Bayan: history, video, interesting facts, listen

Musical instrument: Bayan

The sound palette of the world of musical instruments is extremely rich - it is a violin with its charming voice, a harp with a crystal sound or a trumpet with a brilliant timbre. Among the wide variety of musical instruments there is one that can rightly be called a small orchestra. This instrument is a button accordion with a rare ability to imitate various timbres, it can sound like a flute, clarinet, bassoon and even as an organ. Bayan, with his great artistic possibilities, is subject to much - from the accompaniment of simple folk songs to the complex masterpieces of world classics. Enjoying great popularity, it also sounds on large concert scenes, and is a constant participant in the festive feasts, it is not for nothing that the button accordion is called “the soul of the Russian people”.

The bayan is one of the most advanced harmonic varieties having a chromatic scale.

Read the history of the bayan and many interesting facts about this musical instrument on our page.

Sound

The bayan, which has a rich musical and expressive potential, offers great opportunities for performers to performers. A bright sound is notable for its richness, expressiveness and melodiousness, and the thinnest fililings give timbre a special brilliance. The instrument can perform beautiful romantic melodies, as well as dramatic dark music.

The sound on the accordion is formed due to the vibrations of the tongues in the voice plates under the action of air, which is created by the fur chamber and is characterized by a special dynamic plasticity. The instrument can perform the most delicate transparent piano and fanfare forte.

The bayan, by virtue of its design feature (presence of registers), has a diverse timbre palette of sound - from full organ sound to soft and warm violin. The tremolo on the button accordion is very similar to the tremolo of a violin, and the dynamic volume of the instrument gives the impression that a full orchestra is playing.

Bayan range quite large and is 5 octaves, ranging from "mi" big octaves and ending with "la" fourth.

A photo:

Interesting Facts:

• The instrument called "bayan" exists only in Russia, in other countries such instruments are called push-button accordions.
• The bayan predecessor, the "Liven" accordion, had unusually long furs, almost two meters. Such a harmony could wrap itself.
• In Moscow there is the world's largest museum of harmonics, one of which is the bayan.
• In Soviet times, the best concert accordions of an individual assembly, "Russia" and "Jupiter", were made at a Moscow state-owned factory and, distinguished by high sound quality, were very expensive. Their cost was equal to the price of a passenger domestic car, and sometimes even two, depending on the brand. Now the cost of the concert multi-timbral bayan is quite high and reaches 15 thousand euros.
• The first concert multi-timbral bayan was created in 1951 for bayan player Yu. Kuznetsov.
• On the concert button accordions there is a very convenient device - the switching of registers is located under the chin of the performer, which allows the musician not to be distracted during the performance.
• In the Soviet Union at one time they produced electronic button accordions, but this innovation did not stick, because at the same time synthesizers came into use, which became widespread.
• The sound of the accordion during the Great Patriotic War raised the morale of the soldiers, inspired by the feats. It sounded everywhere: in mud huts, on halts and on the battlefields.
• The sound of the accordion is very effectively used in their compositions by modern musical groups, such as "Luba", "Vopli Vidoplyasova", "Billy's Band".
• Well-known professional concert button accordion companies, which are in demand and well established, are located in Russia - this is the Moscow factory "Jupiter" and "Tula accordion", as well as in Italy: "Bugari", "Viktoria", "ZeroSette", " Pigini "," Scandalli "," Borsini ".
• In recent years, the word "button accordion" is often called a stale "battered", "bearded" already inveterate joke or anecdote.

Design

The bayan, which is a rather complex structure, consists of two main sections: left and right, interconnected by fur.

1. The right side of the tool - It is a box of rectangular shape, with a neck and a deck attached to it, with mechanisms built into it. When you press a key, the mechanism lifts the valves, thereby passing air to the resonators with voice plates and tongues.

For the manufacture of the box and deck are used resonator wood species: spruce, birch, maple.

The grille is attached to the box, as well as the register switches (if such are provided by the design) that serve to change the tone. The box also contains two large belts for fixing the instrument during execution.

On the fingerboard in chromatic order are the game keys in three, four or five rows.

2. Left housing - This is also a rectangular box in which on the outside is the left keyboard of the instrument, containing five, and sometimes six rows of buttons: two - basses, the other rows are finished chords (major, minor, seventh chords and reduced seventh chords). On the left case there is a register for switching the finished or elective picking system, as well as a small belt with the help of which the left hand sets the movement of the fur chamber.

In the left case there is a deck with complex mechanisms for extracting sounds in two systems for the left hand: ready and ready-elective.

Fur chamber, attached to the body with frames, is made of special cardboard and is pasted over with fabric.

The weight of the multi-timbral concert button accordion reaches 15 kg.

Varieties

A large bayan family is divided into two groups: ordinary bayans and orchestral.

Ordinary have two kinds, which differ from each other by accompaniment systems in the left hand: ready and ready-elective.

• The finished accompaniment system consists of bass and finished chords.
• Ready electoral has two systems: ready and electoral, which change with the help of a special register. The elective system has a full chromatic scale, which increases the performance capabilities of the instrument, but at the same time complicates the playing technique.

Orchestral button accordions, by virtue of their design features having a keyboard only on the right side of the body, are also divided into two types:

• the first is that instruments differ in the pitch range: double bass, bass, tenor, alto, prima, and piccolo;
• the second - differ in timbre: button accordion, bassoon, flute, clarinetthe oboe

Application and Repertoire

The range of use of the bayan is very wide, it can be heard on the stages of large concert halls as a solo, ensemble, orchestral instrument and in amateur ensembles and orchestras of folk instruments. Very popular groups consisting only of accordion. Very often, the button accordion is used as an accompanying instrument or just at home on various family holidays.

The instrument is very versatile, it plays works by composers of past eras, as well as music of modern genres: jazz, rock and techno.

The sounds of I.S. Baha, V.A. Mozart, N. Paganini, L.V. Beethoven, I. Brahms, F. Liszt, C. Debussy, D. Verdi, J. Bizet. D. Gershvin, G. Mahler, M. Mussorgsky, M. Ravel, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. Scriabin, D. Shostakovich, P. Tchaikovsky, D. Verdi and many other classics.

Today, more and more contemporary composers write different works for the instrument: sonatas, concerts, and original pop pieces. L. Prigogine, G. Banshchikov, S. Gubaidulina, S. Akhunov, H. Valpola, P. Makkonen, M. Murto - their musical compositions for the bayan sound very impressive on the concert stage.

Artworks

N. Chaykin - Concert for bayan and orchestra (listen)

P. Makkonen - "Flight over time" (listen)

Performers

Since the button accordion gained popularity very quickly in Russia, the performing arts on it developed very intensively. In connection with the constant improvement of the instrument before the musicians opened up more and more creative possibilities. Special mention should be made of the contribution to the development of performance skills of bayanist innovators: A. Paletayev, who first switched to five-finger fingering instead of the four-finger one used earlier, thereby increasing the technical capabilities of the instrument; Y. Kazakova - the first performer on the multi-timbral ready-chosen accordion.

The Russian bayan school is now very well known all over the world, and performing arts are now flourishing more and more. Our musicians are constantly becoming winners of various international competitions. There are a lot of young performers coming to the big concert stage, however it is necessary to single out the names of such outstanding musicians as I. Panitsky, F. Lips, A. Sklyarov, Y. Vostrelov, Y. Tkachev, V. Petrov, G. Zaitsev, V. Gridin , V. Besfamilov, V. Zubitsky, O. Sharov, A. Belyaev, V. Romanko, V. Galkin, I. Zavadsky, E. Mitchenko, V. Rozanov, A. Poletayev, who by their unfading, filled with inspiration art, made significant contribution to the development of modern performing school.

Story

Each instrument has its own history, and the button accordion also has a background. It began in ancient China in the 2-3 millennia BC. It was there that the instrument was born, which is the progenitor of the modern bayan. Sheng is a reedy wind musical instrument that represents a body with circular bamboo or reed tubes with copper tongues inside. In Russia, it appeared at the time of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, and then along the trade routes it fell into European countries.

In Europe at the beginning of the 19th century, using the principle of Shen's sound extraction, the German organ master Friedrich Buschmann invented a mechanism that helped him to tune his instruments, and which later became the predecessor of the harmony. Somewhat later, Austrian of Armenian origin K. Demian modified F. Bushman’s invention, transforming it into the first accordion.

In Russia, the harmonica appeared in the second quarter of the 19th century, it was brought from abroad, bought at fairs from foreign trade people as a wonder. The instrument, which could play a melody and accompany, quickly gained popularity among urban and rural residents. Without her participation, more than one festival did not take place; the accordion, along with the balalaika, became a symbol of Russian culture.

In many Russian provinces, workshops began to be created, and then factories that produced their local varieties of harmonies: Tula, Saratov, Vyatka, Lebanese, Bologoevsky, Cherepovets, Kasimov, Yelets.

The first Russian harmonies had only one row of buttons, they became two-row in the second half of the 19th century, by analogy with the design, which was then improved in Europe.

Musicians-harmonists were mostly self-taught, but they did get through the wonders of performing skills, despite the fact that the instrument was a rather primitive design. One of these nuggets was a worker from the city of Tula, N.I. Beloborodov. Being an avid harmonicist, he dreamed of creating an instrument that would have more performing capabilities.

In 1871, under the leadership of N.I. Beloborodov master P. Chulkov created a two-row accordion, which has a full chromatic system.

At the end of the 19th century, in 1891, after improvement by the German master G. Mirwald, the accordion became three-row, with a chromatic scale, sequentially arranged along oblique rows. Somewhat later, in 1897, the Italian master P. Soprani patented his new invention - the extraction of ready-made major and minor triad dominant septchord chords on the left keyboard. In the same year, but in Russia, master P.Chulkov at the exhibition presented a tool with bend mechanics in the "left hand", which also allowed to extract ready-made chords with one press of the key. Thus, the accordion was gradually transformed and became the accordion.

In 1907, the master-designer P. Sterligov. on behalf of the harmonic musician Orlansky-Titarenko. a complex four-row instrument, called the "Bayan", was made in memory of the ancient Russian storyteller. The tool was quickly improved and already in 1929 P. Sterligov invented a button accordion with a ready-electoral system on the left keyboard.

The growing popularity of the instrument is accompanied by its constant development and improvement. The timbre capabilities of the accordion make it truly unique, because it can sound like an organ or like wind and string instruments. Bayan in Russia is popularly loved - it is both an academic instrument, sounding from the stage in a large concert hall, and a symbol of good mood, amusing the people on the rural bench.