Playlist 1917: what kind of music listened to young people
On November 7, the Day of the October Revolution, we looked at the statistics of the age of those who overturned the state system
There was no such variety of genres and styles as we have now. In total, 3 directions can be distinguished: songs are actually revolutionary, romances on records and classics. Let's go through each one.
Young people like students and poor workers, who could not afford any records, gramophone, or even a concert, listened to songs at demonstrations, gatherings, choired them in the corridors of gymnasiums and barracks. So these melodies were transmitted to each other – in voice. And they, in turn, conveyed a call to action, the discontent of the people. Remember, for example, “Bold, comrades, in step.”.
This song went from a German student song against Napoleonic occupation to Shushensky, where Lenin was exiled in 1897. The future leader of the proletariat liked the song, its lyrics were published only in 1914.
There were other famous compositions of this plan, but the style was the same - to sing in chorus slogans about the uprising of the working people.
Among the “zoomers” of that time in the course was music imitating folklore. One of the brightest such performers is Nadezhda Plevitskaya, whose recordings are still in demand among listeners. They also adored Roma motifs in music: Nicholas II himself expressed admiration for the gypsy singer Varvara Panina, but this was, of course, much earlier than the Bolshevik coup.
This kind of work was heard on records. And, “disassembling” the regiment with them, we cannot but mention Fyodor Chaliapin. “Tsar Bass”, no matter how it sounds for the revolutionary time, in 1905 donated the fees from his performances to the workers, and for his services in the theater was a success in 1917.
There were also young intellectuals. In addition to gramophones, its representatives could afford to visit theaters where operas and ballets were held. Scriabin was especially popular - his whole cult was formed, whose members memorized the Poem of Ecstasy and Prometheus by heart.
Until the events of 1917, the elite kept the tradition of salons: they played pleasant piano music – not sharp, devoid of innovation.
