Gara Garayev is such a great peak of our music that his music names years, generations, centuries, and sheds light on the paths of future generations. Gara Garayev, an outstanding musician and public figure who is our national pride, is one of the genius composers and bright figures of our time, whose talent and artistry determine the ways of development of modern world music art. He raised Azerbaijani music to such a stage of development that it was able to go far beyond the limits of national reality.

By the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on October 17, 2017, the 100th anniversary of the birth of outstanding representative of Azerbaijani culture, great composer, famous scientist-pedagogue and public figure, People's Artist of the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of USSR and Azerbaijan State awards, academician Gara Garayev is noted. By the decision of TURKSOY, 2018 was declared the year of Gara Garayev. A lot of work is already being done in this regard. On February 14, 2018, the opening ceremony of the "Year of Gara Garayev" was held at the residence of TURKSOY in Ankara. At the opening ceremony, TURKSOY Secretary General Professor Düsen Kaseinov, outstanding composer, UNESCO artist for peace, People's Artist of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Chairman of the Union of Composers Professor Firangiz Alizadeh, Director of the National Library of Azerbaijan, Honored Worker of Culture, Professor Karim Tahirov, Honored Art Worker, Veteran University teacher, professor Aflatun Nematzadeh and others spoke at the ceremony. Düsen Kaseinov spoke about the work of the outstanding composer Gara Garayev and his contributions to world music. He said that within the framework of the "Year of Gara Garayev", a series of events will be held in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and other Turkic-speaking countries, which are part of TURKSOY, in connection with the anniversary of the outstanding artist.

Gara Garayev, one of the most prominent representatives of our 20th century musical culture, is one of our musical figures who brought world fame to Azerbaijani culture. He is one of the personalities who stood in the center of attention of humanity with his rich creativity and magnificent art world. The works of the world-famous composer, who studied under the great U. Hajibeyov, are considered pearls of world culture.

The name of G. Garayev is permanent and dear to the people of Azerbaijan. There is no corner of Azerbaijan where everyone does not fall under the spell of the musical genius of this genius artist, and is not aware of his ballets "Seven Beautiful", "Lightning Roads", and the symphonic poem "Leyli and Majnun". G. Garayev is an artist who is always loved and makes people think with his works, because he always got strength from his native land and drank water from the pure fountain of our national music, such as mugham, ashiq music, and folk songs.

At the same time, G. Garayev is a respected artist. Because the composer, who opened new paths in the art path and created only his own style, mastered the achievements not only of his people, but also of all eras of world music history, and enriched the treasure of world music culture with his unique works.

The legacy of the mighty composer is extremely wide and rich. This can be seen in the various genres and colorful subjects he addresses. It can be said that G. Garayev worked with the same enthusiasm in all genres and created new works distinguished by their innovation and high artistic level. The composer's ballets, symphonic poems, symphonies, chamber-instrumental works, music written for movies and theater performances, which have gained wide fame and entered the golden fund of musical culture, confirm this once again.

The composer's creativity has been very rich and colorful in terms of themes. He was attracted by the creativity of poets and writers of the most diverse eras, folk legends. It includes the names of brilliant luminaries such as N. Ganjavi, V. Shakespeare, A. Pushkin, I. Cervantes, O. Khayyam.

The composer used themes of the classical East, modern everyday life, and a number of peoples of the world with the same inspiration and skill, and raised them to the peak of immortality with his unique music. G. Garayev's high ideals dedicated to the most important topics, acute life conflicts, glorifying the richness and beauty of human spirituality, are filled with the spirit of true humanitarianism. The artist, who writes and creates with subtle, lyrical feelings, penetrates the inner world of his heroes with amazing mastery. The composer's ballets are considered an important and qualitatively new stage in the development of Azerbaijani ballet art. In his works, the artist completely surpassed the idea that dances have entertaining elements, and created a realistic musical and choreographic drama.

G. Garayev's "Seven Beauties" ballet addressed the classical heritage. If he glorified the beautiful spiritual qualities of his people and their desire to be loved freely by means of a past and ancient legend, in the ballet "Lightning Roads" he embodied a very important theme of the modern era - the theme of racial discrimination and the struggle for freedom of colonial peoples.

In 1947, the symphonic poem "Leyli and Majnun", written on the basis of the works of the great Azerbaijani poet Nizami and awarded the USSR State Prize in the same year, brought great fame to Gara Garayev. , as a result of his serious efforts and searches, as well as within the possibilities of the musical theater, he created a complete ballet with a complete composition. In the poem, the tension of his feelings and the sublime emotions are contrasted with the ruthlessness of fate, which is a symbol of the dark environment spread over the dreams of happiness. This symphonic poem contains all the beautiful qualities gathered in the first decade of Gara Garayev's work to the world of good thoughts brings to life: his deep, thought-provoking, rebellious and uncompromising ideas with his extremely bright, wonderful musical scores.

"Leyli and Majnun" becomes the artist's voice of protest against the anti-humanist nature of the feudal-patriarchal world that destroys and denies free love. The struggle of the main poles - good and evil, cruelty and philanthropy, oldness and innovation - which he wrote later, is world famous in both famous ballets , in the "Vietnam" suite, "Don Quixote" symphonic engravings, and in his third symphony. Not long after, Gara Garayev again turns to the work of genius Nizami Ganjavi. This time, not only one poem, but all the poems in the famous "Khamsa" form the literary basis of the libretto. The motifs of Nizami's plots were freely used, and new characters were brought to this ballet. The main hero of the ballet is the people. The life of the working people fighting against oppression and slavery is given in full colors in the work. In the image of young Ayesha, who does not betray her moral ideals and ideas, her strong inclination towards happiness is expressed. The free flow of overflowing melodies evokes beautiful feelings, triumphing over cruelty and tyranny, as well as over the ruthlessness of bright, mind-blowing entertainment and dizzying atmosphere. Let's listen to the ballet "Seven Beauties" for a moment. Let's pay attention to the wings and curtains of the "chahargah" fluttering in the fabric of this ballet. The well-known scores of "Chahargah" are sung with new power, new grandeur, and a new harmony.

When watching the dances of the seven beauties in this ballet, it seems that these beauties, who are performers of seven different national spirits, speak different languages while dancing. No matter how easy it is to write about this miracle of art, it is equally difficult to create it in the language of brass strings, thin strings of strings, breaths, percussion, transfer it to notes, and then turn it into sounds. In order to hear and deeply understand the laconic, capricious ideas expressed by Gara Garayev in his musical language, it is necessary to be closely acquainted with the modern world music culture and the composer's creativity. His contemporaries wrote about him that Gara Garayev was a rich and sophisticated man by nature: he was like that in his creativity and in his life. Since his youth, seriousness was one of his distinguishing features. It was the same in his attitude to work, classes, areas of interest, finding friends, choosing books to read, his thoughts and ideas...

Among the composer's musical stage works, the opera "Vatan", which he wrote together with Jovdat Hajiyev and enriched the art of national opera, should be specially mentioned. The opera "Motherland", written in the spirit of great patriotism, resonates with its idea even today, glorifies patriotism and instills great feelings of loyalty to the motherland in the youth of Azerbaijan. It is no coincidence that the 28-year-old artist was awarded the USSR State Prize for this opera.

One of the most important pages in the development of symphonic and chamber-instrumental music of Azerbaijan is connected with the name of G. Garayev. His works written in this genre are performed by symphony orchestras of various countries around the world. G. Garayev, who has been working on various genres of symphonic music for years, has always remained loyal to important creative principles. The composer skillfully used mughams, folk songs and dances, ashik creativity in his symphonies, poems and suites. In addition, he used a number of features of the music of Russian, Turkish, Spanish and other nations.

Vocal works, which the composer applied throughout his career and covered not only the poetic folklore of his native people, but also the lyrical poems of other peoples, embody his creative power and greatness very well. The composer's romances and songs are the best examples of art written in this genre. G. Garayev, who called cinema "a great modern school of composition" based on its character, worked very productively on film music and created real masterpieces that became classics. "Leyli and Majnun", "The lesson of history", "On distant shores", "Two boys from one neighborhood" etc. The music he wrote for movies, "Tragedy of Hope", V. Shakespeare's drama performances "Antonio and Cleopatra" make up the bright pages of his work.

During his 45-year creative career, Gara Garayev wrote works that became successful one after the other in all musical genres. His creative map is extremely versatile and characterized by his uniqueness. The variety and color of the theme, plot and motives in the music of our unforgettable composer is explained by the individual qualities of his creativity as an artist. In his works, the characters of the Middle Ages stand side by side with the heroes of today, they are depicted in an organic unity with modernity. In this regard, Gara Garayev, with the same artistic skill, was able to make the characters of Nizami, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Rosta, Samad Vurgun, Vsevolod Vishnevsky fall in love with the viewers and listeners with the help of convincing and sincere means of expression. "Sarskoye cello sculpture" for piano, "Mourning prelude", "Three-part fugue", "Sonatina", "Azerbaijani rhapsody", "Concerto for piano and symphony orchestra", "Joy poem", "Six Azerbaijani folk songs" for piano and voice work", musical chorus for the documentary film "Orderly Azerbaijan", cantata "Song of the Heart" for symphonic orchestra, "Three classifications" for symphonic orchestra, fugue for string quartet, "Lullaby" for choir... These works show the skillful observation skills of the composer. , is an example of folk creativity, modernity, harmony of content and form.

Uzeyir Hajibayov instilled a deep love for folk music in those who had just entered the world of art. His acquaintance with Uzeyir Hajibayov forever determined the direction of G. Garayev's creative development. In those years, Azerbaijani composers whose names are now commonplace, such as Gara Garayev, Jovdat Hajiyev and Tofig Guliyev, studied at the Azerbaijan State Conservatory, and learned the secrets of polyphony and composition techniques from Leopold Martseyevich Rudolph. All three of them entered the Moscow State Conservatory at the insistence of our national pride, the unforgettable Uzeyir Hajibayov. Here, Bulbul, whom Gara Garayev called "an exceptional master of vocal art, a great connoisseur of Azerbaijani musical folklore", played an irreplaceable role. Thus, not only Uzeyir Hajibayov, Bulbul, but also folk music performers, our master lovers played a great role in the development of the outstanding Azerbaijani composer Gara Garayev as an artist. It was not for nothing that Gara Garayev said that "I was lucky that I studied in Uzeyir Hajibayov's class. Most of us in the class of this talented pedagogue, skilled psychologist, great person who is able to approach each of his achievements with special sensitivity, most of us have learned that behind the polished structure of lyrical folk songs and mugham, there is a clear system, an aesthetic rule, and a logical sequence and order. At that time, under the influence of the creative experience of Uzeyir Hajibayov, the deep and wise ideas of our teacher, the boundless possibilities of folklore as the source of the national school of composition opened up before us with a special force. His years of study at the Moscow Conservatory, especially in the class of Dmitri Shostakovich, were extremely important in the formation of the composer's creative activity. Gara Garayev wrote at that time: "The definition of my artistic ideals is connected with his name. The charming, unique human and artistic "charm" of the great master's personality changed me very quickly, if it is possible to say so... One aspect was firmly rejected: installing weak works devoid of deep thought, modeling, adapting to other people's musical taste, etc imitation! One aspect was particularly inculcated: the sense of citizenship, the inseparability of oneself and the "common", organic unity!..

Gara Garayev, who successfully completed his studies in Moscow, changed his outlook on life and worldview in general, and it soon became clear that he was perfectly familiar with the compositional technique. The first and second symphonies he wrote while he was still in school, the opera "Vatan" written together with Jovdat Hajiyev, the sonatina for piano and other works were once again confirmed by Uzeyir Hajibayov's high appreciation of Gara Garayev. Even in those years, Gara Garayev announced the arrival of a mature talent with great potential to the Soviet music culture. In the thirties, his aesthetic world became richer, the range of his artistic interests expanded, and unique, unique stylistic aspects were formed in the composer. The artist who took his art seriously, actively intervened in the creative process, put up with all kinds of pains and difficulties, and was never fully satisfied with his hard work, amazed people with his demandingness. Everyone envied and envied his energy, work ethic and passion, tireless work. Gara Garayev completed his second symphony in 1946 while studying at the conservatory. The symphony's clear musical language, original creative searches, metallic colors characteristic of art pearls promised a lot about the success of the composer's future works.

Gara Garayev returned to Baku as a mature artist. The rock of citizenship, the unbreakable connection between "self" and "general", organic unity, which ensures the continuous development of his style, has become the main creative principle of the composer. In the image-intonation structure of his love-pastoral music created by him in the forties, the harmonious embodiment of various aspects of life can be clearly heard in his Mozart-style composition. Later, in the music of Pushkin's romances "I loved you" and "On the hills of Georgia", other new aspects of his lyrical imagery are revealed. Gara Garayev was a composer who was always in search of questions, reaching high peaks: moving forward on new, untrodden paths. Each new work has new ideas. The trend of innovation started from the first years of his creativity. In the 1930s - starting with the piano piece "Sarskoye selo monument", which he wrote in his youth... When he wrote his works, imbued with the spirit of innovation, he expressed his opinion about all kinds of innovations - the innovations that herald the future, and most importantly, the new society, the new man. the composer expressed only with new form, new intonation or new colors.

As a talented publicist, G. Garayev expressed his musical-aesthetic views in an extremely convincing and simple way. The typical and characteristic aspects of modern compositional creative style are based on scientific evidence. The composer's strong ideas and foresight are also reflected in his reports and articles dedicated to Azerbaijani music. G. Garayev spent a lot of work on the education of creative personnel.

Since 1946, G. Garayev, who led the composition class at the Azerbaijan State Conservatory named after Hajibeyov, trained dozens of composers and created a whole music-creative school. Arif Malikov, Vasif Adigozalov, Adil Babirov and others continued his traditions. Years will pass, memories will come, and the rich treasure of the music of the great Azerbaijani composer G. Garayev will remain a source of inspiration for people. The legacy he left us, born of his endless self-demand, is inexhaustible in its depth and richness. The generations that will come after us will always discover new finds for themselves in this inexhaustible treasure.

Yegana Nakhmetulla gizi Ismayilova

Doctor of Philology, Professor