Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava- famous Russian poet and prose writer. Bright representative genre of art song. He is the author of almost two hundred compositions. Year of birth: May 9, 1924 (Moscow).

Brief biography:

His father (Georgian) and mother (Armenian) were party workers, from whom Bulat was separated in 1937. The father was arrested and shot, and the mother was sent to a camp (Karaganda), where she remained until 1955.

In 1940, Bulat moved to live in Tbilisi with relatives, where he studied and worked.
Already at the age of 17, he volunteered for the front (1942). During the hostilities near Mozdok he was wounded.

During this difficult time (1943), he wrote the first song “We couldn’t sleep in the cold heated cars.” But the text, unfortunately, has not survived to our times.

“Ancient student song” became the second in a row (1946).

When the war ended, Okudzhava was enrolled in the State University of Tbilisi. After graduation (1950) he worked in rural school teacher (Kaluga region).

In 1954, at a meeting of writers, Bulat read his poems. After kind criticism and support, he began to collaborate with the Kaluga newspaper “Young Leninist”. This is how his first collection of poems, entitled “Lyrics” (1956), was born.

Returning to Moscow in 1959, Bulat began performing in front of large audiences. In addition to poetry, performances began to include guitar. It was from this moment that his popularity began to grow.

At the same time, he was the editor of the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house, then worked at Literaturnaya Gazeta.
Since 1961 - Okudzhava began to focus only on his creativity and no longer worked for hire.

In the same year, the first official concert of Bulat Okudzhava took place in Kharkov.
In 1962, he also starred for the first time in the feature film “Chain Reaction”, where he performed the composition “Midnight Trolleybus”.

Also a year later, his song “And we need one victory” was performed in the film “Belorussky Station”. Now, Bulat's songs and his poems are heard in about eighty films.

To all other Okudzhava wrote several songs based on the poems of Ognieszka Osiecka (Polish poetess), which he previously translated into Russian.

Singer Natalya Gorlenko also played a special role in his work. They had a long affair. (1981).

In the 90s, he more often lived at his dacha in Peredelkino (Moscow region). Gave concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg. He has also performed in Canada, the USA, Germany and Israel. His last concert was in Paris. (1995).

June 12, 1997 – Bulat Okudzhava died in a hospital in the suburb of Clamart (Paris). He was buried in Moscow at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.
In 1999, the “State Memorial Museum of Bulat Okudzhava” was opened in the Moscow region.
Also in his honor, already in Moscow itself, 2 monuments were erected (2002, 2007).

Soviet literature

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava

Biography

OKUDZHAVA, BULAT SHALVOVICH (1924−1997), Russian poet, prose writer. Born on May 9, 1924 in Moscow into a family of party workers, he spent his childhood on Arbat. He lived with his parents in Nizhny Tagil until 1937, when his father was arrested and shot, and his mother was sent to a camp, then into exile. In 1942, Okudzhava, a ninth-grader, volunteered to go to the front, where he was a mortarman, a machine gunner, and, after being wounded, a radio operator. In 1945 he worked in Tbilisi as a turner and graduated from the tenth grade of evening school. In 1946-1950 he studied at the Faculty of Philology of Tbilisi University, after which he worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature in a rural school near Kaluga, then in Kaluga, where he collaborated in regional newspapers. Okudzhava’s first book was published in Kaluga; the poems included in it and the poem about Tsiolkovsky were not included by the author in later collections. In 1956 he moved to Moscow, worked as an editor at the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house, and headed the poetry department at Literaturnaya Gazeta. Having joined the Writers' Union in 1962, he concentrated entirely on creative work.

Okudzhava composed his first song - Furious and stubborn... - while still a student, in 1946, and in the second half of the 1950s he created songs (Midnight Trolleybus, Vanka Morozov, The King, Goodbye, boys, Song about the Black Cat, etc. ), which immediately gained wide popularity. These songs were first performed by the author in friendly companies, then publicly, tape recordings were distributed throughout the country. Okudzhava is one of the creators and recognized patriarch of the genre, which later received the name “art song”. Okudzhava himself never saw a fundamental difference between his song-poems and non-song poems, had a distinctly literary (and even “literary-centric”) self-awareness, and was guided in his work - both poetic and prosaic - by the spiritual tradition of the 19th century.

Okudzhava's first prose work is the story Be Healthy, Schoolboy! - was published in 1961 in the almanac “Tarusa Pages”. Like many of Okudzhava’s songs, it was condemned in the press for “pacifism” and lack of “heroic” pathos. Okudzhava’s independent civic behavior, his sympathetic attitude towards his colleagues persecuted by the authorities (in particular, signing letters in defense of A.D. Sinyavsky and Yu.M. Daniel, A.I. Solzhenitsyn) created his reputation as an “unreliable” writer. Not being an active political fighter by nature, Okudzhava convincingly expressed in many poems and songs the feelings and thoughts of the radical intelligentsia, and also, continuing the tradition of Yu. N. Tynyanov, creatively comprehended the conflict of a freethinker with the authorities in his historical prose, which he began working on since the late 1960s.

During the years of “perestroika,” Okudzhava’s popularity was accompanied by official recognition; he actively participated in public life, works on the Commission on Pardons under the President of the Russian Federation. He was awarded the USSR State Prize (1991), the Booker Prize (1994) for the autobiographical novel Abolished Theater. In the 1990s, Okudzhava closely followed the events taking place in Russia, worried about the fate of democracy, and condemned the war in Chechnya.

Okudzhava’s poetry goes back to different and even heterogeneous folklore and literary sources. This is the creatively transformed tradition of urban romance, and Nekrasov’s line of prosaic verse, and Russian symbolism with its extreme polysemy of key images, and the poetics of V. Mayakovsky with its speech shifts and accented verse (which Okudzhava transforms into melodious rhythms). Okudzhava is characterized by the poetics of a harmonized shift, when the courage and paradox of the technique becomes imperceptible in the general flow of sincere and trusting intonation.

Okudzhava’s world is both intimate and cosmic. This effect is achieved by a consistent expansion of meaning, which underlies the lyrical composition. The midnight trolley bus becomes a ship, and the passengers become sailors. The blue ball flies away and returns, having had time to visit the globe. Arbat appears as a whole “fatherland” and even a “religion”. Real, earthly Vera, Lyuba and Nadya-Nadya turn into the symbolic triad Faith - Hope - Love. Okudzhava’s individual poetic phraseology (“on duty in April,” “little orchestra of hope,” “let’s join hands, friends,” etc.) became part of the national language.

Okudzhava the prose writer owns the novels A Sip of Freedom (Poor Avrosimov; 1965−1968), Mercy, or Shipov's Adventures. Vintage Vaudeville (1969−1970), Travel of Amateurs (1971−1977), Date with Bonaparte (1983). Resorting to linguistic and figurative-subject stylization, the author paradoxically pits the destinies of “big” and “small” people against each other, becoming more and more skeptical about the possibility of a radically volitional intervention of the individual in history. In the unfinished family chronicle, The Abolished Theater (1990−1993), this idea develops as a sober and critical assessment of Bolshevik romanticism, a debunking of the illusory ideals of “commissars in dusty helmets.” Okudzhava's novels and short stories: Individual failures among continuous successes (1978), The Adventures of a Secret Baptist (1984), The Art of Cutting and Living (1985), The Girl of My Dreams (1985), Around Rivoli, or the Whims of Fortune (1991) are highly autobiographical and fulfilling fruitful critical reflection, witty self-irony. These are also the Autobiographical Anecdotes published in Novy Mir (1997, No. 1) and which became Okudzhava’s last lifetime prose publication. Okudzhava wrote the scripts for the films Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha (1967) in collaboration with V. Motyl and Vernost (1965) together with Todorovsky, he wrote theatrical dramatizations of his prose works, songs for theater and cinema. Okudzhava died in Paris on May 12, 1997.

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava, Russian poet, was born on May 9, 1924 in Moscow in the family of the famous communist figure Shalva Okudzhava. In 1937, Okudzhava’s father was shot on an erroneous charge; in 1938, Bulat’s mother was arrested and ended up in the Karaganda camp.

In 1942, the young poet went to the front as a volunteer, taking part in battles on the North Caucasus Front as a mortar operator, and later as a radio operator. After the war, the poet worked as a turner at a factory, and in 1946 Okudzhava entered the philological faculty of Tbilisi State University. state university, after graduation he works as a teacher in a rural school in the city of Shamordino, Kaluga region.

In 1956, Okudzhava worked with the newspaper “Young Leninist”, made his debut in the literary field with the poetry collection “Lyrics”, and performed his songs in front of listeners. Later he worked as an editor at the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house, then headed the poetry department at Literaturnaya Gazeta. In the same year, after the political rehabilitation of his relatives, he entered into communist party. At the same time, Okudzhava has an extremely negative attitude towards Stalin, and later criticizes the CPSU.

In 1961, he published the autobiographical story “Be Healthy, Schoolboy,” and a year later he became a member of the Writers’ Union. Okudzhava becomes one of the most famous representatives of the genre of Russian bard song, which became popular after the advent of tape recorders. Okudzhava also writes songs for films; in collaboration with Isaac Schwartz, he creates more than 30 songs. During the period of "perestroika" the poet contributes to political development country, takes a democratic position, and in 1990 leaves the ranks of the Communist Party.

Okudzhava’s poetry harmoniously combines the traditions of urban romance, clear images of Russian symbolism, passing through poetic work the line of Nekrasov's prosaization of verse. The world created by Okudzhava’s poetry is intimate and cosmic, this effect is achieved by expanding the meaning of his images. Okudzhava is known not only as a brilliant poet, but also as a prose writer; his works describe the tragedy of the Decembrist coup.

Bulat Okudzhava died on June 12, 1997 in Paris. Just before his death, he was baptized and took the name John.

Introduction

1.1 Poetry and songs

1.3 Creativity abroad

1.4 Titles and awards

1.6 Sheet music editions of songs

2.2 General principles B. Okudzhava

2.3 B. Okudzhava - first and last

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The overwhelming majority of original songs were created by “uncertified specialists” who did not have any musical education, and therefore were deprived of the opportunity to record their songs on the musical staff. For example, it is known that Vladimir Vysotsky did not know how to write notes, and Bulat Okudzhava did not know notes at all. Therefore, if the written-composed approach to the verbal series prevailed, then the oral-composed approach to the musical one. An author's song is an individual creation in content, since it fully reveals inner world the individual, his thoughts, aspirations, experiences. But in terms of its form of existence, it represents collective creativity: authors and performers introduce elements of improvisation and variability into the songs, which is the main factor in the melodic-thematic development of an author's song and can be expressed in the specifics of the voice timbre (the frantic wheezing of Vysotsky, the conversational whisper of Vizbor, the dull voice of Okudzhava ). Not knowing musical literacy, bards often allowed deviations from the rules of voice guidance and limited themselves to minimum quantity chords. The oral-improvisational principle in the formation of the structure of musical accompaniment (accompaniment) led to the genre mutation of the song in the process of its existence, encouraging co-authorship in a non-author's performance. Therefore, it seems legitimate to use in relation to bards the concepts “modern urban folklore”, “folklore of the modern urban intelligentsia”, “nominal folklore”, “modern folk songs”, etc., found in scientific and popular literature.

A midnight trolleybus floats through Moscow,

Moscow, like a river, subsides,

And the pain that pounded like a bird in my temple,

("Midnight Trolley")

An extended metaphor runs through the text of the poem: the trolleybus is likened to a ship: a blue trolleybus (it would seem that this is a purely external detail). Then the “wreck” is mentioned: the semantic emphasis falls on human feelings, on the suffering of different and strangers. And now the passengers become “sailors”, the trolleybus “floats”, and the city is compared to a river. Expanding the meaning is Okudzhava’s main technique (extensive comparison).

The special ballad rhythm of the poem is created through truncated lines and repetitions.

Okudzhava rediscovered Moscow. In his songs it’s not a ceremonial one, but mysterious city, carrying the memory of ordinary people and their tragic destinies.

Ah, Arbat, my Arbat,

You are my calling.

You are both my joy and my misfortune.

(“Song about Arbat”)

Again an expansion of meaning. A small street is a source of thoughts about highest values, true ideals. Ideals, loyalty to which does not enslave a person, but fills his life with spiritual content. "You are my religion."

The song “Lenka Korolev” is dedicated to the military theme.

Because in war, even though they really shoot,

The damp earth is not for Lenka,

Because (guilty), but I don’t represent Moscow

Without a king like him.

A combination of colloquialism and melodiousness. There are no military battles or exploits in the song. “All my poems and songs are not so much about war as against it.” “Goodbye, boys!”, “Oh, war, what have you done, you vile....”

The poetry of Bulat Okudzhava, one of the most original Russian poets of the 20th century, the founder of a new poetic and musical genre - the art song, for a long time“not noticed” by literary criticism, despite the heated controversy in the press and the national recognition that has strengthened over the years. However, he himself was skeptical about the desire of philologists to analyze his work in order to understand how from the “three poverty of B. Okudzhava” (S. Lesnevsky) - words, melodies and voices - his “wealth” is born - the unique charm of his poems and songs . For the poet himself, this meant “tearing the music apart,” depriving creativity of its secrets.

Chapter 1. Creative path B. Okudzhava

1.1 Poetry and songs

Bulat Okudzhava is the recognized founder of the original song. Success came to Okudzhava because he addressed not the masses, but the individual, not everyone, but each individual. The subject of poetry in his world became ordinary, everyday life.

He began writing poetry in childhood. Okudzhava's poem was first published in 1945 in the newspaper of the Transcaucasian Military District "Fighter of the Red Army" (later "Lenin's Banner"), where his other poems were published during 1946. In 1953-1955, Okudzhav’s poems regularly appeared on the pages of Kaluga newspapers. In Kaluga, in 1956, the first collection of his poems, “Lyrics,” was published. In 1959, Okudzhava’s second collection of poetry, “Islands,” was published in Moscow. In subsequent years, Okudzhava’s poems were published in many periodicals and collections, books of his poems were published in Moscow and other cities.

Okudzhava owns more than 800 poems. Many of his poems are born together with music; there are already about 200 songs.

For the first time he tries himself in the song genre during the war. In 1946, as a student at Tbilisi University, he created the “Student Song” (“Furious and stubborn, burn, fire, burn...”). Since 1956, he was one of the first to act as the author of poetry and music, songs and their performer. Okudzhava’s songs attracted attention. Tape recordings of his performances appeared, which brought him widespread popularity. Recordings of his songs were sold throughout the country in thousands of copies. His songs were heard in films and plays, in concert programs, on television and radio broadcasts. The first disc was released in Paris in 1968, despite the resistance of the Soviet authorities. Noticeably later, discs were released in the USSR.

Currently in the State literary museum A fund of Okudzhava’s tape recordings has been created in Moscow, numbering over 280 storage units.

Professional composers write music to Okudzhava’s poems. An example of luck is V. Levashov’s song to Okudzhava’s poems “Take your overcoat, let’s go home.” But the most fruitful was Okudzhava's collaboration with Isaac Schwartz ("Drops of the Danish King", "Your Honor", "Song of the Cavalry Guard", "Road Song", songs for the television film "Straw Hat" and others).

Books (collections of poems and songs): “Lyrics” (Kaluga, 1956), “Islands” (M., 1959), “The Cheerful Drummer” (M., 1964), “On the Road to Tinatin” (Tbilisi, 1964), "The Magnanimous March" (M., 1967), "Arbat, my Arbat" (M., 1976), "Poems" (M., 1984, 1985), "Dedicated to you" (M., 1988), "Favorites" (M., 1989), “Songs” (M., 1989), “Songs and Poems” (M., 1989), “Drops of the Danish King” (M., 1991), “Mercy of Fate” (M., 1993 ), "A Song about My Life" (M., 1995), "Tea Party on the Arbat" (M., 1996), "Waiting Room" (Nizhny Novgorod, 1996).

1.2 Prose

Since the 1960s. Okudzhava works a lot in the prose genre. In 1961, his autobiographical story “Be Healthy, Schoolboy” (published as a separate edition in 1987), dedicated to yesterday’s schoolchildren who had to defend the country from fascism, was published in the almanac “Tarussky Pages”. The story received a negative assessment from supporters of official criticism, who accused Okudzhava of pacifism.

In subsequent years, Okudzhava constantly wrote autobiographical prose, compiling the collections “The Girl of My Dreams” and “The Visiting Musician” (14 short stories and novellas), as well as the novel “The Abolished Theater” (1993), which received the International Booker Prize in 1994 as the best novel of the year Russian language.

At the end of the 1960s. Okudzhava turns to historical prose. In 1970-80 The stories "Poor Avrosimov" ("A Sip of Freedom") (1969) about tragic pages in history Decembrist movement, “The Adventures of Shipov, or Ancient Vaudeville” (1971) and the novels “The Journey of Amateurs” (Part 1, 1976; Part 2, 1978) and “A Date with Bonaparte” (1983), written on historical material from the early 19th century.

Books (prose): “The Front Comes to Us” (M., 1967), “A Breath of Freedom” (M., 1971), “Lovely Adventures” (Tbilisi, 1971; M., 1993), “The Adventures of Shipov, or Ancient vaudeville" (Moscow, 1975, 1992), "Selected Prose" (Moscow, 1979), "Journey of Amateurs" (Moscow, 1979, 1980, 1986, 1990; Tallinn, 1987, 1988), "Date with Bonaparte" (M., 1985, 1988), "Be healthy, schoolboy" (M., 1987), "Girl of my dreams" (M., 1988), " Selected works" in 2 vols. (M., 1989), "The Adventures of a Secret Baptist" (M., 1991), "Tales and Stories" (M., 1992), "Visiting Musician" (M., 1993), "Abolished Theater "(M., 1995).

1.3 Creativity abroad

Okudzhava's performances took place in Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Spain, Italy, Canada, Poland, USA, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, Yugoslavia, Japan.

Okudzhava's works have been translated into many languages ​​and published in many countries around the world.

Books of poetry and prose published abroad (in Russian): “Song about Fools” (London, 1964), “Be Healthy, Schoolboy” (Frankfurt am Main, 1964, 1966), “The Merry Drummer” (London, 1966), “Prose and Poetry” (Frankfurt am Main, 1968, 1977, 1982, 1984), “Two Novels” (Frankfurt am Main, 1970), “Poor Avrosimov” (Chicago, 1970; Paris, 1972 ), "Lovely Adventures" (Tel Aviv, 1975), "Songs" in 2 volumes (ARDIS, vol. 1, 1980; vol. 2, 1986 (1988).

1.4 Titles and awards

Member of the CPSU (1955-1990).

Member of the USSR Writers' Union (1962).

Member of the founding council of the Moscow News newspaper.

Member of the founding council of Obshchaya Gazeta.

Member of the editorial board of the newspaper "Evening Club".

Member of the Council of the Memorial Society.

Founding member of the Russian PEN Center (1989).

Member of the Commission on Pardons under the President of the Russian Federation (1992).

Member of the Commission for State Prizes of the Russian Federation (1994).

Medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus". ...

Order of Friendship of Peoples (1984).

Honorary medal of the Soviet Peace Foundation.

USSR State Prize (1991).

Prize "For Courage in Literature" named after. A.D. Sakharov independent writers' association "April" (1991).

First prize and the Golden Crown prize at the poetry competition "Struzhskie Evenings" in Yugoslavia (1967).

Prize "Golden Guitar" at the festival in San Remo in Italy (1985).

Honorary Doctorate Degree humanities Norwich University in the USA (1990).

Prize "Penyo Penev" in Bulgaria (1990).

Booker Prize (1994).

The name of Okudzhava was assigned to a small planet (1988).

Okudzhava’s name was given to the Bulgarian-Russian Friendship Club in Yambol in Bulgaria (1989-90).

Honorary citizen of Kaluga (1996).

1.5 Theatre, productions, film scripts, songs in films

Dramatic performances were staged based on Okudzhava’s play “A Sip of Freedom” (1966), as well as his prose, poetry and songs.

Productions:

“A Sip of Freedom” (L., Youth Theater, 1967; Krasnoyarsk, Youth Theater named after the Lenin Komsomol, 1967; Chita, Drama Theater, 1971; M., Moscow Art Theater, 1980; Tashkent, Russian Drama Theater named after M. Gorky, 1986); "Mercy, or ancient vaudeville" (L., musical comedy theater, 1974); “Be healthy, schoolboy” (L., Youth Theater, 1980); "Music of the Arbat Courtyard" (Moscow, Chamber Musical Theatre, 1988). Films: Film and Television

Since the mid-1960s. Okudzhava acts as a film playwright. Even earlier, his songs began to be heard in films: in more than 50 films, more than 70 songs based on Okudzhava’s poems were heard, of which more than 40 songs were based on his music. Sometimes Okudzhava acts in films himself.

Film scripts:

“The Private Life of Alexander Sergeich, or Pushkin in Odessa” (1966; co-authored with O. Artsimovich; film not produced);

Songs in films (most famous works):

to your own music:

"Sentimental March" ("Zastava Ilyich", 1963)

“We will not stand behind the price” (Belorussky Station, 1971)

"Wish to Friends" ("Untransferable Key", 1977)

"Song of the Moscow Militia" ("The Great Patriotic War", 1979)

"Happy Draw" ("Legitimate Marriage", 1985) to the music of I. Schwartz:

"Drops of the Danish King" ("Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha", 1967)

"Your Honor" ("White Sun of the Desert", 1970)

"Song of the Cavalry Guard" ("Star of Captivating Happiness", 1975) songs for the film "Straw Hat", 1975

"Road Song" ("We were not married in church", 1982) to the music of L. Schwartz

"The Cheerful Drummer" ("My Friend, Kolka", 1961) to the music of V. Geviksman

"Old Pier" ("Chain Reaction", 1963) to music by V. Levashov

“Take your overcoat, let’s go home” (“From Dawn to Dawn”, 1975; “Aty-Bati, the soldiers were walking...”, 1976).

Books:

"Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha..." (M., 1968)

"Drops of the Danish King". Film scripts and songs from films (M.: Kinotsentr, 1991).

Works in the frame:

Feature (fiction) films:

"Ilyich's Zastava" ("I am twenty years old"), Film Studio named after. M. Gorky, 1963

"The key without the right of transfer", Lenfilm, 1977

"Legitimate Marriage", Mosfilm, 1985

"Keep me safe, my talisman", Film Studio. A.P. Dovzhenko, 1986

Documentaries:

"I remember a wonderful moment" (Lenfilm)

"My contemporaries", Lenfilm, 1984

"Two hours with bards" ("Bards"), Mosfilm, 1988

"And don't forget about me", Russian television, 1992

1.6. Sheet music editions of songs

The first musical edition of B. Okudzhava's songs was published in Krakow in 1970 (there were repeated releases in later years). Musicologist V. Frumkin was unable to push through the release of the collection in the USSR, and, having left for the USA, released it there. That same year, we also published a large collection of songs. Individual songs were published many times in mass collections of songs.

Bulat Okudzhava. Songs / Musical recording, editing, compilation by V. Frumkin. - Ann Arbor, Michigan: Ardis, 1989. - 120 p.

Songs of Bulat Okudzhava. Melodies and texts / Compiled and author of the introductory article by L. Shilov. - M.: Muzyka, 1989. - 224 pp.; 100,000 copies (Musical material recorded by A. Kolmanovsky with the participation of the author)

Gramophone records

The list does not include foreign discs (the most famous of them was released in Paris by Le Chant du Mond in 1968). In the 70s, a recording of his songs that Bulat really liked was made by Polish dramatic actors with a very careful arrangement. Along with the book about our bards "Poets with a Guitar" a disc of songs was released in Bulgaria ("Balkanton", Bulgaria, 1985. VTK 3804).

Songs of Bulat Okudzhava. "Melody", 1966. D 00016717-8

Bulat Okudzhava. "Songs". "Melody", 1973. 33D-00034883-84

Bulat Okudzhava. Songs (poems and music). Performed by the author. "Melody", 1976. M40 38867

"Songs based on the poems of Bulat Okudzhava." "Melody", 1978. M40 41235

Bulat Okudzhava. "Songs". "Melody", 1978. G62 07097

Bulat Okudzhava. "Songs". Performed by Bulat Okudzhava. "Melody", 1981. С60 13331

Bulat Okudzhava. Songs and poems about the war. Performed by the author. Recording of the All-Union Recording Studio and phonograms of films from 1969-1984. "Melody", 1985. M40 46401 003

Bulat Okudzhava. "New songs". Recording 1986 "Melody", 1986. С60 25001 009

Bulat Okudzhava. “A song as short as life itself...” Performed by the author. Recording 1986 "Melody", 1987. С62 25041 006

Chapter 2. Bulat Okudzhava - the founder of the original song

2.1. Bulat Okudzhava - founder of the original song

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (1924 - 1997) is one of the most original Russian poets of the 20th century, the recognized founder of the art song.

Until 1940 he lived on Arbat. Both the date and place of the poet’s birth acquired a symbolic character over time. May 9 was the day of the end of the most terrible and inhumane war, about which front-line soldier Okudzhava managed to say a new word in his songs. Arbat, in the poet’s lyrical system, became a symbol of peace, goodness, humanity, nobility, culture, historical memory - everything that opposes war, cruelty and violence. A significant part of Okudzhava’s lyrics were written under the impressions of the war years. But these songs and poems are not so much about war as against it: “War, you see, is an unnatural thing, which takes away from a person by nature this right for life. I am wounded by it for the rest of my life, and in my dreams I still often see dead comrades, ashes of houses, the earth torn apart by craters... I hate war.” Before last day, looking back, admiring the victory, proud of the participants in the Great Patriotic War, the poet never ceased to hope that we, people, will learn to do without blood when solving our earthly affairs. Okudzhava’s last poems contain the lines:

The soldier walks with a rifle, he is not afraid of the enemy.

But here’s the strange thing going on in his soul:

He hates guns, and he is not happy about wars...

Of course, if it’s not a bast shoe, but a soldier.

And yet: “The war has become so ingrained in me that it is difficult for me to get rid of it. We would all probably be glad to forget about the war forever, but, unfortunately, it does not subside, it follows on our heels... How long will we, people, defeat this war?

Bulat's life was not easy. In 1937, the poet's father, a major party worker, was arrested and then shot. The mother was sent to a camp. Bulat Okudzhava himself barely managed to avoid being sent to Orphanage as the son of an “enemy of the people.” From the ninth grade of a Moscow school he went to the front, where he was a mortarman, a machine gunner, and, after being wounded, a heavy artillery radio operator. From 1945 to 1950, Okudzhava studied at the Faculty of Philology at Tbilisi University. That’s when his first song “Fierce and stubborn, burn, fire, burn...” was born.

In this small, but extremely dynamic and rich text, one can see a kind of grain of the genre, which will then receive widespread development. What is striking here is the combination of external simplicity, apparent artlessness with the depth of thought and experience. What is the song about? Yes, about everything in the world: about the inexhaustible mystery of life, about the fullness of being that we comprehend only on the path of tragic trials. The most serious things are spoken here with artistic ease, almost carelessness. The song creates an atmosphere of sincerity, trust, and inner freedom. The song was born among students, but its author was not yesterday’s schoolboy, but a man wise with life and military experience, who knew not from books what “the most doomsday" It is no coincidence that today, so many years later, Okudzhava’s first song is not at all outdated; its romantic and philosophical mood is still close to many. Both the poet himself and the knights of the author’s song who followed him carried this “fierce” and “stubborn” fire through the decades.

After graduating from university, Okudzhava worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature in a rural school near Kaluga. In 1956, his first poetry collection “Lyrics” was published in Kaluga. Okudzhava moves to Moscow, where his mother returned after rehabilitation. Soon, many of the poet’s songs became famous among Moscow writers, which he first performed in a friendly circle, and from about 1959 - publicly. In the 60s, the need for a genre that would later be called the “art song” turned out to be extremely great. The pattern of its appearance, its natural entry into the culture of that time was accurately expressed by David Samoilov:

Former defenders of the state,

We missed Okudzhava.

2.2. General principles of B. Okudzhava

Okudzhava's performances begin to be recorded on tape recorders, and soon the whole country will recognize his songs. The poet's multimillion-dollar audience consisted mainly of people who had never seen him, but who felt a strong, trusting emotional contact with him. The surge in popularity of the original song is associated primarily with the work of Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava. Okudzhava did not invent a new genre, but immediately raised it to a different level of musical and poetic merit, maintaining an atmosphere of trust, sincerity, and confession. Most characteristic side Okudzhava's poetry is refined simplicity. Loud phrases and false significance are alien to her. These poems-songs create a whole art world, which accepts the listener, and heals, and pleases, and calms, and invigorates.

Success came to Okudzhava because he addressed not the masses, but the individual, not everyone, but each individual. The subject of poetry in his world became ordinary, everyday life.

Lyrics are, as it were, a concentration, a focus to the maximum extent of the generic properties of art as a whole. We can safely say that B. Okudzhava - both in prose, in poetry, and in his songwriting - is a lyricist among lyricists. His analysis of his own fiction is a classically accurate reproduction of the principles of lyricism. Okudzhava has a poem that begins like this:

Why is the poet Gorbovsky in a hurry to Siberia?

To make sketches there from the heart...

The poet has no rival

neither on the street nor in fate.

And when he shouts to the whole world,

This is not about you - about himself.

His life became a legend. No tape recording will convey the full richness of the intonations of his wonderful voice, although, of course, there is nothing elaborate or pretentious in his voice. The poems and songs of Bulat Okudzhava reflect the large world of human values ​​existing both in time and in space, or more precisely, universal human values.

The book “The Cheerful Drummer” (1964) published a poem that can be considered programmatic for Okudzhava’s entire work. It starts like this:

I don't believe in God and fate.

I pray to the beautiful and the highest

For my purpose,

On White light who showed me...

Pompous devils, the devil is angry,

God is mediocre - he can’t bear it...

Oh, if only my thoughts were pure!

And everything else will follow.

The second stanza ends with the words:

Oh, if only the skies were clear!

And everything else will follow.

The third ends like this:

Oh, my hands would be clean!

And everything else will follow.

Aphoristically accurate in their pure, high good morals Almost all of his songs, no matter which one you take, you could admire and quote one after another.

The remarkable moral potential contained in Okudzhava’s poetry, combined with the author’s natural ability to convey to the listener not only his own main idea, but also all shades of mood, allows us to perceive his songs as inimitably executed dramatized scenes and miniatures. Okudzhava’s manner of communication with readers and listeners is confidential and confessional. He does not perform, does not perform, but converses and talks. “My dear”, “and we are with you, brother”, “let’s exclaim”, “excuse me...”, “please...”, “you know...” - words, expressions, seemingly unnecessary and, as Okudzhava’s harsh critics argued, “completely unnecessary.” But, perhaps, it is from them that the much-desired atmosphere of cordiality and ease begins to be established in the poet’s dialogue with the audience. Okudzhava’s poems often contain irony and self-irony, balancing out such a frank expression of the author’s feelings, which is somewhat unusual for a song. Persistently and consistently, but never falling into didacticism or edification, Okudzhava preaches simple truths about love, faith, friendship, brotherhood, fidelity, and mercy.

At the beginning of his creative career, there were often attempts by composers to write their own music based on his poems; there are also records with his songs performed by professionals, but over the years this fashion began to fade away, because the comparison turns out to be completely not in their favor. Those eternal truths that Okudzhava professes are instilled in them without a shadow of menacing edification, but either with gentle humor, or with genuine sadness, or with deep conviction. And all this is wonderfully matched by his melodies.

2.3. B. Okudzhava - the first and the last

On June 12, 1997, tragic news came from France to Russia - Bulat Okudzhava died. A decade later, any brief Internet encyclopedia will give every curious person dry information: “Poet, prose writer, film scriptwriter. Author and performer of songs, founder of the art song movement.” But then it was immediately clear to several generations of people - another great era became only a "property".

“I had many successes. But, perhaps, the most important one came on the day when I first came up with a melody for my poem,” said Bulat Okudzhava. Millions of fans of Bulat Shalvovich’s work consider his decision to write poetry, prose, music, and plays to be a success.

Bulat Okudzhava's poems first appeared in the garrison newspaper of the Transcaucasian Front "Fighter of the Red Army" (later - "Lenin's Banner") in 1945, first under the pseudonym A. Dolzhenov. Since 1953, working after a university assignment in the Kaluga region, he regularly published in local newspapers. At the same time, his first book of poems, Lyrics, was published in Kaluga.

The poet himself called that period of creativity “imitative”, and considered the beginning of serious poetic activity to be his return to Moscow in 1956 and joining the Magistral poetic association. At the same time, Okudzhava’s poems began to appear in the capital’s newspapers and magazines. The first book of poetry published in Moscow, “Islands,” was published in 1959.

At first, Okudzhava had to work. The choice fell on poetic translation. So in the Soviet Union books were published with Arabic, Spanish, Finnish, Swedish poetry translated by the poet, and two books of prose. Under his own name, helping his disgraced friends, he published an article by Lev Kopelev about Dr. Haase and a book of poems translated by Julius Daniel, and published the text of the song “Sail” written by his wife Olga Artsimovich (music by E. Glebov).

In 1961, his first autobiographical story, “Be Healthy, Schoolboy,” was published in the almanac “Tarussky Pages,” edited by Konstantin Paustovsky.

Okudzhava's prose was received very negatively by literary criticism, which did not greatly influence his desire to work with a major literary form. In total, several collections of autobiographical stories and novellas were published, as well as the autobiographical novel “The Abolished Theater,” which was awarded the Booker Prize in 1994.

In 1969, Bulat Okudzhava acted as a historical novelist: his first novel, “Poor Avrosimov,” was published in the magazine “Friendship of Peoples.” All of his subsequent historical novels were also published for the first time in the same magazine. The author considered the novel “Photographer Zhora”, published in the West, to be weak and never published it in his homeland.

And one of the last, or perhaps the last, book of Okudzhava’s lifetime was the 1996 Nizhny Novgorod edition of “The Waiting Room.” In that book, works written from 1990 to 1995 were published for the first time, as well as unpublished poems from previous years.

And further. Bulat Okudzhava not only wrote music for television and films, sometimes scripts came from his pen. Yes, thanks to him working together with Pyotr Todorovsky in 1965 the film “Fidelity” appeared, and in 1967 the film “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha” was released, on the script for which Okudzhava worked together with Vladimir Motyl. However, the scripts created together with Olga Artsimovich Goskino The reaction was much worse. Thus, the films “The Private Life of Alexander Sergeich, or Pushkin in Odessa” and “We Loved Melpomene...” were never staged.

But no one could stop Bulat Okudzhava from writing and performing songs. And it’s simply impossible to list them, and it’s also pointless, since each of us has our own 10-15 “most favorite Okudzhavo’s” ones. Personally, I cry every time when in the film “Belorussky Station” Evgeny Leonov, Anatoly Papanov, Nina Urgant, Vsevolod Safonov and Alexey Glazyrin sing “Our Tenth Airborne Battalion”.

It is unknown which Okudzhava’s last poem was. Perhaps we will never know, since the manuscripts of his last works were stolen by one of the visitors to the master’s apartment, which was in mourning. But these words of Bulat are worth remembering for every poetry lover: “Poems and songs cannot be explained. Don’t look for facts from your personal life in them: I’m talking about my soul and nothing more.”

Conclusion

B. Okudzhava pitied everyone in his songs: both good and bad. He felt sorry for himself, the tired travelers, the girls, the girls, married women and grandmothers, he felt sorry for the “blue ball”, the infantry, the boys, again himself, again the women, and finally, his soul.

However, the poet himself realized and overcame this complexity with the wisdom of a thinker and the instinct of an artist, moving his own way and bypassing all the clues.

Since Okudzhava is occupied not so much with everyday as with existential categories of reality, naturally for him his lyrics become more and more multifaceted, his view of the world becomes more and more harmoniously comprehensive: this is required by the measure of things, the scale that he accepted for himself. We must expose evil with our creativity, speak angrily about philistinism, philistinism (they are the ones who oppose the renewal of our society), and serve society with poetic words.

Everything written by Bulat Okudzhava was created in a warm heartbeat, and therefore excites, disturbs, disturbs and pleases us, to whom the poet brought his priceless artistic treasures as a gift.

“Real art” by Bulat Okudzhava, constantly gaining new colors, has been serving people for decades. And it will serve - due to the high artistic talent, humanism and wisdom of its creator.

Either honey or a bitter cup,

Either hellfire or a temple...

Everything that was his is now yours.

Bibliography

1. “There is no turning back for us.” 33 Moscow bards. - M., 2001

3.Avdeeva A.A. Songs of our century // Art at school. - 2000. - No. 1.

4.Avdeeva A.A. Something familiar is heard // Art at school. - 2004. - No. 5.

7. Andreev Yu.A., Vainonen N.V. Our amateur song. - M., 2003.

8.Whisper and scream (conversation with L. Anninsky) // Musical life. - 2002. - No. 12.

The name of Bulat Okudzhava is known to many former Soviet citizens, because he was a singer and composer of that time, who created an incredible atmosphere and became a symbol of his era.

Bulat Okudzhava was born on May 9, 1924 in Moscow, but his relatives were from Armenia and Georgia, which is why Bulat had a non-Russian surname. Bulat Okudzhava’s childhood did not take place in the capital of the USSR, but in the city of Tbilisi. In Tbilisi, Bulat Okudzhava’s father was lucky, because he got a place in the party and became one of the most successful party leaders. Bulat’s family moved very often, but this did not last too long, because, unfortunately, following a denunciation, Bulat’s father ended up in the camps and was then sentenced to death (that’s the party system).

At first Bulat stayed with his mother, they tried to escape by returning back to Moscow, however, this did not save them and Bulat’s mother also ended up in a camp for wives who were married to traitors to the motherland. Bulat Okudzhava’s mother stayed in the camp for twelve years, and all this time the boy stayed with relatives in Tbilisi.

Bulat Okudzhav’s career began with working as a turner at a factory. For the average Soviet man– it was completely normal and regular work. In 1942, he decided to volunteer for the front. In 1943 he was wounded, but still, having recovered, he went to the front line. Bulat Okudzhava wrote his first song at the front. It became quite popular, but after which he did not have a creative takeoff, but rather, on the contrary, a decline. The title of this song is “We couldn’t sleep in the cold heated cars.”

After the war, Okudzhava decided to study at the University of Tbilisi, and after receiving his diploma, he managed to work as a rural teacher. But my creative activity Bulat Okudzhava did not give up; he continued to write poetry, which he later used as musical texts.

The first poems of Bulat Okudzhava were published in the newspaper “Young Leninist” after very interesting events. The start of his career and recognition was made when, at a performance by famous writers Nikolai Panchenko and Vladimir Koblikov, Bulat Okudzhava simply approached them and offered to read his poems and give them an assessment. Apparently, such a talent of the young poet could not be hidden, so recognition came very quickly.

In 1955, Bulat Okudzhava began earning money as a songwriter. First creative successes there were “Sentimental March”, “On Tverskoy Boulevard” and others, which brought him enormous popularity. Already in 1961, Bulat Okudzhava had his first concert in Kharkov. The public appreciated his work well. After this, concerts became a common occurrence in the life of Bulat Okudzhava, and his work began to be recognized everywhere.

Bulat Okudzhava also gave concerts in many European countries, especially often after the collapse of Soviet Union. Last years Bulat spent his life in Paris, where he died in 1997 due to his long illness; however, he was buried in his homeland, in Moscow, at the Vagankovsky cemetery.

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According to short biography Bulat Okudzhava was born on May 9, 1924 in Moscow into a multinational family: his father, Shalva Okudzhava, was of Georgian blood, and his mother, Ashkhen Nalbadyan, was of Armenian blood.

Two years after the birth of their first child, the whole family moved to their father’s homeland - Tbilisi. There, Shalva Okudzhava, a convinced communist, simply rose through the ranks. First, he served as secretary of the Tbilisi city committee, and then in 1934 he was asked to accept the post of first secretary of the Nizhny Tagil city party committee.

However, in those years the Soviet repressive machine was already established and working non-stop. In 1937, Okudzhava's father was arrested and sentenced to death on the basis of false evidence. And Ashkhen was exiled to the Karaganda camp in 1938. She returned after 12 long years.

Okudzhava was raised by his grandmother, and in the 1940s he moved to live with relatives in the capital of Georgia.

War years

With the beginning of the war against the fascist invaders, Bulat Okudzhava decided to get to the front as soon as possible, no matter what. But my young age did not allow me to carry out my plans. Only in 1942 did he volunteer to serve straight from the ninth grade. First, two months of training, and then a mortarman in the 5th Guards Don Cavalry Cossack Corps.

Participated in the battles near Mozdok. But at the end of 1942 he was seriously wounded. It is worth briefly noting that, according to the poet himself, he was wounded out of stupidity - a stray bullet. It was insulting and bitter, because so many times under direct fire he remained unharmed, but here, one might say, in calm atmosphere and such an absurd injury.

After recovery, he never returned to the front. He served as a radio operator in a heavy artillery brigade. The first song in Okudzhava’s biography appears at the front - “We couldn’t sleep in the cold heated vehicles.”

Prose writer, poet and bard

In the post-war years, Okudzhava returned to his native Tbilisi, took exams for high school and entered the specialty “philologist” at Tbilisi University. During his studies, he met Alexander Tsybulevsky, a student and aspiring lyricist, who largely influenced his development as a poet. In 1950 he received a diploma higher education and teaches Russian language and literature in high school in the village of Shamordino, located near Kaluga. In 1956, the first collection of poems, Lyrics, was published.

Moscow

In the same year, 1956, the 20th Congress of the CPSU took place, the main result of which was the condemnation of Stalin’s personality cult.

It was after him that the poet’s mother was rehabilitated and the two of them were allowed to move to Moscow again. In the capital, Bulat Okudzhava first holds the position of deputy editor for the literature section at Komsomolskaya Pravda, then works as an editor at Young Guard, and finally moves to the Literaturnaya Gazeta publication.

The work of the young poet and aspiring prose writer does not stand still either. In 1961, Konstantin Paustovsky published the collection “Tarussky Pages,” which included Okudzhava’s work “Be Healthy, Schoolboy.” Despite sharp negative criticism for its pacifist content, four years later the story was filmed under a new title - “Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha.” But it was not only the author’s prose that received criticism. In the 60s, the bard’s songs were also persecuted. According to the conclusion of the official commission, they could not fully express the mood and feelings of Soviet youth. However, the youth themselves did not know about this, and always tried to get to the concerts and creative evenings of the famous bard.

National fame came to Okudzhava after the release feature film"Belorussky Station" It contains a powerful, deep and at the same time subtle song “The birds don’t sing here...”.

Personal life

IN on a personal level the poet and bard was not and could not be lonely: “on the count” - two official marriages. Unfortunately, Bulat Shalvovich's first marriage to Galina Smolyaninova ended in divorce. The background was largely served by two tragedies that happened in the family: the daughter died at a very young age, and the son subsequently became addicted to drugs.

Olga Artsimovich, a physicist by profession, becomes Okudzhava’s second wife. This marriage was much happier. In it, a son, Anton, is born - a wonderful composer in the future.

Other biography options

• There were many legends about Bulat Shalvovich during his lifetime. For example, many believed that his talent was born and blossomed during the war. However, his wife Olga argued the opposite. At the front, his lyrics were amateurish, and most of them have not survived. The most best works were created in the 50s.
• Creative people, as a rule, do not pay any attention to everyday life. But Bulat Okudzhava was not one of them. He knew how to do everything: wash dishes, cook, and work with a hammer. At the same time, the head of the family was still Olga Okudzhava. She decided how to act and when. He loved her and obeyed her.
• In 1991, Bulat Okudzhava was diagnosed with a serious heart disease. An operation was immediately required, which at that time cost tens of thousands of dollars. Of course, the family did not have such a sum. Best friend The poet Ernst Neizvestny was even planning to take out a loan against his house as collateral. But the money was collected by the whole world: some a dollar, some a hundred.
• Okudzhava was an atheist, and kept saying that he did not believe in God. But just before his death, at the insistence of his wife, he was baptized. She believed that a man of such a huge soul could not be an unbeliever.