Sen Gelmez Oldun on balaban

As part of "Story of a Song" series Vestnik Kavkaza continues to tell about history of a wonderful song - Sen Gelmez Oldun (You didn't come). Vestnik Kavkaza already told how this song appeared. It was written in the Soviet years by the Azerbaijani composer Alakbar Taghiyev Taghiyev wrote the music for a poem by Madina Gulgun. ('You didn't come'. Story of one song). It was already performed not only in Azerbaijan, but also in many post-Soviet countries, as well as in Europe. But real fame came to this song after Alikhan Samedov performed it on balaban.

In Russia, Alikhan Samedov became famous by performing this particular song on balaban. During "Ice Age" show, Alena Babenko and Roman Kostomarov performed this song, accompanied by Alikhan Samedov's music. This melody can also be heard in Sogdiana's song "Remember Me", and Bianka's song "Betrayal."

Born in Azerbaijan, Samedov lives in Turkey for many years. There, he wrote a book "Balaban Method", in which he writes that Balaban is called differently in different parts of the planet. Balaban in Azerbaijan and Dagestan, gyuanzi in China, duduk in Armenia, duduki in Georgia, balaban or mey in Turkey, hichiriki in Japan, hyanpiri in Korea, bulamon in Uzbekistan. 

Balaban is very common among Caucasian peoples - it's a  is cylindrical-bore, double-reed wind instrument about 35 centimetres (14 in) long with eight finger holes and one thumb hole. "I believe that balaban is a world heritage instrument. Believe me, the entire world plays it, and there are many people who are willing to learn how to play it," master of this instrument said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza. 

True music knows no borders, no time, no distance, no age limits. A great example of this - a five-year old boy from Uzbekistan Asadbek Sultan, who became famous with his performance of this song. His performance became a hit and made records on YouTube at its time. Song was performed by famous Uzbek artists in their native language.