Xinjiang Uyghur Muqam Art (Twelve Muqam)

The word "muqam" comes from Arabic, meaning position or rule, and in the Uyghur context denotes a grand suite of song, instrumental music and dance. The Twelve Muqam is the heart of Xinjiang's Uyghur muqam art, current across Kashgar, Hotan, Ili and Turpan, and its making wove together musical traditions of the Western Regions, Central Asia, Persia and inland China, earning it the name of an encyclopaedia of Uyghur music. In November 2005 the art was inscribed on UNESCO's third Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and in 2006 it entered the first national ICH list under traditional music.

Each of the Twelve Muqam suites has three parts—the grand "Qong näghmä," the narrative "Dastan," and the festive dance "Mäshräp"—and a single suite may run two hours, with the full twelve taking a day and night to perform. Singing moves between solo, duet and chorus, accompanied by instruments such as the satar, tambur, dutar, rawap and the hand drum (dap), the verses drawn largely from classical Uyghur poetry and folk narrative.

The Twelve Muqam carries the historical memory, philosophy and aesthetic feeling of the Uyghur people, a crystallisation of East-West musical exchange along the Silk Road, and holds irreplaceable value for the study of Central Asian music history and cross-cultural exchange.

In Urumqi, performances of muqam art can be encountered at the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Museum and the stage of the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar.