Epos traditions of Shirvan ashug school

Abstract

The epos, which is considered to be the highest genre of ashug art, reflected all the
peculiarities of this art. Context, invariant, improvisation, variant, etc. belonging to other types of
art based on oral tradition. concepts are among the basic concepts of storytelling culture. These
concepts, which are inherent in the tradition of epos, revolve around the concept of “narrator
ashug”. Among the ashug art schools of Azerbaijan, Shirvan ashugs are distinguished by their
peculiarities. This difference is on the scale of the differences between urban and rural culture.
Ashug culture of Shirvan is closely connected with the art of mugam. All performances begin with
“pishrav”. Each of the verses consists of mugham sentences. This shows that the ashug school of
Shirvan is closely connected with the urban culture. Balaban, zurna, saz and nagara sound like a big
ensemble. Ashug words are clearly pronounced, which brings them closer to the art of mugam.
Those written in syllable metre are played with saz, and those written in aruz metre are played with
tar. This type of ancient art, which exists in the Shirvan region, has played a very important role. In
the researched article, “Epos” is studied as the main feature of ashug art. Recently, ashugs living in
Shirvan region have created poems, stories, epics and changes of various character.