Khusain Faizullovich 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. He spent his childhood in the village of Chingiz, Baiman region. Khusain'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 drawn-out Bashkir songs.
Throughout the district, they began to call him "Khusain from Chingiz". Since childhood, Khusain Akhmetov fell in love with the way of life, customs and traditions of the Bashkir people. He loved his native land. It was in his childhood that he joined the folklore traditions and style of the drawn-out song of Bashkiria, and subsequently used them in his work.
Thanks to the desire to get a decent education, he first enters the Bayman College, which was also a mining and industrial school, and then began to learn to play the violin at the Kazan Music College. It was in the music school that he first seriously thought about making music and even becoming a composer. These thoughts were prompted by a personal meeting with the famous Tatar composer Salikh Saydashev.
Studying at the national studio
By a completely accidental coincidence, Khusain Fayzullovich learned that a recruitment was being carried out for the Bashkir national studio at the Moscow Conservatory. After submitting an application, he is quickly credited there. Moreover, at first he begins to study vocals, but after a month he discovers in himself a penchant for writing music. He liked to improvise, picking up the right accompaniment on any of the instruments in the class. 1936 became a decisive year for Khusain, because Professor G. I. Litinsky opened the first department for future composers in his school, and Akhmetov became one of the first students there.
His first independent works were arrangements of folk songs "Ural" and "Dense bird cherry", as well as musical accompaniments of poems by K. Dayan and M. Gafuri. They felt the original handwriting, despite some shortcomings. Khusain made a new phenomenon in Bashkir music - his favorite songs sounded in 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 for the front. But the service did not last long: already in September 1941, he contracted an acute lung disease, due to which he was demobilized.
But the work of Khusain Akhmetov did not end there. In 1942 he got a job on the radio, while continuing his studies in the studio. It was at this time that the ballad "The Holy War", which made him famous, appeared, as well as the works "A Gift to a Hero" and "Spring Dawn".
Main creative years
Khusain in the 60s made a huge contribution to the golden fund of Bashkiria with his romances “I once went down to Idel”, “Come to the garden”, “Your eyes”, “My heart is striving for you”, “I fell in love”.
In the 70s and 80s, they became the most productive for the already famous composer. In his works, he raises already deep problems of time and eternity, life and death, man and love. He created vocal cycles "Five Poems" on poems by M. Akmulla, "Persian motives" and "Russian lyrics" on poems by S. Yesenin. “It is simply impossible not to write decent music for these wonderful works,” he said. He also performed on stage, was engaged in vocal creativity.
