Not one song

UNESCO inscribed the Uyghur Muqam of Xinjiang in 2008, after proclaiming it in 2005. The element is a body of practice spread among Uyghur communities: song, dance and instruments together. Lyrics move between folk verse and poems by classical Uyghur masters. Performance may be solo or in a group. In an ensemble the lead instruments are made from local materials, and they may be bowed, plucked or blown. Dance uses its own steps, rhythms and figures. The listing names, among them, carrying a bowl on the head and imitating animals. A tune played once for a passing crowd is a fragment. The practice is the suite of song, dance and instrument, not the fragment.

The listing names four main regional styles: the Twelve Muqam, Dolan Muqam, Turpan Muqam and Hami Muqam. They are not one Kashgar song under four labels. The Twelve Muqam is twelve instrumental and vocal suites, more than 300 pieces, running over twenty hours. Parts of it, the listing says, are no longer performed. Dolan Muqam, Turpan Muqam and Hami Muqam are the other styles inside the same inscription, and each name keeps its own region. Of the four, only the Twelve Muqam is kept with Kashgar. The other three are not folded into a Kashgar programme, and a performance of the Twelve is not a sample of all four.

The listing describes community gatherings, meshrep and bezme, in which people joined in muqam, and it says such gatherings are now less frequent. Passing the repertoire on has fallen more heavily to folk artists, and the interest of younger people is described as declining. That is a statement about a living practice with gaps in it. It is not a reason to shrink the practice to one famous song in one city. In Kashgar's old city, instrument makers keep shops on lanes where families live. A shop can show how the body of an instrument is made. The suites run longer than a visit to the shop, and they include dance as well as the sound of the strings.