The Main Idiom and the Exceptions

The strong presence of Nautilus Pompilius in Brother has overshadowed the overall eclecticism of film’s music track. The role of the other music has been downplayed, not just in the critical reception of the film, but also in the extratextual material about it, and, as I will argue in the forthcoming sections, in the structural positioning of the cues in the film. Nevertheless, the role of other songs and other music as exceptions to the main idiom is important, as they define what the main idiom is all about within the film text.

Overall, the music in Brother can be categorized as Nautilus songs (10), other songs (5), and other kinds of music (3). Nautilus is the main idiom. Other songs and other kinds of music can be grouped together as exceptions, which through parallels and oppositions, highlight important aspects of the main idiom. The main idiom as song form is contrasted with two types of instrumental score excerpts: diegetic and non-diegetic. The main idiom as rock music by Nautilus Pompilius is contrasted with the other songs on four levels: genre, country of origin, date, and gender.

Table 1 lists all the music included in the film’s music track in the order of their first appearance.

Table 1. List of songs and other music in Brother.

No Title Type Genre Year

1 Wings (Kryl’ja) song by Nautilus Pompilius rock 1995

2 “chord” instrumental score music -

-3 People on the Hill (Ljudi na holme)

song by Nautilus Pompilius rock 1997

4 When it Was Raining (Vo vremja dožd’ja)

song by Nautilus Pompilius rock 1997

5 Mother of Gods (Mater’ bogov)

song by Nautilus Pompilius rock 1997

6 Gentle Vampire

(Nežnyj vampir) song by Nautilus Pompilius rock 1997

7 Air (Vozduh) song by Nautilus Pompilius rock 1994

8 “film score 1” instrumental score music -

-9 Pop-pop (Hlop-hlop) song by Nautilus Pompilius rock 1986 10 Flying Frigate

(Letučij fregat)

song by Nautilus Pompilius rock 1983

11 Max Don’t Have Sex song by E-Rotic Eurodance 1994

12 Giamaica song by Robertino Loreti estrada/

Italian 1962

13 Coz I Love You song by Slade rock/British 1971

14 For Free (Darom) song by Nastja rock 1997

17 “film score 2” instrumental score music -

-18 The Beast (Zver) song by Nautilus Pompilius rock 1994

Altogether there are excerpts from eighteen different pieces of music used in the film, ten of which are songs by Nautilus Pompilius. This means that approximately 55.5 % of the music is performed by Nautilus.¹⁵⁷ As for the form of the musical pieces, it is clear that the majority, fifteen of the eighteen, are in song form. Brother’s music track is clearly what Jeff Smith has described as a “pop compilation score,”

that is, “a series of self-contained musical numbers, usually prerecorded songs, which were substituted for the repeated and varied occurrences of a score’s theme”

(1998: 154-155).

The absence of a traditional original score makes the presence of the three musical fragments categorized as instrumental score music, or rather as non-songs, appear even more important. Against such a massive structure of song fragments these three

“non-songs” become significant. These are the only three fragments without an official name; as I have not been able to trace them, I have given them the unofficial titles of “the chord” (no. 2 in Table 1), “film score 1” (no. 8) and “film score 2” (no.

17).

“The chord” is a single, ominous-sounding chord heard during the presentation of the film’s title. It is most likely the only instance of original music created especially

157 Taking the repetitions of the cues and their length into consideration, the proportion of Nautilus’s music becomes significantly higher, bringing the overall number of individual cues to 27. Since only the Nautilus cues are repeated, the percentage of Nautilus songs is slightly higher, 70.3 percent, with 19 out of 27 cues consisting of this band’s repertoire. In duration, the percentage is roughly the same, with 72.76 percent of the music being Nautilus’s. Altogether 39 minutes 10 seconds of the running length (97 minutes) is covered by music, of which 28 minutes 30 seconds is music by Nautilus.

for the film, although even this is debatable. The chord could easily be a fragment, a sample, taken from a pre-existing piece. The two other score fragments, “film score 1” and “film score 2” are both excerpts of instrumental music heard on a television set.¹⁵⁸ They are both music coming from films within Brother the film, and in both instances, it is very likely that what we hear is the audio track of an actual, existing film. “Film score 1” is an excerpt of instrumental orchestral music heard with a fragment shown of a war film: there are images of a helicopter and an explosion. The music is mixed with English-language dialogue and a voice-over dubbing in Russian.

“Film score 2” as an excerpt of instrumental score music for a pre-existing film is mainly heard and not seen. The audience only gets a brief and distant glimpse of the film in question, but the fragment of music is jazzy guitar and bass combo combined with a fragment of dialogue: “Why, Bill, you’ve been keeping this from me all this time... Oh, Bill...” The cue is barely audible, yet along with the dialogue, it is clear enough to indicate that the film in question is a porn film. In this instance one of the most visual of all film genres is actually distinguishable by its audio track alone.

Brother includes a total of five pre-existing songs performed by artists other than Nautilus Pompilius (nos. 11-15 in Table 1). The selection covers a wide range in time, geographical origin and genre. Temporally, the songs come from several decades: there is contemporary music of the 1990s, but also pre-World War II music and music from the 1960s and 1970s. The geographical distribution includes not only Russian music, but also examples of German, Italian, and British music.

“Max Don’t Have Sex (with your Ex)” is a Eurodance song performed by a German group called E-Rotic. Released in 1994, the song was a hit in several

European countries. Its success lead to the group’s European tour which included two concerts in Russia – in Moscow and Yekaterinburg in 1996.¹⁵⁹ The next song,

“Giamaica,” by the Italian child sensation, Robertino Loreti, was a hit all over 158 See images 4.2 and 4.5 in Appendix 3 for screen shots depicting the television as source

for the music.

159 Concert details were retrieved from the Russian language Wikipedia article on the group (Accessed September 20, 2016). Presumably, the fact that the group performed in Balabanov’s home town in the year he was writing the script for Brother had some connection with their song being used in the film.

Europe and the Soviet Union in 1962. Artëm Troickij described him as the first foreign pop superstar in the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s: “Bill Haley and the like all remained in the shadow of Robertino” (1991: 14). The song had

previously been used in several Russian films before its appearance in Brother.¹⁶⁰ On Brother’s music track “Giamaica” is followed by a song by British glam rock group Slade, hailed in the early 1970s as the successor to the Beatles. “Coz I Luv You” was one of their biggest hits, from the year 1971. The use of all three songs has realistic motivation: “Max” is heard as a realistic backdrop in a nightclub; “Giamaica” is heard on a record player at a middle-aged man’s residence; the Slade song is placed as a barely audible cue at a musicians’ house party.

“For Free,” on the other hand, is performed live and acoustic in the film by Nastja Poleva. As mentioned above, Poleva was one of the early female representatives of Russian rock. She hailed from Sverdlovsk, as did both Nautilus and Balabanov. In that sense, classifying her song as “other song” in opposition to Nautilus is not entirely correct, as she is featured in the film singing in one of the Nautilus songs.

Nevertheless, “For Free” is from her own repertoire: it was written by her and published on her group’s album More Siam (“Sea of Siam”, 1997). Thus, its placement and presentation as an “other song” is justified.

Another live performance is “Wide Open Sea,” a traditional song, a fragment of which is sung by one of the characters, Sveta.¹⁶¹ This is the only instance in the film when a fictional character sings. Sveta’s choice of song is interesting, as it comes from a very masculine field: it is a song about the fate of Russian sailors. There are different versions of the song’s text and its origins, but it originated as a nineteenth century romance and was first recorded in 1912. Ultimately, it was made famous in the 1930s thanks to performances by the legendary Leonid Utësov. During World War II, it gained particular popularity, and has since been considered a war-time song

160 The first time the song was used was in the film Introducing Baluyev (Znakomtes’, Balujev, 1963), in which it emanates from a record player during a restaurant dance scene. In Walking around Moscow (1963) a customer in a record shop asks for Robertino, and the saleswoman replies that they don’t have it. Almost two decades later the song was also heard in Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1979).

161 The song is also known as “Kočegar” (“The Stoker”).

(“voennaja pesnja”). Utësov’s performance of the song was included in Lenfilm’s Film Concert (Fil’m-koncert, 1940).

As for song genres, three of them (by E-Rotic, Slade, and Nastja) can be categorized as pop-rock, although Nastja could also fit into the traditional Russian genre of bard music. The glam rock of the 1970s and Eurodance of the 1990s are as far apart as two genres can be and still fit in the same category. The remaining two songs represent a more traditional idiom opposed to the modern pop-rock genre:

Robertino Loreti represents more general popular song, 1960s’ entertainment music – the “schlager,” or in Russian terms, estrada – whereas the song Sveta sings was originally an early twentieth century romance, later turned into a World War II song.

Both genres were typical of Soviet-era films, and both songs had previously been used as film songs.

The main binary oppositions in the distribution of songs are thus as follows:

domestic (Russian) – foreign (Western), modern – old, and male – female. Nautilus is the only male voice to represent Russian music, whether old or new. No model of modern Western male is offered in opposition to it. The conclusion that can be drawn is that Nautilus represents the neutral form of all Russian music, and is mainly opposed to female voices in all other categories. Foreign music (with the exception of rock) equals femininity and is therefore less aggressive, less threatening, less capable of providing a real counterpart or rival to Russian rock. “Giamaica” is a tricky performance from this perspective, since it is sung by a young Italian boy, whose voice sounds more like a female voice. If “women and children” are posed as one group versus “male voices,” then Slade and Nautilus (the evolution of Western rock into Russian rock) represent the only real masculine alternatives. In sum, through the general juxtaposition of styles, dates, and performers, Nautilus is highlighted as distinctively Russian, contemporary, male, and rock.

However, on closer inspection of the Nautilus songs used in Brother, it is evident that they do not form as homogeneous a group as it might first appear. Table 2 gives more details about the eleven Nautilus songs featured on the film’s music track. In this table I have added the alternative demo version of “People on the Hill” as an

additional, eleventh song. This is because, even though as film music the demo version can be considered a variation on the original song, it also counts as an independent song because this version is included on one of Nautilus’s albums as well as on the film’s soundtrack album.

Table 2. List of Nautilus songs in Brother.

No Title Year Album Words/Music

7 Pop-pop (Hlop-hlop) 1986/1996 Razluka / live Butusov 8 Flying Frigate

A consideration of the distribution of Nautilus songs in the film shows that the eleven songs date from various periods. The oldest is “Flying Frigate” from 1983.

Yet the version heard in the film is a re-recording of the song for the group’s 1993 tribute album and features Nastja Poleva on vocals. Furthermore, Nastja’s version of the song is included as two variants: the already mentioned studio album recording and a live performance videotaped from a concert organized with the release of the

album.¹⁶² Another older song is “Pop-pop,” originally released in 1986; in the film it is heard as an acoustic version from Butusov’s 1996 concert.¹⁶³

Four songs are taken from Nautilus albums of the early 1990s: “Wings,” “Air,”

“Black Birds,” and “Beast.” Five songs are brand new, from the two albums, Jablokitaj and Atlantida, released the same year as Brother was filmed and

released.¹⁶⁴ These songs can be considered marginally pre-existing: “People on the Hill,” “When It Was Raining,” “Mother of Gods,” “Gentle Vampire” and “People on the Hill (demo version).” They were recorded at Fairlight Studios in Yorkshire, England, in 1996, yet two of them were left out of the first-published Jablokitaj and were included in the later Atlantida album, which was a collection of previously unpublished songs from 1993-1996.

The case of popular music performed by a known artist, which coincides with the release of the film, blurs the line between original and pre-existing film music. The albums were recorded and released at the same time as the film was being made, so technically they could be considered original songs. What speaks for their

categorization as pre-existing is the fact that they were not written specifically for the film. In any case, the simultaneity of their production partially explains the errors in the publication information and in the names of the songs in the end credits.

To sum up, the Nautilus songs featured in the film were compiled from various albums throughout the band’s career between the years 1983 and 1997. When grouped together, they cannot be categorized as either old or new music, as pre-existing or as original. Furthermore, what is notable is the absence of the main hits of the perestroika period, the band’s signature songs. As a result, the songs that were used do not have any explicit political content. None of them was used as film music prior to Brother. Clearly, the focus was on songs which were not widely known as Nautilus songs and which had no direct connotations or connections to prior filmic use.

162 The concert video called “Nautilus Pompilius Jubilee Concert with Friends” (“Nautilus Pompilius jubilejnij koncert s druz’jami”) was released in 1995 by Telekompanija Sigma-video.

163The acoustic concert was organized in 1996 and took place in Gorbunov’s House of Culture (DK Gorbunova) in Moscow.

164 Jablokitaj is mentioned by name in the film as the group’s new album.

One of the main functions of popular music on film has to do with its pre-existence: it refers to pop culture knowledge and brings along its own history (Romney & Wootton 1995: 4-5). Essentially, popular music has strong connections with temporality: it imparts historical specificity (Smith 1998: 165). Popular music is so strongly connected with the time of its creation and release that it almost always evokes either a particular “nowness” or nostalgia (Kermode 1995: 9, 12). In the case of the Nautilus songs in Brother, we encounter a paradox: new music that evokes a sense of nostalgia. Even though the most Nautilus songs featured in the film are contemporary with the film, as they are taken from the band’s albums Jablokitaj and Atlantida released in 1997, the songs still evoke a sense of being dated. This

temporal mismatch has important repercussions for the possible interpretations of the film and for the treatment of music as a thematic motif.