About how Akmurad Charyev almost became an accountant
Soloist-instrumentalist of the highest category, Akmurad Charyev was born in the small village of Kelyata near Bakharden, where none of the fellow villagers played the dutar. This village must have been the only one of its kind. However, the dutar was in the rural library, but not as a working musical instrument, but as a “museum” exhibit. The librarian, with great reluctance, allowed the boy to play on it: the thing is expensive, no matter how it breaks.
The restless schoolboy touched the strings with his fingers, and they sang about the slopes of the blue mountains, about the sunset that turns the sky pink, about the native, beautiful village where his friends live. Perhaps the boy only thought that the melody emanating from the strings of the dutar told about what he wanted to hear. After all, he had no teachers, and even no students.
Perhaps Akmurad Charyevich would have followed in the footsteps of his father and become an accountant, but an unrealistically magical incident happened - a representative from the Turkmen State Musical College came to their village to select musically gifted children. If this fact were described in fiction or shown in a movie, for sure, the reader or viewer would say: “It doesn’t happen like that in life.” But it turns out that it happens, and Akmurad became a student at a music school.
Akmurad Charyev - Sakhi Dzhepbarov's accompanist
Many musicians dreamed of accompanying the legendary bakhshi Sakhi Dzhepbarov. But there were rumors that it was almost impossible to get to him as an accompanist. He was very exacting towards those who performed with him and selected musicians for themselves not on the basis of a protégé, but on their own conviction.
After graduating from a music school, Akmurad Charyev worked at the Philharmonic, where Sakhi Dzhepbarov also worked, then moved to the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting, where Sakhi Dzhepbarov used to visit. “A big man!”, the musicians said about him. In 1966, 19-year-old young man Akmurad Charyev was a dutar player in the orchestra of folk instruments conducted by Chara Tachmamedov. One day Sakhi Dzhepbarov approached him and offered to work together.
- It was unexpected, prestigious and disturbing, and suddenly, I won’t pull it, - Akmurad Charyevich recalls. “But of course, I could not refuse such a person. A musician-instrumentalist and an accompanist are completely different professions. First I became a student of Sakhi Dzhepbarov.
- When you play, - he taught me, - enjoy your playing, and then share the pleasure with the listener.
When bakhshi sings, he seems to be flying, and he needs wings. Bakhshi wing - accompaniment. I have two accompanists - you and gidzhak player Ata Avliev. “If one wing rises higher than the other, I won’t be able to fly smoothly.
Soon I turned from a student into a friend. We worked together for 11 years, until the death of the great master. And all these years I was like being in the army. Sakhi Dzhepbarov was a very clear-cut, principled person and demanded the same from those around him. If he made an appointment, it was impossible to be late for it even for a minute. He never raised his voice, never even made remarks. He could only say: "Work on this place better."
He died on July 22 at the age of 77, and 2 months before his death he gave a concert. Ata Avliev and I accompanied him.
How Akmurad Charyev starred in the film "Secrets of the Mukams"
In 1972, the People's Artist of the USSR Alty Karliev staged the feature film "Secrets of Mukams". At that time it became the largest event in the culture of Turkmenistan. The best forces were concentrated in the production of the film: the music was written by Nury Halmamedov, and Liza Karaeva was invited to play the role of Karkara, the first Turkmen woman-bakhshi. Alty Karliev invited Akmurad Charyev as a music consultant. The actors did not know how to play the dutar, so it was necessary to teach them how to hold the instrument correctly, follow the movement of the brush, and bring the movements to automatism. The duties of Akmurad Charyev included preparing the actors for the tournament for the best bakhshi.
- At some point, - recalls Akmurad Charyevich, - Alty Karliev carefully began to look at me, then the actor of the role of Dovran-bakhshi.
- Yes, it's your image! he exclaimed at last, turning to me.
- I am a musician, not an actor.
- Here the music is higher than the actor, - retorted Alty Karliev, gave the text and sent me to the make-up artist.
And yet, when filming Dovran's death scene, the director told me, "Make everyone cry when you get killed."
So I became an actor. Journalists often ask me: “Did you like acting in films?”. Of course I liked it. The film is perceived differently when you see yourself on the screen.
I'll tell you a secret: the film "Hadji Golak" with my participation will soon be released.
There is no extra knowledge
- Some people are surprised when they find out that I am a film actor. But he still does not know that I am a philologist. In 1965, when I graduated from a music school, there was no higher musical education institution in Turkmenistan. And I really wanted to have a higher education, and I entered the philological faculty of the Turkmen State University. When I graduated from the philological faculty, the Turkmen State Institute of Arts was opened. I thought: “There is no superfluous knowledge” and graduated from the institute as a dutar. It's all because I love to learn.
With a dutar - around the world
During his life, Akmurad Charyev toured a lot. “The dutar and I have been almost everywhere, except for China,” he likes to say. And indeed, the sounds of the dutar caressed the ears of the French, Americans, British, Bulgarians, Iranians, and the population of many Arab countries.
- Interest in national music does not disappear over time, - Akmurad Charyev comments. - We have a dutar, Russians have a balalaika, Kazakhs have a dombra, and so it is with every nation. Unforgettable for me is the first in my life festival "The Art of the Peoples of the USSR in Paris", which was held in 1972. It was attended by 250 musicians. Within 2 months we gave 68 concerts. I performed in front of a large Turkmen carpet. During the game, no, no, I looked into the hall to understand how the listeners perceive my music. And according to their reaction, I came to the conclusion that national music is understandable without translation.
Akmurad Charyev - khalipa
To the auditorium of the Turkmen National Conservatory named after. Mai Kuliyeva, where we interviewed Akmurad Charyevich, student Toyly Charyev entered with a dutar. We met: Toili entered the conservatory after graduating from the Mary Musical College named after. Elaman Khummaev. Currently, he is a freshman, but has already become a favorite student of the People's Artist of Turkmenistan Akmurad Charyev.
- I would like to have the same relationship with Toyli as we once had with Sakhi Dzhepbarov, - Akmurad Charyev admits. - In general, my students work in all velayats of the country, many of them teach children to play the dutar. So the professional playing of the dutar continues throughout Turkmenistan.
Akmurad Charyev - mukamchi (composer)
Soloist-instrumentalist Akmurad Charyev is the author of music for 60 songs that are heard on television, at concert venues in Turkmenistan. Among them are such well-known and beloved songs as “Arkadag” to the words of the Hero of Turkmenistan Guzel Shakulieva and “Khalkyn Arkadaglu zamanasy”.
By the way, when our country applied to UNESCO to include the dutar in the list of world cultural heritage, a recording of the song “About the dutar” written by Akmurad Charyev to the words of Geldy Byashimov was attached to the application.
When the people of Turkmenistan received the UNESCO certificate recognizing the dutar as a heritage of world culture, a choir of 100 people sang the song “About the dutar” at the celebration of this joyful event.
- I listened to this song with bated breath, - recalls Akmurad Charyevich. - Pride and happiness overwhelmed me for all our people, who created the unique musical instrument dutar, which became an integral part of my destiny.
