Author's song is Definition, features and interesting facts

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

Songs with catchy melodies that can be sung even in recitative, which makes them not lose their charm, but seem to acquire even greater significance. They were a kind of life-affirming anthem of their time.

Author's song - what's that?

About 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 lyrics is the author of the music and the performer in one person. And also this genre is characterized by the priority of lyrics over music and guitar accompaniment.

The phenomenon of Russian or Soviet author's song has not been sufficiently studied. Today, many are indifferent to it, but in the era of the USSR, the works of this genre, with their melody and deep, soulful verses, had a huge number of fans. “These songs do not penetrate into the ears, but directly into the soul,” said V. Vysotsky.

Interesting facts

Artist's song - bards - such a bunchfamiliar to our ears. Literally from the moment the genre appeared, the performers of the author's song began to be called bards. Once upon a time, among the ancient Celts and Gauls, folk singers and poets were called that. They were the keepers of national rituals and traditions, and the people loved them for this.

An interesting fact: one of the most popular Soviet bards, Vladimir Vysotsky, wrote more than 800 songs in his life, many of which became known to most residents of the USSR.

"Author's song" is a term introduced for the first time by V. Vysotsky. With this definition, he emphasized the personal, purely individual nature of the songs of this genre, separating them from ordinary urban folklore and from popular pop works.

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 graduate from the university and through remote villages

Scatter to distant lands.

You will go to the reindeer, I will leave for hot Turkestan.

However, the famous and inimitable Alexander Vertinsky is still considered the main forerunner of the author's song.

Another famous Soviet bard - Bulat Okudzhava. One of his most lyrical love songs called "Farewell to the New Year Tree" was not dedicated to his mysterious lover, as many believed, but to farewell to the deceased poetess Anna Akhmatova.

Features of the genre

Author's songs with a guitar is an attempta person to share with the society his vision of the world, his 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 a sense intimate and even confessional art.

Singing poetry is not addressed to absolutely everyone. Unlike popular hits, it is understandable only to those who are on the same wavelength with the author and are able to actively empathize with his thoughts and feelings. The genre originated in friendly companies, it is not a concert, but rather "everyday", but still it has a touch of some elitism. The author's song is "a form of spiritual communication of like-minded people" - Bulat Okudzhava himself gave such a characteristic to the genre.

The first Soviet bards

In the Soviet Union, almost the entire country knew the songs of V. Vysotsky or A. Galich. And this despite the fact that these works in those days could hardly be heard on the radio or on television. The phenomenon of this phenomenon was that people first recognized the songs, and not their authors. Poems and melodies were passed from mouth to mouth or memorized by ear from tape recordings.

With that popular love and popularity, bards could become millionaires if their song copyrights were taken into account. But in those days this genre was absolutely devoid of commercial orientation. "And I'm going for the fog, for the fog, for dreams and for the smell of the taiga" - youth sang everywhere afterbehind the author of these words - Yuri Kukin.

For the bards of a bygone era, songwriting was not a profession. They were scientists, doctors, teachers, etc., and they 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 Soviet-era singer-songwriters:

• Evgeny Klyachkin;
• Ada Yakusheva;
• Yuri Vizbor;
• Novella Matveeva;
• Alexander Galich;
• Bulat Okudzhava;
• Vladimir Vysotsky;
• Yuri Kim;
• Alexander Dolsky;
• Alexander Sukhanov;
• Yuri Kukin;
• Alexander Gorodnitsky;
• Viktor Berkovsky.

. Nikitina), "A little slower, horses" (V. Vysotsky) and many others. Today, these works are immortalized in audio recordings, great movies, radio shows and TV shows.

Art song clubs

The author's song was so popular among the people that for numerous adherents of the genre in large cities, centers of author's song were organized at the official level. They were briefly called KSP (amateur song club).

Following the rise of the market economy, KSP has fallen on hard times as local governments in most communities have stopped fundinglease of premises for clubs. Despite this, PCBs have survived in many places in the post-Soviet space. Now there are not so many of them, and they are not so massive, but they still live and still gather like-minded people together.

Earlier, the genre of bard song was inextricably linked with tourism. Most of the authors were either actively involved in tourist sports themselves, or sang in their works the romance of distant roads, the conquest of mountain peaks and rivers. Friendly songs with a guitar at a h alt are an indispensable attribute of any campaign. At city tourist clubs, amateur song centers were also massively created.

Gatherings for art song lovers

Since the bard song in the USSR gained immense popularity among young people and students, festivals of author's song began to be held. Both singer-songwriters and numerous fans of this genre came from all over the country to participate in them.

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 hiking and composed his own songs, which he sang to his friends with a guitar. Died when he was only 22.

For the first time, a bard gathering was organized in 1967 in Zhiguli, then about 600 art song lovers gathered. Since then, the event has beenannually in the middle of summer, near the city of Samara, on the Mastryukovsky Islands. A raft in the shape of a guitar serves as a stage platform for the performers. The record for the number of spectators and participants was 1979. Then, more than 100 thousand loyal fans of the author's song gathered near Samara.

Other famous bard gatherings

Also, local bard festivals are held in many regions of Russia during summer days. For example, the event "Sail of Hope" is organized in the Voronezh region, "Autograph of August" in the Lipetsk region, "Robinsonade" in the Leningrad region, etc.

Foreign author's song

In the USSR in the 60-70s French chanson was very popular. This is also an author's song, only, unlike our creators, French chansonniers initially performed with their programs as professional singer-songwriters, toured all over the world, released records, starred in musical films.

Here are their names:

• Jacques Brel;
• Charles Aznavour;
• Serge Gainsbourg;
• Gilbert Beco;
• Yves Montand;
• Georges Brassens;
• Charles Trenet;
• Salvatore Adamo and others

Foreign singer-songwriters, just like ours, sang the best human feelings, but there was no political overtones in their poems, like some Soviet bards (V. Vysotsky, A. Galich).

Author's song in Russia today

Russian art song is still popular among older peoplegenerations as well as among the youth. The brightest modern authors and performers of bard songs are:

• Alexander Rosenbaum;
• Sergey and Tatyana Nikitin;
• Veronica Dolina;
• Oleg Mityaev;
• Sergei Trofimov (Trofim);
• Semyon Slepakov.

Most of the named bards started their career in Soviet times. So, Alexander Rosenbaum began writing his own songs in 1968. After graduating from medical school, he worked as a doctor and at the same time studied at an 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 have heard anything about the work of A. Rosenbaum. Many of our contemporaries love and listen to his famous hits such as: "W altz-Boston", "Song of the Jewish tailor", "Esaul", "Capercaillie on the current", "Draw me a house" and others.

Conclusion

Author's song is an alternative to thoughtless and sometimes frankly vulgar contemporary 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 as love, friendship, fidelity, dignity and honor.