Historical Background for the Creation of the Research Room of Music
Authors: Aslanova Leyla 
Published: December 2021

The article discusses the research issues conducted in the field of music education in Azerbaijan in the early twentieth century. The article also looks at the process of collecting and transmitting the oral folk heritage of Azerbaijan to future generations and examines the purposeful work carried out in this area. In addition, the article provides information about prominent Azerbaijani educators in the field of writing and studying samples of national folklore, based on archival materials, highlights several relevant sources in this regard. The article emphasizes the peculiarities of the folklore environment of Baku and Sheki, where oriental concerts are held. The purpose of the research is to determine the features of the collection and recording of Azerbaijani folklore samples. The article emphasizes the work of the Research Music Room, which is important in the field of education. The study of national and cultural values of the Azerbaijani people in modern times and the solution of the problems of spiritual heritage protection are the basis of the research as a working principle of the research music room. The research methodology is based on music-analytical and historical analysis. It was noted that the research music room has established its activities in the field of collection and study of folklore within the requirements of modern times. At the same time, the methodological basis of the article is based on the scientific-theoretical principles and research practices of Azerbaijani and foreign musicologists in the study of musical folklore, comparison of oral folk-art examples, recording of folk music samples. The scientific novelty of the research is that for the first time, the activity features of the scientific room within the framework of Azerbaijani music were examined, and the working principles were studied in detail. At the same time, based on the research, the article presents a scientifically substantiated study of the features of the process of collecting and studying musical folklore in the early twentieth century, the oral folklore recording. Conclusions. The presented article allows us to cover the activity of the Research Room of Music established at the Azerbaijan State Conservatory in 1932, in particular, to get important results in the study of Azerbaijani folklore. The article analyzes the continuation of the educational movement in Azerbaijan, in particular, the popularization and use of oral folklore, using articles, transcripts and speeches of meetings periodically published in the press. It is noted that the processes of globalization taking place in the world today emphasize the value system of traditional heritage. This is especially important in the field of humanities in terms of studying the history and folklore of Azerbaijani music culture up to modern times.
The problems of writing and studying Azerbaijani music folklore were raised by national educators. From this point of view, it is especially important to systematically publish materials on the study of oral folk art in periodicals. It was noted that the educators paid special attention to the educational significance of oral folk art. In this sense, the research draws attention to Hasan bey Zardabi’s research on folk art, especially its educational function. From this point of view, it is very important to emphasize that the first researches on oral folklore carried out by Azerbaijani enlighteners allowed national folklore to enter the world folk art system. Such issues as identifying the uniqueness of the collection of oral folk art, studying music folklore as a whole, comparing examples of oral music, determining the regularities and harmonization of folk music from the activities of the Research Room of Music, and assessing the protection of spiritual heritage were noted. At present, the research music room continues to play an important role in the study of music folklore and generalizes the study of music science at a certain stage in the history of Azerbaijan.