1964th year. France. The world's most prestigious Cannes Film Festival is held on the Cote d'Azur, in Cannes. Along with the main program, non-competitive films are shown. One of the films presented to the audience and the jury was created by an unknown film director from Turkmenistan Bulat Mansurov. The light goes out, credits appear on the screen, dutar sounds and the piercing verses of Makhtumkuli burst into the space filled with spectators: “Good and evil will not get along in the world. Will the good be preserved in posterity? Or will the hearts of honest heroes have to be buried in the ground again? The earth has long been nourished with their blood. Wouldn't choke! "
Amazing silence reigns in the hall while watching the film. When the last sounds of the dutar died down and the lights came on, the audience stood up and burst into applause. We haven't seen anything like this here. People applauded the music unusual for the European hearing - sobbing, ascending upward, descending into the bottomless depths of human existence, the amazing play of actors, applauded in solidarity with such a simple and eternal philosophy of the film - good always triumphs over evil. The film was called "The Contest" ("Shukur-bakhshi").
The tape received two prizes at once - for the best directing and the best music in cinema, which, shocked by its depth, Chingiz Aitmatov, called "non-invented music." It belonged to a student of the Moscow Conservatory Nury Khalmamedov.
Yes, it was not invented music, because it came not from the mind, but from the heart, filled with the springs of the soul of the one who wrote it. It couldn't have been otherwise. The outstanding Turkmen composer Nury Khalmamedov was born not far from the places where the great Turkmen poet Makhtumkuli was born and lived. These lands themselves, stunning with unearthly beauty, were woven of colors, poetry and music. The mountains, overgrown with centuries-old forests, evoked bright, joyful thoughts, and the murmuring springs running from them helped to clothe thoughts into words. Listening to the songs of folk musicians - bakhshi, singing the beauty of life and people, the boy, like a sponge, absorbed these words and sounds. Already in childhood, he was not faced with the question: who to be? He knew he would be a musician.
After leaving school, Nury Khalmamedov entered the Moscow Conservatory. All the years of study were filled not only with classes in the classroom, but also with intense creativity. The young student tried himself in different genres: in just a few years he wrote music for three dozen songs, romances and other pieces of music that brought him wide fame. These are vocal cycles to the verses of the Turkmen poets Makhtumkuli, Mollanepes, Kemin, folk singers of the 19th century, as well as romances to the verses of Sergei Yesenin, Heine, Japanese poets; this is the famous play "Sounds of the Dutar", symphonic pictures "Turkmenistan". Growing up on the traditions of the Turkmen musical art, and forever remaining faithful to it, Nury Khalmamedov organically combined two richest musical traditions - European and Turkmen music.
The main theme that Nury Khalmamedov carried through his entire life and reflected in music is the theme of someone else's pain, which the composer perceived as his own. This is evidenced by the names of his musical cycles - "Ballad of War and Peace", "In Memory of the Fallen", "Unheard Songs of Hiroshima Children", "Ballad of Mother", "Return of the Soldier", "Soldier's Heart".
He was a devoted, loyal, unselfish friend. The circle of his friends - writers, poets, painters, composers, actors, filmmakers. Among the poets, he singled out two souls close to him - the classic of the XIX century Makhtumkuli, and his contemporary Kurbannazar Ezizov, with whom he was related by the commonality of feelings, thoughts, worldview.
Nury Khalmamedov has written music for more than twenty full-length, animated and documentary films. And every time it was an event. Friends said that Nury understood movie music like no other. It seemed that the melodies themselves flew to him from somewhere above.
Once in Moscow, during the dubbing of the Turkmen animated film Homeless Kongurja, a problem arose. The filmmakers hoped that for a small picture they would be provided with a small chamber musical group, but the State Film Agency allocated a whole symphony orchestra, in which there are almost a hundred musicians. The deadline for dubbing is tough - only three days. Downtime will entail big losses. Nury reassured: "Everything will be fine." He locked himself in a hotel room and, by the appointed time, a finished score lay on the table, moreover, painted for each instrument separately. And this is a tremendous job. After the end of the recording, the orchestra stood and applauded the composer for a long time.
Special mention should be made of the music for the film "Kechpelek" ("Bitter Fate"). This nagging, soul-stirring melody, from which tears well up in the eyes, has become a truly unofficial folk anthem. For many years, the Requiem sounded on the square in Ashgabat at the Eternal Flame, in front of the monument to Turkmen soldiers who fell in battles for their Motherland. To this day, it sounds on the radio and from TV screens, echoing pain and sorrow in the hearts of Ashgabat residents.
Nury Khalmamedov was obsessed with music. Music kept him alive. It contained the truthfulness of a fiery feeling, sincerity of expressions, simplicity and perfection of taste. He served music with all his strength and passion. Nury Khalmamedov's music is so universal that it cannot be called only Turkmen music. This is music for everyone.
In 1979, Nury Khalmamedov was awarded the title "Honored Art Worker of Turkmenistan". He was also awarded the title of laureate of the State Prize named after Makhtumkuli, and the State Prize of the USSR.
The life of an outstanding composer was short. He lived only 43 years. Nury Khalmamedov was posthumously awarded the title "People's Artist of Turkmenistan". On one of the squares of the capital, there is a monument to the outstanding composer Nury Khalmamedov, whose music has become a national treasure, one of the streets of Ashgabat is named after him.
Time is running out, new generations of Turkmen citizens have grown up, but they also know the music of Nury Khalmamedov and admire it. Because she sings of Human, Love, Good, Peace. Because it is eternal.
Vladimir Zarembo
