The history of writing an old French song. Doll funeral

3. "Children's Album" by P. I. Tchaikovsky

The novelty and originality of Schumann's "Album for Youth" awakened the imagination of many composers.

In April 1878, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote to his friend and admirer:

I have been thinking for a long time that it would not hurt to contribute to the best of my ability to the enrichment of children's musical literature, which is very poor. I want to make a number of small passages of unconditional lightness with titles that are tempting for children, like Schumann's.

The immediate impetus for the creation of the "Children's Album" was Tchaikovsky's communication with his little nephew Volodya Davydov, to whom this collection, consisting of 24 light pieces and appeared in October 1878, is dedicated. It is interesting that on the cover of the first edition it is marked in brackets: "Imitation of Shu-man."

With plays from children's album» Tchaikovsky, you have already met many times in the lessons of musical literature. And some of you are familiar with them in the piano class.

Let's go through the pages of the "Children's Album" and at the same time recall the plays that we have already met.

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In addition to links to the examples given earlier, each piece can be listened to in its entirety by clicking the button on the left. Performed by J. Flier.

1. "Morning Prayer" See the discussion and example in topic 6 .
2. "Winter morning". Musical sketch with "prickly", "frosty" harmony.
3. "Game of horses". A fast-paced piece with a non-stop movement of eighths.
4. "Mother". Lyric portrait.
5. March of wooden soldiers. Toy march (see example 53 in topic 2).
6. Doll disease. Sad music about the very sincere feelings of a girl who takes her acting as if seriously. Or maybe your favorite doll is really hopelessly broken.
7. Doll Funeral. Funeral march.
8. Waltz. See about it in topic 5 and topic 6 (section 3 and section 6).
9. "New doll". The play, sounding in unison, expresses the unbridled joy of the girl.
10. Mazurka. Dance miniature in the mazurka genre.
11. Russian song. See the discussion and example in topic 6 .
12. The man plays the harmonica.

Let's take a closer look at this original miniature. Perhaps Tchaikovsky accidentally overheard the unlucky harmonist trying to pick something up, but he couldn't do it. With great humor, the composer portrayed this episode in a tiny play.

Example 102

First, the same little phrase is repeated four times. Then twice the accordionist again tightens her first motive, but stops, sorting out two chords in some bewilderment. Apparently, one of them (the dominant seventh chord) struck his imagination too much, and he fascinatedly opens and closes the bellows, clutching this chord with his fingers.

When you press one key on the left keyboard, many harmonicas sound not one note, but a whole chord: tonic, dominant or subdominant. Therefore, imitating the inept playing of the harmonica, Tchaikovsky uses a chord warehouse. The tonality of B-flat major is not accidental either. Most harmonicas are tuned in this scale (unlike the button accordion and the accordion, the harmonica cannot play either a chromatic scale or music in different keys).

Here we saw another kind of picture programming onomatopoeic. Such imitation of musical instruments is quite rare. More often, composers use onomatopoeia to depict natural noises or birdsong. A similar example is also found in the Children's Album, and we will get to it shortly.

1. "Kamarinskaya". Figurative variations on a famous Russian dance melody.
2. Polka. Dance miniature in the polka genre (see example 150 in topic 5).
3. Italian song. Memoirs of the composer about Italy. The melody placed in the chorus of this song, Tchaikovsky heard in Milan performed by a little street singer.
4. ancient French song. See the discussion and example in topic 6 .
5. German song.

In general, this piece resembles the old German Lendler dance (a slightly slow and rough waltz). And some characteristic melodic turns make us remember another genre yodel, a kind of song of the Alpine highlanders. The usual singing with words is interspersed in yodeling with vocalizations depicting an instrumental tune. These vocalises are played in a peculiar manner with frequent wide jumps, decomposed into chord sounds. The melody of the first section of the German song is very similar to the yodel:

Example 103

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And here is the traditional German (Tyrolean) yodel in a modern version.

1. Neapolitan song. See the discussion and example in topic 6 .
2. "Nanny's Tale"

Although Tchaikovsky does not tell us what kind of fairy tale the nanny is telling, and we do not know its plot, you can hear that the music speaks of some kind of adventure.

The beginning sounds mysterious, "prickly" chords are interrupted by mysterious pauses. The second sentence begins secretly, an octave lower, then all the voices skyrocket upwards, and in the cadence itself something new and unexpected suddenly happens.

Example 104

Moderately

And then something terrible happened. Throughout the middle section in the right hand, it is repeated with increasing in two waves crescendo the same sound before as if to say, “Oh! Oh-oh!..” And in the left hand the rustles of chromatic thirds flutter in a “frightening” low register.

Example 105

When just before the reprise before goes into re, we feel this event as the culmination of a terrible fairy tale. But then calmness sets in: the reprise is completely accurate, and when we hear familiar music again, it no longer seems as mysterious and “prickly” as it seemed at first. The scary tale has a happy and happy ending.

1. "Baba Yaga". Another good-natured "horror story", a picture of the swift flight of an evil sorceress on a broomstick.
2. "Sweet dream". Lyric play. Although it has a name, it is not a software thumbnail. The image of a bright dream, which is given in music, can be filled with any suitable content. Or you can just listen and enjoy.
3. Song of the Lark.

As in the play "A Man Plays the Harmonica", there is onomatopoeia here. But the image is born completely different. Not funny, but lyrical. In one of his letters, Tchaikovsky wrote: How I love it when streams of melting snow flow through the streets and something invigorating and invigorating is felt in the air! With what love you greet the first green grass, how you rejoice at the arrival of rooks, followed by larks and other overseas summer guests!

From time immemorial, the singing of birds in the art of music has been associated with images of spring, the gentle sun, and the awakening of nature. Remember the symbolic figurines of larks in spring folk rites.

And besides, songbirds from time immemorial amazed people with their ingenuity, the variety of their trills. They and musicians have a lot to learn.

In the Song of the Lark, we hear both sunny, springtime joy, and an unusual variety of "bird" passages in a high register.

The play is written in a simple three-movement form. From the very first bars, one can feel both “streams of melting snow” and “something invigorating and invigorating” poured into the spring air. And above this sunny picture, a lark is pouring somewhere high, high.

Example 106

Moderately

In the middle section that starts undercover pp , the composer seems to listen to the singing of the lark and lets us hear more and more twists and turns of this song.

Example 107

After a point of reprise, in a small coda, we hear another "knee" of the lark

1. "The organ grinder sings." See the discussion and example in topic 6 .
2. "In the church".

Prayer began and ended the day of the child. And if "Morning Prayer" is an introduction to the pictures, images and impressions that fill a child's day, then the play "In the Church" is a farewell to another day lived. Strictly and harmoniously the church choir sings at the evening service, in the soft "speaking" intonations of the first phrases one can hear: "Lord, have mercy."

Example 108

Moderately

These four phrases, forming a period of free construction, are repeated once more, but louder and louder: the singing expands and grows.

But here are the last, fading phrases of the choir and the huge coda, which occupies half of the entire play: a long farewell, in which one can hear the measured and slightly sad sound of the viscous evening church bells

Example 109

If Schumann's pieces were arranged in order of increasing complexity, then Tchaikovsky's very easy ones can coexist with rather difficult ones. Arranging the pieces in the album, Tchaikovsky was guided by their figurative content.

All genre game scenes "Game of Horses", March of Wooden Soldiers, "Doll's Disease", "Doll's Funeral", "New Doll" are concentrated in the first half of the collection.

In the middle is a small Russian "suite": Russian song, "A man plays the harmonica" and "Kamarinskaya".

Then comes the "travel suite" songs from different countries, times and cities: Italian, Old French, German and Neapolitan.

Then a section of fairy tales: "Nanny's Tale" and "Baba Yaga".

Lyrical plays and dances create the necessary contrast or relieve tension. "Mom" sets off the "Game of Horses" and the March of the Wooden Soldiers. The waltz softens the transition from inconsolable grief ("The Doll's Funeral") to stormy joy ("The New Doll"). Mazurka and Polka are a kind of "chopping" between the "Russian" and "European" sections. "Sweet dream" " lyrical digression after the scary stories. Another "lyrical digression" just before parting is the play "The Organ Grinder Sings".

Two pictures of nature "Winter Morning" and Song of the Lark are located one almost at the very beginning, and the other towards the end.

Finally, an introduction and conclusion related to church music: "Morning Prayer" and "In the Church".

Such a grouping of pieces makes Tchaikovsky's "Children's Album" a surprisingly harmonious work - not just a collection of plays, but a large suite that is interesting and not tiring to listen to in a row from beginning to end.

Tchaikovsky pushes the boundaries of children's music. In the plays Russian song, "Kamarinskaya", Italian song, Old French song, Neapolitan song, "The organ grinder sings" he introduces young musicians to folk melodies from different countries. And the music of some plays can be heard in the "adult" works of Tchaikovsky. So, the Neapolitan song came to the album from the ballet "Swan Lake", the Old French song turned into the Song of the Minstrels in the opera "The Maid of Orleans", the melody of the play "The Organ Grinder Sings" sounded again in the piano miniature "Interrupted Dreams", and the intonations of "Sweet Dreams" unexpectedly appeared in the Scene in the Spruce Forest from the ballet The Nutcracker.

"Collection of Easy Pieces for Children" op. 39 occupies a special place in Tchaikovsky's piano heritage both in terms of its subject matter and the peculiarities of piano presentation. It is difficult to name a composition in Russian children's piano literature more popular than "Children's Album" by P. I. Tchaikovsky.

The first mention of the concept of the "Children's Album" refers to February 1878. At that time he was on a long trip abroad. In a letter to P. Jurgenson: “Tomorrow I will start writing a collection of miniature plays for children. I have been thinking for a long time that it would not hurt to contribute as far as possible to the enrichment of children's musical literature, which is very poor. I want to make a whole series of little passages of unconditional lightness and with child-friendly titles, like in ".

At the time of the creation of the "Children's Album" Tchaikovsky was in the prime of his creative powers. But for the composition addressed to children, the composer undertook for the first time.

"Children's Album" op. 39 was written in May 1878. The history of its creation is inextricably linked with Kamenka, a large Ukrainian village near Kyiv, a favorite place for the composer's work and recreation. Kamenka - "family nest" large noble family Davydov. One of the owners of the Kamensky estate, Lev Vasilyevich Davydov, was a friend of Tchaikovsky and the husband of his beloved sister Alexandra Ilyinichna.

Much in the "Children's Album" is connected with the atmosphere of the Davydovs' house. home furnishings Alexandra Ilyinichna was a model of family life. It was hard to imagine a happier people, and Pyotr Ilyich was seized with such tenderness and joy at the sight of this, that for a long time connected the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe life of the Cayenne inhabitants with the embodiment of earthly prosperity.

Tchaikovsky dedicated his cycle of children's plays to Volodya Davydov, one of the numerous children of Lev Vasilievich and Alexandra Ilyinichna. The composer's nephew at that time was six and a half years old. The title page read: “Children's album. Collection of easy plays for children. Imitation of Schumann.

This album reflects the children's world, outlined by the composer with amazing sensitivity and subtle understanding of children's perception of life. Tchaikovsky loved children, he was ready to mess around with the guys for hours, enjoying their chatter, experiencing an acute feeling of pity for sick children, trying to bring joy and pleasure to every child he met. And the children felt this love, became attached to Tchaikovsky, seeing in him a tender and caring friend.

The cycle of 24 plays is connected by a single theme. It presents a colorful world of children's games, dances and random impressions. It is divided into microcycles. The first of them can be called "morning".

Lord God! Save, warm up
Make us better, make us better.
Lord God! Save, save!
Give us the power of your love.

"Winter morning"

The strict reflection of "Morning Prayer" is replaced by a stormy, full of disturbing forebodings "Winter Morning". Pyotr Ilyich himself was born in a small town. It seems that in "Winter Morning" he portrayed his baby impression. As if the kid looked out the window and saw the street covered with snow and the frozen windows in the house opposite.

Freezes. Snow crunches. Fog over the fields.
From the huts early smoke is carried in clubs.
A purple tint glistens silver of the snows;
With a needle-hoar frost, as if with white fluff,
The bark is humiliated along dead branches.
I love through the glass a brilliant pattern
To amuse your eyes with a new picture;
I like to watch in silence how early sometimes
The village cheerfully meets winter ...

"Mother"

Peace in the soul of the hero of the cycle returns "Mom". The gentle, affectionate, melodious sounds of the play "Mama" seem to soothe, explain something. Probably, such were the memories of Pyotr Ilyich himself about his mother. Not without reason, all his life he remembered her wonderful eyes, smooth, dignified movements, deep chest voice.

Mom, very very
I love you!
So love that at night
I don't sleep in the dark.
I peer into the darkness
Dawn hurry.
I love you all the time
Mommy, I love it!
Here the dawn shines.
Here is the dawn.
Nobody in the world
There is no better mother!

« »

The second major section is "Home games and dances" ("Game of horses", "March of wooden soldiers"). It opens with, perhaps, the most cloudless, childishly naive pieces of the "Album" - the mischievous toccatina "Game of Horses" and the toy "March of the Wooden Soldiers". These are "boys' games".

"Horse Game"

Boys are very interested in playing horses.

I'm on my golden-headed horse
I sat down and rushed around the house, around the room,
Past the table, whatnots and bedside tables,
Past the cat lying on the sofa,
Past the grandmother sitting with knitting,
Past the ball and the toy box.

"March of the Wooden Soldiers"

And in the toy box there are brand new, beautiful soldiers that just attract you. They are just like real ones, you can line them up and send them to the parade. Here is a toy army minting a step in a funny march.

At-two, left, right,
At-two, left, right,
We go easy and fun.
At-two, left, right,
At-two, left, right,
Let's sing a wooden song.

The next three numbers are "girls' games" ("puppet trilogy")

This is also a game (after all, the heroes of the action are puppets), and like the puppets coming to life in The Nutcracker, here the puppets also “come to life”. The three plays of the minicycle ("Illness", "Funeral", "New Doll") are perceived as a reflection of genuine, "real" life.

"Doll Disease"

A slow, viscous movement (during an illness, it’s usually “boring” after all) with sad intonations of the melody, where, like sighs, it conveys the sad mood of a girl whose doll is sick.

"Doll Funeral"

The miracle did not happen, the doll died. Solemnly and strictly, as in a real funeral procession, the funeral march sounds. All the toys came to the funeral. The music of the "Funeral March" conveys the gloomy coloring and the very movement of the procession of toys, as if passing in front of the listener.

"New Doll"

But life does not stand still and the girl is given a new doll. And she starts spinning in a fast dance with a new girlfriend.

"Waltz"

"Waltz" is the beginning of a miniature dance suite that combines three numbers ("Waltz", "Polka", "Mazurka") and completes a series of "home" pieces.

In letters written a few days before the beginning of the composition of the "Children's Album", the composer writes: "There are many guests, and in the evening I will have to accompany for the sake of my dear nieces, who are very fond of dancing."

"Polka"

The whirling waltz is replaced by a cheerful "Polka"

"Mazurka"

But the mazurka sounded!
Mazurka - dance anywhere!
Perky light and cheerful,
I ask you to dance, gentlemen!

Further, the composer sends the child on an exciting "journey". First, in Russia (“Russian Song”, “A Man Plays the Harmonica”, “Kamarinskaya”), then in Europe (“Italian”, “Old French”, “German” and “Neapolitan” songs).

It is not difficult to see an autobiographical motive here. The composer also traveled a lot in Russia and abroad, but he always gave his heart to Russia..

“I grew up in the wilderness, from childhood, the earliest, imbued inexplicable beauty characteristic features of Russian folk music,” wrote Tchaikovsky.

To processing folk song Tchaikovsky made strict demands: "It is necessary that the song be written down, as far as possible, in accordance with the way the people perform it."

So in the "Russian Song" the composer turned to the Russian folk dance song "Are you my head, my little head."

Throw a flower into the stream
The stream will carry him away.
Sing me a nightingale song -
Your heart will become more cheerful.

"The man plays the harmonica"

In the play "A Man Plays the Harmonica" intonational turns and harmonic moves are played out, which are characteristic of Russian single-row harmonicas.

"Kamarinskaya"

"Kamarinskaya" is built on one of the variants of the famous Russian folk theme and there a balalaika tune is imitated.

How much fun we have today -
Everyone started dancing to the Kamarinsky.
Mom dances, dad dances, I dance,
Sisters are dancing, my whole family is dancing.
Grandma is dancing, grandfather is dancing,
Dancing brother and neighbor

"Italian", "Old French", "German" and "Neapolitan" songs are a kind of "pages from a traveler's diary": their melodies were recorded by the composer during a trip abroad in 1878.

Tchaikovsky told how in Florence, in Italy, on the street, he once heard a ten-year-old boy playing with a guitar, surrounded by a crowd of people. "He sang in a wonderfully thick bass voice with a warmth that is rarely found in real artists." The text of the song, heard from a street boy-singer, struck the composer with the contrast of the appearance of the child-performer and tragic content and he remade this song into a piece for the piano.

In "The Neapolitan Song" Tchaikovsky used a truly folk Italian melody. This piece is one of the most famous melodies. Pyotr Ilyich himself also loved this music, and on its basis he subsequently created the famous "Neapolitan Dance" for the ballet "Swan Lake". In the listener's imagination, a picture of a cheerful Italian carnival clearly arises - Tchaikovsky watched it more than once when he was in Italy.

I have loved this evergreen land forever!
Ah, Naples, a place dear to my heart,
I won't part with you
My Naples, never.
Everything around here is mine -
And they gave boundless, and elegant buildings,
And the streets are not long, and the old squares,
And boats on the sand, and Vesuvius itself in the distance.

The "Old French Song" embodies a French folk melody.

In The German Song, Tchaikovsky uses a Tyrolean motif. And it also looks like an old and popular dance in Germany and Austria - Lendler.

The wanderings are ending. The final microcycle of the "Children's Album" (No. 19-24) - a peculiar

"Homecoming".

"Nanny's Tale"

"Baba Yaga"

From the sharp chords of "Nanny's Tale" the nightmare of "Baba Yaga" seems to grow

"Sweet dream"

A terrible dream is replaced by a sweet-sensual "Sweet Dream"

Peace of mind comes in the last three pieces, the final microcycle of the Album.

"Song of the Lark"

It opens with "Song of the Lark" - morning, the end of nightmares and languid dreams. This is a musical landscape with the image of a lovely bird and its unforgettable trills.

She is replaced by the play "The Organ Grinder Sings". This play is a genre-characteristic sketch, the sounds of which depict an old man. He twists the handle of the hurdy-gurdy and beautiful drawn-out sounds pour out of it. Another Italian (Venetian) motif is taken as the basis of the play "The Organ Grinder Sings". An unpretentious, but wisely calm theme dispels the gloomy thoughts of a child.

"In the church"

The collection ends with the play "In the Church". Thus, the first and last numbers are connected by a kind of arch; common in both cases is a solemn enlightened religious principle. The majestic and mournful choir "In the Church" is based on the true church theme of the penitential psalm.

Tchaikovsky's collection is one of the best examples of children's musical literature. "Children's Album" is the most valuable contribution to world piano literature, which served as an example for a number of collections written by composers from different countries. Under the undoubted influence of Tchaikovsky are almost all Russian composers - authors of children's plays.

Let us recall the collections of Grechaninov, Gedik, Kabalevsky and many other albums and individual children's plays.

I have already referred to this wonderful work here:

Today, all the pieces from this album will be performed by the Gnessin Virtuosos Chamber Orchestra. Artistic director and conductor Mikhail Khokhlov. Videos made using drawings by young artists IV children's festival Arts "January Evenings" (2010)

In March 1878, P.I. Tchaikovsky arrived at the estate of his sister Alexandra Ilyinichna Davydova.

AND menie A . I. Davydova
Now the museum of P.I. Tchaikovsky and A.S. Pushkin

In Kamenka, he fell unexpectedly, like snow on his head, and made a joyful commotion. The children of Alexandra Ilyinichna gave him such a concert that he had to plug his ears. Again the house resounded with "sweet, heavenly" sounds. Pyotr Ilyich settled comfortably in his room and was already scribbling something at his desk. A few days later he said:

Here, these pichugs, - he pointed to the children, - certainly want me to write "everything to the drop" in their album. I will write, do not be afraid. Write and play!

And he wrote for the "Children's Album" and played them with children.

Various children's games, dances, random impressions found their place in the album. Music both happy and sad ...

morning prayer

Lord God! Save, warm up
Make us better, make us better.
Lord God! Save, save!
Give us the power of your love.

Winter morning

Mother

Mom, very very
I love you!
So love that at night
I don't sleep in the dark.
I peer into the darkness
Dawn hurry.
I love you all the time
Mommy, I love it!
Here the dawn shines.
Here is the dawn.
Nobody in the world
There is no better mother!

Kostas Kubilinskas

Horse game

On my horse I fly like a whirlwind,
I really want to become a brave hussar.
Dear horse, riding on you
I gallop across the meadow famously with the breeze.

Brand new, beautiful soldiers and attract to them. They are just like real ones, you can line them up and send them to the parade. So they know how to march like real ones, but it’s so great that it just pulls you to march with them.

March of the wooden soldiers

We are wooden soldiers
We march left-right.
We are the guardians of the fairy gates,
We guard them all year round.
We march clearly, bravo.
We are not afraid of obstacles.
We protect the town
Where does music live?

While playing, children invent the most incredible stories. Looking at them, Pyotr Ilyich also came up with his own story and told it to the children, and not just told it. This story fit into three plays, which the children heard.

The first story told about the girl Sashenka, who loved to play with her doll. But suddenly the doll got sick. The doll lies in the crib, complains. He asks for a drink.

Doll sickness

The girl is very sorry for her doll. Doctors are called to her, but nothing helps. The doll is dead.

The play "Doll's Illness" is followed by "Doll's Funeral".

Everyone came to the funeral, all the toys. After all, they loved the doll so much! A small toy orchestra accompanies the doll: The monkey plays the trumpet. The bunny is on the drum, and the Bear strikes the timpani. Poor old teddy bear, he's soaked with tears.

Doll funeral

The doll was buried in the garden, next to a rose bush, and the whole grave was decorated with flowers. And then, one day, my father's friend came to visit.

He had a box in his hands.

- This is for you, Sashenka! - he said.
“What is it?” Sashenka thought, burning with curiosity.

A friend untied the ribbon, opened the lid and handed the box to the girl ...

There was a beautiful doll there. She had big blue eyes. When the doll was shaken, the eyes opened and closed. A pretty little mouth smiled at the girl. Blond curly hair fell over her shoulders. And from under the velvet dress, white stockings and black patent leather shoes were visible. A real beauty!

Sashenka looked at the doll and couldn't get enough of it.

- Well. What are you? Take it, it's yours, - said my father's friend.

The girl reached out and took the doll out of the box. A feeling of joy and happiness overwhelmed her. The girl impulsively pressed the doll to her chest and whirled around the room with her, as if in a waltz.

What a blessing to receive such a gift! Sasha thought.

New doll

The petals have grown cold
Open lips, childishly wet, -
And the hall floats, floats in lingering
Songs of happiness and longing.
The radiance of chandeliers and the swell of mirrors
Merged into one crystal mirage -
And it blows, the ball wind blows
The warmth of fragrant fans.

I. Bunin

Waltz

Mazurka

"I grew up in the wilderness, from my earliest childhood, I was imbued with the inexplicable beauty of the characteristic features of Russian folk music," wrote Tchaikovsky. The composer's childhood impressions, his love for folk songs and dances are reflected in three pieces of the "Children's Album": these are "Russian Song", "A Man Plays the Harmonica" and "Kamarinskaya".

Russian song Kamarinskaya

In Kamarinskaya, a balalaika tune is imitated. And it was written in the form of variations, which is very characteristic of Russian music.

Tchaikovsky P.I. "Children's Album

(methodological and performance analysis)

Teacher of children's music school №1 Semenova Marina Alexandrovna
Cycle of piano pieces "Children's Album", op. 89, written by P.I. Tchaikovsky in May 1878, dedicated to his beloved nephew Volodya Davydov and published by P. Yurgenson in October of the same year.
On title page of the first edition, the full name of the cycle: “Children's Album. Collection of light plays for children (imitation of Schumann). Composition by P. Tchaikovsky.
Tchaikovsky's love for children is widely known. He treated with great tenderness, for example, his nephews, or the pupil of the composer's brother M.P. Tchaikovsky, the deaf-mute boy Volodya Konradi. It is also known how persistently the composer worked to open a school in Maidanovo. Tchaikovsky could spend hours with children, take part in games, enjoy their immediacy. Children paid the composer with sincere affection and love. The bright, joyful world of a child is reflected in the work of Tchaikovsky. Suffice it to recall the cycle of "Children's Songs" (the full title is "16 Songs for Children to the verses of A.M. Pleshcheev and other poets", op. 543 or the ballet extravaganza "The Nutcracker", op. 71).
With extraordinary sensitivity and a subtle understanding of child psychology, the composer reflected in the "Children's Album" the life and life of the children of the environment that surrounded him every day.
There are 24 pieces in the "Children's Album" that are not connected by a single theme. All the plays of the cycle are programmatic, each contains a specific plot, a lively poetic content.
The collection contains wide circle images. These are pictures of nature - "Winter Morning", "Song of the Lark", children's games - "Game of Horses", "Doll Disease", "Doll Funeral", "New Doll", "March of Wooden Soldiers". The characters of Russian folk tales are vividly depicted - "Nanny's Tale", "Baba Yaga", Russian folk art - "Russian Song", "A Man Plays the Harmonica", "Kamarinskaya", songs of other peoples - "Italian Song", "Old French song”, “German song”, “Neapolitan song”. The cycle contains elements of figurativeness - "The Organ Grinder Sings" and onomatopoeia - "Song of the Lark". Tchaikovsky, without resorting to simplification, draws the rich inner world of a child in the plays "Morning Reflection", "Sweet Dream" and "Chorus".
At the heart of the songs various peoples- authentic folk melodies. "Russian Song" is built on the theme of the song "Have you a head, my little head." Folk Italian melodies are "Neapolitan Song", previously included in the ballet "Swan Lake" and "Italian Song". Another Italian folk melody formed the basis of the play "The Organ Grinder Sings". The theme of the "Old French Song" is also genuine, and was subsequently used in the opera "Maid of Orleans".
. Robert Schumann's "Album for Youth" is widely known, which Tchaikovsky imitates. He expressed his love for Schumann in some piano compositions, for example, in the piece "Un poco di Schuman", op.72. or in one of the variations of op.19.
Schumann's influence on Tchaikovsky's piano style can be seen, for example, in the similarity of texture, rhythm and dynamics, but in the "Children's Album", paradoxically, it is expressed to a lesser extent, the genre themes of these collections are rather similar. The plays “The Bold Rider”, “The Merry Peasant”, “Soldier's March”, “Winter”, “Sicilian Song” by Schumann correspond to works similar in theme from the Tchaikovsky cycle: “Game of Horses”, “A Man Plays the Harmonica”, “March of Wooden Soldiers”, “Winter Morning”, “Italian Song”.
If we talk about continuity, then we should note the similarity of the musical language of the "Children's Album" with the melody and texture of the piano style of M.I. Glinka. His waltzes, nocturnes, polkas, mazurkas, the pieces "Feeling" and "Innocence" are the direct predecessors of "Waltz", "Mazurka", "Polka" and other pieces from the "Children's Album".
"Children's Album" was published several times during the life of the author. Nowadays, there are a large number of domestic and foreign publications. The cycle is published in full and in parts, and individual plays are included in various collections. In some publications, for various reasons, individual plays were withdrawn from the Children's Album. In the Muzgiz edition of 1929. the play "The Doll's Funeral" was not included under the pretext of her tragic, and from the same edition of 1935. the play "Choir" (formerly called "In the Church") was withdrawn as generally unacceptable.
In the autograph of the "Children's Album", the designations of tempo and character are given in Russian, but already in the first edition of Jurgenson, which the author reviewed and corrected, the terminology has changed significantly. For example, the character of the piece "Morning Reflection" in the autograph is designated "Quietly", and in Jurgenson's edition the designation of the tempo Andante (Calmly) is prescribed. In the play "A Man Plays the Harmonica" - in the autograph "Quite Slowly", and in the 1st edition - Adagio (Slowly).
In the autograph of the play "The Organ Grinder Sings" there is no author's designation of the tempo. In the publication of Jurgenson - Andante. In a number of editions, this tempo is denoted in different ways. Edited by E. Golubev - Andantino, published by Peters - Moderato. In the latter, the author's designations of tempo are generally distorted in many respects. In the plays “Morning Reflection” and “Doll’s Illness”, Lento is arbitrarily written out, in “Russian Song”, “Kamarinskaya” and part I of the “Neapolitan Song” - Commodo, “Song of the Lark” - Lentamente. The editor's complete misunderstanding of the nature of the music is demonstrated in the designation of the Andante tempo in the play "Winter Morning".
In autograph I, the period of the play "German Song" is sustained on the unchanged bass Es (in the first quarter of the bar), the same is in the reprise. However, already in Jurgenson's edition, the unchanged organ item is missing. All subsequent editions are based on Jurgenson's edition. The variant with the same organ point is very attractive - it is in good agreement with the nature of the music and can be considered as a kind of author's version.
In the preface to the edition of the "Children's Album", editor E. Golubev points out "the incorrect designation of the rhythmic figure in the "German Song" in all editions of the album in the third bar from the end of two eighth notes with a dot, followed by a dotted line and two eighths, as everywhere in similar places. The error arose as a result of a mistake by the author himself. This argument cannot be accepted. Why should the author act in a reprise exactly by analogy, because the reprise sounds more convincing with an even more emphasized dotted line.
All Russian and Soviet editions accurately reproduce the articulation and dynamics of the autograph and the first edition. However, in many foreign publications these designations are distorted. In the already mentioned edition of Peters, editor W. Niemann arbitrarily corrects the author's instructions. In this edition, the translations of the titles of the plays into German, French and English languages. The play "Game of Horses" is translated as "Little Cavalryman", "March of Wooden Soldiers" - "Soldier's March", "A Man Plays the Harmonica" - "Song of the Peasant", and "Mama" is translated as "My Mommy". Incorrect translations also distort the nature of the music, do not give children a complete picture of it. The element of play is lost in the plays “Game of Horses” and “March of the Wooden Soldiers”, “Mother” is translated in a cloyingly sugary way, no idea is given about the specificity of the work “A Man Plays the Harmonica”.
From all that has been said, it follows that it is better to refer to the domestic editions of the "Children's Album", in which the author's text is accurately captured.
Although the texture, melody, harmony, rhythm, articulation, dynamics, ornamentation, fingering and pedalization of the "Children's Album" are sometimes complex, they take into account the level of development of children, their performance capabilities.
Tchaikovsky did not use complex keys and tonal shifts. Of the 24 pieces, 19 were written in major keys, and of the 5 minor ones, only the pieces “The Doll's Illness” and “The Doll's Funeral” (G minor and C minor) sound really gloomy. The major keys are dominated by C major, D major, F major, B-flat major, E-flat major, which give the whole cycle a bright joyful sound.
The ratio of tempos in the cycle is thought out and built on contrasts. Here is what A.A. Nikolaev, a researcher of Tchaikovsky’s piano work, wrote: “In the Children’s Album we recognize Tchaikovsky’s characteristic piano handwriting, which retains its basic, typical features. Here, as if on a reduced scale, in a simplified presentation, almost all the technical formulas found in The Four Seasons and in other miniatures by Tchaikovsky are presented.
It is interesting that Tchaikovsky, who never taught children and had little contact with the issues of learning to play the piano, showed an excellent knowledge of piano presentation accessible to children's hands.
In the entire collection, for example, there is not a single octave or chord that is wider than within the limits of a seventh. In no piece we will find a simultaneous combination of the extreme registers of the keyboard, requiring a wide distance between the hands. The lower register (counter- and subcontra-octaves) are not used at all, and sounds in the highest octaves are found only in the piece "Song of the Lark". Much simpler in design is the very fabric of these works. The usual multi-element presentation, imitations, echoes characteristic of Tchaikovsky are almost absent here.
Chord technique occupies a predominant place in the series of these pieces, but as we noted above, chords are used everywhere taking into account the physical capabilities of a child's hand.
The chord accompaniment in the left hand part is typical for such pieces as Waltz, Mazurka, Italian Song, German Song, Neapolitan Song, Organ Grinder Sings, i.e. for such musical pictures, where the melodious character in the right-hand part is supported by the accompaniment, clearly revealing the harmonic basis.
Another type of piano presentation is an almost continuous harmonization of the melody, forming a movement with chords located in both hands. We see such a picture in "Morning Prayer", in modern transcription - "Morning Reflection", the plays "Winter Morning", "March of Wooden Soldiers", "Funeral of a Doll", "Nanny's Tale", etc. A particularly dense chordal fabric is found in the piece “A Man Plays the Harmonica”, where the sound of the harmonica is imitated by the witty technique of using the dominant seventh chord in a close arrangement, which sounds rather piercing and sharp in the middle register of the piano.
To all that has been said, it must be added that in the plays "Morning Reflection", "Winter Morning", "Game of Horses", "Mother", "Russian Song", "Nanny's Tale", "Chorus" the quartet warehouse is clearly felt. The melody is extremely expressive. The composer generously draws it as if from a cornucopia. Diverse and rhythm. The harmonic structure of the pieces is simple and accessible. Ornamentation is organically woven into the melodic line of the plays "Polka", "Italian Song", "Song of the Lark".
Let's focus on articulation and dynamics. The composer finds the exact intonations that sometimes convey even the most subtle, subtle shades of expressiveness of human speech. Studying the "Children's Album" can be an excellent school of articulation.
I. Braudo in his major work "Articulation" outlined the scale of connectedness and dismemberment in the following table:
"Connectedness"
1. Acoustic legato or legatissimo
2. Legato
3. Dry legato
"Dismemberment":
4.Deep non legato
5.Non legato
6.Metrically defined non legato
"Brevity":
7. Soft staccato
8. Staccato
9. Staccatissimo (as short as possible)
Of course, the above table is only a diagram, because the degrees of connectedness, brevity and dissection are truly limitless, but all the types of articulation given are available in the "Children's Album" from legato and legatissimo in the pieces "Mother", "Old French Song", "Sweet Dream" to staccatissimo in the works "Baba Yaga" and "The Game of Horses". In many pieces, the combination of well-defined legato, non legato, staccato, slurs, accents is necessary to create an image, which will be discussed in detail later.
The dynamics are also carefully marked. The composer uses both its gradual development and sudden changes in subtle gradations of sonorities. But nowhere in the cycle is ff indicated - the author prescribes the scale of dynamics ppp-f. In the works of the cycle, Tchaikovsky used mainly simple shapes that are easy to analyze.
It should be recognized that the fingering of some editions is unsuccessful - it often does not agree with the meaning of the music, is inconvenient and difficult to remember. When analyzing individual pieces, fingering options for the author of the work will be offered.
Pieces from Tchaikovsky's piano collection are invaluable pedagogical and artistic material. To create images, the performer will have to use the entire arsenal of musical means of expression.
The study of works will allow young pianists to show creative initiative, to read each in their own way.
The "Children's Album" can be performed in its entirety or individual pieces should be included in the repertoire of young performers. The following microcycles can be built on its material:
1. "Doll's illness", "Doll's funeral", "New doll".
2. Waltz, Mazurka, Polka, March of Wooden Soldiers.
3. "Russian song", "A man plays the harmonica", "Kamarinskaya".
4. "Italian song", "Old French song", "German song", "Neapolitan song".
5. "Nanny's Tale", "Baba Yaga".
Other solutions can be found when combining plays.
The author of the manual does not give musical examples, because. the notes of the "Children's Album" are ubiquitous. When reading the work, you need to have them in front of you. We emphasize that the reader will inevitably encounter some repetitions, since in a number of plays similar artistic and pianistic tasks are set.
Let's move on to the performing and pedagogical analysis of the cycle's plays.

1. Morning meditation

The play introduces the child into the world of complex experiences. In a work resembling a sarabande, there is a strict four-voice (the student can imagine the sound of a quartet of stringed instruments). In the chorale, the author avoids harmonic complications and is content with simple cadence formulas. It should be emphasized the sharp sound of seconds in 6.8, 10.21 measures, the introductory seventh chord on the tonic organ point (bars 17.19).
Carefully work with the student on voice leading, the melodiousness of each voice, but pay special attention to the sound of moving sopranos and bass.
Articulation and dynamics should emphasize the expressiveness of the piece. Although in bars 1,2,7-12 legato is not written out by the author - it is implied. It is important to achieve a soft, melodious legato sound in all voices. It will be provided by appropriately selected fingering (when repeating chords, fingers should not be changed).
In one case, the expressiveness of speech intonations is emphasized by leagues - reliance on strong beats of measures, in the other - by syncopations on the second or third beat. The teacher will also draw the student's attention to the fact that the accentuated strong beat and soft syncopation sometimes follow one another (measures 17.19).
When working on dynamics, pay close attention to the instructions in the text - first a small “fork” in bars 3-5, then a partial climax mf in bar 8 and a bright climactic f in bar 12. At the end of the piece, the music gradually fades and dissolves into pp.
In the rhythmic figure characteristic of the sarabande - a quarter with a dot - the eighth, students often do not listen to the full stop. Rhythmically you need to play in the part of the right hand and the dotted line - the eighth with a dot - the sixteenth, take into account that in all cases the eighth is accented; this gives the rhythm additional elasticity.
Particular work should be done on the tonic organ point, using the rehearsal possibilities of the piano, and playing the bass and tenor parts in a differentiated way. To do this, the support from the fifth finger is removed (it gently repeats the organ point) and transferred to the remaining fingers. In a melodious tenor part, a strong first finger can naturally play the accents in bars 17 and 19 - to support the expressiveness of the soprano, to strengthen the sound of the chord. In this fragment, also feel the "talking" pauses in bars 16 and 18.
A piece may use a delayed pedal to mark changes in harmonies. 17, 19 and the last three measures can be pronounced on one pedal. This is facilitated by the organ point.
When playing holistically, students tend to drag out the tempo; the desire to overcome the chord vertical and find a natural, unhurried, fluid movement in the rhythm of the sarabande will help.
The relatively simple texture of the work does not mean that it is easy and accessible for the student to understand. The performance of a piece requires a sufficient amount of attention from the child, he must clearly show the polyphony of the piece, take into account the harmonic, phrasing, articulatory, dynamic, rhythmic features of the work. Only work on the conscious mastery of all components of the interpretation will lead to its meaningfulness.
2. Winter morning

The play captures not only a picture of a snowy, frosty winter morning, but also the psychological mood of the child. The work begins in a joyful D major, which soon modulates into a parallel minor, as if the joy is overshadowed by overcast weather.
A potential mistake of the student is the division of music into separate links by measures, so the teacher should pay attention to the fact that each eight measures of the extreme parts of the piece must be pronounced in one breath, as if under a common league. Appropriate pianistic movements should be found so that each cell (measure) is an integral part of the overall movement. The collected hands are positionally transferred with soft, economical, synchronous movements. Along the way, springy spring supports with clear resolutions alternate within each bar, a general crescendo is carried out with culminations in bars 5 and 13 and the subsequent diminuendo.
Track the accuracy of the dotted rhythm, emphasize the roll calls in the soprano and alto parts in bars 5-8 and the soprano and tenor parts (bars 13-16). The same with slight changes in the reprise.
The contrasting middle part of the piece is very expressive. Its metricity (the same rhythm is repeated in each two-bar) must be overcome by performing means in the same way as in the extreme parts of the piece, to combine the two-bars, to pronounce them in one breath in a melodious, penetrating sound. Expressive accents should not delay movement. Do not smooth out dissonances. In bars 25-40, it is important to emphasize the bass line, which gives the fragment a special charm. You should work on the accuracy of the rhythmic figure - the eighth with a dot - the sixteenth, hear the roll call of the soprano and alto. Draw the student's attention to the clear, melodious performance of the culminating dotted line of this figure in bars 28 and 32, which runs synchronously in all voices. Movement rushes towards it, as if summing up the previous constructions.
In bars 39-40, the mysteriousness of p can be emphasized by a barely noticeable slowdown in tempo. You can also slow down a little at the end of the play.
In the extreme parts of the piece in each bar, the accentuation of strong beats can be supported by the pedal, and in the middle part and coda the pedal should help to reveal the melodic and harmonic features of the texture.
The difficulty of this work lies also in the fact that it is designed for a good reaction of the student, his ability to think at a fast pace.
3. Horse game
The student must introduce himself actor galloping on a stick or a toy horse. The bright colorful little toccata is reminiscent of the pizzicato Scherzo from Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony.
When determining tempo and movement, it is important to proceed from the fact that the metric unit here is a measure, and not an eighth. Musical thought fits into a four-bar.
From beginning to end, the piece is sustained in a four-part quartet chord structure. What happens naturally in the sound of a string quartet, where each voice is performed by a different person, is not at all easy to perform on the piano. Natural sound can be achieved if the student feels the change of harmonies, the logic of voice leading, and hears modulations. In chords, you need to achieve sound evenness, harmony.
Staccato is performed with the smallest movements of the brush with the tips of the fingers matched. The teacher will make sure that the student does not make any unnecessary movements over the keyboard, and with repeated notes, he uses a double rehearsal of the piano. Each subsequent sound or chord is played before the keys are fully raised. You should choose your fingering well to avoid unnecessary hand transfers.
When learning a piece, the student often touches extraneous keys. The chords sound dirty. Multiple repetitions do not improve the situation. Raise the fingers not participating in the game a little, they should not touch the keys. Crescendo and diminuendo are achieved by increasing or decreasing the intensity of touching the keys. At the moment of sonority amplification, the hand “connects” to the fingers, and then the forearm, and when the sound decreases, they gradually “turn off”. These pianistic techniques should be preserved even when moving to a fast tempo. If you apply only uniform vertical movements, then this will inevitably lead to rapid fatigue of the hands.
We emphasize that in order to master the piece, persistent work at a slow pace is necessary. After a thorough mastery of a piece at a slow pace, one should not immediately move on to a fast one. Often, some inexperienced young pianists make this transition all at once, and as a result, a piece at a fast tempo does not work out. In a slow tempo, the pianist gets used to a certain type of slow movement. If we go directly to a fast pace, then the hands begin to work hard and get tired quickly, the skills acquired at a slow pace are destroyed, and automation of movements cannot be achieved. At a fast pace, the fingers expend less effort - the shoulder and forearm take on part of the work, the sound becomes lighter and more defined, you should play closer to the keys. The transition from slow to fast pace should be gradual, so that the hands gradually get used to the new type of movement. It is necessary to find 5-7, and in some cases more intermediate gradations of tempo, from slow to the desired fast, achieving in each the accuracy of pronouncing the music. If there are roughnesses in the next faster pace, you should return to the previous pace, continue to grind the fragment that did not turn out. The teacher must carefully monitor the complex process of gradual automation of movements, make their own adjustments.
The principle of transition from slow to fast tempo applies not only to the play "The Game of Horses", it is universal and can be widely applied in pedagogical practice.

Already in the title itself lies the meaning of the work, which emphasizes the author's remark - "C great feeling and tenderness." It is necessary to establish what the child sees in this image, how he can capture it in interpretation.
The play is written in a polyphonic polyphonic manner. The bass and soprano sing in decima almost throughout its entire length, but their articulatory tasks are different. The lower voice is marked legatissimo (short slurs in each bar should not be taken into account, they correspond to the movement of the bow of string instruments according to a long tradition). The articulation of the right hand part conveys a variety of speech intonations. The great mastery of Tchaikovsky is manifested in the fact that up to 31 measures there is no reliance on strong beats in the presentation, and unfinished cadences are used in harmony, which emphasizes the through movement of music. His achievement is the main performance difficulty.
So from bars 1-8 and 17-24 in the right-hand part, the articulation slurs begin on the downbeats and gently resolve on the upbeats of the following bars. From the second half of bars 8 to 12 and from bars 24 to 28, short leagues, uniting two quarters each, follow one after the other, causing association with a pendulum. It also should not disturb the through development of music. Warn the student against possible error: the left hand often plays with the same articulation as the right hand out of solidarity. Elastic hand movements and well-chosen fingering will help to achieve legatissimo in the left hand part.
A precisely drawn out dynamic plan leads to a soft climax in measure 30, after which the young pianist should feel a good expressive "talking" pause. In the last six bars of the piece, the reliance on the strong beats of every second bar contrasts with the previous presentation, emphasizing the completeness of the utterance.

5. March of wooden soldiers

To embody the image, the young pianist must achieve the lightness, sonority of staccato, the “toy” sonority of the “March of the Wooden Soldiers”, to the sounds of a “toy” orchestra with flutes and a drum.
It is necessary to work on the elasticity and accuracy of the rhythm. In one case (bars 2-4) in the first half of the bar, the indicated dotted line - the eighth with a dot and the sixteenth are pronounced under the league, and in the second half the dot is replaced by a pause. In another case (bars 7, 15), pauses are placed in both the first and second half of the bars. These fine details must be followed exactly. Piano techniques require short, quick, precise movements of pointed, rounded fingertips. It is important to work on the chasing of chords and dotted rhythm, pay attention to the fingering; for example, rehearsals in 8, 16, 40 bars are best played with different fingers (sometimes they can be transferred to the right-hand part to make it easier).
The play never goes beyond r and rr. Accents should not disturb the dynamics, they further emphasize the “toylike” nature of the music.
A short pedal helps to better hear the exact sound of the texture, the strong beats of the measures, the accentuation of the chords.
It is necessary to warn the student against accelerating the pace, precisely following the author's instructions Moderato (Moderately).

6. Doll sickness

The play is one of the easiest in the "Children's Album", but it is fraught with certain difficulties. Pupils usually convey her character well - the doll is sick, suffering, moaning, complaining.
A common mistake is hearing only the vertical. Meanwhile, the young pianist should feel three sounding layers in horizontal development - melody, bass and harmony. Each of these elements of the composition has its own expressiveness. Merging together, they form harmony. Work on a melodious melody, expressive bass and harmonies that follow one another. When combining layers, you need to pay attention to the fact that each of them is independent, and, at the same time, to their subordination, help to find the sound ratio. Students, for example, usually "sit down" on a melodic note and do not feel the need to continue the melodic line. You can learn the melody separately, without pauses at a more mobile pace, in order to better feel its development. Gather harmonies vertically into a chord: it will be easier to hear them. Fingers will help in working on the sound, as if fused with the keys, taking them “close”, “warmly”, softly.
We note the great gradualness of the dynamic development, for example, the approach to the climax f in bars 21-24, followed by diminuendo, small dynamic influxes in bars 31-34 and, finally, the final “fork”, at the end of which you can slow down the tempo.
An excessively slow tempo is unacceptable, at which all the elements of the piece will inevitably fall apart - it is necessary to find a smooth fluid pulsation.
"Doll Disease" can be a good school for pedaling. In every measure except 9-16, gently take the dotted quarter-delay pedal in the left hand part and listen to it along with the melodic note until the end of the measure, and then gently release it when a new bass comes in. The same is true for every next step. In the second eight bar, also take the dotted quarter pedal in the right hand part and attach the harmony to the melodic note of the next bar.
The teacher should follow the pedaling technique so that the pedal is taken smoothly, not pressed to the bottom and does not cause a large number of overtones, which would be in conflict with the transparent nature of the music. You also need to pay attention to the discipline of the fingers. If they overdo the bass or harmony, then the next harmony will have overtones of the previous one.

7. Doll funeral

In a solemn funeral procession, gloomy in C minor, a funeral march sounds. At first, the funeral procession is far away, then it gets closer and closer, now it is already next to us, and then it starts to move away. In accordance with this, a dynamic plan is built (the play begins with pp, gradually develops to mf, and again returns to pp). Its accuracy is very important for revealing the image. As with every funeral march, the attention of the young pianist should be drawn to the rhythmic figure (half note, dotted eighth note, sixteenth note, and half note again—students often turn the dotted eighth note and the sixteenth note into a triplet). In different performance situations, this game sounds differently - either as a mannered gait, or at the climax - chased, ominous. The gloomy nature of the music is emphasized by heavy chords and intervals in the accompaniment, which must be well coordinated with the melodic line. It is especially necessary to emphasize in the culmination of the seventh accod of the double dominant: it usually appears in Tchaikovsky in the most tense fragments.
The articulation is dominated by measured gait non legato. Expressive leagues in bars 17, 18, 21 and 22 must be heard to the end, but not connected with the next sixteenth. Legato (bars 31-33) should sound melodious, setting off the dominant touch.
The child should be aware that this is a puppet funeral and treat it like a game.

Waltz is a pair dance based on smooth whirling, one of the most common dance genres. In the work of Tchaikovsky, he took a worthy place. It is necessary to acquaint the young pianist with analogues - two or three samples from symphonies, operas, ballets or piano waltzes, for example, with "Nata Waltz" or the piece "December" from "The Seasons". It is useful to show him waltz "pas" or even teach him how to dance (children rarely know how to waltz these days). It is advisable to turn to a figurative comparison - the student must imagine that the waltz is performed at a holiday at school or at home.
The play is written in a complex three-part form in its small format version.
First of all, you need to take care of the waltz.
The left hand part is pronounced lightly, with a soft leaning on the bass. In the second period, the bass line acquires a certain independence, which should be emphasized.
When working on a melody, strive for melodiousness, clarity, plasticity, pay attention to syncopations in 2-4 measures. Light accents and pauses should not interrupt the movement. One should think of a through development, as if the bar line disappears under the influence of the element of dance. The melodic line tends to intermediate "intonation points" at bars 5, 7, 9 (also in the second phrase), and then to a small climax at bar 17. Further, the action is dynamized, the author writes out mf from 18 and f from 26 bars, which should not lead to weighting of syncopations, accents, or slowing down of movement. Short leagues and staccato attached this fragment special elegance. The same is true in reprise. When performing the first part of the piece and the reprise with two hands, you need to make sure that the bass and chords in the part of the left hand are organically woven into the general outline of the non-stop waltz movement, find a good balance
melodic bass line and harmony.
In the middle part, students sometimes do not feel polymetry - combinations of a three-part waltz accompaniment with a two-part part of the right hand, do not feel two-voice. Sometimes the sonority is forced, which leads to a dull two-part (out of "sympathy" the left plays along with the right). The second phrase of the middle section can be played a little quieter, and at the end of it, slow down the tempo a little.
Carefully selected fingering can help the artistic performance of a piece. In the left hand part, in bars 1-16 and a similar fragment in the 5th reprise, the finger should be taken only on the bass.
Pedalization will help to identify danceability: connecting a delayed bass pedal with chords.

9. New doll

This is a subtle psychological sketch - the joy of a girl about a wonderful gift - new doll.
When working on a play, the teacher and the young musician face "pitfalls". Performing means must be able to overcome rhythmic and textural monotony: in the extreme parts of the piece, the repetition in the right-hand part of the rhythmic figure - a quarter and an eighth, and in the middle - two eighths separated by pauses, which is further exacerbated by the monotonous texture of the accompaniment throughout the entire piece. In the extreme parts, the development and variety of wonderful expressiveness, flight, soft aspiration of the melody will be helped by the dynamics and subtle articulatory indications set by the author. These parts should be performed as if “in one breath”, to achieve gradual dynamics, melodious legato in measures 1-5, 10-13. The expressive pronunciation of "speaking" leagues (bars 6-9, 14-17) will help to reveal lively speech intonations. The same is true in the reprise. In the middle part of the piece and the coda, the student must find a subtle, "breathing" melody, follow the flexibility of intonations and the continuity of the development of music. In the dynamics accurately presented by the author, the climax falls on bars 24-25.
The left-hand part has its own difficulties - in each bar, in a group of repeated two-eighth notes, a soft support falls on the first, which should not interfere with the continuity in the development of music.
When playing a piece with two hands, make sure that the melody and accompaniment are in harmony. The left party followed the right all the time, like a thread behind a needle, and the change of harmonies in each measure was listened to.
For sound evenness and detection of articulation, we can advise you to play all the thirds in the accompaniment with only 2 and 4 fingers, and the melody of the middle part 2 and 3.
The pedal can be taken on strong beats of measures and a little more densely (but not longer) at climaxes by gently touching the foot on the foot of the pedal not to the bottom, so as not to cause unnecessary overtones and contribute to the transparency of the music.

10. Mazurka

Polish name folk dance"Mazurka" comes from "mazur" - the name of the inhabitants of Mazovia. The mazurka is characterized by a tripartite meter and rhythm with a frequent shift in emphasis to the second and third beats of measures. These features must be taken into account by the performer. In the middle section of the dance from bar 19, the accent is emphasized first, and then in bars 32 and 33 and sf on the third beat. Often there is a second beat - tenuto on half (bars 1-4 and further in similar places), as well as a short league (bars 5, 13, 15). In some cases, both the second and third beats can be accented: for example, in bars 19 and 23, you need to gently show the second beat in the part of the right hand, and then the accent in the left on the third. At the same time, one should not forget about strong beats, find their “balance” with syncopations.
Scrupulous work is needed on the pronunciation of the short league and staccato in bar 5, staccato in bar 7, dotted lines in bars 16-18, the combination of staccato in the right-hand part and tenuto in the left (the first beat of bars 1-4 and further in similar fragments).
The dynamics change due to the change in performing situations: it gradually builds up in bars 21-23, 23-26, 28-31, and in bars 5, 19, 23, 27 and 31 is associated with a sudden change in mf-p.
The combination of lively rhythms, clear articulation and dynamics can lead to an interesting reading of the mazurka, a graceful graceful dance.
The distinct, precise touch of the matched fingertips on the piano keyboard, the slow tempo, the clear hearing of the harmony, the carefully chosen fingering, and the pedaling that helps to mark the strong beat, then syncope, will complete work on interesting play.
11. Russian song

"Russian Song" is built on a genuine folk melody "Have you a head, my little head." This is an example of Russian folk sub-voiced polyphony, in which four-parts alternate with two- and three-parts.
With the same melody, the music varies due to the mobile bass and undertones.
The song is written in periodic variable meter with alternating 6/4, 4/4 and 2/4 (except for the last six measures). To make the meter understandable to children, the author put down 2/4 everywhere, so you need to read 6/4, like 3 times

Leonid Desyatnikov's lecture was delivered in St. Petersburg as part of the Charitable University project.

"Charitable University" - a joint project of the AdVita Foundation ("For the sake of life")and center: lectures and creative meetings in the space "Easy-Easy" on Bolshaya Pushkarskaya Street, 10 and other venues in St. Petersburg. All project participants work for free. Entrance to lectures and creative meetings - for a charitable donation. All proceeds go to help cancer patients and people with autism.

the site would like to thank Konstantin Shavlovsky ("Seance", "Word Order") for his help in preparing the publication.

Good evening. Today I give a lecture, it seems, for the second time in my life. I have no experience, I can be taken somewhere in the wrong place. Perhaps there are people among you whose feelings can be hurt. I am addressing you. Please think carefully: maybe you should leave right now. If you decide to stay and endure the insult to your feelings, I draw your attention to the fact that a video is being filmed to confirm my words. I warned. So, the first video; let it be something like an epigraph.

This is our outstanding contemporary, pianist Boris Vadimovich Berezovsky. A film about him was shown on the Kultura TV channel just a few days ago. At the end of the fragment there is a twenty-five-year-old recording, where Berezovsky brilliantly, although with some, as Stravinsky would say, protective dirt, plays Balakirev's "Islamey". My friend sent me this link as a kind of haha, as a joke. I was a little taken aback at first. In the morning, thinking about what I saw the day before, I realized that I rather like what I heard. Berezovsky violates convention; in, What he said and How he said it, there is a certain frond in this simulation of rusticity. The talk of money and privileged position in show business stands in stark contrast to the cloying soulfulness, false breath, and suffocating complacency with which classical music, Tchaikovsky in particular, is usually spoken of in public. And this false, essentially propaganda intonation does not bring us closer to Tchaikovsky at all, but, on the contrary, moves him away from us, and my grandmother and I go further and further into the forest.

When Konstantin Shavlovsky approached me with an offer to give a lecture (in fact, it was he who offered to talk about Tchaikovsky), he probably did not know that composers talk exclusively about themselves, they usually don’t have time to think about someone else , no desire. Once again, I must apologize for the fact that this will not be a lecture, but an incoherent stream of consciousness, interspersed with audio and video clips. So, Kostya said: “We need to come up with some kind of name, just for the announcement.” I replied: “OK, and this name should be related to the title of some Tchaikovsky play.” “Doll Funeral” was one of the first options. “Oh my God, why?” - I thought, having already sent a text message to Shavlovsky. After all, the headline obliges a lot. "The funeral of a doll" evokes a heap of obscene, sinister associations. Magritte, "Lolita", voodoo rituals, what else? A naked celluloid baby doll thrown into a landfill can be seen on avant-garde photography, on the cover of a thriller or a detective story. Actually, everything was simpler: at that moment, on an intuitive level, it seemed to me right to mean something small, nice, insignificant, "Doll Funeral" or there "Playing horses". Period. Then to exclaim in a majestic announcer's voice: "To the 175th anniversary of the birth of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky." The pathos that inevitably arises in connection with the anniversary of the classic always causes some shock. Incidentally, I had the same feeling in 1997, when I received the order for an essay on the 200th anniversary of Schubert. I was oppressed by the need to celebrate the anniversary of Schubert together with all that is called progressive humanity. After all, Schubert, even more than Tchaikovsky, is the embodiment of intimacy, intimacy, the denial of any kind of pomp ... That's it this name originated. There is no need to look for any subtext, intent and increment of meanings in it.

Let me say two more words about "The Burial of a Doll." When children begin to study at a music school, Tchaikovsky's "Children's Album" becomes their main food. An old friend of mine told me how, at the age of six or seven, she learned "An old French song." In order for the child to better understand what it was about, the teacher subtexted the melody, and my frightened Milochka had to not only play, but also sing. The text was like this (sings to the tune of "An old French song"): my wife is in a coffin, my wife is in a coffin ... Preparing for a lecture, I found on the net a similar “fish” for “Doll Funeral”; this is a common pedagogical practice, but I did not know. “Snow on the ground and snow on the heart. Dear doll, goodbye forever. More, my dear friend, I can not play with you. I don't know, I don't know, I don't think it's right. Non-vocal music does not need any crutches whatsoever. Teachers who have used and probably still use such techniques themselves yak diti. The child, in order to quickly see how beautiful the flower is, strives to open the bud with his little hands. This is a crime - against music and against a flower. If I were in the place of a music teacher, I would read the poems of Vera Pavlova to the child. She is a musicologist by education, that is, a professional musician, and a very nice person to me (partly, perhaps, because her maiden name- Desyatova). She has a poetic cycle "Children's Album", in which each poem is thematically associated with Tchaikovsky. One of the most touching is just “The Funeral of a Doll”.

Present. Toast. Relatives. Girlfriends.
A flock of salad bowls flies around the table.
Grandma, did you have a favorite toy?
Grandma, can you hear me? I hear. Was.
Doll. Rag. I called her Nellie.
Eyes with eyelashes. Braids. There is a frill on the skirt.
In 1921 we ate it.
She had bran inside. Whole glass.

We started with spillikins, trinkets, a children's theme. Let's abruptly move on to adult myths and legends about Tchaikovsky - after all, we will never know the true, homespun truth about him, and maybe this is even good. By the way, the myth of Tchaikovsky is alive and actively developing, as evidenced, in particular, by the Russian Wikipedia. There is, of course, an article about Tchaikovsky, quite lengthy, quite well written. But look at the so-called page change log: you will see that the article is edited almost daily. I was surprised to find among the forum participants Pavel Shekhtman, a well-known political activist. It would seem that he Tchaikovsky? I found there my school friend Grigory Ganzburg, a respectable Kharkov musicologist specializing in opera librettology. There are plenty of anonymous ones, of course.

I must say that the myth of Tchaikovsky is not exclusively Russian or Soviet. Tchaikovsky is a very important part, for example, of American culture. The Nutcracker is very popular in the United States. (For Soviet children, The Nutcracker was the film Chapaev.) Several generations of the American middle class saw The Nutcracker as children, and then took their children to see it. It is a living, uninterrupted tradition.

It is extremely difficult to talk about the real Tchaikovsky. He died in 1893, in full glory, and for people who were born after his death, he immediately became a kind of reality, something that has always existed - like parents, like your own hand or foot, with which you get used to in the cradle.

I see myself at eight or nine years old in front of the TV screen. It was then and in this way that I heard this music. But I didn’t see the imposing Mikhail Vladimirovich Yurovsky or someone like him, but ... I don’t even remember what I saw there. Probably Red Square. In the music library of my brain, these fanfares were for a long time in the same catalog box as the numerous pompous screensavers that preceded state news of extreme importance. Fauna freezes in anticipation of general rejoicing. There are not so few people who later learned with amazement that this music is called "Italian Capriccio". But those who never knew about it, an order of magnitude more.

Today I intend to quote abundantly from my colleague, the clever Sergei Nevsky. A series of interviews by Dmitry Bavilsky with various composers was published on the website "Private Correspondent", then published as a separate book. Nevsky there is one of the coolest in terms of spiritual subtlety and tall IQ. Quote: “When the population travels all the time on the LiAZ or Ikarus bus, then we stop perceiving the appearance of these buses as a design, it is perceived as a given, as a kind of constant. So Tchaikovsky was a kind of constant, constantly sounding in the background. When the next general secretary was buried, what did we listen to? That's right, the introduction to the finale of the Fifth Symphony. Interrupting the quote: it seems to me that Sergey is not quite right here. I myself have never seen these funerals, but the introduction to the finale of the Fifth sounds, in my opinion, too life-affirming for such an occasion. And here is the second movement of the aforementioned symphony, « Andante cantabile» , by the time the coffin was already lowered into the ground, it would be just right: the “sorrow” has already been worked out, now there should be “enlightenment”. Here is another correct thought by Nevsky about the adventures of Tchaikovsky's music in Russia: “The demonstration of Swan Lake on TV on August 19, 1991 was completely natural on the part of the State Emergency Committee. It was not only an attempt at mass hypnosis, but also a kind of spell: an attempt to assure themselves of their legitimacy. End of quote. Nevsky studied at the Academic College of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and student cards were handed out to him and his classmates at the Tchaikovsky House Museum in Klin. Quote: "At the stairs<…>there was a huge portrait of Lenin, which after 1991 was replaced with a bas-relief depicting Tchaikovsky, but in principle everyone knew that it was, as it were, the same person. The level of presence of these two characters in our lives, the level of bombardment with trifles of their private life (while holding back certain details), and the level of sacralization in both cases went off scale. This, to some extent, brought the attitude towards these two figures to a single generalized level. And further: “People of our circle and our biography had practically no chances to form some kind of more or less unbiased attitude both to Tchaikovsky's personality and to his music. There was a cult, completely fake, through which I had to wade through to understand something. I see here an absolute similarity with the arrangement school curriculum on literature. The latter is "charged" in such a way that children who read "War and Peace" in the eighth grade will never return to this book in their lives. Disgust for the classics is cultivated quite consciously.

The popular image of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky began to form from the moment when Modest Tchaikovsky wrote and published in Leipzig in 1902 three huge volumes of the biography of his illustrious brother. Then for quite a long time there was no time for Tchaikovsky. Everything began to spin when the Bolsheviks began a grandiose expropriation of the old culture. Already in 1923, Sergievskaya Street in Petrograd became Tchaikovsky Street - in connection with the 30th anniversary of the composer's death. By the way, in the mid-seventies of the last century in Leningrad there was a dissident legend that Tchaikovsky Street, horror-horror, was named not at all in honor of the composer, but in honor of some ghoul with the same name - either a revolutionary populist, or Soviet military commander Probably many of you have heard about it. But it's not. Alexander Nikolaevich Poznansky (I will talk about him a little later) told in a TV show that he saw the original documents, from which it followed that Sergievskaya Street was renamed precisely that of our Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich.

Strange thing strange thing! chief musical classic The country of the Soviets was appointed a person who was completely unsuitable for this role. Primarily a lyricist, a composer who created many of the darkest tragic scores. Suspiciously unmarried childless gentleman. Someone else should have taken his place. Rimsky-Korsakov? Or maybe Glinka? No, Glinka doesn't fit either. There is no answer to this question. Probably, this happened as a result of the chaotic actions of the unidirectional wills of a huge number of people. The final state canonization of Tchaikovsky took place in 1940, the year of the centenary of the composer's birth. The name of Tchaikovsky then received the Moscow Conservatory, and off we go: the streets in many cities, opera houses, Kiev Conservatory, a city in the Perm region, etc., etc. Tchaikovsky is canonized as a Soviet saint, and the details of his personal life are feverishly withdrawn from everyday life, which could tarnish the icon-painting image. Poznansky in his book... Now is the time to talk about Poznansky. A native of Vyborg, an intelligent archivist of a noble old-fashioned appearance, a long-term employee of the Yale University Library, which is considered the third most important in the university world in the United States, Poznansky has been engaged in the biography of Tchaikovsky all his life. That's his hobby. It is amazing: the American, who worked with the same archival materials as the remarkable scientists from the Tchaikovsky House-Museum in Klin, was ahead of everyone by publishing his work in Russian first. I'm talking about a weighty and very weighty book in two volumes, which was published here, in St. Petersburg, by the Vita Nova publishing house. This is an amazing "everything you wanted to know about Tchaikovsky but were afraid to ask" type of read. This is a book of the level of "The Life of Anton Chekhov" by Donald Rayfield, and it is arranged in a similar way. There seems to be no author's assessments, it is mostly a skillful montage of quotations, held together by supposedly neutral linking phrases. So, to the issue of canonization. Poznansky talks about how in the USSR when publishing letters, for example, the word “reptile”, which Pyotr Ilyich called his unfortunate wife, was deleted. From an official point of view, Tchaikovsky should have belonged to the progressive-democratic Russian intelligentsia. Naturally, Soviet publications ignored Tchaikovsky's inherent monarchism, his devout religiosity, and so on and so forth.

In addition to the Soviet version of the myth, there is a different Western European version, according to which Tchaikovsky was a melancholy misanthrope, a sociopath, a person on the verge of a nervous breakdown, prone to suicide. This version is in perfect agreement with the trivial ideas about the mysterious Russian soul and the Western understanding of Dostoevsky. OK, I don’t mind. I just read Klaus Mann’s novel The Pathetic Symphony, but I wish I hadn’t. This is a pure imaginary biography, a novelized biography, a romanticized biography, call it what you like, a story about Tchaikovsky’s stay in Germany a few years before his death.He conducts his own compositions and meets with colleagues, in particular Grieg, whom he loves very much, and Brahms, whom he does not like.The book mostly consists of internal monologues and ... In general, I do not recommend it to you. This is a hysterical petty-bourgeois novel, but perhaps I see it as such in the Russian-Soviet censored translation, but I will probably never know how it really is.

Another myth (or sub-myth, or sub-myth) is Tchaikovsky-Westerner, Tchaikovsky, who is opposed to The Mighty Handful. This myth was actively developed by my favorite composer Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky - for various reasons, which I will discuss later. If you try to listen to Tchaikovsky's music from scratch, with an open mind... I'm not talking about hits, because it's impossible to hear a hit with an open mind. Take, for example, the not-so-popular Manfred, a huge programmatic four-movement symphony. It seems to me that it could have been written, if not by Rimsky-Korsakov, then by someone very similar to him. And vice versa: look at the Mikhailovsky Theater (if you don’t boycott it yet) to see The Tsar’s Bride. Imagine that you don't know anything at all, you don't have a program (it's just such a game) - and for a moment it will seem to you that the music associated with Lyubasha may well be attributed as the music of Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky-Westernizer and adept pure art(according to Stravinsky) composed, oddly enough, quite a lot of works, which are preceded by a clear literary program, mostly based on status masterpieces. I will name the fantasy overture Hamlet, Francesca da Rimini, Romeo and Juliet. Such a conceptually concretizing way of composition was rather characteristic of Rimsky-Korsakov. The Kuchkists did not hide their attachment to the work of Liszt and Berlioz and developed a type of symphonic poem and program symphony, which was created by the aforementioned European masters. By the way, Stravinsky was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov and, of course, began in line with this tradition. The American musicologist Richard Taruskin believes that Stravinsky was so helpless in his youth that he could not start composing music without having a reliable support in the form of a literary program at hand.

The other day I listened to Tchaikovsky's symphonic fantasy The Tempest - according to Shakespeare, of course. This music in some of its episodes is identified as unquestionably Russian. I don't know how to explain it. There are some melodic turns, some sequences of chords, some sort of spilled in the body piece of music plagality… Now there is no time to explain what it is, but those who know will understand what I mean. In connection with The Tempest, I would like to quote a letter from Tchaikovsky to his brother Anatoly, written a few days after the premiere. This letter evokes in me great tenderness for the addressee. German Avgustovich Laroche, authoritative musical critic, wrote a review in which he simply destroyed a dear friend and drinking buddy. Tchaikovsky writes to his brother the following: “With what love does he (Laroche) say that I imitate<…>to someone. As if I only know how to compile anywhere. I'm not offended ... I expected this ... But I don't like my general characterization, from which it is clear that I have captures from all existing composers, but not my own x **. In the book of Poznansky, where I took this quote from, there are also chaste asterisks after the “x”. I just shed a tear when I first read these words - just like Boris Berezovsky in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Here he is, the real Tchaikovsky, absolutely alive, absolutely modern man, speaking modern language. He is sad that someone is questioning his composer self. And I - I am also in the media, especially in in social networks, more than once I met reproaches that, they say, Desyatnikov does not have a damn thing of his own, everything is borrowed, solid quotes and paraphrases. It turns out that such reprimands have been presented to writers since the beginning of time, and whoever you are, even Tchaikovsky the great, the greatest, they can always put such a firecracker on you.

I return again to the topic of opposing Tchaikovsky to The Mighty Handful. There are strange convergences, strange intersections. I suggest you listen to a fragment of the vocal cycle "Children's" by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. I really love this cycle. The composer wrote it on his own texts. This is the last part, it's called "Riding on a stick." The charming Alla Alaberdyeva, a pupil of the noble school of Nina Lvovna Dorliak, sings. The name of the pianist, unfortunately, is not specified. You will hear the piece clearly divided into three parts. The plot is as follows: a lively boy plays horses, meets a friend, says a few phrases to him, then jumps on a stick - and suddenly falls, hurts his knee and begins to sob. The mother appears and calms him down effectively, and the baby - hop! hop! - ran on as if nothing had happened. This is a small theater of one actress. Recorded in the early 80s.

The first episode - let's call it "Mussorgian" - is unheard of for the early 1870s avant-garde. And above all - the text, consisting mostly of onomatopoeia and interjections. A few seconds of a connecting episode with a fall and groaning intonations - this, of course, is the Holy Fool from Boris. Then the middle episode begins: mother appears, and together with her, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky invisibly enters the forefront. Mother's music sounds, if not like a parody, then at least like a friendly caricature. The romantic "estate" style of Tchaikovsky is recognizable in a certain cutesy piano accompaniment and poetic text, but most importantly - in the extremely melodic vocal line, essentially different from the speech-like vocal manner of Mussorgsky himself.

Why, in fact, such intersections are possible? Of course, the stylistic and aesthetic differences between the Kuchkists and Tchaikovsky were important to their contemporaries; the composers themselves consciously marked these differences, enclosing the territory, so to speak. But today it is not so important. As Stravinsky said on another occasion, spotting differences is nothing more than a pleasant play on words. Parallelisms are much more interesting. Let us recall the then architectural style, the style, roughly speaking, of the last third of the 19th century - historicism, aka eclecticism, aka ... There are at least half a dozen definitions: neo-Gothic, neo-Byzantine, Russian-Byzantine, pseudo-Russian, false Russian and so on. It was a frantic search for a national cultural identity that seems to continue to this day. Often the choice of style model depended on the purpose of the building. The Cathedral Cathedral of Christ the Savior is one thing, and the neo-Mauritanian apartment house of Muruzi on Liteiny Prospekt is something completely, completely different. But we utterly ignore differences when it comes to moving from facts to generalizations. Probably, musically, the style of the era was quite eclectic, and the Kuchkists and Tchaikovsky resembled each other to the extent that they turned to the same style and genre models. For an opera from Russian antiquity, we will compose like this, but for, for example, a symphony - in some other way. So they intersected, but foreheads, thank God, almost did not collide, somehow quite peacefully coexisted.

I am reluctant to move on to the next topic. The Wikipedia article on Tchaikovsky has a section called "Personal Life". It says that our hero was prone to ephebophilia, that is, he was attracted to male teenagers. Nina Berberova in her extremely popular book Tchaikovsky. The story of a lonely life" describes Tchaikovsky's timid harassment in Klin. On a walk he met peasant children, each time presenting them with raisins, sweets and nuts. I don’t think that she added these episodes just for the sake of a red word. The uncle's more than kindred affection for his nephew, Vladimir Davydov, is a fact that no one seems to dispute. Pyotr Ilyich dedicated the "Children's Album" and the Sixth Symphony to him. When Davydov came out of his teenage years (Lolita got old), Tchaikovsky willingly communicated not only with him, but also with his young brilliant buddies, the hipsters of the late 1880s. He called them "The Fourth Suite" Here, a play on words: "retinue" and "suite" both in French and in English are denoted by one word « suite» . Let me remind you that Tchaikovsky wrote three orchestral suites, and the fourth, therefore, were these young men. Rereading the constantly changing Wikipedia article (this situation is reminiscent of Borges' story), I did not immediately understand what the sanctimonious collective unconscious of the cumulative author was broadcasting to us: Tchaikovsky did not have any carnal relations at all. The train of thought is something like this: he was an ephebophile, which means that, due to public and personal taboo, he could not carry out criminal intentions, therefore, the hypothetical “relationship” could be exclusively platonic. That is, you do not get to anyone. Nice business. But what about “everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart”? Or is “in the heart” not considered today? In general, this indistinct but cunning argumentative discourse is designed to distract us from a simple fact: Tchaikovsky, hopelessly seeking youths, had to deal with men who had reached the age of consent. Many of us can envy him. Here there is a curious parallel with Britten, who was also seen in something similar. But - in another country and in another era - he expressed his claims, apparently, in some other way, although, thank God, with the same zero result. Child's world passionately interested him as an artist, and Britten wrote a huge amount of works about children, addressed to children and intended for children to perform. Tchaikovsky also has such works, but they are much fewer. One of them is the already mentioned "Children's Album", the other is "16 Children's Songs to Pleshcheev's Poems". As a matter of fact, there are fourteen songs to Pleshcheev's verses; one more - on the verses of Surikov, and the last - on the verses, if I'm not mistaken, Aksakov. This is familiar to everyone from childhood, “My Lizochek is so small,” about which one little girl asked: “Mom, and whom is he shrunk? But I want to invite you to listen to another song, and in a somewhat, I would say, unconventional performance. It is called "Legend", or "Christ the Child Had a Garden".

(At the end, there is laughter and applause in the hall.)

Yes, Vladimir Presnyakov certainly deserves approval. If I had to write a review, I would limit myself to one word: gorgeous. I chose this video to spice up our somewhat stiff academic conversation. Pleshcheev's poem is a variation on one of the episodes of the Passion of Christ: Good Friday morning, crowning with a crown of thorns. This is a mystery played out by children, the creepy characters in Golding's Lord of the Flies. So the beautiful Presnyakov, as you understand, was a little bit in the wrong steppe. IN Western European tradition- with Lloyd Webber, Bob Dylan and Christian hardcore - this phenomenon would be perceived quite organically, but it still sounds too fresh for us. However, neither Pleshcheev's poems nor Tchaikovsky's music are related to the Orthodox canon, so in Milonov's sense, so to speak, this interpretation is not at all reprehensible. You may have noticed the line "When the roses bloomed, children acquaintances called He." In the original, actually “Children Jewish He called." This self-censorship, which has been going on since Soviet times, surprised me a little, and I listened to other versions, there are quite a few of them on YouTube. So, I found a Moldovan choir a cappella; they perform "Legend" quite close to the original, but there are "children neighboring He called." But only folklore ensemble from Gorno-Altaisk, three touching old women sing this line correctly. Addressing the audience in the village club, they say: “We will now sing Tchaikovsky to you, “Christ the Infant Had a Garden”” - but they sing some kind of quasi-folk song, which, apart from a poetic text, has nothing to do with Tchaikovsky. I just wanted to show how the myth of Tchaikovsky takes on ramifications and bizarre forms in the 1990s and 2000s.

The great Russian composer Stravinsky paid tribute to his revered Tchaikovsky in two significant writings. One of them is the opera "Mavra" based on the plot of "The House in Kolomna" - a stylistically transitional work. The opera is dedicated to the memory of Pushkin, Glinka and Tchaikovsky. In his Dialogues with Robert Kraft, Stravinsky pays much attention to Tchaikovsky. In particular, he says the following about The Mavra: “This opera is close in character to the era of Tchaikovsky and in general to his style (this is the music of landowners, townspeople and small landowners, different from peasant music).” This definition perfectly corresponds with the already familiar opposition "Tchaikovsky (an enlightened European) -" A mighty bunch "(hillbilly" with its callous naturalism and amateurishness ")". I will continue the quote: “The dedication of “Mavra” to Tchaikovsky was also a matter of propaganda. I wanted to show my non-Russian colleagues with their tourist superficial perception of the orientalism of the “Mighty Handful” a different Russia.” And further: "Tchaikovsky was the greatest talent in Russia and - with the exception of Mussorgsky - the most truthful." What is "the most truthful", I, frankly, do not really understand. Stravinsky goes on to say: "I considered his [Tchaikovsky's] main virtue to be grace (in the ballets) and a sense of humor (animal variations in The Sleeping Beauty)." The last statement, to tell the truth, puzzled me. I ignored it in 1971 when I first read this book. Now, for a number of reasons, rereading the Dialogues under a microscope, I am puzzled all the time, so to speak. Is grace and a sense of humor the main virtues of our hero? But what about Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony (many more examples could be given), gloomy, nervous, hysterical, producing all sorts of suspense and memento mori? But such was the strategy of Stravinsky the classicist. It was extremely important for him, a Russian composer living in Europe and emphasizing his Westernism in every possible way, to designate this new identity, and he dissociated himself from his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov. The author of the opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex committed the symbolic murder of his father and engaged a new one.

Let's now listen to a small fragment of Tchaikovsky's Humoresque.

The melody is definitely Russian, unpretentious, as if someone, not very experienced in this matter, is playing the harmonica. This motif in 1928 was for Stravinsky what in Germany they call Ohrwurm, "earworm" - otherwise he would not have repeated it with such frequency in the ballet "Kiss of the Fairy". Judging by the date, the essay was written on the 35th anniversary of the death of Pyotr Ilyich. Stravinsky composed it, as they say, based on motives, and in this case this expression should be taken literally: Stravinsky uses melodies, Tchaikovsky's themes from his piano compositions, children's songs, adult romances - simply speaking, from works not orchestral. The composer himself wrote the libretto - based on Andersen's fairy tale "The Ice Maiden", but this is not the "Snow Queen", everything is much scarier here. This ballet is rarely staged, the music from it is performed somewhat more often. I want you to listen to a fragment not even of a ballet, but... Composers often slightly remake their opera and ballet music into independent works - as a rule, into a digest that can be performed in a concert hall. Everything goes to work. So, we are listening to the Divertimento from the ballet "The Fairy's Kiss", an episode called "Swiss Dances". There will be obsessive "Humoresque", and much more. That's what's wrong with the genre of lectures about music: you have to comment simultaneously with music, it's terrible.

(from 6’ 24’’ to the end)

(Speaks at the same time as the video is shown.) This original music Stravinsky, those plaintive sobbings of strings... and here is "Humoresque"... here again Stravinsky, although it is very similar to Tchaikovsky... there is a montage of two different "music", but there is no development, as if nothing happens... Just Stravinsky's maniacal dependence on this melody, Yes? ... Another theme of Tchaikovsky is added, from the "Children's Album" - "A Man Plays the Harmonica", akin to the motive of "Humoresque" ... it seems that "Humoresque" is already sounding for the hundredth time. The soul asks for something else. And another appears, we are already waiting: this is Tchaikovsky's Nata-Waltz... Let's stop: this is sacrilege, of course, but I don't have time to show you something important. (Music stops.)

We were brought up in such a way that it seemed to us: between Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, as between what was before 1917, and what happened after him, there is a huge crack, an abyss. But this gap does not exist. After Scriabin, after the discovery of dodecaphony, after the neo-barbarism of Bartok, Prokofiev, and even Stravinsky himself, this kind of music appears - carefully glued together, skillfully sewn from fragments of children's toys, some kind of cute rags and sentimental memories. It seems to be Tchaikovsky, it seems to be not - listening to this music, we are always in a state of slight schizophrenic bewilderment. And one more thing: The Fairy's Kiss takes us back to Petrushka, written in 1910. We recognize similar, very clear genre models: a waltz performed on a hurdy-gurdy (necessarily spoiled), and the factory, wacky music of the St. Petersburg outskirts. The coachmen and grooms of "Petrushka" and the man playing the harmonica from the "Children's Album" accompanied by four accordions from the Orchestral Suite No. 2 - in general, all this gopota - if not twin brothers, then very close relatives. It turns out how difficult it is to talk about music, divide it into periods, dismember and generalize - there will always be an exception that does not confirm the rule. When you touch music, you come across some kind of liquid, even gaseous, substance that slips away every second and defies classification. I have to crumple up this important topic, because we have little time, and I still really want to talk to you about cinema.

I want to show two fragments. The first one is from a movie that many of you may have seen as a child. This is Tchaikovsky by Igor Talankin, based on the script of the highly experienced Yuri Nagibin, released in 1969. The picture is remarkable primarily for its brilliant casting. Smoktunovsky played one of his most successful roles here and, according to the polls of readers of the Soviet Screen magazine, became the actor of the year. The excellent Shuranova, Strzhelchik, Kirill Lavrov were also filmed there. The film was nominated for an Oscar as a film for foreign language. I have reviewed it now. Lydia Ginzburg in " notebooks” has a recording that I love very much, although I may not understand it quite correctly. She refers there to her friend and colleague, literary critic Boris Bukhshtab, but in this case it does not matter ... So, Boris Yakovlevich came to her and said: "All art is based on intellectual premises - and always on false intellectual premises." However, with regard to Soviet art - in particular, with regard to the film in question - the false intellectual presuppositions should be renamed false. Remember what Sergey Nevsky is talking about: the level of bombardment with trifles of private life (while keeping certain details silent) and the level of sacralization went through the roof. Talankin's film takes the story of Tchaikovsky's personal life on a different track and motivates some well-known facts in a completely fantastic way. Sorry, I'll comment out loud again. But before we start watching the movie, I will say a few more words. A special person from Hollywood was invited to work on the soundtrack in the USSR. Dmitry Temkin, who left Russia as an infant, has had a fairly successful career as a film composer and arranger. So, we are watching a fragment, the action of which begins in the theater, where the singer Desiree Artaud is performing. Her role is played by the dazzling Maya Plisetskaya.

Apparently, Plisetskaya speaks in the voice of Antonina Shuranova, I am almost one hundred percent convinced of this ... But whose voice she sings, I don’t know ... A very rough bill, a very rough gluing (in the romance "Among the noisy ball")... One more gluing ... Then the fun begins. This, of course, is the Soviet Union on the screen, Soviet sixties symbolism, and not at all the silhouettes of Kruglikova ... As you understand, this is Temkin's music - let me remind you, in a film about Tchaikovsky ... A short-term quote, a waltz from the Fifth Symphony ... Birches ... (Laughter in the hall.) Troika with bells... Thank you. (Laughter, applause.)

Actually, it's not all that funny. My main claim the film comes down to the fact that music plays here in a subordinate, passive role, and this is wrong. It seems to me that people who make a film about Tchaikovsky should proceed from Tchaikovsky's music and edit the film in accordance with Tchaikovsky's music. Talankin, for reasons that simply do not want to discuss, did not. Very, very, very sorry. Dmitry Temkin, especially in comparison with what we just heard in "Kiss of the Fairy", made a strong three with a minus. Of course, Temkin had purely cinematic, commercial goals, but these radiant big major seventh chords, this endless, many kilometers of coloratura in the spirit of Gliere's unforgettable Concerto for Voice and Orchestra - well, nowhere at all: Soviet unmistakably recognizable garbage. Birches - okay, God bless them. The production situation itself is catastrophic: the party and the government hire a foreign specialist for huge money to turn the national treasure into something pop-symphonic, something utilitarian, if only the director would be clear, comfortable and comfortable. There are many advantages in Tchaikovsky, the main thing is Smoktunovsky and his frightening photographic resemblance to the original. But these virtues do not negate the essential, root deceitfulness of the film.

Imagine, literally next year another picture about Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky comes out. Film `s name MusicLovers", and this name is translated either as “Music Lovers”, or as “Musical Lovers”. Understand to the extent of your licentiousness. This is a film by the eccentric Ken Russell. He had just become famous for "Women in Love", a movie that was a huge success. The picture, believe me, is really beautiful. Alas, the Musical Lovers that followed failed at the box office, the press was sour, and only the pianist who participated in the recording of the soundtrack, one Rafael Orozco, was the only one who received praise (although, from my point of view, he is not perfect). But this film was important for the director, it opens the trilogy biographical paintings O classical composers, which also includes the films "Mahler" and "Listomania". All three paintings have much in common, and I would describe this commonality with the somewhat boring, but extremely appropriate word “postmodernism” in this case. Pure, textbook postmodernism. Since the film was shot in the UK, everything is clear with the hero's private life. Ken Russell does not have any unspoken words and mysterious looks, like those exchanged between Plisetskaya and Smoktunovsky - or rather, there are, but they are presented in an openly parodic manner. The title role is played by Richard Chamberlain, who is openly gay, which in 1970 was still exotic. He plays well, although there is absolutely no resemblance to Tchaikovsky. Film critic Sergei Kudryavtsev writes: “Russell, like no other - perhaps only Stanley Kubrick can compare with him - is able to feel in a special way classical music, he gives it an almost orgiastic character and operates with canonical scores with ease and freedom, psychoanalytically interpreting the ballet "Swan Lake" and the opera "Eugene Onegin". Important note: "operates canonical scores". Ken Russell makes no claim to authenticity. He creates a free burlesque fantasy on the theme of Tchaikovsky's biography, but at the same time he treats music strictly and very delicately. For example, the very beginning of the picture, representing the scene Shrovetide festivities, mounted under a fragment of a scherzo from the Second Orchestral Suite, taken in its entirety, without surgical intervention. Ken Russell, like Talankin, invited an expert - a venerable conductor, composer and arranger Andre Previn. But unlike the creative Temkin, Preven created an extremely correct and competent soundtrack. If there are some retouches of Tchaikovsky's music, then the retouches are microscopic.

In a way, Ken Russell was one of the pioneers of the music video. The fragment that we will now see is edited to the music of the second part of the First Piano Concerto. It would seem that how much you can listen to this concert, well, it's simply impossible. He accompanies you all your life, from the cradle to the grave. But in « Music Lovers» this music sparkled with new colors and sparkled with new meanings. Ken Russell deliberately allows for a biographical inaccuracy: in the film, Tchaikovsky himself publicly performs his concerto, which in fact never happened. Now, as in Talankin's film, we will find ourselves in some kind of noble assembly, look and listen.

(Speaks during video demonstration.) Tchaikovsky's sister Alexandra Davydova... Tchaikovsky is really unrecognizable... Russian Arcadia in the view of a European... Here we have just a technical marriage of the video, in the original everything is in order with the music... In the midst of an idyll, the theme of a fatal glass of water with vibrios cholerae arises, it's subtle... In the background Modest Tchaikovsky… I really like it: cello solo - in the concert hall and at the same time in a country house… Among the listeners of the concert is our future wife Antonina Milyukova (Glenda Jackson). In Russell's film, she is a crazy nymphomaniac... Generally speaking, it shows quite plausibly what the audience in the concert actually thinks about when listening to music. This is what is called imaginative listening; the character imagines some kind of oleographic pictures - instead of listening to music as such ... This is the return of the first theme in the reprise - such an intoxicating moment is always with Tchaikovsky! Well, and some other authors too ... (End of video.)

Of course, this is hypergrotesque. Imagine how this film was supposed to annoy the venerable public in 1970. Probably, just as quite recently decent people were shocked by Joe Wright's Anna Karenina. I just don't understand the nature of this outrage. The dude masterfully works with clichés, with the romantic stereotypes set on edge, which he demonstrates with a stone face. This is an absolutely British type of artistic thinking.

And the last. One day in the same 1970, Stravinsky and Kraft were sitting at home in the evening and listening to vinyl records. After a busy program, Kraft asked the aged and probably very tired composer: "What could we listen to after Beethoven's compositions?" And Igor Fedorovich said: “It is very simple - himself". How touching is this burning, not for the first time and not only in connection with Beethoven, Stravinsky's expressed desire for direct, somatic contact with a colleague. Fortunately, with regard to Tchaikovsky, we have a tiny opportunity to hear him himself.

We heard the real voice of Tchaikovsky. Amazing, right? The fascinating story of phonographic roller No. 283 from the Berlin collection of the engineer Yuli Ivanovich Blok, the collection now in the Pushkin House, is described in some detail in the second issue of the almanac “P.I. Chaikovsky. Forgotten and New”, published by the Klin House-Museum. I will not retell it, a reprint is easy to find on the net. Only three trifles have come down to us: “This trill could be better”, “Block is good, but Edison’s is even better” and “Who is talking now? It seems to be the voice of Safonov. You won't get anything out of this. We could do a spectral analysis of what we heard. Or based on the fact that two of the three phrases contain the word "better", in the spirit of kitchen psychoanalysis, one could speculate about his painful perfectionism. But is it worth it?

My incoherent speeches have come to an end. One can talk endlessly about the myth of Tchaikovsky, its shades, genera and types. Therefore, I do not even finish, but simply stop the conversation. Thank you.

The author expresses his heartfelt gratitude to Maria Zhmurova for transcribing the audio recording; Elle Lippe - for help in translating from Russian; M.Ch., who delicately pointed out the incorrect attribution of one musical passage.