QARAYEV'S FORMULA

Any anniversary is a ceremonial occasion, one way or another. Qara Qarayev's 90th anniversary this year is no exception. Having undergone a creative "purge", he rejected aberration and composure, glorification and sentiment, falsehood and emotionalism. He simply had Spirit.

Titans of music

13 May 1982. The Philharmonia Hall is in mourning as Bakuvians say goodbye to their favourite composer. People appear devastated and unwilling to accept what has happened. People always had a special attitude towards Qara Qarayev as he stood out, even from the galaxy of outstanding people we were fortunate to have, apparently also because a musician in Azerbaijan is always more than just a musician. A stiff, Nordic-looking foreigner - a Finn or a Swede - comes into sight. It is noticeable that he wipes away a tear. Perhaps this was not the greatest impression of that day. As we know, Europeans are not given to shedding tears or revealing their emotions in public. And here… "Are you a relative?" "No," he said in confusion. "I am an artist from Sweden. His Muscovite Russian was almost intelligible. You know, you are happy. In order for a nation to be successful, you need names - great names. And you have them," he said, nodding at the stage.

Memory is wandering around the Conservatoire. Quite recently, Qarayev and Niyazi, Rasid Behbudov and Fikrat Amirov were among us. No, we did not appreciate at the time that these people were outstanding. But time has passed, and now you realize that they were titans. The more time passes, the more you realize that none is imitable - either in the depth of their personality, or the scale of their creativity. You begin to envy yourself because it was you who were fortunate enough to be their contemporary, and you remember details that did not mean anything at the time, remarks made by chance, looks and jokes and you gather them one by one into something that becomes your treasure box - for the rest of your life.

It is said that the more pitfalls there are in the fate of an artist, the more heartfelt is his creativity. Qarayev was a person with a creative fate, successful on the outside but complicated and difficult on the inside. He suffered inner pitfalls: such as when fame is at your threshold and you suddenly change your course, starting everything from scratch. The explored and known world, just like a truth repeatedly told, was of no interest to him. He was attracted to experiment. If you look at history, the great artist almost always rejects stereotypes. No musical reform went beyond the hearing of contemporaries or without an act of "violence" - this was the case in the time of Beethoven and Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner, Mussorgsky and Prokofiev. Qarayev's twists and turns…they shocked so many people in the past: from the brightly melodic and "familiar" tonal and specific music of "The Seven Beauties" to the intellectual and complicated lyrics of the Third Symphony, from dazzling art to laconic graphic. And his experiment could not be perceived unambiguously. In his Third Symphony, he applied technical means which, to put it mildly, were not very popular at the time. His "risky" sound combinations aroused many a discussion. But nothing could shake the composer from the awareness of his own creative rightness.

Qarayev was outstanding for his rare gift - his vision of the world. He knew for sure that there is music, both bad and good, and he did not care whether it was complicated or simple music, jazz or a symphony and in which system it was composed. Qarayev was interested not in trends and tendencies, but in the phenomenon itself, its value and future. To this end, you also need to have inner courage and freedom - you should not forget that we are talking about a time when literally everything was subject to persecution. It is easier to list what was not persecuted. Often people judge an event or phenomenon - whether they like it or not - with such prejudice, living by preconceived conclusions and diagnoses for almost all their lives, showing no mercy to Vaqif Mustafazada or Vysotskiy. Many operate according to the principle "you can and you can't", as it were, switching on their inner censor. Maybe this is the reason why today, looking back over the past century, we do not find very many authentic or true people there - people like Qara Qarayev.

…Memory obligingly returns us to that stuffy spring evening - farewell to the composer. A heavy wreath and the music of "Ayisa's Dance", full of tragedy with her heavy sighs and breaths as if you cannot walk any more. The road turned out to be endless and time stopped…

Qarayev…

He was an extremely outspoken artist, which is not so common. He was like Paganini and Chaplin, Van Gogh and Tarkovsky - when it is impossible to draw a line between a man and his profession. Even the most honest person cannot always be honest in his art: between what an artist feels and what he does, there are often intermediate links and clich?s from outside, which he uses almost arbitrarily. Qara Qarayev did not have such links; they would have silenced or levelled his voice. This was because the peculiarities of his personality did not allow him to pretend, even a little bit, and bend to someone's taste. He was unable to compromise even if he had wanted to.

Maybe this is the reason his music is so surprisingly recognizable: "On hearing any of his pieces, you inevitably exclaim: this is Qarayev!" one of his contemporaries wrote of him. Mankind is even now searching strenuously for that same "gene of genius". How else can you "figure out" Qara Qarayev? Too many things have to coincide for that: to be born in this blessed land, take in this salubrious air and to have two teachers of genius - Uzeyir Hacibayov and Dmitriy Shostakovich, and also the will of the Almighty.

Many things were surprising about him. For example, his unpredictable childishness and wisdom which are so rare in one person - that same childishness with which he leapt into another whirl of experiment and that same wisdom and deep philosophy of thought with which he unsealed the tragedy of Nizami's characters. This feature was noticed and subtly conveyed by painter Tahir Salahov in one of his expressive works. The concentration of thought of an unsociable composer carries with it colossal energy. It seems that he will get up now and rush to the piano in order to put into practice an idea that has dawned on him.

Qarayev studies the world mostly through his brain, while sensory perception is somewhat subject to conscious and intellectual control. The high harmony of "The Seven Beauties" and the filigree suite of Don Quijote". "He created a special Qarayev East, ruled not by sensitivity, with all its richness of emotions, colours and rhythms, but by a subtle intellect," music expert Leo Mazel wrote of him. Nowadays music writing has gone beyond the framework of reason, becoming a spontaneous-physiological phenomenon when almost every second person in our country sings, even if he does not compose anything. Actually, the practical side of the intellect is more developed in people today than its creative side. There is a desire to jump as high as possible in order to attain what is regarded as success in our society with its dubious moral foundations - we see all this every day on television, which has finally turned into an advertisement box. And carte-blanche is given to the wrong people. In this depressing situation, Qara Qarayev's music and his direct playful attitude towards creativity is a kind of salvation and a chance of self-preservation.

"…In his music, the East speaks in the language of the West, while the West is intently watching the East," the Swede went on to say, trying to "convince" us. "National values and cosmopolitanism, emotion and reason, talent and professionalism, experiment and tradition, jazz and symphony, the West and the East." These were all displayed by Qarayev…

A mine of everything

The more you think about Qara Qarayev, the more convinced you are: a real composer should be a personality with his own, independent world outlook and uncompromising nature. It was so great that he did not ignore the work of teaching! Very often, artists of genius avoid it, fearing that they might waste themselves "in vain". His school is a whole system of attitudes and creative principles, the measurement of an ethical attitude towards life and art.

He had a special magnetism. Otherwise, how can you explain the episode from his teaching practice, when a 40-year-old "student" from Moscow came to learn from him - leaving everything and going back to learn the basics? He is now a well-known composer. It was very difficult to get him to praise you. Even very talented people experienced the toughness of Qarayev's principle, "If I am not criticizing you, this means I am praising you". The Maestro was strict in everything that concerned his school. Qara Qarayev used to tell beginners who tended towards "modern" music without having studied the basics of musical language: "First show me how you draw a nose and only then, the evil face". Qarayev's humour! Here is just one episode: one of his students said: "Qara Abulfazovich! My composition is growing. I am afraid it may turn into a sonata." Qarayev's answer was quite reasonable: "Don't worry, it won't." A mine of wit and aphorisms - this is how his students knew him, and they worshipped him.

"Time flies by very quickly. Life goes on ever faster in every way. The arts gain on it and sometimes even leave it behind. The most valuable of artistic pieces will remain as a living picture in music culture for a long time." Indeed, these words by Qarayev may be described as prophetic. We can only add: forever. A film director who was about to complete work on a movie asked him to help find music for the final act - the most tragic scene in the movie in which an orphan was left face-to-face with his fatal problems, being unable to escape the situation. Unlike that orphan boy, he did not have to think long: Aldonza! This is a psychological and physiological monologue and a kind of X-ray of our soul with its overtones, pulsating drama and unprecedented confusion. This is like a window to Heaven. A sky covered by clouds of fate. The way Qarayev's music went with the movie surprised not just the film director, but also people abroad, where the movie was pieced together later. "Who is this? What is this? Whose is this?" foreign movie makers wondered, listening to the music time and time again. "They loved the music so much," the film director said on his return. They had no doubt that the composer had written it for this movie. The music seemed to light up the movie from inside…"

A movie he never saw in his life - this is the way Qarayev "outran time"! It is incredible, but after his death, he is still loved by time and life, the world and human soul, and is still even needed. He is still needed today when the face of the whole world and the arts seems to have changed.

Memory takes us back to that sad day, mercilessly reminding us of one detail after another, catching them in a camera flash. The fair-haired grandson of the composer with sudden horror in his eyes, unable to understand what is going on, a crying Sovkat Alakbarova and so many speeches… The endless enumeration of the composer's titles and ranks. It is surprising that this was one case when the list of regalia belittled the scale of the personality who was to be buried. Does it matter whether he was a hero of socialist labour or not? He is Qarayev.

The paradoxical phenomenon of "Qara Qarayev" continued its victorious journey. Maybe this is the reason why the phrase uttered by the same "unknown artist" from Sweden is engraved in our memory forever. Having bowed down to pick up a clod of soil, he said: "He disclosed the secret of Cervantes to me..."