Vladimir Vavilov (composer)

Vladimir Fyodorovich Vavilov (Russian: Влади́мир Фёдорович Вави́лов; 5 May 1925 – 11 March 1973^[1] ) was a Russian guitarist, lutenist and composer. He was a student of P. Isakov (guitar) and Iogann Admoni (composition) at the Rimski-Korsakov Music College in Leningrad. He played an important part in the early music revival in the Soviet Union.

Vavilov was active as a performer on both lute and guitar, as a music editor for a state music publishing house, and more importantly, as a composer. He routinely ascribed his own works to other composers, usually of the Renaissance or Baroque (occasionally from later eras), usually with total disregard of the appropriate style, in the spirit of other mystificators of the previous eras. His works achieved enormous circulation, and some of them achieved true folk-music status, with several poems set to his melodies.^[1]

Vavilov died in poverty, of pancreatic cancer, a few months before the appearance of "The City of Gold", which became a hit overnight.^[1]

The most famous of his anonymous or misattributed compositions are:

• "Сanzona by Francesco da Milano". Poets Anri Volokhonsky and Alexei Khvostenko would later set lyrics on this music, the song called "The City of Gold" song (in Russian "Город Золотой"). The song, in turn, would become a hit in the 1980s when it was performed by Aquarium for the soundtrack for the film Assa.^[1]
• "Mazurka by Andrey Sychra",
• "Elegy by Mikhail Vyssotsky",
• "Russian Melody (tremolo study) by Mikhail Vyssotsky",
• "Ricercar by Niccolo Nigrino",
• "Impromptu" by Miliy Balakirev.
• "Ave Maria" (Vavilov himself wrote it under Anonymous; it was later misattributed to Giulio Caccini). It is often performed to this day, notably by Inessa Galante, Andrea Bocelli, Sumi Jo, Charlotte Church inter alia.^[1][2][3]

References

1. Гейзель, Зеэв (15 February 2005). История одной Песни (in Russian).
2. Сергей Севостьянов, "Страницы жизни Владимира Федоровича Вавилова". Журнал «Нева» [ Neva magazine ], no. 9 (2005).
3. "Вавилов Владимир Фёдорович", Иллюстрированный биографический энциклопедический словарь.

External links

• Complete bio in Russian (Russian)
• "Vladimir F. Vavilov" in Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedic Dictionary (Russian)
• Free scores by Vladimir Vavilov in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• "Ave Maria" Giulio Caccini. By Vavilov. (Musical hoaxes) (Russian)