Alexander Basilaia () (March 11, 1942 – October 3, 2009) was a
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
**Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three script ...
composer and
songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...
of
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Funk ...
and
film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...
s. He led the popular musical group
Iveria Iveria may refer to:
Places
* Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel, Tbilisi, a hotel Georgia
* Iveria, an archaic name for the country of Georgia
Other uses
* Iverian or Mingrelian language, spoken in Western Georgia
* FC Iveria Khashuri, a Georgian football ...
since its founding in 1968 through the mainstream success in the 1970s and 1980s until his death of a long and severe disease in
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
in 2009. He held the titles of Honored Artist of Georgia and Honored Citizen of
Tbilisi
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...
.
Basilaia was trained as a
contrabass
Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...
ist at the
Tbilisi State Conservatoire
Tbilisi State Conservatoire ( ka, თბილისის სახელმწიფო კონსერვატორია, ''Tbilisis Saxelmc̣ipo Ḳonservaṭoria'') is the State Conservatoire of Georgia, located in the capital Tbili ...
and became active at the
Soviet Georgian scene in 1963. In 1968 he founded an ensemble (
VIA
Via or VIA may refer to the following:
Science and technology
* MOS Technology 6522, Versatile Interface Adapter
* ''Via'' (moth), a genus of moths in the family Noctuidae
* Via (electronics), a through-connection
* VIA Technologies, a Taiw ...
) which was named Iveria after an
ancient Georgian kingdom. Basilaia was a principal composer and an art manager for Iveria which quickly gained popularity for its fusion of
pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* ''Pop'' (G ...
,
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
and
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...
with traditional Georgian music and attained to
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
-wide fame with its
musicals ''The Wedding of Jays'' (1980) and ''The
Argonauts
The Argonauts (; Ancient Greek: ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, '' Argo ...
'' (1982). Basilaia’s third and the last musical ''
Pirosmani Pirosmani may refer to:
*Niko Pirosmani (1862–1918), Georgian painter
* ''Pirosmani'' (film), a 1969 Soviet biographical film about the painter
*Pirosmani, an administrative unit of Dedoplistsqaro Municipality
Dedoplistskaro or Dedoplistsqaro ...
'' was successfully staged in both Georgia and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
in 1996. Basilaia's last work "Something Has Ended" appeared shortly before the composer’s death in October 2009. He was buried at the
Didube Pantheon
The Didube Pantheon ( ka, დიდუბის მწერალთა და საზოგადო მოღვაწეთა პანთეონი) is a cemetery in Tbilisi, Georgia, where some of the most prominent writers, artists, s ...
in Tbilisi.
[ალექსანდრე ბასილაია გერმანიიდან ჩამოასვენეს]
''The 24 Hours''. October 6, 2009
References
External links
Alexander Basilaia. Georgian National Cinema database
*
Composers from Georgia (country)
Musicians from Tbilisi
1942 births
2009 deaths
Burials at Didube Pantheon
{{Georgia-musician-stub