Alexander Gradsky - Unofficial site
Alexander Gradsky
(from the book "The singers of Soviet music. second release")
Tatiana Shcherbina, 1984
Gradsky Alexander was born in 1949 in the Chelyabinsk region. He graduated from music school in Moscow, on violin. From the tenth class of secondary school, he left his exams externally, then working as a loader, the laboratory, the driver, brought him to a "grace" is that after the right path and led. In 1963 Gradskij began to try his hand, speaking with an ensemble of international students. And in 1964, became the lead singer of one of Moscow's amateur teams. The band was called "Slavs" and sang the repertoire of "The Beatles" in English. Soon, however, differed. From the same idea of ??the ensemble, in those years, almost all attractive boys Gradskij refused. And in 1966, have hitherto existing "Buffoons", where he sang and played guitar. Other people's songs tried not to perform, compose your own. Most of the musical repertoire is written Gradskij. When the band earned on equipment, have become widely to perform a concert. In 1971 he went to Gorky at the All-Union Festival "Silver Strings-71", which of the eight first prizes were six. For vocals, guitar and composition - was personally Gradskij. He still continues to work with this group while recording their records. Once the amateur musicians are true professionals.
In 1969 Gradskij entered the vocal faculty of the Gnessin Institute. And within five years of study, he sang about twenty arias in operas and excerpts. Then there were offers to sing in the opera house. Declined, although always very appreciated just that - an opera school. It is no coincidence. Nature had given him a rare band - three and a half octaves. Gradskij desperately began to depend on their voices. The fact that he did not formally become an opera singer, does not mean that he did not they actually are. Each of his songs - a little opera that can only fulfill himself. And feeling that his "doom" for the singing, is inseparable from his own voice, Gradskij trying to assert its universality. Half of the songs of his - on his own poems. It turns out he was on stage with his guitar. But both are distinguished: the guitar - hence, the bard, with a band - so pop. And he will postpone his guitar - to the piano sits. Then, without looking up from the piano, synthesizer key presses, managing to touch his hand with a string of bells, which is coupled to a microphone cord. And it is stronger than any group - it affects more than the orchestra. Do not believe your eyes, seeing a man on the scene.
There is such a division: Who wrote the song, the composer who writes pesennikg a great product, the "serious" composer. Gradsky author of the opera "stadium", a ballet and nine suites. His dream - to create and lead a rock theater. And finally, Gradsky sometimes acts as a critic - wrote articles about music for newspapers, "Soviet culture", "Komsomolskaya Pravda", etc. Of course, the rock music, because only works in this genre. But it is - a separate issue, we're going to talk only about one side of creativity Gradsky about Gradski - creator and performer of pop songs.
Gradsky popularity began with the film. Gradsky twenty-three, who, incidentally, did not own partiturnym letter, offered to compose music for the film "Romance of Lovers." Actually, this happened because of misunderstandings - is a guest composer M.Kazhlaev for some reason was unable to work, and when there is an urgent replacement, and then there are surprises. Believes in the talent Gradsky music critic of Arc. Petrov advised of his film director, and he agreed. Grad from such a flattering commission did not want to give up, and had a short time to learn to write the score. He made ??this score. Then he attended two years of conservatory training with TN Khrennikov's composition class. It was then, obviously, the remnants of musical illiteracy had been eliminated completely. Learned a lot. And a lot of work, became a man of high professionalism and education.
Soundtrack, "The Romance of the Lovers" recorded with great musicians, multiple overlay (Gradskij often uses this method to record their suites), the film was released, and from a reputable American music magazine sent Gradsky diploma - a prize for the record, "Star of the Year". Of international qualifications he has several. About the film talk, the name - to a wide audience new - remember, but was soon forgotten, and floated only in early 1978, when the television showed a regular program of "Songs of 77". Gradskij out with a song Pahmutowa "How young we were." It was a surprise: sung "not at all", and the first person. Remember, many of those who sang the first person, as Bernes - other people's songs, Okudzhava, Vysotsky, Nikitin - their own, often deny any involvement in the stage. Song Pahmutova quite pop, has performed a dramatic monologue Gradsky. This effect was achieved through the recitative, voice intonation. In the absence of vocals, vypevaniya (both singing and Bernes and bards - it's natural), drama, acting samovyyavlenie become the main way of expression. Gradskij same as owning the operatic voice, it was used humming. In the performance of the song is not it was particularly striking. And it was so new that it has made in the performance of pop songs, he was able to make a speech, vocals, the song has found adequate human natural intonation.
Gradsky systematic. His is not a spontaneous emotion, and conceptual. His "Theater of" developing a new one: a satire in rock (the cycle of the eighteen songs on poems by Russian poet of the century Sasha Black), a political pamphlet in the rock (suite, a song cycle on poems by Beranger, Burns, Shelley), folk rock in the (suite "Russian song "), etc.
He looks for opportunities to combine music with an accent verse, and in this sense, the song of his somewhat unusual, that is, it is rarely the melody, where necessary combination of long and short sounds, here only the combination of stressed and unstressed, peculiar tonic verse (and Russian poetry, in contrast to Western Europe, syllabic, - sillabotonicheskoe). Usually in the song, when what she sings, the most important poetic sense, tonic verse is lost, because the musical accent or may not coincide with the voice purely by accident. In one word, there are two accents in the other - no one in the third shock appears unstressed syllable. In tune only knock meter line. In Gradsky contrary to the contrasting differences of rhythm meter away, stolen, become apparent to the ear is just semantic and phonetic stress. And it Gradsky also took on the song recitative, smooth, sings, only adapted to the melodic rock kinks.
Gradskij operates in two delimited to him, forms - oral and written. Oral - a concert and a special concert repertoire, written - it records (and before they are released - magnitolenty), song, or rather, a suite, consisting of songs, the whole presentation, "zvukodeystva." So, let's see what a concert of Alexander Gradsky.
challenge each of his concerts - songs make contact with the audience, get in any way: if something is not grasped (and as usually happens with new, unfamiliar to the public writings), he does not expect that gradually get accustomed (or accustomed), it is necessary in order to understand now, today. He will talk about the song or just listen to the cause - stun, so it vibrates the diaphragm, squeeze the viewer like a hurricane to a chair, lay his ears - for all extraneous thoughts, whispers and rustles. Of the two hundred songs written Gradsky concert program he selected fifteen - twenty of them and no-through for him, where you can relax, focus on the scene, he ultimately, if everything happens the first time, and the Hall voltage required ceiling.
At one time his solo concert Gradskij constructed as follows: the first branch - the answers to the note, the second part - the song. Notes - to begin with direct communication to the viewer is not drawn into the first three songs, but on this dialog. Sam says: "Songs of pity, if any one perish probuksuetsya hearing, the concert will be incomplete, meaning the integrity of the loss." And he, the artist should always be immediately understand the hall, to hear with what came to him to set up, to prepare, without which they must not get out of here. This is sort of a sociological experiment. After all, it is important to relate, why you came and why the audience has come, and then, on the reaction - what you're gone, gone with what the viewer. But there is this kind of excitement and competition: who would win. The game was in the notes to these rules: ask any questions and I'll be all, with maximum openness to answer. Of course, most of the notes - "is not the case," sometimes with podkovyrkoy, it happens - with a stupid curiosity. Gradskij says patiently. When it comes to matters of professional - in detail, with pleasure says, and the beginning of the first song (it is always the same - in memory of Lorca's poems F.-G. N. Aseev) the viewer is no longer spends his imagination to reveal all, looking at - who is in front of him. Rasshumevshiysya, provoke Hall subsides, and thus becomes unimportant "whether smoking, drinking there, married a" man in dark glasses ("why do you wear glasses - for beauty?"), With long hair, wearing a gray corduroy suit ("where he took many worth, "and he replied to this question), when -" Why did you, in Spain, looked at the sky? .. "- a whisper, a huge voice Gradsky quiet whisper - still huge, voluminous - and just as quietly, quietly, firmly, as having the right to ask for an answer:
"Why did you, in Spain, looked at the sky:
When Garcia Lorca were to be shot? .. "
"Andalusia know and Valencia know ..." - a loud voice suddenly breaks out angrily, but restrained could not resist, the excitement in response to the indifference: in fact she knew!
"Why did the earth under the feet of the murderers did not moan? .. " And from bass to soprano, the whole rainbow of voices - powerful and helpless resentment Court: < br>
"Away, deceived
to the orange grove ... "
And then - scrapped. God is with them, faithful, indifferent to the earth and human perfidy. That he, Garcia Lorca. This is important. Bubbling spills, the voice becomes clear, transparent: " He walked proudly and courageously ". And sings Gradskij proud, proud of Lorca:
"Songs sung before sunrise ..."
Gradskij no longer constrained, singing freely, in the highest octave, she sings as if he had, and then - an eternity before dawn, just before dawn ...
And - the culmination, the code, the meaning of life and song:
"It always came before the death of the poets".
And different sounds again the question: " Why do Spain? .. " - not as an accusation, but out of pity to the earth, unworthy of the poet . But while he says this, again, rises a nuisance. Now it is important, not who is guilty and wider - " why ". And the feeling this whole absurdity of the world, as if in confusion he repeats: " Why, why?"
Gradskij each song builds drama. This is something that he can easily, it is his strong point. Songs of a purely lyrical, "esseisticheskie," that is internal to the drama, not recorded in the plot, the characters, he decides to purely musical techniques, finding each time a special musical trick. For example, in "Elegy of the Road" on poems by Nikolai Rubtsov, Alexander Gradskij enjoys the new features of the synthesizer. In "Winter Nights" based on poems by Boris Pasternak, he, too, as if unconsciously, compensates for the dramatic lack of ornament, "architectural excesses" - reverb. Perhaps, then everything will be different. For Gradsky is the natural way: all change, start over, try new things, seek to ensure that previously denied even. I remember a while back Gradskij burning satire - it was during work on the poems of Sasha Cherny. Then he said to everyone lyricism treated with disdain. Even the throw from the repertoire of "Reserve", the song is very successful, capacious. Then it did not suit him: there is no action - all motionless, ephemeral, contemplatively. He was not happy with the original: " I can not say, just watch or listen proshelestet soon, the music does not disturb ". Suddenly everything has changed: I must say, must break - and the silence and harmony.
Then again, keen satire, as does Alex Black (because it was for a time, or rather, his way did), he writes in his poem one of his best songs, very lyrical discovered that he has: " I take a break from satire ". Poet, never strengthening voice, for it is a song of despair. And suddenly there is a melody (we already talked about that with his system of composition itself is very rare tune):
"As a moth-eaten, I spleen,
I sprinkle mothballs,
fold into the trunk and put me in the attic ".
Gradsky For this was a test - giving up all the usual facilities for yourself, do something original after all, his own. Stylize, then he can just about anything. And these songs, pastiches, parodies, it is enough.
The concert program Gradsky three songs live births. Comic songs - jokes, sarcasm. Gradsky perform their purely theatrical, in a clear plastic figure, alternating insertion "of itself", omitting the words and guess the only mime pointing at them, or eating something completely different words, by varying them in such a way as to come across a variety of shades of meaning, were found difficult and diverse subtexts. These songs, perhaps most of all ("The Ballad of the poultry farm," "Living in the world fools," "I need a wife", "Boldly Buzzing Fly" and etc.). Another kind of songs ("Why are you in Spain, looked at the sky .." "The Ballad of Giordano Bruno") - the tragic and philosophical songs (two songs from the jester, "Twelfth Night", "Winter Night"). All these songs are clearly narrative, built on eventfulness, conflict.
For example, in "Winter Night", he brings two dramatic voice, embodies the elements: fire, heat and cold in the snow. Pasternak " crossed arms, crossed legs, crossing of fate " he translates at the crossroads of fire and snow: the fire is small and precious, snow, big and scary. Literally screaming: " all lost in the snowy darkness ", emphasizing " lost ", and as a departure, the funeral - " candle burned ". Cross - a fever, cold, and dissolves in the show through it, the cross - the action itself.
And in another song live fire. Only now is a great and terrible fire (vs. M. Gettueva):
"The flames that kite, threw up his hands, falls on the shoulders, like a lynx ... " - the line breaks sharply, dramatically baring it " lynx ",
"The wild requires renounce".
He pauses before " renounce ", and the word is just as predatory "captures" how long the traps catch. But suddenly there is another kind of reality - from the song disappears temporarily predator, and suddenly opened in the song that blocked the, lose sight of it, the predator, until now. Sound moves smoothly and spacious, opening up all the things that we must renounce:
From trees, rapidly exploding skyward,
thoughts on the night and the bold word ".
Again a pause. And again he bursts into a wild-fire voice, rhythm, and in another register:
"Deny, Deny, Deny!"
Here's something to this " renounce " opposed to everything like the scales on the two world and one word only. The world and it's one word to come to a duel. But once the fight, then someone should take up. The whole world, all of life so beautiful " of blinking stars and blue creek ", but denied it. From the beautiful renounce. Because " renounce " stronger. Great uncomplainingly, and it is a kite with a distinct grin, hands the flame. So - mute, and this - requires.
"Closed Circle, you're rooted in the wall,
only heresy, but heresy,
again only for questioning, but again for questioning ... "
" alone again for questioning, but again for questioning ", - times six, seven repeats, turning in different directions, as if inviting for questioning, all inviting on behalf of this terrible actor, all, each offering, " renounce ". Deny? ..
Gradsky necessarily involves their songs the audience. And not only the direct appeal, but the juxtaposition of the songs themselves. The concert was conceived as a spectacle. Next to the "Ballad of Giordano Bruno", a song of tragic intensity, completely unpretentious, based on poems by R. Kazakova, a fool. "Fool around laborer" - and employs more than anyone else, and always a fool in love, and all of it more than anyone should, etc. etc., but among all this ironic list - one:
"The fool goes back to the fire
And like a fool, crying about it ".
Here it is important, because of what the song is taken, it has its own responsibility.
Comic songs Gradskij loves to show. In "Untitled Song" (the plot of an old joke) the whole effect is that the youth meets every year with different girls, bring them to her father for permission to marry, but her father each time he refused, explaining that twenty (in the following verses nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, etc.) years ago, " in his veins the blood is, and this girl is your sister, and mother does not know how ". And so, word for word, repeated an infinite number of verses, until the young man does not meet the beauty, falls in love with her and decides for whatever was to marry. But fearing that his father again, fails, goes to his mother. Mother says: marry quietly, whatever it was, because twenty years ago, " blood in the veins is, and your father is your father, and he does not know how ". Final unexpected, funny, for it's the fuss, but Gradskij gives the song a different meaning. Each of the girls he describes the gestures and facial expressions of the hero, from which we can understand that all these brides are far from ideal, is simply " blood in the veins is ", as he thinks about marriage with great displeasure. Hence the game and zateivaetsya: she supposedly could be my sister, because we will not get married. Feigned desire, pretended motive of his non-exercise (this is in Russian folklore: mock lament for the bride, for example, in "Russian Suite" Alexander Gradsky it is also present). And how to love, and prohibitions are removed.
Similarly Gradskij turns "Boldly Buzzing Fly," by K. Chukovsky, bringing the hero-villain of the mosquito is much larger than the spider. " I slew the villain, I'm relieved ", - with the threat, they say, owes me for work, can not escape it, - " and now, my soul, girl, you want to (through gritted teeth, that kind of vile lust, triumphantly spitting - it's all pause) married ". All the characters in this mini-opera recognizable - the types of people encountered in my life, and do not toy situation - for such a story for children and allow to approach close to impossible.
version inside tend to do popular culture, folklore, where Gradsky takes a great deal. Indeed, from the beginning (not by accident and the name of the ensemble - "Buffoons") Gradsky sought to synthesis techniques, the latest electrical equipment from a purely vernacular. Searches in this area led him to compose the suite "Russian Song" (1976-1979). This is the story of Russia up to 1917. Eight songs - it's eight genres, the eight states of the soul.
Russian Suite begins with a lyrical song "Nothing in Polya does not move." First, it is because it just made ??manifest - Russian song. She turns around as if double-dolls. In it - the two faces: the shepherd, who sings and one who hears (and hear - so, too, sings) his song. But here, in contrast to his concert manners, Gradsky does not represent any of the two.
First, from a distance: " sad melody is heard somewhere ", then the closer: " sang a marvelous song they shepherd " - every song is wonderful, then you need to listen what it is: " in this song, but he remembered his dear ". And then, without transition (as the maximum approximation) the song sounds a shepherdess:
"It attacked me sad, bitter anguish,
changed, no doubt, my black-eyed ".
Singing terminated - ended the first part of the song. All uniform, monotonously - sadness - in nature, in the singing. But sadness is not reproduced voice, she is given only to the music system. Suddenly, a voice suddenly sharp:
"I would choose a different sweet" -
and then for the first time there is a real shepherd, now the song sounds as he sings:
"Let us live so fare better than everyone,
we love each other better than before ".
And just as suddenly there was this personal voice, and he disappears. This is the end of the second part (the song-it is very short, but its construction is quite symphonic). And the third part - the only two lines, and with what all began:
"Nothing in the Polya does not move,
just a sad melody is heard somewhere ".
Only with this last part of it becomes clear what kind of sadness at the daring cowgirl. Shepherd sang about her, about myself. In the second part - for her, in spite of her, do not think, they say, do not be lost, find another, more and better, and - for yourself, to convince ourselves, dispel sadness.
The second song - suffering from multiple overlay voice (which is obtained from the choir, round dance is discord, as sung in different ways in different octaves), with natural cock screaming, barking dogs, wooden spoons, dancing music, introductions, jokes. This girl's festivities. Here, too, sings about the separation - " many years with his girlfriend knew the last year parted ", - but it's fun, clean igroslovitsa, as it should in the present national distress.
next song - dance, cry, festive. Then - the road ("No one in the field of track") - without instrumental accompaniment. There is a man on the road and singing, the same way, and sing, that neither it nor pass on the drive. This is not because they really so, no, it is a calm, and while there - thinking, imagine something. " Not nice to drive " - this is again not a real experience, a memory, a distant image, and since only the road in front of him, he all his tunes, and attaches to it. Enters the background - birds chirping, the wind rises, the storm is going. Under the storm and the mood - " Oh sorry, goodbye ".
In all of these songs Gradskij similar shows in the words of quite different in essence as the soul. The real suffering, nature is transmitted, feigned mirth, real fun to mock the suffering, the state of nature, which causes the mood of melancholy (but not the most melancholy). But then one forgets himself, no longer listen to, the soul of things and the tunes - there is a song of war, conscription, "Soldiers - bravo lads." This song is the 70-ies in the treatment of the Archangel. Gradskij not changed it, and interpreted by introducing a specific background sound (noise revelry, the shouts of "hurray!" March of the brass band played between the verses) and depicting alone the enthusiasm of the whole shelf:
"Our wives - guns charged,
our sisters - a sword in demand,
our grandfathers - the glorious victory,
our fathers - nice generals ".
It answers the questions " and who is your wife? " and so on - the renunciation of private life, from the genus of the family and, of course, from themselves. "I" is not even conceived - only "we".
"Our lives - the homeland, homeland,
whose now our lives ".
bravura song, rollicking, you might think that this is where, in the oblivion of his personal history, people and becomes, finally, happiness. And it did in the other.
"You fell victim to a fatal struggle" - this is a requiem. Those first, gave " home-life homeland ". I still do not sing about their lives and not give, but said that life - ugh, take-pound - feigned willingness to death ... A true - the victim, gave the most expensive " for the fact that he could not stand seeing a brother dies in poverty, and a despot in a luxurious palace feasting, the wine pours anxiety ".
This revolutionary song, a song of protest and mourning, going back to the songs Burlatsky that never were and could not be bravura.
suite ends with a song without words, which made ??the score melodies by Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, surf noise, which drowns out the melody, and it remains a voice of the sea washes away all of which goes back many-voiced chorus . And the suites and concerts Gradsky is singing solo performances, a synthetic genre that you want one condition: that the voice was speaking.
