Mukhatov, Veli

(Velimukhamed). Born Apr. 22 (May 5), 1916, in the aul (village) of Bagir, present-day Ashkhabad Raion. Soviet composer and public figure. People’s Artist of the USSR (1965).

In 1941, Mukhatov graduated from the Turkmen Studio of the Moscow Conservatory; in 1951 he completed S. N. Vasilenko’s composition class at the Moscow Conservatory. His first works included the ballet White Cotton (1945; jointly with A. F. Znosko-Borovskii), the comic opera The Poet and the Judge (1947; jointly with A. G. Shaposhnikov), and the opera Zokhre and Takhir (1953; jointly with A. G. Shaposhnikov); all three works were staged at the Turkmen Theater of Opera and Ballet. Mukhatov’s works vividly express the characteristic traits of Turkmen folk music, to which he has masterfully applied the techniques of modern composition.

Mukhatov’s most important works are the opera The Bloody Watershed (1967; staged at the Turkmen Theater of Opera and Ballet), the symphonic work Turkmen Suite (1950), the symphonic poem My Native Land (1951), the epic, vocal-symphonic poems Legend of the Communist (1970) and Song of Lenin (1970), and a symphony (1973). Mukhatov composed the national anthem of the Turkmen SSR (1946), as well as cantatas, music for folk orchestra, choral and solo songs, and music for the films Soviet Turkmenistan (1951), Song About Water (1966), A Shepherd’s Son (1955), and Incident at Dash-Kala (1963).

Mukhatov was a deputy to the fourth and fifth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1951 and 1952 and the Makhtumukuli State Prize of the Turkmen SSR in 1972. He has received the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and a number of medals.