“All conservatories teach all kinds of art except Russian, national art”. A letter from P. I. Nechеporenko to V. M. Andrianov about performing and teaching folk instruments. 1950

Abstract

Historiographical tradition relates the formation of a wide professional performance on Russian folk musical instruments in the 1920s-1930s, linking this approach to the Soviet reforms of music education, when the academic traditions of the pre-revolutionary period were to be replaced by the culture of workers, an important component of which was the performance of music on folk instruments. Against this background, a number of directives appeared aimed at creating appropriate specializations in educational institutions, and performances by groups of various levels were encouraged at different venues: on concert stages, in cinemas accompanying silent films, and in city parks and gardens. The 1920s-1930s were marked by the emergence of talented performers, both soloists and ensembles; new professional and amateur creative groups were created. However, this process was not linear and unambiguous. The Great Patriotic War was the reason of a serious blow to culture, both in the performing arts and in the educational system. In the Soviet official press and open public discussions it was customary to speak about the existing shortcomings in a veiled form, if not to hide them. In accordance with this practice, the published document was given the status of a matter of state importance and classified. The source is a letter of the outstanding balalaika player P. I. Nechеporenko. The author-musician appears in a new perspective - as an caring person who closely observed the cultural life, reflected on what was happening and advocated for raising the level of performance on Russian folk instruments. The letter was addressed to the First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks V. M. Andrianov. The text outlines the main problems of the work of professional folk instrument orchestras: their small amount (four for the whole country), shortcomings in the work of educational institutions, determining the situation of staff shortage; shortcomings in the work of factories for the manufacture of musical instruments. The discussion of the letter written in 1950 probably went beyond the Leningrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Within a decade the sluggish bureaucratic machine was reoriented in the direction indicated by P. I. Nechеporenko - a network of folk instrument classes in children's music schools and departments in conservatories were created all over the country, admission plans to secondary educational institutions were expanded, factory flow charts were revised, a lot of work was done to raise the professional level of craftsmanship and to promote this type of art among the masses. The name of P. I. Nechеporenko should rightfully stand next to that of M. P. Zaraiskii in the history of the formation of modern orchestral performance.