In the reading room of the Art Department, a book exhibition  «Halyk murasyn zertteushi» was organized, dedicated to the 155th anniversary of the composer, ethnographer, folklorist, founder of Kazakh musical culture, researcher and collector of samples of traditional music of different peoples, the first national artist of the Kazakh SSR Alexander Viktorovich Zataevich.

Pianist and composer A.Zataevich was born on March 20, 1869 in the city of Orel. S. Rachmaninov was interested in his compositional works. He took an active part in the publication of many of Zataevich's works and even dedicated the musical cycle «Six musical numbers» to him.

A.V. Zataevich first got acquainted with Kazakh traditional music in 1920, in the city of Orenburg, being a well-known journalist and music critic in Europe, a well-established author of chamber music in Russia, a man of high culture who has a wide range of contacts with advanced musicians, conductors, composers, writers. Then it was the usual musician's interest in the new.But then the melodic richness of the songs and their obscurity among the musicians prompted Zataevich to decide to seriously engage in collecting and studying Kazakh folklore.

His works are of great value, as they collected not only musical works, but also information about the way of life of the people, about the traditions, character, and way of life of the Kazakhs.

He has recorded more than 2,300 pieces of musical folklore of Kazakhstan. A.Zataevich's collections «1000 songs of the Kyrgyz people» (Orenburg, 1925), «500 Kazakh songs and kuys» (Almaty, 1931), «1000 songs of the Kazakh people» (Moscow, 1963) represent serious scientific research in the field of Kazakh folklore, which are a unique anthology of Kazakh folk musical culture since ancient times until the 30s of the XX century.

A.Zataevich has developed a classification of the main genres of Kazakh folk songs by themes, among which are: epic, historical, everyday, competitive, humorous and comic.

For the first time in the history of Kazakhstan, A.Zataevich characterized a number of outstanding Kazakh folk composers, including: Abai, Kurmangazy, Zhayau Musa, Birzhan sal, Mukhit, Dauletkerei, Ybyray and collected some biographical information about them.

The influence of A. Zataevich's work on the formation of the talent of many masters of Kazakh art and culture is great, among them: I.Baizakov, E.Umirzakov, K.Zhandarbekov, K.Kuanyshpaev, K.Baizhanov, T.Aitpaev, M.Shamsutdinova. It was on his recommendation that the talented Kazakh performer Amre Kashaubayev, who glorified the art of Kazakhstan, was sent to Paris for an ethnographic concert of the peoples of the world.

A.Zataevich is one of the founders of Kazakh professional piano music: he is the author of the musical collections «Kazakh songs in the form of miniatures for piano» (1925-1928), «Kazakh March» (1931), «Three Kazakh Songs» (1951), «Piano pieces on Kazakh folk themes»  (1957), «Children's album» (1958), «Songs of different peoples» (1971), «Kyrgyz instrumental pieces and melodies» (1971).

He was the first person to whom the government of the republic awarded the title of «People's Artist of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic» in 1923.

In memory of the life and work of A.V. Zataevich, a memorial plaque has been erected in Almaty and one of the streets of the city is named after him.

The purpose of the exhibition is to acquaint readers with Kazakh folk art and the creative heritage of A.Zataevich. A.Zataevich will forever remain the great peak of the national musical culture of Kazakhstan of the twentieth century.

The book exhibition presents materials about the life of the musician, ethnographer, composer Alexander Viktorovich Zataevich, materials about him from the collection of books and periodicals of the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan.