THE DRAMA OF MUSIC

"The song remained in the mountains". This is the poetic title of the musical about the tragedy of Karabakh composed by the musicologist Nargiz Shafiyeva for the chamber orchestra and soloists. The music recreates the beautiful nature of this historic region of Azerbaijan, which is invaded by the evil forces of Armenian fascism. Then, the dissolved melody is gradually fading in giving hope for a brighter future. The Honored Art Worker Nargiz Shafiyeva is the only female composer in the Azerbaijani delegation, who took part in the all-Union festival in Moscow in 1962 and was awarded a first-degree diploma for her Poem for the Stroh violin and piano and six preludes for piano.

The great Gara Garayev said about his student: "Nargiz Shafiyeva has a great compositional talent, her works keep pace with the times and aspire after new challenges."

Composer Musa Mirzayev: "As a student, she impressed me with her works. Unlike female composers, her poem for the violin and piano is written in strong and forceful manner as if the composer was a man."

Famous musicologist, secretary of the Union of Composers, the Honored Art Worker of Azerbaijan, professor Zemfira Gafarova: "Nargiz Shafiyeva is known as a talented student of Gara Garayev. She is well acquainted with folklore, ashug and mugham music. Her works have become a trademark in our repertoire. She is known for her vocal and chamber music. She actively participates in the creative life of the Union of Composers, publishes her essays such as the one about the jubilees in the Music World magazine.

In 2015, on her 75^th birthday, Nargiz Shafiyeva was awarded the title of the Honored Art Worker of Azerbaijan as a recognition of her creative and educational activities. We met with the legendary composer on the eve of her birthday.

“My ancestors are from Shusha but I was born in Baku to an intelligent family. My father graduated from the Timiryazev Academy of Soil Science in Moscow. He has worked as a senior research fellow of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences and taught at the Ganja Agriculture Institute. In 1939, he took part in the opening of the pavilion of Azerbaijan at VDNH in Moscow. My mother studied at the women's gymnasium and the Uzeyir Hajibeyov Music School, where she received primary education. She later graduated from the teachers’ institute and worked as a preschool teacher. Everyone in our family was fond of music, singing, playing the folk instruments, dad was playing tare. With the beginning of the war in 1941, his brothers went to the front. Despite the reservation, dad also went to war. In 1943, dad was killed near Krasnodar.

After watching Arshin Mal Alan in 1945, I was literally afire with enthusiasm for music. Impressed by the soundtrack, I sat down at the piano and picked out all the melodies by ear. I remember the filming in Shuvalan, where I was with my mother. The crew was filming the final scenes of the wedding party of the main characters. When the shooting was over, the crew distributed all the food on tables to the actors and spectators who often visited filming spot. It was fun and wonderful!

Mom has taught me music notation. I used to play on grandfather’s piano made in 1913, which I later presented to the State Museum of Music Culture.

Uzeyir Hajibeyov lived on our street, where I saw him for the first time. Then I saw him in the opera house, where they were staging his Koroghlu opera and waiting for the composer's arrival from the Kremlin hospital. The audience warmly greeted the maestro and rejoiced at his arrival. I listened to the opera while standing. Thanks to my abilities and desire to learn, I was sent to the music school of the State Conservatoire. My teacher was N. E. Bronfman.”

When did you start composing music?

I composed my first plays when I was in the third grade. A year later, I was enrolled in the class of Midhat Ahmadov. After successfully passing the composition exam in the first grade of the Conservatoire in 1958, I was admitted to the class of our outstanding contemporary composer Gara Garayev. I graduated from the two departments of the Conservatoire - Composition and Theoretical History.

How do you remember your teacher Gara Garayev?

He was not only a genius composer, sensitive and kind person, but also a talented teacher who has always supported his students morally. He would never let us down. He would take care of us, inspired and helped us to choose from the available options creative. I dedicated my orchestral composition Dedication and the essay Memory of the Heart in his honour. Both works have been included in the book The memoirs of students about G. Garayev. I have compiled the documentary material for this book. It includes statements and memories of famous composers and students, as well as the best photographs of the composer. By the 100^th anniversary of the great composer, the book will be published in Russian.

What did you compose in your student years? Are these works widely performed?

My six preludes for the piano have gained popularity in many countries, including the United States. They were performed in Moscow, Leningrad, Riga, Tallinn, Tbilisi, Novosibirsk, Sofia. At that time, I also composed the Poem for the Stroh violin, Variations for piano, Trio for flute, viola and piano, the String quartet, symphonic composition The Music and so on.

Do you have works for children and teenagers?

Yes, I do. This is a piano compilation for junior classes called The Sprouts and includes short plays The Sail, The Swing, Our Garden, Cockerel wakes up the village, Our Mountains, and the cycle A day will come, a week will go for high school students. The plays are based on the seven Azerbaijani music modes.

You are fond of the oriental poems including the ghazals of Nizami, Fuzuli, Hafez Shirazi. On the 70^th anniversary of Uzeyir Hajibayov's ghazals Sənsiz and Sevgili canan, you composed a vocal composition based on the lyrics by Nazim Hikmet, The Letter to David Oistrakh (an outstanding Soviet violinist, viola player, conductor and teacher, R+).

In The Letter to David Oistrakh for baritone and mezzo-soprano, I saw a drama: he and she. I heard two voices and later translated the text into Russian. The poem's nine poetic lines are, in fact, a letter from a beloved woman who attended the concert of the famous violinist David Oistrakh in Istanbul. Encountering the art of the great master, she enthusiastically tells about her impressions, about the happy moments experienced, which made her forget about the world around her. People's Artist of Azerbaijan, Professor Musa Mirzayev so liked my composition that I presented him with a copy of this work.

What are you doing apart from music?

I am a musicologist, and it takes a lot of time. This sphere is very relevant. A lot of materials are devoted to the unique composer, reformer of international significance Uzeyir Hajibayov. I will only say that his opera Leyli and Majnun based on Azerbaijani mughams will be staged in the U.S. In addition to Uzeyir Hajibayov, I have many articles and monographs on composers such as Gara Garayev, Jovdet Hajiyev, Vasif Adigozalov and so on, and many materials on scientific musicology.

January 1 is your birthday. We wish you all the best. Please keep up further encouraging us with your works and tireless artistic energy.