THE MIRACULOUS VOICE OF XAN

From birth man becomes a friend to music, which accompanies him throughout his life. As an infant, he hears a lullaby, and from then onwards, he has a wish to sing. He sleeps to his mother's lullaby. Sometimes the baby even accompanies her singing with his twittering.

Everyone has some inclination to sing. Even those who have no voice hum. Sometimes this desire prompts a person to become a singer (and many of us live with the hope that our "voice" will be discovered). Singers who have a good voice do their best to preserve it, avoiding foods that may harm it. They say Xan Susinski, who was famous for the huge range of his unique voice, did not eat rice dishes, claiming that rice dries the vocal cords and hinders song. In wet weather, he chose not to perform certain mughams. The talented musicologist Firidun Susinski said that at one event in Tartar District, he asked Xan to perform the Cahargah mugham. Xan, who always listened carefully to Firudin's requests, refused, saying: "Son, that mugham should not be performed in wet weather. In such weather, the vocal cords lose elasticity and do not obey the singer." Sweet Azerbaijani tea was a kind of balm for Xan's voice. Before a performance, he inhaled the scent of freshly brewed tea in a teapot, as if he was setting his voice. Even for a live performance in a radio studio, he would first "taste" the sweetened tea he had brought with him.

In the mid 1950s, it was fashionable to perform at concerts not only without recorded backing, but also without a microphone - "live". Singers agreed to sing only after there was no longer any doubt about their prowess. Xan's voice was a gift from God. It never failed him, even when he hit the highest note. His melodious voice captivated an audience. As he moved up to a higher pitch, his mouth opened so wide that he revealed a long row of teeth. His voice seemed to be fuelled by the heavens themselves. It literally instilled a sense of awe in the audience.

My parents told me that after Xan Susinski moved to Baku at the order of Mircafar Bagirov, there was no end to those who wanted to attend his first concert. The authorities had to deploy mounted police. His countless fans stood on the road leading to the Philharmonic Hall from early morning to see their idol.

A concert was once held in a Moscow concert hall and broadcast on television. In the notes and librettos distributed to the singers before the concert, the masculine and feminine genders were confused. The organizers did not notice the mistake immediately and were then very worried because it was too late to do anything. A recording of that concert, which featured such prominent musicians as Sovkat Alakbarova, Sara Qadimova and Xan Susinski, has survived. The orchestra of folk musical instruments was led by Said Rustamov. To his accompaniment, "Qarabag Sikastasi" was performed in a high register. Xan sang quietly and without any effort. The outstanding composer Tofiq Quliyev, who was present, described the event in awe of the singers: "At the concert, Xan performed with typical restraint and composure. In the high registers, his voice exuded enchanting tones. The skill and fantastic timbre of the voices of Sovkat Alakbarova, Sara Qadimova and, especially Xan Susinski, simply shocked the audience, which consisted mainly of Russians and foreigners, and they were rewarded by long and rapturous applause. The audience was particularly fascinated by Xan's divine voice.

Xan Susinski felt duty-bound to explain to young performers the need to protect their voices against a cold.

A musician who was a great joker once lived in Karabakh. He was of noble birth and his name was Abbasqulu Aga. To escape persecution by the Bolsheviks, he wandered through the villages, playing the tar. When he asked one singer with a mediocre voice, who always drank raw eggs, why he had problems with his voice, he replied: "I have run out of fresh eggs at home. That's why my voice has become hoarse." Barely restraining his sarcasm, Abbasqulu Aga said: "Listen, get a life and remember once and for all that raw eggs won't improve your voice." Thus, he demonstrated his knowledge of singing.

The dean of the Singing Faculty at Moscow State Conservatory, People's Artist of Russia and tenor Peter Skuchenko, says that any good tenor, whether he is a lyric or a dramatic tenor, must be able to hit the note "Do" in the upper register of the upper octave. The main component of the voice is its timbre embellishment. This is a natural gift, and those who have it can be counted on the fingers. There is no point in depending on raw eggs. On the contrary, the yolk and white cause dryness in the mucous membrane in the throat and prevent a singer from performing normally.

According to experts, a singer should not eat anything for hours before a performance to ensure normal pressure in the stomach. But there are also exceptions. For example, the leading singer of Azerbaijani opera Aliovsat Sadiqov did not go onstage without eating three servings of bozbas - a meat sauce with peas, and 1 kg of ice cream. The singer's son Nadir Sadigov said that "once his father returned from a concert extremely upset. When he was asked the reason, he replied that prior to the concert, he had eaten two, not three, plates of bozbas and therefore, could not sing properly." But there was not, and probably will never be, a soloist to perform the part of Shah Abbas, which was full of high mugham notes, as impeccably as Aliovsat Sadiqov. His roulades brought indescribable delight to the audience. Together with the unparalleled People's Artist of the Republic, Haqiqat Rzayeva, who performed the part of Arab Zangi, they created a unique world of music. The audience especially liked the ease with which Aliovsat sang high notes. His voice was powerful and heartfelt.

When they say that a singer must protect his voice, I can't help saying: the main thing is to have something to protect. If you have no voice, no tricks will help. The middle generation might remember the musical comedy "The Merry Guys", based on music by Dunayevskiy, in which a lower middle class woman tries to improve her voice by wolfing down a myriad of raw eggs. Over and over again, sitting at the piano during vocal lessons, she breaks a raw egg on the nose of a bust standing next to her. In the end, the woman's voice coarsens and she becomes a male baritone...

They say one bass singer kept his feet in iced water for 3-4 hours before performances to ensure good production of especially low notes. Had anyone else done this, they would surely have come down with pneumonia at least. This means that there is no particular recipe or panacea for improving the voice.