Lilies of the valley (song)

In 1958, Oscar Feltsman was asked to write a song for the concert program, which was prepared for performance in the summer theater " Hermitage " ^{[1] [2]} . According to the composer, he took the poems of Olga Fadeeva, "sat down at the piano, and ... after fifteen minutes the work was completed" ^{[2] [3]} (according to some reports, the poems of Fadeeva were written earlier, in 1955 ^[4] ). The first performers of the song were Gelena Velikanova and Nina Dorda . Feltsman said that after the creation he “gave the song to Gele Velikanova and went to rest to the south”, where after a couple of weeks he received a letter in which it was written: “Oscar, all of Moscow sings your“ Lilies of the valley ”” ^[2] . Another singer, Nina Dorda, recalled: “Now it’s very difficult to establish who really sang the“ Lilies of the Valley ”first. I took this song at the Mosconcert and recorded it on the radio. But Gelena Velikanova first appeared on television with her and, of course, much more people heard her. Although the musicians who worked with Gelena at one time told me that it was they who prompted her to pay attention to the song ” ^[3] .

Returning from vacation to Moscow, Feltsman himself was able to see how widespread the song he wrote “Lilies of the Valley” got. However, after some time, he felt that this popularity was perceived ambiguously. In his memoirs, he wrote: “The“ leadership ”did not like when someone“ leaned out too ”, and“ took note of such an undisciplined person ”” ^[5] . After some time, the Central Committee of the CPSU turned to creative unions with a request to give examples of works that promote vulgarity. This question was also asked at a meeting of the Union of Composers of the USSR . According to Feltsman, no examples were immediately found, but before the end of the meeting someone said: “How is there no propaganda of vulgarity? There are also “Lilies of the valley” Feltsman! The most vulgar! ”As a result, the Lilies of the Valley were mentioned in a party document, after which they were cited for a long time as an example of vulgarity in many articles published in newspapers and magazines ^{[6] [7]} .

For example, on May 16, 1959, in the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda , an article by Vladimir Voronov “Lilies of the Valley in Life and Literature” appeared, which mentioned the wide popularity of the “light, unsophisticated song” by Feltsman and Fadeeva. Then the author wrote that he remembered the "lilies of the valley" in a symbolic sense, "as those" modest colors "of poetry and prose, which some critics call small-tempered, and others - small-minded." According to Voronov, "the nature of" lily of the valley literature "is clear in itself: a superficial, thoughtless perception of life, unwillingness or inability to comprehend it." According to him, "for poets now there is such a great deal of work that it is unlikely that writing" lily of the valley poems "should be recognized as the best pastime." As another example, on December 17, 1960, in the newspaper Sovetskaya Kultura , an article by composer Anatoly Novikov “Let the Lilies of the Valley Wither” was published. Discussing the importance of music in shaping the aesthetic taste of the younger generation, Novikov wrote that he was “sad to see how often on the dance floors and evenings of the youth they play the same record like the infamous“ Lilies of the Valley ”-“ as if there is no wonderful wealth in the world melodies, but there are only popular, by no means always high-quality pop songs ” ^[8] . It even got to the point that the songwriters were accused of trying to corrupt the Soviet youth, ideological sabotage ^[9] and undermining the foundations of Soviet power ^{[6] [7]} .

According to Feltsman’s calculations, song persecution lasted for 23 years ^{[6] [7]} . Nevertheless, at this time, the song remained popular. Feltsman himself said that somehow, on the initiative of the chairman of the Union of Composers of the USSR Tikhon Khrennikov , an automobile rally was organized from Moscow to Leningrad with performances in different cities. Among the composers - participants of the rally, in addition to Khrennikov and Feltsman, were Dmitry Shostakovich , Serafim Tulikov and Arkady Ostrovsky (judging by the composition of the participants, this happened no later than 1967 - the year of Ostrovsky's death). The first performance was in Klin - in the homeland of Pyotr Tchaikovsky . According to Feltsman, Khrennikov told him: “You will finish the concert with Lilies of the Valley”, and to the objection that the song seems to be considered “vulgar and anti-Soviet”, he replied: “The question is not discussed - this is a request from the local authorities”. After that, and in all other cities where meetings were held with composers, Feltsman, at the request of local party leaders, sang the song "Lilies of the Valley", and everywhere it was "received with a bang." The composer's hope that the “critical epic with Lilies of the Valley is over” was destroyed shortly after his return to Moscow, when he saw another article with the words “Feltsman corrupts with his“ Lilies of the Valley ... ” ^{[5] [10]} .

A member of the detachment of the first cosmonauts of the USSR Pavel Popovich composed an additional verse to the song “Lilies of the Valley”: “You brought me today / Not a bouquet of red roses, / A bottle“ Stolichnaya “. / We climb into the reeds, / We hope from the heart. / And why do we need these lilies of the valley? ”For this, other members of the cosmonaut corps called him“ Lily of the Valley. ” Popovich himself told the following story. On April 12, 1961, during the launch of the Vostok-1 spacecraft with the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin , an unforeseen delay occurred due to the leakage of the hatch closing. While the technicians worked on troubleshooting, Gagarin asked him to turn on the music. Popovich, who was in touch with him from the Flight Control Center, asked: “Yur, do you want Lilies of the Valley?”, Which caused a great laugh from everyone who knew the addition to the song, which Popovich immediately performed ^{[11] [12]} .

At the end of 1990, members of the Megapolis group decided to shift some Soviet hits to German, among these songs were Lilies of the Valley. The leader of the group Oleg Nesterov , who studied German at a school with in-depth language learning, started the translation of the text. Since the German name of the lily of the valley - Maiglöckchen ("May bell") - was not suitable for the chorus of rhythm, it was necessary to look for some replacement: in the end, the idea came up to use the name of the city Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz ). As a result, the translation of the song turned out to be quite free, but with the same meaning: “Heute hab 'ich dir gebracht / Schöne Blumen in der Nacht, / Keine Röslein leg' ich dir ins Bett ...” (“Tonight I brought you wonderful flowers. But I didn’t put roses on your bed at all ... ”), but the refrain sounded like this: “ Karl-Marx-Stadt, Karl-Marx-Stadt, / Du bist die Stadt roter Blumen, / Karl-Marx-Stadt, Karl-Marx-Stadt , / Aber ich mag nur weiß '” (“ Karl-Marx-Stadt, Karl-Marx-Stadt, the city of red flowers ... Karl-Marx-Stadt, Karl-Marx-Stadt, but I like only the whites ”). In 1992, the Megapolis group successfully presented their songs in German, including Karl-Marx-Stadt, at a concert in Cologne , and then some of them became popular in Russia - they were broadcast on the radio, and in 1994 the video clip with the song “Karl-Marx-Stadt” won one of the main prizes at the Moscow Generation-94 contest ^[4] .

In Japanese, the song "Lilies of the Valley" was performed by the quartet "Dark Ducks" ("Dark Ducks"). There are also versions of the song in Czech ( "Konvalinky, konvalinky ..." ) ^[13] , English, Chinese and other languages ^[14] .

Throughout its history, starting with the performances of Helena Velikanova and Nina Dorda , the song “Lilies of the Valley” was included in the repertoire of many famous singers such as Lyudmila Senchina , Elena Ionova , Julia Ziganshina , Galina Khomchik ^[15] , Ekaterina Guseva and others.

• Poems and sheet music on a-pesni.org
• The song "Lilies of the Valley" performed by Helena Velikanova , Nina Dorda , Lyudmila Senchina , Elena Ionova , Julia Ziganshina , Galina Khomchik and Ekaterina Guseva on YouTube
• The song "Karl-Marx-Stadt" in German performed by the group "Megapolis" on YouTube
• Japanese song Lilies of the Valley performed by Dark Ducks on YouTube
• Lilies of the valley for the queen. Gelena Velikanova , Russia-1 - russia.tv
• Gelena Velikanova - “Lilies of the Valley”, group “Megapolis” - “Karl-Marx-Stadt” , broadcast of the “ Fifth Channel ” from the cycle “Zakroma Rodiny” (host - Ivan Tsybin ), July 2, 2013, www.5-tv.ru