#azeris

Sattar Bahlulzade (1909-1974) was an Azerbaijani painter.

Article: Historically, artists become famous either for their unique style or the character they exude to the world of art.

Sattar Bahlulzade a living legend, a painter, who in the literal sense of the word is the face of the Azerbaijani lyrical landscape, and, importantly, unique in his soulful qualities was an artist the importance of whom for the national art is difficult to underestimate.

Love of drawing appeared in artist’s early childhood. After his father gave him colored pencils, the boy drew everything that surrounded him. He was surrounded by various beauties - bright holidays, nature of Absheron, household items decorated by folk craftsmen. In one of his diaries the artist wrote:

“Everything was in the right place in the house. She (the mother) located the items like an artist. Blankets and bedspreads folded so that the color gamut coincided. For her, it was a work of art, it was a beauty.”

Bahlulzade is an artist, famous for his strangeness. He had a habit of suddenly leaving home and sometimes being absent for months. He did not sell his work, he gave them disinterestedly, although he was not a rich man.

The artist was in love with nature, considered himself a part of it. Actually, most of his life passed in the bosom of nature in order to be closer to it, to understand it deeper, adequately perceive and depict it on canvas. He could better express and realize himself as an artist in unity with nature. This is clearly seen in many famous paintings of the master.

“Many people think that when I want to, I take a blank canvas in a frame, a palette of colors and without any difficulty I depict various moments in the life of nature. This is a misconception. I originally had such a habit: I did sketches in advance to some of my works, and in some cases I remembered what I saw. For example, over the paysage "Tears of Kapaz" I was painting what I remembered, I did not make a sketch in advance of it. Actually, at that moment I had no such opportunity,” the artist admitted.

Bahlulzade was a thinker, he always avoided trifles and focused on the transfer of the deep essence, character, poetry of the landscape. Because of this, his works are saturated with colors, energy emotionally and musically, are full of completely unexpected turns and magic.

Working on the canvas, however, was given to Bahlulzade by no means easy, he spent a lot of time and effort to catch the right moment and to convey the unbridled power of nature and its unique charm as colorful as possible.

About this emotionality, philosophical and aesthetic elements in the works of Bahlulzade much is said and written. Some assume that these qualities in his work are the result of the influence of the medieval art of Tabriz miniature, others think that this is the result of the influence of impressionism.

It is noteworthy that musicality is the very essence of creativity of the artist. When you look at his paintings, it's difficult to get rid of the feeling that this is a kind of symphony written not with notes, but with colors. On artist’s paintings, colors radiate light and a melody, they seem to sing.

It is necessary to dwell on Bahlulzade’s colors that he used in his paintings, about which so much was said. Like many specific features of this artist's work, the colors on his paintings are also unusual and incomparable, his palette is unique. The impression is that he created these colors himself and only he works with them.

Bahlulzade, however, himself did not agree with such statements and remarked: “I'm not looking for colors and do not create them. I just try to portray things the way I see them. Let's not forget that everyone cannot see things equally, everyone has his own angle of vision, his own visual memory. One sees and perceives yellow, blue, pink, orange colors like this, and the other - quite differently. Therefore, these colors look different on the canvas.”

The artist preferred yellow, blue, pink, orange, lemon, orange and dogwood colors in his works. It is interesting that these colors, noticeably predominant in Bahlulzade’s paintings, do not bore at all, do not bother, on the contrary, they seem to illuminate the soul with a certain special light, and fill it with joy.

Paysages dedicated to the Caspian Sea, oil rigs, occupy a special place in the artist's work ("Caspian beauty", "Evening over the Caspian", etc.). He used spent whole days at sea, with oilmen on boats, platforms, overpasses, towers. Despite the similar coloring of these works, the artist was able to masterfully convey the contradictory nature of the Caspian.

Solo exhibitions of the artist were held in Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Norway, Bulgaria, Germany, Iraq, Cuba, Canada, Belgium, France and Japan.

Currently, the works of an outstanding Azerbaijani artist are kept in galleries and museums of various countries. Honored Art Worker, laureate of Azerbaijani State Prize, People's Artist Sattar Bahlulzade died October 14, 1974 in Moscow. He is buried in his native village of Amirjan.

Article by: Aygun Salmanova.

Painting: "Tears of Kapaz" by Sattar Bahlulzade.

Azerbaijan was once part of Iran and Azeris are an Iranic people. Iranic people come from an Indo-European ethnic family, along with Armenians, Kurds, and Persians. They’re basically a “turkified” Iranic people for lack of better words. They’re their own ethnicity that branches from the same “tree” as Persians, Kurds, and Armenians.

“The Azerbaijani people are of mixed ethnic origins. These include the indigenous peoples of eastern Transcaucasia and the Medians, an ancient Iranian people.[N 1] However, modern Azerbaijanis are the second most numerous ethnic group among the Turkic peoples after Anatolian Turks.[2] and speak a Turkic language.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Azerbaijanis

What’s modern life like in the Azerbaijan village that’s as old as the Bible? 

Photographic series by  Sitara Ibrahimova

Allegedly where Noah first settled after his ark touched land, Azerbaijan’s little known exclave of Nakhchivan is characterised by Martian landscapes and ongoing border tensions. Photographer Sitara Ibrahimova offers an intimate look at life in this contested region

Uzeyir Hajibeyli was an Azerbaijani composer, conductor, publicist, playwright, and social figure. He is recognized as the father of Azerbaijani composed classical music and opera.

About this video: Fragment from "Leyli and Majnun" opera by Uzeyir Hajibeyli (late 1960s); conductor: Afrasiyab Badalbeyli (Afrasiyab Badal oglu Badalbeyli was an Azerbaijani composer, conductor and music critic, author of the music and libretto of "Giz Galasi" ("The Maiden Tower"), the first Azerbaijani ballet and the first ballet in the Muslim Orient); Leyli - Rubaba Muradova (Rubaba Muradova was an Azerbaijani opera (mezzo-soprano) and folk singer); Majnun - Gulu Askerov (Gulu Askerov was an Azerbaijani mugham and opera (lyric-dramatic tenor) singer, composer and pedagogue); in tar (Azerbaijani musical instrument) - Bahram Mansurov (Bahram Mansurov was an Azerbaijani tar player).

Article: Born in 1885 in the heart of the ancient Azerbaijani Khanate of Karabakh, in Shusha Uzeyir Hajibeyli’s outstanding musical talent started a revolution in the Azerbaijani musical timeline. He was the very musician to introduce an extraordinary innovation in the nation's music culture, to constantly refresh it, and adjust to modern tastes. He was a founder of an opera genre not only in Azerbaijan, but the East and created the first Muslim opera in the Islamic world.

His unique synthesis of Oriental and Western music significantly promoted the classical music traditions in the East and opened a page of classical music patterns.

The unique composer was brave enough to explore blending two incompatibly different cultures at root and achieve an unprecedented synethesis.

History recognizes Hajibeyli as an innovator as well as the first to establish a professional music school and Orchestra for Traditional Folk Instruments, to compose the Muslim world’s first opera and operetta, to introduce a woman on stage, to write the country’s national anthem (which is the official anthem of Azerbaijan today), to be awarded the highest artistic title of the Soviet Union.

He occupied himself in almost every facet of music culture, and was a great conductor, publicist, playwright, teacher, and translator.

Hajibeyli was born to an intellectual and well-to-do family that was closely related to the famous Azerbaijani poet and public figure Khurshidbanu Natavan.

Familiarity with Natavan opened doors for young Uzeyir to enter the best music communities in Shusha - a cradle of music which is quite fairly called "National Conservatory."

The idea of the Azerbaijani opera was born in the heart of Uzeyir at age 13, when he watched a dramatization of the story of Majnun at Leyli's Tombstone in Shusha.

Remembering the occasion, Hajibeyli wrote, "That performance affected me so much that when I came to Baku years later, I decided to write something like that."

The 22 year-old Hajibeyli eventually accomplished a brilliant feat of music, composing the first opera of the Muslim East based on the story of Leyli and Majnun. A Romeo & Juliet-esque story of love that premiered in 1908, the opera was set to poetic verses by the 12th century Azerbaijani poet Nizami and later by 16th century Azerbaijani poet Fuzuli.

Leyli and Majnun laid the foundations of mugham opera and national opera in general.

Hajibeyli later recalled, “At that time, I knew only the basics of sol-fa, and had no idea of harmony, counterpoint, and musical forms ... However, the success of Leili and Majnun was great. In my opinion, it gained popularity thanks to the fact that the Azerbaijani people had expected the appearance of Azerbaijani opera at the stage. And the opera combined authentic folk music and a popular classic story.”

The "Koroghlu" opera is truly the best example of the composer’s creativity; an original masterpiece in which he has expressed in the musical form ideas that excited him like the heroics of the famed Koroghlu himself. This opera won love of all Azerbaijani people in a short time and marked a new stage in development of the Azerbaijan art.

“Koroghlu" is a national folk product in which the composer managed to very realistically portray the people’s struggle for freedom and independence and create bright and historically truthful national images.

The composer describes his work at the opera: "While working on Koroghlu, I have put before myself an object to create a national opera using the achievements of modern musical culture. To put forth such an idea, the composer was required to undergo not only serious theoretical preparation, but also a deep understanding of national creativity, mastering of that style, which enables us to speak with people in an understandable language... It was important to penetrate the opera with breath of national music."

"Arshin Mal Alan" or The Cloth Peddler was the latest and one of the most popular operettas of the eminent composer. The comedic and romantic operetta premiered in Azerbaijan in 1913, thus becoming the first operetta in the entire Muslim world.

The opening aria of Asker (the main hero in the operetta) and many other vocal numbers were performed in a purely European style. At the same time, their music was peppered with national flavors.

Written in 1910, “If not this one, that one” was the composer’s second musical comedy.

It is considered one of the most courageous and principled works in theater arts of pre-revolutionary Azerbaijan, where Hajibeyli was able to show the social and domestic conflicts in Azerbaijan in the 19-20th centuries.

His kindness stands out, as does his progressive and liberal attitude towards women, especially for the time and region.

Through his music as well as work as a journalist, teacher, and translator, Hajibeyli played a vital role in the fight against illiteracy and helped usher in a cultural shift, launching a period of enlightenment that transcended Azerbaijan’s borders and reached many others in the Eurasia region.

Thanks to these steps Hajibeyli, received the approval of the nation, leaving behind immortal and experimental pieces of music.

Compositions such as Fantasias, Jangi, Ashig’s trio, Arazbari and others are considered as some of the musical masterpieces of all time.

Article by Amina Nazarli.

Photos: Photos of Uzeyir Hajibeyli.

Videos: I video: Fragment from "Leyli and Majnun" opera by Uzeyir Hajibeyli (late 1960s); II video: "Leyli and Majnun" opera by Uzeyir Hajibeyli (1978); III video: "Koroghlu" opera by Uzeyir Hajibeyli.