Hard to Define: The Music of the Proletarian
As I talked about yesterday, the music of the post-revolutionary Soviet period was a segment of expressive exploration. Many challenges arose for the state concerning the design for a proletarian representation of musical genre. Amy Nelson writes in her book, “Music for the Revolution” (2004) that the Leftists devised many strategies to eliminate the divide between elitist and popular music cultures. A few prominent organizations involved were the RAPM and ORK: two unions of composers, musicians, and other important figures in the new nation concerned with developing a music idiom for the working class. Nelson comments that “activists noted frequently that unlike other arts, especially literature, music and musical life seemed virtually unaffected by the revolution.” (p11) Music of the concert halls still bore the marks of the social elite, and music of the streets still sang to the poor and lower classes. In this segment of time, so close after the establishment of the communist party, the RAPM and ORK would search and attempt to mold the social reform of musical expression in the populace of their newly created country.
Areas of musical expression that drew attention fit into a multitude of classifications, but some of the more noteworthy for popular culture were typically dance, folk, and storytelling in nature. Waltzes and foxtrots made their way into the sheet music and nightlife while streets and public spaces had traditional gypsy songs of love and tragedy filling the air. Jazz music was exciting and new, and the prerevolutionary enthusiasms for Western dance persisted. Touring groups from America brought new styles like the Charleston, shaping the mid-twenties into erotic decadence reminiscent of high society. While increasingly popular, it was heavily criticized, and eventually indicted by the 30s during the Cultural Revolution.
The folk songs of particular interest to party officials were the street songs of the underclasses. These uncategorized genres existed decades prior to the revolution and held focus because of their popularity and ability to communicate with a large segment of the populace. The Party would eventually pay mind to the words of this music as it proliferated during the early years. This music included “cruel romances”, “underworld”, or “street” songs. Some of its descriptions include the “overwrought, trite melodic content, and melodramatic lyrics about illicit love, betrayal, and infidelity.” (Nelson, p101). Some of the songs were more lighthearted, but they often spoke of police corruption, social upheaval, and a constantly evolving commentary on social events. Soviet ethnographers and researchers consistently monitored them for political content.
Other genres, like waltz and gypsy were heard throughout this time and experimented with by composers to develop a style that could be nationalized into a proletarian ideal. The main complications arose from the fact that music involved the emotions more than the intellect. As Nelson writes, “The abstract nature of musical expression set it apart from other artistic forms that relied on more concrete language and images.” (p104) Many other factors led to music proliferating while other forms of expression were quicker to experience censorship and limitations. Anatoly Lunacharsky, the leader, and person responsible for the preservation of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 1922, would write extensively to Stalin arguing the cost benefits of maintaining music culture for the masses. Marina Frolova-Walker and Jonathan Walker would go on to explain in their book, “Music and Soviet Power”, that “the ‘thinkers’ might have been sent into exile, but the ‘players’ remained – and indeed their time was only just beginning.” (p73).
The Western influence of music may one day be considered decadent and unfit for the Soviet populace, but for a time, jazz and black American culture would be embraced as a style oppressed by the elite, and fit for the proletarian sensibility. This would be relatively short lived, while the moral crusaders in the United States would not stifle the musical expression of jazz as it stretched across the American continent, Soviet criticisms would eventually curtail its expansion. I’ll look tomorrow at some interesting figures in the jazz world of early soviet culture, but until then, I’ll leave you with a popular folk song that would endure the unions and critics to become an acceptable expression of early Soviet life. This rendition is highly stylized by jazz and performed by the famous Barry Sisters.
Here are the words if you care to sing along:
(English)
BUBLITCHKI
Bagels! Hot Bagels!
Come-and-get my bagels
Hot bagels, hot rolls
Buy now ...
It’s almost night now
Here I stand deep in thought
See, my eyes how
dark they are!
It’s freezing out here
My hands are frozen stiff
This sad song comes out of
My desperate troubles!
So! Come-and-get my bagels!
Hot bagels! Hot rolls!
My last few bagels
So! buy, with me...
Here I do stand alone
wet because of rain,
The last few bagels.
So! buy with me ...
The night is passing by,
The day is coming soon
I stay here wet and cold,
What’s gonna be?
There’s nothing but pain at home
I’m so hungry, I’m about to faint
Dear folks, hear my song
I’m so hungry I’m about to faint
Bublichki, bagels,
come and buy my bagels ...
Buy!