Abstract
This article examines the contribution of Viktor Alexandrovich Uspensky (1879–1949) to the development of musical culture in Central Asia. Particular attention is given to his activity as both an ethnographer and a composer, whose work combined scholarly systematization with artistic creativity. Special emphasis is placed on Uspensky’s efforts in recording and transcribing Shashmaqam — a unique musical cycle that includes six maqams (Buzruk, Rast, Navo, Dugoh, Segoh, Iraq). Transcribing such a complex tradition into European notation was an exceptional phenomenon in the history of music, requiring both deep knowledge of maqam structures and the ability to adapt them within another cultural system.
The author highlights that Uspensky strove to preserve the authenticity of the tradition, deliberately avoiding European analogies in terminology and genre classification. His pedagogical work at the Turkestan People’s Conservatory contributed to the formation of a new generation of musicians who combined traditional and Western European approaches. His opera Farhad and Shirin is considered an important example of integrating maqam melodies into the genre of musical drama. Uspensky’s legacy appears as a synthesis of scientific precision and compositional intuition, which ensured not only the preservation but also the further development of the Uzbek musical tradition.