Unlike Western modes, "mugham" modes are associated not only with scales but with an orally transmitted collection of melodies and melodic fragments that performers use in the course of improvisation. It is a highly complex art form that weds classical poetry and musical improvisation in specific local modes.
Mugham is one of the many folk musical compositions from Azerbaijan, contrast with Tasnif, Ashugs.
Prominent Azerbaijani opera singers such as Bulbul, Shovkat Mammadova, Fatma Mukhtarova, Huseyngulu Sarabski, Hagigat Rzayeva, Rashid Behbudov, Rauf Atakishiyev, Muslim Magomayev, Lutfiyar Imanov, Fidan and Khuraman Gasimovas, Rubaba Muradova, Zeynab Khanlarova and many other singers gained world fame. Beginning in 1900, opera troupes toured Baku on a yearly basis (except 19), featuring prominent singers of the time such as Natalia Ermolenko-Yuzhina and Antonina Nezhdanova. The very first documented performance of an opera in Baku took place in May 1889 when Alexey Verstovsky's opera Askold's grave was staged at a circus arena in Baku (on the site of the current Azerbaijan Carpet Museum building), accompanied by the folk choir of Dmitry Agrenev-Slavyanski. The emergence of opera and ballet in Azerbaijan is associated with the Imperial Russian and Soviet era of Azerbaijani history when Azerbaijani musicians became exposed to European music traditions first-hand. Creators of the national anthem of Azerbaijan Uzeyir Hajibeyov (left) and Ahmad Javad (right)