"Under the Blue Sky": How One of the Best Songs of the 20th Century Appeared

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Music, words - everything is amazingly beautiful, filled with light, the feeling of something unearthly. There are many judgments about the source of inspiration, but the fact that the images described in the text are biblical is beyond doubt. It became surprisingly popular when Boris Grebenshchikov began to perform it with the Aquarium group. But it turns out that this was not the first performer of the composition, called the best song of the 20th century, and there were disputes about the authors of the words and music for a long time.

A song shrouded in mystery

The appearance of the song "City" has been shrouded in mystery for many years. Even Grebenshchikov himself, performing it in 1984 in Kharkov, admitted that he did not know the creator of the composition. There were many versions of the song's authorship. Over time, it became more or less clear with music: the words were put on the canzone of the composer Francesco da Milano, which has come down to us since the Renaissance. But with the author of the words it turned out more difficult: they named both Grebenshchikov himself and Alexei Khvostenko, the famous rock bard of the Petersburg "underground" of the 1970-1980s.

There was a version that the author of the poems was Elena Kamburova. What if it's Pushkin? By the way, in his work there is a romance with the same name, which completely coincides with rhyme and meter. However, this is not serious. And only recently, after an investigation by Zeev Geisel, the famous Israeli bard, journalist and translator, a truly exciting story came to light! And it started with a grandiose hoax of the 20th century!

Music author

In the beginning. 70s "Melodiya" releases a disc with compositions of lute music, which has become truly legendary and created a great sensation. Everyone, regardless of gender, age and profession, listened to her literally "to holes". Compositions from her were taken as a background for various programs on radio, television, in cinema. And the first composition is "Canzona", which became the progenitor of the song "City". The accompaniment said that Francesco da Milano was an outstanding lute player. Contemporaries called him "divine." He was a court musician at the Medici court, and then at Paul III, created a large number of works.

However, our "Canzona" is not included in the list of the composer's opuses, and a number of experts believe that the music released on the disc is not performed on a lute at all, but on an ordinary guitar. And the disc itself is considered a profanation! The surname "Vavilov" is indicated on the cover of the record. He performed all the compositions on the lute, but other instruments also took part in the recording. According to the investigation, it was established that Vavilov is the author of these works. Vladimir Vavilov is famous in the 60s. a seven-string player who is a virtuoso master of the instrument.

Inspired by the music of the Renaissance, he learned to play the lute, or rather the lute guitar of his own production, and around 1968 he wrote magnificent compositions in the style of that time. Initially, he performed them during concerts, preceded everything with euphonious names of the Renaissance. At the same time, the audience was delighted. After that, Vavilov released his disc. He assigned the names of the "authors" arbitrarily. A logical question arises: for what? Apparently, he wanted to convey the music to the audience in order to draw their attention to the old performance.

The composer's daughter Tamara also spoke about this. For more than 35 years since the release of the disc, it has been republished many times, and it was sold out at lightning speed, passed from hand to hand, and is still being reissued, already on CD. The incredibly beautiful compositions were remembered forever and even entered the textbooks under the authorship of "imaginary" composers. What did Vavilov feel when the disc began to appear in almost all families of the Soviet Union? And it’s a pity that he did not live quite a bit to the day when a huge number of people fell in love with the song to his music! The composer passed away in 1973 …

Author of the text

So, Leningrad, 1972. It will be about Henri Volokhonsky, a diploma chemist, in fact - a poet. A lot of written works, philosophical reasoning and so on. And just one piece in "Aurora" is the standard rock of many poets … Well, Henri does not find a place because of the very disc, and "Canzona" is continuously played in his memory. And then the pictures from Ecclesiastes begin to appear. Henri goes to a friend and in a quarter of an hour writes a poem, which begins like this: "Over the blue sky …" from the Scriptures.

BG contribution

BG liked the wonderful song very much, and after 8 years he sang it for the fifth in a row in the same edition that is now known to everyone. The song was named "City". The first word has also changed … Apparently, Grebenshchikov did not hear him well, because many years have passed! Nevertheless, Boris himself considers this to be very principled, since, in his opinion, the Kingdom of God is in us. More than 100 times the song was performed at the performances of the group "Aquarium", and in 1986 it was included in the album "10 arrows".

The whole country heard it in 1987 in the cult film "Assa", although without the names of its authors in the credits. That is why Grebenshchikov was considered the creator of the song. “City” is, in a sense, the anthem of a generation. It is a little sad that for so many years no one has named the true authors of this song, because not everyone can create a work loved by the whole country. This amazing Song has been playing for 40 years, and already new musicians perform it. And this is not surprising, because all the best is invested in it. And also because people at all times will have a need for light, love and a clear sky overhead.

Continuing the conversation about popular music, one cannot help but recall eight lines about perfect love, which have become one of the most popular romances.