Pesniary (also spelled Pesnyary, , ) was a popular

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian

folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...

VIA Via or VIA may refer to the following: Arts and entertainment * ''Via'' (Volumes album), 2011 * Via (Thalia Zedek album), 2013 * VIA (music), Soviet and Russian term for a music collective Businesses and organisations * Via Foundation, a Cz ...

. It was founded in 1969 by guitarist

Vladimir Mulyavin Vladimir Georgievich Mulyavin (; (Uladzimer Heorhijevič Muliavin); 12 January 1941 – 26 January 2003) was a Belarus, Belarusian and Russian rock musician and the founder of the folk-rock band Pesniary. Biography Vladimir Mulyavin was born i ...

. Before 1970, the band was known under the name Liavony (Лявоны).

Style

Pesniary combined various types of music, but mostly Belarusian folklore though often with various

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 Wale ...

elements and later rock as well. Several of Pesniary's songs were composed by

Aleksandra Pakhmutova Aleksandra Nikolayevna Pakhmutova ( ; born 9 November 1929) is a Soviet and Russian composer. She has remained one of the best-known figures in Soviet and later Russian popular music since she first achieved fame in her homeland in the 1960s. ...

. The surprising influence of early

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

was also notable.

Biography

In 1973, the band participated in Soviet television film " This Merry Planet". Pesniary was one of the very few Soviet bands (and possibly the first one) to tour in

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1976. They toured the American South with folk band

The New Christy Minstrels The New Christy Minstrels are an American large-ensemble folk music group founded by Randy Sparks in 1961. The group has recorded more than 20 albums and scored several hits, including "Green, Green (song), Green, Green", "Saturday Night", "Tod ...

. After Mulyavin's death in a car accident on 26 January 2003, the original Pesniary split. Five different bands claimed to be the official descendants of Pesniary, touring and performing original Pesniary songs. These are: * Belarusian State Ensemble Pesniary – a state-produced band under the Ministry of Culture of

, consisting mostly of young musicians. * Belorusskie Pesniari – led by former Pesniary saxophonist Uladzislau Misevich. * Pesniari – led by former Pesniary vocalist Leanid Bortkevich. * Liavony – a band which split from Bortkevich’s Pesniari in 2008, consisted of young musicians, none of whom participated in Pesniary until 1998. * Until 2006, the Liavony-Pesniary ensemble existed under the direction of the classical line-up drummer Alexander Demeshko. The band broke up in 2006 after his death.

Discography

The band also released dozens of singles.

Lineup

The lineup of the band changed frequently. Among the most notable and long-lived band members were: *

Lyudmila Isupova Ludmila, Ludmilla, Liudmila, Liudmyla, Lyudmila, or Lyudmyla (Cyrillic: Людмила, ''Lyudmila'') may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ludmila (given name) a Slavic female given name, including a list of people and fictional charac ...

(

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

, flute,1975–1979) *

(

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

,1968–2003)Звание заслуженного артиста БССР Владимир Мулявин получил в Чувашии
/ref> *

Valery Mulyavin Valery () is a male given name and occasional surname. It is derived from the Latin name ''Valerius''. The Slavic given name Valeriy or Valeri is prevalent in Russia and derives directly from the Latin. Given name * Valery Afanassiev, Russian p ...

(guitar,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

, 1968–1973) *Leonid Bortkevich (vocals, 1969–1980) *

Anatoly Kasheparov Anatoly ( , ) is a common Russian and Ukrainian masculine given name, derived from the Greek name ''Anatolios'' (), meaning "sunrise." Saint Anatolius of Constantinople was a fifth-century saint who became the first patriarch of Constantinople ...

(vocals, 1970–1990) *

Valery Dayneka Valery () is a male given name and occasional surname. It is derived from the Latin name ''Valerius''. The Slavic given name Valeriy or Valeri is prevalent in Russia and derives directly from the Latin. Given name * Valery Afanassiev, Russian p ...

(vocals,

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: '' altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in ch ...

, 1976–1992) *

Igor Penya Igor may refer to: * Igor (given name), an East Slavic given name and a list of people with the name Arts, entertainment, and media *Igor (character), a stock character * Igors (''Discworld''), a fictional humanoid family in the ''Discworld'' ...

(vocals, 1980–1998) *

Leonid Tyshko Leonid ( ; ; ) is a Slavic languages, Slavic version of the given name Leonidas I, Leonidas. The French language, French version is Leonide. People with the name include: *Leonid Agutin (born 1968), Russian pop musician and songwriter *Leonid A ...

(

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, 1968–1981) * Vladislav Misevich (

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

, 1968–1992) * Alexander Demeshko (

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, 1968–1988) * Valery Yashkin ( keyboards,

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar ...

, 1968–1977) * Vladimir Nikolayev ( keyboards,

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

, 1971–1980) * Cheslav Poplavsky (

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

, guitar, 1972–1979)

References

External links