Uzeyir Hajibeyli

Uzeyir bey Abdul Huseyn oglu Hajibeyli was an Azerbaijani and Soviet composer, conductor, scientist, publicist, playwright, teacher, translator, and social figure. He is recognized as the father of Azerbaijani classical music and opera. Uzeyir Hajibeyli composed music for the national anthem of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (also the anthem of the modern Republic of Azerbaijan) as well as the state anthem of Azerbaijan SSR. Uzeyir Hajibeyli was born in September 18, 1885, Agjabadi. His father, Abdul Huseyn Hajibeyli, was the secretary to Khurshidbanu Natavan for many years, and his mother, Shirin, grew up in the Natavan household. Growing up, Hajibeyli was strongly influenced by Natavan’s work. Shusha, often dubbed as the cradle of Azerbaijani music and culture, had a reputation for its musical heritage. The town was also referred to as “the Music Conservatory of the Caucasus” because of its many talented musicians and singers. And the fact that Hajibeyli grew up in Shusha explains how at 22, in 1908, with very little formal musical education, he was capable of writing a full-length opera. Hajibeyli received his early education in a religious school (madrasah), where he perfected his Arabic and Persian. Later he studied at a two-year Russian-Azerbaijani school. Here, with the help of his favorite teacher Mirza Mehdi Hasanzadeh, he familiarized himself with the heritage of the famous classic writers of the East and the West. The richness of the musical performance tradition of Shusha greatly influenced the musical education of Uzeyir Hajibeyli. He would later reflect on his experiences: “The first musical education I got as a child in Shusha came from best singers and saz-players. At that time I sang mugam`s and tasnif`s. The singers liked my voice. They would make me sing and taught me at the same time.” Uzeyir Hajibeyli`s first teacher was his uncle Agalar Aliverdibayov, an excellent connoisseur of Azeri folk music. In 1897–1898, when Azerbaijani playwright Abdurrahman Hagverdiyev and singer Jabbar Garyagdyoglu staged the episode Majnun on Leyli’s grave from “Leyli and Majnun”, 13-year old Uzeyir sang in the choir. From 1899 to 1904 Uzeyir Hajibeyli studied at the Gory Pedagogical Seminary. There, along with general education, he also acquired music. In this school Hajibeyli learned to play the violin, the violoncello and the brass instrument. After his graduation from the Pedagogical Seminary, Uzeyir Hajibeyli was appointed a teacher to the village of Hadrut in Upper Karabagh. Having worked there for a year, Hajibeyli permanently settled in Baku, where he carried on his career in teaching mathematics, geography, history, Azeri and Russian languages, and music. He wrote the Turkish-Russian and Russian-Turkish Dictionary of Political, Legal, Economic and Military Terms, used in Press in 1907 and the textbook Arithmetic Problems in 1908, and had them published by the Orujov Brothers Publishing House in Baku. Hajibeyli was no stranger to the tragic chaos of war; he lived through the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the fall of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan in 1920, and both World Wars. The political repercussions of these military conquests often manifested in other forms of chaos. For example between 1920 and 1940, the alphabet systems for writing Azeri were changed three times – from Arabic to Latin, and from Latin to Cyrillic a process which greatly hindered and interrupted the educational and cultural process and may well have been one of the factors influencing Uzeyir Hajibeyli to present his ideas verbally on the musical stage.
Throughout all the tumultuous change in Azerbaijan that took place between 1900 and 1940, one characteristic consistently reflects the character of Uzeyir Hajibeyli. He always searched for ways to merge and integrate the past with the present rather than to discard either form. Rather curiously, even files at the Gory Pedagogical Seminary have shown his persistence in holding on to his own roots even under pressure. On December 3, 1900, when he was 15, it is noted that “the student, Uzeyir Hajibeyli, was rebuked because he was talking in his native language.” Conversely, when Russian-influenced musicians tried to ban traditional Azerbaijani instruments like the tar, zurna and kamancha. Hajibeyli and his colleagues pushed to incorporate them into the western orchestra, thereby, giving them an even higher status and ultimately a chance to survive.
In 1908, Hajibeyli wrote his first opera “Leyli and Majnun” based on the tragic love story by the 15th century poet Fuzuli. This would be the first of 7 operas and 3 musical comedies that Hajibeyli would compose throughout his life. In “Leyli and Majnun”, the uniqueness of the traditional modal music of mugam was incorporated into a western genre with the use of instruments indigenous to both traditions. Hajibeyli’s second opera Sheikh Sanan was written in 1909 in a form that was entirely opposite to the first. This time Hajibeyli employed a purely european style. Sheikh Sanan received raves as a musical composition, but the content was too progressive for the period. In this opera, Hajibeyli advocated that marriage should not be bound by nationality or religion – in essence, it was another form of integration. But this time, it backfired. The story line follows a religious sheikh on his way to Mecca who meets a very beautiful Georgian lady. To his horror, the lovely creature’s father turns out to be a swineherd, caring for what, to him, was a forbidden animal. In the end, the sheikh denounces his religion to win the woman. It is said that when the opera was performed, many people were offended and walked out, leaving Hajibeyli with the realization that he had outpaced his generation too much this time. As a result, he made a drastic decision and burned the score. When asked by Ramazan Khalilov, his assistant, how he could do that, Hajibeyli replied: “I didn’t destroy my opera. It’s my own creation so it’s always in my head.” Khalilov said that Hajibeyli went on to use this same magnificent music 27 years later to create, Koroghlu, an opera that many acclaim to be his finest.
In 1908, Hajibeyli wrote his first opera “Leyli and Majnun” based on the tragic love story
In contrast to Sheikh Sanan, Hajibeyli’s operas “Rustam and Zohrab" (1910), “Asli and Karam” (1912), “Shah Abbas and Khurshudbanu” (1912), and “Harun and Leyli” (1915) were entirely based on Azeri folk music elements, primarily mugam.
In October 2006, the musical comedy “Arshin Mal Alan” (“The Cloth Peddler”) by Uzeyir Hajibeyli, written in 1913, was announced to be performed on western stages for the first time. One of Hajibeyli’s greatest legacies was bringing forward the idea of establishing a professional music school. Hence the Baku Academy of Music (known then as the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire), was founded in 1920 and named after Hajibeyli after his death. The school has trained Azerbaijan’s finest composers such as Gara Garayev, Fikrat Amirov, Jovdat Hajiyev, Soltan Hajibeyov, Tofig Guliyev, and Vagif Mustafazadeh. His statue “sits” in front of this grand building that is still devoted to the synthesizing eastern and western musical traditions. In 1931, Hajibeyli helped in establishing the Azeri Folk Instruments Orchestra affiliated with the Radio Committee. This orchestra performed european classical pieces, such as those by Mikhail Glinka, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Georges Bizet and others. Hajibeyli thus was the first musician to adapt the note system to traditional Azeri musical instruments. In 1936, Hajibeyli assisted in founding of the Azerbaijani State Choir within the Azerbaijan Philharmonic Society. One of the most serious problems he faced was the mono-voiced repertoire of Azeri folk songs, which allowed harmonization distort style of the song and, on occasion, even alter the melody line when it changed modes. Hajibeyli resolved this problem by using contrapuntal polyphony and unison-doubling rather than four-part singing in the problematic sections. Hajibeyli devoted much energy to the idea of integrating woman’s role and status into the male-dominated world. The concept of women’s emancipation runs through many of his works often in the form of comedy or sanitization as in the case when he makes fun of the process of selecting marriage partners, a process hindered by the fact that women were still wearing veils until the 1920s when the Soviet regime prohibited them. From 1919 to 1920 Hajibeyli served as editor-in-chief for the newspaper Azerbaijan, the main governmental media body of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. In 1927, Hajibeyli published Collection of Azerbaijani Folk Songs along with composer Muslim Magomayev. For the first time, more than 300 pieces of Azeri folk music were documented by notation. In 1945, he published the book entitled The Basis of Folk Music in Azerbaijan, which has been translated into several languages including English. Hajibeyli was the creator of the first operas and operettas in the Orient. In 1938, he was awarded with the title of People’s Artist of the USSR. During the entire Soviet history, only three or four Azerbaijani musicians ever attained this level. He was also honored with the Order of Lenin and the State Stalin Prize which he won twice, once in 1941 for the opera Koroghlu (1936), and the other time in 1946 for the 1945 film based on his opera “Arshin mal alan”. Hajibeyli was a professor at the Baku Academy of Music (of which he was also head in 1928–1929 and 1939–1948) and Active Member of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. For the last 10 years of his life, he was Chairman of the Union of Azerbaijani Composers. Hajibeyli joined the Communist Party in 1938. He served twice as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the highest legislative institution in the Union. Hajibeyli died of diabetes at the age of 63. He is buried in Fakhri Khiyaban (Cemetery of the Honoured) in Baku.

Gara Garayev

Gara Abulfaz oglu Garayev (February 5, 1918 in Baku – May 13, 1982 in Moscow), was a prominent Azerbaijani composer of the Soviet period. Gara Garayev wrote nearly 110 musical pieces including ballets, operas, symphonic and chamber pieces, solos for piano, cantatas, songs and marches, and rose to prominence not only in Azerbaijan SSR but also in the rest of the Soviet Union and worldwide. Gara Garayev was born in 1918 to a pediatrician father, who was famous in Baku, and a musician mother. His mother-Sona-khanym, was among the first graduates of the Baku-based school of the Russian Music Society. Gara Garayev’s younger brother, Mursal, became a surgeon, but died at an early age. In 1926, at the age of eight, Gara Garayev first entered the junior music school at the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire, currently known as the Baku Music Academy. Due to his musical talents, in 1933 Gara Garayev was allowed to enroll simultaneously in two faculties at the conservatoire. Among his teachers were Georgi Sharoyev, Leonid Rudolf, and the prominent Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli. In 1937, Garayev joined the Union of Composers of Azerbaijan SSR. In 1938, at the age of twenty, Garayev composed his first musical piece, a cantata “The Song of the Heart” to the poem by Rasul Rza. Garayev conducted his cantata during its premiere the “Decade of Azerbaijani Art” festival in the Bolshoi Theater, an event also attended by Stalin. In the same year, Garayev moved to Moscow State Conservatoire, where he became a student and a good friend of Dmitri Shostakovich. In 1945, Garayev and Jovdat Hajiyev wrote the “Motherland” (“Veten”) opera, for which they were awarded a prestigious Stalin prize. In 1948, at the age of 30, Garayev was again awarded this prize for his symphonic poem “Leyli and Majnun”, based on the same-titled famous work of Nizami. In 1952, under the direction of the choreograph P.A.Gusev, Garayev’s “Seven Beauties” (“Yeddi Gyozal”) ballet was staged at the Azerbaijani Theater of Opera and Ballet. Based on Nizami’s famous poem, “Seven Beauties”(“Yeddi Gyozal”) became the first Azerbaijani ballet and opened a new chapter in the history of classical music of Azerbaijan. Garayev’s only other ballet, “Path of Thunder” (“Ildirimli yollarla”), staged in 1958, was dedicated to racial conflicts in South Africa In the same year, Garayev also wrote the soundtrack for the documentary film “A Story About the Oil Workers of the Caspian Sea”, directed by Roman Karmen and set at the Oil Rocks, world’s first off-shore drilling town built in 1949 on rigs in the Caspian Sea. Upon the death of Uzeyir Hajibeyli in 1948, Garayev became the Chair of the Union of Composers of Azerbaijan SSR and the rector of Azerbaijan State Conservatoire. In the latter position, Garayev retained Hajibeyli’s traditional emphasis on Azerbaijani folk music in teaching, and also promoted the contemporary genres, such as jazz, in Azerbaijani music. During his teaching career at the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire, Garayev prepared a number of prominent Azerbaijani musicians and composers, including Niyazi, Arif Malikov, Khayyam Mirzazadeh and Ismayil Hajibeyov among others. Garayev’s own son, Faraj (born 1943) was also his student, who went on to compose single-act ballets such as “Shadows of Gobustan” (“Gobustanin kolgalari”) and “Kaleidoscope”, and later led the musical avantgarde movement in Azerbaijan. In June 1961, amidst the Cold War, Garayev and Tikhon Khrennikov were the only two Soviet composers who attended the First International Los Angeles Music Festival held at UCLA. Fifteen composers from seven nations presented their works, including Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky. On June 11, Franz Waxman conducted the Festival Symphony Orchestra with a suite from Garayev’s ballet “Path of Thunder”. Garayev suffered from heart disease, which prevented him from attending his own 60th jubilee celebration held in Moscow, where he was awarded the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor, a highest recognition award of the Soviet government. Garayev spent the last 5 years of his life in Moscow, away from public, although his love for Baku remained strong and was reflected in his writing: “To me, Baku is the most beautiful city in the world. Every morning, when the city wakes whether it be to the sun or the rain and fog, every morning my city sings. Baku is meant for art. It gives me so much pleasure to write about this city no matter if you write music, verse or paint images.” Garayev died on May 13, 1982 in Moscow at the age of 64. His body was flown to Baku and buried at the “Alley of Honor” (“Fakhri Khiyaban”) National Cemetery.

Asef Zeynally

Asaf Zeynalabdin oglu Zeynally (5 April 1909, Derbent – 27 October 1932, Baku), was an Azerbaijani composer. Asaf Zeynally was the third child of the gardener Zeynalabdin and his wife Asband. He grew up in a house located next to Derbent’s famous historical Naryn-Kala sight. Asaf Zeynally’s father died shortly after his birth, and his mother Asband, a weaver, became the family’s breadwinner. She was also an amateur musician and singer, and played the accordion contributing to her younger son’s growing passion for music. In 1916, 7-year old Zeynally started attending the Derbent Realschule, a local primary school, where he became member of the school choir and was taught to play the clarinet often participating in public performances of an amateur brass band outside school. In 1920, the family moved to Baku, Azerbaijan, where Zeynally continued his education at a military school, at which in addition he learned to play the trumpet. In 1923, Zeynally enrolled in the newly-established musical college (which would be later named after him) where he was taught by prominent composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli. While studying at the college, he composed his first work entitled “Mahni” (“The Song”) and performed it on a trumpet. The performance was perceived at revolutionary by music experts as the young composer managed to adjust the ceremonial march-like tune of the instrument in order to play folk Azeri music. Encouraged by Hajibeyli, Zeynally enrolled in the composer program at the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire upon graduating from the musical college in 1926. Along with writing music, Zeynally publishes articles on Azeri musical culture, in which he mainly develops Hajibeyli’s method of merging traditional Azeri styles with Western European classical music. In the early 1930s, he was among members of intelligentsia who opposed the goal of the Soviets to ban tar. Since 1928 Zeynally taught at the music school by the Conservatoire, where he teaches theories of music (Gara Garayev, Jovdat Hajiyev and Tofig Guliyev were among his students). 1929 becomes the peak of the composer’s activity. Among his works produced that year, there was the romance “Olkam “(“My Country”), children’s suite, “Karabagh shikastesi” for a symphonic orchestra, and other folk songs adjusted for Western instruments. In 1931 graduated from the Conservatoire and was appointed head of the Department of Music of the Baku Turkish Labour Theatre. There, his main contribution was writing music for the controversial propaganda play “Sevil”. In 1932, the theatre successfully toured S.Petersburg.
Asaf Zeynally died in 1932, at the age of 23, of an illness, never getting to compose the monumental symphony dedicated to Baku that he had planned earlier.

Muslim Magomayev

Muslim Mahammad oglu Magomayev (18,September 1885, Starye Atagi – 28 July 1937, Nalchik) was an Azerbaijani and Soviet composer and conductor. He is the grandfather and a namesake of Azerbaijani opera singer Muslim Magomayev. He was born Abdulmuslim Magomayev into a family of a Chechen blacksmith on the same day another prominent Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli was born. Magomayev’s home village Starye Atagi is located 10 kilometers north of Grozny, present-day Chechen Republic, Russia. He had studied at a primary school in Grozny before being admitted to the Gory Pedagogical Seminary (in present-day Georgia) in 1900. There Magomayev developed passion for music and conducting. That was also where he first met Uzeyir Hajibeyli, then his fellow student. However Magomayev found musical career financially unpromising and decided to focus on teaching. In 1905, he acquired his teaching certificate at the Tiflis Teachers’ College and was appointed a teacher to the village of Bekovichi (now Kizlyar, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania). In 1906, he was voluntarily reappointed to Lankaran (present-day Azerbaijan). In 1911, he received a license that allowed him to teach in high schools and moved to a Baku suburb, Sabunchu. While teaching at a school he took up music and conducting once again. In 1916, Magomayev wrote his first opera entitled “Shah Ismayil” based on the homonymous Azeri folk epic. Unlike other early Azeri operas, “Shah Ismayil” was less focused on the ethnic musical component and embodied European opera styles. Magomayev’s most major work was “Nargiz”. Written in 1935, this successful propaganda opera depicts Azerbaijani communists in their fight against the short-lived Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Overall, Magomayev was the author of 15 musical compositions, mostly rhapsodies. In 1927, together with Hajibeyli, he published The Collection of Azerbaijani Folk Songs; a book where over 300 pieces of folk music had been documented in notes. In 1905, Magomayev married Baydigul Jamal Teregulova (whose younger sister Maleyka later married Uzeyir Hajibeyli making the two composers relatives) and fathered two sons. In 1937, he died of tuberculosis while visiting Nalchik (Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia) and was buried in Baku. The Magomayev Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Society is named after Muslim Magomayev.

Zulfugar Hajibeyli

Zulfugar Hajibeyli was an Azerbaijani composer. He was one of the founders of the Azerbaijan Music Comedy Theater. Hajibeyov was born in Shusha on 17 April 1884 and died on 30 September 1950. He is the father of the Azerbaijani musical conductor Niyazi and the brother of the famous composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli. Some of Zulfugar Hajibeyil’s works:
Musical comedies
Young in 50 years old (1909) (Alli yashinda javan)
11 years old woman (1911) (On bir yashli arvad)
Single during Married (1911).
Opera
Ashiq Qarib (1915)

Afrasiyab Badalbayli

Afrasiyab Badal oglu Badalbeyli (19 April 1907, Baku – 6 January 1976, Baku) was a Soviet Azerbaijani composer, conductor and music critic. Afrasiyab Badalbeyli was born to Shusha natives Badal and Rahima Badalbeyli in 1907. At the time, the Badalbeylis were already becoming known as a family of great musicians. His father was a mugam expert and a music teacher at a Russo-Tartar school in Baku. Afrasiyab Badalbeyli’s paternal uncle Ahmed Badalbeyli (Agdamski) was a renowned opera singer. Afrasiyab’s brother Shamsi Badalbeyli later became a musical play director. In 1930, Afrasiyab Badalbeyli graduated from the Azerbaijan State University majoring in Oriental studies and continued his education at a music school affiliated with the S.Petersburg Conservatoire , which he finished in 1938. He began working as a conductor at the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theatre in 1930. In 1931, he married ballerina Gamar Almaszadeh who accompanied him to S.Petersburg while pursuing higher education at a professional ballet school herself. This marriage however ended in divorce leading to Badalbeyli’s subsequent marriages. Badalbeyli’s career in music began in 1928 when he composed music for Jafar Jabbarli’s staged play “Od Galini”. He is particularly famous for being the author of the first Azerbaijani ballet, entitled “Giz Galasi” (“The Maiden Tower”), which he composed in 1940. The ballet was dedicated to Gamar Almaszadeh. His later works included “Khalg Gazabi” (“The Popular Rage”, 1941; co-author Boris Zeidman), “Nizami” (1948) and “Soyudlar aghlamaz” (“Willows Don’t Cry”, 1971). He wrote librettos for the Azerbaijani opera “Bahadir va Son”a and the ballets “Giz Galasi”, “Garaja Giz” (“Nigella”) and “Gizil Achar” (“The Golden Key”). He composed background music for theatrical plays and being the only libretto translator of the time did equirhythmic Azeri translations of the librettos of the operas by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Gioacchino Rossini, and Zakaria Paliashvili. Throughout the 1950s and the 1960s he published several books on the history and development of classical music in Azerbaijan, namely: Discussions on Music, Gurban Pirimov, Musical Dictionary, and The Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theatre.
In 1960 he was awarded the title of the People’s Artist of Azerbaijan. He remained a conductor at the Opera and Ballet Theatre till his death in 1976.

Said Rustamov

Mir-Jabbar Ali oglu Seyid-Rustamzadeh (12 May 1907, Erivan – 10 June 1983, Baku), was an Azerbaijani composer and conductor. Said Rustamov was born in Erivan (now Yerevan) where he spent his early years and went to primary school. He was the youngest of the family’s four children. After his father’s death and his mother’s second marriage, he was taken in and brought up by his older brother who had been married by that time. In 1918, as a result of ethnic tensions in Erivan, his brother was murdered. Rustamov’s sister in law fled with the rest of her family, including himself, to Turkey. In 1919, they moved to Ganja, then Agdash and finally settled in Baku, where young Rustamov got admitted to a teacher’s seminary. As a teenager, he developed interest in music and visual arts. His musical talent was noticed by one of his teachers, who introduced him to composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli. Hajibeyli arranged for the boy’s enrolment in a tar class at a music academy. At the same time Rustamov further pursued his career in teaching and graduated from the Azerbaijani State Pedagogical Institute in 1932. Around 1930 he married Bika khanim a nurse whom he had met while living in Agdash. Together they had four children (two sons and two daughters), all of whom would have been trained in professional music later in their lives. Rustamov published textbooks on note acquisition and the instruction of tar. His monographs include Azerbaijani Folk Dances, Azerbaijani Folk Songs and Azerbaijani Ashig Songs. He also wrote children’s poems, many of which became part of Azerbaijani school curricula. In 1935, he became the director and conductor of the newly-established and unique folk instrument ensemble and remained one for the next 40 years. In 1945, he was appointed director of the Fioletov Club Song and Dance Ensemble and in 1951, of the Azerbaijan State Song and Dance Ensemble. In 1948-1953, he was Chairman of the Composers Union of Azerbaijan. In 1951, he received the Stalin Prize, the highest-ranking award in the Soviet Union. In 1957, he became People’s Artist of Azerbaijan. During his career in music, Rustamov composed hundreds of musical pieces, including sheet music for popular operettas and accompaniment for many theatrical plays, as well as suites, marches, cantatas, etc.

Niyazi

Niyazi Zulfugar oglu Tagizadeh Hajibeyov (1912-1984) was a prominent Soviet Azerbaijani musical conductor, composer, author of the famous “Rast” symphonic mugam.
Niyazi was born in Tbilisi in a family of prominent Shusha musicians. His father was the composer Zulfugar Hajibeyov, brother of Uzeyir Hajibeyli, the founder of the Azeri classical music. He was playing the violin in “Khırmızı Kadet” Turkish military orchestra in 1921. Years of 1925-1926 he was spending in Qnesin’s Music School (Russia). In 1929-30 he was studying in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in Central Musical Technical School, but he didn’t finish that school due to his health problems. He came back to Baku in 1931. Right after that he was sent to Dagestan where he met his future wife Hecer khanum. The family of Hecher khanum wouldn’t get they blessing for her marriage. So she and Niyazi decided to run away and get married secretly. They lived happy but hard life. The great love of his wife gave him strengths to produce most of his masterpieces, which contributed to Azerbaijan’s and worlds musical treasury. Niyazi conducted the symphonic orchestras in Prague, Berlin, Budapest, Bucharest, New York, Paris, Istanbul, London, Tehran, Beijing, Ulan-Bator and played an important role in making the Azeri classical music known to the world. Niyazi was also a talented composer. Building upon the traditions of Uzeyir Hajibeyli, he splendidly synthesized the traditional Azeri folk songs and mugam with the classical symphonic music. Niyazi’s most significant works include opera “Khosrow and Shirin” (1942), ballet “Chitra” (1960). His symphonic mugam “Rast” achieved worldwide popularity and was included to the repertoire of many symphonic orchestras around the world. Niyazi also headed the Azerbaijan symphonic orchestra for 46 years, from 1938 to the end of his life.
Niyazi was honored as People’s Artist of the USSR (1959) and awarded the USSR State Prize (1951, 1952) and highest title of the USSR, the Hero of Labor (1982).

Haji Khanmammadov

Haji Dadash oglu Khanmammadov (June 15, 1918, Derbent – April 7, 2005, Baku) was an Azerbaijani and Soviet composer. He is best known for writing the first concertos for the Azeri stringed folk instruments tar and kamancha. Haji Khanmammadov was born in Derbent (present-day Dagestan, Russia) and began studying tar at age 10. In 1932, the boy’s life experienced a major change when his father and uncle were arrested during the Great Purge and permanently exiled to Siberia on account of owning land. After Khanmammadov graduated from middle school, his mother, who was struggling to take care of six children, sent him to Baku to find Uzeyir Hajibeyli, an Azerbaijani composer known for his patronage of the arts. Indeed, Hajibeyli did provide lodging for the boy and, after being convinced of his musical abilities, the composer enrolled him in the Zeynally Baku College of Music. Khanmammadov would go on to develop into a fine tarist. Haji Khanmammadov composed his first song “Gozal pari” (“Beautiful Nymph”) in 1942. In 1946 he was sent to Tabriz, then ruled by the Soviet-backed Azerbaijan People’s Government to found a philharmonic orchestra but after the Soviets withdrawal returned to Baku. In 1947, Haji Khanmammadov was admitted to the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire to study folk music and musical composition taught by Uzeyir Hajibeyli and Gara Garayev respectively. He graduated in 1952. It was Garayev who challenged him to write a concerto for tar and symphonic orchestra for his graduation piece. Haji Khanmammadov also wrote two successful musical comedies: “Bir dagiga” (“One Minute”, 1961; lyrics by Maharram Alizadeh) about the life of oil workers; and Butun arlar yakhshidir (“All Husbands Are Good” , 1971; lyrics by Alexander Khaldeyev in Russian). He also composed about 150 vocal songs, many of which were written specifically for the plaintive voice of Shovkat Alakbarova. In addition to his work as a composer, Haji Khanmammadov was involved in administration as director of the Azerbaijan Musical Comedy Theatre in 1944–1948), Artistic Director of the Azerbaijan State Folk Song and Dance Ensemble in 1952–1954, and Director of the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Society in 1966–1968. Haji Khanmammadov’s contribution to Azerbaijani music was acknowledged on the State level with the following awards: Honorary Art Worker of Azerbaijan (1967), People’s Artist of Azerbaijan (1988), Professor of the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire (1993), Order of Honor (1998), and the coveted Presidential monthly benefit since 2001.
Haji Khanmammadov was 87 when he died.

Fikrat Amirov

Fikret Mashadi Jamil oghlu Amirov (November 22, 1922, Ganja – February 20, 1984, Baku) was a prominent Azerbaijani composer of the Soviet period. Fikret Amirov grew up in an atmosphere of Azerbaijani folk music. His father, Mashadi Jamil Amirov, was a famous mugam singer (“khananda”) from Shusha, who composed and played tar. During his childhood and early adolescence, Fikret began composing pieces for the piano. Upon his graduation from the Ganja Music College, Fikret Amirov entered the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire, now known as the Baku Music Academy, where he was a student of Boris Zeidman and Uzeyir Hajibeyli. In 1941, when Nazi Germany attacked the USSR, Amirov, 19 at the time, was drafted to the Soviet army. He was wounded near Voronezh, hospitalized and demobilized from the military service, returning to Baku to continue his studies at the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire. Amirov’s music was strongly influenced by Azeri folk melodies. He created a new genre called symphonic mugam. Amirov’s symphonic mugams were based on classical folk pieces and were performed by many renowned symphony orchestras throughout the world, such as the Houston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Amirov was a prolific composer. His most famous pieces include symphonic works such as “Shur” (1946), “Kurd Afshari” (1949), “Azerbaijan Capriccio” (1961), “Gulustan Bayati-Shiraz” (1968), “The Legend of Nasimi” (1977), “To the Memory of the Heroes of the Great National War” (1944), “Double Concerto for Violin, “Piano and Orchestra” (1948) etc. His ballets include “Nizami” (1947) and “1001 Nights,” (sometimes referred to as “The Arabian Nights”) which premiered in 1979. Amirov wrote the opera “Sevil” in 1953. He also wrote a number of pieces for the piano including “Ballad,” “Ashug’s Song,” “Nocturne,” “Humoreska,” “Lyrical Dance,” “Waltz,” “Lullaby” and “Toccata.” He also wrote numerous film scores. Michelle Kwan, World Champion Ice Skater from the U.S. used Fikret Amirov’s symphonic piece “Gulustan Bayati-Shiraz” in her skating program “Taj Mahal” in 1997.
Amirov was honored as People’s Artist of the USSR (1965) and awarded the USSR State Prize (1949, 1980).

Tofig Guliyev

Tofig Guliyev (November 7, 1917, Baku – October 4, 2000, Baku) was an Azerbaijani and Soviet composer. Despite early-appeared music talent, he started to study music relatively late, when he was 12. Being a student of musical college, he wrote his first composition in 1931. It was a song “About Schoolboy” (poet – Mirza Alakbar Sabir). He entered Azerbaijan State Conservatoire in 1934, at two faculties at the same time. His conductor’s activity started in 1935. He worked in Azerbaijan State Drama Theater. Starting from 1938, Tofig Guliyev was involved in collection of folk music. He recorded folk songs, dances, mugams, and it was very valuable contribution in Azerbaijan study of folklore. Uzeir Hajibeyli initiated to send him to learn in Moscow State Conservatoire. In Moscow, in addition to classis music he was keen of pops music, in particular, of jazz. He created first State Pops Orchestra in 1939, and so became one of the founders of Azerbaijan jazz. He continued to study in Moscow Conservatoire in 1948, because the World War II interrupted his study. That time he entered both: composition and conducting faculties, and then post-graduate studies. The latter was successfully completed in 1954. All these years he performed as conductor, and wrote a number of symphonic and chamber compositions. He creates bright and memorizing music for theater and especially for movies. Song genre is a leading one in his creative life. His songs are very popular not only in Azerbaijan, but also worldwide. His music style is very specific. It composes national folk basis and traditions of European professional school, as well as American jazz. He started his teaching activity in 1954. He led opera and orchestra classes at Azerbaijan State Conservatoire. From 1958 to 1961 he was Director of Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Society. In addition to his creative works, he was widely involved in public activity. He participated in arranging relations with foreign countries. According to his great deserts, he was frequently awarded by the highest governmental awards. Tofig Guliyev headed Azerbaijan Composers Union from 1969 till 1979 as First Secretary. He was elected the Chairman of the board in 1990 and held this occupation till the end of his life – on October – 4, 2000.

Tofig Bakikhanov

Tofig Bakikhanov was born in Baku in 1930. 1953 – graduated from Uzeyir Hajibeyli Azerbaijan State Conservatoire (violin class). 1957- composition class of Conservatoire.1958 – member of Composers Union. 1973 – Honored Artist of Azerbaijan. 1983 – Professor. 1996 – Doctor of Art Criticism of Azerbaijan National Art Academy. 1994-2000 – Bakikhanov Premium. From 1969 – author concerts in Paris, Moscow, Tbilisi, Istanbul, Izmir and Teheran. He is the author of many ballet performances, musical comedies, overtures, 6 symphonies, 5 symphonic poems for different tools: 24 sonatas, 26 concerts with symphony orchestra, vocal and instrumental works.

Arif Malikov

Arif Malikov (also Melikov September 13, 1933 in Baku) is an Azerbaijani and Soviet composer. He graduated from the Baku Conservatory as a music composer in 1958. He shot to fame in 1961 when his first major composition “Legend of Love” was staged at the Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Leningrad (present day St. Petersburg) and received nationwide acclaim. The ballet has been staged in several countries in Europe and is regarded as one of the finest works emerging from the former Soviet Union. The ballet “Legend of Love”, is based upon the legend of “Farhad and Shirin”, a story of unrequited love that was immortalized by Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet. Since then, Arif Malikov has written music for two more ballets including “Dvoe” (Two) (1967) and “Poem of Two Hearts” (1981), five symphonies and eight symphony poems. He has also written scores for a large number of films and plays and is familiar with practically all genres of music composition.
Arif Malikov had been conferred the highest award that an artist could get in the former Soviet Union – The People’s Artist of the USSR. He has also been honored with a concert hall named after him at Turkey’s Bilkent University.
After Azerbaijan became independent, Arif Malikov settled in Baku, where he teaches music in the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire.

Vagif Mustafazadeh

Vagif Mustafazadeh was born on March 16, 1940 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan SSR. Vagif’s name was chosen by the renowned poet, Samed Vurgun, on the request of his mother. Vagif is an Arabic word that means “Extremely Knowledgeable”. He started to play piano in his age of three. In 1963 he graduated from Baku State Musical Technicum named after Asef Zeynally and a year later accepted to Azerbaijan State Conservatoire. In the year of 1965 he quit the conservatoire and went to Tbilisi to lead the “Orero” musical ensemble. Later he created the “Qafqaz” (Azerbaijani for Caucasus) jazz trio at Georgian State Philarmony. In 1970 the “Leyli” women’s quartet and in 1971 “Sevil” vocal-instrumental ensemble were assembled by him. Until 1977 he guided the groups. Between 1977-1979 until his death he led the “Mugam” instrumental ensemble which was also organized by him. Vagif attended “Tallin-1966” all Soviet Union Jazz Festival and “Jazz-1969” Azerbaijani jazz festivals and was awarded as laureate there. Vagif Mustafazadeh was also elected as laureate at Donetsk all Soviet Union Jazz Festival held in 1977. He was elected as the best pianist in “Tbilisi-1978”. He won the first prize at the 8th International Competition of Jazz Composers for his composition “Waiting for Aziza” in Monaco in 1978 and awarded with white grand piano. Vagif Mustafazadeh is assigned Honoured Artist of Azerbaijan SSR and after his death Azerbaijani State Prize.Vagif Mustafazadeh was a Soviet Azeri jazz pianist and composer, famous for fusing jazz and traditional Azeri folk music known as mugam. Azerbaijan fell under control of the Soviets in 1920, 20 years before Vagif was born. Five years after his birth and after World War II, Stalin said that jazz was “the music of capitalists” and had it banned throughout the entire Soviet Union. (Adolf Hitler had done the same in Germany in 1933, stating that it was “the music of the blacks”.) Even music played on the saxophone was outlawed. The young Vagif, however, apparently cared little for the Soviets and their bans. As a child, he would listen to jazz on “BBC” broadcasts and sing Meykhana rhythmic poetry, which had also been banned, with friends. After listening on the radio, he and his friend Vagif Samadoglu would attempt to recreate the music on the piano. After Stalin’s death in 1953, the ban on Jazz was gradually lifted. Gradually, however, is a key word. Even in 1957, Vagif was unable to play jazz compositions in concert. As such, he resorted to playing privately for friends or in clubs. He had an intense passion for improvisational jazz, but found something lacking. Eventually, he began to fuse jazz with traditional Azeri music: “Mugam”.

Rafig Babayev

Rafig Babayev (Rafiq Farzi oglu Babayev, 31 March 1937, Baku – 19 March 1994) was an Azerbaijani jazz composer and pianist. In 1978 he was conferred the title of Honoured Artist and in 1993 the title of National Artist of Azerbaijan. One of the eminent figures of Azerbaijani jazz, Rafig Babayev composed a large number of jazz compositions, plays and arrangements of national songs as well as the scores for over 20 films. Rafig’s father was imprisoned by Soviet authorities and he was brought up by mother in poverty, together with his three sisters and brother. Having graduated from musical school in Baku, Rafig Babayev passed the final examinations in 1954, which included a piece from Bill Evans. In 1959 Rafig Babayev finished the Baku Academy of Music and began touring throughout the Soviet Union. By that time Rafig Babayev became the leader of a jazz band. In 1967 his band won a prize at “Tallinn Jazz Festival”. Having returned to Baku, Rafig Babayev made acquaintance with singer Rashid Behbudov.
In 1993 Babayev’s jazz band arrived to California to perform in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
Rafig Babayev was killed in the 1994 Baku Metro bombings.

Vasif Adigozalov

Vasif Adigozalov (1935-2006) was one of Azerbaijan’s most distinguished composers. Vasif Adigozalov excelled both as composer and performer. He majored in piano as well as composition at the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire (now Baku Music Academy). His piano professor was Simuzar Guliyeva and throughout his career, he gave numerous concerts on stage as a pianist and accompanist. In the early 1960s, he accompanied legendary Azerbaijani singer Rashid Behbudov (1915-1989). Later on, he pursued a solo career and performed his own pieces. Vasif Adigozalov is best known for incorporating traditional modal “mugam” music into his works – both orchestral and solo pieces. This could be expected, since he was the son of Zulfugar Adigozalov (1898-1963), a prominent “khananda” singer of Azerbaijani mugam. Vasif Adigozalov was greatly influenced by Gara Garayev (1918-1982), the distinguished Azerbaijani composer and teacher with whom Vasif Adigozalov had studied at the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire in 1953-1959. Although Vasif Adigozalov had become seriously ill in the last few years of his life, he continued to carry out his responsibilities both at the Azerbaijan Composers’ Union where he was Chairman (1990-2006), as well as the Music Academy where he had taught since 1961, and where he had chaired the Department of Choral Conducting (1992-2006). Vasif Adigozalov enjoyed official recognition as the recipient of Azerbaijan’s highest national awards – People’s Artist of Azerbaijan (Khalg Artisti, 1989), State Prize (Dovlat Mukafati, 1990), Glory (Shohrat Ordeni, 1995), and Independence Orders (Istiglal Ordeni, 2005). Had Vasif Adigozalov only written “Carnation” (1960), which dosens of Azerbaijani singers have performed in various arrangements, it would have been sufficient enough for him to assume an honorable place in the history of Azerbaijani music and culture. Vasif Adigozalov wrote “Carnation” at the age of 25, as a tribute to “Natavan” (1832-1897), a famous 19th century poetess and ruler of Karabagh – a mountainous region known for being a cultural center in Azerbaijan. Vasif Adigozalov’s works continue to be appreciated and performed by Azerbaijani pianists of all generations.
Operas: The Dead (1963), Natavan (2003).Operettas: Haji Gara (with Ramiz Mustafayev) (1958), The Daily Scenes (1962), Granny’s Happiness (1971), Let’s Get Divorced and Married Later (1976), The Devil Eye (1985). Oratorios: Land of Fire (1987), Karabagh Shikastasi (1989), Chanakkale (1998), Caravan of Sadness (1999). Cantatas: My Novruz (1994), Solemn Cantata (1998), Symphonic Music, Four symphonies (1958, 1970, 1973, 1998-Segah). Symphonic Music: Four symphonies (1958, 1970, 1973, 1998-Segah), Symphonic poems: Heroic (1957), Africa Struggles (1961), Stages (1968); Festive Overture (1978), Poem for Four Pianos and Orchestra (1982), Four Concertos for Piano and Orchestra (1961, 1964, 1985, 1994), Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1961), Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1990). Instrumental Music: Sonatina for Cello and Piano (1957), Sonata for Piano (1957), Scherzo for Violin and Piano (1958), Piano Pieces for Children (1959), 24 Piano Pieces for Children (1961), Poem Apotheosis: Two Pianos and Orchestra (1980), Sonata for Cello (1987), Mugam Sonata for Organ (1988), 24 Preludes for Piano (1995). More than 150 songs and romances. Soundtracks for plays, documentaries and films.

Firangiz Alizadeh

Firangiz Alizadeh was born 28 may in 1947 in Baku, Azerbaijan. She studied the piano and composition at the Baku Conservatory, from which she graduated as a pianist in 1970, and as a composer in 1972. From 1973-1976 she was Gara Garaev’s research assistant, and in 1989 completed her doctoral thesis, “Orchestration in Works by Azerbaijani Composers”. In 1976 she began to teach musicology at the Baku Conservatory, where she has been professor of Contemporary Music and the History of Orchestral Styles since 1990. From 1993 to 1996 she conducted the choir of the opera house in Mersin, Turkey, and subsequently taught the piano and music theory for two years at the Mersin Conservatory. In 1998-1999 Firangiz Alizadeh worked again in Baku. Since then she has lived primarily in Germany.
In 1980 Firangiz Alizadeh received the annual award of the Azerbaijani Composers’ Union, and in 1990 was accorded the title of “Outstanding Artist“ by the Azerbaijan USSR. In 1989 she became a member of the Friends of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute in Los Angeles, and in November 2000 she received the honorary title “People Artist of the Republic of Azerbaijan”.

Eldar Mansurov

Mansurov Eldar Bahram oglu better known as Eldar Mansurov (born in Baku, Azerbaijan on 28 February 1952) is an Azerbaijani musician, composer and songwriter. He is the son of musician Bahram Mansurov. His younger brother Elkhan Mansurov is also a musician. He is married and has two children. Eldar Mansurov learned the piano in 1968-1972 under the supervision of Asaf Zeynally and in 1974-1979 he studied at the Uzeyir Hajibeyli Azerbaijan State Conservatoire under the supervision of Covdat Hajiyev. He has taken part in many classical, as well as popular concerts and has written the soundtrack of a great number of films and theatre productions. His best known popular tunes though remain “Bayatılar” and “Bahramname”.
“Bayatılar”, lyrics by Vahid Aziz and music by Eldar Mansurov was a hit by Brilliant Dadashova not only in Azerbaijan, but also in Russia, Turkmenistan, all over Europe (Turkey, Greece, Germany, Spain, France), the Arab World and Brazil. The song was used in versions and samples Turkish musicians Huseyn Karadayı and Cem Nadiran (in the album “Miracles”) and Greek musician Pantelis (in the album "I Have A Dream). “Bayatılar” is the basis of the refrain of the 2009 Euro-dance hit “Stereo Love” by Romanian musicians Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina. A copyright dispute over the song resulted in Maya acknowledging that the refrain in his song was actually taken from Mansurov’s Bayatılar.