Let's talk about what chanson is

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Chanson is a musical direction known to everyone. However, almost no one can give an accurate and correct answer to the question of what chanson is. Where did this musical direction come from, what kind of music can be attributed to it?

Two definitions

There are two definitions of such a musical direction as chanson:

1. From French the word "chanson" ("chanson") is translated as "song". In the era of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, a polyphonic song in French was called a chanson. Such vocals were a whole genre. Later, the chanson became a French cabaret pop song.
2. In Russia, as well as in France, the concept of "chanson" means a collection of various genres and directions of Russian music. Most often it is associated with bard song and urban romance. Also, some emigrant, Russian folk and even pop songs are often attributed to this musical direction in Russia.

Rise in Russia

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a newa musical direction appears in Russia, it immediately begins to enjoy particular popularity. What is chanson, what is the purpose of its representatives - questions that excite the thoughts of all music lovers who have paid attention to this genre. Many people define chanson only as the music of thieves and prisoners. And few people know that works about a difficult fate, betrayal of a friend, unhappy love are the brightest representatives of a new direction in music for Russia. Chanson songs were performed by such famous people as Leonid Utesov and the inimitable Vladimir Vysotsky, our contemporaries Vika Tsyganova, Stas Mikhailov, Lyubov Uspenskaya, Alexander Rosenbaum and, of course, Mikhail Krug. Chanson in Russia is always a song and music from the heart, from the very depths of the human soul.

Music in this style

No one can tell what chanson is better than the song itself. The real anthem of all chansonniers was the work "Chanson Museum" performed by Konstantin Kuklin. Nothing will tell about the chanson better than the lines from this song, written by N. Rassadin:

It's good there, the right people are there, There is what was, what is and will be.

There is no falsehood, and everything is in full view,So, however, it is supposed to be in chanson.

And the following lines are the best way to say what and for whom this old musical genre exists: "He absorbed everything: war and the zone, love and pain from north to south, enemy to death and friend to death …" - and these words are also from the famous "Museumchanson".

Sensual and beautiful

In order to find the answer to the question of what is chanson, you need to move away from stereotypes. Forget about "thieves" and thieves' songs, study this musical direction a little and listen to works of this kind. Only then can one understand and feel the pain, love, despair and other strong emotions that permeate every work through and through. After all, if these songs were only about prisons, thieves and criminals, then it would be unlikely that Yuri Nikulin would sing "Take Care of the Clowns", Lyubov Uspenskaya - "Cabriolet", and Alexander Rosenbaum gave us his magical "W altz-Boston". And modern performers (for example, Grigory Leps) are no longer even perceived as representatives of this style, and yet their songs are nothing more than a real Russian chanson about real feelings.