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Russian
Film Music II
The music embraces us with a
“genuine” world of romance, suspense and tragic human
drama
The first motion pictures to appear in
Russia were the pioneering works of the Lumière brothers which
were imported from France in 1894 as part of the festivities
celebrating the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II. Within little
more than a decade, a thriving film industry was forging ahead
in Russia. However, in addition to the turmoil of the 1917
Revolution, World War I caused the film industry to come to a
grinding halt making film production and distribution virtually
non-existent. Famine, civil war and a foreign blockade prevented
the import of films and equipment from abroad.In an attempt to
aid the ailing film industry, Lenin nationalized it on August
27, 1919 and put it under control of Anatoly Lunacharsky, head
of the People’s Commissariat of Enlightenment. Lunacharsky
demanded the production of agitational films (known as “agit
films”) in the form of short documentaries or rehearsed scenes
intended to glorify the 1917 Revolution and show the advantages
of communism. The general belief was that the film industry had
been the media of profit-hungry capitalists before the
revolution but now it was to be a source of education and
inspiration for the people. In 1922, the government centralized
control of the film industry by creating Goskino, the State
Cinema Enterprise, which centralized control of the film
industry. Goskino was renamed Sovkino in 1926. It was the most
powerful of the national film organizations and controlled
distribution of all foreign films using the profits to subsidize
domestic film-making.
Because Soviet censors often made changes to
foreign films, it often took between one and five years for a
foreign film to be released in the Soviet theaters. The Russian
film titles were rarely simple translations and the film
dialogue was often changed to reflect a more politically-correct
viewpoint. Because the films were silent, the censors could
simply change the titles that would substitute for spoken
dialogue. Suddenly, a suicide could become a murder or a street
fight could become a workers’ revolt against capitalist
oppression. Thus, one may not be blamed for assuming that V.I.
Lenin had an eye for the obvious propaganda value of the 20s’
fast-developing film industry when he once said: “Cinematography
is the most important of all the arts.” We can surely add to
Lenin’s quote that music is one of the most important elements
in the art of making movies. Considerable research and
preparation has gone into recording both albums of Russian
Film Music (Spring 2000) and Russian Film Music II
(Spring 2002). From a selection of more than eighty movies,
stretching from the first Russian soundtrack movie, New
Babylon (Shostakovich), in 1929 to Petrov’s I Am Walking
in Moscow, a total of thirty-eight compositions by nineteen
composers were selected for both albums. When listening, one
will notice that the music naturally reflects the gradual
change from the 30s’ “modern” classical compositions of
Shostakovich through five decades to the popular postmodern
music of Andrey Petrov.
The very first composer to write original film music was Camille
Saint-Saens. In 1908, he wrote a suite for strings, piano, and
harmonium for the film, L’assassinat de Duc Guise.
Similar efforts for composing music for cinema were ongoing in
Germany and the USA and in 1928, a German composer, E. Majze,
composed music for the Berlin premiere of the world-famous
Battleship Potemkin by S.Eisenstein. The first original film
music in the USSR was written by Shostakovich in 1929 for the
film, New Babylon.
In the 30s, Russian film music took its first steps towards
independence from the films themselves and gradually moved from
the decorative, inflexible propaganda role of the 20s into the
emotional depth of the characters-awakening compassion and
nostalgic feelings in the listeners’ hearts and bringing tears
to their eyes. Even though propaganda and censure continued to
play a major part in movie production during the “Iron Curtain”
period, if one asks any Russian of that generation if he or she
enjoyed those Russian movies, the answer would be an
enthusiastic “yes!” During that difficult period there was an
extraordinary need to be “carried away” - dreaming of wealth and
romance- and in this sense, the film music was of great comfort.
While watching a movie enhanced by today’s exceptionally
high-quality sound production, it is possible we have come to
take the music for granted. We hardly notice the music- as
though it is a shadow in the background. Yet, its ability to
color silent scenes and bridge pauses in conversation, or create
atmospheres of high drama, tension and suspense should never be
underestimated. The music is always there, playing a major part
in creating the identity of the movie. Many movies are
remembered and identified only because of their wonderful music.
Although some films will be forgotten, the music lives on. We
tend to forget that once recorded the music is forever.
Portraying some of the most moving and thrilling music of all
time, we have chosen to let the magnificent Russian Film
Music II do all “the talking” especially since it would
require extensive space to describe all the movies whose sound
tracks are recorded on this album. The music, so persuading and
powerful, embraces us with a “genuine” world of romance, suspense
and tragic human drama. Thus, these films are elevated from
would otherwise, in many cases, have been quite ordinary
thrillers or plain romantic movies. |
