«İRS- Íàñëåäèå».-2008.-¹6(36).-S.47-53.

 

GAVALDASH

 

ABBASGULU NAJAFZADEH

Doctor of Art History

 

Musical instruments are di­vided into several groups by type of sound: idiophones (the ones that are in no want of much tuning), membranophones (leather, artificial leather), percussion in­struments, aerophones (wind instruments) and chordophones (stringed instruments). It is supposed that according to morphology and type of sound, most an­cient musical instruments are idiophones. There are lots of historical, archeological, literary, linguistic and ethno­graphic materials affirming the antiquity of the history of idiophones within the territory of Azerbaijan.

The well-known historian Nasir Rzaev wrote: "We can see the most ancient monuments of art only on the rock paintings (carvings) of Gobustan". These depictions scratched on rock with sharp-pointed stone are dated to the XIII-X centuries ÂÑ.

A famous example of an idiophone is the so-called Gavaldash, which is a stone tambourine - a block of rock in Gobustan. According to specialists, the history of the formation of Gavaldash goes back to the Paleolithic age -1-1,5 million years ago, when the separation of humanity from fauna started. According to other data, Gavaldash was known to human beings as from Upper Paleolithic Age that started 35-52 thousand years ago, when mod­ern Homo Sapiens appeared.

In 2006, for the purpose of getting to know this instru­ment created by nature and its musical features better, we went to Gobustan with a group of employees of the rep­resentative office of the television company TRT in Baku. We were having a look at the rocks of that place with par­ticular interest, as if feeling the breath of our faraway an­cestors. On thebasis of research of these places, scientists have proven that Azerbaijan is of the ancient centers of the culture of humanity. As concerning Gobustan, this is a pe­culiar museum of the culture of primitive man in the open air, where there are lots of valuable works of prehistoric art. These places - cradle of the music, first stage of dances, first artistic workshop...It is no coincidence that UNESCO has registered Gobustan as historical-artistic reserve.

The rock art and inscriptions of Gobustan appeared 10-12 thousand years ago. They were discovered and studied by Azerbaijani archeologist Ishak Jafarzadeh (1895-1982) in 1939. About 6000 ancient paintings, more than 10 sites of lithic age, habitations, many of graves and other archaeological monuments were found in Boyukdash, Chingirdag and Yazilitepe tracts. In XII-XI centuries ÂÑ, hunting tribes inhabited Chingirdag, fishing tribes -Kichikdash mountain, and cattle-breeders - Boyukdash mountain. According to scientific researches, the climate in Gobustan during Paleolithic age was subtropical.

There is a rock inscription in Latin on Boyukdash mountain, written by Romans in the I century of AD. The inscription is dated tthe rule of (81-96 years) emperor Domitian Titus Flavius and provide evidence of the XII Roman Legion being in Gobustan. This inscription serves as an index of the presence of economical relations be­tween Rome and Caucasian Albania.

There is another rock inscription dated from the XIV cen­tury. This inscription in the Persian language runs as follows: "Imad Shaki came, prayed and left". The identity of Imad Shaki is unknown, but the inscription shows us that there was a sanctuary within the territory in the XIV century.

There are 2 gavaldashs: in Chingirdag and in Boyuk­dash mountain. There is a probability, that Gavaldash was used by hunters and cattle-breeders living in this terri­tory. Thousands of years ago our faraway ancestors living in these places, were lighting a bonfire around Gavaldash and were dancing a dance similar to the "yalli" to the ac­companiment of musical instruments. Rock art provides evidence for this.

The Doctor of Philology, professor Gafar Herischi (1992-1997) suggested that the origin of the Chingirdag toponym comes from the Turkic word "chingir", which denoted the tambourine used by shamans during ritual ceremonies. Consequently, the place name "Chingirdag" is directly related to natural musical instrument that we call "Gavaldash". We would remind you that there was an Azer­baijani musical instrument "dingir", similar to tambourine.

Gavaldash was serving as a certain symbol of unity: primitive men were holding religious and festive rites by its side, dancing to the accompaniment of Gavaldash and arranging meetings. Undoubtedly, there were other musi­cal instruments besides Gavaldash, made of reed, leather, wood and other materials.

The well-known statesman and public figure and re­searcher of folklore Alihuseyn Dagli (1898-1981) men­tions interesting facts about Gavaldash in the third part of his work "Ozan Garavelli". In the article included into this work "Stone musical instrument, water accompanist, natural singing", he describes interesting natural phenom­enon that he was observing sounds coming from the Tikh river in Guba district: "There, close to Kyusnat village, the fanciful mountain river creates a startling picture with its tortuous flow - water run through solid rocks and flow as under a minaret. If you scrutinize and lis­ten to the river attentively, you get an impression that someone plays music inside of minaret. That melodious sound - appears to be the singing of the flowing water".

In the article "Rahi-Shebdiz" in the third part of "Ozan Garavelli", A. Dagli writes that once there was a musical stone near to Baku.

Question: "Was there another musical stone in Go-bustan besides the musical stone of cloudy color?"

Answer: "When I was a child, I was standing beside masons and was looking at them. I was listening atten­tively to ringing, musical sounds coming from under the pick. I loved them and didn't want to forget these sounds. Even now I hear in my mind sounds coming from the strings of the chongur saz, and recall those times".

White stone from the environs of Baku has this pecu­liarity: when smoothing it out with an axe, or hacking with pick, it utters sounds reminiscent of an unusual melody. Masons frequently find stones that utter musical sounds. In pre-Soviet times, these kind of incomprehensible phe­nomena were simply being disregarded.

A block of stone with such features stood for a long time next to the water storage at Bibi-Heybat station (formerly Shikhverdi station). I wrote a sketch about this stone -"Fearful rock", included in the book "Unheard-of words".

Unfortunately, the rock uttering the sounds of the saz was destroyed shortly before World War I.

Etymology. The word "gavaldash" comes from the Turkic words - "gaval" and "dash". Gaval is a one-sided musical instrument that is used by our singers. This word means "Vessel of festivity", "False vessel". And the second part of the word - "dash" indicates that the instrument was made of stone. Besides, the performer was beating the instrument with two small pebbles.

The sound of Gavaldash is similar to ringing sound of the gaval. It is for that, in XII century when the gaval appeared, it was called "Gavaldash". Though there is a probability that it was called "dash alet" ("stone instrument"), "dashla chali-nan alet" ("instrument played with stone"), etc. before.

Objects more or less similar to Gavaldash can be found in different countries, and the scientific term "litho-phone" ("lithos" means stone, and "phone" means sound in Greek, 11; "lithopone" is translated as "sonorous stone") is being used for these instruments.

Morphology and usage. Gavaldash consists of shell limestone. The instrument is a flat piece of limestone, leans against the rock only at two points, and stands as if on an air cushion. Depending on the density of shells in the limestone, Gavaldash utters various sounds in vari­ous points. The reasons for this difference are the empti­ness and porosity of shells. Ancient men looked for stones which emitted loud sounds by tapping on them with small stones and got completely different sounds. How did an­cient men find Gavaldash?

It is common knowledge that men found first idio-phones, that is, instruments that don't need special tun­ing, by beating hollow stones or pieces of wood together, and thereby found out that it is possible to elicit various sounds this way. There is a probability that guards of tribes were using these instruments during attacks of wild animals and other dangerous situations.

It is possible that just so, primitive men got to know about Gavaldash for the first time and started using it, because gavaldash is located far from habitation and it re­sounds for 2-3 kilometers. Performers insonify gavaldash by beating it with small pebbles. By doing it, it is possible to elicit sounds of different tonalities and resonances.

Famous performers. For the first time in 1965, virtuosic performer, honored artist of the republic, Chingiz Mehtiev (1932-1992) played gavaldash for the general public by radio transmission. In 1978 he played on gaval­dash for the general public of televiewers of Azerbaijan television. Later on, this magical instrument was played in republican television by the People's Artist of the Repub­lic Sadig Zarbaliev, Honored Artist Natig Shirinov, Tahir Huseynov, Javanshir Gasimov and Eldaniz Gadjiagayev.

I would like to wish that all performers of percussion instruments and musicians in general, visit Gobustan only once, to see Gavaldash close up and listen to its sing­ing with their own ears.