Muslim Magomaev-senior (Muslim Magomaev).

Muslim Magomaev

Honored Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR (1935). He graduated from the Gori teacher’s seminary (1904). He worked as a teacher in secondary schools, including in the city of Lankaran. From 1911 he actively participated in the organization of the musical theater in Baku. Being the first Azerbaijani conductor, Magomayev worked in the opera troupe of U. Gadzhibekov.

After the October Revolution of 1917, Magomayev conducted a variety of musical and social work. In the 20-30s. he headed the department of arts of the People’s Commissariat of Education of Azerbaijan, headed the music editorial office of the Baku Radio Broadcasting, was the director and chief conductor of the Azerbaijan Opera and Ballet Theater.

Magomayev, like U. Gadzhibekov, put into practice the principle of interaction between folk and classical art. One of the first Azerbaijani composers advocated the synthesis of folk song material and European musical forms. He created an opera based on the historical and legendary story “Shah Ismail” (1916), the musical basis of which was mughams. Collecting and recording folk melodies played an important role in the formation of Magomayev’s composing style. Published together with U. Gadzhibekov the first collection of Azerbaijani folk songs (1927).

The most significant work of Magomayev is the opera Nergiz (libre M. Ordubady, 1935) about the struggle of Azerbaijani peasants for Soviet power. The music of the opera is imbued with the intonations of folk songs (in the version of R. M. Glier, the opera was shown during the Decade of Azerbaijani Art in Moscow, 1938).

Magomayev is one of the first authors of the Azerbaijani mass song (“May”, “Our Village”), as well as program symphonic pieces that embodied the images of his contemporaries (“Dance of a Liberated Azerbaijani Woman”, “On the Fields of Azerbaijan”, etc.).

E. G. Abasova

Compositions:

operas – Shah Ismail (1916, post. 1919, Baku; 2nd ed., 1924, Baku; 3rd ed., 1930, post. 1947, Baku), Nergiz (1935, Baku; ed. R. M. Glier , 1938, Azerbaijan Opera and Ballet Theatre, Moscow); musical comedy – Khoruz Bey (Lord Rooster, not finished); for orchestra — fantasy Dervish, Marsh, devoted to the XVII party march, Marsh RV-8, etc.; music for drama theater performances, including “The Dead” by D. Mamedkuli-zade, “In 1905” by D. Jabarly; music for films — Art of Azerbaijan, Our report; and etc.