Oriented on making people closer

On June 20, 2023, Nury Khalmamedov (1938-1983) would have turned 85 years old, he lived and worked in the 20th century, but his legacy not only continues to be relevant - Halmamedov has retained the status of the most performed Turkmen composer in the world for many decades. The personality of the creator, his role in Turkmen culture is devoted the article sent to the editors of ORIENT by Mammed GUSEYNOV, composer, art director of the Moscow International Festival of Arts “Sounds of Dutar” named after Nury Halmamedov, chairman of the Turkmen regional branch of the Union of Composers of Eurasia, as well as a great enthusiast and active promoter of Turkmen music on the world stage. With gratitude to the author, we offer it to the attention of readers:

Composer Nury Halmamedov is one of the brightest talents in the constellation of Turkmen classical composers, who raised Turkmen folk music to the heights of world culture. In his person, Turkmenistan found its Orpheus, who voiced for all mankind not only the centuries-old national tradition, but also managed to embody in his work the moral ideal of the people, their spiritual values.

Khalmamedov gained national fame, first of all, thanks to the music for such films as “Competition” (Shukur-bakhshi), “Bitter Fate”, “Secrets of Mukam”, “Decisive Step” ... His music is so naturally and firmly woven into life of the Turkmen people, that mothers sing the “Lullaby” from the film “Decisive Step” to their children, not even suspecting that this music is the author's. Or another example: when a person dies, he is escorted on his last journey to the mourning melody of Halmamedov from the film "Bitter Fate".

The outstanding Turkmen composer was destined to be born not far from those blessed places where the great Turkmen poet Makhtumkuli was born, lived and worked. In the west of Turkmenistan, on the border with Iran, where the Sumbar River carries its fast waters, there is a small high-mountainous village of Daina - Halmamedov's birthplace.

Having lost his parents early, Nury was brought up in an orphanage in the city of Bairam-Ali, where he received his primary musical education from teacher Olga Alekseevna Krivchenko. After completing a course of seven years of study in four years, he entered the Ashgabat Musical College (later he taught musical and theoretical disciplines there).

After graduating from college in two specialties, he, among the most gifted students, was recommended to the Moscow Conservatory, where in 1963 he completed his studies in composition in the class of Anatoly Nikolaevich Alexandrov. Khalmamedov's diploma work was the symphonic pictures "Turkmenistan", which were performed at the final exam in May 1963 by the Grand Symphony Orchestra of the All-Union Radio and Television. Musicologists defined this composition as “one of the most striking and original phenomena of Turkmen symphonic music in the first half of the sixties.”

The innovation of Nury Khalmamedov's creativity was revealed in close connection with folklore, the result of which sounded in the organic fusion of "national soil with modern symphonic writing." His creative versatility found its expression in the variety of genres of his works: symphonic, chamber-instrumental, vocal-choral, film music and others.

Vocal cycles to the words of the classics of Turkmen literature Makhtumkuli and Mollanepes, to the words of folk poets of the 19th century, as well as Sergei Yesenin, Heinrich Heine, Japanese poets of the 20th century (“Unheard Songs of the Children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”) occupy a special place in the composer's work. A subtle sense of the melody of poetry, following the tradition of understanding music as a way of revealing the inner philosophy of the word, allowed the maestro to create masterpieces of vocal music.

Well-known composers and music critics highly appreciate the work of Nury Halmamedov. The significance and contribution to the development and formation of contemporary musical world art requires a deep understanding, which implies a wider inclusion of the composer's works in the performing practice. Rodion Shchedrin evaluated the Vocal-Symphonic Triptych "In Memory of the Heroes of the Great Patriotic War" for soloists, large choir and symphony orchestra as a work of "great public and civil sound".

Khalmamedov's work is extensive. He created a symphony in E minor, variations for violin and piano on the theme of the Turkmen folk song "Pomegranate Tree", a string quartet, compositions for children, instrumental pieces, worked on an opera based on the folk epic Gyor-oglu, wrote music for nine cartoons, eighteen feature films and three documentaries.

Only for the piano Nury Khalmamedov wrote more than fifty works. The most famous are the "Elegiac Prelude and Fugue" and the concert piece "The Sounds of the Dutar", which was awarded at the All-Union Competition for Young Composers with a diploma of the first degree, which is dedicated to the legendary dutarist Mylly Tachmuradov. Piano pieces by Halmamedov are characterized by bright melody, songfulness, subject. The national nature of the music is emphasized by a clear rhythm, referring to the origins of the ancient art of bakhshi. The composer skillfully and extensively uses the colorful possibilities of the piano. It is safe to say that these features are inherent in all the composer's work.

Nury Halmamedov passed away on August 4, 1983. His whole life - one beautiful moment, was given to great art. A street in Ashgabat is named after him, on which a monument to the composer is erected. Another monument was erected in his ancestral village of Daina. Since 2015, Moscow has been hosting the International Festival of Arts “Sounds of the Dutar” named after Nury Khalmamedov. This year the 7th festival will be held in Moscow.

What is the secret of the incredible popularity of Halmamedov's music in Turkmenistan and beyond? Halmamedov, in fact, was not a revolutionary innovator like, for example, another Turkmen composer, Rejep Allayarov. But Halmamedov's music is so recognizable and close to everyone.

Perhaps the point is the special universality of his musical language. During his lifetime, Halmamedov always and everywhere was “his own”, and today he has become a man of the world. Musicians of any nationality find something native in his work, which confirms the statement of the English poet of the 18th century Charles Churchill - "Genius has no nationality."

Photo: provided by Mammed Huseynov