| Bulat Okudzhava | |
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 The album of songs from the movies shows an iconic image of Bulat Okudzhava
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava |
| Born | May 9, 1924 Moscow,USSR |
| Origin | Soviet Union |
| Died | June 12, 1997 (aged 73) Paris, France |
| Genre(s) | author's song |
| Occupation(s) | musician, poet, editor |
| Instrument(s) | guitar |
| Years active | 1950s-1997 |
| Associated acts | bards |
Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (also transliterated as Boulat Okudjava/Okoudjava/Okoudzhava; Russian: Булат Шалвович Окуджава, Georgian: ბულატ ოკუჯავა) (May 9, 1924 – June 12, 1997) was one of the founders of the Russian genre called "author's song" (авторская песня, avtorskaya pesnya). Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Georgian (ka ქართული ენა kartuli ena) is the Official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus. Events 1457 BC - Battle of Megiddo (15th century BC between Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition under the King of Year 1924 ( MCMXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1381 - Peasants' Revolt: in England, rebels arrive at Blackheath. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar For other meanings of the word see Bard (disambiguation. The term bard (бард He was of Georgian origin, born in Moscow and died in Paris. Georgia ( საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a Transcontinental country in the Caucasus region situated at the dividing line between Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city He was the author of about 200 songs, set to his own poetry. His songs are a mixture of Russian poetic and folksong traditions and the French chansonnier style represented by such contemporaries of Okudzhava as Georges Brassens. A chansonnier (cançoner cançonièr Galician and cancioneiro canzoniere or canzoniéro cancionero is a Manuscript or printed book which contains a Georges Brassens (ʒɔʁʒ bʁaˈsɛ̃s in French (22 October 1921 - 29 October 1981 was a French Singer-songwriter. Though his songs were never overtly political (in contrast to those of some of his fellow "bards"), the freshness and independence of Okudzhava's artistic voice presented a subtle challenge to Soviet cultural authorities, who were thus hesitant for many years to give official sanction to Okudzhava as a singer-songwriter. For other meanings of the word see Bard (disambiguation. The term bard (бард
Contents |
Life
Bulat Okudzhava was born in Moscow on May 9, 1924 into a family of communists who had come from Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, for study and work connected with the Communist Party. Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of Events 1457 BC - Battle of Megiddo (15th century BC between Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition under the King of Year 1924 ( MCMXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Tbilisi (ˌtbiˈliːsi in Georgian: თბილისი is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari Georgia ( საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a Transcontinental country in the Caucasus region situated at the dividing line between The son of a Georgian father and an Armenian mother, Bulat Okudzhava spoke and wrote only in Russian. Georgia ( საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a Transcontinental country in the Caucasus region situated at the dividing line between The Armenians (Հայեր Hayer) are a Nation and Ethnic group originating in the Caucasus and in the Armenian Highlands A large Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages This was because his mother, who spoke Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani, had always requested everyone who came to visit her house: "Please, speak the language of Lenin - Russian. The Armenian language (hy հայերեն լեզու hajɛɹɛn lɛzu —, conventional short form) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian " His father, a high Communist Party member from Georgia, was arrested in 1937 during the Great Purge and executed as a German spy on the basis of a false accusation. A Political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of Communism through a communist form of Year 1937 ( MCMXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Great Purge (Большая чистка transliterated Bolshaya chistka) was a series of campaigns of Political repression and Persecution Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. His mother was also arrested and spent 18 years in the prison camps of the Gulag (1937-1955). The Gulag was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. Year 1937 ( MCMXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) Bulat Okudzhava returned to Tbilisi and lived there with relatives.
In 1941, at the age of 17, one year before his scheduled school graduation, he volunteered for the Red Army infantry and from 1942 participated in the war with Nazi Germany. Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya The Infantry is the oldest and most numerous of the Combat Arms in the Armed forces, and consists Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The term Great Patriotic War (Великая Отечественная война Velikaya Otechestvennaya Vojna) is used in Russia and some other With the end of the Second World War, after his discharge from the service in 1945, he returned to Tbilisi where he passed his high school graduation tests and enrolled in Tbilisi State University, graduating in 1950. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Year 1945 ( MCMXLV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar Tbilisi Ivane Javakhishvili State University, better known as Tbilisi State University ( TSU) (თბილისის ივანე ჯავახიშვილის Year 1950 ( MCML) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. After graduating, he worked as a teacher - first in a rural school in the village of Shamordino in Kaluga district, and later in the city of Kaluga itself. Kaluga Oblast (Калу́жская о́бласть Kaluzhskaya oblast) is a federal subject of Russia (an Oblast) Kaluga01 0812 168gjpg|thumb|left|200px|Central Kaluga]]Kaluga01 0812 170g
In 1956, three years after the death of Stalin, Okudzhava returned to Moscow, where he worked first as an editor in the publishing house Molodaya Gvardiya ("Young Guard"), and later as the head of the poetry division at the most prominent national literary weekly in the former USSR, Literaturnaya Gazeta ("Literary Newspaper"). Year 1956 ( MCMLVI) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party Literaturnaya Gazeta (Literary Newspaper Литературная газета is a weekly cultural and political newspaper published in Russia and Soviet It was then, in the middle of the 1950s, that he began to compose songs and to perform them, accompanying himself on a Russian guitar. The Russian guitar is a seven-string acoustic Guitar that arrived in Russia toward the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century most probably
Soon he was giving concerts. He only employed a few chords and had no formal training in music, but he possessed an exceptional melodic gift, and the intelligent lyrics of his songs blended perfectly with his music and his voice. This article describes musical chords in traditional Western styles His songs were praised by his friends, and amateur recordings were made. These unofficial recordings were widely copied (as so-called magnitizdat) and spread across the USSR (and in Poland), where other young people picked up guitars and started singing the songs for themselves. Magnitizdat (in Russian магнитиздат is a term used to describe the process of re-copying and self distributing live audio tape recordings in the Soviet Union Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland In 1969, his lyrics appeared in the classic Soviet film White Sun of the Desert. Year 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. White sun of the desert ( Белое солнце пустыни; Beloye solntse pustyni) ( 1969) a classic 'Eastern' or Ostern
Though Okudzhava's songs were not published by any official media organization until the late 1970s, they quickly achieved enormous popularity (especially among the intelligentsia) - mainly in the USSR at first, but soon among Russian-speakers in other countries as well. "Arbat" redirects here For other uses see Arbat (disambiguation. For the coffee shop company often called Intelligentsia for short see Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea. Vladimir Nabokov, for example, cited his Sentimental March in the novel Ada or Ardor. This page is about the novelist For his father the politician see Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov. Ada or Ardor A Family Chronicle is a Novel by Vladimir Nabokov published in 1969.
Okudzhava, however, regarded himself primarily as a poet and claimed that his musical recordings were insignificant. During the 1980s, he also published a great deal of prose (his novel The Show is Over won him the Russian Booker Prize in 1994). The Booker-Open Russia Literary Prize, sometimes known as the Russian Booker Prize, is a Russian literary award modelled after the Booker Prize and inaugurated Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) By the 1980s, recordings of Okudzhava performing his songs finally began to be officially released in the Soviet Union, and many volumes of his poetry appeared separately. In 1991, he was awarded the USSR State Prize. The USSR State Prize (Госуда́рственная пре́мия СССР was the Soviet Union 's state honour
Okudzhava died in Paris on June 12, 1997, and is buried in the Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow. Events 1381 - Peasants' Revolt: in England, rebels arrive at Blackheath. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar Vagan'kovskoye Cemetery (Ваганьковское кладбище established in 1771, is located in the Krasnaya Presnya (Красная Пресня district of A monument marks the building at 43 Arbat Street where he lived. "Arbat" redirects here For other uses see Arbat (disambiguation. His dacha in Peredelkino is open to the public as a museum. Dacha ( is a Russian word for seasonal or year-round second homes located in the Exurbs of Soviet and Russian cities Peredelkino is a Dacha complex situated just to the south-west of Moscow. A museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development open to the public which acquires conserves researches communicates and exhibits the
A minor planet 3149 Okudzhava discovered by Czech astronomer Zdeňka Vávrová in 1981 is named after him. Minor planet is a term used since the 19th century to describe objects such as Asteroids that are in Orbit around the Sun but are not Planets 3149 Okudzhava (1981 SH is a Main-belt Asteroid discovered on September 22, 1981 by Z [1]
Bulat Okudzhava
MOZART
Translated from the Russian by Alec vagapov
To I. B.
Am F G7 C
Mozart is playing the old little violin,
Dm E7
Mozart is playing while his violin sings.
Dm G7 C
Mozart does not choose, for living, a motherland,
Dm E7 Am
simply, he plays all his life, as it is.
G C
Well, never mind, that's the way we are destined,
H7 E7
such is our fate: now we feast, now we fight. . .
Am Dm
Keep up your diligent efforts, maestro,
E7 Am
keep meditating and feeling inspired.
Somewhere around our last destination,
maybe, we'll thank our fate anyway,
only I wish that our homeland's transgression
wouldn't be turned to an idol some day.
Well, never mind, that's the way we are destined,
such is our fate: now we feast, now we fight. . .
Don't give up hope, hold it out, maestro,
keep meditating and feeling inspired.
Short are the years of our blithe adolescence,
off they will fly and disperse, in a flash. . .
Camisoles, cuffs, golden shoes, silver laces,
snow-white perukes, and a colorful splash.
Well, never mind, that's the way we are destined,
such is our fate: now we feast, now we fight. . .
Well, let it be, don't pay any attention, maestro,
keep meditating and feeling inspired.
1969
Music
Okudzhava, like most bards, did not come from a musical background. He learned basic guitar skills with the help of some friends. He also knew how to play basic chords on a piano.
Okudzhava tuned his Russian guitar to the "Russian tuning" of D'-G'-C-D-g-b-d' (thickest to thinnest string), and often lowered it by one or two tones to better accommodate his voice. The Russian guitar is a seven-string acoustic Guitar that arrived in Russia toward the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century most probably He played in a classical manner, usually finger picking the strings in an ascending/descending arpeggio or waltz pattern, with an alternating bass line picked by the thumb. In Music, an arpeggio is a broken chord where the Notes are played or sung in Sequence, one after the other rather than Ringing out simultaneously
Initially Okudzhava was taught three basic chords, and towards the end of his life he claimed to know a total seven.
Many of Okudzhava's songs are in the key of C minor (with downtuning B flat or A minor), centering around the C minor chord (X00X011, thickest to thinnest string), then progressing to a D 7 (00X0433), then either an E-flat minor (X55X566) or C major (55X5555). In addition to the aforementioned chords, the E-flat major chord (X55X567) was often featured in songs in a major key, usually C major (with downtuning B-flat or A major).
By the nineties, Okudzhava adopted the increasingly popular six string guitar but retained the Russian tuning, subtracting the fourth string, which was convenient to his style of playing.
Quotes
"The composers hated me. The singers detested me. The guitarists were terrified by me. " -- Bulat Okudzhava
References
External links
- (English) Audio files of his most famous songs in MP3 format
- (English) Biography (www.russia-in-us.com)
- (English) Biography (www.russia-ic.com)
- (Russian) Song Lyrics (100+ songs)
- (English) English translations by Alec Vagapov (55 songs)
- (English) Russian poets of the 1960's
- (English) English translations by Yevgeny Bonver (24 songs)
- (English) (Russian) English translations by Maya Jouravel (3 songs)
- (Russian) Rare photos of Bulat Okudzhava by Mihail Pazij
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