MUTUAL LOVE

The first wind instrument made of bone and discovered in Azerbaijan (Mingachevir) belongs to the 1st century BC. Being the prototype of modern balaban, it is now one of the attributes of Azerbaijan. Professor Shirzad FATALIYEV of the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire reveals the secrets of balaban to his students. In his hands, this national instrument turns into a magic wand making the music a balm for the souls of his admirers. In his interview, the master talked about national music, the ways to popularise balaban, musical synthesis, his mission as a musician, and much more.

"Shirzad-bey, thanks for having us today. How do you find interviews with journalists?"

"I like them but am extremely picky. Sometimes they ask questions or invite me to programs that are entirely at odds with our national character and the status of balaban, which has an ancient history and preserves the national spirit of Azerbaijan. And it really bothers me when they start meddling in my personal life, which I prefer keeping private."

"Still, it's not a secret that you were born to a musical family, and your father was your first teacher..."

"Yes, I opened my eyes under the sounds of music. My father, Nizam Fataliyev, was a student of Ali Kerimov, a prominent musician who had created about 40 songs and dances with Heyvagülü being one of the popular ones. He'd learned a lot from Master Ali, and then passed all his knowledge to me. Apart from my father, I owe a lot to the late maestro Hasret Huseynov, who has contributed considerably to my professional development. It was his performance of Bayati Shikasteh and Shur on a balaban that the Voyager flew to space back in 1977. Among the six selected tunes, two belonged to Hasret Huseynov.

"I am also immensely grateful to Aghasef Seyidov, Alibaba Mammadov, Izzetali Zulfugarov, whom I would listen a lot to fine tune my sense of hearing and to feel the taste of their performance. I never stop listening, learning and developing. There is a general false perception that the players of national instruments like balaban and zurna listen to the same type of music. I enjoy listening to a variety of musical genres, including rock and pop music. After all, music is an endless ocean, from where everyone can take as much as physically and mentally possible. Nobody can prove his reaching the depths of this ocean. As a musician, I ought to be familiar with all genres of music, the only important things being who you are listening to and how professional the performer is."

"How could a musician from Shamakhy gain recognition in Baku and represent the country internationally?"

"Indeed, Shamakhy is well known for its ashugs, who contributed to my professional development largely. Then at some point, I realised that I had a thing for something different. "

"For zurna and balaban, which would make you popular..."

"I moved to Baku, which was and is all about difference. Here I had a chance to show myself in many different ways, to meet different musicians who invited me to perform in different bands. That's how my professional life, filled with new breath and opportunities to tell about myself and demonstrate my music, began."

"Which of the two has more features, zurna or balaban?"

"I was born in Shamakhi, where I have learned that zurna and balaban were inseparable like a father and a son. But honestly, zurna has more features than balaban. Balaban has a sweet and soft sound, which can touch even the thinnest strings of your soul. Scientists have proved that it sounds in complete harmony with a human voice; hence, balaban is a good instrument for meditation. After the success of Gladiator (a 2000 film by R. Scott, R+), our infamous neighbours (Armenians, R+) opened a balaban school (duduk n Armenian, R+) in the United States to pay the tribute to a three-note piece of music featuring in the film. It disappointed me to be honest. We need strong support to popularise such a powerful and feature-rich Azerbaijani instrument as balaban internationally."

"Yet why cannot balaban be considered an Armenian instrument?"

"There is a lot of evidence supporting your statement. I conducted a little research on the origins of balaban in Azerbaijan. Ali Kerimov, who was my father's teacher, has created many dance tunes recorded by the great composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov. You probably know that maestro used to record not only Kerimov, but also many other khanendehs and musicians. Grandkids and children of Ali Kerimov claim that there should be a record of Chaharzem mugham destgah performed by their grandfather on balaban, which are gone now, disappeared. They all say that they heard about them but no one can tell where they are. I have searched for these records in many archives to no avail yet... There is only a single photo of Kerimov where he holds balaban in his hands. In 1938, Joseph Stalin personally awarded him a gold medal for his participation and performance at the events dedicated to Azerbaijan. After all, as a professional musician, I need these recordings to understand how Chaharzem mugham destgah sounds like. But I think our envious neighbours destroyed these records. Can you name at least one Armenian balaban player who would be older than Ali Kerimov? I bet you cannot. They believe it was Karol but he showed up much later. I think we should have addressed this issue earlier, in due time."

"What is being done to popularise balaban?"

"I think we need to create more compositions for balaban. This should be enough to get started. The late Jahangir Jahangirov, Said Rustamov, Suleyman Aleskerov are known for their compositions for balaban, but this is not enough. Currently, we can do nothing but adapt the works written for violin or piano to balaban. This is good, but I think the audience will also appreciate something new and unconventional. It often gets boring to hear the same Sary galin, Mirzeyi, Sen gelmez oldun regularly… No doubt, these pieces are brilliant, but the audience expects something new."

"Some young musicians add new elements to their performances to make the national instruments evolve with the times. Is it a step to get the audience interested?"

"I do not mind to this idea at all, as I have always supported such young musicians. But in no case should we forget about our roots. They are always welcome to bring in something new to make the music even brighter and more compelling for the audience. Nijat Masimov, Parviz, Anar, Ramin, Nuran Bakirov, Shaig Guliyev, Zulfugar are only a few of such open-minded students. All of them have excelled in what they do; they even give concerts abroad and become winners of different competitions. But I do not welcome those musicians who, unaware of their rich heritage, set out to pursue European music no matter what. I am afraid that in the end they can lose the authenticity and distinctiveness inherent to our musical traditions."

"In Chisinau, you gave a joint concert with the People's Artist of Moldova, Constantin Moscovici. Was it easy to make a synthesis of such different national instruments: multi-barrel nai (pan flute) and balaban?"

"Thank you for mentioning this. Indeed, we have done a lot together. Constantin is a famous nai player, who had seen my performance on YouTube before contacting me and visiting Baku to learn the secrets of balaban. After some rehearsals together, we decided to give a joint concert. Our instruments create incredible harmony. That's why we decided to continue the tradition of joint concerts with the next one planned at the Baku Philharmonic Hall."

"And there is probably something that you have never been asked about..."

"Well, I'm afraid I can't remember everything at once… For example, I played Sary galin at the opening of the First European Games in 2015. Also, I took part three times at the Zurna Festival in Turkey, which was a very warm reception indeed. Together with khanendeh, the Honoured Artist of Azerbaijan, Teyyub Aslanov, we performed at the Bahariye Festival also in Turkey. The reaction of the audience was amazing. I think people are tired of conventional music. So, if we could take the national music as a solid basis for improvisations, when each musician could add to it something of his own, individual, it would be better. In the future, we are planning some more interesting projects with Teyyub. Recently, we were in France to take part at the UNESCO celebrations of the 650th anniversary of the great Azerbaijani thinker and poet Nasimi. The concert was held at a high level with many talented musicians from Azerbaijan."

"And what are your plans for the future?"

"Two aspects are important in my life: my profession and my family. I hope my children will someday become good and worthy citizens of Azerbaijan. They will be proud of me, and I will be proud of them. I am a musician, whose final mission is to pass the knowledge to the next generation. I will continue adding value to both balaban and zurna as far as I can. After all, the future generation should listen to the right music to develop a refined but individual taste in music. Nowadays young people often tend to perform at weddings as soon as they graduate from a musical school. This is quick money, which should not be the only goal in their lives. A professional musician is the one who dreams of performing on world stages to demonstrate his instrument and his own skills adequately."

"What are the most memorable episodes from your concerts?"

"Once we had a big concert tour in Europe and the U.S. dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Azerbaijan's independence and organised by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. At one of the concerts in Germany, which was also attended by Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva, we performed with a chamber orchestra conducted by the People's Artist of Azerbaijan, Teymur Goychayev. At the end of the event, a few German government officials from among the audience went up on stage to shake our hands. It was truly a moment when our entire team felt proud of itself. They saw how deep and rich our musical heritage is. I could hardly control myself not to burst into tears. We played the famous overture by Uzeyir Hajibeyov. No one had ever dared to orchestrate Hajibeyov's immortal work slightly differently but the talented composer Vasif Allahverdiyev, who added a few national instruments — zurna, balaban and tutek — to enrich the general image. It was a real success! It sounded even more colourful and contrasting, which, of course, was duly appreciated by the Germans. I have noticed such a reaction for many years, not only in Germany but also in the U.S., France, Italy and other countries."

"You are also known for your works in local cinema..."

"Yes, some of my works are included in Məhəllə, Biz qayıdacağıq, Ölüm növbəsi, Bir anın həqiqəti. I also received an invitation to perform for Ali and Nino."

"They say that the soul of every person sings about something. What is your soul singing about?"

"I am not sure if it sounds convincing enough, but my soul sings about being complete in life. I mean the most important thing for me is to be independent and live calmly, doing my own thing. You might ask what the integrity and completeness mean. You know, I feel deeply deprived of something, a sense of inferiority since we lost Garabakh and the adjacent lands. And I think my soul will sing only after the return of these lands. Only then can I feel complete as a person. I'm always looking for music that makes one think. I want to be part of events where I will be heard and my music can help people to be alone with their thoughts turning them to their inner world to answer the vital questions that concern them.

"Many people think that mugham is all about sadness. This is an absolutely false perception coming from the internal state of a person. Life is not enough to reveal everything hidden in mugham, as this music can take you deep into yourself."

"Do you agree that only Azerbaijanis can understand mugham well?"

"I am lucky that I have shared the stage with musicians much more experienced than me. In 1998, I started to work with Alim Gasimov. We have performed together on many different stages for six or seven years. I do not think that we will be able to see any other khanendeh superior to this great musician in the future. He is a gifted professional who is to be praised for his personal virtues too, which is quite a rare thing these days. I have learned a lot from him. I have never met local listeners at his concerts, only the foreigners who have really enjoyed listening to him. Alim is well known for his own style of performing both the composer and folk songs. However cold and standoffish we find the Europeans, Alim's music is able to move them to the core. Once after a concert in Germany, we saw a big crowd of people blocking our way to the exit from the hall. We were told that they had been waiting for the maestro. Here is a few of the questions they asked him: "What is your music about? What kind of a message is hidden in your songs? We feel your music, as it is emotional, but we want to understand what lies beneath." I'm not joking, as I was there too, and I realised how deep the people can understand and feel the music regardless of nationality. That's why I know that I have come to this world for good reason. My love for music is growing every day. I turn a deaf ear to whatever is going on around me and continue to move forward confident in what I am doing. I am blessed to have this sacred instrument, and we will always serve each other. I believe that only mutual love can bring success."