Baian

¹ Double-bass, harp, flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, trumpet, percussion instrument, baian, dombra, balalaika, guitar and other folk instruments, accordion.

There were strange zinc double-basses in the form of square shapes with long strings, there were balalaikas and baians, Negro banjos and Hawaiian guitars, squeaky jazz pipes and metallophones made of steel. […] Behind the accompaniment of the baian orchestra of the Central Club of the union of town enterprises (led by Golikov), the collective displayed an entire dance scene in accordance with all the rules of the ballet.

Four accordion-like baians lent a folksy quality to the opening of “Ennui and Sadness” (after Mikhail Lermontov), but their participation was brief, and it was left to the choristers to bare their souls with angry whoops of loveless despair.

Cushman found “an emergent sense of nationalistic pride” and an increasing interest in experimenting with traditional musical themes and instruments (such as the balalaika and baian) within the rock genre among St. Petersburg rock musicians from the early 1990s, (Cushman 1995: 315).

Her repertoire consists of Russian folk songs, usually accompanied by a grand orchestra dominated by folk instruments such as the balalaika and the baian, as well as pathos-filled songs by Soviet composers, expressing love for the motherland and its nature and people.