Today is the birthday of the outstanding composer Fikret Amirov

Today is the birthday of outstanding Azerbaijani composer, People's Artist of the USSR, USSR State Prize laureate Fikret Amirov.

As BAKU.WS reminds, he was born on November 22, 1922, in Ganja in the family of famous singer, tar player and composer Meshadi Jamil Amirov.

He studied at the Ganja Music School in the tar class, then at the Baku Music School in composition. In 1939, he entered the Azerbaijan State Conservatory (now Baku Music Academy - ed.), where his mentors were outstanding musicians of their time.

At the conservatory, Fikret mastered the secrets of composition under the guidance of famous teacher Boris Zeidman, and studied the foundations of Azerbaijani folk music with the great Uzeyir Hajibekov - the founder of Azerbaijani professional music.

After the war began, Amirov went to the front but was demobilized after being wounded. Throughout his career, Fikret Amirov held a number of responsible positions: he was the artistic director of the Ganja and Azerbaijan State Philharmonic named after Muslim Magomayev, director of the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theater, making significant contributions to the development of the country's musical culture.

In 1945, he continued his education and three years later graduated from the conservatory, presenting the opera "Ulduz" as his graduation work.

Fikret Amirov's creative legacy impresses with its diversity - the composer worked in almost all musical genres, creating works of unique beauty and depth. His compositions occupy a special place in the history of Azerbaijani music due to their artistic content, ethical significance, philosophical depth, and psychological insight. The main goal of Fikret Amirov's rich and multifaceted creative work was to create professional musical works in the national style.

Fikret Amirov entered the history of world music as the creator of a unique genre - the symphonic mugham, which has no analogues in world musical art. The first work in this genre was the symphonic mugham "Shur," written by the composer in 1949.

Later, he created the symphonic mughams "Kurd-Ovshari" and "Gulistan - Bayati-Shiraz." These works are considered a special stage in Fikret Amirov's creative journey.

In the symphonic mugham genre, the composer managed to organically combine two classical musical genres - mugham and symphony. The symphonic mughams reflected the form, structure, plot development, and other features characteristic of both genres.

This is why the composer's symphonic mughams were performed in different countries around the world under the direction of such outstanding conductors as Niyazi, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Leopold Stokowski, Hermann Abendroth, and others. Even today, Amirov's symphonic mughams, as the best examples of world symphonic music, attract performers' attention. These works play a special role in popularizing Azerbaijani culture throughout the world.

Fikret Amirov also laid the foundations for lyrical-psychological opera in Azerbaijan by creating the opera "Sevil" based on Jafar Jabbarli's drama.

The composer's rich creative work became a source of inspiration for other Azerbaijani composers. After him, Niyazi wrote the symphonic mugham "Rast," Suleyman Aleskerov - "Bayati-Shiraz," Vasif Adigezalov - "Segah," Tofig Bakikhanov - "Humayun," "Neva," and others.

The works created by the composer with great talent and high professionalism are still listened to with great interest and love today.

The opera "Sevil," musical comedies "Heart Thieves" and "Joyful News," dastan "Nasimi," ballets "One Thousand and One Nights," "Nizami," "Azerbaijan Suite," "Symphonic Dances," "Azerbaijani Engravings," "12 Miniatures" for piano, "Mugham-Poem" for violin with piano, "Sonata," songs and romances to poems by various poets, and other works - in all these compositions, Fikret Amirov was able to create his own amazing