Persimfans(short for First Symphony Ensemble, Also First Symphony Ensemble of the Moscow City Council listen)) is an orchestra that existed in Moscow from 1922 to 1932. A distinctive feature of this orchestra was the absence of a conductor in it (partly made up for by the position of the concertmaster, who was located on a raised platform facing the orchestra). The band's first performance took place on February 13, 1922.
Created on the initiative of the violinist Lev Tseitlin under the influence of the Bolshevik idea of "collective labor", Persimfans became the first high-class team that managed to bring a symphonic performance to life, based only on the creative initiative of each of the musicians. At the rehearsals of Persimfans, the methods used at the rehearsals of chamber ensembles were used, decisions on interpretation were made collectively. Among the members of Persimfans were the largest musicians of that time - soloists of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, professors and students of the Moscow Conservatory. The performance of the orchestra was distinguished by great virtuosity, brightness and expressiveness of sound. Following the example of Persimfans, orchestras without conductors also appeared in Leningrad, Kyiv, Voronezh, and even abroad - in Leipzig and New York. This orchestra was praised by Sergei Prokofiev, who performed his Third Piano Concerto with it in 1927. In the same year, the orchestra was awarded the honorary title "Honored Collective of the USSR". In the late 1920s, there were disagreements in the team, and in 1932 it was disbanded.
Persimfans played an important role in the cultural life of Moscow in the 1920s, influenced the development of the performing school and the formation of later symphony ensembles (the Grand Symphony Orchestra of the All-Union Radio in 1930 and the USSR State Orchestra in 1936). The weekly concerts of Persimfans in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory were a huge success, in addition, the orchestra often performed at factories, plants and other institutions. The repertoire of the group was selected very carefully and was very extensive.
The First Symphony Orchestra without a conductor PERSIMFANS-- a landmark of early Soviet musical life, which transformed the way symphonic music is played, p...
In 2009, the Persimfans project was reborn under the leadership of the Russian composer and multi-instrumentalist Pyotr Aidu.
Bibliography
- Poniatowski S.P. Persimfans is an orchestra without a conductor. - M.: Music, 2003. ISBN 5-7140-0113-3
An orchestra is a group of musicians who play various instruments. But it should not be confused with the ensemble. This article will tell you what types of orchestras are. And their compositions of musical instruments will also be consecrated.
Varieties of orchestras
An orchestra differs from an ensemble in that in the first case, the same instruments are combined into groups playing in unison, that is, one common melody. And in the second case, each musician is a soloist - he plays his part. "Orchestra" is a Greek word and translates as "dance floor". It was located between the stage and the audience. The choir was located on this site. Then it became similar to modern orchestra pits. And over time, musicians began to settle down there. And the name "orchestra" went to groups of performers-instrumentalists.
Types of orchestras:
- Symphonic.
- String.
- Wind.
- Jazz.
- Pop.
- Orchestra of folk instruments.
- Military.
- School.
The composition of the instruments of different types of orchestra is strictly defined. Symphonic consists of a group of strings, percussion and brass. String and brass bands are made up of instruments corresponding to their names. Jazz can have a different composition. The variety orchestra consists of brass, strings, percussion, keyboards and
Varieties of choirs
A choir is a large ensemble of singers. There must be at least 12 artists. In most cases, choirs perform accompanied by orchestras. Types of orchestras and choirs are different. There are several classifications. First of all, the choirs are divided into types according to their composition of voices. It can be: women's, men's, mixed, children's, as well as boys' choirs. According to the manner of performance, folk and academic are distinguished.
Choirs are also classified by the number of performers:
- 12-20 people - vocal and choral ensemble.
- 20-50 artists - chamber choir.
- 40-70 singers - average.
- 70-120 participants - a large choir.
- Up to 1000 artists - consolidated (from several groups).
According to their status, choirs are divided into: educational, professional, amateur, church.
Symphony Orchestra
Not all types of orchestras include. This group includes: violins, cellos, violas, double basses. One of the orchestras, which includes a string-bow family, is a symphony one. It consists of several different groups of musical instruments. Today, there are two types of symphony orchestras: small and large. The first of them has a classical composition: 2 flutes, the same number of bassoons, clarinets, oboes, trumpets and horns, no more than 20 strings, occasionally timpani.
It can be of any composition. It can include 60 or more string instruments, tubas, up to 5 trombones of different timbres and 5 trumpets, up to 8 horns, up to 5 flutes, as well as oboes, clarinets and bassoons. It may also include such varieties from the wind group as oboe d "amour, piccolo flute, contrabassoon, English horn, saxophones of all types. It can include a huge number of percussion instruments. Often a large symphony orchestra includes an organ, piano, harpsichord and harp.
Brass band
Almost all types of orchestras have a family in their composition. This group includes two varieties: copper and wooden. Some types of bands consist only of brass and percussion instruments, such as brass and military bands. In the first variety, the main role belongs to cornets, bugles of various types, tubas, baritone-euphoniums. Secondary instruments: trombones, trumpets, horns, flutes, saxophones, clarinets, oboes, bassoons. If the brass band is large, then, as a rule, all the instruments in it increase in quantity. Very rarely harps and keyboards may be added.
The repertoire of brass bands includes:
- Marches.
- Ballroom European dances.
- opera arias.
- Symphonies.
- Concerts.
Brass bands perform most often in open street areas or accompany the procession, as they sound very powerful and bright.
Orchestra of Folk Instruments
Their repertoire includes mainly compositions of a folk character. What is their instrumental composition? Each nation has its own. For example, the Russian orchestra includes: balalaikas, gusli, domra, zhaleika, whistles, button accordions, rattles and so on.
military band
The types of orchestras consisting of wind and percussion instruments have already been listed above. There is another variety that includes these two groups. These are military bands. They serve to sound solemn ceremonies, as well as to participate in concerts. Military bands are of two types. Some consist of brass and brass. They are called homogeneous. The second type is mixed military bands, which, among other things, include a group of woodwinds.
For the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution, the Moscow Persimfans Orchestra and the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra prepared a concert program following the principles of the historical Persimfans, a group of musicians founded in 1922 without a conductor. The concert of the ensembles of the sister cities of Moscow and Düsseldorf will take place on December 14, 2017 in the Concert Hall named after. P. I. Tchaikovsky of the Moscow Philharmonic.
After two concerts, which two ensembles played with great success in October at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf, a return visit is planned: more than 60 musicians from Moscow and 20 from Düsseldorf will present in the Moscow Concert Hall. P.I. Tchaikovsky program created in accordance with the principles of the historical Persimfans. It included works played by the former Persimfans - which had a noticeable impact on the Russian avant-garde during the revolution. Thus, through the joint performance of works that have grown out of a common European musical tradition, a long-forgotten aspect of the European avant-garde will be recreated in the anniversary year of the October Revolution. At the same time, a fresh creative approach that denies the hierarchy in music will be felt, it will be tested for relevance to today's context.
In 2008, the Moscow musician Pyotr Aidu, the grandson of one of the musicians who stood at the origins of the historical Persimfans, gave the ensemble a second birth - absolutely in the spirit of its predecessor. The musicians of the current composition understand their activity as the revival of the utopias of the European avant-garde destroyed by the dictatorships of the 20th century. In an incredibly intense rehearsal process without the participation of a conductor, interpretations of works are born that would be impossible within the framework of the daily activities of an ordinary symphony orchestra. The accompanying huge responsibility of each individual musician and the need for constant communication between musicians lead to unique results that throw a musical bridge to the art of theater and performance.
The Ensemble defines itself primarily as an art group that, along with concerts, carries out interactive sound installations and projects in the field of theater and multimedia. Persimfans' projects - the interactive sound installation "Reconstruction of Noise" (2012) and the theatrical and multimedia stage project "Reconstruction of Utopia" - were a great success with the public and critics in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Perm, Berlin and other cities. These projects have received many awards, in particular, the Sergey Kuryokhin Prize in 2014.
Experimental sound art can be heard and seen at the concert on December 14th. Musicians from Germany and Russia - on the principle of Persimfans, playing without a conductor - have developed an interesting concert program for this joint project.
One of the most interesting and innovative projects of the heyday of Soviet culture was Persimfans - the First Symphony Ensemble. It was founded in Moscow in 1922 and, in consonance with the ideals of the Russian revolution, performed music, abandoning the authoritative figure of the conductor, who was interpreted as a symbol of absolute power. During the performance, the musicians of the orchestra, whose repertoire included both classical and modern works, sat in a circle to maintain visual contact with each other - a prerequisite for well-coordinated playing without a conductor. During its heyday, the ensemble gave more than 70 concerts a season, and although all of them took place in Moscow, Persimfans gained worldwide fame and was considered the best orchestra of its time. Orchestras without a conductor, following his model, began to appear not only in the USSR, but also abroad, including in Germany. In 1932, the idealistic project fell victim to Stalin's cultural repressions.
And today, the revived orchestra without a conductor has been and remains one of our most interesting musical groups. And his programs are bright and "revolutionary".
Photo by Ira POLAR
The photo shows a fragment of the rehearsal of the cantata "Salvation" by Daniil Kharms In orange - Grigory Krotenko, squatting - Pyotr Aidu
This, of course, is a curious detail in itself, which looked quite bright from the side and somewhat paradoxically demonstrates the fact that an orchestra without a conductor is the same show object as an orchestra with a conductor. Just with a different sign at the key.
All right, an orchestra without a conductor... You might think that the orchestra members so often look in the direction of the conductor's podium. A large number of orchestral tales and anecdotes are based on this fact, dedicated to the fact that the musicians do not even know who conducted the concert, because they never raised their eyes in the direction of the maestro. As you know, in every joke there is a share ...
But! Behind such a phenomenon as Persimfans, a whole trail of meanings stretches.
Firstly, the era of Persimfans is the time of revolutionary experiments in the art of Soviet Russia. In some strange, incomprehensible way for me, there were parallel red terror, famine, total general poverty (albeit in a somewhat mitigated version after the end of the Civil War) - and the flourishing of experiments in architecture, painting, literature, music, cinema. All this stopped almost instantly, immediately after the party took control of art into its own hands, and Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, Mosolov suddenly remained forever in history, limited to the beginning of the thirties.
Secondly (and all other meanings will be a continuation of the first), behind the creation of Persimfans were musicians of such a level that almost each of them left his mark on the national musical culture - in musicology, performance and pedagogy. It is enough to look at the composition of the orchestra on the program of the Persimfans concert.
Composition of Persimfans 1922-1932
Thirdly, the ideology of Persimfans itself was a continuation of the revolutionary idea of equality in its idealistic version, from which the "fourthly" directly followed - the equal responsibility of all performers for the result. This is stated very precisely in the Fundamentals published by Persimfans in 1926. It is not a sin to quote individual fragments (I apologize in advance to some modern acting conductors with a concomitant request not to take it personally):
“The history of music has known cases when the orchestra played without using the conductor’s instructions during the performance – whether because the conductor was not able to give precise instructions to the orchestra (as was the case with Beethoven, who was already deaf), or because the orchestra performed without conductor, the program learned with this conductor in honor of the conductor, wishing to testify to the strength of his influence.
“Recognizing that the decisive moment is a thorough preliminary study of the work, Persimfans denies the infallibility and indivisibility of the conductor’s power, denies the need for it at the moment of performance, when the work has already been learned and prepared for performance.”
“Persimfans for the first time expanded the scope of this question, putting it on a fundamental basis and arguing that the complete depersonalization of the orchestra players, which has become quite common, leading to the fact that each of them is interested only in his part and does not know (and has no desire to know) the work as a whole - extremely harmful in the artistic sense, a phenomenon that should no longer take place.
On this, perhaps, I will suspend my historical digression and move on to the events taking place today, that is, nine decades later.
At the head of the idea of recreating Persimfans, at least not on a permanent basis, but as a one-time art project, are two wonderful musicians - Piotr Aidu and Grigory Krotenko. They already had a similar experience, Persimfans of the 21st century has been gathering since 2008.
The program of the concert, which took place on April 9 in the Great Hall of the Conservatory, included works that reflect that era, works that are authentic to the spirit and meaning of Persimfans: Violin Concerto, S. Lyapunov's symphonic poem "Hashish" (1913), a work that, in essence, is Tracing-paper "Scheherazade", orchestral suite "Dneprostroy No. 2" (1932) by Julius Meitus, a Ukrainian classic, "born into a poor Jewish family", as it is customary to write in a variety of biographies, who wrote the first classical Turkmen opera and Daniil Kharms's cantata "Salvation" (1934) - a dramatic work without notes for a capella choir about the miraculous rescue of two young maidens in the waves. Performed by the orchestra with undisguised delight. Kharms, of course, did not mean this, despite the fact that he was musically educated, but in terms of compositional technique, this work refers us to the dominal, musical pre-literate times, when the rhythm of the work was determined by the text, and the pitch was not specifically specified at all. Which does not exclude elements of the canon and polyphonic imitation in Kharms' cantata.
So, about the main thing, that is, the subjective.
The colleague who invited me to participate in this action (whose name I will not disclose for his safety), formulated the essence of the phenomenon in the following words: “There will be guys from the best orchestras. They are fleeing here from slavery."
Yes, I saw musicians worthy of those names that were in the orchestra of that historical Persimfance. And don't let the word "guys" in this context confuse you - these are really soloists of the country's leading orchestras and teachers with all possible honorary titles. Well, their faces have become a little thicker, but somehow nothing has changed. And besides them, the orchestra has a large number of young maidens and youths of conservative and post-conservatory age, who, hopefully, have a great musical future.
The orchestra gathered for a rehearsal in a huge hall, which Almazny Mir OJSC provided to Petr Aid (thank you very much). Half of the hall is a rehearsal space, and the other half, behind the fence with a painted Santa Claus, is a reserve of musical instruments collected and brought here from various places and in any condition, called the Piano Shelter. Okay, this is worthy of a separate story and show, because this is not a museum, but a huge art object of great emotional power.
Naturally, everyone is interested in how the orchestra functions without a conductor. Me, too, after all, a new experience.
If we try to formulate it in the most general form, then the same laws apply here as in the chamber ensemble, the difference is only in the number of participants: if four people participate in a quartet, then here there are ninety. That's all.
Everything else is just a solution to communication and acoustic issues. For the seating of the orchestra, the developments of Persimfans were taken as a basis: the groups of instruments that interact most closely in the score are within sight and audibility of each other. So, oboes and clarinets sitting in a row are face to face with bassoons and flutes, opposite each other. Nearby, perpendicularly, sits a group of horns - they, as a rule, have more in common in the orchestra with wooden ones than with the rest of the brass ones, which are located behind the strings, located in a large crescent. On the other hand, the double basses stand so that everyone can see them, since in the orchestra they essentially play the role of a rhythm section (I do not deny their other advantages), and almost meter high jumps at the rehearsals of the accompanist of the double bass group Grigory Krotenko significantly facilitate the rhythmic coordination of the orchestra.
The works, by the way, are not easy, this is not I. Strauss' Radetzky March, where the conductor can calmly leave the orchestra and coquettishly engage in clapping with the audience. These are very dense layered scores with changes in tempo and character.
The sense of responsibility awakened in me by this project struck me to the depths of my soul, because all life-historical experience warns against this. As a rule, excessive penetration into the material is not beneficial. In the same case, when I came to the first rehearsal, I knew “Hashish” by S. Lyapunov almost by heart, went through it with the part sent to me by e-mail, made a lot of pencil notes, before the start of the rehearsal we met with a group of oboes, agreed on details, built complex chords - and only after that the general orchestral work began. And everyone did it. Naturally, there were problems, that's why it was a rehearsal, but already at the first rehearsal, all the musicians knew with whom they were playing at what moment, whom to visually orientate where, whom to listen to where. The program is actually made from four rehearsals, despite the fact that someone comes later, someone is forced to leave early, since everyone has work, and although rehearsals are formally scheduled at a time when most musicians are free, that is, in the middle of the day, Still, it takes a lot of time just to get there.
And another very important point is the combination of the utmost benevolence and a rational approach to problems. It is clear that otherwise it is impossible, and yet it is perceived as a miracle. And one of the questions that you ask yourself is: how did you manage to maintain these relationships in the historical Persimfance during the ten years of its existence, given that such bright, extraordinary personalities with difficult, and sometimes completely authoritarian characters gathered there?
The concert, of course, promises to be a holiday. But no less holiday is what is happening these days at the rehearsals for this concert: free music playing by free people.
Vladimir Zisman
All rights reserved. Copying prohibited
Persimfans (First Symphony Ensemble, an orchestra without a conductor) was founded in 1922, at a time when the most amazing musical ideas arose one after another in the air. The violinist, professor of the Moscow Conservatory Lev Zeitlin gathered like-minded musicians from different ensembles, and the resulting orchestra, whose members shared the ideas of collectivism and equality, performed a variety of works, from Bach to their contemporaries. Persimfans lasted for eleven years - in the 1930s, little remained of the pioneering spirit of the previous decade. However, in 2009 pianist Piotr Aidu recreated Persimfans as one of the components of the reconstruction of the musical environment of the 1920s. His friends, enthusiasts from different orchestras, were sometimes ready to rehearse at night - the only time when they were all free from the main work and other projects. The orchestra gave concerts irregularly, the composition was unstable, but the repertoire was gradually replenished. One of the first works performed by Persimfans was the most complex piano concerto by Alexander Mosolov. Other compositions include Beethoven's Third Symphony, Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks, Prokofiev's obscure Trapeze, George Antheil's Mechanical Ballet for four pianos, percussion ensemble, doorbells and propellers, and the overture to Mozart's The Magic Flute in a special editions for cinema, clubs, radio, schools and stage. He performed new Persimfans and works by the contemporary composer Pavel Karmanov, performed with the Polite Refusal group, went on tour to Norway with musicians from other cities. This season in the Rachmaninov Hall, the subscription in honor of the 90th anniversary of Persimfans opens with a dedication concert to the conductor and double-bass player Sergei Kusevitsky, the founder of the Russian Music Publishing House, where the scores of many works by Russian composers, who emigrated in 1921 as a propagandist of new music, were first published. Musicians from the first symphony orchestra in Moscow founded by him in 1911 formed the backbone of Persimfans. Works from Koussevitzky's repertoire will be performed - Max Bruch, Wagner in transcriptions by Pablo Casals and Carl Tausig, Tchaikovsky, Medtner, Rachmaninov and Koussevitzky himself, as well as "Black Mass" and "Satanic Poem" by Scriabin, and Prokofiev's Quintet, written on the material mentioned above ballet "Trapeze". Piotr Aidu, violinist Marina Katarzhnova, violist Alexander Akimov, double bassist Grigory Krotenko, oboist Olga Tomilova and clarinetist Evgeny Barkhatov take part in the concert. Aidu and Krotenko play historical instruments, a 1900 grand piano and a 1624 double bass (owned by Koussevitzky himself), respectively.
Grigory Durnovo
