First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva marks National Music Day in Instagram post [PHOTO]

Azerbaijan's First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva has made an Instagram post on the occasion of the National Music Day celebrated in the country on September 18.

“On the occasion of the National Music Day, I extend my sincere greetings to everyone who spared no efforts to preserve, develop and promote Azerbaijani music in the world, and wish them great achievements in this case. I respectfully commemorate prominent Azerbaijani composers Uzeyir Hajibayli and Muslim Magomayev whose 135th anniversary we are marking today. May our national music, preserving its traditions, always be enriched with new voices, new performances and approaches!” the post reads.

On September 18, Azerbaijan celebrates National Music Day. The music feast marks the birthday of Uzeyir Hajibeyli, the father of Azerbaijan's classical music and the first composer of an opera in the Islamic world.

The tradition to celebrate National Music Day was laid by Maestro Niyazi who used to celebrate this day each year after the composer's death in 1948.

Uzeyir Hajibeyli laid the foundation of a national musical style. 

The opera "Leyli and Majnun" (1908) is based on traditional folk music and dance, musical genres that relied on oral traditions.

Furthermore, the composer wrote his second opera "Sheikh Sanan", "Rustam and Sohrab", Asli and Karam, Shah Abbas and Khurshudbanu and Harun and Leyli entirely based on national folk music elements, primarily mugham.

He also composed three comedies including, "Husband and Wife" (1910), "If not this one, that one" (1911) and "Arshin Mal Alan" (1913). 

"Arshin Mal Alan" or The Cloth Peddler was the latest and one of the most popular operettas of the eminent composer. 

The operetta has been successfully performed in a plethora of languages in over 60 countries of the world, including in U.S, Austria, France, China, Greece, India, Russia, and Turkey.

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