Azerbaijan State Museum of Musical Culture, Musical culture museum in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The Azerbaijan State Museum of Musical Culture in Baku documents the country's musical heritage through thousands of objects including traditional instruments, handwritten scores, and recordings. The collection also encompasses books and materials on music theory for researchers to study.
Founded in Baku in 1967, the museum first occupied a former caravanserai in Icherisheher at 9 Hagiqat Rzayeva Street until 1996. It then moved to 5 Rashid Behbudov Street, and in 2015 to the Museum Centre at 123a Neftchilar Avenue. Alla Bayramova, a candidate of art studies, has directed it since 1988.
The museum displays traditional instruments like tar, kamancha, saz, and daf that have been played in Azerbaijan for centuries. Visitors can observe how these instruments shape everyday life and celebrations throughout the region.
The museum has been housed since 2015 in the Museum Centre at 49 Neftchilar Avenue. Its branches are spread across Baku: the permanent folk instrument exhibition on Zargarpalan Street 119, and the house museums of Niyazi, Vagif Mustafazade and Gara Garayev. The museum is closed on Mondays.
The museum keeps a 14-member Ensemble of Ancient National Musical Instruments that plays 14th-century music on medieval instruments such as the chang, barbat, rud, chegana, santur, setar, Shirvan tanbur and rubab, restored by the ensemble's artistic director M. Karimov. These instruments can be seen only in this museum's exposition.
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