Yunus Rajabiy (also spelled Yunus Rajabi, Russian: Юнус Ражабий, 1897 - 1976) a legendary composer of Uzbek music. The musical culture of the Uzbek people is rather singular and versatile. However, up to the 20th century there was no musical notation of folk melodies. The first records appeared owing to the creative activity of the talented composer, virtuoso performer-instrumentalist, singer, People’s Artist of Uzbekistan, Yunus Rajabiy. In 1919, Yunus Rajabiy enrolled to the just opened Tashkent National Conservatory, the national music department, where he taught playing nai (Uzbek flute). Successes of Yunus Rajabiy in music always amazed his tutors, in particular Nikolay Mironov and Viktor Uspenskiy. Later, cooperating with these tutors Yunus Rajabiy created musical dramas “Muqanna”, “Revenge”, “Qo’chqor Turdiyev”, as well music to such plays as “Farkhod and Shirin”, “Layli and Majnun.” He wrote numerous songs on lyrics by Uzbek poetry classics – Zahiriddin Muhammad Bobur, Muqimiy and Furqat. The musician founded the ensemble of national instruments at the Tashkent Radio Committee that was opened in 1927. One of the main goals of his life Yunus Rajabiy considered the study of the art Shashmaqam that at that time existed only in Bukhara and Samarqand. In 1971, for the six-volume work of the same name Yunus Rajabiy was awarded the Hamza State Prize. His son Khassan Rajabi is a singer, tanbur player and the director of the Yunus Rajabi museum in Tashkent. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.