Bard (Soviet Union)

National anthem of Russia The term bard (Russian: бард, IPA: [bart]) came to be used in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, and continues to be used in Russia today, to refer to singer-songwriters who wrote songs outside the Soviet establishment, similarly to folk singers of the American folk music revival.

A far more obvious difference is the commerce-free nature of the genre; songs are written to be sung and not to be sold, as the bards are often working professionals in a non-musical occupation.

Many bards have performed their songs for small groups of people using a Russian guitar, and rarely, if ever, would they be accompanied by other musicians or singers.

Many of the best tourist songs were composed by Yuri Vizbor who participated and sang about all the sports described above, and Alexander Gorodnitsky who spent a great deal of time sailing around the world on ships and on scientific expeditions to the far North.

As with other tourist songs, the goal was to sing about people in hard conditions where true physical and emotional conflicts appear.

This term reflects the cultural phenomenon of the Soviet Union called "amateur performing arts," or khudozhestvennaya samodeyatelnost.

It was not so with Alexander Galich, who was eventually forced to emigrate; owning a tape with his songs could mean a prison term in the USSR.

Others, like Evgeny Kliachkin and Aleksander Dolsky, maintained a balance between outright "anti-Soviet" and plain romantic material.

Some songs of this type, such as the ones by Yuri Vizbor and Vladimir Vysotsky, took a very direct approach and used simple and honest language to illustrate life.

Vladimir Vysotsky wrote songs about war simply because they provided that extreme setting in which honour and emotional strength are needed, and a man's true character can be seen.

Many bards wrote songs about their hometowns, such as Vladimir Vysotsky about Moscow's "Big Karetny"("Большой Каретный"), Alexander Rosenbaum about Saint Petersburg's "Ligovka" ("Лиговка"), Leonid Dukhovny about Kyiv's "Podol" ("А Без Подола Киев Невозможен")[8][9][10] Some bards also wrote children's songs for various festivals and plays.

This resulted in songs that, while directed at children, still had deep meaning behind them and were enjoyed by adults, not unlike Ivan Krylov's fables.

The most famous bard performers who sang children's songs were the husband and wife duo Sergey Nikitin and Tatyana Nikitina.

Sergey and Tatyana are still considered bards, even though they are known primarily for setting great works of poetry to their own music.