SLAV FEVER FOREVER

ALEXEI BIRIOUKOV — ROMAN JBANOV — REVELATIONS — BALALAÏKA AND BAYAN — UNDATED

First some specifications about the two instruments. The bayan accordion: ”The bayan (Russian: бая́н, IPA: [bɐˈjan]) is a type of chromatic button accordion developed in the Russian Empire in the early 20th century and named after the 11th-century bard Boyan.” The Balalaika: “The balalaika (Russian: балала́йка, pronounced [bəɫɐˈɫajkə]) is a Russian stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the third string is a perfect fourth higher.” But we need a little bit more: “A fourth is a musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or halftones, note since one full tone is equal to 9 commas, a semitone can be 5 or 4 of these commas: “A tone is formed of a chromatic semitone, 5 commas, and a diatonic semitone, 4 commas. It, therefore, has a total of 9 commas.”. Some composers worked on such subtle differences, but all instruments cannot really differentiate between chromatic and diatonic semitones.) For example, the ascending interval from C/DO to the next F/FA is a perfect fourth, because the note F/FA is the fifth semitone above C/DO, and there are four staff positions between C/DO and F/FA.” This information comes mostly from Wikipedia and Musiclever (musiclever.com/en/courses/tones-semitones)

Now, this is clearly and simply said, we can proceed with the music. Note I just recently saw the two musicians in a concert in France and they presented themselves as one Russian and one Ukrainian, but that has little importance here. As the host of the concert (Le Manoir d’Alice, Parentignat, Puy de Dôme) said: “when we do not do any politics we can work together.” The concert was not amplified and so, the balance between the two instruments was only reached pragmatically. The self-produced and published CD of this music was recorded in a studio with normal balances between the two instruments achieved with technological means. Which one is better…