Abstract

This presentation examines how shifting methods of performance and transmission are reshaping the Azerbaijani ashiq genre as practiced in the Azerbaijan Republic and northern Iran. Drawing on collaborative fieldwork with co-researcher Behrang Nikaeen, as well as interviews and discussions with Turkic scholars and musicians in and beyond both regions, the study documents a genre in active transformation: the ashiq tradition is moving from an essentially bardic character toward a more overtly musical one, with consequences for repertoire, performance values, and the future of the art form.

The presentation focuses on transmission as a primary driver of this change. The traditional master-apprentice model, through which bardic skills essential to dastan (epic) recitation were historically conveyed, has given way to formal music lessons and self-teaching using digital resources. Seemingly as a result, values oriented toward virtuoso musicianship are increasingly taught and embraced by contemporary performers and audiences alike. Rather than reading this shift as decline, the paper attends to how practitioners themselves understand and navigate these changes, including their reflections on what the digital and AI age may mean for the ashiq tradition; is it a threat to bardic skills or a potential vehicle for new forms of transmission, visibility, and creative adaptation?

Although the Azerbaijan Republic and northern Iran represent distinct political and cultural contexts, the trajectory of change is strikingly parallel, suggesting that transmission method is a key engine of genre evolution across borders. This study enters into conversation with scholarship in folklore and ethnomusicology on pedagogy, musical change, and the future of living bardic traditions in a rapidly shifting technological landscape.