Anton Verstakov. Gastarlers

Gastarlers
Anton Verstakov

Date of publication: October 26, 1999

Romance or need?

The romance of the life of a traveling musician: a guitar, a beloved girl with a tambourine, during the day - singing and collecting money for food and hotel, in the evening - walking along the streets of Amsterdam or, say, Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin.

In Hamburg you can meet a flutist from Italy performing works by Russian composers. On the cozy streets of Paris you come across Africans with their tom-toms, and in Amsterdam British hippies sing songs for visitors to numerous cafes. That's for sure - music is limitless.

This is how traveling musicians seemed to live.

But reality offered, as always, its own view of life.

I never thought that a musician on the street could be a citizen of some state. It just never occurred to me - after all, he speaks the language of music. What difference does it make - Bremen or Moscow - just romance. But it is citizenship that, unfortunately, draws the line that divides street musicians.

From Kyiv to Rostock

My friends and I met the Ukrainian horn player Valentin Berger on the street of the German city of Rostock, when we were wandering after our next performance at the International Festival of Youth Brass Bands. Valentin stood on the only cozy street in this gloomy port city.

The horn player played so soulfully that almost every passerby stopped for a few seconds to listen to his beautiful and gentle playing. He was accompanied by a small tape recorder.

My friends and I came up out of “professional curiosity” - there was nothing to do, and here was a musician, and even a brass player. Some individuals were impatient to get to know their colleague on a “brodershaft” level. Well, when they found out that the horn player was from Kyiv, joy knew no bounds. And then we thought that in cold Rostock, among twenty foreign orchestras, it would be impossible for us to meet “normal” people. And what about Ukraine, now “foreign”, means nothing, because, despite our youth, we lived and live by the old truths: “Ukraine, Russia, Belarus - friendship!”

Valentin is a true professional, although he is only 25 years old. In Kyiv he works in the state orchestra, playing the part of the second horn. In his own words, the pay there is “too little.” Most orchestra members work second and third jobs. They play at night in clubs. “They play and wonder,” says Valentin, “why in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, while on TV (especially on Russian channels) they shout about “an impoverished, separated Ukraine”, there are so many visitors to nightclubs and bars in which a glass of gin Is a tonic worth 3 bucks?" I remembered Moscow and its night club life. Apparently, something is wrong in our kingdoms...

Valentin comes out of his difficult situation with dignity. In the summer he takes a vacation and goes to Germany for three weeks to play in the streets. He is a kind of musical guest worker (although these two words do not sound at all together). In three weeks he earns $1,200. Every evening (and he plays from 12.00 to 18.00) he has up to 200 stamps in his case. Thirty of them go towards food and accommodation. And, what’s important, you won’t get any extortion from the local “brothers”, like in Kyiv, or the reproachful glances of your acquaintances. So you can travel around Europe all summer and relax. But Valentin has a wife and little daughter in Kyiv. As soon as his vacation expires, he throws his belongings and his horn case onto the tour bus and heads back.

“To some extent, I was lucky, of course, because I have a musical education, I can afford such luxury. And it’s a pity for those guys who do not have such an opportunity. Many of my non-conservatory friends - electricians or engineers by profession - are simply "They are forced to earn extra money abroad. They become what they call their... new word... guest workers."

St. Petersburg - Brussels

I was brought to Brussels a year after meeting Valentin. I almost forgot about this Ukrainian horn player, but meeting with new “musical guest workers” brought me back to the topic of street musicians.

A brass band of about fifteen people was performing in one of the small Brussels squares. Then I also didn’t think about the musicians’ homeland. All passers-by learned that they were from St. Petersburg from a sign in English: “Orchestra Nota Bene. St. Petersburg.” Apparently, the sign was supposed to have a dual effect on passers-by - potential "employers" - with its original name and the fact that the musicians are from Russia. It seemed that passers-by were throwing more money into the tuba case, aware of WHERE the orchestra came from.

Unfortunately, each of these orchestra members has the same story as Valentin. Almost everyone is 30 years old. At work - they teach in schools - they pay a living wage. And they have families. One or two children each. So they “rest” in the summer for 6 hours with a break for lunch. Of course, an orchestra member earns less than a solo player. But Nota Bene plays in Brussels not for three weeks, but for a month. That’s why they bring home to St. Petersburg almost the same amount as Valentin.

Please note

The difference between “musical guest workers” and “traveling musicians” became clear after meeting the English hippies Jesus and his girlfriend No Name. He sings his favorite songs with a guitar like "Let it be" or "Loosing my religion" near the street cafes of Amsterdam. Without a Name sings along and taps the tambourine.

“We live in England five months a year,” says Jesus, “we have an apartment there, like we spend the winter. And so we hitchhike from city to city, we earn our own living. A guitar, a voice - that’s enough. And in the winter - accumulated, on benefits, at the expense of friends - ten more people live in our apartment, like a shared apartment... That's life I like,” Jesus sings.

In the evening they go to a café-shop * , smoke a cigarette and go to the “party street”, where wandering musicians of Amsterdam gather. This street is simply overflowing with an atmosphere of “informality,” “hippiness,” and a free young life.

There was not a single Russian musician on this street. And it cannot be. Valentin was already asleep at this time in his small room in a cheap hotel on the outskirts of Rostock. The musicians from Nota Bene finished playing cards and chess and lined up for the shower, which in their hotel was one for five double rooms.

The lifestyle of Jesus and No Name is wandering the streets of Europe with a guitar. They get a kick out of it. Valentin Berger and "Nota Bene" make a living this way during one summer month - their vacation - on the streets of Europe.

* Official places of sale of drugs legal in Holland.

"Alphabet" - a newspaper for the curious!
Subscription index - 29277
Editorial phone number - 207-48-06