Isaac Dunaevsky was born on 30 January 1900 in Lokhvitsa, in the Poltava region of present-day Ukraine, into a Jewish family in which music played an important role. From an early age, he displayed exceptional musical talent. He studied violin and composition at the Kharkov Conservatory, graduating in 1919.
He began his career as a violinist, conductor and composer for the theatre. In 1924, he moved to Moscow, where he worked at the Hermitage Theatre and the Theatre of Satire, among other venues. He composed his first operettas and became familiar with various forms of popular music and musical entertainment.
In 1929, he became musical director of the Leningrad Music Hall. His encounter with the singer and bandleader Leonid Utyosov played a decisive role in his artistic development. Fascinated by jazz, dance rhythms and new forms of entertainment, Dunaevsky helped renew Soviet light music by combining these influences with the Russian melodic tradition.
It was above all cinema, however, that brought him immense popularity. After his first experience in film in 1932, his collaboration with director Grigori Aleksandrov marked a turning point in his career. Their first major success together, Jolly Fellows (Весёлые ребята, 1934), starring Leonid Utyosov and Lyubov Orlova, ushered in a new form of Soviet musical comedy. The film's songs, notably “Легко на сердце от песни весёлой” and “Как много девушек хороших”, became enormously popular.
Their collaboration continued with Circus (Цирк, 1936), whose famous “Song of the Motherland” (“Песня о Родине”), with lyrics by Vasily Lebedev-Kumach, became one of the most popular songs in the Soviet Union. Dunaevsky subsequently composed the music for Aleksandrov's films Volga-(1938), The Bright Path (Светлый путь, 1940) and Spring (Весна, 1947).
He also worked with other directors. For Vladimir Vainshtok's The Children of Captain Grant (Дети капитана Гранта, 1936), he wrote, among other pieces, the celebrated “Song of the Merry Wind” (“Песенка о весёлом ветре”). His compositions can also be heard in The Goalkeeper (Вратарь, 1936), The Rich Bride (Богатая невеста, 1937) and Ivan Pyryev's Cossacks of the Kuban (Кубанские казаки, 1949), featuring the song “Каким ты был” (“Just as You Were”).
During the Second World War, Dunaevsky contributed to patriotic mobilisation through his songs and concerts. After the war, he continued his work in cinema, theatre and operetta. Among his best-known stage works are The Golden Valley (Золотая долина, 1938) and The Free Wind (Вольный ветер, 1947).
The composer of music for more than twenty films, twelve operettas and numerous songs, he collaborated with several major Soviet lyricists, particularly Vasily Lebedev-Kumach, Mikhail Matusovsky and Yevgeny Dolmatovsky. His work is distinguished by its melodic inventiveness, rhythmic energy and ability to express both collective enthusiasm and the most intimate feelings.
His music is also inseparable from the political and ideological context of his time. Some of his songs directly celebrated the Soviet regime, but their success also rested on musical qualities that transcended their propagandistic function.
Awarded two Stalin Prizes, in 1941 and 1951, and named People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1950, Isaac Dunaevsky died in Moscow on 25 July 1955, aged 55. His son Maxim Dunaevsky also became a renowned composer, particularly for cinema.
A major figure in Soviet popular music, Isaac Dunaevsky gave song an essential place in cinema. In his work, music does more than accompany the images: it becomes an integral part of the action and expresses the emotions of the characters.
