Boris Mokrousov - Laureate of the Stalin Prize "Treasured Stone" and a Lonely Accordion.

» Treasured stone (song)

Treasured Stone (song) (B.Mokrousrv - A.Zharov). 1944 Use L. Utyosov.

treasured stone
"Cold waves are churned up by an avalanche of the wide Black Sea..."
Performed by Leonid Osipovich Utyosov.
Music: Boris Mokrousov. Words: Alexander Zharov. 1944 Performed by: L. Utyosov

Song history

In July 1941, the authors of the future song were among the defenders of the legendary Sevastopol. Both of them were called to the fleet, and even then they decided to write a song about the heroes-sailors, the glorious Black Sea people. But this plan was not destined to be realized at that time.
Alexander Zharov was urgently summoned to Moscow and sent to the Northern Fleet, while Boris Mokrousov remained in the besieged Sevastopol.
“I met Boris Andreevich again only in 1943, in Moscow,” recalls Alexander Alekseevich Zharov. - The composer told me that he had recently read the essay “Sevastopol Stone” in the newspaper - about the legendary last defenders of the city, who took with them a stone - a particle of their native land, vowing that they would definitely return to their native lands and hoist this stone to that very place where he lay.
Both of us warmly took to heart this true story about the Sevastopol stone. She inspired us to a song, which we called so - “The Stone of Sevastopol”.
It was under this name that the song with notes was first published in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper on January 9, 1944.
The first performer of this song was Leonid Osipovich Utesov, who kept it in his repertoire for a long time.
“We have a tsar-cannon, we have a tsar-bell, and we have a tsar-song - “The Treasured Stone,” he said, speaking in one of the television programs with a story about it.”

Cold waves rise like an avalanche
Wide Black Sea.
The last sailor left Sevastopol,
He leaves, arguing with the waves.

And formidable, salty, raging shaft
He broke wave after wave about the boat.
In the foggy distance
Can't see the ground
The ships have gone far.

Sailor friends picked up a hero.
A storm wave blew.
He squeezed a stone with a blue hand
And quietly said, dying:

"When I left my native cliff,
He took a piece of granite with him ...
And there, so far away
From the Crimean land
We couldn't forget about her.

Whoever takes the stone, let him swear
That he will wear it with honor.
He will be the first to return to his beloved bay
And he will not forget his oath!

That stone is treasured both night and day
A sailor's heart burns with fire.
May it keep holy
My granite stone
He is washed in Russian blood.

Through storms and storms passed this stone,
And he stood in a worthy place.
A familiar seagull flapped its wings,
And my heart beat calmly.

The Black Sea sailor ascended the cliff,
Who brought new glory to the Motherland,
And in a peaceful distance
Ships are coming
Under the sun of the native land.

Boris Mokrousov - laureate of the Stalin Prize

“... The feeling of musical dramaturgy is undoubtedly
inherent in this talented composer.
V. Solovyov-Sedoy

Friend of Boris Mokrousov
composer Yuri Slonov

Boris Mokrousov, 1941

... For the fifth day a lonely boat sailed along the Black Sea, heading for Tuapse. There were four in the boat: all the sailors were from Sevastopol. One of them was dying, three were sullenly silent. Faithful to the holy commandment of maritime friendship, they did not leave their seriously wounded comrade on the shore, they took it with them.

When they raised him, struck by an enemy fragment, there, in Sevastopol (it was near the monument to the Lost Ships), they did not notice at first that he was holding a small gray stone in his hand, beaten off by a shell from the granite parapet of the embankment. Leaving Sevastopol, the sailor vowed to return to this city again and put the stone in its place.

Feeling that he was not destined to do this, the Chernomorian handed over the coveted fragment of granite to his comrades-in-arms with an order: by all means return it to its place - to Sevastopol.

So the Sevastopol sailors passed this precious relic to each other. From them, she got to the soldiers of other branches of the armed forces, and each swore to fulfill the covenant of an unknown Sevastopol sailor - to return the stone to their native land.

Composer N.P. Budashkin

On Kalyaevskaya Street in Moscow with his mother Maria Ivanovna, sister Shura and nephew Andreika. 1947

The well-known musical program “Meeting with a Song” for many years begins with the melody of “Lonely Accordion”, which has become its hallmark. This song also has its own story, which was told by the famous Moscow musicologist, a front-line soldier who devoted many years to studying the work of various Soviet composers, Yuri Evgenievich Biryukov.

“For people of my generation, “Lonely Accordion” and other songs by composer Boris Mokrousov are akin to callsigns from distant childhood and youth. We grew up and matured with these songs. They entered our life not only with the voices of Utyosov and Bernes, Bunchikov and Nechaev, other wonderful singers and singers, but also sung by our own voices, and therefore fell in love, remembered firmly and for a long time, one might say forever.

The post-war time again brought together Boris Mokrousov and the poet Mikhail Isakovsky.

"Lonely Accordion" is perhaps one of the best and undoubtedly a milestone in the poet's song work. The time of her birth is the first post-war months of 1945 (I mean poetry). In the archive of their author, the original version of the song has been preserved, indicating that the two final stanzas did not look at all like in the final form:

Why is it sweet and painful for me
At this time in your native land?
Why do I sigh involuntarily
How can I hear your harmonica?

The heroine of the future song asked herself, and she herself tried to explain this to herself:

It's like I'm waiting for you on the sly
Even though I know you won't come.
Why are you wandering around the village all night,

Instead of these two stanzas of the original version of the song, which excluded the possibility of a meeting of heroes, Isakovsky made one in the final version:

Maybe she's close
Yes, she doesn’t know if you are waiting for her ...
Why are you wandering all night alone
Why don't you let girls sleep?

And the words of the future song began to play in a completely different way, allowing us, its future listeners, to independently "think" the further development of events, their epilogue.

B.A.Mokrousov
and nephew Andrew

Words by Alexander Zharov
Music by Boris Mokrousov

Cold waves rise like an avalanche
Wide Black Sea.
The last sailor left Sevastopol,
He leaves, arguing with the waves ...
And the formidable salty raging shaft
He broke wave after wave about the boat ...

In the foggy distance
The ground is not visible.
The ships have gone far.

Sailor friends picked up a hero.
Stormy water boiled...
He squeezed a stone with a blue hand
And quietly said, dying:
“When I left my native cliff,
He took a piece of granite with him -

Then, to away
From the Crimean land
We couldn't forget about her.

Whoever takes the stone, let him swear
That he will wear it with honor.
He will be the first to return to his beloved bay
And he will not forget his oath.
That stone is treasured night and day
A sailor's heart burns with fire...

May it keep holy
My granite stone
He is washed in Russian blood.

Through storms and storms passed this stone,
And he stood in a worthy place ...
A familiar seagull flapped its wings,
And my heart beat calmly.
The Black Sea sailor ascended the cliff,
Who brought new glory to the motherland.

And in a peaceful distance
Ships are coming
Under the sun of the native land.

words and music - 1943

Chorus ("In the foggy distance ...", etc.) is sung twice

Russian Soviet songs (1917-1977). Comp. N. Kryukov and Y. Shvedov. M., "Artist. lit.», 1977

The last verse was originally sung in the future tense. And when Sevastopol was liberated, it began to be performed in the past tense, as above.

The song was conceived in July 1941; then both of its authors - Alexander Zharov and Boris Mokrousov - ended up in Sevastopol. The battles for the city began at the end of October, on July 4, 1942, after an 8-month siege, the city fell. A small part of the defenders managed to evacuate on boats, breaking through the naval blockade, the rest died the death of the brave or (100 thousand) were captured. The city was liberated on May 9, 1944, by that time there were almost no inhabitants left in it - they died or were driven to Germany.

In 1943 Zharov and Mokrousov met again and created a song. The first recording on the record - jazz by Leonid Utesov, 1944, Leningrad, Experimental Factory (small edition, for radio).

Translation

The Words Of Alexander Zharov
Music By Boris Mokrousov

Cold wave throws an avalanche
A wide black sea.
The last sailor left Sevastopol,
He goes, arguing with the waves...
Salty and terrible raging shaft
On the boat wave after wave broke...

In the misty distance
No sign of land.
Far ships.

Friends-sailors picked up the hero.
Boiling water storm...
He clutched the stone blue hand
And said quietly, dying:
"When I left dear cliff,
With him a piece of granite carried -

Then, so far
From Crimean land
About it we couldn't.

Who "ll take the stone, he let them wear
What an honor to wear it.
He was the first in beloved Bay will be back
And his oath will not forget.
The stone and cherished night and day
Sailor heart burns the fire...

Let it hold sacred
My stone-granite
He washed in Russian blood".

Through the storms and the storms passed this stone,
And he stood in place with dignity...
Friend the Seagull's wings,
And heart began to beat calmly.
Ascended the cliff, the black sailor,
Who new homeland of glory.

And peace was given
Going ships
Under the sun native land.

words and music - 1943

Chorus ("In the misty distance...", etc.) is sung twice

Russian Soviet song (1917-1977). Comp. N. Kryukov and Y. Shvedov. M., "Art. lit.", 1977

The last verse originally sung in the future tense. And when Sevastopol was liberated, he was executed in the past tense, as above given.

The song was conceived in July 1941; then both its author - Alexander Zharov and Boris Mokrousov - was in Sevastopol. The battle for the city began in late October, on 4 July 1942 after an 8-month siege the city fell. A small portion of the defenders were able to evacuate on the boats, broke through the naval blockade, the rest fell in battle or (100 thousand) were in captivity. The town was liberated on 9 May 1944, by that time it had few, if any residents were killed or were deported to Germany.

Zharov and in 1943 Mokrousov met again and created the song. The first entry on the record - jazz, Leonid Utyosov, 1944, the Leningrad Experimental factory (small edition for the radio).

“... The feeling of musical dramaturgy is undoubtedly

inherent in this talented composer.

V. Solovyov-Sedoy

The most fully sensitive sense of musical drama was revealed in songs that can most accurately be called songs-tales, songs-ballads. The composer often and often turned to poetic and musical folklore, the processing of which was never limited to simple harmonization of folk melodies. His approach is very personal. Mokrousov did not consider himself attached to the "letter" of the song, its melodies. Starting from the original source, he developed and refracted it through his vision. Even folk texts were often subjected to professional polishing and refinement. Just as freely, the composer generalized the intonations of various song layers, striving to reveal and develop the essence of folk imagery as deeply and fully as possible.

Boris Mokrousov, 1941

Any song by B. Mokrousov is deeply national and carries a feeling of inextricable connection with the native land and the life of the people.

The best of them are "Song of the Native Land" (lyrics by O. Fadeeva) and "Song of the Volga" (lyrics by S. Ostrovoy). The wide, continuously flowing melody of "Songs of the Native Land" evokes lofty feelings of love for the Motherland and pride in it. The wide distances and silence of Russian fields, centuries-old forests, mighty rivers and fields emerge in the imagination.

At the junction of songs-tales and patriotic songs stands the famous "Treasured Stone". This ballad, illuminated by the stormy reflections of the war years, filled with inescapable filial love for the native land, carries all the brightest and most valuable that the composer has worked out before, takes his work to a new level.

The history of creation and further life of this song is extremely interesting. In the very first days of the war, many composers responded to the appeal of the Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy. Boris Mokrousov, together with Yuri Slonov and V. Makarov, was seconded to the active Black Sea Fleet. In 1941, the composer met and became friends with the poet Alexander Zharov. Both of them were united by the desire to create a song that inspires people to fight and to a feat in the name of the Motherland.

Alexander Zharov told how this legendary song was created. “... When the initial musical sketches, melodic moves began to appear, they began to think together, work on the content ... It didn’t work right away. Boris set a difficult task: to create a song foreshadowing victory over the enemy (even then!). To do this, the song must carry the bitter truth of the first period of the war. Otherwise, the prediction of victory would not have been artistically convincing either. For a long time they could not find the central climactic episode that would define the main idea of ​​the work. Finally, he was prompted by life itself ... "

... For the fifth day a lonely boat sailed along the Black Sea, heading for Tuapse. There were four in the boat: all the sailors were from Sevastopol. One of them was dying, three were sullenly silent. Faithful to the holy commandment of maritime friendship, they did not leave their seriously wounded comrade on the shore, they took it with them.

When they raised him, struck by an enemy fragment, there, in Sevastopol (it was near the monument to the Lost Ships), they did not notice at first that he was holding a small gray stone in his hand, beaten off by a shell from the granite parapet of the embankment. Leaving Sevastopol, the sailor vowed to return to this city again and put the stone in its place.

Feeling that he was not destined to do this, the Chernomorian handed over the coveted fragment of granite to his comrades-in-arms with an order: by all means return it to its place - to Sevastopol.

So the Sevastopol sailors passed this precious relic to each other. From them she got to the soldiers of other branches of the armed forces, and each swore to fulfill the covenant of an unknown sailor from Sevastopol - to return the stone to their native land.

Composer N.P. Budashkin

This story, told by the experienced boatswain Prokhor Matveyevich Vasyukov, was told to the readers of the Krasny Fleet newspaper by the writer Leonid Solovyov. In the summer of 1943 Boris Mokrousov read the legend of the Sevastopol stone in this newspaper.

“We met again with Boris Andreevich only in 1943,” Alexander Alekseevich Zharov later said, “the composer said that he had recently read in the newspaper the essay “Sevastopol Stone” - about the legendary last defenders of the city, who took with them a stone - a particle of their native land, swearing that they would definitely return to their native lands and set up a stone in the very place where it lay. Both of us warmly took to heart this true story about the Sevastopol stone. She inspired us to a song, which we called “Stone of Sevastopol”.

It was under this name that the song, along with notes, was published in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper on January 9, 1944. In the composer's archive, it was also possible to find its earlier edition, dated October 1942 - a repertoire leaflet for the Krasnoflot amateur performances "Krasnoflotskaya Stage", prepared by the VDNT named after N. K. Krupskaya and published by the publishing house "Iskusstvo".

So in 1944 she was already well known at the front, especially the sailors.

“I had to be in Sevastopol in the days of its liberation in the spring of forty-four,” Zharov said, “and what was my joy when I heard a large detachment of marines enter the city with the song “Treasure Stone”. But joy is joy, but it turned out that some comrades, from those who liberated Sevastopol, of course in a joking manner, but filed a claim against me:

We will scold you now, Comrade Major. You wrote the wrong song.

And what is wrong here?

And your song says that we will return to Sevastopol and "the Black Sea sailor, who brought new glory to the Motherland, will ascend the cliff." It was very good when you composed it, but now the Black Sea sailor has already climbed the cliff. And ships are already sailing under the sun of our Soviet land. So feel free to redo it.

And I corrected the lyrics. Since then, it has been sung in the form in which I made it in the liberated Sevastopol.

The first recording of the song "The Treasured Stone" was made on a gramophone record by Georgy Abramov in the same 1944. It was also performed by Leonid Utesov, who kept it in his repertoire for a long time.

“We have a tsar cannon, we have a tsar bell, and we have a tsar song - “The Treasured Stone” - this is what the famous singer and actor said about her.

This song was performed by many singers: Mark Reizen, Maria Maksakova, Boris Gmyrya, Mark Reshetin and many others. Lyudmila Zykina and the master of our stage, Joseph Kobzon, included it in their repertoire. Recently, "The Treasured Stone" was performed and recorded on a CD "Songs of the War Years" by the famous baritone Dmitry Hvorostovsky. The collection includes two more songs by Boris Mokrousov - "Front Path" and a masterpiece of Russian lyrics "Lonely Accordion", a song that is sung in many countries of the world. It is a pity that the people involved in the design of the CD do not see the difference between the poet M. Matusovsky (whose last name stands as the author of the music) and the composer B. Mokrousov, which put Dmitry Hvorostovsky in an uncomfortable position, who probably knows who the authors of the songs he performs . Although at present it has become unfashionable to name its authors when performing a particular song, it is enough to name the singer and everything seems to be in its place.

On Kalyaevskaya street in Moscow with his mother Maria Ivanovna,
sister Shura and nephew Andreika. 1947

The well-known musical program “Meeting with a Song” for many years begins with the melody of “Lonely Accordion”, which has become its hallmark. This song also has its own story, which was told by the famous Moscow musicologist, a front-line soldier who devoted many years to studying the work of various Soviet composers, Yuri Evgenievich Biryukov.

“For people of my generation, “Lonely Accordion” and other songs by composer Boris Mokrousov are akin to callsigns from distant childhood and youth. We grew up and matured with these songs. They entered our life not only with the voices of Utyosov and Bernes, Bunchikov and Nechaev, other wonderful singers and singers, but also sung by our own voices, and therefore fell in love, remembered firmly and for a long time, one might say forever.

The post-war time again brought together Boris Mokrousov and the poet Mikhail Isakovsky.

"Lonely Accordion" is perhaps one of the best and undoubtedly a milestone in the poet's song work. The time of her birth is the first post-war months of 1945 (I mean poetry). In the archive of their author, the original version of the song has been preserved, indicating that the two final stanzas did not look at all like in the final form:

Why is it sweet and painful for me

At this time in your native land?

Why do I sigh involuntarily

How can I hear your harmonica?

The heroine of the future song asked herself, and she herself tried to explain this to herself:

It's like I'm waiting for you on the sly

Even though I know you won't come.

Why are you wandering around the village all night,

Instead of these two stanzas of the original version of the song, which excluded the possibility of a meeting of heroes, Isakovsky made one in the final version:

Maybe she's close

Yes, she doesn’t know if you are waiting for her ...

Why are you wandering all night alone

Why don't you let girls sleep?

And the words of the future song began to play in a completely different way, allowing us, its future listeners, to independently "think" the further development of events, their epilogue.

Such a technique of the so-called "open plot", when its development does not end with the last stanza or line of the song, but gives the listener the opportunity to dream up, awakens his associative fantasy. Isakovsky masterfully used it not only in The Lonely Accordion, but also in his other song works. This caused, as a rule, numerous "continuations", "answers" to them.

Isakovsky first showed his poem to the composer Vladimir Zakharov. He composed music for it, calling his song "Accordionist". It was learned and performed in the Pyatnitsky choir led by him. However, the song did not receive such universal fame as the lyrical songs of the 30s “Seeing Off”, “And Who Knows Him” written by this creative duet.

At the beginning of 1946, the poet published this poem of his in the October magazine. It was there that Boris Mokrousov noticed him and soon composed music for him. The melodic basis of the song to the composer was the chant that was widely used at the front, and therefore, published by him in the Muzfond, in a meager edition (only 500 copies), “The Lonely Accordion” managed to quickly spread and gain nationwide popularity precisely in 1946-1947. After all, the first, according to the time of the broadcast of her recordings on the radio, which I managed to find, date back to the time when she was awarded the State Prize.

So in 1948, the famous Leningrad singer Efrem Flaks recorded it with piano accompaniment. The following year, 1949, the all-Union radio soloist Georgy Abramov, accompanied by a pop orchestra conducted by Viktor Knushevitsky, brilliantly instrumented this, and by the way, many other songs by Mokrousov, Blanter, Solovyov-Sedoy, after which they literally changed. The touch of the hand of such a master of arrangement and interpreter of the song, unsurpassed to this day, as Knushevitsky was, was one of the important reasons for their success and popularity among listeners.

Subsequently, the song "Lonely Harmonica" was performed by S. Lemeshev, P. Kirichek, L. Aleksandrovskaya, the duet of L. Lyadov - N. Panteleeva, Eduard Khil and many other performers. Georg Ots performed it beautifully. The recording in his interpretation was preserved on the radio and is very memorable to the listeners.

The song is also sung by new generations of singers and singers. She lives today, exciting and touching the most intimate and intimate strings of our soul.

In 1948, for the songs "The Treasured Stone", "Lonely Accordion", "Song of the Native Land" and the song "Flowers are good in the spring in the garden" (lyrics by S. Alymov), Boris Andreevich Mokrousov was awarded the State (at that time everyone said "Stalin ") USSR Prize.

After the maximum exertion of all physical and spiritual forces during the war years, after the immeasurable joy of victory, people most of all valued peace, silence, peace. People returned to nature. They wanted to enjoy it, they were waiting for sincere lyrical songs about the simplest, most humane things. There had to be a psychological turning point in order to return from the main task - to defeat the enemy - to creation.

It is not surprising that it was at this time that the bright, life-affirming talent of Boris Mokrousov blossomed.

He writes the operetta "Wind Rose" (libretto by Lukomsky), the content of which is the victorious campaign in the Adriatic Sea, in the 18th century, by the Russian fleet under the command of Admiral Ushakov. Beautiful music, unfortunately, has been forgotten in our time, although this is probably the only work about Russian sailors of that time. In 1948-1949 he wrote the Russian Overture for a symphony orchestra, piano trio. But the leading genre is the song. And above all lyrical. Nizhny Novgorod musicologist Valentina Grigorievna Blinova, who is very well acquainted with the work of Mokrousov, in 1999, after a jubilee concert dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the composer, said: “... Actually, Mokrousov’s music, a song, without any stretching, is a very high art, and most importantly, why it is expensive , the most precious thing is his sincerity, immediacy. His songs are like air, by themselves, no tension, no art is immediately felt, and this, in my opinion, is very expensive. It doesn't happen that often, and there aren't many to name. And he had the strongest feeling. Of course, he knew this, understood it, but to his credit, he never flaunted it. Although I did not see him, and did not know him directly, but better than anything, his own songs introduce him to him. Judging by the songs, it is possible to compose quite correctly his human portrait, not only artistic, not only as a songwriter, but also as a person. And, I can say that it is also worth a lot ... "

The song "The Treasured Stone" was written by composer Boris Mokrousov, and the lyrics by Alexander Zharov. It was based on the publication of the correspondent of the Krasny Fleet newspaper Leonid Vasilyevich Solovyov, who, in the difficult days of the defense of Sevastopol, was at the forefront of the struggle as a correspondent for the newspaper. Sevastopol.
And for many it has become a tradition. The fighters took with them handfuls of earth, carefully wrapped in handkerchiefs, fragments from shells and bombs, splinters from the cobblestone pavement - everything that could remind of Sevastopol on other fronts ... And this means that the captured city did not submit and what will come, the hour will surely come his release.
A small "Black Sea Legend" by Leonid Solovyov brought to life dozens of stories, films and songs. And Leonid Solovyov himself gave the name "Sevastopol Stone" to his lifetime collection of stories.
July 3, 1942, by order of the High Command, Sevastopol was abandoned. In 1943, Leonid Solovyov's "Black Sea Legend" was read by poet Alexander Zharov and composer Boris Mokrousov... Words and music were born as if by themselves...
The ballad song is still being sung. But for the people of Sevastopol, these are not only words inspired by the Black Sea, permeated with sailor valor and faith in the best on earth, for Sevastopol people, this is part of the history of their native city.
The words of this song are very relevant today.

Cold waves rise like an avalanche
Wide Black Sea.
The last sailor left Sevastopol,
He leaves, arguing with the waves ...
And the formidable salty raging shaft
He broke wave after wave about the boat ...

In the foggy distance
The ground is not visible.
The ships have gone far.

Sailor friends picked up a hero.
Stormy water boiled...
He squeezed a stone with a blue hand
And quietly said, dying:
“When I left my native cliff,
He took a piece of granite with him -

Then, to away
From the Crimean land
We couldn't forget about her.

Whoever takes the stone, let him swear
That he will wear it with honor.
He will be the first to return to his beloved bay
And he will not forget his oath.
That stone is treasured night and day
A sailor's heart burns with fire...

May it keep holy
My granite stone
He is washed in Russian blood.

Through storms and storms passed this stone,
And he stood in a worthy place ...
A familiar seagull flapped its wings,
And my heart beat calmly.
The Black Sea sailor ascended the cliff,
Who brought new glory to the motherland.

And in a peaceful distance
Ships are coming
Under the sun of the native land.
The words of this song, written in 1943, are especially relevant today - People gave their lives for this city, and here again Russian soldiers, sailors are returning to their hometown!
"Stone-granite, -
He is washed in Russian blood.

The song was performed by Mark Reisen.