A new look at the history of modernization of Belarusian cymbals. Problems of production, training of craftsmen and the quality of tools.

Krasnabayeva Tatsiana Aleksandrovna Laureate of International competitions, teacher of the highest category of the Department of Folk instruments in the class of cymbals of the Children's Music School of Arts No. 10 named after E. Glebov, Minsk 220030, Belarus, Minsk, Engels str., 1 krasnobaeva2004@mail.ru

    The Belarusian musical culture owes the professional development and rise of the performing skills of the cymbalists to Joseph Iosifovich Zhinovich (1907 – 1974). It was he who was a brilliant virtuoso cymbalist, a talented conductor, composer, teacher. He wrote the first methodological manual – "The School of playing the dulcimer", his name is still borne by the Minsk Philharmonic Dulcimer Orchestra and the most significant International competition of performers on folk instruments of the Republic of Belarus. The name of Joseph Zhinovich sounds when it comes to the modernization of diatonic cymbals of folk practice into a chromatic academic instrument. A well–established phrase is used - "Joseph Zhinovich modernized the cymbals." But is this really the case?

   A lawyer by first education and a musician by second, was he really so versatile that he could develop drawings, take into account the physical and acoustic characteristics of wood and withstand the entire technological process from cutting wooden boards to tuning the soundboard and gluing all the details?

  Indeed, until the mid-1940s, folk musicians were often master manufacturers of their instruments, playing and making from generation to generation, passing on the secrets of woodwork. Zhinovich lived just at the junction of the time when self-made tools of self-taught craftsmen began to be replaced by factory tools, where people professionally trained in all technological processes worked. Joseph Zhinovich as a child saw how his grandfather and father made traditional folk cymbals. At the same time, first of all, Zhinovich was a musician, certainly very talented, but not at all the Leonardo da Vinci of his time. Technical, design and carpentry works were carried out by master restorers, and the outstanding musical talent of Zhinovich, a cymbalist, was rather a source of inspiration for the masters to create an instrument corresponding to the scale of his talent.

    History has left in the shadow no less significant figures in the modernization of cymbals – Dmitry Andreevich Zakhar and Konstantin Pavlovich Sushkevich.

    In the early 1920s Dmitry Zakhar was the best Belarusian balalaika virtuoso, records were recorded with his participation, concerts were arranged. He was a nugget, he acquired professional knowledge in music theory and composition privately, studying with Nikolai Aladov. Zakhar was interested in making musical instruments and made them himself, and in his spare time he enthusiastically mastered playing the domra, cymbals and folk wind instruments ^[9]. In 1924, a music college was opened in Minsk, where for the first time they began to teach playing the dulcimer. Dmitry Zakhar became the first teacher of the cymbal class. Among his first students were I. Zhinovich and S. Novitsky, who by that time were already known to the Minsk public. "The time of 1923-1928 entered the history of the state as a period marked by the process of revival of the Belarusian national culture in new political and social conditions," writes O. P. Morozova ^{[5, 46]}.

   In 1927, in Minsk, Zakhar got to the concert of the 1st Ukrainian Chapel of Kobzars. Being under an indelible impression of their performance, he decides to experiment, dreaming of creating an orchestra of Belarusian folk instruments. In a team with a like–minded master of musical instruments and amateur musician Konstantin Sushkevich, he began work on chromatization of cymbals, which were to become the basis of the future orchestra. Just a year later, in 1928, new cymbals appeared and sounded, created by master Sushkevich according to Zakhar's drawings. A.Y. Blagutina notes: "A significant event was the creation of a whole family: cymbals-prima, cymbals-alto, tenor, cymbals-bass and double bass, which gave development to collective music making" ^{[3, 193]}.

    Zakhar and Sushkevich significantly expanded the scale of cymbals, the main innovation was the chromatic system ^{[3, 7, 8]}. The changes took place in front of the young student Zhinovich and fascinated him, he was simultaneously engaged in updating cymbals with Zakhar and even went to consult in Moscow.

    The policy of Belarusization is abruptly changing to the opposite.  In 1930, arrests of the Belarusian intelligentsia and total Russification began. Education in the Belarusian language is prohibited. O. P. Morozova reflected the new trend of Bolshevik politics in her book: "The beginning of a new period was marked by the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) "On the restructuring of literary and artistic organizations" dated April 23, 1932" ^{[5, 54]}. The decree banned creative circles and associations not controlled by the state, everything had to be soaked in Soviet propaganda, national distinctions were not welcome, they had to be erased and replaced with the term "Soviet man".

   In 1932, Zhinovich was transferred from the music college to the Belarusian State Conservatory, but he would not be allowed to finish his studies.  Joseph's real surname is Zhidovich ^{[7, 194]}, he did not change it because of the Fascist occupiers or an obvious phonetic sign of Jewish blood. The punitive machine of the Soviet government ruthlessly crippled the fate of people. According to the denunciation of neighbors, the troika of the NKVD department arrested Joseph's father and mother as "kulaks". On June 9, 1933, they were convicted and exiled for three years in exile. The mother escaped during the transportation of convicts, got to Moscow, where she hid with her eldest son Anton, but her health was undermined and soon she was gone. The father died in the first days of exile due to unbearable conditions ^[1].

     In the spring of 1935, Joseph Zhidovich, as the "son of a fist", was expelled from the conservatory, arrested, tried and sent to serve his sentence in Mordovia. He uses his only chance for release, writes a sheet of pardon, the letter falls into the hands of Lenin's sister, Maria Ulyanova. Thanks to the efforts of his older brother and with the assistance of Ulyanova, the release of Zhidovich takes place – a real miracle! In order not to live with the stigma of "enemy of the people", he changes his surname and tours the vast Soviet Union for several years without risking returning to his native Belarus ^[1].

   It is possible to understand in what "privileged" position the Belarusian creative intelligentsia found itself in 1930-1938 on the example of the Union of Writers of the BSSR. There were about 550 members of the union, 500 of them were subjected to repression, and about 15 more were forced to leave the country. An interesting fact is that at that time, about 2,000 writers suffered from repression throughout the vast USSR. There is no answer to the question why 25% of them were residents of the small Belarusian SSR, whose population was only 5% of the population of the USSR. The problem was investigated in detail by the writer and historian Leonid Moryakov in his work "Repressed Belarusian Writers" ^[6].

    At the same time, in 1935, a piano factory was opened in Borisov on the basis of a sawmill. The factory produced pianos, acoustic guitars and new chromatic cymbals. The production of the cymbals reconstructed by Zakhar and Sushkevich was put on stream, factory instruments began to be used by students and concert musicians. With the old folk diatonic instrument, the new cymbals were related, except that the remaining tradition of holding the cymbals on your knees while playing.

    In the USSR, the main staff of factories for the production of musical instruments were cabinetmakers, trained to work with wood and work on machine tools. As part of the training in the specialty "Cabinetmaker" at the vocational school of the USSR, an introductory course "Production of musical instruments" was developed. But making musical instruments is as subtle a sphere as playing them, theory is one thing and practice is quite another. For consulting on sound issues, specific issues of manufacturing technology and organization of production processes of small wooden musical instruments, homeworkers were invited to the factory. Grand pianos and pianos required even more complex technological solutions and research laboratories or design and technology bureaus were created at the production facilities. The curator of the Borisov factory was the famous producer of concert grand pianos and pianos – Leningrad "Red October", specialists intensively exchanged experience. As for the quality of the cymbals, it was high, and the sound was clear, iridescent and timbral-rich. According to the masters of the UP "Muzrem", it is known that in each batch of factory Borisov guitars one could find one artisan instrument, the master of the old school made it for the soul and one of the buyers could be unexpectedly lucky.

    The factory is working, new dulcimers are being trained, a suitable repertoire is being selected, an ensemble of folk instruments of the Belarusian State Philharmonic and amateur ensembles are being formed.

    Severe repressions of 1937 ensued. On August 24, 1937, Sushkevich was arrested, on November 1 he was convicted under articles 66 (counterrevolutionary activity), 68 (espionage in favor of Poland), 76 (preparation of an armed uprising, anti-Soviet agitation) of the Criminal Code of the BSSR, and on November 4 of the same year he was shot ^[2]. The same fate befell a hundred writers and scientists in Kurapaty on the night of October 29-30, 1937, which went down in history as the "night of the shot poets".

   Together with thousands of Soviet citizens, Konstantin Sushkevich will be rehabilitated during the Khrushchev thaw. His good name will be returned to him on September 11, 1957 ^[2], and in 1958 the concept of "enemy of the people" will be removed from the criminal code.

      The debunking of the cult of Stalin's personality, the weakening of censorship, the increase in the level of freedom of speech and the liberalization of society's life gave a breath of fresh air to the creative intelligentsia. And in the 1960s, at the initiative of Joseph Zhinovich, another improvement of the instrument took place in order to increase the range of cymbals and expand its expressive capabilities. Master Vladimir Kraiko helped to bring the idea to life ^{[11, 48]}. The installation of two new stands increased the scale of the cymbals, so the lowest and highest notes appeared. We agree with A.Y. Blagutina that "the tradition of holding an instrument on one's knees limited the freedom of the performing apparatus and the technical resource of the musician, therefore it becomes obvious that their device and capabilities cease to meet artistic and performing demands, which led to a reasonable need to put the instrument on its legs" ^{[3, 193]}. Due to the design changes, the dulcimer became much heavier and Kraiko developed legs. This was all the more relevant because the cymbal playing became popular among women and children. Initially there were four metal legs attached, but soon Kraiko came up with a more stable version with three screw-in legs and the instrument finally got a modern look, and the performer had more freedom of movement. 30 years have separated the first and second stages of the modernization of cymbals.

    If we analyze whose contribution was more significant to the improvement of cymbals, then of course the revolutionary solution was the transformation of diatonic cymbals by Zakhar and Sushkevich into chromatic ones. This is a completely new principle of sound placement, a real innovation! The second reconstruction of Zhinovich and Kraiko followed, as it were, in the footsteps of the first, and was a refinement, improvement of the invention of Sushkevich and Zakhar. It can be said that Sushkevich and Zakhar made the main changes in the cymbals themselves, in the device of the instrument body, but Zhinovich's main contribution is to develop a school of playing cymbals and improving the performing level of cymbalists by the example of their concert activities, and preparing a new galaxy of brilliant performers as a teacher.

   It can be assumed that the names of the first modernizers were deliberately lost, since in 1937 Sushkevich became a victim of political repression. In Soviet times, the stigma of "enemy of the people" was terrible. They were silent about this, they tried to hide it, apparently, that's why master Sushkevich appears in the sources of victims of political repression with the patronymic Pavlovich ^[2], and in the archives of the Belgorod Philharmonic Society – Petrovich ^[8]. The conclusion that we are talking about the same person can be made on the basis of the coincidence of the date and place of work in both documents – "Ensemble of folk instruments, Minsk".

    Changing the name of Joseph Zhinovich allowed him to make a career in the country of the Soviets and collect all the laurels.

  Associate Professor of the Belarusian State Academy of Music R.V. Podoynitsa competently asserts that "Academic cymbal art in historical terms is a young phenomenon, but has proven its worth" ^{[10, 17]}. The dulcimer touches the soul, the performers continue to convey their worries and joys to people through the charming sound, if only there were instruments!

    The Borisov factory for the production of musical instruments existed from 1935 to 2006 and closed due to bankruptcy. Problems began to be felt in the late 1990s, when, due to the best sound characteristics, old Soviet dulcimers were preferred to buying a new instrument. By the beginning of the 2000s, the situation at the Borisov factory was deteriorating, and the quality of the cymbals was deteriorating. The poor quality of wood and non-compliance with the technological process together led to the fact that musical institutions soon after the purchase brought whole batches of new instruments for restoration.

   Despite the 21st century, the age of computer technology, the Internet and new data storage capabilities, some of the professional drawings regarding cymbals have been lost. The cymbal instruments have stopped being updated and there is a crisis in the country, a huge shortage of high-quality new concert and student instruments. For professionals, the absurdity of what was happening was obvious, on the one hand, the cymbalists always brought laureate diplomas, winning International competitions, the performances of the cymbalists were always in demand at the highest state level before diplomats of other countries, the days of culture of Belarus abroad, etc. Belarusian cymbals are really a unique kind of multi-string instrument of their kind and are a musical hallmark of cultural Belarus, at the same time, for about ten years, the situation with the tools was on the verge of disaster. It was difficult to send students into the profession, to attract children to study at a music school on cymbals, knowing that everything was going to the bottom, it was difficult to explain to parents why they would have to buy a used instrument, an old, shabby one, if they had the opportunity to buy a new one.

    Former employees of the Borisov music factory, enthusiasts Mikhail Vashkevich and Alexander Protko in 2010 organized a workshop in Borisov for the production of Belarusian cymbals ^{[3, 194]}, but the quality of the instruments was unsatisfactory in terms of timbral characteristics and how the instrument kept order. In many ways, the problem of producing high-quality tools was associated with the high cost of the wood varieties needed for production. A private trader could not afford to order a cube of hornbeam, mahogany, resonant spruce from Germany, and the supplier refused to work with smaller volumes.

  It was only in the mid-2020s that small private productions began to appear, which in a few years were able to develop acceptable quality in the manufacture of new cymbals. GOST of the USSR times can be considered a relic of the past, but it was a kind of quality mark. Now, one manufacturer can make some differences in the width and height of the stands, external details of the design of the cymbals, such as the presence or absence of framing slats on the upper deck, change the slope of the virbelbank, etc.

  The era of industrialization and a clear division of labor gave rise to an interesting duality – the vast majority of modern craftsmen have carpentry skills, acoustic knowledge, but do not play musical instruments (with rare exceptions). In turn, the musician-performer often has a very superficial idea of the internal design of the instrument, its technological and production features, and in case of a breakdown, he does not know how to repair the instrument on his own and turns to a specialist, a master restorer. This is also explained by the fact that in the past diatonic dulcimers were played mainly by village men who knew how to hammer a nail and build a house, and in modern Belarus the vast majority of dulcimers are women, and woodwork with carpentry tools is not a women's sphere. The instrument of the cymbal can by no means be called "male" or "female", this is only a statement of historical facts.

    Currently, it is impossible to get a higher education in the specialty "Production of musical instruments" either in the Republic of Belarus or in the Russian Federation. Such specialized education can be obtained in the USA, Great Britain, France, Italy. The city of Cremona in Italy is rightly considered the mecca of violin craftsman art. The training lasts four years there at the International School of Violin Masters.

   In Belarus and in the post-Soviet space, the profession of making stringed folk instruments is entered, adopting the practical experience of acting individual masters, as it was a hundred and two hundred years ago. The equipment of the workshop has changed, perhaps.

    In Russia, in 1994, the "Union of Masters of Musical Instruments" was established. In the same year, the Union joined the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Russian Chamber of Highly Artistic Productions ^[12]. In 2006, the "Union of Masters of National Instruments" was established ^[13]. Unions keep in touch with the regions and organize and conduct competitions to identify the best craftsman and the best instrument.

    The presence of professional competitions for violin, guitar, domra, gusel and balalaika masters stimulates the improvement of musical instrument manufacturing technologies, the professional equipment of masters and the improvement of the sound and timbral qualities of the instrument. Competitions of masters often take place in parallel with competitions of performers on the corresponding instruments. Leading concert performers are invited, they conduct a series of concerts, master classes on competitive master instruments. The sound, timbre, and convenience of the game are evaluated. When awarding points, the opinion of the performer and the jury members from among the masters is taken into account. Within the framework of competitions, professionals have the opportunity to discuss topical issues. It is not customary to share the secrets of manufacturing in this segment, but it is quite appropriate to promote your product on the market and new equipment.

    There are no such professional associations of masters of musical instruments in Belarus, and the masters keep themselves apart, each keeping their secrets. Contests where it would be possible to evaluate cymbals of different manufacturers are not held in Belarus.

    N. E. Mitsul describes the position of the cymbal art as a phenomenon of the Belarusian national culture of the XX century. ^[4]. We can talk a lot about the high level of cymbal teaching and performance, but we must not forget that the quality of the instrument is the most important component of the success of a concert performer. The instrument that gets upset after three minutes will not give the best sound result.

   It would be useful to learn from the experience of Russian colleagues and within the framework of cymbal competitions to start holding a competition for the best instrument among manufacturers of cymbals. This would allow the cymbalist musicians to give more complete feedback to the masters.

    Currently, instruments that meet the demanding demands of a concert performer have already appeared in Belarus, and the situation with the instruments has begun to improve.

   The history of Belarusian cymbals is closely intertwined with the destinies of people, sometimes tragic, sometimes happy, and is inextricably linked with the Belarusian land.