Vladimir Fyodorovich Vavilov (russian: Влади́мир Фёдорович Вави́лов; 5 May 1925 – 11 March 1973) was a Russian

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

lutenist A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can refe ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. He was a student of Pyotr Isakov (guitar) and Iogann Admoni (composition) at the Rimski-Korsakov Music College in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Biography

Vavilov was active as a performer on both

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...

and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, 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 The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

(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. Vavilov died aged 47, of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

, a few months before the appearance of "The City of Gold", which became a hit overnight. The most famous of his anonymous or misattributed compositions are: *"Canzona by

Francesco da Milano Francesco Canova da Milano (Francesco da Milano, also known as ''Il divino'', ''Francesco da Parigi'', etc.) (18 August 1497 – 2 January 1543) was an Italian lutenist and composer. He was born in Monza, near Milan, and worked for the papal cou ...

". Poets

Anri Volokhonsky Anri Girshevich Volokhonsky (russian: Анри Гиршевич Волохонский, 19 March 1936 – 8 April 2017) was a Russian poet and translator. Early years Volokhonsky was born in Leningrad and graduated from university with a degree i ...

and

Alexei Khvostenko Alexei Khvostenko (russian: link=no, Алексей Львович Хвостенко; 14 November 1940 – 30 November 2004) was a Russian avant-garde poet, singer-songwriter, artist and sculptor. Khvostenko is also frequently referred to by the ...

would later set lyrics to 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 An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

for the soundtrack for the film ''

Assa Assa may refer to: Places * Assa (Chalcidice), a town of Chalcidice in ancient Macedonia, Greece * Assa, Morocco, a town in Southern Morocco in the Jbel Ouarkziz * Asa River (Kazakhstan), river in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan * Assa (river), river ...

''. *"Mazurka by

Andrey Sychra Andrei Osipovich Sychra (Sikhra, Sichra, in Russian Андрей Осипович Сихра ''Andrej Osipovič Sixra'') (born 1773 (?1776) in Vilnius; died November 21/December 3, 1850, in St Petersburg) was a Russian guitarist, composer and ...

", *"Elegy by Mikhail Vyssotsky", *"Russian Melody (tremolo study) by Mikhail Vyssotsky", *"Ricercar by Niccolo Nigrino", *"Impromptu" by Miliy Balakirev. * "

Ave Maria The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's s ...

". Vavilov wrote this

aria In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...

with the ascription " Anonymous", and it was later mis-attributed to

Giulio Caccini Giulio Romolo Caccini (also Giulio Romano) (8 October 1551 – buried 10 December 1618) was an Italian composer, teacher, singer, instrumentalist and writer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was one of the founders of the genre ...

. It is often performed, notably by

Inessa Galante Inese Galante (born 12 March 1954) is a Latvian soprano opera singer. Galante is known for a great beauty of tone, nuanced pianissimos and sensitive command of dynamics and colour. Her performance of Vavilov's ''Ave Maria'' (often attributed to ...

Andrea Bocelli Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist. He was born visually impaired, with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting fro ...

Sumi Jo Sumi Jo, OSI (; ; born 22 November 1962) is a South Korean lyric coloratura soprano known for her Grammy award-winning interpretations of the bel canto repertoire. Life and career Early life and education Jo was born Jo Su-gyeong in Changw ...

and

Charlotte Church Charlotte Maria Church (born Charlotte Maria Reed, 21 February 1986) is a Welsh singer-songwriter, actress, television presenter and political activist from Cardiff. Church rose to fame in childhood as a classical singer before branching i ...

, inter alia. * " Suite for the Lute: Pavane and Gallarde". Poets

and

would later set lyrics on this music, the song called "Darling was carried away by a horse" (in Russian "Конь унес любимого"). "Вавилов Владимир Фёдорович", Иллюстрированный биографический энциклопедический словарь.

References

External links

Complete bio in Russian

in ''Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedic Dictionary'' *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vavilov, Vladimir Fyodorovich 1925 births 1973 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century guitarists Composers for lute Deaths from cancer in the Soviet Union Deaths from pancreatic cancer Historicist composers Russian male guitarists Musical hoaxes Russian classical composers Russian classical guitarists Russian lutenists Russian male classical composers Soviet male classical composers 20th-century Russian male musicians