Dmitri Pokrass

Dmitry Yakovlevich Pokrass (Russian: Дми́трий Я́ковлевич Покра́сс) (7 November 1899, in Kiev – 20 December 1978, in Moscow) was a Soviet composer of Jewish origin. He composed popular music and scores for the theatre and films. Dmitry Pokrass was recognized in 1975 as a People's Artist of the USSR. (See also Pokrass brothers)

At eight years of age, Dmitry Pokrass began performing as a means of earning money. He declaimed poetry, beating off a chechotka. Touring cities, he absorbed the music of the suburbs of old Kiev, of military bands, Jewish weddings and celebrations, the cinema, synagogue services, and cheerful Ukrainian dances. During the years 1914-1917, Pokrass studied piano at the Petrograd Conservatory. As a student, he composed romances and songs for actors of a variety show. Has published a series of romances "Irmochka" ("The Grimaces of Life") with the description: "Intimate cabaret songs in the style of Isa Kremer, Vertinsky, Sabinin, Henkin". In the music of romances, he copied the stylistic manners of known actors, using the turns of fashionable tangos and other dances. He wrote songs of the "intimate genre" to be performed by Gipsy singer V. Shuysky: "The Bashful Tea Rose", "You Have Smiled at Me", "Warrant Officer Johns", and "Tango Dolores" (lyrics by P.German and O.Osenin). In 1917 he returned to Kiev, where he found work as an accompanist. In 1919, he worked at the "One-eyed Jimmy" variety theatre in Rostov-on-Don.

In 1919-1921, Pokrass served in the First Cavalry. In honour of the taking of Rostov by the First Cavalry, he wrote the song which gained national popularity, "Budyonny's March" (1920, lyrics by A.d'Aktilj). To his fellow soldiers of the First Cavalry, he dedicated further compositions: "Hey, hey, saddle the Horses" (D. Bednogo), a cantata "Forward" and a military march, "Red Cavalrymen", both with lyrics by S.Minin.

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