Sing us a song: how Isaak Dunaevsky created the main melodies of the USSR
"My native country is wide", "My dear capital", "Heart, you don't want to rest" - these songs have long been no longer associated with a particular person, the movies where they sounded, or the circumstances of their creation. It seems that they have always been with us. And not only with us, but also with our parents and grandparents. Nevertheless, they have an author: the immortal melodies were written by Isaak Dunaevsky. January 30 marks the 125th anniversary of his birth. "Izvestia" offers to remember what path he traveled and how he created the main hits of the USSR.
From operetta to cinema
Isaac Osipovich was born in 1900 in Poltava province of the Russian Empire. From an early age he showed an affinity for music and excellent abilities, so his parents gave him to learn to play the violin, and at the age of 10 he entered the Kharkov Music School, moving tothe city with his family. There the boy graduated from the conservatory, becoming a professional violinist and composer, and began his working life. Working in the local drama theater Dunayevsky in just five years went from orchestrator to music director. And at the age of 24 he moved to Moscow - to a similar position at the Hermitage Theater, and then to the Theater of Satire and the Theater of Operetta.
Surgut Express Band Concert - "Names for All Times. Isaak Dunaevsky", Surgut. March 21, 2019
Even then, the young composer found the sphere in which he felt most organic: it was music that was fun, light, on the verge of pop and jazz, which became fashionable in those years. Unlike other colleagues with a conservatory education, he did not aspire to write symphonies or operas, but was actively engaged in creating operettas. By the age of 30 he had already written six works in this genre, and today Dunayevsky is called one of the progenitors of Soviet operetta.
But the breakthrough to all-union glory happened later - and thanks to another genre, which was born only at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s. We are talking about sound cinema. The first movie with music by Dunayevsky was the historical drama "First Platoon" (1932), but the real debut, in which the composer was able to reveal his best qualities, was the second movie experience - "Merry Guys" (1934).
This tape became a lucky ticket for four outstanding people at once, changing their lives forever. The director was Grigory Alexandrov - assistant to Sergei Eisenstein on "Battleship Potemkin", "October " and "General Line" (formally his position was called "second director", but in fact he acted, of course, strictly within the framework set by Eisenstein). In 1929, Alexandrov, together with Eisenstein and his cameraman Eduard Tisse went on a trip abroad. They visited Europe, where "Battleship" and "October" was a great success, then crossed the Atlantic and ended up in Hollywood. There Alexandrov fully appreciated the new genre, rapidly gaining popularity - kinomuzikl. And after his return to the USSR in 1932, Alexandrov conceived the idea of transferring these developments to the domestic soil.
Especially his position was extremely precarious: Stalin was suspicious of Eisenstein and his comrades, not without reason suspecting them of reluctance to return. Therefore, when they did find themselves in their native land, each was expected to demonstrate their "need" to the country. Aleksandrov coped with this, perhaps, before anyone else. "The feeling - exactly after a day off," - said the leader of the peoples, after watching "Merry guys". Soon the whole country loved the main character played by Lyubov Orlova, her boyfriend Leonid Utesov and, of course, the wonderful songs written by Dunayevsky.
For the first time in Russian cinema, the composer became a full-fledged co-writer of the movie. Moreover, it was the acquaintance with Dunayevsky and Utesov (and they were both passionate about jazz and had already worked on joint projects in Leningrad) that became the impetus for Alexandrov: he realized in which direction to move. The result was a hilariously funny movie, paradoxically combining Western musical and genre elements with national specifics.
"It was easy and free to sing."
Interesting memories left Lyubov Orlova about working on the movie. "I was pleasantly surprised when Dunayevsky, having played Anyuta's song for the first time, told me: 'Let's finish the song together. Together we will think and correct it so that it is easy and free to sing." Dunaevsky's songs, ringing and bright, went with me through my whole life", - years later said the movie star.
People's Artist of the USSR, winner of the USSR State Prizes in 1941 and 1950. Lyubov Orlova and composer Isaak Osipovich Dunaevsky
This "sang easily and freely" can be called the formula of Dunayevsky's melodism. His songs are by no means primitive. However, their main quality is naturalness. When you sing them or just remember the motif, it seems that the melody simply cannot go otherwise, so easily and effortlessly it develops.
- Take any song. "Heart, you don't want to rest..." from "The Merry Boys" - it would seem that it starts with a simple tertia, then a sequent, but how great it is! It has a soul! In my opinion, a beautiful melody should be geometrically correct. And the most important thing is the initial intonation. Dunayevsky's initial motif is so precise, and he develops it so correctly that if it were an image and not music, we would be talking about an absolutely harmonious form. That's why it immediately lays down on the ear," Alexander Klevitsky, composer, head and chief conductor of the Silantiev Academic Grand Concert Orchestra, shared with Izvestia.
Jolly Guys" was followed by "Circus", created by the same tandem, only without Utesov. And again, a number of songs went straight to the people. The lullaby, which the circus spectators take turns singing to a black baby, was then sung to children all over the USSR - and this is another example of Dunayevsky's melodic gift: he could write such a theme, which, being expressive and non-banal, would be easy for anyone without musical education. And the march "My native country is wide", which concludes the movie, becomes the unofficial anthem of the USSR and the call sign of the All-Union Radio.
Concert-performance "Isaak Dunaevsky. Collider of Happiness" at the Gorky Moscow Art Theater
Not only "Song about the Motherland", but also many other songs by Dunayevsky can be attributed to the patriotic genre. However, his patriotism was not pathos and deliberately solemn, but joyful, sincere and deeply optimistic in nature.
- In that period, when we were building socialism and communism, and the whole nation believed in this bright future, creative people created the hope that our country would live better than anyone else. Largely thanks to this faith, the people performed real feats. But Dunayevsky's work itself can also be called such a feat, - Rashid Kalimullin, Chairman of the Board of the Union of Composers of Russia, is sure.
Light music with serious means
By the way, it was for "Circus" that Dunayevsky wrote another of his immortal hits - "Sing us a song, merry wind". But in the end, the melody was not used in the movie and ended up in another super-popular film of 1936 - "The Children of Captain Grant". An orchestral composition was also composed for it, which became the overture. It is known that this piece was highly valued by Dmitry Shostakovich. And Dunayevsky himself considered it one of his best compositions. It is here that his melodic gift meets the achievements of the symphonic genre.
- His stunning overture to the movie Captain Grant's Children has been a hallmark of the Silantiev Orchestra for many years. As a rule, we begin our concerts with this work. In terms of its talent, musicality and development of form, it is on a par with the best examples of musical culture. It is truly high art. Of course, I have known this overture since childhood, but every time I go out to conduct it, I am struck by its depth and melody. I've played it probably thousands of times - I can't count, but I'm always finding some new colors in it, discovering certain techniques of composer's skill," said Alexander Klevitsky.
Dunayevsky himself wrote to his gymnasium teacher in 1947:
"Could you have thought 35 years ago, looking at me, that a small musician, an admirer of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Borodin, could become a master of a light genre? However, it is my solid musical background that has helped and still helps me to create light music with serious means".
Composer Isaak Osipovich Dunaevsky and poet Vasily Ivanovich Lebedev-Kumach, awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, at the end of the awarding ceremony in the Kremlin, December 31, 1936.
This is one of the peculiarities of Dunayevsky's work. His conservatory education is evident in much of what he did. And not only in the symphonic genre, but even in the song genre. Yet here, undoubtedly, a special gift is needed.
- Is Isaak Dunayevsky's language complex or simple? On the one hand, complex, because the songs are all in three-part form. There's necessarily a verse, then a certain connection and a chorus. But they are memorable. It's a special melodic, song energy that only a talented person can carry. It's impossible to come up with it on purpose. Either it hits or it doesn't," Isaac Osipovich's son, composer Maxim Dunayevsky, who knows the secret of the hit as well as his father, explained to Izvestia.
In total, Isaac Dunayevsky wrote twelve operettas, four ballets, several hundred songs, music for three dozen films - and this is not a complete list. Although the composer, alas, lived, alas, very little - only 55 years. But his work outlived not only the composer, but also the country with which it was inextricably linked. And the professional baton was picked up by his son, Maxim Isaakovich, whose anniversary we recently celebrated.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
