New media project launched as part of Year of Shusha

By Azernews

By Sabina Mammadli

Baku-based news agency Trend has launched a new project "I was born in Shusha" to honor celebrities as well as lesser-known personalities.

The project, which was launched as part of the Year of Shusha, will include interesting facts from the lives of the aforementioned people, as well as their professional activities and creativity.

The first material of the project was dedicated to composer Uzeyir Hajibayli’s first music teacher and his uncle, Aghalar bay Aliverdibayov.

The article discusses the origins of the Aliverdibayov surname, noting that it is well-known in Azerbaijan and is one of the honorary names of musicians. It is said that Aghalar bay Aliverdibayov founded the dynasty of talented musicians.

He saved over a thousand samples of folk songs and tasnifs for future generations, wrote the opera Harun al-Rashid and wrote Azerbaijan's first encyclopedic work on the history of music - Illustrated History of Music.

The article discusses his background and family, highlighting his parents' high social status and his father's musical talents - Alakbar bay.

Alakbar bay, who is related to the famous poetess Khurshidbanu Natavan, has dedicated his entire life to music and would frequently perform mughams at home for guests, including little Uzeyir Hajibayli.

Trend also quotes an excerpt from Chingiz Gajar's book Old Shusha, which goes into greater detail about Aghalar bay's musical formation. Because music and singing could be heard everywhere in old Shusha, Aghalar bay learned the fundamentals of musical literacy at home and while communicating with friends down the street. His mother's brother, Mirbaba bay Vazirov, assisted the boy in learning more about mugham and the laws that govern its execution.

“Aghalar bay, sensing Uzeyir’s craving for music, begins to teach him the basics of mughamat and thus inscribes his name in the history of Azerbaijani culture," stated the book excerpt.

Noticing the outstanding abilities of the young nephew, Aghalar bay first introduced him to the basics of musical notation, taught him to play the tar and gaval. Years passed, and it was Hajibayli who insisted that the children of Aliverdibayov, in whom he saw an innate talent for music, receive an appropriate education, said the book.

Trend presents a commentary by Professor Kazim Aliverdibayov, conductor of the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, who claims that it was Uzeyir bay who insisted on all of Aghalar bay's children following in his footsteps and pursuing a musical education.

The article adds that together they saved people during the times of repression, giving an example of the time when Aliverdibayov asked for Hajibayli's help as one of their relatives was going to be exiled to Siberia. Uzeyir bay responded that the only person who could help was the first Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Azerbaijan SSR Mir Jafar Baghirov, the article noted.

Kazim Aliverdibayov notes that Stalin was very fond of Koroghlu opera when he heard it and assisted in Hajibayli joining the party. He says that since then, Hajibayli had Baghirov’s phone number, who also recommended him to the party along with Stalin.

After Uzeyir bay explained the situation in a phone call, Baghirov simply said “all right”. However, in the morning the relative and his family were still taken to the port to get on the ship to Krasnovodsk.

“Our relative boarded the ship, there was a scene of farewell, they had already begun to remove the ladder, and at that moment a car drove up, from which some people got out and shouted: 'Who is Alakbar Aliyev here? You are free, hurry down.' When they returned home, all their furniture and belongings were already in the yard. We never found out whether it was deliberately conceived - to torment a person, forcing him to survive moments of despair... " the honored artist reminisces.