitative metrics, i. e. an accentuated final syllable, final single rhyme with the redif formulas and the emergence of large caesura. The influence of physiological peculiarities of the ashyg's respiratory organ is also evident. The singing of well-rounded musical- textual periods and recitatives occurs all in the same breath, and the inhibition moment is rendered at the expiration, followed by attenuation.

In the traditional melodies there occurs ever-lasting comparison of semantic, melodico- intonational, melodico-textural and other structural divisions, which are responsible for the general meaning of the message.

Of certain importance in the making up the meaning of the wholeness, is the role of wordy insertions, bearing positive function upon the traditional melodies. The traditional applications by the ashyg of the extra- systematic segments, such as interjections, separately used words and combinations, seem to create "noise in the communication channel", leading to the break of musical-speech tissue. The words used, however, are, always semantically integral with main content of the prosaic section of the dastan, since they form part of the epic melodies; the insertion in the form of decomposed diphthongs, interjections, words, etc, are characteristic of popular singing as a whole. Here, the process of warming up to singing takes place, emphasizing the deepening of psychological state of the image; as has been mentioned above, the segments are used as word-divisions in the melodies, thus forming emphatic caesuras; they participate in the process of making up the composition of the traditional melodies; the steady involvement of extra-systematic segments mentioned above within the scope of the systematic ones, in the action range of horizontal coordinates, promotes dynamisation of the melodies. The extra-systematic segments are ambivalently coordinated with the systematic ones, which are surrounding them, that in turn, lead to the effect of non-prognostication and increased informativeness of their behavior; finally, the application of such insertions as "dedim", "balam", "ai anam", "dardin alym", "djanym", "gurban olum", etc. brings the organizing principle into the tunes, and the latter can be considered as an independent text. In the history of the Slavic-Russian poetic tradition such phenomenon was called "vitiye" or "weaving of words".

Thus, the outward unorganized character of musical-textual traditional melodies conceals in itself a strictly regular appearance of the semantic insertions, associated with the rhythm of the poetic lines, bearing semantic significance upon the whole system of thematic essence.

The vocal-melodic sphere is considered to be a leading component in the traditional melodies. The instrumental-harmonic, melodico-accompanying component attached to the leading one, is playing the functional-phonic, rhythmic-ostinato and contrapuntal-accompanying role.

The vocal-melodic base is endowed with the thematic processual function, the formation of key-melodically pitch of the sound. The melodic movement along basic tunes of sound pitch structures, intensive intonational progress at the expense of chromatic scales, arranged at the some space and in succession, incorporation into conventional sound array the keys of Azerbaijan folk music and independent reduced modes, make up the impression of stable sliding, smoothness, melodiousness of the traditional tunes. In this, the active role is attributed to the minor techniques of sound height intoning. The functioning of these techniques with completely unexpected rhythmical combinations, affects the compositional structure of the tunes as a whole. They are supposed to perform the dramatizational function, since apart from the colouristic effect, they help in forming rises and falls of the melodic movement, fix the episodically sections of the melodies, decorate the pulsing "syllabic note". Meanwhile, the instrumental-harmonic background performs the function of the leading factor,- usually in the introductions, inner movements, finales. As far as the vocal-instrumental components of polyphonic system in traditional tunes are concerned, they, in a sense, do not represent a genuine sound-dependent pitch of functional polyphony. The invariable vertical structure of ashyg diaphony is perceived as the phonic colored background of the melodic outline of the tunes rather than an independent movement of each separate voice and all the voices taken together in a polyphonic piece, of which vertical-horizontal, mode-functional coordination of sound formations are characteristic.

The principle of the repetend is one of the oldest compositional techniques in the arrangement of traditional melodies. The permanent components in the traditional tunes (invariant cell-constant of the vocal- instrumental interpretation, rhythmical formulas, refrains in the poetic text, key-intonational complexes) represent a certain a esthetical invariant, the stereotype. Their changing function or relatively alterable one (modification of the invariant cell, splitting up the rhythmical formulas, re-coding of surveyable key-blocks), at the transformation of the segments surrounding them, nevertheless, leave in our minds a reiterated, stable semantic structure, i. e. the invariant.

Such limited number of invariant units in our examples is attributed mainly not to the masterly performance or the poetic gift of the ashyg, but emerges, most likely, on the basis of historically settled law of the instrumental execution, singing and poetic text. These laws can be compared with structural rules of the language, which are more monotonous and firmly fixed in folk creation than in individualistic existence.

The ashyg is supposed to lead from the particular to the general. In other words, he creates something that is neither new nor original, but he realizes the meaning of traditional melodies in the listener's consciousness according to the principle of multiple and concentrated pressure. The melodies analyzed have an idiomatic set of musical-artistic units of different range within a hierarchical system. This set makes it possible to interpret the idiom of the ashyg tunes as the inherent, closed system; for the components taking part in the formation of the melody at the structural and compositional levels expand beyond the boundaries of general linguistic rules, bearing an especially dramatic effect upon the melody itself, optimally realizing their a esthetical potential, expressing the highest degree of their organization.

In fact, describing traditional melodies as some regular association of quantitative elements, we emphasize the result of the influence of these elements, linking them up in a certain structural embodiment.

Like any structure, the traditional melody is the hierarchy of levels (relations), the highest of which being a couplet-variant form (an integral structure), the components of which being functional-differentiated elements of orderly movement, connected with the notion of the unity of opposites,- harmony.

The ога1 existence of traditional ashyg tunes does not promote the accumulation of texts. The amount of the tunes conveyed orally, which exist in the republic at present, is more or less constant, being limited by the possibilities of the collective memory. The creation of new tunes would. mean excluding them from the memory and consequent disappearance of some previously created texts. Therefore, maintaining and developing traditions is, undoubtedly, the process of reproducing anew the text in store at the cultural fund. In this respect, the oral tradition within the scope of Azerbaijan culture at large can be likened to one text (invariant.) variant). New information is provided for by altering traditional texts, and mainly, by their incorporation into ever fresh stages of cultural process.

Each artistically equal tune is determined by the tradition, through the individualistic interpretation of the performer. The text of the melodies can be changed according to the existence and cultural standards of the ashyg, the performer, to the surrounding conditions and local customs. The ashyg melodies having passed through hundreds and thousands of lips, give an abundance of readings of most diversified nature. There is no reason to give preference to any of them, singling out the major tune, reducing the rest to the minor role. They can be compared according to some features, i. e. greater or lesser adherence to the tradition, depending upon the ashyg's individuality, the degree of the vivid embodiment of moral-artistic concept, the level of working out the details. All these can be different, at the same time, it does not hinder each separate text, being full and equal item in the general picture of the given tune. Undoubtedly, today there are authors' originals of the tunes, known as the traditional ones, i. е. "Bagdat dubeity" #18 by Ashyg Gusein Saradjly and "Azafly dubeity" #30 by Ashyg Mikail Azafly, the melodies performed by the authors themselves, е. g. "Akper gerailysy", "Akaег lachyny", "Akper gozellemesi", by Akram Alekper; "Imran Koroglusu", "Imran Mukhammasi ", "Ag bulagy", "Galminazy" by Ashyg Imran; "Azafly divanysy", "Azafly duniyasy" by Ashyg Mikail Azafly, "Fekhri" by Ashyg Kamandara, etc.

Although the ashyg musical-poetic art possesses inner and outward regularities, simultaneously it can be considered through the prism of local tendencies, associated with local traditions and the ashyg schools, as for instance the schools of Geichi, Borchaly, Tauz, Shirvan, etc. which are markedly distinct from one another in the repertoire, manners of performing the tunes, variants of local dialects, tessitura and voice tembre, solo or ensemble performance of the melodies. In local traditions the specific experience of human communities is combined, ' reflecting individual configuration of their historical destinies and peculiar conditions of existence.

One of the major function of traditional schools is to maintain and reproduce the tunes rich in unique physiognomy.

The author, having taken into account distinctive local characteristics of ashyg art, draws on the traditional melodies, that constitute the cultural repertoire of any ashyg, be it the ustad master of the word or a budding performer, just embarking upon the road of independent creation. Indicative of this are notated traditional melodies executed by the ashygs belonging to different schools, such as the Geichi school (ashygs Shamshir, Museib); the Borchaly school (ashygs Amrakh, Gusein Saradjly, Kamandar); the Tauz school (ashygs Mikail Azafly, Imran, Akper, Makhmud, Alikhan Naftaliyev); the Shirvan school (ashyg Agalar Mikailov). The history and ethnography of a particular locality, originality of performance of the tunes have also determined the variant character of the titles of traditional texts.

Summing up it should be noted that the art of the Azerbaijan ashygs has maintained its moral-emotional impact at present, being an active part of modern socialist culture entering the spheres of everyday life, professional and amateur creativity. The dynamic progress of oral-auditory tradition is brought about by socialist transformations of the recent 70-year-long period. While in the past the traditional tunes were performed mainly in the areas of their origin, travelling beyond these boundaries only owning to the efforts of a limited number of their interpreters, the outstanding ashygs, today one witnesses the progress of overcoming the seclusion of this kind of art. It is now an equal member of the formation of an integral Azerbaijan socialist culture. Audio-visual communication aids, artistic reviews, folk concerts, popular performances with the ashygs taking part, foster the appearance of a new type of audiences. The ashyg art is perceived today as an inseparable part and parcel of the process of establishing and developing of Azerbaijan culture in particular, and of Soviet culture as a whole.

Tactful attitude to historic-ethnographical regions, "the cultural centers" of narrative art, of the prominent ashygs - the creators and performers of oral folk musical-poetic art, preservation and practical realization of original monuments of oral-auditory tradition is a matter of honorable duty of the all the workers of culture of Soviet Azerbaijan.