Vinyls And Music In Kyiv

If you were hit by a tram, a cabman knocked you off your feet and ruined your starched suit, or you were tired of visiting crowded and stuffy halls, or you could not get to a concert because of any other circumstances - there were no reasons to be sad. You could always buy recordings with your favorite aria, Gypsy Romance, or get vinyl with a record of a single "Songs about a sick chicken" and enjoy music at home (or in a hospital bed). There were three large stores in Kyiv that sold music records and instruments. All three of them were located on Khreshchatyk street.

Hundreds of records, gramophones, musical instruments, musical notes and books, as well as the tickets to the various events and concerts were on sale. All kinds of popular at that time music appeared on vinyl, and they could satisfy refined, as well as not so much refined, tastes of Kyivans and the guests of the city. In the twentieth century, the recordings helped music to travel without singers and orchestras - a round piece of hardened resin could include one song on each side. Records had been published in Kyiv since 1909, so it is not surprising that before the Revolution vinyl records had already been very popular.

Thanks to the available recording techniques, records and music vendors, we can imagine the musical tastes and preferences of that time not just by reading about them but also by listening to the music of that period. So imagine being a music lover, let us say, in 1916. You are in the city, and as it often happens, you have to listen not only to what you want but to absolutely everything that your ears involuntarily catch on the streets. Have you ever counted how many songs you hear while walking along Khreshchatyk or Volodymyrska Hill today? Something similar could have happened to you in the 1910s.

Besides the sad news and disturbances, the First World War brought new music to the city and increased the volume of the military orchestras. The most famous compositions of the new repertoire were the anthems of the allies of the Russian Empire. On top of the standard "God Save The Tsar", the most popular French, British, Belgian, Czech and Serbian hymns were played more and more often at the ceremonial events. This was a musical symbol of the First World War.

The military orchestras not only played "military music" but also practiced in performing overtures to operas, which were as popular then as they are now, dancing tunes, and other popular music. The one could hear the tunes of the military orchestras while walking in gardens and parks, in the foyers of theaters and cinemas, or in any other place, such as a steamboat on the Dnipro river. Musical accompaniment of the big military events had to be loud, so in contrast to the string instruments used for chamber music, which were most common before the war, military bands used drums, cymbals, trumpets, tubes, and other wind instruments. The war brought the sounds of copper to the music!

The analysis of the press allows us to know more about the musical repertoire of the theaters and places of recreation and entertainment. Like today, the City Theater on Volodymyrska street (now the Taras Shevchenko National Opera and Ballet Theater of Ukraine) was an opera house. One hundred years ago, Kyivans could enjoy the famous operas of Verdi, of the Russian composers Borodin, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky, or listen to the familiar today melodies and arias from Bizet's Carmen. Opera singers from different cities, as well as from abroad, came to Kyiv. The theater critics and opera lovers criticized Mikhail Bagrov, an entrepreneur of that time, for his excessive thriftiness when it came to selecting the repertoire. During 1915-1916 the same performances were staged, which Kyivans found unacceptable.

Operas were performed not only within the walls of the City Theater. The students of music courses and schools, or conservatory often played opera arias and overtures in different places: in the hall of the banking club, the Public Auditorium Hause, in Kyiv Conservatory and other public places.

Ukrainian music was performed on the stage of the Theater of the City People's House, as well as in the Summer Garden of the Merchants' Assembly, where Sadovsky's theatrical troupe staged their performances with musical accompaniment. In the Merchants' Assembly the important holidays, foremost Christmas, were also celebrated; a choir of Kyiv's students was invited here to perform carols arranged by Oleksandr Koshyts. He was the conductor of the choir and the orchestra in this theater. In that theater, you could hear the arias from the first Ukrainian opera "Zaporozhets za Dunayem" and other Ukrainian operas, such as "Natalka-Poltavka", "Vii" and "Utoplena". Cover versions of Ukrainian folk songs, to use a contemporary notion, and Ukrainian romances written by Ukrainian composers were played in this theatre as well. Remarkably, a unique record has survived, on which M.V. Lysenko plays the piano in the song "Gandzia":

The lives of actors, and even more so of musicians, are unpredictable in any epoch. Especially during the war: one day violinist is sitting in the orchestra pit of the City Theater, and the next day he or she is playing the same instrument in a circus, park, or cabaret in the "Chateau de Fleur" garden.

The singers sang in different genres the arrangements of folk songs, gypsy romances, and arias from operettas. The newspapers and magazines of that time announced concerts or recordings release with performances of famous singers: Vasily Shumsky, Vera Smirnova, Raisa Raisova, and Vladimir Sabinin. At that time, Kyivans also liked chansonniers Dmitry Bohemsky and Ivan Rudenkov, comedian singers who wrote and performed humorous or satirical lyrics with musical accompaniment. The tunes of a string quartet were heard in the cinemas during the intermissions. Kyiv was filled with the music of various genres. Vynil records that were advertised in the newspapers in Kyiv have been preserved until today. Music fans in Kyiv bought these records and listened to them, and today we have a great opportunity to listen to this music again:

Some of the recordings in the playlists, which hopefully you are listening to now, were composed before the First World War or recorded elsewhere outside of Kyiv. However, they enrich the Kyiv's playlist, as people continued to listen to this music in the 1910s. In addition, most of these musicians often came to Kyiv on tour, so we can safely add their music to the collection the Kyiv's sounds of the early twentieth century.

This study and all the recordings presented in it, unfortunately, is not able to show us the whole world of Kyiv's music and sounds of that time because other tunes, which have not survived on records to this day, was also played in the city. Firstly, from time to time, the traditional Ukrainian and Jewish music - singing, traditional dancing music, or ritual melodies - was heard on the streets of the city in any season and at any time of the day. It is also worth to mention playing and singing lyricists, who were another important element of musical life in Kyiv. Their melodies were heard not only near the walls of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra but also near other churches, on the fairs or market squares. This music was well known to Kyivans and the guests of the city. In addition to the information that we know from the ego-documents about lyricists, the musical caricature of Ivan Rudenkov "Little Russian Lyricist", which you can also find in our last playlist, provides a vivid confirmation of their presence in the city. 

Other than the melodies of lyricists or traditional Ukrainian and Jewish music, the citizens in Kyiv could hear more and more often the sounds of accordions, balalaikas and other instruments, which gradually became popular because of the influence of Russian culture. The sounds of Kyiv varied, but the issues discussed in the last two paragraphs of this text require further deeper investigation.

Sources used in the text:

“Yuzhnaia Kopeika” (1914-1917).

"Kievskaia Mysl'" (1914-1916)

www.russian-records.com In the comments to each record on soundcloud.com there is a link to the page with the original vinyl, where you can also find all the details about the owner of the vinyl.

Collages with advertisements from the newspaper “Yuzhnaia Kopeika” are made by Kateryna Kapra.