Songs with easily remembered melodies that can be sung even by recitative, which is why they do not lose their charm, but seem to acquire even greater significance. They were a kind of life-affirming anthem of their time.
An author song is what?
Around the middle of the 20th century, a new song genre was born. It can be described as singing poetry. The main distinguishing feature of this genre is that the author of the texts is the author of music and a performer in one person. Also, this genre is characterized by the priority of texts over music and guitar accompaniment.
The phenomenon of Russian or Soviet authorās song is not well understood. Today, many are indifferent to it, but in the era of the USSR, the works of this genre with their melody and deep, soulful poems had a huge number of fans. āThese songs do not penetrate the ears, but directly into the soul,ā said V. Vysotsky.
Interesting Facts
The authorās song - bards - such a bunch is familiar to our ear. Literally since the advent of the genre of performers of the authorās song they began to call bards. Once upon a time among the ancient Celts and Gauls, so-called folk singers and poets. They were the keepers of national rituals, traditions, and the people loved them for that.
An interesting fact: one of the most popular Soviet bards - Vladimir Vysotsky - wrote over 800 songs in his life, many of which became known to most residents of the USSR.
"Author's song" is a term coined for the first time by V. Vysotsky. With this definition, he emphasized the personal, purely individual nature of the songs of this genre, separated them from ordinary urban folklore and from popular pop songs.
There is a legend that the beginning of the genre was laid by Nikolai Vlasov, who composed a song that became almost the anthem of students, called "Student farewell":
Let's finish high school and in the deaf villages
Scatter to distant lands.
You will go to the reindeer
I'll leave for hot Turkestan.
However, the main forerunner of the authorās song is still considered the famous and inimitable Alexander Vertinsky.
Another famous Soviet bard is Bulat Okudzhava. One of his most lyrical love songs entitled āFarewell to the New Year treeā was dedicated not to his mysterious lover, as many believed, but to farewell to the deceased poetess Anna Akhmatova.
Features of the genre
Guitar songs are a personās attempt to share with society their vision of the world, their feelings and experiences. The personal beginning determines the content of the songs, the individual manner of their performance, the stage image of the author himself and the character of the lyrical hero, gradually present in each song. This genre is in some ways an intimate and even confessional art.
Singing poetry is not addressed to absolutely everyone. Unlike popular hits, it is understandable only to those who are tuned with the author on the same wavelength and are able to actively empathize with his thoughts and feelings. The genre originated in friendly companies, it is not a concert, but rather a āhouseholdā one, but nevertheless, there is a touch of a certain elitism on it. The authorās song is āa form of spiritual communication of like-minded peopleā - Bulat Okudzhava himself gave this characteristic to the genre.
The first Soviet bards
In the Soviet Union, almost the whole country knew the songs of V. Vysotsky or A. Galich. And this despite the fact that these works in those days it was almost impossible to hear on the radio or on television. The phenomenon of this phenomenon was that people first recognized the songs, not their authors. Poems and melodies were passed from mouth to mouth or memorized from tape recordings.
With that popular love and popularity, bards could become millionaires if their copyrights to songs were taken into account. But in those days, this genre was completely devoid of commercial focus. āAnd I am going behind the fog, behind the fog, behind dreams and the smell of taigaā - youth everywhere sang after the author of these words - Yuri Kukin.
For bards of the past era, songwriting was not a profession. They were scientists, doctors, teachers, etc., and wrote poetry and music at the behest of their hearts and souls and generously shared their creations not only with friends, but with the whole world. Here are the most famous performers of the Soviet era:
- Evgeny Klyachkin;
- Ada Yakushev;
- Yuri Vizbor;
- Novella Matveeva;
- Alexander Galich;
- Bulat Okudzhava;
- Vladimir Vysotsky;
- Yuri Kim;
- Alexander Dolsky ;
- Alexander Sukhanov ;
- Yuri Kukin;
- Alexander Gorodnitsky;
- Victor Berkovsky.
Some songs of these authors are still popular and loved: "My dear - the sun of the forest" (Y. Vizbor), "Ah, Arbat, my Arbat" (B. Okudzhava), "To the music of Vivaldi" (S. Nikitin), " A little slower, horses "(V. Vysotsky) and many others. Today, these works are immortalized in audio recordings, beautiful movies, radio shows and television shows.
Songwriting Clubs
The authorās song was so popular among the people that for numerous adherents of the genre in major cities, song song centers were organized at an official level. Briefly they were called KSP (amateur song club).
After the accession of a market economy, the PCB faced difficult times, because local authorities in most settlements stopped financing the rental of premises for clubs. Despite this, PCBs have been preserved in many places of the post-Soviet space. Now there are not so many of them, and they are not so massive, but they still live and still bring together like-minded people.
Previously, the bard song genre was inextricably linked with tourism. Most authors either actively engaged in tourist sports, or in their works sang the romance of long roads, the conquest of mountain peaks and rivers. Friendly songs with a guitar on a halt are an indispensable attribute of any trip. At city tourist clubs, amateur song centers were also massively created.
Meetings for fans of the authorās song
Since the bard song in the USSR gained immense popularity among youth and students, festivals of the author song began to be held. For participation in them from all corners of the country came together as performing artists and numerous fans of this genre.
Grushinsky festival
This event previously had the official name: "The All-Russian Festival of Author's Song named after Valery Grushin." The name of the festival was given in memory of a student who sacrificed his life to save drowning children on the Siberian river Uda. This guy studied at the Aviation Institute, went camping and composed his own songs, which he sang to friends with a guitar. He died when he was only 22 years old.
For the first time, a bard rally was organized in 1967 in Zhiguli, then about 600 lovers of the author's song gathered. Since then, the event has been held annually in mid-summer, near the city of Samara, on the Mastryukov Islands. The stage for the performers is a raft in the shape of a guitar. The record year for the number of spectators and participants was 1979. Then, more than 100 thousand loyal fans of the authorās song gathered near Samara.
Other famous bard rallies
Also in many regions of Russia in the summer days local bard festivals are held. For example, in the Voronezh region, the event "Sail of Hope" is organized, in Lipetsk - "Autograph of August", in the Leningrad - "Robinsonade", etc.
Foreign author song
In the USSR in the years 60-70, French chanson was very popular. This is also an authorās song, only, unlike our creators, French chansonniers initially performed with their programs as professional performers, toured around the world, released records, and starred in musical films.
Here are their names:
- Jacques Brel;
- Charles Aznavour ;
- Serge Gainsbourg;
- Gilbert Beaux;
- Yves Montand;
- Georges Brassens;
- Charles Trenet;
- Salvatore Adamo et al.
Foreign performers, like ours, sang the best human feelings, but their poems did not have a political connotation, like some Soviet bards (V. Vysotsky, A. Galich).
Original song in Russia today
Russian authorās song is still popular today among the older generation as well as among young people. The most striking contemporary authors and performers of bard songs are:
- Alexander Rosenbaum;
- Sergey and Tatyana Nikitina;
- Veronica Valley;
- Oleg Mityaev;
- Sergey Trofimov (Trofim);
- Semen Slepakov.
Most of these bards began their career in Soviet times. So, Alexander Rosenbaum began writing his own songs in 1968. After graduating from a medical institute, he worked as a doctor and simultaneously studied at the evening music school. Since 1983, he began to actively perform with the author's song at concert venues in various cities of the country.
Today there is hardly a person who would not hear anything about the work of A. Rosenbaum. Many of our contemporaries love and listen to such well-known hits as: āWaltz-Bostonā, āSong of the Jewish tailorā, āEsaulā, āCapercaillie on the currentā, āDraw me a houseā, etc.
Conclusion
The authorās song is an alternative to the thoughtless and sometimes frankly vulgar modern pop. Listening to the works of bards, people become cleaner, better and more romantic. The best original songs allow you to think about such eternal values āāas love, friendship, loyalty, dignity and honor.