Balalaika

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the instrument. For the single by Koharu Kusumi, see Balalaika (J-pop).

Balalaika

The balalaika (Russian: балала́йка; IPA [bəlʌˈlajkə]) is a stringed instrument of Russian origin, with a characteristic triangular body and 3 strings (or sometimes 6, in pairs).

1 Structure and technique
2 History
3 Rise of the balalaika orchestra
4 Discography
5 External links

[edit] Structure and technique

The modern balalaika is found in six sizes:

piccolo (rare)
prima
secunda
alto
bass
contrabass (also a larger sub-contrabass)

The most common solo instrument is the prima, tuned E-E-A (the two lower strings being tuned to the same pitch). Sometimes the balalaika is tuned "guitar style" to G-B-D (resembling the thinnest three strings of the Russian guitar), making it easier to play for Russian guitar players, although balalaika purists frown on this tuning.

The piccolo, prima, and secunda balalaikas are ideally strung with gut (or, today, usually nylon) strings on the lower pegs and a wire string on the top peg.

An important part of balalaika technique is the use of the left thumb to fret notes on the bottom string, particularly on the prima, where it is used to form chords. The index finger is used to sound notes on the prima, while a plectrum is used on the larger sizes. One can play the prima with a plectrum, but it is considered rather heterodox to do so.

Due to the gigantic size of the contrabass's strings, it is not uncommon for the plectrum to be made of a leather shoe or boot heel. The contrabass balalaika rests on the ground on a wooden or metal pin drilled into one of its corners.

[edit] History

The origins of the balalaïka are not precisely known.

Early representations of the balalaika show it with anywhere from two to six strings, which resembles certain Central Asian instruments. Similarly, frets on earlier balalaikas were made of animal gut and tied to the neck so that they could be moved around by the player at will (as is the case with the modern saz, which allows for the microtonal playing distinctive to Turkish and Central Asian music).

Eventually, the balalaika evolved into a triangular instrument with a neck substantially shorter than its Asian counterparts. It was popular as a village instrument for centuries, particularly with the skomorokhs, sort of free-lance musical jesters whose tunes ridiculed the Tsar, the Russian Orthodox Church, and Russian society in general. The first written reference to a balalaika was on an arrest slip for two serfs in 1688, accused of being drunk and disorderly outside the Kremlin in Moscow, playing the balalaika.

A popular notion is that the three sides and strings of the balalaika are supposed to represent the Holy Trinity. This idea, while whimsical, is quite difficult to reconcile when one is confronted with the fact that at various times in Russian history, the playing of the balalaika was banned because of its use by the skomorokhi, who were generally highly irritating to both Church and State. Musical instruments are not allowed in Russian Orthodox liturgy. A likelier reason for the triangular shape is given by the writer and historian Nikolai Gogol in his unfinished novel Dead Souls. He states that a balalaika was made by peasants out of a pumpkin. If you quarter a pumpkin, you are left with a balalaika shape. Another theory is: Before Tsar Peter The Great, instruments were not allowed in Russia. When Peter allowed them, only the boat builders knew how to work with wood. The balalaika looks a little like the front of a boat, if held horizontally. Another theory comes from a Russian tale: during the Mongol invasion of Rus, a Russian man from Nizhny Novgorod was captured by Mongols, but the Mongol Khan liked him because of his musical talent, released him and gave him a guitar. When the Russian man returned home, he took 3 of the strings out of the guitar, so that he would be able to repair his guitar if he breaks one of the strings, and that way he was left with a 3-string guitar.

In the late 19th century, a Russian nobleman, Vassily Vassilievich Andreyev, embarked on a project to standardize the balalaika for orchestral use. Andreyev, with the assistance of luthiers, and furniture maker Nalimov, developed the multiple balalaika sizes and tunings in use today. He arranged many traditional Russian folk songs and melodies for the orchestra and also composed many tunes of his own.

Andreyev simultaneously revived two other long-lost Russian instruments:

the domra, a three-stringed long-necked melody instrument with a melon-shaped body, which he developed in prima, alto, tenor, and bass sizes;
the gusli, an autoharp chorded with piano-type keys.

[edit] Rise of the balalaika orchestra

Another Balalaika

The end result of Andreyev's labours was the development of a strong orchestral tradition in Tsarist Russia, and, later, the Soviet Union. The balalaika orchestra in its full form -- balalaikas, domras, gusli, bayan, kugikles, Vladimir Shepherd's Horns, garmoshkas and several types of percussion instruments -- has a distinctive sound: strangely familiar to the ear, yet decidedly not entirely Western.

Not surprisingly, the concept of the balalaika orchestra was adopted wholeheartedly by the Soviet government as something distinctively Soviet (that is, Russian). Enormous amounts of energy and time were devoted by the Soviet government to foster conservatory study of the balalaika, from which highly skilled ensemble groups such as the Osipov State Balalaika Orchestra emerged. Balalaika virtuosi such as Boris Feoktistov and Pavel Necheporenko became stars both inside and outside the Soviet Union. The world-famous Red Army Choir used a normal orchestra, except that the violins, violas and violoncellos were replaced with various sizes of balalaika and domra.

Regrettably de-emphasized in the Soviet-encouraged rise of the professional orchestra was the vibrant folk tradition from whence the balalaika stemmed. However, a cabaret style of playing remained, and the balalaika was also played by some Russian Gypsies. The cabaret/gypsy tradition was brought over to the United States by Russian immigrants in the early 20th Century. One notable U.S. cabaret-style player was New York's Sasha Polinoff.

A balalaika was prominently featured as a plot device in David Lean's film of Doctor Zhivago (1965), a device not present in the original book. The film's famous soundtrack by Maurice Jarre made use of the balalaika in numerous tracks.

On a peculiar note, the 1968 self-titled album by the Beatles, commonly referred to as the "White Album", contains the song Back in the USSR, which includes the following lyrics:

Take me to your daddy’s farm
Let me hear your balalaikas ringing out
Come and keep your comrade warm.
I’m back in the USSR.

The tongue-in-cheek song gives mention to the instrument and undoubtedly showcased it to the world.

In addition, some Russian Orthodox churches in larger U.S. cities sponsored smaller balalaika orchestras where village-style and Andreyev-style playing coexisted side by side.

The Balalaika received mention by the German band Scorpions in the 1990s song Wind of Change, which celebrated the changes in Eastern Europe during the post Cold War period. The lyrics of the song referring to the balalaika:

The wind of change
Blows straight into the face of time
Like a stormwind that will ring the freedom bell
For peace of mind --
Let your balalaika sing
What my guitar wants to say...

The Red Elvises, an indie rock group, uses the balalaika.

Franz Tornado, a Eurobeat artist, references the balalaika many times in his music under the alias "Mad Cow".

[edit] Discography

Eduard Tubin's Balalaika Concerto has been recorded by Emanuil Sheynkman, with Neeme Järvi conducting the Swedish National Radio Symphony Orchestra on a BIS CD that also includes Tubin's Symphony No. 1 and Music for Strings.