Turkmen Music

Turkmen music is the traditional music of the Turkmen people of Turkmenistan and neighbouring regions of Central Asia, centred on the *bagşy*, the bard who sings epics and songs to his own accompaniment on the two-stringed *dutar* lute. Its repertoire rests on the *dastan*, long heroic and romantic epic tales, and on songs setting the verses of the eighteenth-century poet *Magtymguly*. Performed solo or with spike fiddle and frame drum, it favours modal melodies, guttural vocal ornament and a driving, galloping energy tied to the steppe and desert landscape.