Among the rare personalities that emerged in history, Uzeyir Hajibeyov holds a special place. Like a father, he took countless Azerbaijani children by the hand, gave them musical education, and taught them to draw from the inexhaustible treasure of our nation’s musical heritage. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been a student of such a teacher, among the first to attend Uzeyir bey’s class on "Fundamentals of Azerbaijani Folk Music".
Twice a week, Uzeyir bey would deliver lectures on this subject to our group, providing clarifications. The systematic rules of these centuries-old mughams, revealed through Uzeyir bey’s twenty years of research and labor, would leave us in awe. To help students better comprehend the mughams, Uzeyir bey invited Mirza Mansur, our nation’s renowned master tar player, to the conservatory. As Mirza Mansur performed the mughams on tar, we would hurriedly transcribe the notes while simultaneously learning to play them on piano. Thus, after learning both the theory and performance of a mugham, Uzeyir bey would conduct individual composition lessons with students. These lessons were particularly fascinating. We were required to compose works based on the mughams we studied - initially small piano pieces, later sonatinas, sonatas, and vocal compositions. I remember Uzeyir bey once gave me a poem by Nigar Rafibeyli written in question-answer form during one lesson, assigning me to set the questions to one mugham while modulating the answers through different mughams. He instructed that the first verse’s question and answer should be in Segah, the second verse’s answer in Bayati-Shiraz, and the third verse’s answer in Rast mugham. I worked diligently and, upon completing the composition, presented it to Uzeyir bey. Right then, he called Bulbul and requested him to perform this work – "Song About Homeland". Consequently, the piece was featured in numerous concerts and decade-long celebrations.
The master composer skillfully instilled in his students the art of creating music based on Azerbaijani mugham, which is why the composers who studied under him skillfully incorporate our national musical traditions in their works.
We students affectionately referred to our caring mentor Uzeyir bey as "Uzeyir uncle". Before my eyes still stands Uzeyir uncle - embodying that simplicity characteristic of great men, his kindness, occasionally even stern demeanor, yet always his principled nature.