Rock 'n' Roll, Napoleonic Wars and the Pushkin Museum: How Gypsies were Marked in World Culture

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

Roma are one of the most famous national minorities in the world. There are few countries with developed music, literature, cinema, where the gypsy theme would not be raised from time to time. Most often, the contribution of this people to the history of art is defined as a source of inspiration for creators. But, although this is rarely thought about, the gypsies themselves are actively inscribed as creators in both history and art.

"Doctor Kukotsky" Yuri Tsurilo

Most often, due to their specific appearance, gypsies are invited to play either their fellow tribesmen or Indians in the cinema. So first came out of the artist Yuri Tsurilo. His first film role was as the gypsy rower Marco in the Royal Regatta. Later, he will play exotic characters several more times, such as the Turkish ambassador or the Afghan militant, but he will still be able to break out of the role of the mysterious southerner.

His most famous role, perhaps, is the doctor Pavel Kukotsky in the series based on the bestselling book by Lyudmila Ulitskaya. But, in addition, the viewer knows the actor well from the films "Khrustalev, car!" (also the main role), "Inhabited Island" (general), "Pop" (Metropolitan Sergius), "Andersen. Life without love”(sculptor Bertel),“Viy”(Pan Sotnik).

Tsurilo has never been ashamed of his nationality and is closely integrated into the Roma community and its life. The best friend of the actor for many years was the composer-songwriter, author of restaurant hits, Vladimir Goloschanov, who died in the arms of a friend in 2014.

Tumbleweed by Ronnie Wood

In music, it is not the same as in cinema: even if you are a gypsy, but you do not perform in the genre of a folk song, no one can imagine a gypsy in you. For a long time, no one thought about the origin of Alexander Berdnikov, a member of the Korni group, or singer Lyudmila Senchina, for example. It's the same with Ronnie Wood, the guitarist of the Rolling Stones. Until the birthday present for his relatives attracted the attention of journalists, no one thought about Wood's appearance and the fact that his last name is one of the three most popular among British gypsies (Wood, Lee and Smith).

And they gave Voodoo a vardo - a traditional gypsy van, decorated with carvings and paintings. These wagons are very expensive and are still used at home by some of the nomadic British Roma. By the way, the nomadism in Britain is strictly orderly and the gypsies stop either at special parking lots for caravans, or at the sites of sedentary relatives. In such vans, Charlie Chaplin (this is the official version of his family, if interested) and Bob Hoskins (a Hollywood actor well known to the Russian audience for his episodic roles) were born.

But Wood was born, although in a nomadic family, not at all in a wardo. His family was one of the purely English nomads who live on barges and travel along rivers. This, by the way, is not only done by gypsies. Nevertheless, he really liked the vardo as a gift, and the commotion around the "suddenly" revealed nationality made him laugh.

Ronnie plays not only pure rock. Together with the Russian gypsy group Loiko, he recorded the album Slide On.

Illusion Artist Rob Gonsalves

From time to time, collections of paintings by the popular Canadian surrealist artist Rob Gonsalves are shared on social networks. The name, however, few people remember. But it’s impossible to forget the pictures. They are similar to that moment of childhood when you slowly fall asleep and reality is already beginning to mix with dreams.

Rob was born in 1959 in Toronto to a Gypsy family - there are many Gypsies in Canada who migrated from Great Britain, Romania and Russia. He began to paint the first pictures with illusions as a teenager. He was inspired by Magritte, Escher and, of course, Dali.

Nevertheless, Gonsalves received his education as an architect and earned a living not so much by painting as by architectural projects, as well as painting walls and creating theatrical scenery. And everywhere he used his love of illusion. Only after forty did he fully devote himself to painting. Unfortunately, he died in the summer of 2017.

General and son of the barber Moritz von Gaucke

The war with Napoleon gave Russian history a whole galaxy of generals who glorified themselves on the battlefield. One of them, Moritz von Gaucke, managed to serve both Napoleon and Tsar Nicholas. However, before the Russian historian Andrei Serkov, few people thought about where the general's family came from. But he was only the second generation bearing the surname Gauke. His parents, Hungarian gypsies Frigies (Frederic) and Salome, received documents under this name only in the service of Count Bruhl in Saxony.

Now, in the articles about Moritz von Gauck, you can read that Frigies and Salome allegedly fought off the camp and already in the service of the count, allegedly, the husband learned to read and learned the intricacies of military service well enough so that later, in Warsaw, he could prepare boys from noble families for an officer's career. … Such a view betrays a complete ignorance of the realities of Hungary at the end of the eighteenth century. The fact is that in Hungary many Gypsies had already left their nomads (mostly forced by the government) by that time, and had basically two ways to integrate into society: music and military service. Although Frigies got a job at Brühl as a barber, by all indications he served in the army at home, could be an officer's orderly, and by the time he met the count he probably already knew both the literacy and the subtleties of the officer's life.

In any case, the Count's favor allowed the Gypsy family to get rich and move to Warsaw under a new name. There, Friedrich von Gaucke opened a boarding school for boys and his son Moritz (named after the patron saint-count) was also brought up with an eye to a career in the army. But whether young Moritz knew about his ethnicity or whether his parents, keeping in mind the recent persecution of Roma, chose to raise him as a "white man" is unknown. General von Gaucke never discussed this with anyone.

In any case, his life and death are worth a separate story, and among his direct descendants are the British Prince Charles and the Spanish king Juan Carlos. Who, however, themselves from this do not become gypsies.

"Miracle Pianist" György Tsiffra

Ziffra was born into a family of Hungarian gypsies who tortured their fortune in France. His father was a musician, played in cabaret and music halls. Together with the First World War, the family came to grief. The father, as a subject and, possibly, a spy of a hostile state (only the laziest were not accused of spying the Roma before World War II) was imprisoned, and the family was deported. So Mrs. Ziffra found herself in a tiny closet under the very roof of one of the houses in Budapest, with her daughter and little son in her arms.

Despite the fact that times have changed, Hungarian Gypsies traditionally associated all opportunities for social growth with music, and while the mother struggled in the daytime, getting a piece of bread, the baby's sister Gyori spent days at the piano, learning plays and sketches. It was possible to join any ensemble even in adolescence, but good preparation was needed. The girl barely walked away from the piano.

Nearby, near the instrument, stood Gyori's bed. There was literally nowhere to let the boy out, and he sat all day behind the bars, watching his sister play. Once, when the baby was released to warm up, he went to the piano and began to play one of the plays that his sister had taught. With two hands. At four years old.

When Gyorgy Tsiffra became an adult and a very famous pianist, his ill-wishers readily reminded him that before enrolling in the Academy of Music (at the age of nine!) He performed in cabarets and circuses with the performance "baby virtuoso" songs that the audience sang to him. And for four years he simply saved his family from starvation.

Jazz on Guitar by Django Reinhardt

Another world famous virtuoso was born in a nomadic camp and since childhood was fluent in several instruments. But not with a guitar. He began to play the guitar after a fire, in which the fingers of his left hand were severely damaged. Django decided that it was for the guitar that they were not really needed. As a result, Reinhardt founded a whole new direction in jazz, which is still alive today. By the way, his name in the Eastern Gypsy dialects would sound like "Jungado" and it meant - awakened, vigorous, awake.

Although there is no direct evidence, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence that during the war years, Django, at serious risk, worked for the Resistance and overheard the conversations of German officers in a cabaret where he played music. He knew German as his own: he spent his childhood mainly in Belgium, where this language is very widespread.

"Bird from the camp" Papusha

In post-war Poland, a self-taught poetess from a nomad camp, nicknamed Papusha, suddenly floated into the literary horizon. As a child, Papusha did not go to school, but she really wanted to learn how to read and write. She wondered to the children for showing her the letters in the ABC book, and as a result she learned them well, but this was not enough for reading.

Then, during one of the camps, the girl found herself a teacher, a Jewish woman, and began to secretly take lessons from her. She paid with stolen chickens, since the family did not give her pocket money. After these classes and independent training, the girl read so fluently that the gypsies of the camp began to resort to her help when it was necessary to sort out the documents. But the ability to compose poetry was not appreciated. So no one would have ever learned about the poetess if it were not for the researcher Jerzy Fitzowski. Thanks to him, Papusha began to be published.

Now in Poland you can find postage stamps with the image of Papusha, postcards with her, publications with her poems and a monument. Young generations have little interest in the poetry of the socialist era, but the folder is in any case already inscribed in the history of Polish literature.

"Mister Violin" Pishta Danko

If you remember the monuments to the Gypsies, then in the city of Szeged (Hungary) you can see a monument depicting the Gypsy violinist Danko Pishtu. The name here is "Pishta", "Danko" is the surname. Like Tsiffra, Danko was forced from childhood to support his family by playing music. His father died of tuberculosis when Pishte was nine years old.

By the age of 28, he had become a famous musician, but he did not stop there and moved on to composing songs. To some he wrote not only a melody, but also words. The songs imitated popular folk genres and went well with the feast, so very soon Danko became a national star. His notes were sold like hot cakes, and he himself once had the honor of playing in front of Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Up to four hundred (!) Songs by Danko have survived. They are still performed today, but not as drinking melodies, but as classics of Hungarian music.

In general, there are many gypsy names in the history of Hungarian music. One can immediately recall the violinist and composer of the early nineteenth century Janos Bihari and his direct descendant Robi Lakatos, who already today performs with a giant orchestra around the world.

"Just like a gypsy" Mikhail Erdenko

From time to time, the Russian press likes to erase suspicions of gypsy from anyone. For example, right up to the Russian tour of the Gypsy Kings group, many journalists found it necessary to explain to the public that the group was called that not because its members were Gypsies, but because, just like Gypsies, they sing, play and tour around the world. The very first interview with the Gypsy Kings, in which they defined themselves precisely as ethnic Roma, dotted the i's.

Another musician who is trying to save from kinship with the Gypsies is the violin virtuoso and composer Mikhail Erdenko, whose name is the name of the international competition for young violinists, which has been taking place for more than twenty years. While the musician himself never hid his ethnicity, in other articles you can find a passage that the audience mistook him for a gypsy because of his lush black curls.

Meanwhile, numerous descendants and relatives of Mikhail Erdenko are alive and well. Many of them also connected their lives with music and, probably, are not aware that the public can mistake them for gypsies only by chance, because of their curls. We are talking, first of all, about Sergei Erdenko (group "Loiko"), Valentina Ponomareva, singers Leoncia and Radd Erdenko.

Mikhail Erdenko began as a child prodigy, giving full-fledged concerts of forty plays at the age of five, and ended his life as a professor at the Moscow Conservatory.

"I can do any style" Valentina Ponomareva

In the USSR, Ponomareva was known primarily as a performer of romances. Her songs were constantly ordered on the radio, the records flew like hotcakes. But the singer herself was never going to freeze in any one genre, her talent demanded a wide expression.

From her youth, Ponomareva constantly took part in foreign and domestic jazz festivals, in fact, becoming the voice of Soviet jazz. At first, this caused serious dissatisfaction with the authorities, but in the eighties, the attitude towards the genre began to soften. The singer also tried herself in the style of rock, and, of course, always successfully performed gypsy folk songs.

"Shizgara" Mariska Veresh

The parents of the Dutch singer were immigrants. Father - Hungarian Gypsy, mother - Russian-French origin, a native of Germany. Throughout her childhood, Marishka sang in her father's gypsy ensemble, performing at restaurants, and literally grew up in the gypsy culture. Her sister Ilonka played the piano in the same ensemble.

In the sixties, rockers began to look for new voices. Something new, shivering, was needed, more like the sonorous voices of African American singers than the sugary voices of the popular blondes of the fifties. Mariska took turns collaborating with several rock bands looking for a special sound, until she stayed with Shocking Blue, a group known for the hits Venus (in Russian perception turned into Shizgar), Love Buzz and Demon Lover … Veresh was probably known in all corners of the world.

Gypsy families are very patriarchal, and Marishka set a condition for each group: no attempts to have intimate relationships in the workplace. Because of this, the musicians considered her an asshole. "I was a stupid guy!" later said in an interview with Marishka.

To fans Veresh seemed a femme fatale. In fact, she was a vulnerable girl, did not smoke, did not drink, adored cats and, if the musicians brought her to tears, she could call to complain to her mother - her mother immediately rushed to protection.

In addition to rock, Marishka sang jazz and gypsy songs, but as a performer of these genres, she did not gain fame. She died in 2006.

"The Tormentor of Turgenev" Pauline Viardot

The gypsy Pauline Viardot was not just an opera singer - one of a family of opera singers, and her father and sister were even more loved by the public than she was. For Russians, Polina went down in history, however, primarily as the last beloved of Turgenev.

Viardot's father's name was Manuel Garcia. He was born in Seville and before making a career in France, he conquered opera in Spain. Thanks to his fame, the family was not only rich, but also familiar with many celebrities of their time. In her youth, Polina took piano lessons from Liszt himself (and he, by the way, persuaded her to become a pianist).

Nevertheless, Polina chose opera. They say that Turgenev's mother, who disliked Polina in absentia, when she heard her voice for the first time, could not resist exclaiming: "And the gypsy sings well!" But she did not appreciate her beauty, and Viardot was not beautiful by the standards of her time: thin, dark, with sharp features.

It is generally accepted that Polina tormented the writer in love with her. However, no one except her knew how to force Turgenev to drink medicine when he was already terminally ill, and she looked after the writer until the last and fed him at her own expense.

Usin "Kerim" Kojeve

Many Bulgarians read the poems of Usin Kerim in childhood, but few people know that he was a gypsy and devoted part of his work to the gypsy life. One of his most poignant poems tells about the despair of lovers, who were separated by the greed of the bride's parents - they literally sold her to a rich groom for a big kalym.

Kerim wrote to himself that he was a gypsy like his grandfather, only he sang songs out of sadness, and Usin wrote poetry. In addition to poetry, Usin was engaged in many other things in his life. He worked in logging, in a mine, at construction sites. He was strong and handsome.

Only nursery rhymes were translated into Russian. Now one of the national poetry awards of Bulgaria is named after Kerim.

Samuil "Suli" Seferov

Another Bulgarian gypsy, Seferov is known as a painter. In 1992, he became a Knight Commander of the French Order of Arts and Literature, but before that he had received various awards. His manner of writing is distinguished by tenderness and dreaminess. The case when it is better to show than to tell.

His paintings hang in the Pushkin Museum, the Bulgarian National Art Gallery and the gallery in his hometown, Sofia. This is not counting the rest of the collections. Gypsy motives are frequent in his paintings, but creativity is not limited to them.

"Respect the cymbals" by Aladar Rat

The Honored Artist of Hungary went down in history as the man who turned cymbals from a village wedding instrument into one of the many instruments of academic music. Naturally, he played it since childhood and, above all, at those very weddings.

Starting in Hungary, Rat slowly moved to Western Europe and began to live and perform in France and Switzerland, visiting Spain, Egypt, and Great Britain on tour. His performance was highly regarded by academic musicians; Camille Saint-Saens called Rat "Franz Liszt on cymbals."

Raz himself constantly thought about how to turn the instrument into suitable for symphony orchestras. He adapted the music of the Baroque era for it, made some unusual sticks, composed his own compositions, revealing the sound of cymbals in their entirety, and inspired Igor Stravinsky to do the same. The latter had to take lessons from Rat in order to understand cymbals as an instrument.

From 1938, Rat taught at home at the Franz Liszt Academy (the same one where Tsiffra studied) until his death. When I got really bad, I took students from the academy at home.

Another interesting story related to gypsies is the story of how Tony Gatlif, a gypsy boy from Africa who went to steal with Depardieu became a cult director.