Vyacheslav Valerianovich Mescherin (russian: Вячеслав Валерианович Мещерин, 30 June 1923 — 6 October 1995. In Russian) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n musician and composer, founder of Vyacheslav Mescherin's Orchestra of

Electronic Instruments An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronics, electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is pl ...

that performed

space age pop Space age pop is a subgenre of pop and easy listening music associated with Mexican and American composers and songwriters in the Space Age of the 1950s and 1960s. Also known as bachelor pad music or lounge music,''Pulse'' (Monthly music digest ...

and

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

music.. In Russian

Biography

A veteran of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Vyacheslav received

Order of the Red Star The Order of the Red Star (russian: Орден Красной Звезды, Orden Krasnoy Zvezdy) was a military decoration of the Soviet Union. It was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 6 April 193 ...

and Medal "For Courage". After the war, Mescherin graduated from

Gnessin State Musical College The Gnessin State Musical College (russian: link=no, Государственный музыкальный колледж имени Гнесиных) and Gnesins Russian Academy of Music (russian: Российская академия музык� ...

and worked on the radio. In 1957 he founded the Orchestra of Electronic Instruments, also informally known as the Vyacheslav Mescherin Orchestra. The orchestra used various electronic instruments, such as

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

electronic organ An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has since developed ...

s and early

synthesiser A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

s. Vyacheslav composed some of the music, but also arranged electronic versions of folk tunes and Western songs, such as

Bimbo Jet Bimbo Jet was a French euro disco group led by Claude Morgan and Laurent Rossi (22 May 1948 – 20 August 2015), that gained international fame during the summers of 1974 and 1975 with the song "El Bimbo". "El Bimbo" is popular with street musician ...

and

Popcorn Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated; the same names also refer to the foodstuff produced by the expansion. A popcorn kernel's strong hull contains the se ...

. Initial critical reaction in conservative Soviet media was mixed; a newspaper parody article joked that "''Mescherin makes

clothes iron A clothes iron (also flatiron, smoothing iron, or simply iron) is a small appliance that, when heated, is used to press clothes to remove wrinkles and unwanted creases. Domestic irons generally range in operating temperature from between to . ...

s play

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

's Concerto No. 1''". But with time, Mescherin conquered a wider fan base and received many state awards, including the title of

People's Artist of the RSFSR People's Artist of the RSFSR (russian: Народный артист РСФСР, ''Narodnyj artist RSFSR'') was an honorary title granted to Soviet Union artists, including theatre and film directors, choreographers, music performers, and orchest ...

Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. Tr ...

, the first human in space, was a fan of the Orchestra.

Alexey Leonov Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. (30 May 1934 – 11 October 2019) was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut, Air Force major general, writer, and artist. On 18 March 1965, he became the first person to conduct a spacewalk, exiting the capsule during the ...

stated: "The music of electric musical instruments perfectly corresponds to the state that I experienced in outer space.Cantroll. 1957 ГОД
In Russian Mescherin's music was often used as a background in elevators and waiting halls, as well as on television. Many of his compositions were included in popular animated series ''

Well, Just You Wait! ''Well, Just You Wait!'' (russian: Ну, погоди!, Nu, pogodi!, p=ˈnu pəɡɐˈdʲi) is a Soviet, later Russian, series of animated short films produced by Soyuzmultfilm. In the 2014 all-Russian poll, ''Well, Just You Wait!'' won by a ...

'' and the 1959

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

film '' Nebo Zovyot''. The Mescherin Orchestra remained active until 1990. The Vyacheslav Mescherin Orchestra had produced over 1,000 music tracks, all of which are archived in the old Soviet Sound Recording Museum in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. Mescherin's music has been collected in two albums entitled ''Easy USSR'' Volumes I and II (1960s and 1970s, and 1970s and 1980s, respectively), which became the subject of the BBC Radio 4 documentary ''Tim Key's Easy USSR'' in which Tim Key explains his obsession with Mescherin’s music.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mescherin, Vyacheslav 1923 births 1995 deaths People's Artists of the RSFSR Recipients of the Medal "For Courage" (Russia) Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Russian male composers Russian male musicians Soviet male composers Soviet musicians 20th-century Russian male musicians