Vasily Vasilievich Andreyev
Encyclopedia
Balalaika
The balalaika is a stringed musical instrument popular in Russia, with a characteristic triangular body and three strings.The balalaika family of instruments includes instruments of various sizes, from the highest-pitched to the lowest, the prima balalaika, secunda balalaika, alto balalaika, bass...
and several other traditional Russian folk music
Ethnic Russian music
Ethnic Russian music specifically deals with the folk music traditions of the ethnic Russian people. It does not include the various forms of art music, which in Russia often contains folk melodies and folk elements or music of aother ethnic groups living in Russia.-History:The roots of Russian...
instruments, and is considered the father of the academic folk instrument
Folk instrument
A folk instrument is an instrument that developed among common people and usually doesn't have a known inventor. It can be made from wood, metal or other material. It is a part of folk music...
movement in Eastern Europe. His accomplishments included:
- developing in the 1880s a standardized balalaikaBalalaikaThe balalaika is a stringed musical instrument popular in Russia, with a characteristic triangular body and three strings.The balalaika family of instruments includes instruments of various sizes, from the highest-pitched to the lowest, the prima balalaika, secunda balalaika, alto balalaika, bass...
made with the assistance of violin maker V. Ivanov. - reviving the domraDomraThe domra is a long-necked Russian string instrument of the lute family with a round body and three or four metal strings.-History:In 1896, a student of Vasily Vasilievich Andreyev found a broken instrument in a stable in rural Russia...
, a three-stringed long-necked melody instrument with a melon-shaped body, which he developed in prima, alto, tenor, and bass sizes. - reviving the gusli, an autoharp chorded with piano-type keys.
- arranging many traditional Russian folk songs and melodies for the orchestra
- composing many tunes of his own.
Biography
Vasily Andreyev was born in BezhetskBezhetsk
Bezhetsk is a town in Tver Oblast, Russia, located on the Mologa River at its confluence with the Ostrechina River. It serves as the administrative center of Bezhetsky District, although it is not administratively a part of it. Population: 29,000 ....
, Tver
Tver
Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...
Governorate
Governorate
A governorate is an administrative division of a country. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states, provinces, or colonies, the term governorate is often used in translation from non-English-speaking administrations.The...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
to the family of an honorary citizen of Bezhetsk and merchant of the first guild, Vasily Andeyevich Andreyev and his wife, the noblewoman Sophia Mikhaylovna Andreyeva. When the boy was 1 year old, his father died. The family moved to Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
where the boy was brought up by his stepfather, Nil Seslavin . At the age of ten, Vasily became involved in playing the balalaika
Balalaika
The balalaika is a stringed musical instrument popular in Russia, with a characteristic triangular body and three strings.The balalaika family of instruments includes instruments of various sizes, from the highest-pitched to the lowest, the prima balalaika, secunda balalaika, alto balalaika, bass...
and other folk instruments.
Initially, Andreyev was studying to play the violin and worked as a musician in the various salons catering to European tourists to the Russian Capital. On numerous occasions, he was asked about performing traditional Russian music, and started collecting examples. He came upon a peasant playing a balalaika and had the instrument copied. His solo performances were very popular before the various tourists and a group of players developed around him. He also developed an ensemble playing on different sized balalaikas which proved to be very successful. Ultimately the group grew into a full orchestra.
The popularity of the group in Russia grew significantly after their performance in Paris, France at the world Exhibition, where they became celebrities.
The Great Russian Orchestra
In 1881 Andreyev organized his Great RussiaGreat Russia
Great Russia is an obsolete name formerly applied to the territories of "Russia proper", the land that formed the core of Muscovy and, later, Russia...
n orchestra that included string instruments: four types of domra
Domra
The domra is a long-necked Russian string instrument of the lute family with a round body and three or four metal strings.-History:In 1896, a student of Vasily Vasilievich Andreyev found a broken instrument in a stable in rural Russia...
s, six types of balalaika, gusli, woodwind instruments: zhaleika
Zhaleika
The zhaleika is a Russian single-reed hornpipe. It is the most popular Russian folk wind instrument.-External links:*...
s; percussion instrument
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
s: makra
Makra
Makra is a Greek island in the Cyclades....
s (a sort of timpani
Timpani
Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
), bubens. Many instruments were heavily customized to work in an orchestra setting. In a few years, the orchestra became famous, generating thousands of followers as well as causing an explosion of balalaika compositions.
Criticism
Still many members of intelligentsiaIntelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
criticized the orchestra and its instruments for being not Russian (as the name implies) but Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
. More recently, Iurii Boiko pointed out in 1984 that the orchestra's technique of playing a melody in the form of a sustained tremolo on one string - much copied and widely thought of as 'Russian' in style (witness Maurice Jarre
Maurice Jarre
Maurice-Alexis Jarre was a French composer and conductor.Although he composed several concert works, he is best known for his film scores, and is particularly known for his collaborations with film director David Lean. Jarre composed the scores to all of Lean's films since Lawrence of Arabia...
's film score for David Lean
David Lean
Sir David Lean CBE was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia ,...
's Doctor Zhivago) - is in fact not a Russian manner of playing at all; rather, it was a technique borrowed by Andreyev from the Neapolitan mandolin orchestra.
This new form of folk music gained international popularity after Andreyev's many concert tours in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
between 1900 and 1910.