Kovkab Kamil qizi Safaraliyeva (; 3 January 1907 in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

– 27 June 1985 in Baku) was an

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

i classical pianist, piano instructor, and concertmaster.Ü.Hacıbəyov adına Azərbaycan Dövlət Konservatoriyası işçilərinə fəxri adlar verilməsi haqqında Azərbaycan SSR Ali Soveti Rəyasət Heyətinin 19 aprel 1972-ci il tarixli Fərmanı
— anl.az

Career

She was born in Baku (then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, now the capital of Azerbaijan) and was one of the five children of Kamil Safaraliyev and Gamartaj Ziyadkhanova. Her parents, particularly fond of music and willing to share their interests with their children, hired private music tutors for them. Kovkab and her sisters were trained in

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

; one of her brothers played the

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

, and the other one the

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

. After the

Sovietization Sovietization ( ) is the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets (workers' councils) or the adoption of a way of life, mentality, and culture modeled after the Soviet Union. A notable wave of Sovietization (in the second me ...

of Azerbaijan in 1920, she started attending public piano course, and in 1926 she was admitted to the Azerbaijan State Conservatory. At the same time, due to her outstanding skills, Safaraliyeva was selected to train students as a teacher's assistant, as well as to teach

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...

and musical literature to Azeriphone students.Kovkab Safaraliyeva
. ''Axtar.az'' In the early 1930s she performed as a pianist at the Baku Labour Theatre, and later worked at a concertmistress at the Azerbaijan Opera Theatre. After doing probation work in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

in 1935–1936 Safaraliyeva returned to Baku to teach at her ''alma mater''. She was remembered by many for being a very hardworking, talented, demanding and charismatic instructor.An Inexpiable Light of Music
by Lala Huseynli. ''Musiqi dünyası'' Between 1930 and 1939 Kovkab Safaraliyeva made numerous performances as a member of

chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

s. She is also the author of the widely used text edition ''Plays Performed on the Piano Based on Azerbaijani Mugham'', as well as a number of research articles.

References

External links

Unknown Pages of the History of Our Music: Kovkab Safaraliyeva
by Adila Mailova. ''Musiqi dünyası'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Safaraliyeva, Kovkab Azerbaijani classical pianists 1907 births 1985 deaths People's Artists of Azerbaijan Soviet Azerbaijani people Musicians from Baku Baku Academy of Music alumni 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century women pianists 20th-century Azerbaijani musicians 20th-century Azerbaijani women musicians Azerbaijani women pianists Women classical pianists