Curious cases in the life of the composer gray-haired Solovyov. About the Marshal Song project

People's Artist of the USSR (1967)
Hero of Socialist Labor (1975)
Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1959)
Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1943, 1947)
Awarded 3 Orders of Lenin and the Order of the Red Star



Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy was born on April 25, 1907 in the family of Pavel and Anna Solovyovs in St. Petersburg. His parents were peasants. After serving in the tsarist army, my father left for St. Petersburg, lived in poverty for a long time and took on any job. Happiness smiled at him when he got a job as a janitor in a house on the Obvodny Canal. Vasily's mother was a native of the Pskov region, she knew many Russian folk songs and loved to sing them. These songs played a big role in the musical development of the future composer. Shortly before moving to Staro-Nevsky, Anna got a job as a maid to the famous singer Anastasia Vyaltseva.

The first musical instruments that Vasily learned to play as a boy were the balalaika (a precious gift from his father) and the guitar. In the summer, Vasya's hair completely burned out from the sun, and his father affectionately called him gray or gray. The yard boys liked the nickname "Grey" and since then Vasily has only been called that.

The cellist of the Mariinsky Opera Theater Orchestra N. Sazonov lived in their house. It was with his help that Vasily was introduced to great art. He managed to see and hear Fyodor Chaliapin in the operas Boris Godunov and The Barber of Seville.

Silent cinema introduced Vasily to the piano. A small movie theater "Elephant" was opened in house 139, where they played films with the participation of Buster Keaton and Vera Kholodnaya. Noticing a curiosity at the screen - a piano, Vasily begged the projectionist to allow him to try the keys and quickly picked up "The moon shines" by ear. The delighted mechanic allowed him to sit down to the instrument every morning, and Vasily undertook to carry films, helped them "scroll", and cleaned the hall. Such classes helped Vasily Pavlovich a lot when, after the revolution and the death of his mother, he took up musical improvisation in cinemas, then accompanied gymnastics lessons in an art studio, and later also accompanied radio gymnastics broadcasts on the radio.

Vasily continued his musical education at the Third Musical College in the class of Pyotr Borisovich Ryazanov, an outstanding teacher and mentor of many Soviet composers. Solovyov-Sedoy studied at the composer department together with Nikita Bogoslovsky. At the technical school, he became friends with Ivan Dzerzhinsky and Nikolai Gan. In 1931, the entire course was transferred to the conservatory.

For the first time, Vasily Pavlovich was noticed as a composer-songwriter at the Leningrad competition of mass songs in 1936 - the first prize was awarded to his songs "Parade" to the words of A. Gitovich and "Song of Leningrad" to the words of E. Ryvina. Solovyov-Sedoy's songs were sung by famous singers: Irma Yaunzem sang his song "The Death of Chapaev" in 1935 at the decade of Soviet music in Moscow, Leonid Utyosov sang for the first time his songs "Two Friends Were Serving" and "Cossack Cavalry". On June 22, 1941, the war began, and the very next day the poetess L. Davidovich brought Solovyov-Sedoy poems called "Dear Outpost". They were written before the war and corrected, so that the necessary couplet turned out:

But the evil enemy flock
Above us, like a cloud, soared
Outpost dear
Rose for the Motherland

On July 24, Solovyov-Sedoy composed the melody of this song, came to his friend, the actor Alexander Borisov, they found an accordion player, and on the same evening the song sounded from loudspeakers over the city.

The sensitivity of Solovyov-Sedoy to the Russian artistic word, especially the poetic one, was unique.By 1935, there were twenty-four works created by Solovyov-Sedov. Among them were music for the theater, a lyric poem for a symphony orchestra, pieces for violin and piano, a piano concerto. But none of his songs became mass. However, their author was noticed by Dunaevsky, who was able to discern an outstanding musical gift in Solovyov-Sedom.

During the war, Solovyov-Sedoy created many wonderful songs: "Evening on the roadstead", "Vasya Kryuchkin", "What do you yearn for, comrade sailor", "Like beyond the Kama, across the river", "On a sunny meadow", "Do not disturb don't disturb yourself" and other works.

In August 1941, Solovyov-Sedogo, together with the poet Alexander Churkin, was sent to the port, where, like thousands of Leningraders, they pulled logs and cleaned up the territory in order to reduce the risk of fire from incendiary bombs. At the end of a long day of work, they sat down to rest on board an unloaded barge. It was a late Leningrad evening. Nothing reminded of the war. In the bay, shrouded in a blue haze, a ship stood in the roadstead. Quiet music could be heard from it: someone was playing the button accordion. When they went home, the composer said: "Wonderful evening. Worth the song." Upon returning home, Churkin sat down to write poetry, and Solovyov-Sedoy - music. Three days later, a new song was born - "Evening on the raid". The composer and the poet carried her to the house of composers. There the song was found to be too calm, even mournful and, as was said, not meeting the requirements of wartime.

Solovyov-Sedoy put the song aside, and it lay in his suitcase for a year. After the blockade closed around Leningrad, Solovyov-Sedoy, shortly before that, evacuated to Orenburg, again presented his song to the judgment of his colleagues. They called it "gypsy", and the composer again postponed the song. But in March 1942, it nevertheless sounded and became popular. Here's how it happened. Solovyov-Sedoy, with the theater brigade "Hawk" created by him, gave a concert in a soldier's dugout. The front line was a mile and a half away. There were no more than thirty soldiers in attendance. The concert was already coming to an end when the composer decided to sing "Evening on the Road" himself to the accordion. He accompanied himself, and sang, referring to the fighters:

Sing, friends, because tomorrow is on a hike
Let's go into the predawn fog.
Let's sing more cheerfully, let us sing along
Gray-haired battle captain.

When the chorus sounded for the third time - "Farewell, beloved city!", All the listeners picked it up. The author was asked to dictate the words, and then once again sing the song together with everyone. This has never happened before in the composer's life: people sang his song, which they had never heard before. In a few days, the song spread on all fronts. Her words were transmitted by field telephones signalmen. At night, on the phone, they sang it to the button accordion. The song was sung at the front and in the rear. She became loved by the people.

Solovyov-Sedoy was demanding of the poetic word, since he himself possessed an extraordinary literary gift. A number of his songs were composed by him on his own poems. In one of them, he defined the spiritual purpose of the song for a soldier who is ready to look into the eyes of death and defeat it:

Not a joyful song, but a sad motive
Remember dead friends
If you remember your friends, you will win otherwise,
Soldiers are a special people!
We don’t cry from pain, we cry from a song,
If the song reaches the heart.

Vasily Pavlovich considered a meeting in 1942 with the poet Alexei Fatyanov a great event in his life.

The pinnacle of their work can be called the most famous song "Nightingales", created in 1943. Fatyanov wrote lyrical poems about nightingales, in which he expressed the unity of man, nature, the living world in a foretaste of the triumph of life over death:

Well, war is for the nightingale -
The nightingale has its own life.
The soldier does not sleep
remembering the house
And a green garden over a pond,
Where nightingales sing all night
And in that house they are waiting for a soldier.

Fatyanov read the poems to Solovyov-Sedoy, and he came up with music for them. Fatyanovsky's lines evoked dramatic reflections in the composer: "It is always difficult to die. It is doubly difficult to die on the eve of victory. We talked a lot about this, and suddenly ... nightingales, lyrics ...". The song became the anthem of life in the war. There was sadness in her home, and a feeling of spring, and the expectation of victory, and hard soldier's work.

nightingales, nightingales,
do not disturb the soldiers,
Let the soldiers
get some sleep...

The song quickly sounded at the forefront. In it, the nationwide feeling was conveyed through personal experience - this was typical for the song creativity of Solovyov-Sedoy. His songs of the war years became folk, because the folk soil on which they grew was the Russian lyrical song, which is distinguished not only by light sadness, but also by the expanse of free sounding, extraordinary emotional strength.

The post-war years are characteristic for Vasily Pavlovich with the appearance of songs written for the films "Heavenly slug" and "The First Glove". In 1947, he was again awarded the State Prize for the songs "We haven't been home for a long time", "The nights have become bright", "It's time to hit the road" and "A guy is riding a cart". And for the first time he was awarded the State Prize in 1943. In 1945, the composer was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Having composed the song "Where are you now, fellow soldiers?", Solovyov-Sedoy led a cycle from it, calling it at first "The Return of the Soldier", then already finding a more general, epic name - "The Tale of the Soldier". The cycle was first performed by Claudia Shulzhenko at the Central House of Arts in November 1947.

On March 12, 1950, Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and devoted a lot of time to parliamentary work.

In 1956 he wrote the song "Moscow Evenings". It was one of the five songs that created the musical background of the chronicle-documentary film "In the days of the Spartakiad" about the first Spartakiad of the peoples of the USSR. Solovyov-Sedoy rated it as another good song - nothing more. He was genuinely surprised when the song "Moscow Evenings" won the first prize and the Big Gold Medal at the international song contest, which was held during the World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in the summer of 1957.



"Moscow Evenings" has become a song-symbol of Russia for the whole world. In the piano performance, they sounded at concerts of the famous American pianist Van Clyburn. The well-known figure of English jazz Kenny Ball made a jazz arrangement of Solovyov-Sedoy's song and released a record called "Midnight in Moscow". When in 1966 the young Soviet vocalist Eduard Khil sang "Moscow Evenings" at the International Variety Competition in Rio de Janeiro, the audience picked up the song from the second verse. In 1959, Solovyov-Sedom was awarded the Lenin Prize for the songs "On the Road", "Milestones", "If only the boys of the whole earth", "March of Nakhimov" and "Moscow Evenings".

In the cinema, Solovyov-Sedoy was the author of music for more than fifty films. The composer created several song cycles: "The Tale of a Soldier", "Northern Poem" in 1967, "Light Song" in 1972, "My Contemporaries" (1973-1975).

In the last 4 years of his life, Solovyov-Sedoy was seriously ill, but the disease did not prevent him from celebrating his 70th birthday in 1977. Friends, artists came to the composer's house on the embankment of the Fontanka River No. 131, and the composer's anniversary was broadcast on television.

Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy died on December 2, 1979, and was buried on the Literary bridges. Next to his grave in 1982, his best childhood friend, actor Alexander Borisov, was buried.

In 2007, a documentary film "Marshal of Song. Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi" was filmed.

One of the most significant songwriters in Russia of the XX century.

Biography

Vasily Pavlovich Solovyov was born on April 12 (25), 1907 in St. Petersburg in a family of peasants. Father, Pavel Pavlovich Solovyov, served as the Chief Janitor of Nevsky Prospekt. Mother, Anna Fedorovna, worked as a maid for the famous singer A. D. Vyaltseva, who gave her a gramophone and records with her songs. The pseudonym "Grey" came from a childhood nickname (due to very blond hair). In early childhood, he received a balalaika from his father as a gift, which he mastered on his own and organized a trio with neighboring children (balalaika, guitar and mandolin). The first "classical" musical impressions of Solovyov-Sedoy were trips to the Mariinsky Theater, where he was taken by a cellist who lived in their house. There the boy heard The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, conducted by A. Coates, performances by F. I. Chaliapin in the operas Boris Godunov by M. P. Mussorgsky and The Barber of Seville by G. Rossini.

In 1923, Solovyov-Sedoy graduated from the unified labor school. Having seen a piano for a pianist in the St. Petersburg cinema "Elephant", he began to pick up famous melodies by ear and learned to play: from 1925 he dubbed movie shows in clubs, worked as an accompanist in a rhythmic gymnastics studio (together with E. A. Mravinsky), a pianist-improviser on the Leningrad radio .

In 1948-1974. Solovyov-Sedoy held major administrative positions in the Union of Composers: in 1948-1964. chairman of the board of the Leningrad branch of the RSFSR IC, in 1957-1974 secretary of the USSR IC.

The post-war period (until the beginning of the 1960s) - the years of the creative flowering of Solovyov-Sedoy. The song "On the Boat" from the music for the film "The First Glove" (1946, to lyrics by V. I. Lebedev-Kumach) is one of his most penetrating lyrical songs. The song "On the Road" from the film "Maxim Perepelitsa" (1955, lyrics by M. A. Dudin) became the most popular drill in the Soviet Army. In the year the composer wrote a song cycle based on the verses of A. I. Fatyanov “The Tale of a Soldier”, the song from which “Where are you now, fellow soldiers?” became a favorite among Soviet veterans. The song to the verses of M. L. Matusovsky from the documentary film “In the days of the Spartakiad” (1956, directors I. V. Venzher and V. N. Boikov) “Moscow Nights” became the musical symbol of the USSR all over the world; its incipit from 1964 to the present day is the call sign of the state radio station Mayak. For the VI International Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow (1957), Solovyov-Sedoy wrote the song “If only the guys of the whole earth” (verses by E. A. Dolmatovsky). The last masterpiece of the composer is “Evening Song” (, to the verses of A. D. Churkin; known by the initial words as “The City on the Free Neva ...”), which became the unofficial anthem of Leningrad.

Among other works of Solovyov-Sedoy, the ballet “Russia has entered the port” (), the operettas “The Most Treasured” (Moscow Operetta Theater,), “Olympic Stars” (Leningrad Theater of Musical Comedy,), “Eighteen Years” (, ibid. ), “At the native pier” (, Odessa Theater of Musical Comedy), “Once upon a time there was Shelmenko” (, Ternopil Theater of Musical Comedy).

Creativity and recognition

The origins of the musical style of Solovyov-Sedoy, on the one hand, in the folk songs of the Pskov region, on the other hand, in the urban song and urban romance of the early 20th century. A clear and precise contour of the melody (“humming”, characteristic of some songs by Solovyov-Sedoy, is typologically related to the American “crooning”, but unlike it has a pronounced Russian intonation), artless rhythm (as in the case of “Moscow Evenings”, where Solovyov- Sedoy ignored Matusovsky's "folk" pentasyllable, "levelled" it in chant) and diatonic harmony with rare interspersed with altered chords ("On the boat", v. 14 and 30; "Hear me, good one", v. 7) and modalisms (" Paths-paths" to Fatyanov's verses, vols. 11-12) provided a public reception of his music. Lifetime copies of Solovyov-Sedoy records amounted to 2.5 million copies. The songs of Solovyov-Sedogo were performed by the leading artists of the Soviet stage: M. N. Bernes, V. A. Bunchikov (the first performer of the song "Evening on the Road"), G. P. Vinogradov, V. S. Volodin (the first performer of the songs "Temper" and “Everything needs skill” from the film “The First Glove”), V. A. Nechaev, G. K. Ots (including translated into Estonian), E. S. Piekha, V. K. Troshin (first performer of the song "Moscow Evenings"), L. O. Utyosov, E. A. Khil, K. I. Shulzhenko and others.

Awards and prizes

Memory

• In 1982, in honor of Solovyov-Sedoy, a postage stamp "USSR Post" was issued.
• In 2007, the Bank of Russia issued a silver coin dedicated to the composer
• In St. Petersburg, on the house where the composer lived in 1950-1979, a memorial plaque was installed.
• From 1981 to 2001, the Variety Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Television and Radio was named after Solovyov-Sedoy

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

• 04/25/1907 - 1929 - profitable house - Nevsky Prospekt, 139;
• 1929 - autumn 1935 - apartment house of Countess Saltykova - Zhukovsky street, 20, apt. 7;
• autumn 1935-1941 - apartment building - 139, 25th October Avenue, apt. 49;
• 1944-1950 - tenement house - 160 October 25 Avenue, apt. 2;
• 1950 - 12/02/1979 - tenement house - embankment of the Fontanka River, 131, apt. eight.
• dacha in the village of Komarovo (St. Petersburg) on ​​Bolshoy Prospekt.

Filmography

• - Weekdays
• - Celestial slug
• - First Glove
• - Happy sailing!
• - Towards life
• - World champion
• - Once, on a wonderful day
• - Dzhigit girl
• - Good morning
• - Maxim Perepelitsa
• - She loves you!
• - Herdsman's song
• - Totally more expensive
• - Another flight
• - Tale of the newlyweds
• - Watch out, grandma!
• - Foal
• - In difficult times
• - Ivan Rybakov
• - Spring chores
• - Don story
• - When the song doesn't end
• - Volley "Aurora"
• - First visitor
• - Virineya
• - Lyubov Yarovaya
• - Shelmenko-batman
• - Open book
• - Unknown heir
• - Sweet woman
• - Taiga story

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Notes

Links

• Nikita Bogoslovsky

Site "Heroes of the Country".

An excerpt characterizing Solovyov-Sedoy, Vasily Pavlovich

One of the most tangible and advantageous deviations from the so-called rules of war is the action of scattered people against people huddled together. This kind of action always manifests itself in a war that takes on a popular character. These actions consist in the fact that, instead of becoming a crowd against a crowd, people disperse separately, attack one by one and immediately flee when they are attacked by large forces, and then attack again when the opportunity presents itself. This was done by the Guerillas in Spain; this was done by the highlanders in the Caucasus; the Russians did it in 1812.
A war of this kind was called guerrilla warfare, and it was believed that by naming it that way, its meaning was explained. Meanwhile, this kind of war not only does not fit any rules, but is directly opposed to the well-known and recognized as an infallible tactical rule. This rule says that the attacker must concentrate his troops in order to be stronger than the enemy at the time of the battle.
Guerrilla warfare (always successful, as history shows) is the exact opposite of this rule.
This contradiction arises from the fact that military science accepts the strength of troops as identical with their numbers. Military science says that the more troops, the more power. Les gros bataillons ont toujours raison. [Law is always on the side of large armies.]
In saying this, military science is like that mechanics, which, based on the consideration of forces only in relation to their masses, would say that the forces are equal or not equal to each other, because their masses are equal or not equal.
Force (momentum) is the product of mass and speed.
In military affairs, the strength of an army is also the product of the mass by something like that, by some unknown x.
Military science, seeing in history countless examples of the fact that the mass of troops does not coincide with strength, that small detachments defeat large ones, vaguely recognizes the existence of this unknown factor and tries to find it now in geometric construction, now in armament, then - the most ordinary - in the genius of the generals. But substituting all these multiplier values ​​does not produce results consistent with the historical facts.
And meanwhile, one has only to abandon the established, for the sake of the heroes, false view of the reality of the orders of the highest authorities during the war in order to find this unknown x.
This is the spirit of the army, that is, a greater or lesser desire to fight and expose themselves to the dangers of all the people who make up the army, completely regardless of whether people fight under the command of geniuses or non-geniuses, in three or two lines, with clubs or guns firing thirty once a minute. The people who have the greatest desire to fight will always put themselves in the best conditions for a fight.
The spirit of the army is a multiplier for the mass, which gives the product of force. To determine and express the meaning of the spirit of the army, this unknown multiplier, is the task of science.
This task is possible only when we stop arbitrarily replacing the value of the entire unknown X with the conditions under which force is manifested, such as: the orders of the commander, weapons, etc., taking them as the value of a multiplier, and we recognize this unknown in all its wholeness, that is, as a greater or lesser desire to fight and endanger oneself. Only then, by expressing known historical facts in equations, from a comparison of the relative significance of this unknown, can one hope to determine the unknown itself.
Ten people, battalions or divisions, fighting with fifteen people, battalions or divisions, defeated fifteen, that is, they killed and took prisoner all without a trace and themselves lost four; therefore, four were destroyed on one side, and fifteen on the other. Therefore, four was equal to fifteen, and therefore 4a:=15y. Therefore, w: g/==15:4. This equation does not give the value of the unknown, but it does give the relation between two unknowns. And from subsuming various historical units (battles, campaigns, periods of wars) under such equations, series of numbers will be obtained in which laws must exist and can be discovered.
The tactical rule that it is necessary to act in masses during the offensive and separately during the retreat, unconsciously confirms only the truth that the strength of the army depends on its spirit. In order to lead people under the core, more discipline is needed, achieved only by movement in the masses, than in order to fend off attackers. But this rule, in which the spirit of the army is lost sight of, constantly turns out to be wrong and especially strikingly contradicts reality where there is a strong rise or fall in the spirit of the army - in all people's wars.
The French, retreating in 1812, although they should have defended themselves separately, tactically huddle together, because the spirit of the army has fallen so that only the mass holds the army together. The Russians, on the contrary, tactically should have attacked en masse, but in reality they are splitting up, because the spirit is raised so that individuals strike without the order of the French and do not need coercion in order to expose themselves to labor and danger.

The so-called guerrilla war began with the entry of the enemy into Smolensk.
Before the guerrilla war was officially accepted by our government, already thousands of people of the enemy army - backward marauders, foragers - were exterminated by the Cossacks and peasants, who beat these people as unconsciously as dogs unconsciously bite a runaway rabid dog. Denis Davydov, with his Russian intuition, was the first to understand the significance of that terrible club, which, without asking the rules of military art, destroyed the French, and he owns the glory of the first step to legitimize this method of war.
On August 24, the first partisan detachment of Davydov was established, and after his detachment others began to be established. The further the campaign progressed, the more the number of these detachments increased.
The partisans destroyed the Great Army in parts. They picked up those falling leaves that fell of themselves from a withered tree - the French army, and sometimes shook this tree. In October, while the French fled to Smolensk, there were hundreds of these parties of various sizes and characters. There were parties that adopted all the methods of the army, with infantry, artillery, headquarters, with the comforts of life; there were only Cossack, cavalry; there were small, prefabricated, foot and horse, there were peasants and landlords, unknown to anyone. There was a deacon head of the party, who took several hundred prisoners a month. There was an elder, Vasilisa, who beat hundreds of Frenchmen.
The last days of October were the time of the height of the guerrilla war. That first period of this war, during which the partisans, themselves surprised at their audacity, were afraid at any moment to be caught and surrounded by the French and, without unsaddling and almost dismounting their horses, hid through the forests, waiting for every minute of the chase, has already passed. Now this war had already taken shape, it became clear to everyone what could be done with the French and what could not be done. Now only those commanders of the detachments, who, according to the rules, went away from the French with headquarters, still considered many things impossible. The small partisans, who had long ago begun their work and were closely looking out for the French, considered possible what the leaders of large detachments did not even dare to think about. The Cossacks and the peasants, who climbed between the French, believed that now everything was possible.
On October 22, Denisov, who was one of the partisans, was with his party in the midst of partisan passion. In the morning he and his party were on the move. All day long, through the forests adjacent to the main road, he followed a large French transport of cavalry items and Russian prisoners, separated from other troops and under strong cover, as was known from scouts and prisoners, heading for Smolensk. This transport was known not only to Denisov and Dolokhov (also a partisan with a small party), who walked close to Denisov, but also to the heads of large detachments with headquarters: everyone knew about this transport and, as Denisov said, they sharpened their teeth on it. Two of these great detachment commanders - one Pole, the other German - almost at the same time sent an invitation to Denisov to join his detachment in order to attack the transport.
- No, bg "at, I myself have a mustache," said Denisov, after reading these papers, and wrote to the German that, despite the sincere desire that he had to serve under the command of such a valiant and famous general, he must deprive himself of this happiness, because he had already entered under the command of a Pole general, but he wrote the same to the Pole general, notifying him that he had already entered under the command of a German.
Having ordered in this way, Denisov intended, without reporting to the top commanders, together with Dolokhov, to attack and take this transport with his own small forces. The transport went on October 22 from the village of Mikulina to the village of Shamsheva. On the left side of the road from Mikulin to Shamshev there were large forests, in places approaching the road itself, in places moving away from the road by a verst or more. For a whole day through these forests, now going deep into the middle of them, then leaving for the edge, he rode with the party of Denisov, not losing sight of the moving French. In the morning, not far from Mikulin, where the forest came close to the road, Cossacks from Denisov's party captured two French wagons with cavalry saddles that had become muddy and took them into the forest. From then until evening, the party, without attacking, followed the movement of the French. It was necessary, without frightening them, to let them calmly reach Shamshev and then, connecting with Dolokhov, who was supposed to arrive in the evening for a meeting at the guardhouse in the forest (a verst from Shamshev), at dawn fall from both sides like snow on his head and beat and take them all at once.
Behind, two versts from Mikulin, where the forest approached the road itself, six Cossacks were left, who were supposed to report it immediately, as soon as new French columns appeared.
Ahead of Shamshev, in the same way, Dolokhov had to explore the road in order to know at what distance there were still other French troops. During transport, one thousand five hundred people were supposed. Denisov had two hundred men, Dolokhov could have as many. But the superiority of numbers did not stop Denisov. The only thing he still needed to know was what exactly these troops were; and for this purpose Denisov needed to take a tongue (that is, a man from an enemy column). In the morning attack on the wagons, things happened with such haste that the French who were with the wagons were all killed and only the drummer boy was captured alive, who was backward and could not say anything positively about what kind of troops were in the column.
Denisov considered it dangerous to attack another time, so as not to alarm the entire column, and therefore he sent the muzhik Tikhon Shcherbaty, who was with his party, forward to Shamshevo - to capture, if possible, at least one of the French advanced quartermasters who were there.

It was an autumn, warm, rainy day. Sky and horizon were the same color of muddy water. Now it seemed to fall like a mist, then suddenly it allowed a slanting, heavy rain.
On a thoroughbred, thin horse with tucked-up sides, in a cloak and hat, from which water flowed, Denisov rode. He, like his horse, which squinted its head and pursed its ears, frowned at the slanting rain and peered anxiously ahead. His face, emaciated and overgrown with a thick, short, black beard, looked angry.
Next to Denisov, also in a cloak and hat, on a well-fed, large bottom rode a Cossack esaul - Denisov's employee.
Esaul Lovaisky, the third, also in a cloak and hat, was a long, flat, white-faced, fair-haired man, with narrow bright eyes and a calmly self-satisfied expression both in his face and in his seat. Although it was impossible to say what was the peculiarity of the horse and the rider, but at the first glance at the esaul and Denisov it was clear that Denisov was both wet and awkward - that Denisov was a man who mounted a horse; whereas, looking at the esaul, it was clear that he was just as comfortable and at ease as always, and that he was not a man who mounted a horse, but a man together with a horse, one being increased by double strength.
A little ahead of them walked a sodden peasant conductor, in a gray caftan and white cap.
A little behind, on a thin, thin Kyrgyz horse with a huge tail and mane and with bloody lips, rode a young officer in a blue French overcoat.
Beside him rode a hussar, carrying a boy in a tattered French uniform and a blue cap behind him on the back of his horse. The boy held on to the hussar with his hands, red from the cold, moved, trying to warm them, his bare feet, and, raising his eyebrows, looked around him in surprise. It was the French drummer taken in the morning.
Behind, in threes, fours, along a narrow, limp and rutted forest road, hussars were drawn, then Cossacks, some in a cloak, some in a French overcoat, some in a blanket thrown over their heads. The horses, both red and bay, all looked black from the rain streaming from them. The necks of the horses seemed strangely thin from wet manes. Steam rose from the horses. And clothes, and saddles, and reins - everything was wet, slippery and slushy, just like the earth and the fallen leaves with which the road was laid. People sat ruffled, trying not to move in order to warm the water that had spilled to the body, and not to let in the new cold water that was leaking under the seats, knees and necks. In the middle of the stretched-out Cossacks, two wagons on French and saddled Cossack horses rumbled over the stumps and branches and grunted along the water-filled ruts of the road.

Vasily Solovyov was born on April 25, 1907 in the city of St. Petersburg. Father, Pavel Pavlovich Solovyov, served as the Chief Janitor of Nevsky Prospekt. Mother, Anna Fedorovna, worked as a maid for the famous singer A.D. Vyaltseva, who gave her a gramophone and records with her songs. The pseudonym "Grey" came from a childhood nickname. In early childhood, he received a balalaika from his father as a gift, which he mastered on his own and organized a trio with neighbor children: Sasha Borisov, the son of a laundress and a kitchen worker, and Shura Vinogradov. The first "classical" musical impressions of Solovyov-Sedoy were trips to the Mariinsky Theater, where he was taken by a cellist who lived in their house. There the boy heard "The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh" by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, conducted by A. Coates, performances by F.I. Chaliapin in the operas "Boris Godunov" by M.P. Mussorgsky and "The Barber of Seville" by G. Rossini.

In 1923, Solovyov-Sedoy graduated from the unified labor school. Having seen a piano for a pianist in the St. Petersburg cinema "Elephant", he began to pick up famous melodies by ear and learned to play: from 1925 he dubbed movie shows in clubs, worked as an accompanist in a rhythmic gymnastics studio, and as a pianist-improviser on the Leningrad Radio.

Since 1929, on the advice of A.S. Zhivotov, Solovyov-Sedoy studied at the Leningrad Central Music College, where N.V. Bogoslovsky was his fellow student. In 1931, the entire course of the technical school was transferred to the Leningrad Conservatory, which Solovyov-Sedoy graduated in 1936 in the composition class with P.B. Ryazanov. During his studies, he worked as a composer at the Puppet and Anti-Religious Theaters in Leningrad.

Although the young composer wrote in different genres, in the second half of the 1930s, the main - lyrical and song - direction of his creative activity was determined. In 1936, at the Leningrad competition of mass songs, the first prize was awarded to his songs "Parade" and "Song of Leningrad". In 1938 he began writing music for films. In 1940 in Leningrad and in 1941 in Moscow, the premieres of Solovyov-Sedoy's ballet Taras Bulba took place.

During the Great Patriotic War, he lived in Chkalov, where in 1941 he organized and led the theatrical front-line brigade "Yastrebok", with which he was sent to the Kalinin Front, in the Rzhev region. During the evacuation, he met the poet A.I. Fatyanov, who became his constant creative partner. The war gave a powerful dramatic impetus to the work of Solovyov-Sedoy. In the period 1941-1945. he wrote about 70 songs that won him popular love; among them are “Evening on the roadstead”, “On a sunny meadow”, “Nightingales”, “We haven’t been at home for a long time”, “What are you yearning for, comrade sailor?”, “Don’t disturb yourself, don’t disturb”, “Hear me , good”, “Sailor Nights”. In 1945, songs appeared for the comedy film "Heavenly slug" - "Because we are pilots" and "It's time to hit the road"; in the same year, the premiere of his operetta "True Friend" took place in Kuibyshev.

In 1948-1974, Solovyov-Sedoy held major administrative positions in the Union of Composers: in 1948-1964 he was the chairman of the board of the Leningrad branch of the RSFSR SC, in 1957-1974 he was secretary of the USSR SC.

The post-war period - the years of the creative flowering of Solovyov-Sedoy. The song "On the Boat" from the film score "The First Glove" is one of his most soulful lyrical songs. The song "On the Road" from the film "Maxim Perepelitsa" became the most popular drill in the Soviet Army. In 1947, the composer wrote a song cycle based on A.I. Fatyanov’s poems “The Tale of a Soldier”, the song from which “Where are you now, fellow soldiers?” became a favorite among Soviet veterans. The song to the verses of M. L. Matusovsky from the documentary film “In the days of the Spartakiad” “Moscow Nights” became the musical symbol of the USSR all over the world; its incipit from 1964 to the present day is the call sign of the state radio station "Mayak". For the VI International Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow, Solovyov-Sedoy wrote the song "If only the guys of the whole earth." The last masterpiece of the composer is "Evening Song", which became the unofficial anthem of Leningrad.

Vasily Solovyov - Gray-haired. Selected songs.
evening song
Moscow Nights
Evening on the raid

“Our life is always rich in events, rich in human feelings. There is something to glorify in it, and there is something to empathize - deeply and with inspiration. These words contain the creed of the remarkable Soviet composer V. Solovyov-Sedoy, which he followed throughout his entire career. The author of a huge number of songs (over 400), 3 ballets, 10 operettas, 7 works for a symphony orchestra, music for 24 drama performances and 8 radio shows, for 44 films, Solovyov-Sedoy sang in his works the heroism of our days, captured the feelings and thoughts of the Soviet person.

V. Solovyov was born into a working-class family. Music from childhood attracted a gifted boy. Learning to play the piano, he discovered an extraordinary gift for improvisation, but he began to study composition only at the age of 22. At that time, he worked as a pianist-improviser in a rhythmic gymnastics studio. Once, the composer A. Zhivotov heard his music, approved it and advised the young man to enter the recently opened musical college (now the Musical College named after MP Mussorgsky).

After 2 years, Soloviev continued his studies in the composition class of P. Ryazanov at the Leningrad Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1936. As a diploma work, he presented a part of the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. In his student years, Solovyov tries his hand at various genres: he writes songs and romances, piano pieces, music for theatrical performances, and works on the opera "Mother" (according to M. Gorky). It was a great joy for the young composer to hear his symphonic picture "Partisanism" on the Leningrad radio in 1934. At the same time, under the pseudonym V. Sedoy (The origin of the pseudonym is purely family in nature. The father called his son “gray-haired” from childhood for the light color of his hair.) His “Lyrical Songs” were published. From now on, Solovyov merged his surname with a pseudonym and began to sign "Soloviev-Seda".

In 1936, at a song contest organized by the Leningrad branch of the Union of Soviet Composers, Solovyov-Sedoy was awarded 2 first prizes at once: for the song “Parade” (Art. A. Gitovich) and “Song of Leningrad” (Art. E. Ryvina) . Inspired by success, he began to work actively in the song genre.

The songs of Solovyov-Sedoy are distinguished by a pronounced patriotic orientation. In the prewar years, “Cossack Cavalry” stood out, often performed by Leonid Utesov, “Let's go, brothers, to be called up” (both at A. Churkin station). His heroic ballad "The Death of Chapaev" (Art. Z. Aleksandrova) was sung by soldiers of international brigades in Republican Spain. The famous anti-fascist singer Ernst Busch included it in his repertoire. In 1940 Solovyov-Sedoy completed the ballet Taras Bulba (after N. Gogol). Many years later (1955) the composer returned to him. Revising the score again, he and the scriptwriter S. Kaplan changed not only individual scenes, but the entire dramaturgy of the ballet as a whole. As a result, a new performance appeared, which acquired a heroic sound, close to Gogol's brilliant story.

When the Great Patriotic War began, Solovyov-Sedoy immediately put aside all the work he had planned or started and devoted himself entirely to songs. In the autumn of 1941, with a small group of Leningrad musicians, the composer arrived in Orenburg. Here he organized the variety theater "Hawk", with which he was sent to the Kalinin Front, in the Rzhev region. During the first month and a half spent at the front, the composer got to know the life of Soviet soldiers, their thoughts and feelings. Here he realized that "sincereness and even sadness can be no less mobilizing and no less necessary for fighters." “Evening on the roadstead” (Art. A. Churkin), “What are you yearning for, comrade sailor” (Art. V. Lebedev-Kumach), “Nightingales” (Art. A. Fatyanova) and others were constantly heard at the front. comic songs were also less popular - “On a sunny meadow” (art. A. Fatyanova), “Like beyond the Kama across the river” (art. V. Gusev).

The military storm has died down. Solovyov-Sedoy returned to his native Leningrad. But, as in the war years, the composer could not remain long in the silence of his office. He was drawn to new places, to new people. Vasily Pavlovich traveled a lot around the country and abroad. These trips provided rich material for his creative imagination. So, being in the GDR in 1961, he wrote, together with the poet E. Dolmatovsky, the exciting "Ballad of Father and Son." The "Ballad" is based on a real incident that took place at the graves of soldiers and officers on the territory of West Berlin. A trip to Italy provided material for two major works at once: the operetta The Olympic Stars (1962) and the ballet Russia Entered the Port (1963).

In the post-war years, Solovyov-Sedoy continued to focus on songs. “A soldier is always a soldier” and “The Ballad of a Soldier” (Art. M. Matusovsky), “March of the Nakhimovites” (Art. N. Gleizarova), “If only the boys of the whole earth” (Art. E. Dolmatovsky) won wide recognition. But perhaps the greatest success fell on the songs “Where are you now, fellow soldiers” from the cycle “The Tale of a Soldier” (Art. A. Fatyanova) and “Moscow Evenings” (Art. M. Matusovsky) from the movie “In days of the Spartakiad. This song, which received the first prize and the Big Gold Medal at the International Competition of the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957 in Moscow, gained wide popularity.

Many excellent songs were written by Solovyov-Sedoy for films. Coming off the screen, they were immediately picked up by the people. These are “Time to go-road”, “Because we are pilots”, sincere lyrical “On the boat”, courageous, full of energy “On the road”. The composer's operettas are also imbued with bright song melody. The best of them - "The Most Treasured" (1951), "Eighteen Years" (1967), "At the Native Pier" (1970) - were successfully staged in many cities of our country and abroad.

Welcoming Vasily Pavlovich on his 70th birthday, composer D. Pokrass said: “Soloviev-Sedoy is a Soviet song of our time. This is a wartime feat expressed by a sensitive heart... This is a struggle for peace. This is a tender love for the motherland, hometown. This, as they often say about the songs of Vasily Pavlovich, is an emotional chronicle of the generation of Soviet people, which was tempered in the fire of the Great Patriotic War ... "

M. Komissarskaya

City above the free Neva,
The city of our labor glory,

Your soulful song.
Listen, Leningrad, I'll sing to you
Your soulful song.

Since then, fire
Wherever you meet me
Old friends, I recognize you
Your restless youth.
Old friends, I recognize you
Your restless youth.

The song flies over the Neva,
The city falls asleep dear,

Good night, dear Leningrad!
Lindens rustle in parks and gardens...
Good night, dear Leningrad.

Music: V. Solovyov-Sedoy Lyrics: M. Matusovsky

(from the movie "In the days of the Spartakiad")

Even rustles are not heard in the garden,
Everything here stood still until morning;
If you knew how dear to me
Moscow Nights.

The river moves and does not move,
All moon silver
The song is heard and not heard
In these quiet evenings

What are you, my dear, look askance,
bowing your head low,
Difficult to say and not to say
Everything that is in my heart.

And the dawn is getting stronger
So please be kind
Don't forget these summer
Moscow Nights.

Music: V.Soloviev-Sedoy Lyrics: A.Churkin

Sing, friends, because tomorrow is on a hike
Let's go into the predawn fog
Let's sing more fun let us sing along
Gray-haired battle captain.

Chorus:
Farewell beloved city!
Let's go to sea tomorrow
And early on
Flashes behind the stern
Familiar blue scarf.

And the evening is good again
That we can't not sing songs.
About great friendship, about sea service
Let's pull up friends.

Silence fell on the big road,
And the sea was shrouded in mist
And the wave kisses the native shore
And quietly conveys the button accordion.

Chorus.

Soviet composer V.P. Solovyov-Sedoy (real name - Solovyov) was born on April 12 (25), 1907 in St. Petersburg. He was born into a simple peasant family. His grandfather, Pavel Solovyov, remembered serfdom, the reform of 1861. Father, also Pavel and also a peasant, after serving in the tsarist army went "to the people" - to St. Petersburg. He lived in poverty for a long time and took on any job. Happiness smiled at him when he got a job as a janitor in a house on the Obvodny Canal. The composer's mother Anna Fedorovna is a Pskov peasant woman. In St. Petersburg, where she came to work, she married Pavel Solovyov. He was already working as a senior janitor on Nevsky Prospekt, at 139, when the second son in their family, Vasily, was born. Anna Fedorovna knew many Russian folk songs and loved to sing them. For a long time, before moving to Staro-Nevsky, she worked as a maid for the famous singer. A peasant daughter, who herself served as a maid in her youth, Vyaltseva noticed the musicality of Anna Solovyova and, sincerely attached to her, was ready to attach her to the chorus girls. But fate decreed otherwise: Anna had to raise children, be the mistress of the family. Yes, and Pavel strongly opposed his wife's musical career. In the end, Anna left the place at Vyaltseva, having received from her a gramophone and the records she sang as a gift: “If I want, I’ll love”, “Veterochek”, “Gay troika”. Often Anna Fedorovna, doing housework, put on records presented to her by Anastasia Vyaltseva:

Gay - yes threesome, fluffy snow,
The night is frosty all around.

Her love for singing and the ability to sing beautifully, with soul, remained with her for the rest of her life. From his mother and aunt Anastasia, the younger sister of his father, Vasily Pavlovich inherited a love for Russian song. In his declining years, he often admitted: "A peasant chant song is closer to me." His childhood friend, friend of his whole life, Alexander Fedorovich Borisov - People's Artist of the USSR, the great Russian Soviet actor - called the janitor's room, where the future composer's father's colleagues gathered, the first music university.

In childhood, Vasily Solovyov heard enough of Pskov sad songs in the village, where he was sent to his mother's parents. But more often he spent the summer in his father's homeland - in the village of Kudryavtsevo. In the summer, Vasya's hair completely faded from the sun and turned white, for which the boys in the yard called him "Grey". The yard boys liked the nickname "Grey" and since then Vasily has only been called that. Who thought then that the yard nickname would become a creative pseudonym and grow together with the surname, making it known throughout the country and the world - Solovyov-Sedoy ?! The cellist of the Mariinsky Opera Theater Orchestra N. Sazonov lived in their house. With his help, Vasily first joined the great art. So he managed to see and hear Fyodor Chaliapin in the operas Boris Godunov and The Barber of Seville.

When Vasya was eight years old, he asked his father to buy him a balalaika in a music store - the only musical instrument then known among the peasantry. “Tears flowed profusely down my face,” the composer later recalled. “Father finally gave up, went into the store and bought me a simpler balalaika.” After a precious gift from his father, Vasya mastered the guitar, and then the piano. Silent cinema introduced Vasily to the piano. In house 139 on Staro-Nevsky, where the Solovyovs lived until 1929, the Elephant cinema was opened, where they played silent films with the participation of Buster Keaton, Vera Kholodnaya. Noticing a piano at the screen, Vasily begged the projectionist to let him try the keys and quickly picked up "The moon shines" by ear. The delighted mechanic allowed him to sit down to the instrument every morning, and Vasily undertook to carry films, helped them "scroll", and cleaned the hall. Such classes helped Vasily Pavlovich, when, after the revolution and the death of his mother, he was engaged in musical improvisation in cinemas. Pretty soon, Vasily Solovyov got his own piano "repertoire", and the owner of the cinema invited him to accompany the films with music for a fee. It was useful in the hungry years of the Civil War.

From the age of twelve to sixteen, Vasily Solovyov played the role of a pianist, trying to play famous dances in his own way, varying the music. At first, Vasily did not intend to be a musician, but dreamed of becoming a shipbuilder. But the early death of his mother and the illness of his father forced him to go to work: from the age of 16 he began to work as a pianist-improviser in clubs, an accompanist in cinemas, and then, from 1925, on the Leningrad Radio to accompany morning exercises. So music became his profession. According to Vasily Pavlovich himself, he began to study music composition late - in 1929, when he was already 22 years old. This year he entered the Central Music College in the composer department. Before Vasily Solovyov, the way was opened to comprehend the secrets of musical art, to express and professionally cut his talent.

At the technical school, Vasily Solovyov studied in the class of Pyotr Borisovich Ryazanov, an outstanding teacher and mentor of many Soviet composers. Ivan Dzerzhinsky, Nikolai Gan, Nikita Bogoslovsky (studied with Solovyov-Sedym), later Sviridov passed through his hands. The technical school was an eminent musical institution. At different times, the largest musician-researchers taught there: B.V. Asafiev, V.V. Shcherbakov, their young colleagues, also known and respected in musical circles: Yu.N. Tyulin, Kh.S. Kushnarev, M.A. Yudin. It is no coincidence that when the composition department of the technical school closed in 1931, all its students were transferred to the Leningrad Conservatory. The composition class of P.B. Ryazanov. Solovyov-Sedoy learned a lot from him, as a bearer of classical musical culture, a master of improvisations - arrangements of Russian folk songs.

Already being an outstanding master of the song genre, V.P. Solovyov-Sedoy recalled Ryazanov’s lessons: “He taught us form on works of fiction. Reading Chekhov’s story “Vanka” to us, Ryazanov especially noted that the presentation, rich in humorous details, ends with an essentially tragic ending (the boy’s letter to his grandfather will not reach), and discussed with us how such a construction of the story could be reflected in music. Another story by Chekhov - "Polinka" - served as an example of a "polyphonic" form based on the "counterpoint" of external and internal action. We analyzed the structure of the novel "Anna Karenina" by Tolstoy , also drawing conclusions for music". The sensitivity of Solovyov-Sedoy to the Russian artistic word, especially the poetic one, was unique. He never composed the so-called musical fish, to which the words of the song were adjusted. If the text was not musical, did not have a free musical breath, he resolutely rejected it.

In the conservatory years V.P. Solovyov-Sedoy created many musical works. By 1935, there were already twenty-four of them: music for the theater, a lyric poem for a symphony orchestra, pieces for violin and piano, a piano concerto, etc. Vasily Pavlovich was first noticed as a songwriter at the Leningrad competition of mass songs in 1936, when he graduated from the Conservatory. Two of his songs at once - "Parade" to the words of A. Gitovich and "Song of Leningrad" to the words of E. Ryvina - were awarded the first prize. Very soon others appeared - "Come out to the bay today", "To a friend", "Song of Lenin". The songs of the young author Solovyov-Sedoy were sung by famous singers: Irma Yaunzem in 1935, at the decade of Soviet music at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, accompanied by an orchestra of folk instruments, sang his heroic ballad "The Death of Chapaev", Leonid Utesov sang for the first time his songs "Two Friends Served" and "Cossack cavalry". But none of these songs, like his ballet "Taras Bulba" (Opera and Ballet Theater named after S.M. Kirov, 1940, 2nd edition - 1955), did not receive recognition among the people - did not become mass.

In the thirties the country was built. Attention to the song increased, but to the marching, invocative, cheerful song. Soviet song in those years was more a means of mass propaganda than a means of spiritual revelation and relaxation. And in Soviet poetry, the lyrical direction of Solovyov-Sedoy was not visible. In the early 1930s, Marina Tsvetaeva correctly noted: “Mayakovsky is not capable of a song, because he is completely motorized, percussive and loud ... Pasternak is not capable of a song, because he is overloaded, oversaturated and, most importantly, single-handed ... short-lived streams, should find a single channel, a single throat ... "

However, the great I. Dunaevsky noticed the author of these songs. He was able to discern in him an outstanding musical gift. The poet Alexander Churkin, to whose verses Solovyov-Sedoy wrote more than one song, in the late 1930s witnessed such a dialogue between Utyosov and Dunaevsky. “Perhaps you are the only one,” said Utyosov, “who can compose such a melody that people will sing it right on the way from the concert.” “No, why not?” Dunaevsky objected. “A new star is rising in the Leningrad musical horizon - the young Soloviev-Sedoy. I don’t want to be a prophet, but I’m sure: he is destined for a great voyage ...” So Vasily Solovyov, the son of a janitor and a maid-servant, became world famous composer.

The melodious beginning of Russia found a single channel with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. It would seem that in the war there is no time for lyrics. But it was the war, as the most terrible spiritual test of the people, that claimed the Russian lyrical song. The song is melodious, drawn out, intimate. In the Great Patriotic War, just such a song turned out to be close to the soldier's psychology. She spiritually connected the warrior with relatives and friends from whom the war separated him. It was like a prayer, without which one cannot be strengthened in spirit before a mortal battle.

On June 22, 1941, the war began, and the very next day the poetess L. Davidovich brought Solovyov-Sedoy poems called "Dear Outpost". They were written before the war and corrected, so that the necessary couplet turned out:

But the evil enemy flock
Above us, like a cloud, soared
Outpost dear
She rose for her country.

On the third day of the war, June 24, Solovyov-Sedoy composed the melody of this song. I rushed to my friend - the actor of the Drama Theater. Pushkin to Alexander Borisov, they found an accordion player, and on the same evening the song was already sounding from loudspeakers over his native city. The new song "Play, my button accordion" performed by Alexander Borisov replaced the popular song "Clouds over the city" performed before the war by Mark Bernes. Borisov sang the song not in a strong, but surprisingly rich intonation voice. During the war years, Vasily Pavlovich was convinced that in order to spread a song among the people, not only and not so much voice as acting data is needed; without them it is impossible to create an "image" of a song, it is impossible to "play" it in such a way that it lies on the soul and is accepted by it. The first lyrical military song of Solovyov-Sedogo received a response from the people, it is still sung today. Then, one after another, many wonderful songs, beloved by the people, appear: "Evening on the roadstead" (lyrics by A.D. Churkin, 1941), "Vasya Kryuchkin" (lyrics by V. Gusev), "What do you yearn for, comrade sailor" (lyrics by V. Lebedev-Kumach), "Like beyond the Kama, across the river" (lyrics by V. Gusev), "Don't disturb yourself, don't disturb yourself" (lyrics by M. Isakovsky) and others. They were often performed in front of the soldiers on the front line, the sailors tapped out the melody "Evenings on the Road" in Morse code. And the famous Marlene Dietrich, when she heard his song "Nightingales" much later, said: "I missed this song so much in the war!" It is no coincidence that Georgy Zhukov himself jokingly called the composer "Marshal of Song".

Fascinated by K. Simonov's poem "Wait for me", Solovyov-Sedoy wrote music for it, having suffered a complete failure, as well as other composers: whoever did not try to set this poem to music then - M. Blanter, M. Koval, V. Muradeli , A. Novikov, I. Dzerzhinsky, Yu. Dobrusin, A. Zhivotov, V. Nechaev, V. Rodin. Music critics and political workers often greeted the lyrical masterpieces of Solovyov-Sedoy with hostility. They say that in wartime the country needs marches and loud patriotic songs glorifying "comrade Stalin." However, Solovyov-Sedoy did not retreat, declaring that "sadness and sadness can be no less mobilizing."

The composer's song "Evening on the Road" became truly popular. She glorified his name. In August 1941, V. Solovyov-Sedogo, together with the poet A.D. The Churkins were sent to the port, where, like thousands of Leningraders, they took away logs and cleaned up the territory in order to reduce the risk of fire from incendiary bombs. At the end of the working day, they sat down to rest on board the unloaded barge. It was a late Leningrad evening. Nothing reminded of the war. In the bay, shrouded in a blue haze, a ship stood in the roadstead. Quiet music could be heard from it: someone was playing the button accordion. When they went home, the composer said: "Wonderful evening. Worth the song." Upon returning home, Churkin sat down to write poetry, Solovyov-Sedoy - music. The composer found the intonation of the song in the words that appeared to him as if by themselves: "Farewell, beloved city, we'll go to sea tomorrow!". In them I heard the aching sadness from parting with my native Leningrad. Three days later, a new song was born - "Evening on the raid". The composer and the poet carried her to the Architect Rossi Street, to the house of composers. There the song was found to be too calm, even mournful and, as was said, not meeting the requirements of wartime.

Solovyov-Sedoy postponed the song. The song "Evening on the Road" lay in his suitcase for a year. When the ring of blockade closed around Leningrad, Solovyov-Sedoy, shortly before that, evacuated to Orenburg, again presented his song to the judgment of his colleagues. They called her "Gypsy". The composer again postponed the song. Only in March 1942, she received a front-line baptism and became popular. Here's how it happened. Solovyov-Sedoy, with the front-line theater brigade "Hawk" he created, gave a concert in a soldier's dugout. The front line was a mile and a half away. Listeners - no more than thirty soldiers. The concert was already coming to an end when the composer decided to sing "Evening on the Road" himself to the accordion. Accompanied himself. He sang softly, addressing the soldiers:

Sing, friends, because tomorrow is on a hike
Let's go into the predawn fog.
Let's sing more cheerfully, let us sing along
Gray-haired battle captain.

When the chorus sounded for the third time - "Farewell, beloved city!", All the listeners picked it up in quiet voices. The author was asked to dictate the words, and then to sing the song together with everyone. This has never happened before in the composer's life: people sang his song, which they had never heard before. In a few days, the song spread on all fronts. Her words were transmitted by field telephones signalmen. At night, on the phone, they sang it to the button accordion. The song was sung at the front and in the rear, it became beloved by the people. The song "Evening on the Road" has long been recognized as one of the masterpieces of Russian Soviet song art. But until now, musicologists are searching for the secrets of its amazing musical simplicity and strength.

Solovyov-Sedoy possessed an extraordinary literary gift. A number of his songs were composed by him on his own poems. In one of them, he defines the spiritual purpose of the song for a soldier who is ready to look into the eyes of death and defeat it:

Not a joyful song, but a sad motive
Remember dead friends
If you remember your friends, you will win otherwise,
Soldiers are a special people!
We don’t cry from pain, we cry from a song,
If the song reaches the heart.

Vasily Pavlovich considered a meeting in 1942 with the poet Alexander Fatyanov a great event in his life, a turning point for creativity. In his poems, the composer said, he heard Russian speech, Russian nature, saw and felt the Russian Soviet way of life close to him. A. Fatyanov, who was born in the ancient city of Vyazniki, was a poet of the Russian soul, Russian lyricism. Fatyanov composed poetry in the same way that Solovyov-Sedoy composed music. If there could be co-authors created by life to work together, it would be Alexey Fatyanov and Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy. Together they created forty songs, many of them entered the golden fund of Soviet and world song culture.

In the last years of the war, Solovyov-Sedoy wrote several wonderful songs to the words of A.I. Fatyanova - "On a sunny meadow" (1943), "Nightingales" (1944), "We haven't been at home for a long time" (1945) and others. The pinnacle of their creativity can be called their most famous song "Nightingales". In 1943, Fatyanov wrote lyrical poems about nightingales, in which he expressed the unity of man, nature, and the living world in anticipation of the triumph of life over death:

Well, what is war for the nightingale -
The nightingale has its own life.
The soldier does not sleep, remembering the house
And a green garden over a pond,
Where nightingales sing all night
And in that house they are waiting for a soldier.

Fatyanov read the poems to Solovyov-Sedoy, and he heard music in them. In one sitting, the composer wrote the song. It became the anthem of life in the war. Everything in her is sadness for her home, and the feeling of spring, and the expectation of victory, and the hard work of a soldier. And a tender feeling of love for the Soviet soldier:

nightingales, nightingales,
do not disturb the soldiers,
Let the soldiers
get some sleep...

The song quickly reached the front line. In it, the nationwide feeling is conveyed through personal experience, the melody is melodious and wide, the intonations are confidential. All this is typical for the song creativity of Solovyov-Sedoy. His songs of the war years became popular. They are distinguished not only by light sadness, but also by the expanse of free sounding, extraordinary emotional strength.

In collaboration with V.M. Gusev Solovyov-Sedoy creates the song "Like beyond the Kama across the river" (1943), with S.B. Fogelson - "Sailor Nights" (1945), with M.V. Isakovsky - "Hear me, good one" (1945), with A.I. Fatyanov - "The accordion sings beyond Vologda" (1947), "Where are you my garden" (1948). He writes songs to the words of the poets A.D. Churkina, M.L. Matusovsky, V.I. Lebedev-Kumach, and others.

The first post-war years are characteristic for Vasily Pavlovich by the appearance of songs written for films: "Heavenly slug" (1945), where the immortal song "It's time to hit the road" (words by S. B. Fogelson), as well as the tape "First Glove" sounded (1946). In 1947, Solovyov-Sedoy was awarded the USSR State (Stalin) Prize for the second time for the songs "We haven't been home for a long time", "The nights have become bright", "It's time to hit the road", "A guy is riding a cart". The first time he received the State Prize was in 1943. In 1945, the composer was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Composing the song "Where are you now, fellow soldiers?" (1947, words by A.I. Fatyanov), Solovyov-Sedoy led a cycle from her, calling it at first "The Return of the Soldier", then already finding a more general, epic name - "The Tale of the Soldier". The cycle was first performed by K. Shulzhenko in November 1947.

After the war, Solovyov-Sedoy worked a lot for cinema. He created songs for such popular films as "Happy sailing!" (1949), "Love Yarovaya" (1953), "World Champion" (1954), "Good Morning" (1955), "Maxim Perepelitsa" (1955), "She Loves You" (1956), etc. In total he became a songwriter for fifty films. The composer became widely known for the songs written for the musical comedies One Fine Day (1955), Dzhigit Girl (1955), Herdsman's Song (1956), and Shelmenko the Batman (1971).

Solovyov-Sedoy becomes a prominent public figure. Since 1950, he has been devoting a lot of time to deputy work - on March 12, 1950, he was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (3-5 convocations). In 1948-1964 he was chairman of the board of the Leningrad branch of the Union of Composers. In 1957-1974 - Secretary of the Union of Composers of the USSR, since 1960 - Secretary of the Union of Composers of the RSFSR. The former slender and blond Vasya from a peasant family turns into a Soviet dignitary, becomes overweight, loves to drink, eat well. However, the prizes and awards that rained down on the composer loved by the people as if from a cornucopia, still did not prevent him from remaining cheerful, ironic. Solovyov-Sedoy helped young composers and colleagues a lot. It was said that almost all members of the Union of Composers of Leningrad received apartments thanks to him. After the appearance of the devastating resolution of the Central Committee "On the fight against formalism in music", it was Solovyov-Sedoy who saved many composers from repression. He was harsh in his words, speaking from high tribunes, he never read a speech from a piece of paper, which was common in those years. I did not want to move to Moscow. He said: "They will put me in jail for my tongue in Moscow. I won't last long."

In the mid-1950s, the whole world was fascinated by a new song by Solovyov-Sedoy called "Moscow Evenings". This song to the words of M.L. Matusovsky was written in 1956. It was one of the five songs that created the musical background of the chronicle-documentary film "In the days of the Spartakiad" (about the first Spartakiad of the peoples of the USSR). Solovyov-Sedoy rated it as another good song - nothing more. "Moscow Nights", which became a real visiting card of our country all over the world, was not at first appreciated by either the author himself or his colleagues. The musical council of the Tsentrnauchfilm film studio sent him an unpleasant letter: "You wrote a sluggish, inexpressive song ..." And Mark Bernes flatly refused to perform it: "Well, what kind of song do you have that is "heard and not heard"?" When "Moscow Evenings" received the Big Gold Medal at the international song contest, which was held during the World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in the summer of 1957, it came as a complete surprise to the author.

It was said that the song was originally called "Leningrad Evenings", but this is not so, because the words were written by Muscovite Matusovsky. It was then that the Leningraders began to take offense: how is it, our fellow countryman, and called the most famous song "Moscow Nights"? Did he know that this would be the most famous song! She was lying around for two years, not needed by anyone. Then Troshin appeared, who sang in such a way that so far no one has surpassed him. It is no coincidence that Solovyov-Sedoy's "Moscow Nights" was later entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the most performed song in the world.

"Moscow Evenings" has become a symbolic song, a musical emblem of Russia for the whole world. In the piano performance, they sounded at the concerts of the American pianist Van Cliburn. The well-known figure of English jazz Kenny Ball made a jazz arrangement of Solovyov-Sedoy's song and released a record called "Midnight in Moscow". When in 1966 the young Soviet vocalist Eduard Khil sang "Moscow Evenings" at the International Variety Competition in Rio de Janeiro, the audience picked up the song from the second verse. Today it has been known and sung in almost all countries of the world for half a century. What is the secret of the huge popularity of "Moscow Nights"? It lies in the truth that Solovyov-Sedoy always followed in his work: only the truly national becomes international.

When Solovyov-Sedoy turned 60, his friend, the poet Mikhail Matusovsky, surprised him. He arrived in Leningrad, where the composer's anniversary was celebrated at the Philharmonic Society, and went up on stage in a carefully ironed suit, but with a soldier's duffel bag. He took it off his shoulder and began to take out gifts for the hero of the day: "Moscow Evenings" soap, powder, cologne, perfume, sweets, cigarettes and that's it - "Moscow Evenings"! The hall met this joke with laughter and applause. It became clear to everyone that no composer in our country had such a vivid evidence of nationwide popularity. Then they said that Vasily Pavlovich himself was so “tired” by this song in the end that he even ran away from home, because it was regularly performed under the windows of his dacha in Komarovo. Indeed, almost every day people came there with an accordion and sang "Moscow Evenings". But the composer, of course, did not run away, although in the last years of his life he grumbled: "Is it really only "Moscow Nights" that I wrote?" But he really didn’t like his song “If only the guys of the whole earth” (1957), because he couldn’t stand the pathos. But it was such a peculiar action of Dolmatovsky and Bernes: they stuck with these verses to Solovyov-Sedoy, and he did not even have time to properly finalize the song, as it was immediately recorded and the next morning it sounded on the radio.

In 1959, Solovyov-Sedom was awarded the Lenin Prize for the songs "On the Road" (1955), "Milestones" (1955), "If only the guys of the whole earth" (1957), "March of the Nakhimovites" (1949), "Moscow Evenings" ( 1956). In the drama and puppet theater, the composer designed twenty-four plays with music. In the cinema, V. Solovyov-Sedoy during these years was the author of music for the films "Most expensive" (1957), "The Next Flight" (1958), "The Tale of the Newlyweds" (1959), "Beware, Grandma!" (1960), "In a difficult hour" (1961), "Spring chores" (1964), "Don story" (1964). The composer created several song cycles: "The Tale of a Soldier" (1947), "Northern Poem" (1967), "Light Song" (1972), "My Contemporaries" (1973-1975). In 1967 V.P. Solovyov-Sedom was awarded the title People's Artist of the USSR, and in 1975 - Hero of Socialist Labor. The composer was awarded 3 Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Star and medals.

In the 1950s-1970s, Solovyov-Sedoy wrote songs for operettas and musical comedies, incl. "The Most Treasured" (1952), "Olympic Stars" (1962), "Eighteen Years" (1967), "At the native pier" (1970), wrote music for popular science and documentary films, for drama performances and radio shows (about 40), created the ballet "Russia Entered the Port" (1964). He collected a wonderful library, loved cars, he always had new Volga models. He loved fishing, mushrooms.

V.P. Solovyov-Sedoy loved his native Leningrad very much. The composer believed that the very architecture of the city on the Neva consisted of melodies. “I’m walking,” he wrote, “through Leningrad, familiar to tears, and I hear the soft cello part of the Lion’s Bridge, the drum roll of the monument to Suvorov, the oboes of Palace Square, the whisper and rustle of the leaves of the Alexander Garden ...” The great composer admitted: “I love my city to self-forgetfulness. My theme is Leningrad. My affection is Leningrad. My pride is Leningrad." He dreamed that his song about his native city, written to the words of A. Fatyanov, would live for a long time:

Blue skies over Russia
The sky is blue over the Neva.
In the whole world there is no, there is no more beautiful
My Leningrad!

In recent years, the composer has not worked as intensively as before. One of the latest works of V.P. Solovyov-Sedogo, which he did not have time to finish, became the music for a puppet show based on the fairy tale by S. Marshak "Terem-Teremok". In the last 4 years of his life, Solovyov-Sedoy was seriously ill. The disease, fortunately, did not prevent the celebration of the 70th anniversary of his birth in 1977. Friends, artists came to the composer's house on the embankment of the Fontanka River No. 131, and all this was shown on television from apartment No. 8, in which the composer lived. He died in Leningrad on the night of December 2, 1979. The composer was buried at the Literary bridges of the Volkovsky cemetery, and near him in 1982 his best childhood friend, actor Alexander Borisov, was buried. A monument was erected on the composer's grave in 1985 (sculptor M.K. Anikushin, architect F.A. Gepner).

V.P. Solovyov-Sedoi is one of the outstanding masters of Soviet song, one of the most Soviet and most Russian composers. He wrote about 400 wonderful songs imbued with a sense of love for the Motherland. Many of them are still singing today. He entered the history of world musical culture as a song chronicler of the Soviet people, one of the founders of Soviet musical culture, its classic. Another great Soviet composer Aram Khachaturian wrote to him: "From our era, only a few will remain in the history of music. Among the very few, you, Homer of our era, will remain." Rarely do the greats talk about the greats like that. But the composer survived his songs, which in our country have become truly popular. This is a whole era in the musical culture of the country.

I am in favor of broad folk creativity, because I am sure that the people are an excellent mentor not only in the field of language, but also in the field of music. But I am resolutely against musical fakes, against that tearful anguish that is often whispered into microphones on some dance floors and concert stages. I am against the vulgarization of the song, against the violation of the unity of its poetic and musical image, folk roots, national identity ...

V.P. Solovyov-Sedoy, 1964