Vasily Ivanovich Agapkin is a famous domestic composer and military conductor. The author of several dozen popular works. The greatest popularity brought him the "March of the Slav". In this article we will talk about his biography and work.
Childhood and youth
Vasily Ivanovich Agapkin was born in the village of Shancherovo in the Ryazan province. He was born in 1884. He grew up in a poor peasant family.
His father, Ivan Iustinovich, in search of a better life, moved to Astrakhan, where he got a job as a loader. The mother of the hero of our article died about a year after his birth. Then Ivan Iustinovich married a second time to the washerwoman Anna Matveevna, who worked in the port of Astrakhan. She raised Vasily.
When the boy was ten years old, his father passed away. He finally undermined his health in hard work. Anna Matveevna, who received a meager salary, understood that she alone would not have enough money to feed the boy too. Therefore, she sent Ivan, along with her two daughters, to beg.
Son of the regiment
For several years, the child survived thanks to the alms of good people. Decisive in the biography of Vasily Ivanovich Agapkin was the episode when he met a military brass band on the street. He nailed to the musicians. He was treated like the son of a regiment, having enlisted as a student in the orchestra of the Tsarevsky Reserve Battalion. It turned out that he had an almost perfect ear for music.
At the age of 14 he was already the best cornetist-soloist of the regiment. After that, all his fate was associated exclusively with military bands.
Tambov period
In 1906, Vasily Ivanovich Agapkin was called up for military service. He went to the Dragoon regiment, which stood near Tiflis. When his service ended three years later, the hero of our article arrived in Tambov.
At the beginning of 1910 he entered the long-term service, having received the appointment as a trumpeter in the reserve artillery regiment. Here Vasily Ivanovich Agapkin arranged his personal life. He married, since then he was a family man.
Starting in the fall of 1911, Agapkin, without interruption from military service, began to study in the class of brass instruments at the local music school. His mentor was the teacher Fedor Mikhailovich Kadichev. At that time, the hero of our article with his wife lived on Gymnasium Street.
March writing
In telling a brief biography of Vasily Ivanovich Agapkin, it is necessary to mention the First Balkan War, which began in 1912. It was a confrontation between Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia against the Ottoman Empire.
At that time, the Russian leadership decided to support the Slavs who participated in the conflict. For this, volunteers were sent to the front. Under the influence of these events Agapkin writes the march "Farewell of the Slav". The work is quickly becoming popular. This is the most famous creation of the hero of our article, thanks to which almost everyone knows his name today. In Tambov, on the occasion of this significant event, a memorial plate was even preserved, which once again confirms how important this event was in the biography of V.I. Agapkin.
There is another version of creating this melody. According to some researchers, it was written on the territory of Armenia in the town of Gyumri when the composer served there. In this case, the creation of the work is associated with the rise of the national liberation movement in Bulgaria. Allegedly these events were inspired by Agapkin when he wrote "Farewell of the Slav".
March value
The march "Farewell of the Slav" by Vasily Ivanovich Agapkin was of great importance, becoming a national melody symbolizing the farewell to a war or a long journey. Abroad, it is one of the most recognizable of those associated with Russia.
In the photo - the sculptural composition "Farewell of the Slav" in Minsk.
Such fame and popularity of "Farewell of the Slav" by V. Agapkin is due to the maximum simplicity and melody. She has inherent melodiousness, smoothness and a clear functional certainty. It is important that the march retained traditional genre features. The main theme is the connection with Beethoven’s Egmont overture.
According to some musicians, Agapkin took as a basis a folk song from the time of the Russo-Japanese War, which was popular among soldiers, fairly processed it. Thanks to a recognizable and easy to remember tune, the march quickly spread.
It became especially popular after the October Revolution. First of all, in a white movement. This is explained by the fact that during the First World War, the song "You drank us and nourished ..." was put on the march motive. It has come down to our time in three different versions. The march "Farewell of the Slav" by Vasily Ivanovich Agapkin in the version of the White Guard was put into other words. In particular, they mention the Perekop shaft.
The march has been published several times in the Soviet Union. Most witnesses and contemporaries claim that he was played at a parade on Red Square in 1941. At the same time, there is a version that in reality the work was forbidden at that time, therefore it simply could not be performed. Allegedly, the archives have preserved an exhaustive list of works performed at the parade, but there are no "Farewells of the Slav" among them. Under the ban, the march could not really sound anywhere in 1941. They began to execute it only from the 43rd.
The march was finally rehabilitated only in 1957, when Mikhail Kalatozov used it in his military drama Cranes Are Flying. He sounds in the scene of seeing volunteers go to the front at the very beginning of the film. Veronica rushing about in the schoolyard, she can not find Boris, who is here somewhere. The tragedy of the moment is especially emphasized by the music sounding at that moment.
It is believed that Kalatozov was not easily given this choice, especially if he also decided to go against the historical truth.
Since 1955, under the march "Farewell to the Slavs," they began to regularly send trains from the stations of Simferopol and Sevastopol. Later this work was repeatedly performed and recorded by Soviet orchestras. Reference performances of the march are records made in the 60-70s by the collective of the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union under the direction of Maltsev, Nazarov, Sergeyev, as well as a recording of the headquarters orchestra of the Leningrad Military District in 1995 under the direction of conductor Ushchapovsky.
Currently, the march is the official anthem of the Tambov region. In 2014, a sculptural composition of Vyacheslav Molokostov and Sergey Shcherbakov was opened in a festive atmosphere at the Belorussky Train Station in Moscow.
In the ranks of the Red Army
After the October Revolution in 1918, the hero of our article volunteered to join the Red Army. In the red hussar regiment, he organizes a brass band.
After that, he returns to Tambov two years later in the midst of the Civil War. Agapkin gets a job under the new government. Manages a music studio, at the same time heads the orchestra of the GPU troops.
At the end of the summer of 1922, he and the orchestra give a farewell concert in Tambov, after which he leaves for permanent residence in Moscow.
Moscow period
In 1924, the Agapkin Orchestra took part in a farewell ceremony during the funeral of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The hero of our article continues to build his career, trying to comply with the ideals of modern Soviet society.
For example, in 1928 he organized an orchestra of street children, for many of them this marks the beginning of their musical career.
In the 30s, the photo of Vasily Ivanovich Agapkin was already familiar to many, he is a prominent metropolitan composer. The hero of our article leads the orchestra of the Higher School of the NKVD, with which he records a number of musical works.
The Great Patriotic War
When the Great Patriotic War begins, Agapkin, 57, is appointed senior bandmaster to the Dzerzhinsky motorized rifle division, which was formed by the NKVD troops. He is awarded the title of quartermaster of the first rank.
On November 7, 1941, during the legendary parade on Red Square, Agapkin conducted a combined orchestra. Eyewitnesses recall that on that day in Moscow there was a severe frost, the troops marched along the square in formation, and the soles of the boots that were on Vasily Ivanovich froze to the paving stones. The result was a comic situation when the orchestra stepped aside to let a mechanized column pass, and Agapkin could not do this. He continued to stand until some military man came to his aid. Seeing the approaching military equipment, he tore it from the pavers and literally carried to the side.
The hero of our article was part of the combined orchestra at the Victory Parade, which took place after the Great Patriotic War on June 24, 1945.
At the end of life
After the war, Agapkin moved to the small town of Khotkovo in the Moscow Region. The house in which he spent the last years of his life has been preserved to this day. It is opposite the Abramtsevo Museum on Beregovoi Street.
Agapkin retired at the age of 72 years. In the fall of 1964, he died. The composer was 80. He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery.
The name of Agapkin today is a children's art school in the Ryazan region in the city of Mikhailov. In 2014, in the village of Shancherovo, where he was born, a bronze bust of the composer was opened, which was performed by sculptor Oleg Sedov. It is noteworthy that the funds for its installation were raised by crowdfunding. In the same year, when the 50th anniversary of the death of the hero of our article was celebrated, a memorial sign was erected on Mount Orlyonok in Khotkovo.
In 2015, a monument was unveiled to Tambov to Agapkin and another domestic composer, Ilya Shatrov, who wrote the waltz "On the Hills of Manchuria."
Personal life
Agapkin was twice married. His first wife was Olga Matyunina. They had two children - son Boris and daughter Aza.
The second wife of the hero of our article is Lyudmila Vladimirovna Kudryavtseva. In 1940, she bore him a son, Igor.
Artworks
During his career, the composer wrote several dozen tunes, many of which were popular. Among the works of Vasily Ivanovich Agapkin there were mainly waltzes, marches, plays.
In addition to the "Farewell of the Slav", he owns the "Cavalry March" and the march "Lieutenant".
He wrote many waltzes: "Blue Night", "Night over Moscow", "Magic Dream", "Love of the Musician", "Orphan", "Dawn over Moscow", "Early Morning", "Groan of Warsaw".
In the work of Agapkin there were many instrumental plays: "On the Black Sea", "Street Daughter", "DneproGES", "Mental Wounds", "Chinese Serenade", "Blacksmiths", "Neapolitan Nights", "Lucin Eyes", "My fantasy "," Hello VKP "," Old Waltz "," Tricks "," Flight into the stratosphere. "