VOCAL CYCLE "CHILDREN'S"

“No one has addressed the best in us with more tenderness and more depth. He [Mussorgsky] is unique and will remain unique thanks to his art without contrived techniques, without withering rules. Never before has such a refined perception been expressed by such simple means of expression.

K. Debussy about the cycle "Children's" (9).

“The vocal cycle “Children’s”, created at the turn of the 60s and 70s, became the highest embodiment of Mussorgsky’s conscious principles of vocal chamber theater. After all, it is the first song of the future cycle - “With the Nanny” - that the composer mentions in a number of plays that perform a certain artistic task (“Savishna”, “Orphan”, “Lullaby of Eremushki” and others). Seven small songs, united by the originality of the vision of the children's world, by their appearance caused genuine delight among the musicians who surrounded Mussorgsky, ”writes E.E. Durandina (12). In turn, V.V. Stasov in his writings expresses his impressions as follows: “Everything that is poetic, naive, sweet, a little crafty, good-natured, charming, childishly hot, dreamy and deeply touching in the world of a child, appeared here in forms unprecedented, yet untouched by anyone” (34). V. Stasov and C. Cui among Russian music critics, and behind them the Western European composers F. Liszt and C. Debussy, gave an enthusiastic assessment of "Children's". What are the reasons for this huge success of modest vocal pieces about children?

Let's start with the history of the creation of the "Children's" cycle. We turned to various sources: letters from M.P. Mussorgsky, memoirs of contemporaries, works of researchers (33). Our musical culture is considered one of the largest in the world. Modest Petrovich undoubtedly occupies one of the first places among Russian composers. His music is a great national treasure, it has a Russian essence. The Pskov land became the cradle of this universal music. Tatyana Georgievna Mussorgskaya, the great-niece of the composer, said that the nanny in the house was revered as an equal member of the family, "the most faithful person." She lived next to the nursery, ate from the master's table and, in addition, "managed" the samovar, which was "noisy" almost around the clock - at any time, on demand, hot tea was served "from the key". “The smart and good nanny” also had her own voice, she could not only scold the children, but even reprimand the gentleman himself and “talked to him like you.” In this regard, the opinion of academician D.S. Likhachev about the attitude of advanced nobles to their serfs is interesting. According to the scientist, good relations were often established between masters and servants and peasants - this gave stability to life. True intellectuals never humiliated the weak, never showed their superiority - a typical feature of a cultured person. The Mussorgsky estate was, as it were, a charitable home, and the landlords were its merciful owners, compassionate and sympathetic to the grief of others. This undoubtedly had a huge impact on the formation of the future composer. To create such romances as "Savishna", "Orphan", "Mischievous", the image of the Holy fool in "Boris Godunov", it was necessary not only to see the "humiliated and insulted", but also to empathize with them. As the old-timers said, barchuks were not forbidden to make friends with peasant children. Tatyana Georgievna Mussorgskaya said: "Dad often recalled the words of my grandfather Filaret Petrovich - a child must necessarily grow up surrounded by children." In the Mussorgsky family album there was a photograph where Filaret and Modest appeared in peasant trousers and shirts. This once again confirms that the parents tried not to separate their children from their serf peers even outwardly. The fact that Modest communicated with peasant children and their parents, visited huts, is evidenced by the composer himself: “It was not without reason that in childhood he liked to listen to peasants and deigned to tempt them with songs.” This land has long been considered a song. But the time has come, childhood in Karev is over. In 1849, the parents took Filaret and Modest to St. Petersburg to determine them for study. For Modest, a new, Petersburg, period began, the longest in his short life. At the end of March 1868, Mussorgsky probably managed to break out of St. Petersburg for a short time in order to visit the grave of his beloved mother and arrange her commemoration in the church, as he had done before. Stopped Modest Petrovich, of course, in his Karev, the owner of which was listed. Meetings with the old-timers of the estate brought back memories of childhood, of the nanny. As you know, Mussorgsky nurtured musical ideas until "the time to write down" came. And, returning to St. Petersburg, he composes the song "Child" (the author's date on the manuscript is "April 26, 1868"). This is the first name, there were also such options: “Tell me, nanny”, “Child with a nanny”, “Child”. The song will enter the cycle "Children's" at number 1 with the final and now well-known name "With the nanny". Mussorgsky dedicated this work to Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky, “the great teacher of musical truth,” as Modest Petrovich writes. He was the first to play the song, after which Dargomyzhsky said: "Well, this one stuck me in the belt." The first performer of the song was Alexandra Nikolaevna Purgold, married Molas, singer, teacher, member of the Balakirev circle. Mussorgsky himself, apparently, attached special importance to this work. In a letter to L.I. Shestakova, he writes: “I depicted a part of what life gave me in musical images ... I would like this. In order for my characters to speak on the stage as living people speak... my music must be an artistic reproduction of human speech in all its subtlest curves. This is the ideal I aspire to (“Savishna”, “Orphan”, “Eryomushka”, “Child”)”. The recognition of the song by friends prompted the composer to compose four more plays: "In the Corner", "Beetle", "With a Doll", "For the Coming Sleep". These five works, at the suggestion of Stasov, received the general name “Children's. Episodes from a Child's Life. The critic admired the cycle: “What strings of pearls and diamonds, what unheard-of music!” "Children's" heard Repin, calling it "a truly wonderful thing", and, subdued by the "picturesqueness" of all five scenes, drew the title page for the cycle. In 1872, the music publisher V. Bessel published "Children's" with drawings by Repin, and music fans in Russia and abroad could get acquainted with it. In Weimar, the great Liszt lost The Nursery, and it delighted him and all those present. Mussorgsky, who idolized Liszt, found out about this and shared his joy with Stasov: “I never thought that Liszt, with few exceptions, choosing colossal plots, could seriously understand and appreciate The Children's, and most importantly, admire her; after all, the children in it are Russians, with a strong local smell.

Who are these Russian children? Where does this knowledge of child psychology come from?

At the time of the creation of the vocal cycle, Mussorgsky mostly lived in the family of his brother, whose children grew up in front of the composer. Modest Petrovich was the godfather of George's nephew. The baptism took place in the court of the Mariinsky Church in Pavlovsk, where the couple had two dachas. Tatyana Georgievna repeated more than once that her father was the composer's favorite nephew. Modest Petrovich idolized him and treated him like his own son. When Georgy studied at the Naval Corps, he spent all his free time with his uncle, since by that time his parents had left St. Petersburg for the Ryazan estate that belonged to the wife of Filaret Petrovich. For his birthday, Modest Petrovich gave his nephew a bronze candlestick for two candles with the image of a knight. This candlestick was especially treasured by the Mussorgskys as a family heirloom, since the composer worked under it. The last keeper was Tatyana Georgievna. However, the candlestick disappeared during the blockade, when the house was shelled. But the most expensive gift remained forever - the famous uncle dedicated the play "With a Doll" from the "Children's" cycle to his nephews. On the music sheet of the play, the author's date is “December 18, 1870. Tanyushka and Goge Mussorgsky. So, perhaps, the composer "wrote off" "Children's" from his nephews. In addition, he used observations of children when he visited friends' houses in St. Petersburg, at dachas. The memoirs of the composer's contemporaries speak in favor of this assumption. For example, this: “Kui’s children loved him [Mussorgsky] very much because, while playing with them, he did not do any condescension and frolicked with them like a child, from the heart ...” However, the episodes described by Mussorgsky are clearly not country houses and do not resemble Pavlovsk in any way, with its luxurious palaces and parks. And the little heroes of the plays do not look like St. Petersburg children. The "Children's" depicts pictures of rural life, and this is a village very far from the capital, with a clear Pskov dialect and peculiarities. And although the composer does not specifically name the place of action, but the text feels that it is well known and close to him. The first play of the cycle "With the Nanny" is written in the first person: "Tell me, nanny, tell me, dear." The fact that Mussorgsky's nanny was a master of telling fairy tales was mentioned by the composer in the lines of his Autobiography: "Under the direct influence of the nanny, I became closely acquainted with Russian fairy tales." The wise and kind Karev nanny also knew many legends and sayings and applied them in all situations of life. In the play, the child asks the nanny to tell about something good - a kind, funny tale: “You know, nanny: don’t tell about the beech! "It is more interesting for a child to hear about the king who limped: "as he stumbles, so the mushroom grows," or about the wonderful island, "where they neither reap nor sow, where bulk pears grow and ripen." This island is quite real - it stands on Lake Zhizhitsky and is called Dolgiy. Even now, you can collect a bucket of strawberries with blueberries or raspberries in half a day. And don’t the main characters of the “Children’s” - dad, mother, nanny, two brothers Mishenka and Vasenka and “old grandmother” - remind the Mussorgsky family - father, mother, brothers Filaret and Modest, nanny Ksenia Semyonovna and grandmother Irina Yegorovna . Even more noteworthy is the "similarity" with the life of the play "In the dream to come." Here the nanny teaches a serf girl to pray, who is brought to the brothers by her cousin. In the "Prayer" of the cycle and in the "Confessional Paintings" the same names: Aunt Katya, Aunt Natasha, Aunt Masha, Aunt Parasha ... Uncles Volodya, Grisha, Sasha, as well as children: Filka, Vanka, Mitka, Petka, Dasha, Pasha, Dunyasha... It seems that the play "Beetle" is also inspired by the memories of the composer's childhood. Such games, such close communion with nature is possible only on a small rural estate, and certainly not at a dacha in Pavlovsk. “I played there, on the sand, behind the gazebo, where there are birches; I built a house out of maple slivers, those that my mother, my mother herself splintered. The cradle of this brilliant, powerful sensitivity of Mussorgsky is his homeland, the land of Pskov, it was here that the composer first heard, as he noted in one of his letters, “the sound of his native string ...”

The world of children's feelings, joys and sorrows is revealed by the composer in the vocal cycle "Children's" created by him at that time in his own words. It is difficult to imagine a more sincere and poetic embodiment of the images of childhood! Mussorgsky's skill in conveying the finest shades of speech intonation is presented here with a truly impressionistic richness of emotional colors. And the sincerity of the tone and the truthfulness of the narration reflect the composer's attitude to the inner world of children - without sweetness and falsehood, but with warmth and tenderness. The first play that opens the cycle - "A Child with a Nanny" - was written earlier, in the spring of 1868, during the life of Dargomyzhsky (it is dedicated to him). At the beginning of 1870, Mussorgsky wrote four more plays: "In the Corner", "Beetle", "With a Doll" and "For the Coming Sleep"; the last two little pieces - "The Sailor Cat" and "I Ride on a Stick" - were written in 1872. You can't call them songs, let alone romances; these are vocal skits for one or two performers; but there is no theatrical stage presence, scale in them - they are so subtle, sincere and intimate. Two more plays were supposed - "The Dream of a Child" and "A Quarrel of Two Children"; Mussorgsky played them to friends, but did not write them down.

The first piece, “With the Nanny”, captivates with the most charming truthfulness of the transfer of the child’s speech: “Tell me, nanny, tell me, dear, about that terrible beech ....” The main expressive means is the melodic line; this is a real speech, melodic and intonationally flexible recitative. Despite the many repetitions of sound at the same pitch, there is no monotony here. The line is perceived as extraordinarily rich, because the brightest syllables of the text - the percussion - naturally coincide with the melodic leap, and, in addition, the repetition of sound in the melody falls on the change of harmony, the game of registers, the dynamic change in accompaniment. Here every word of the text is like a jewel; the composer's observations and discoveries in the field of the musical embodiment of children's speech can be enjoyed endlessly.

The play "In the Corner" begins with a "high" emotional note of nanny's anger: the seething of non-stop eighths serves as an accompaniment to her accusations: "Oh, you prankster! The ball unwound, the rods lost! Ahti! Dropped all the loops! The stocking was splattered with ink! Into the corner! Into the corner! Went to the corner!" and, subsiding, - "Prankster!" And the answer from the corner is incomparable in pity; rounded intonations in minor with a falling ending and a "whining" motif in the accompaniment begin as an excuse. But how remarkable is the psychological transition: having convinced himself of his own innocence, the baby gradually changes his tone, and intonations from plaintive gradually turn into aggressively ascending ones; the end of the play is already a cry of “insulted dignity”: “Nanny offended Mishenka, put Mishenka in a corner in vain; Misha won't love his nanny anymore, that's what!"

The play "Beetle", which conveys the excitement of the baby from meeting with the beetle (he was building a house of light rays and suddenly saw a huge black beetle; the beetle took off and hit him on the temple, and then fell off by itself), is built on the continuous movement of eighths in the accompaniment; the agitated story leads to the climax of the incident on a sharp chord, comically copying the "adult" dramatic events.

In the song “With a Doll,” the girl lulls the Tyapa doll and, imitating her nanny, sings a monotonous lullaby, interrupted by an impatient cry: “Tyapa, you need to sleep!” And inspiring pleasant dreams to her Tyapa, she sings about a wonderful island, “where they don’t reap, they don’t sow, where pear pears bloom and ripen, golden birds sing day and night”; Here the melodic line is lullingly monotonous; and in harmony, the minor (usual for lullabies) and major (as an implied and “translucent” basis) are intricately combined. Where it comes to a wonderful "exotic" island, the accompaniment responds to the text with a beautiful static harmony.

“For the dream to come” is a naive children's prayer for the health of all relatives, friends and distant, as well as playmates (with the acceleration of enumerated) ...

In the play "Cat Sailor", the story of a cat that put its paw into a cage with a bullfinch is also set out in an excited, pulsating rhythm of non-stop eighths; the witty techniques of piano sound representation are remarkable - an illustration of the events described (the sound of a rattle in a cage, the trembling of a bullfinch).

"I rode on a stick" - a lively scene of playing horses, interrupted by a short conversation with a friend Vasya and overshadowed by a fall ("Oh, it hurts! Oh, my leg!"...). Mom's comfort (affectionately soothing intonations) quickly heals the pain, and the reprise is cheerful and frisky, as at the beginning.

"Children's" was published in 1873 (designed by I. E. Repin) and received wide recognition from the public; in the circle of musicians "Children's" A. N. Purgold often sang.

This cycle became the only work of Mussorgsky, which, during the composer's lifetime, received a review from his venerable foreign colleague, F. Liszt, to whom the publisher V. Bessel sent these notes (together with works by other young Russian composers). Liszt enthusiastically appreciated the novelty, unusualness and immediacy of the tone of "Children's". Bessel's brother told Mussorgsky that Liszt's "Children's Book" "stirred him to such an extent that he fell in love with the author and wishes to dedicate une 'bluette' to him" (a trinket - fr.). Mussorgsky writes to V.V. Stasov: “... Whether I am stupid or not in music, but in Detskaya, it seems, I am not stupid, because understanding children and looking at them as people with a peculiar world, and not as funny dolls, should not recommend the author from a stupid side ... I never thought that Liszt, with few exceptions, choosing colossal subjects, could seriously to understand and appreciate the "Children's", and most importantly, to admire it ... What will Liszt say or what will he think when he sees "Boris" in a piano presentation, at least.

Mussorgsky conceived a large vocal cycle dedicated to children in the spring of 1868. Perhaps this idea prompted him to communicate with the children of Stasov, whom he often visited in those years. Not songs for children, but vocal and poetic miniatures, revealing the spiritual world of the child, his psychology - that was the focus of the composer's attention. He began to compose on his own texts, and it was not by chance that, having finished the first number of the cycle, “With the Nanny”, Mussorgsky made a significant dedication to “the great teacher of musical truth Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky”. This was six months before the death of Dargomyzhsky, who highly appreciated the experience of the young author and advised him to continue the work by all means. However, Mussorgsky, busy at the time finishing Boris Godunov, put it off for a long time. Only at the beginning of 1870 four more issues were written - “In the Corner”, “Beetle”, “With a Doll” and “For the Coming Sleep”. The last two plays, "Cat Sailor" and "On a Stick", appeared only in 1872. Two more were composed - "The Dream of a Child" and "A Quarrel of Two Children". Their composer played to friends, but did not record them, and they are absent from the final version of the cycle.

"Children's" is a completely unusual work that had no analogues before. These are not songs, not romances, but subtle vocal scenes in which the world of a child is revealed surprisingly accurately, deeply and lovingly. There is no record of when the loop was first executed. It is only known that it was often sung by a young lover A.N. Purgold, the sister of Rimsky-Korsakov's wife, who together with her took an ardent part in the life of the musical circle grouped around Dargomyzhsky. Soon after writing, in 1873, "Children's" was published by V. Bessel in Repin's elegant design and immediately received public recognition. Bessel at the same time, along with some other works by young Russian composers, sent the "Children's" to Liszt, who was delighted with it. The publisher's brother informed Mussorgsky that his work had stirred Liszt to such an extent that he fell in love with the author and wished to dedicate an une "bluette" (trinket. - L.M.) to him. “I’m stupid or not in music, but in “Children's”, it seems that I’m not stupid, because understanding children and looking at them as people with a peculiar world, and not as funny dolls, should not recommend the author from a stupid side, - Mussorgsky wrote to Stasov. - ... I never thought that Liszt, with few exceptions, choosing colossal plots, could seriously understand and appreciate the "Children's", and most importantly, admire it: after all, the children in it are Russians, with a strong local smell .. ."

Six of the seven numbers of the cycle have dedications. “In the Corner” - to Viktor Alexandrovich Hartman, a friend of the composer, artist and architect, who soon died in the prime of life from heart disease (his posthumous exhibition inspired the composer to one of his best creations - the cycle “Pictures at an Exhibition”). The "Beetle" is dedicated to the ideological inspirer of the composer's circle, the author of the winged name The Mighty Handful, Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov. Above the piece "With a Doll" is the inscription "Dedicated to Tanya and Goga Mussorgsky" - the composer's nephews, the children of his older brother Filaret. “To the dream to come” is dedicated to Sasha Cui, and the last issue, “I went on a stick”, which has another title - “At the dacha”, - to Dmitry Vasilyevich and Poliksena Stepanovna Stasov (brother of V. V. Stasov and his wife). Only "Cat Sailor" was left without dedication.

Music

In "Children's" melodic recitative dominates, conveying the subtlest shades of speech. The accompaniment is sparing, emphasizing the features of the melodic line, helping to create a bright, expressive image.

No. 1, "With the Nanny", features an amazing flexibility of melody, supported by a harmonically inventive accompaniment. No. 2, "In the corner", - a scene between an angry nanny and a punished child. The stormy, accusing intonations of the nanny are opposed by the phrases of the child, at first justifying, plaintive, whimpering, and then, when the baby convinces himself of his innocence, turning into an aggressive cry. No. 4, "With a Doll," is a monotonous lullaby with which a girl rocks her doll to sleep. The monotonous melody is interrupted by an impatient exclamation (in imitation of the nanny: “Tyapa, you need to sleep!”), And then a leisurely lullaby unfolds again, fading at the end - the doll fell asleep. No. 5, "For the dream to come," perhaps the brightest, is the evening prayer of the child. The girl prays for her loved ones, relatives, playmates. Her speech speeds up in an endless enumeration of names and suddenly stumbles ... A bewildered appeal to the nanny follows - what next? - and her grouchy answer, followed by a slow completion of the prayer: "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!" and a quick, on one sound, question: “So? babysitter?" No. 6, "Cat Sailor", - a choking tongue twister, built on an excited pulsating rhythm, with witty sound-visual techniques in accompaniment - a story about a cat that put its paw into a cage with a bullfinch. The cycle ends with a live scene “I rode on a stick”. In the beginning, this is a fun ride on an imaginary horse (recitation on one note), a conversation with a friend, funny jumps. But the baby fell. His mother calmly, pacifyingly answers his moans and complaints, distracts him from the pain. And now the calmed down boy jumps again.

In music, which reflected the sad pages of Russian history and the tragic contradictions of the contemporary era of the composer, there are not so many bright pages. Very often they are associated with the image of children - such is the image of the young Tsarevich Fyodor in the opera "", such is the vocal cycle "Children's".

He had no children of his own, but in 1868 he often visited Stasov and talked with his children. One of the daughters of Vladimir Vasilievich later recalled that Modest Petrovich never fell into a primitive and false tone in communication with them, as adults often do when talking with children - and the children felt free with him, communicating on an equal footing. It was then that the composer came up with the idea of ​​a vocal cycle dedicated to children, but it was not about children's songs that small performers could sing, but about rather complex romances, designed for performance and perception by adults, but revealing the world of thoughts and feelings of a child . At the same time, the first romance was written - "With the nanny", which he dedicated to Dargomyzhsky. He approved the work of the young composer and recommended to continue the work. However, at that time, work on "" was more occupied, and he returned to the vocal cycle, called "Children's", only after two years, having written four more romances in 1870. The composer returned to the work again in 1872, creating the last three miniatures. True, he planned two more parts - “A Quarrel of Two Children” and “A Child's Dream”, even composed them and performed them in front of friends, but never recorded them.

The "Children's" cycle consists of seven subtle vocal scenes based on their own texts, the main means of expression in which is melodic recitative. The piano part is relatively stingy, it occupies a subordinate position.

The first number - "With the nanny" - might seem monotonous due to the numerous repetitive sounds, but this does not happen due to the change in harmony on repetitive sounds and melodic jumps falling on stressed syllables. And some monotony turns out to be a very expressive touch - after all, this is what children say when they ask adults for something (“Tell me, nanny, tell me, dear”).

The second issue - "In the Corner" - does not begin with a child's speech, but with angry remarks from another character - a nanny. Her exclamations (“Oh, you prankster! Unwound the ball!”) are heard against the backdrop of the turbulent movement of the eighths. The kid (apparently facing injustice for the first time in his life) responds in minor descending phrases - but only until he feels insulted, and then the downward movement is replaced by an upward movement ("Misha will no longer love his nanny, that's what!") .

The third number - "Beetle" - with the utmost truthfulness reveals the child's worldview: the mood very easily passes from fear to surprise, and any event that seems insignificant to adults - such as the unexpected appearance of a bug - becomes significant for the child. The sharp chord at the climax is reminiscent of the devices that accompany dramatic events in "adult" works.

In the fourth romance - "With a Doll" - the little heroine imitates the behavior of an adult, namely, a nanny. Putting the doll named Tyapa to bed, the girl sings a monotonous lullaby. The minor, typical for this genre, is combined with the major, and the lullaby is interrupted from time to time by a recitative exclamation: “Tyapa, you need to sleep!”

“For the dream to come” is the simple-hearted prayer of a child. A kid praying - as adults have taught - for the health of loved ones, understands that he is busy with a serious matter, and tries to give gravity to his intonations. He almost succeeds, while he calls his parents and other adults, but as soon as it comes to friends (“And Filka, and Vanka, and Mitka, and Petka”), the seriousness is replaced by a “patter”, which is interrupted by an interrogative intonation: “How next ?

“Cat Sailor” is an emotional story about a small domestic incident that extremely excited a child: a cat put its paw into a cage with a bird. The pulsation of eighths in the accompaniment emphasizes the excitement of the speech of the little heroine. The piano part is replete with sound-visual devices that convey both the trembling of a bird and the gnashing of a cat's claws in a cage.

“I rode on a stick” is a real “sketching from life”: the sharp rhythm of short phrases depicts the movements of a boy jumping on a stick. The "jump" is interrupted twice - by a conversation with a friend Vasya and an unfortunate incident: the boy fell and hurt himself, his mournful descending phrases are answered by the gentle intonations of his mother. In the reprise, the former rhythmic movement returns - the pain is forgotten, the game continues.

The date of the first performance of "Children's" is unknown, but after the publication of the vocal cycle in 1873, it quickly gained popularity. The publisher Bessel sent the sheet music. I did not expect that the famous composer would like his work - after all, he most often preferred grandiose plots. Contrary to these assumptions, "Children's" delighted.

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