Soviet music
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Soviet music is the music composed and produced in the USSR. It varied in many genres and epochs.
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[edit] Classical music of the USSR
Classical music of the Soviet Union developed from the music of the Russian Empire. It gradually evolved from the eccentric experiments of the revolutionary era towards classicism favored under Joseph Stalin's office.
Soviet classical composers include: Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitry Shostakovich, Tikhon Khrennikov, Aram Hachaturian, Alfred Schnittke, among others. Many musicians from the soviet era have established themselves as world's leading artists: violinists David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Gidon Kremer, Viktor Tretyakov and Oleg Kagan; cellists Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Schafran, and Natalia Gutman; violist Yuri Bashmet; pianists Svyatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels and many other musicians.
[edit] 1930-40's: Soviet Jazz
Jazz music was introduced to Soviet audiences by Valentin Parnakh in 1920's. Singer Leonid Uteosov and film score composer Isaak Dunayevsky helped its popularity, especially with popular comedy movie Jolly Fellows that featured jazz soundtrack. Eddie Rosner, Oleg Lundstrem and others contributed to soviet jazz music.
In late 40's, during the "anti-cosmopolitainism" campaigns, jazz music suffered from ideological opression, as it was labeled "borjeous" music. Many bands were dissolved, and those remained avoided to be labelled as jazz bands.
[edit] Film soundtracks
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[edit] 1960-70s: the VIAs
1960's saw the rise of VIA (Vocalno-instrumentalny ansambl, vocal&instrumental ensemble) movement. VIA's were state-produced bands of professional musicians, often performing the songs written for them by professional composers from the Composers' Union of the USSR, such as Alexandra Pakhmutova, Yan Frenkel and Raimonds Pauls. Among the most notable acts were folk band from Belarus Pesneri, Zemliane, Poyushie Gitari, Yuri Antonov with "Arax", Stas Namin with Tsvety. This bands often combined elements from rock music with traditional songs, electro clash and disco music. Keytars were widely used.
[edit] 1960-70s: Bard music
Singer-songwriter movement of the Soviet Union is deeply rooted in amateur folklore songs played by students, tourists and travelling geologists. It became highly popular in 1960's and sometimes was considered as an alternative to official VIA's. Music characteristics of the genre consist of simple, easily-repeateble parties, usually played by a single acoustic guitar player, who is simultaneously the singer. Among this singer-songwriters, labelled "bards", the most popular were Bulat Okudzhava, Vladimir Vysotsky, Yuri Vizbor, Sergey and Tatyana Nikitins. Lyrics played the most important role in Bard music, and bards used to be more poets than musicians.
[edit] 1980s: Russian Rock
Rock music came to Soviet Russia in the late 1960s with Beatlemania, but its "golden age" is widely considered to have been the 1980s. Bands like Mashina Vremeni, Aquarium, and Autograph developed the Russian rock sound beginning in the 1970s as semi-underground acts. They were followed by Kino, Alisa, and Agatha Christie.
[edit] External links
- www.sovmusic.ru, Probably the biggest soviet music archive on the internet
