Said Rustamov ( az, Səid Rüstəmov), born Mir-Jabbar Ali oglu Seyid-Rustamzadeh (12 May 1907 in

Erivan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

– 10 June 1983 in Baku), was a Soviet

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

i composer and conductor.

Life and contributions

Said Rustamov was born in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

where he spent his early years and went to primary school. He was the youngest of the family's four children. After his father's death and his mother's second marriage, he was taken in and brought up by his older brother who had been married by that time. In 1918, as a result of ethnic tensions in Erivan, his brother was murdered.Said Rustamov: Bitter Sharbat
by N.Badalov. ''EL Jurnali''. May 2008. Retrieved 31 July 2008 Rustamov's sister-in-law fled with the rest of her family, including himself, to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. In 1919, they moved to

Ganja Ganja (, ; ) is one of the oldest and most commonly used synonyms for marijuana. Its usage in English dates to before 1689. Etymology ''Ganja'' is borrowed from Hindi/Urdu ( hi, गांजा, links=no, ur, , links=no, IPA: �aːɲd� ...

, then Agdash and finally settled in Baku, where young Rustamov got admitted to a teachers seminary. As a teenager, he developed interest in

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

and

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...

. His musical talent was noticed by one of his teachers, who introduced him to composer

Uzeyir Hajibeyov Uzeyir bey Abdulhuseyn oghlu Hajibeyov ( az, Üzeyir bəy Əbdülhüseyn oğlu Hacıbəyov; russian: Узеир Абдул-Гусейн оглы Гаджибеков, translit=Uzeir Abdul-Guseyn ogly Gadzhibekov; September 18, 1885November 23, 19 ...

. Hajibeyov arranged for the boy's enrolment in a

tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bi ...

class at a music academy. At the same time Rustamov further pursued his career in teaching and graduated from the Azerbaijani State Pedagogical Institute in 1932.Said Rustamov
. ''Adam.az'' Around 1930 he married Bika, a nurse whom he had met while living in Agdash. Together they had four children (two sons and two daughters), all of whom would have been trained in professional music later in their lives. Rustamov published textbooks on

note Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...

acquisition and the instruction of tar. His monographs include ''Azerbaijani Folk Dances'', ''Azerbaijani Folk Songs'' and ''Azerbaijani Ashig Songs''.Song Remains with Man
by Galina Mikeladze. "Азербайджанский Конгресс", №5(43), May 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2008 He also wrote children's poems, many of which became part of Azerbaijani school curricula. In 1935, he became the director and conductor of the newly established and unique folk instrument ensemble and remained one for the next 40 years. In 1945, he was appointed director of the Fioletov Club Song and Dance Ensemble and in 1951, of the

Azerbaijan State Song and Dance Ensemble The Azerbaijan State Song and Dance Ensemble was created in 1938 by Uzeyir Hajibeyov, the founder of classic Azerbaijani music. Composers such as Said Rustamov, Jahangir Jahangirov, Vasif Adigozalov, Haji Khanmammadov, Telman Hajiyev and Ra ...

. In 1948–1953, he was Chairman of the Composers Union of Azerbaijan. In 1951, he received the

Stalin Prize Stalin Prize may refer to: * The State Stalin Prize in science and engineering and in arts, awarded 1941 to 1954, later known as the USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, ...

, the highest-ranking award in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. In 1957, he became

People's Artists of the Azerbaijan SSR People's Artist of the USSR ( rus, Народный артист СССР, Narodny artist SSSR), also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to artists of the Soviet Union. Nomenclature and significa ...

. During his career in music, Rustamov composed hundreds of musical pieces, including sheet music for popular operettas and accompaniment for many theatrical plays, as well as suites,

marches In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a national "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diff ...

, cantatas, etc.

Life and contributions

References

See also