Bookvica

[CELEBRATIONS IN WORKERS’ CLUBS] Pervoe Maia v klube: sbornik instsenirovok, stikhotvorenii, khorovykh i muzykal’nykh proizvedenii [i.e. The May Day in the Club: Collection of Staging, Poems, Choral and Musical Works]

Moscow: Trud i kniga, 1924. Item #497

72 pp., 12 sheet music. 22,5x15 cm. In contemporary cardboards, the original constructivist covers preserved inside (on photo). Very good, rubbed, library stamps on the t.p. with cancellations stamps over them.

First and only edition. One of 8000 copies produced. Rare.

This is a collection of works re ected the early experimental period in celebrating of the May Day (First of May). This celebration had unprecedented importance in Soviet Union. A rally looked good as a weapon in the period of the revolution and Civil War. After that the country required another form ensuring the mass involvement of people. The rst attempts to theatricalise the processions widely spread and transformed the festive demonstration into political carnival. It became possible because of the amateur performances in the worker’s clubs.

In 1924 the USSR organized the rst May Day without Lenin. The organization of event differed from the previous years, but the celebration had occurred. This book gathered the works by Mayakovsky, Tretiakov, Gorodetskii, Aseev for the mass choral declamation. It was performed by a crowd or groups using the loud voices and, for the better organization, the works were published with the indicated different pauses. Some of them were accompanied by the music. The book is supplemented with 12 sheet music containing 3 works. The last one was created by a lm composer Kliment Korchmariov on Gorodetskii’s chastushki. A list of books on the history and contemporary organization of the May Day contains 18 titles.

The only copy located at the Library of Congress.

Price: $650.00