Vasily Agapkin: biography of the author of the march "Farewell of the Slav"

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

There are creations in music that are rightfully considered the face of a particular country. In Russia, such a work is the march "Farewell of the Slav". Without it, in our time it is difficult to imagine any big holiday, a military parade, seeing off trains at stations, and even just a performance of a brass band. The author of the march, Vasily Agapkin, in addition to this masterpiece, wrote many others. But in our country and abroad, he is known and remembered precisely as the creator of "Farewell of the Slav".

Biography

Vasily Agapkin was born in the village of Shancherovo, Ryazan province, on 1884-22-01. He came from a poor peasant family. A year after his birth, his mother died, and Vasily's father, Ivan Iustinovich, moved with his son to Astrakhan, where he began working as a loader. Soon he married a woman named Anna Matveevna, who was a laundress in the port of Astrakhan.

At the age of ten, Vasily Agapkin also lost his father: he died, having overstrained himself at hard work. Anna Matveevna did not have enough money to feed her stepson and two daughters, and she sent them to beg. Futurethe musician survived thanks to the alms of kind people. Once he heard a military brass band playing on the street and nailed to the musicians. It turned out that the boy had perfect hearing, and soon he was enrolled as a student in the reserve Tsar's battalion.

By the age of fourteen, Vasily Agapkin had become the best cornet soloist in the regiment. In the future, he associated his whole life with military bands.

Tambov period

In 1906, the musician was drafted into the army. He served in the 16th Tver Dragoon Regiment, stationed near Tiflis. At the end of military service in December 1909, Vasily Agapkin left for Tambov and began serving in the 7th reserve cavalry regiment as a headquarters trumpeter. Since the autumn of 1911, he attended classes at the Tambov Music College without interrupting his service. Studied brass class under Fyodor Mikhailovich Kadichev.

"Farewell of the Slav" and other compositions

In the autumn of 1912, the First Balkan War began. Vasily Agapkin was seized with a patriotic impulse and tried to express his feelings in music. Choosing the melody, the composer imagined Balkan women seeing off their husbands, sons and brothers to the battle for freedom. The created march, he called it - "Farewell of the Slav". Vasily Agapkin then had no idea how great a work he composed. But soon the march gained worldwide fame: during the First World War, it was performed with great enthusiasm by civil and military bands in different countries.

Afterwards"Farewell of the Slav" sounded in many documentaries and feature films, such as "Belorussky Station", "The Cranes Are Flying", "The Great Patriotic War …". The march melody became popular all over the world: it was performed by military bands in Norway, Romania, Bulgaria, Sweden, France, Yugoslavia and other countries.

It is worth noting that "Farewell of the Slav" is not the only talented work of Vasily Agapkin. He owns many brilliant creations, including w altzes, marches, plays, and polkas. The most famous compositions are the w altzes "Magic Dream", "The Love of a Musician", "Ston of Warsaw", "Blue Night", "Mongolian March", polka "Merry Rest". The composer's music was recorded on records, and his best works were repeatedly reissued.

Pre-war and war years

In 1922, Vasily Agapkin left Tambov for the capital, where he created a brass band from homeless children. In the 1930s became the head of the musical group of the Higher School of the NKVD. Having shown tireless energy, Vasily Ivanovich quickly formed a high-class orchestra from military musicians and regularly performed with him in the Hermitage Garden, each time attracting the general attention of the audience.

By the beginning of the Second World War, Agapkin was already 57 years old, in the USSR he was considered a veteran of military music. In the first year of the war, the conductor was appointed senior bandmaster of the Separate Motorized Rifle Division of Special Purpose named after. Dzerzhinsky and awarded the title of military quartermaster of the first rank. 1941-07-11 Vasily Ivanovich conducted the combined orchestra atparade on Red Square. It was frosty, and the soles of the musician's boots froze to the pavement. A mechanized column was moving towards Agapkin, but he could not retreat. Someone from the orchestra ran up to him, literally tore him off the road surface and carried him away.

Then there was another parade on Red Square, Pobedny, in June 1945. And again, a combined orchestra of almost one and a half thousand musicians lined up on the paving stones. The team was then led by Major General Chernetsky, and Agapkin was his assistant.

Private life

Vasily Ivanovich was married twice. The first wife, Olga Matyunina, bore him a son, Boris, and a daughter, Aza. The second wife of the composer was Lyudmila Vladimirovna Kudryavtseva. In a marriage with her, a son, Igor, was born. Subsequently, Agapkin had two grandchildren, Yuri and Vladimir, and two granddaughters, Svetlana and Olga. He also has great-grandchildren.

Recent years

After the end of the Second World War, Vasily Agapkin settled in a private house in the town of Khotkovo near Moscow. With his orchestra, he continued to perform in the Hermitage Garden and toured a lot in different cities. In 1955, at the age of 72, he retired with the rank of colonel.

The great musician died on 1964-29-10 in Moscow at the age of 81. He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery of the capital. On the marble obelisk, installed on the grave of Vasily Agapkin, musical lines of his immortal folk march are carved.