Matvey Blanter
Encyclopedia
Matvei Isaakovich Blanter (27 September 1990) was one of the most prominent composers of popular songs and film music in the Soviet Union
. Among many other works, he wrote the internationally famous "Katyusha
" (1938), performed to this day in countries around the world. He was active as a composer until 1975, producing more than two thousand songs.
, then in the Chernigov Governorate
of the Russian Empire
. He studied piano and violin at the Kursk
Higher Music School. In 1917-1919, he continued his education in Moscow
, studying violin and composition.
Some of Blanter's 1930s songs were styled after the Red Army
songs of the Russian Civil War
(1918–1921) and mythologized the war's Bolshevik heroes. The most famous among these are "The Song of Shchors" (1935), telling the tale of Ukrainian Red Army commander Nikolai Shchors, and "Partisan Zheleznyak" (1936), which combines the energetic rhythms of a military marching song with elements of a mournful ballad as it describes Commander Zheleznyak's heroic death in battle (the song opens and closes with a stanza about Zheleznyak's lonely burial mound in the steppes).
Other notable Blanter songs from that period include "Youth" (1937), a cheerful marching song asserting that "right now, everyone is young in our young, beautiful country"; "Stalin Is Our Battle-Glory" (1937), a widely performed hymn to Joseph Stalin
; and "The Football March" (1938), music from which is still performed at the start of every soccer match in Russia.
In 1938, Blanter began his long-lasting collaboration with the poet Mikhail Isakovsky
. Their first song, undoubtedly the most famous of Blanter's works, was the world-renowned "Katyusha". In it, Blanter combined elements of the heroic, upbeat battle song and of a peasant song representing a woman's lamentation for an absent lover. Standing on a high riverbank, a young woman, Katyusha, sings of her beloved (compared to "a gray eagle of the steppes"), who is far away serving on the Soviet border. The theme of the song is that the soldier will protect the Motherland and its people while his girl will preserve their love. While the song is joyful and filled with the imagery of a fertile, blooming land, it also conveys the sense that the motherland is under threat. "Katyusha" gained fame during World War II
as an inspiration to defend one's land from the enemy.
Blanter wrote several other highly popular wartime songs. His 1945 song, "The Enemy Burned Down His Home", about a soldier who returns from the front to find his entire family dead, became controversial when the authorities deemed it too pessimistic and banned its performance; it was performed for the first time in 1961.
Blanter's postwar songs include "The Migrant Birds Are Flying" (1949), a patriotic Soviet song in which the narrator watches migratory birds fly away and asserts that he can think of no better place to be than the Motherland, and "Dark-Eyed Cossack Girl" (Russian
: Черноглазая казачка), written especially for the bass-baritone
Leonid Mikhailovich Kharitonov
.
In 1983, Blanter became a member of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public
, a puppet organization created by the Soviet regime as a weapon against dissidents and Jewish activists fighting for the right to emigrate to Israel
. He died in Moscow
in 1990.
Blanter was present at a hastily convened conference on May 1, 1945, a few hours after Hitler's suicide, between Colonel-General Vasili Ivanovich Chuikov and Lieutenant-General Hans Krebs, Chief of the OKW, to negotiate surrender of the city. Krebs noted later that there were several Russian 'senior officers' present, yet Chuikov introduced none of them to Krebs: the others were in fact war merely war correspondents and interpreters, not military staff - Chuikov had not been able to assemble his staff at such short notice.
In a footnote, Ryan adds:
It appears that no such symphony was ever composed.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Among many other works, he wrote the internationally famous "Katyusha
Katyusha (song)
Katyusha, Katusha or Katjusha is a Soviet wartime song about a girl longing for her beloved, who is away on military service. The music was composed in 1938 by Matvei Blanter and the lyrics were written by Mikhail Isakovsky. It was first performed by Valentina Batishcheva in the Column Hall of...
" (1938), performed to this day in countries around the world. He was active as a composer until 1975, producing more than two thousand songs.
Childhood and education
Blanter, the son of a Jewish craftsman, was born in the town of PochepPochep
Pochep is a town in Pochepsky District of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, located southwest of Bryansk. Population: -History:The origin of Pochep is unknown but it was mentioned in the 15th century as an important town of the Great Duchy of Lithuania...
, then in the Chernigov Governorate
Chernigov Governorate
The Chernigov Governorate , also known as the Government of Chernigov, was a guberniya in the historical Left-bank Ukraine region of the Russian Empire, which was officially created in 1802 from the disbanded Malorossiya Governorate with an administrative centre of Chernigov...
of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. He studied piano and violin at the Kursk
Kursk
Kursk is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym Rivers. The area around Kursk was site of a turning point in the Russian-German struggle during World War II and the site of the largest tank battle in history...
Higher Music School. In 1917-1919, he continued his education in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, studying violin and composition.
Career
Blanter's first songs were composed in the 1920s. At the time, he wrote light dance and jazz music, including "John Gray" (1923), a foxtrot that became a major hit. In the 1930s, as Soviet culture grew more repressive and ideologically rigid, Blanter shifted toward writing Soviet propaganda songs. He emerged as one of the creators of the Soviet "mass song", a new genre which evolved from a fusion of Russian, Ukrainian, Jewish and Armenian musical folklore, early 20th-century urban popular music and romance, revolutionary marches and protest song, Central European operetta, and tsarist-era waltzes.Some of Blanter's 1930s songs were styled after the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
songs of the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
(1918–1921) and mythologized the war's Bolshevik heroes. The most famous among these are "The Song of Shchors" (1935), telling the tale of Ukrainian Red Army commander Nikolai Shchors, and "Partisan Zheleznyak" (1936), which combines the energetic rhythms of a military marching song with elements of a mournful ballad as it describes Commander Zheleznyak's heroic death in battle (the song opens and closes with a stanza about Zheleznyak's lonely burial mound in the steppes).
Other notable Blanter songs from that period include "Youth" (1937), a cheerful marching song asserting that "right now, everyone is young in our young, beautiful country"; "Stalin Is Our Battle-Glory" (1937), a widely performed hymn to Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
; and "The Football March" (1938), music from which is still performed at the start of every soccer match in Russia.
In 1938, Blanter began his long-lasting collaboration with the poet Mikhail Isakovsky
Mikhail Isakovsky
Mikhail Vasil'evich Isakovsky was a Russian poet, a laureate of 2 USSR State Prizes , a Hero of Socialist Labor...
. Their first song, undoubtedly the most famous of Blanter's works, was the world-renowned "Katyusha". In it, Blanter combined elements of the heroic, upbeat battle song and of a peasant song representing a woman's lamentation for an absent lover. Standing on a high riverbank, a young woman, Katyusha, sings of her beloved (compared to "a gray eagle of the steppes"), who is far away serving on the Soviet border. The theme of the song is that the soldier will protect the Motherland and its people while his girl will preserve their love. While the song is joyful and filled with the imagery of a fertile, blooming land, it also conveys the sense that the motherland is under threat. "Katyusha" gained fame during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as an inspiration to defend one's land from the enemy.
Blanter wrote several other highly popular wartime songs. His 1945 song, "The Enemy Burned Down His Home", about a soldier who returns from the front to find his entire family dead, became controversial when the authorities deemed it too pessimistic and banned its performance; it was performed for the first time in 1961.
Blanter's postwar songs include "The Migrant Birds Are Flying" (1949), a patriotic Soviet song in which the narrator watches migratory birds fly away and asserts that he can think of no better place to be than the Motherland, and "Dark-Eyed Cossack Girl" (Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: Черноглазая казачка), written especially for the bass-baritone
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
Leonid Mikhailovich Kharitonov
Leonid Mikhailovich Kharitonov
Leonid Mikhailovich Kharitonov is a Russian bass-baritone singer, born 18 September 1933 in the village of Golumet, Irkutsk Oblast. He has been honoured with: People's Artist of Russia and Honoured Artist of Russia. In the West he is noted for his 1965 video of the Song of the Volga Boatmen.-...
.
In 1983, Blanter became a member of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public
Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public
On March 29, 1983, the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has approved the resolution 101/62ГС to "Support the proposition of the Department of Propaganda of the Central Committee and the KGB USSR about the creation of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the...
, a puppet organization created by the Soviet regime as a weapon against dissidents and Jewish activists fighting for the right to emigrate to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He died in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in 1990.
Awards and honors
- The Stalin Prize (1946)
- Artist of Outstanding Merit of the RSFSR (1965)
- The Medal of Honor (1967)
- People's Artist of the USSRPeople's Artist of the USSRPeople's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.- Nomenclature and significance :...
(1975) - Hero of Socialist LaborHero of Socialist LaborHero of Socialist Labour was an honorary title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. It was the highest degree of distinction for exceptional achievements in national economy and culture...
(1983)
Trivia
- In The Last Battle, Cornelius RyanCornelius RyanCornelius Ryan, was an Irish journalist and author mainly known for his writings on popular military history, especially his World War II books: The Longest Day: June 6, 1944 D-Day , The Last Battle , and A Bridge Too Far .-Early life:Ryan was born in Dublin and educated at Synge Street CBS,...
records that Blanter accompanied the Red ArmyRed ArmyThe Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
into Berlin during the last days of the war and the collapse of Nazi power.
Blanter was present at a hastily convened conference on May 1, 1945, a few hours after Hitler's suicide, between Colonel-General Vasili Ivanovich Chuikov and Lieutenant-General Hans Krebs, Chief of the OKW, to negotiate surrender of the city. Krebs noted later that there were several Russian 'senior officers' present, yet Chuikov introduced none of them to Krebs: the others were in fact war merely war correspondents and interpreters, not military staff - Chuikov had not been able to assemble his staff at such short notice.
In a footnote, Ryan adds:
With the two correspondents... was a visiting Soviet composer, Matvei Isaakovich Blanter, sent by Stalin to write a symphony commemorating the Berlin victory. The correspondents asked the General what to do with the composer, and Chuikov said 'Bring him along.' But when Blanter arrived he was wearing civilian clothes, and it was clear that he could not be passed off as a Red Army officer. He was hastily shoved into a clothes closet adjoining the meeting room. He stayed there for most of the ensuing conference. Just before the visitors left, he fainted from lack of air and fell into the room, to the utter astonishment of the Germans.
It appears that no such symphony was ever composed.
- Ayn RandAyn RandAyn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
's 1936 novel We the LivingWe the LivingWe the Living is the first novel published by the Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand. It was also Rand's first statement against communism. First published in 1936, it is a story of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Rand observes in the foreword to this book that We the Living was the closest she...
, set in Petrograd in 1923-1925, has a passage devoted to the huge popularity of "John Gray."