Khusain Fayzullovich Akhmetov is one of the most popular and talented composers of Bashkiria. Thanks to his work, Bashkir professional music became better, brighter, and even a peculiar national musical style appeared.
The beginning of the way
The future composer was born on January 6, 1914. His childhood passed in the village of Chingiz, Bayman district. Husain’s parents were poor peasants, so the first years of his life cannot be called happy. He, along with other children, had to work in the field: mow hay, graze horses. He also worked on timber rafting. It was at work that his creative abilities began to manifest: during breaks, he sang long Bashkir songs.
In the whole district they began to call him "Husain from Genghis." Since childhood, Khusain Akhmetov fell in love with the life, customs and traditions of the Bashkir people. He loved his native land. It was in childhood that he joined the folklore traditions and the style of the long song of Bashkiria, and later used them in his work.
Thanks to the desire to get a decent education, he first gets to the Bayman College, which was also a mining school, and then began to learn to play the violin at the Kazan Music College. It was in the musical school that he first seriously thought about making music and even becoming a composer. A personal meeting with the famous Tatar composer Salikh Saidashev prompted him to these thoughts.
Studying at a national studio
By a completely random set of circumstances, Khusain Fayzullovich learned that he was being recruited to the Bashkir national studio at the Moscow Conservatory. After applying, he is quickly credited there. And at first he begins to study vocals, but after a month he discovers a penchant for writing music. He liked to improvise, pick up the necessary accompaniment on any of the instruments in the class. The year 1936 became a determining one for Khusain, because Professor G.I. Litinsky opened the first department at his school for future composers, and Akhmetov became one of the first students there.
His first independent works were the processing of folk songs "Ural" and "Thick Bird Cherry", as well as musical accompaniment of verses by K. Dayan and M. Gafuri. They felt the original handwriting, despite some flaws. Husain produced a new phenomenon in Bashkir music - his favorite songs sounded in a three-part form on a violin accompanied by a piano.
Years of the Great Patriotic War
In 1941, the composer, like many of his colleagues, volunteered to go to the front. But the service did not last long: already in September 1941, he caught an acute lung disease, because of which he was demobilized.
But the work of Khusain Akhmetov did not end there. In 1942, he arranged to work on the radio, while continuing his studies in the studio. It was at this time that the “Holy War” ballad, which made him famous, appeared, as well as the works “Gift to the Hero” and “Spring Dawn”.
