Matvey Isaakovich Blanter
Matvei Isaakovich Blanter (Russian: Матвей Исаакович Блантер) (born in Poch… Read Full Bio ↴Matvei Isaakovich Blanter (Russian: Матвей Исаакович Блантер) (born in Pochep, then Chernigov Governorate of the Russian Empire 10 February [O.S. 28 January] 1903 – died Moscow 27 September 1990) was one of the most important composers of popular and film music in the Soviet Union was born into a family of a poor Jewish artisan.
Among many other songs, he wrote the immensely popular "Katyusha", and "Song about Shchors". He was active as a composer until 1975, producing more than two thousand songs.
By the late 1930s Blanter emerged as one of the creators of the Soviet mass song, a new genre which evolved from a peculiar fusion of Russian, Ukrainian, Jewish and Armenian musical folklore, early 20th century urban popular music and romance, revolutionary marches of struggle and protest, Central European operetta and tsarist-era waltzes.
The most famous songs composed by Blanter in the 1930s were styled after the songs of the Red Army soldiers and commanders of the Russian Civil War period (1918-1921). These were not just purely battle songs but also songs about some well-known heroic commanders and Red Army partisans as well as more pensive and tragic songs about the era of fratricidal struggle. Blanter's "Cossack" songs of the 1930s with their romanticizing of the Russian Civil War and the Bolshevik cause became in many ways the symbols of the era together with such cinematographic achievements as the movie "Chapaev" or the tales of Arkady Gaidar. In many instances Blanter's songs single-handedly shaped powerful mythological figures who then became famous not so much as a result of their real-life exploits but as an outcome of their glorification in the songs of this composer.
Blanter's "Song about Shchors" and "Partisan Zheleznyak" provided a powerful opening to what was to become a virtual torrent of highly successful Civil-War-style songs. Composed in 1935 and based on the lyrics by Mikhail Golodny, the first song tells the tale of the slain Ukrainian Red Army commander and Bolshevik Nikolai Shchors. Exhausted yet victorious the Red Army soldiers are returning from the field of battle. They are led by the brave commander who is wounded. Defiant in his determination to continue the struggle for the revolutionary cause, Shchors (through the mouths of his soldiers) affirms courageously: "My life has been spent in dire need, I've famished and I've been freezing out in the cold yet my blood has not been spilled for nothing!" As the song draws to a close, the image of the red banner carried by Shchors' cavalrymen and fluttering in the distance is powerfully foregrounded. Blanter's music and melody imitates the gradual appearance of the cavalry unit. In the beginning it appears in the distance and in the end it recedes in the distance. This tripartite structure (slow and quiet in the beginning, dynamic and loud in the middle, slow and quiet again in the very end) became characteristic of many other mass songs which Blanter dedicated to the themes of departures to and arrivals from the front. In 1947 the "Song about Shchors" was recorded by the famous Soviet bass Mark Reizen. Reizen's rendition remains perhaps the best interpretation.
"Partisan Zheleznyak" was written almost simultaneously with the "Song about Shchors". Melodically, it's a hybrid of a battle song and a ballad. Based on a largely legendary figure of a one Red Army commander Zheleznyak, this piece describes the heroic exploits of a little Red Army unit in its attempt to escape from being encircled by the Whites. The action takes place in southern Ukraine, in the region of Kherson. The unit refuses to surrender and manages to fight its way to freedom. Yet the victory is only bitter-sweet because the commander Zheleznyak is killed during the battle. He is buried in the steppe, next to the ancient hill... In the end of the song the narrative moves to a more contemporary setting: we see the peaceful steppes and fields of Soviet Ukraine, the skye is blue and the images of fecundity abound, yet somewhere in the distance there is a grave of Partisan Zheleznyak, whose sacrifice is directly related to the triumph of the revolution and revolutionary ideals. Though triumphant and energetic, the ending of the song is somewhat pensive and filled with some sense of nostalgia.
Blanter continued to compose prolifically in this sub-genre of the Soviet mass song. In 1936 he wrote the "Red Navy Song" which followed closely in the style of "Partisan Zheleznyak" and the song "Bidding Farewell" which described in an unmistakably folkloric manner a young peasant girl's separation from her beloved on the occasion of his leaving their village to go to war. In the late 1930s Blanter composed several rather mournful yet heroic and highly romantic songs again set against the background of the Russian Civil War - the "Ballad of the Red Cossack girl" and "At the Crack of Dawn". These pieces described the role of women devoted to the Bolshevik cause and either sacrificing their lives for it or preparing themselves to the sacrifice of their beloved. The melodies were characterized by Blanter's signature talent for merging Slavic folklore style with urban ballads and classical romance. In 1938 Blanter began his long-lasting collaboration with the poet Mikhail Isakovsky. Their first song and perhaps the most famous and internationally known creation of Blanter was written and performed in the same year - it was the song "Katyusha". In a sense "Katyusha" combined Blanter's experience in composing joyful and life-affirming heroic melodies largely drawn from the tradition of Cossack battle songs with his penchant for a stylized dirge-like peasant song usually sung on behalf of a young peasant girl or (more rarely) a widow. "Katyusha" is a decidedly joyful song with some elements of languor. A young girl finds herself in a vernal garden where all trees are in blossom. This garden is on the bank of the river covered with mist. She sings of her beloved who is far away serving on the Soviet border. The song, though very upbeat, symbolizes the triangular relationship between a loyal girl, a heroic soldier and the Motherland. A girl pledges her fidelity and admiration for her beloved soldier (often compared with an eagle or a falcon, a clear borrowing from Russian fairy-tales), who, she knows, is protecting the peace and happiness of their native land and its people from the dangerous enemies outside. The image of a fecund yet vulnerable Motherland envelops and sets the overall context within which the romance takes place. Even in a highly jolly "Katyusha" the sense of an impending war, the sense of the precariousness of peace are immediately recognizable.
In the late 1930s Blanter composed a number of marching songs for Soviet youth, Young Pioneers and sportsmen. Here he paralleled the efforts of Isaak Dunaevsky. Yet Blanter's melodies were somewhat different from Dunaevsky's. Unlike the latter, Blanter was influenced less by the style of Tchaikovsky and classical European opera and operetta and more by the indigenous folk music. In 1937-38 Blanter composed "Sea Wolves" (a song for the young children designed to inculcate them with the fascination for naval explorations, distant voyages and naval service), "Youth" (a song celebrating the freshness of life and the ubiquity of rebirth in the socialist society), "The Whole Country Sings Along" (a rousing march of the young Red Army recruits) and "Our Youth" (a peculiar jazz-style song about the readiness of the Soviet young people to accomplish heroic deeds in labor and in battle). It should be noted that in the bulk of these songs the expectation of the impending war becomes increasingly palpable, with peaceful labor and readiness for a military confrontation becoming essentially one and the same.
Finally, it must be noted that in the years preceding the beginning of the Great Patriotic war Blanter established himself as one of the most important and versatile jazz composers. For example, at the request of the famous Soviet pop star Leonid Utesov Blanter composed two somewhat decadent songs in the style of tango, for which the author always had a strong penchant and which he always combined with some elements of classical Russian romance: "Morning and Evening" and "A Young Lady" (lyrics by Vasily Lebedev-Kumach).
It might be easily argued that the years of the Great Patriotic War and the immediate post-war years saw the highest flourishing of the composer's talents. It is during these years of hardship and suffering that Blanter composed his most enduring and well-known songs. The influx of pensiveness, intimacy and lyricism defined Blanter's works of this period. Blanter's first war-time song was "Farewell to Our Towns and Homes!" (lyrics by Mikhail Isakovsky)
The composer wrote Dark-Eyed Cossack (Russian: Черноглазая казачка) especially for the bass-baritone Leonid Mikhailovich Kharitonov in 1966, and its definitive performance was recorded at Christmas 1969 with the Alexandrov Ensemble.
Among many other songs, he wrote the immensely popular "Katyusha", and "Song about Shchors". He was active as a composer until 1975, producing more than two thousand songs.
By the late 1930s Blanter emerged as one of the creators of the Soviet mass song, a new genre which evolved from a peculiar fusion of Russian, Ukrainian, Jewish and Armenian musical folklore, early 20th century urban popular music and romance, revolutionary marches of struggle and protest, Central European operetta and tsarist-era waltzes.
The most famous songs composed by Blanter in the 1930s were styled after the songs of the Red Army soldiers and commanders of the Russian Civil War period (1918-1921). These were not just purely battle songs but also songs about some well-known heroic commanders and Red Army partisans as well as more pensive and tragic songs about the era of fratricidal struggle. Blanter's "Cossack" songs of the 1930s with their romanticizing of the Russian Civil War and the Bolshevik cause became in many ways the symbols of the era together with such cinematographic achievements as the movie "Chapaev" or the tales of Arkady Gaidar. In many instances Blanter's songs single-handedly shaped powerful mythological figures who then became famous not so much as a result of their real-life exploits but as an outcome of their glorification in the songs of this composer.
Blanter's "Song about Shchors" and "Partisan Zheleznyak" provided a powerful opening to what was to become a virtual torrent of highly successful Civil-War-style songs. Composed in 1935 and based on the lyrics by Mikhail Golodny, the first song tells the tale of the slain Ukrainian Red Army commander and Bolshevik Nikolai Shchors. Exhausted yet victorious the Red Army soldiers are returning from the field of battle. They are led by the brave commander who is wounded. Defiant in his determination to continue the struggle for the revolutionary cause, Shchors (through the mouths of his soldiers) affirms courageously: "My life has been spent in dire need, I've famished and I've been freezing out in the cold yet my blood has not been spilled for nothing!" As the song draws to a close, the image of the red banner carried by Shchors' cavalrymen and fluttering in the distance is powerfully foregrounded. Blanter's music and melody imitates the gradual appearance of the cavalry unit. In the beginning it appears in the distance and in the end it recedes in the distance. This tripartite structure (slow and quiet in the beginning, dynamic and loud in the middle, slow and quiet again in the very end) became characteristic of many other mass songs which Blanter dedicated to the themes of departures to and arrivals from the front. In 1947 the "Song about Shchors" was recorded by the famous Soviet bass Mark Reizen. Reizen's rendition remains perhaps the best interpretation.
"Partisan Zheleznyak" was written almost simultaneously with the "Song about Shchors". Melodically, it's a hybrid of a battle song and a ballad. Based on a largely legendary figure of a one Red Army commander Zheleznyak, this piece describes the heroic exploits of a little Red Army unit in its attempt to escape from being encircled by the Whites. The action takes place in southern Ukraine, in the region of Kherson. The unit refuses to surrender and manages to fight its way to freedom. Yet the victory is only bitter-sweet because the commander Zheleznyak is killed during the battle. He is buried in the steppe, next to the ancient hill... In the end of the song the narrative moves to a more contemporary setting: we see the peaceful steppes and fields of Soviet Ukraine, the skye is blue and the images of fecundity abound, yet somewhere in the distance there is a grave of Partisan Zheleznyak, whose sacrifice is directly related to the triumph of the revolution and revolutionary ideals. Though triumphant and energetic, the ending of the song is somewhat pensive and filled with some sense of nostalgia.
Blanter continued to compose prolifically in this sub-genre of the Soviet mass song. In 1936 he wrote the "Red Navy Song" which followed closely in the style of "Partisan Zheleznyak" and the song "Bidding Farewell" which described in an unmistakably folkloric manner a young peasant girl's separation from her beloved on the occasion of his leaving their village to go to war. In the late 1930s Blanter composed several rather mournful yet heroic and highly romantic songs again set against the background of the Russian Civil War - the "Ballad of the Red Cossack girl" and "At the Crack of Dawn". These pieces described the role of women devoted to the Bolshevik cause and either sacrificing their lives for it or preparing themselves to the sacrifice of their beloved. The melodies were characterized by Blanter's signature talent for merging Slavic folklore style with urban ballads and classical romance. In 1938 Blanter began his long-lasting collaboration with the poet Mikhail Isakovsky. Their first song and perhaps the most famous and internationally known creation of Blanter was written and performed in the same year - it was the song "Katyusha". In a sense "Katyusha" combined Blanter's experience in composing joyful and life-affirming heroic melodies largely drawn from the tradition of Cossack battle songs with his penchant for a stylized dirge-like peasant song usually sung on behalf of a young peasant girl or (more rarely) a widow. "Katyusha" is a decidedly joyful song with some elements of languor. A young girl finds herself in a vernal garden where all trees are in blossom. This garden is on the bank of the river covered with mist. She sings of her beloved who is far away serving on the Soviet border. The song, though very upbeat, symbolizes the triangular relationship between a loyal girl, a heroic soldier and the Motherland. A girl pledges her fidelity and admiration for her beloved soldier (often compared with an eagle or a falcon, a clear borrowing from Russian fairy-tales), who, she knows, is protecting the peace and happiness of their native land and its people from the dangerous enemies outside. The image of a fecund yet vulnerable Motherland envelops and sets the overall context within which the romance takes place. Even in a highly jolly "Katyusha" the sense of an impending war, the sense of the precariousness of peace are immediately recognizable.
In the late 1930s Blanter composed a number of marching songs for Soviet youth, Young Pioneers and sportsmen. Here he paralleled the efforts of Isaak Dunaevsky. Yet Blanter's melodies were somewhat different from Dunaevsky's. Unlike the latter, Blanter was influenced less by the style of Tchaikovsky and classical European opera and operetta and more by the indigenous folk music. In 1937-38 Blanter composed "Sea Wolves" (a song for the young children designed to inculcate them with the fascination for naval explorations, distant voyages and naval service), "Youth" (a song celebrating the freshness of life and the ubiquity of rebirth in the socialist society), "The Whole Country Sings Along" (a rousing march of the young Red Army recruits) and "Our Youth" (a peculiar jazz-style song about the readiness of the Soviet young people to accomplish heroic deeds in labor and in battle). It should be noted that in the bulk of these songs the expectation of the impending war becomes increasingly palpable, with peaceful labor and readiness for a military confrontation becoming essentially one and the same.
Finally, it must be noted that in the years preceding the beginning of the Great Patriotic war Blanter established himself as one of the most important and versatile jazz composers. For example, at the request of the famous Soviet pop star Leonid Utesov Blanter composed two somewhat decadent songs in the style of tango, for which the author always had a strong penchant and which he always combined with some elements of classical Russian romance: "Morning and Evening" and "A Young Lady" (lyrics by Vasily Lebedev-Kumach).
It might be easily argued that the years of the Great Patriotic War and the immediate post-war years saw the highest flourishing of the composer's talents. It is during these years of hardship and suffering that Blanter composed his most enduring and well-known songs. The influx of pensiveness, intimacy and lyricism defined Blanter's works of this period. Blanter's first war-time song was "Farewell to Our Towns and Homes!" (lyrics by Mikhail Isakovsky)
The composer wrote Dark-Eyed Cossack (Russian: Черноглазая казачка) especially for the bass-baritone Leonid Mikhailovich Kharitonov in 1966, and its definitive performance was recorded at Christmas 1969 with the Alexandrov Ensemble.
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13Pushki molchat dalnoboinye (Long-range Cannons are Silent)Matvey Isaakovich BlanterMatvey Isaakovich Blanter
14V lesu prifrontovom (In the Woods Near the Front)Matvey Isaakovich BlanterMatvey Isaakovich Blanter
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Matvey Isaakovich Blanter Lyrics
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