The most discussed program from the Russian national team’s skating trials is a program that was never shown. Experts from federal channels are tearing out their throats, arguing whether Pyotr Gumennik can skate to the Rammstein song or not. The leaders deny the situation and the noise around them grows louder and louder.
What if, in fact, most of the show isn’t even Rammstein music? We present a small musical study of the “Championship”.
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Whose music is the basis of the program?
Most of the musical composition is taken up by one melody in four different interpretations, and two-thirds of the program (approximately 1 minute and 52 seconds) sounds exactly like that. First there is a piano, then a violin, then a symphonic arrangement and at the end a female vocalization.
This melody appears in the Rammstein song as a coda, but its original source is not a song by the German group at all. Exactly the same melody sounds, for example, in Stefano Principi’s 2008 composition Pax Mundi, on the soundtrack of the 1999 game Crusaders of Might and Magic, but this cannot be called plagiarism. And that’s why.
The melody is based on samples from Spectrasonics’ Symphony of Voices library, which was released in 1998. This music library, according to its official website, was used even by such famous film composers as Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman.
Specifically, in the Rammstein song, the samples are used under the title Lamenting, and are actually taken in a row, numbered 6, 7, 8 and 10, and the melody is built in the same order. Rammstein keyboardist Christian Lorenz only increased the tempo when creating the composition, so the melody went up several pitches, but the recognizable motif remained.
The third repetition of the melody begins on the step track, a version in symphonic arrangement with chorus.
In fact, the complaint concerns the cut, the main source of which, for the most part, is not even Rammstein. Some fans suggested that Gumennik take the Russian version of Radio Tapok, but only a short bridge and a second verse of the original Rammstein song remained in the show, which in total give less than a minute of pure time. Everything else is covers. And those are versions of a melody written from ready-made samples that anyone can use if they purchase the library.
Are the claims of that sympathetic person who was dissatisfied with the alleged unpatriotic nature of the program relevant then?
The lack of details is the main problem in this case.
If at least Gumennik or his coach saw this letter initially and knew why it was asked to throw the program in the trash, then they could somehow work with him. And such a wave of indignation and discussions would not have arisen. The author of the letter, Evgeny Kartushin, declined to comment; Journalists contacted him, but he said he was not seeking publicity.
From the outside, the situation seems as if the person had sent the message, broadly speaking, for fun, without even thinking about what it could actually lead to, and when asked to publicly explain his message, he was afraid to say a word. word. .
What exactly are the complaints? To the personality of the band’s vocalist, Till Lindemann, and the sexual scandals surrounding him? Towards the group’s political position? To the context around a specific song? Is it simply that Rammstein’s music in modern times is supposedly inappropriate? Currently, only conjectures are discussed on the Internet, but there is no clarity, and this only generates informational noise.
Rammstein’s lead singer Till Lindemann.
Photo: RIA Novosti
Many experts generally commented on the situation without knowing the context, and only increased this informational noise. The most masterful statement about the situation was made by Alexander Zhulin: “With these LGBT communities and others, nothing surprises me at all. “I don’t know if in the end they did the right thing by leaving music, I don’t understand anything about this life anymore.”
Deputy of the State Duma and head of the Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, Dmitry Svishchev, far from the world of figure skating, in his conversations with Gazeta.ru was generally confused in his own reasoning. He seemed to realize that politicians should mind their own business and figure skaters should mind theirs, and said he called the Ministry of Sports and the FFKKR and they explained to him that the music simply doesn’t match the program. But this is simply impossible: the program was prepared for four months, shown to the viewer and posted on the Internet, and they demanded that it be changed a couple of days before the screenings, after contacting government agencies. By the way, deputy Svishchev called Yevgeny Kartushin’s appeal to the deputies complete stupidity.
If you remember, in the Channel One video there was a fragment of Peter’s training at the training camp in Sochi, and Elena Anatolyevna Tchaikovskaya, the head coach of the Russian figure skating team, was present. In conversation with the Championship, the skater confirmed that he perfected the program together with Tchaikovskaya. Couldn’t you immediately say that the music supposedly does not technically correspond to the program, as Deputy Svishchev maintains?
Piotr Gumennik at the training camp in Sochi with Veronica Daineko and Elena Tchaikovskaya
Photo: frame of the transmission.
You can change the program mid-season and you can also practice it. Last season, for example, Mark Kondratyuk had to change his free skate after the skating tests. But then it was understandable: the performance itself did not work out due to many falls, and there was no “match” with the music, the lyrics of “Selma” did not suit Mark.
Here it is not allowed to perform a program that suits the skater perfectly and that he himself is passionate about, not because the judges or the federation are against it, but because someone from the outside has begun to evaluate what type of music is possible. skate and what you can’t.
State Duma deputy Sultan Jamzaev stressed that the decision on the program and music is the responsibility of the federation. The responses of Dmitry Peskov (“We are not following the situation”) and Oleg Matytsin (“This is the competence of the federation, it must make a decision”) make it clear that this has never been a “matter of national importance.” “
Tamara Moskvina and Nikolai Moroshkin, director of the Pyotr Gumennik program
Photo: RIA Novosti
A clear decision must be made soon, because in just over a month Peter has the first competition of the season: the Grand Prix stage in Krasnoyarsk (October 28 and 29). At this point, he already needs a ready-made program, so he should continue working on the previous one or install another one and implement it. And leaving the Russian runner-up (also with champion points) in limbo and continuing to negatively impact their preparation is like shooting yourself in the foot.
The best way out of the situation is to take the “sun” out of the trash, wash it and roll it up. Maybe in a slightly revised version, but put it together. And don’t be afraid of anything.
