Origins and features of program music in creativity
romantic composers
Romanticism in music took shape under the influence of the literature of romanticism and developed in close connection with it, with literature in general. This was expressed in the appeal to synthetic genres, primarily to theatrical genres(especially opera), song, instrumental miniature, as well as in music software. On the other hand, the affirmation of programmaticity, as one of the brightest features of musical Romanticism, is due to the desire of progressive romantics for the concreteness of figurative expression.
Another important prerequisite is the fact that many romantic composers acted as music writers and critics (Hoffmann, Weber, Schumann, Wagner, Berlioz, Liszt, Verstovsky, etc.). Despite the inconsistency of romantic aesthetics in general, theoretical work representatives of progressive Romanticism made a very significant contribution to the development critical issues musical art (content and form in music, nationality, programming, connection with other arts, updating the means of musical expression, etc.), and this also influenced program music.
Programming in instrumental music is a characteristic feature of the era of romanticism, but by no means a discovery. Musical incarnation various images and pictures of the surrounding world, adherence to the literary program and sound representation in a variety of ways can be observed even among composers of the Baroque era (for example, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons), among French clavicinists (sketches by Couperin) and virginalists in England, in the work of the Viennese classics ("software » symphonies, overtures by Haydn and Beethoven). And yet, the programmatic nature of romantic composers is on a somewhat different level. It is enough to compare the so-called genre of "musical portrait" in the works of Couperin and Schumann to realize the difference.
Most often, the programming of composers of the era of romanticism is a consistent deployment in musical images of a plot borrowed from one or another literary and poetic source or created by the imagination of the composer himself. Such a plot-narrative type of programming contributed to the concretization of the figurative content of music.
So, program music is musical works, which the composer provided with a verbal program that concretizes the perception. Program compositions can be associated with plots and images embodied in other forms of art, including literature and painting.
All means of musical expression in symphonic music romantics like everyone else great artist(the nature of thematism, methods of variational development, form, instrumentation, harmonic language, etc.) are always subject to the disclosure of the poetic idea and images of the program.
Program works of Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt
Robert Schumann- one of the most prominent representatives of musical romanticism in Germany.
R. Schumann has a lot of program music. If we take, for example, his piano pieces, we will find that there are 146 program pieces, and, surprisingly, the same number of non-program pieces. These are the collections "Butterflies", "Carnival", "Variations on the theme ABBEG "Kreisleriana", "Novelettes", "Children's Scenes", "Album for Youth" and others. The program pieces that are in it in these collections are very diverse. Of the symphonic program music, mention should be made of the overtures “The Bride of Messina”, “Hermann and Dorothea”, music for dramatic poem Byron "Manfred", symphonies "Spring", "Rhine" and other works.
In his work, Schumann often relied on images literary romanticism(Jean Paul and E.T.A. Hoffmann), many of his works are characterized by literary and poetic programming. Schumann often turns to a cycle of lyrical, often contrasting miniatures (for piano or voice with piano), which allow revealing the complex range of psychological states of the hero, constantly balancing on the verge of reality and fiction. In Schumann's music, a romantic impulse alternates with contemplation, a whimsical scherzo with genre-humorous and even satirical-grotesque elements. A distinctive feature of Schumann's works is improvisation. Schumann concretized the polar spheres of his artistic worldview in the images of Florestan (the embodiment of a romantic impulse, aspirations for the future) and Euzebius (reflection, contemplation), constantly "present" in Schumann's musical and literary works as an hypostasis of the personality of the composer himself. At the center of the musical-critical and literary activity of Schumann - a brilliant critic - is the struggle against banality in art and life, the desire to transform life through art. Schumann created a fantastic union "David's Bund", uniting along with images real faces(N. Paganini, F. Chopin, F. Liszt, K. Schumann) also fictitious characters (Florestan, Euzebius; Maestro Raro as the personification of creative wisdom). The struggle between the “Davidsbündlers” and the philistines-philistines (“Philistines”) became one of the storylines program piano cycle "Carnival".
It is curious that fantasticness is combined in Carnival with a very real and even documentary basis. After all, really existing people are bred here, some - even under proper names(Chopin, Paganini). In this one can see the influence of certain portrait pieces by French harpsichordists (such as Forkeret's Couperin), that is, again, early music.
Music is psychological. It displays different contrast states and the change of these states. Schuman he was very fond of piano miniatures, as well as cycles of piano miniatures, since they can express contrast very well. Schuman refers to software. These are program plays, often associated with literary images. They all have names that are a little strange for that time - "Flash", "Why?", Variations on the theme of Abegg (this is the name of his friend's girlfriend), he used the letters of her last name as notes (A, B, E, G); "Asch" is the name of the city where she lived ex love Schuman(these letters, as keys, were included in "Carnival"). Schuman He was very fond of the carnival music, because of its diversity. For example: "Butterflies", "Hungarian Carnival", "Carnival".
"Carnival" is a suite of characteristic plays, one of the most clear examples program music in the work of Schumann. By introducing his enigmatic "Sphinxes", Schumann gave the key to reading the whole cycle as a process, and it turns out that the motley series of images is nothing but metamorphoses of a hidden, inaudible foundation, "variations without a theme" (Schumann himself used this expression, however, in relation not to "Carnival", but to "Arabesques"). The openness of some plays in context is enhanced by additional means. So, "Florestan", thanks to tonal instability and an abundance of sudden contrasts (if not to say differences) of moods, can be conditionally called a development without a theme. And "Reply" is very reminiscent of a lyrical summarizing postlude or codette. The content of the process carried out in "Carnival" can be characterized as a gradual increase in humanity and sincerity of expression in the conditions of the carnival-game world. Here, for the first time, the principle of the through development of the contrast ratio of two images is outlined, which later will become the main one in "Kreislerian". A pair of masks ("Pierrot" - "Harlequin"), then fictional characters ("Eusebius" - "Florestan"), then real people ("Chopin" - "Estrella") - all this forms the corresponding parallel lines of intonational development.
A number of cycles that grew up on a dance basis were completed by the “Dances of the Davidsbündlers” (in the second edition the word “dances” disappeared), where Schumann unfolds before us a whole series of portraits of only two heroes (Florestan and Eusebius, who came out of the “Carnival”). words, trying to convey his own world in all its fullness and elusive variability. In "Davidsbündler" Schumann returns to the open form almost in pure form and creates her most bright pattern. From this point of view, it is interesting to look at the end of the cycle: after the (seventeenth) piece, which could claim the role of the finale (the summing up character of the intonations, the reminiscence of the second piece), another one follows. Schumann follows here not a formal-logical constructive principle, but the desire to say in the end the most intimate, personal.
Another interesting example is "Fantastic Pieces". Perhaps this is the first of Schumann's cycles, the plays of which (precisely due to the completeness of development and completeness of form) may well exist, be performed and thought separately, outside the cycle. At the same time, the cycle as a whole gives one of the most expressive examples of open dramaturgy that does not know clearly fixed boundaries (“from” and “to”), he embodies the romantic kaleidoscopicity of “Butterflies” at a new stage.
The internal fullness of development and the new quality of the form are noticeably manifested even in such an open miniature as "Why?"
Historical role Hector Berlioz is to create a programmatic symphony of a new type. The pictorial descriptiveness characteristic of Berlioz's symphonic thinking, plot specificity, along with other factors (such as the intonational origins of music, the principles of orchestration, etc.) make the composer a characteristic phenomenon of French national culture.
All Berlioz's symphonies have a program name - "Fantastic", "Funeral-Triumphal", "Harold in Italy", "Romeo and Juliet". In addition to those named, he has works of less defined genres, but based on a symphony.
Programming, as the leading creative principle of Berlioz, leads to a new interpretation of the symphonic cycle. First of all, the number of parts of the cycle is dictated not so much by the established traditions of classical symphony, but by this particular program idea.
The unifying beginning in the symphonic cycle of Berlioz is usually one theme that runs through all parts and characterizes main image is the character of the symphony. This theme, which permeates the entire cycle, is the leitmotif of the symphony. Such is the motive of the beloved in the Fantastic Symphony, or the motive of Harold in the symphony Harold in Italy. The great symphony adagio drawing a love scene. At the same time, Berlioz's symphonic cycle is devoid of the unity and integrity of Beethoven's symphonic cycle. Separate parts of the symphony, following one after another, represent a series of colorful and outwardly connected musical pictures and images, consistently revealing all the main vicissitudes of the chosen program. In the dramaturgy of the symphony, that dynamically purposeful, conflicting development of a single idea is no longer present, which is inherent in Beethoven's symphonism. Peculiarity creative method Berlioz's pictorial descriptiveness determines just such an interpretation of the symphonic cycle. But at the same time, monumentality, democracy, civic pathos connect Berlioz's symphony with the Beethoven tradition.
Fantastic symphony is the first major work Berlioz, in which he reached full creative maturity. It had a program subtitle - "An episode from the life of an artist." In romantic-fantastic colors, the symphony depicts the love experiences of the artist, that is, Berlioz himself, suffering from unrequited love for Harriet Smithson.
Paganini, delighted with the Fantastic Symphony, ordered a viola concerto from Berlioz, but Berlioz approached the order from the other side - this is how the symphony with the solo viola "Harold in Italy" was written.
The participation of soloists and the choir brings the Romeo and Juliet symphony closer to opera-oratorio-cantata genres. Therefore, the symphony is called dramatic. Obviously, Berlioz here followed the path of Beethoven with his 9th symphony, where the choir enters in the finale, but here the vocal element is present throughout the entire symphony. The last movement - Father Lorenzo and the choir of reconciliation - could well have been opera stage. Along with this, the key moments of the action of the tragedy are revealed by purely symphonic means - a street fight at the beginning of the symphony, a night of love, a scene in Juliet's crypt. The special program concept of the symphony forced Berlioz to resolutely depart from the classical symphonic tradition and create a multi-movement work, where the structure is determined by the sequence of events in the development of the plot. And yet in the middle parts of the symphony (Night of Love and Fairy Mab) one can see connections with symphonic adagios and scherzos. Romeo and Juliet by Berlioz surpasses everything that existed before in the symphonic field in size.
Being an active and staunch promoter of software in music, a close and organic connection between music and other arts (poetry, painting), Franz Liszt especially persistently and fully implemented this leading creative principle in symphonic music.
Among the entire symphonic work of Liszt, two program symphonies stand out - "After reading Dante" and "Faust", which are high examples of program music. Liszt is also the creator of a new genre, the symphonic poem, which is a synthesis of music and literature. The genre of the symphonic poem has become a favorite among composers different countries and received great development and original creative implementation in the Russian classical symphony of the second half XIX century. The prerequisites for the genre were examples of free form by F. Schubert (piano fantasy "Wanderer"), R. Schumann, F. Mendelssohn ("Hybrids"), later R. Strauss, Scriabin, Rachmaninov turned to the symphonic poem. The main idea of such a work is to convey a poetic idea through music.
Liszt's twelve symphonic poems constitute an excellent monument of program music, in which musical images and their development are connected with a poetic or moral-philosophical idea. The symphonic poem "What is heard on the mountain" based on the poem by V. Hugo embodies the romantic idea of opposing the majestic nature to human sorrows and suffering. The symphonic poem "Tasso", written on the occasion of the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the birth of Goethe, depicts the suffering of the Italian Renaissance poet Torquato Tasso during his lifetime and the triumph of his genius after death. As the main theme of the work, Liszt used the song of the Venetian gondoliers, performed to the words of the opening stanza of Tasso's main work, the poem "Jerusalem Liberated".
The symphonic poem "Preludes" was originally written independently of Lamartine, as an introduction to four male choirs to texts by Joseph Autrans. Only when reworking the "Preludes" into an independent symphonic poem, Liszt, after some searches for a program, settled on Lamartine's poem "Poetic Reflections" (" Meditations poetiques ”), which, as it seemed to him, is most suitable for the music of the poem. Precisely because the program was found by Liszt after the end of the poem, there is no complete correspondence between Liszt's Preludes and Lamartine's poem. In the poem, human life is compared to a series of preludes to death, while Liszt has a completely different concept. It not only lacks the image of death, but, on the contrary, it expresses the affirmation of life, the joy of earthly existence.
Liszt's symphonic poem "Orpheus" was originally conceived as an overture to the Weimar production of Gluck's opera "Orpheus". In this poem, Liszt embodied famous myth about the Thracian singer not in a consistent plot, but in a generalized philosophical way. For Liszt, in this case, Orpheus is a generalized symbol of art, "pouring its melodic waves, its powerful chords," as the program says.
You can also name other symphonic poems by Liszt - "Prometheus", "Festive Bells", "Mazeppa", "Lament for a Hero", "Hungary", "Hamlet" and others.
It was important for Liszt not so much to convey in music the consistent development of the plot of the chosen program, but to embody the general poetic idea leading the poetic images by means of musical art. Unlike the works of Berlioz, in symphonic works Liszt, the pre-sent program is not a presentation of the plot, but only conveys the general mood, often even limited to one title, the title of the work or its separate parts. It is characteristic that the program of Liszt's works is not only literary and poetic images, but also works of fine arts in which there is no fluttering plot-narration, as well as various landscapes and natural phenomena.
In some of Liszt's symphonic works, the principle of monothematism is used, that is, the technique of drawing one theme or group of themes through the entire work, which undergoes variational transformations up to a radical change in image. The reception of monothematism is especially consistently carried out in the symphonic poems "Tasso" and "Preludes", where variational transformations of one theme (even one intonation) express different stages of the development of an idea. Such a variational development of the theme leads to its powerful heroic assertion at the end of the work. Hence the solemn codes-apotheoses of a march-like character, characteristic of Liszt.
In the three-movement symphony "Faust", the third movement ("Mephistopheles") is an interesting transformation of all the themes of the first movement ("Faust"). Philosophical, pathetic, lyrical, heroic themes acquire in the finale a grotesque, mockingly sarcastic character, corresponding to the image of Mephistopheles, in the ideological concept of Liszt meaning the “wrong side” of Faust, a skeptical denial of everything noble and sublime, the overthrow of high ideals. By the way, this is reminiscent of Berlioz's reception in the finale of the Fantastic Symphony, where the lyrical theme of love is distorted.
There is also a lot of program music in the works of other romantics - F. Mendelssohn (including program concert overtures), E. Grieg ("Poetic Pictures", "Humoresques", suites "Peer Gynt", "From the Time of Holberg") and others. In Russian music, the brightest examples of programming are the cycles of piano pieces “Pictures at an Exhibition” by M.P. Mussorgsky and “The Seasons” by P.I. Tchaikovsky.
Romanticism left a whole era in world artistic culture, its representatives in literature, fine arts and music discovered and developed new genres, paid close attention to the fate of the human personality, revealed the dialectic of good and evil, skillfully revealed human passions, etc.
The work of romantic composers was often the antithesis of the petty-bourgeois atmosphere of the 1820s and 1840s. It called to the world of high humanity, sang the beauty and power of feeling. Hot passion, proud masculinity, subtle lyricism, capricious variability of an endless stream of impressions and thoughts are the characteristic features of the music of the composers of the Romantic era, clearly manifested in instrumental program music.
German Programmusik, French musique a program, ital. musica a programma program music
Musical works that have a certain verbal, often poetic. program and revealing the content imprinted in it. The phenomenon of music programming is associated with specific. features of music that distinguish it from other arts. In the field of displaying feelings, moods, and spiritual life of a person, music has important advantages over other arts. Indirectly, through feelings and moods, music is able to reflect many. phenomena of reality. However, it is not able to accurately designate what exactly causes this or that feeling in a person, it is not able to achieve the objective, conceptual concreteness of the display. The possibilities of such concretization are possessed by speech language and literature. Striving for substantive, conceptual concretization, composers create program music. production; prescribing op. program, they force the means spoken language, arts. lit-ry act in unity, in synthesis with the actual muses. means. The unity of music and literature is also facilitated by the fact that they are temporary arts, capable of showing the growth and development of the image. Unity of divergence the lawsuit has been going on for a long time. In ancient times, there were no independent entities at all. types of lawsuits - they acted together, in unity, the lawsuit was syncretic; at the same time it was closely associated with labor activity and with diff. kind of rituals, rituals. At that time, each of the lawsuits was so limited in terms of funds that it was out of syncretic. unity aimed at solving applied problems could not exist. The subsequent allocation of claims-in was determined not only by a change in the way of life, but also by the growth of the possibilities of each of them, achieved within the syncretic. unity associated with this growth of aesthetic. human feelings. At the same time, the unity of art-in never ceased, including the unity of music with the word, poetry - primarily in all kinds of woks. and wok.-dramatic. genres. In the beginning. In the 19th century, after a long period of existence of music and poetry as independent arts, the tendency towards their unity intensified even more. This was determined no longer by their weakness, but rather by their strength, by pushing their own to the limit. opportunities. Further enrichment of the reflection of reality in all its diversity, in all its aspects could be achieved only by the joint action of music and words. And programming is one of the types of unity of music and the means of speech language, as well as literature, denoting or displaying those sides of a single object of reflection, which music is not able to convey by its own means. Thus, an integral element of the program music. prod. is a verbal program created or chosen by the composer himself, whether it is a brief program heading indicating a phenomenon of reality, which the composer had in mind (the play "Morning" by E. Grieg from the music for G. Ibsen's drama "Peer Gynt") , sometimes "referring" the listener to a certain lit. prod. ("Macbeth" by R. Strauss - a symphonic poem "based on Shakespeare's drama"), or a lengthy excerpt from a literary work, detailed program, compiled by the composer according to one or another lit. prod. (symphonic suite (2nd symphony) "Antar" by Rimsky-Korsakov based on the tale of the same name by O. I. Senkovsky) or out of touch with Ph.D. lit. prototype ("Fantastic Symphony" by Berlioz).
Not every title, not every explanation of music can be considered as its program. The program can only come from the author of the music. If he did not tell the program, then his very idea was non-program. If he first gave his Op. program, and then abandoned it, so he translated his Op. into the non-program category. The program is not an explanation of music, it complements it, revealing something that is missing in music, inaccessible to the embodiment of muses. means (otherwise it would be redundant). In this, it fundamentally differs from any analysis of the music of a non-program op., any description of its music, even the most poetic, incl. and from the description belonging to the author of Op. and pointing to specific phenomena, to-rye caused in his creativity. consciousness of certain muses. images. And vice versa - program op. - this is not a "translation" into the language of music of the program itself, but a reflection of the muses. means of the same object, which is designated, reflected in the program. Headings given by the author himself are not a program either, if they denote not specific phenomena of reality, but concepts of an emotional plane, which the music conveys much more accurately (for example, headings like "Sadness", etc.). It happens that the program attached to the product. by the author himself, is not in organic. unity with music, but this is already determined by the arts. the skill of the composer, sometimes also by how well he compiled or selected the verbal program. This has nothing to do with the question of the essence of the phenomenon of programming.
Muses himself possesses certain means of concretization. language. Among them are the Muses. figurativeness (see Sound painting) - a reflection of various kinds of sounds of reality, associative representations generated by music. sounds - their height, duration, timbre. An important means of concretization is also the attraction of the features of "applied" genres - dance, march in all its varieties, etc. National-characteristic features of muses can also serve as concretizations. language, music style. All these means of concretization make it possible to express the general concept of Op. (ex. celebration light forces over dark ones, etc.). And yet they do not provide that substantive, conceptual concretization, which is provided by the verbal program. Moreover, the more widely used in music. prod. music proper. means of concretization, the more necessary for the full perception of music are the words, the program.
One of the types of programming is picture programming. It includes works that display one image or a complex of images of reality that does not undergo beings. changes throughout its duration. These are pictures of nature (landscapes), pictures of bunks. festivities, dances, battles, etc., music. images objects of inanimate nature, as well as portrait muses. sketches.
The second main type of music programming - plot programming. Source of plots for software products. of this kind serves primarily as art. lit. In the plot-program music. prod. music development. images in general or in particular corresponds to the development of the plot. Distinguish between generalized-plot programming and sequential-plot programming. The author of a work relating to the generalized plot type of programming and connected through the program with one or another lit. production, does not aim to show the events depicted in it in all their sequence and complexity, but gives muses. characteristic of the main images of lit. prod. and the general direction of the development of the plot, the initial and final correlation of the acting forces. On the contrary, the author of a work belonging to the serial-plot type of programming seeks to display intermediate stages in the development of events, sometimes the entire sequence of events. Appeal to this type of programming is dictated by plots, in which the middle stages of development, which do not proceed in a straight line, but are associated with the introduction of new characters, with a change in the setting of the action, with events that are not a direct consequence of the previous situation, become important. Appeal to sequential-plot programming also depends on creativity. composer settings. Different composers often translate the same plots in different ways. For example, the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" by W. Shakespeare inspired P. I. Tchaikovsky to create a work. generalized plot type of programming (overture-fantasy "Romeo and Juliet"), G. Berlioz - to create a product. sequential-plot type of programming (dramatic symphony "Romeo and Juliet", in which the author even goes beyond pure symphonism and attracts a vocal beginning).
In the field of music language cannot be distinguished. signs of P. m. This is also true in relation to the form of software products. In works representing the pictorial type of programming, there are no prerequisites for the emergence of specific. structures. Tasks, to-rye set by the authors of software products. of a generalized plot type, are successfully performed by forms developed in non-program music, primarily the sonata allegro form. The authors of the program op. sequential plot type have to create muses. form, more or less "parallel" to the plot. But they build it by combining the elements of different. forms of non-program music, attracting some of the methods of development already widely represented in it. Among them is the variational method. It allows you to show changes that do not affect the essence of the phenomenon, concerning many others. important features, but associated with the preservation of a number of qualities, which makes it possible to recognize the image, in whatever new form it appears. The principle of monothematism is closely related to the variational method. Using this principle in terms of figurative transformation, so widely used by F. List in his symphonic poems and other works, the composer gains greater freedom to follow the plot without the danger of violating the music. wholeness op. Another type of monothematism associated with the leitmotif characterization of characters (see Leitmotif) finds application in Ch. arr. in serial-plot productions. Having originated in the opera, the leitmotif characteristic was also transferred to the area of instr. music, where G. Berlioz was one of the first and most widely resorted to it. Its essence lies in the fact that one theme throughout the Op. acts as a characteristic of the same hero. She appears each time in a new context, denoting the new environment surrounding the hero. This theme can change itself, but changes in it do not change its "objective" meaning and reflect only changes in the state of the same hero, a change in ideas about him. The reception of the leitmotif characteristic is most appropriate in conditions of cyclicity, suiteness and turns out to be a powerful means of combining the contrasting parts of the cycle, revealing a single plot. It facilitates the embodiment in music of successive plot ideas and the unification of the features of sonata allegro and sonata-symphony in a single-movement form. cycle, characteristic of the symphonic genre created by F. Liszt. poems. Diff. the steps of an action are conveyed with the help of relatively independent ones. episodes, the contrast between which corresponds to the contrast of parts of the sonata-symphony. cycle, then these episodes are "brought to unity" in a compressed reprise, and in accordance with the program, one or another of them is singled out. From the point of view of the cycle, the reprise usually corresponds to the final, from the point of view of the sonata allegro, the 1st and 2nd episodes correspond to the exposition, the 3rd ("scherzo" in the cycle) - to the development. Liszt has the use of such synthetic. forms are often combined with the use of the principle of monothematism. All these techniques allowed composers to create music. forms that meet individual traits plot and at the same time organic and holistic. However, new synthetic the forms cannot be regarded as belonging to the program music alone. They arose not only in connection with the implementation of program ideas - the general trends of the era also affected their appearance. Exactly the same structures were constantly used in non-program music.
There are program music. cit., in which as a program involved products. painting, sculpture, even architecture. Such are, for example, symphonic Liszt's poems "The Battle of the Huns" after the fresco by V. Kaulbach and "From the Cradle to the Grave" after the drawing by M. Zichy, his own play "William Tell's Chapel"; "Betrothal" (to the painting by Raphael), "The Thinker" (based on the statue of Michelangelo) from fp. cycles "Years of Wanderings", etc. However, the possibilities of subject, conceptual concretization of these claims are not exhaustive. It is no coincidence that paintings and sculptures are supplied with a concretizing name, which can be considered as a kind of their program. Therefore, in music works written on the basis of various works depict, art, in essence, combine not only music and painting, music and sculpture, but music, painting and word, music, sculpture and word. And the functions of the program in them are performed by Ch. arr. not manufactured depict, claims, but a verbal program. This is determined primarily by the diversity of music as a temporary art-va and painting and sculpture as a static, "spatial" art. As for architectural images, they are generally unable to concretize music in the subject-conceptual plane; music authors. works associated with architectural monuments, as a rule, were inspired not so much by them themselves as by history, by the events that took place in them or near them, the legends that developed about them (the play "Vyshegrad" from the symphonic cycle of B. Smetana " My Motherland", the above-mentioned fp. play "The Chapel of William Tell" by Liszt, which the author not accidentally prefaced with the epigraph "One for all, all for one").
Programming was a great conquest of the muses. lawsuit. She led to the enrichment of the range of images of reality, reflected in the muses. prod., the search for new expresses. means, new forms, contributed to the enrichment and differentiation of forms and genres. The composer's approach to classical music is usually determined by his connection with life, modernity, and attention to topical problems; in other cases, it itself contributes to the composer's rapprochement with reality and its deeper comprehension. However, in some ways P. m. is inferior to non-program music. The program narrows the perception of music, diverts attention from the general idea expressed in it. The embodiment of plot ideas is usually associated with music. characteristics that are more or less conventional. Hence the ambivalent attitude of many great composers towards programming, which both attracted them and repelled them (sayings by P. I. Tchaikovsky, G. Mahler, R. Strauss, etc.). P. m. is not a certain: the highest kind of music, just as non-program music is not. These are equal, equally legitimate varieties. The difference between them does not preclude their connection; both genera are also associated with the wok. music. So, the opera and the oratorio were the cradle of program symphonism. opera overture was the prototype of the software symbol. poems; V operatic art there are also prerequisites for leitmotivism and monothematism, which are so widely used in P. m. In turn, non-program instr. the music is influenced by the wok. music and P. m. Found in P. m. new will express. possibilities become the property of non-program music as well. The general trends of the epoch affect the development of both classical music and non-program music.
The unity of music and program in the program Op. is not absolute, indissoluble. It happens that the program is not brought to the listener when performing op., that lit. product, to which the author of the music refers the listener, turns out to be unfamiliar to him. The more generalized form the composer chooses to embody his idea, the less damage to perception will be caused by such a "separation" of the music of the work from its program. Such a "separation" is always undesirable when it comes to the execution of modern. works. However, it may turn out to be natural when it comes to the performance of production. an earlier era, since program ideas may lose their relevance and significance over time. In these cases, the music prod. to a greater or lesser extent lose the features of programmability, turn into non-programmable ones. Thus, the line between P. m. and non-program music, in general, is completely clear, in the historical. aspect is conditional.
P. m. developed essentially throughout the history of prof. music lawsuit. The earliest of the reports found by researchers about software muses. op. refers to 586 BC. - this year, at the Pythian games in Delphi (Ancient Greece), the avletist Sakao performed a play by Timosthenes, depicting the battle of Apollo with the dragon. Many program works was created in later times. Among them are clavier sonatas " bible stories"by the Leipzig composer J. Kunau, harpsichord miniatures by F. Couperin and J. F. Rameau, clavier "Capriccio for the Departure of a Beloved Brother" by J. S. Bach. Programming is also presented in the work of the Viennese classics. Among them are works: triad program symphonies J. Haydn, characterizing decomp. times of the day (No 6, "Morning"; No 7, "Noon"; No 8, "Evening"), his own " farewell symphony"; "Pastoral Symphony" (No 6) by Beethoven, all parts of which are equipped with program subtitles and on the score there is a note important for understanding the type of programmaticity of the author of the op. - "More expression of feelings than image", his own the play "The Battle of Vittoria", originally intended for the mechanical musical instrument panharmonicon, but then performed in the orchestra version, and especially his overtures to the ballet "The Creations of Prometheus", to the tragedy "Coriolanus" by Collin, the overture "Leonora" No 1- 3, overture to the tragedy "Egmont" by Goethe. Written as introductions to drama or musical-drama works, they soon gained independence. Later program works were also often created as introductions to classical literary works However, with the passage of time, losing, however, its functions. The real flourishing of P. m. came in the era of musical romanticism. Compared with representatives of the classicist and even Enlightenment aesthetics, Romantic artists had a deeper understanding of the specifics of various arts. They saw that each of them reflects life in its own way, using means peculiar only to it and reflecting the same object, a phenomenon from a certain side accessible to it, which, consequently, each of them is somewhat limited and gives an incomplete picture of reality. This is what led the romantic artists to the idea of synthesis of art in order to more complete, multilateral display of the world. Muses. romantics proclaimed the slogan of the renewal of music through its connection with poetry, which was translated into many. music prod. Program Op. occupy important place in the works of F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (overture from music to Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", overtures "Hebrides", or "Fingal's Cave", "Sea Silence and Happy Swimming", "Beautiful Melusina", "Ruy Blas", etc. .), R. Schumann (overtures to Byron's Manfred, to scenes from Goethe's Faust, many piano pieces and cycles of plays, etc.). P. m. acquires especially great importance in G. Berlioz (Fantastic Symphony, symphony Harold in Italy, dramatic symphony Romeo and Juliet, Funeral and Triumphal Symphony, overtures Waverly, Secret Judges) , "King Lear", "Rob Roy", etc.) and F. Liszt (symphony "Faust" and symphony to the "Divine Comedy" by Dante, 13 symphonic poems, many piano pieces and cycles of plays). In subsequent times, an important contribution to the development of P. m. poems "Waterman", "Golden Spinning Wheel", "Forest Dove", etc., overtures - Hussite, "Othello", etc.) and R. Strauss (symphonic poems "Don Juan", "Death and Enlightenment", "Macbeth ", "Til Ulenspiegel", "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", fantastic variations on the knightly theme "Don Quixote", "Home Symphony", etc.). Program Op. also created by C. Debussy (orc. prelude "Afternoon of a Faun", symphonic cycles "Nocturnes", "Sea", etc.), M. Reger (4 symphonic poems according to Böcklin), A. Honegger (symphonic poem " Song of Nigamon", symphony of the movement "Pacific 231", "Rugby", etc.), P. Hindemith (symphonies "Artist Mathis", "Harmony of the World", etc.).
Programming has received rich development in Russian. music. For Russian nat. music schools appeal to software dictated aesthetic. the attitudes of its leading representatives, their desire for democracy, the general intelligibility of their works, as well as the "objective" nature of their work. From writings, osn. on song themes and, therefore, containing elements of the synthesis of music and words, since the listener, when perceiving them, correlates texts of correspondences with music. songs ("Kamarinskaya" by Glinka), Russian. composers soon came to the actual musical composition. A number of outstanding program op. created members" mighty handful"- M. A. Balakirev (symphonic poem "Tamara"), M. P. Mussorgsky ("Pictures at an Exhibition" for piano), N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov (symphonic painting "Sadko", symphony "Antar "). A considerable number of program works belong to P. I. Tchaikovsky (1st symphony "Winter Dreams", symphony "Manfred", fantasy overture "Romeo and Juliet", symphonic poem "Francesca da Rimini", etc.) Bright program works were also written by A. K. Glazunov (the symphonic poem "Stenka Razin"), A. K. Lyadov (the symphonic paintings "Baba Yaga", "Magic Lake" and "Kikimora"), Vas. S. Kalinnikov (symphonic painting "Cedar and Palm Tree"), S. V. Rachmaninov (symphonic fantasy "Cliff", symphonic poem "Isle of the Dead"), A. N. Scriabin (symphonic "Poem of Ecstasy", "Poem fire" ("Prometheus"), pl. fp. plays).
Programming is also widely represented in the work of owls. composers, incl. S. S. Prokofiev ("Scythian Suite" for orchestra, symphonic sketch "Autumn", symphonic painting "Dreams", piano pieces), N. Ya. Myaskovsky (symphonic poems "Silence" and "Alastor", symphonies No 10, 12, 16, etc.), D. D. Shostakovich (symphonies No 2, 3 ("May Day"), 11 ("1905"), 12 ("1917"), etc.). Program Op. are also created by representatives of younger generations of owls. composers.
Programming is characteristic not only of professional, but also of Nar. music claim. Among the peoples, muses. cultures to-rykh include developed instr. music-making, it is associated not only with the performance and variation of song melodies, but also with the creation of compositions independent of song art, b.ch. software. So, program op. make up a significant part of Kazakh. (Kui) and Kirg. (kyu) instr. plays. Each of these pieces, performed by a soloist-instrumentalist (Kazakhs - kuishi) on one of the bunks. instruments (dombra, kobyz or sybyzga among the Kazakhs, komuz, etc. among the Kyrgyz), has a program name; pl. of these plays have become traditional, like songs being passed on in different languages. variants from generation to generation.
An important contribution to the coverage of the phenomenon of programming was made by the composers themselves who worked in this area - F. Liszt, G. Berlioz and others. musicology not only did not advance in understanding the phenomenon of P. m., but rather moved away from it. It is significant, for example, that the authors of articles on P. m., placed in the largest Western European. music encyclopedias and should generalize the experience of studying the problem, give very vague definitions to the phenomenon of programmability (see Groves Dictionary of music and musicians, v. 6, L.-N. Y., 1954; Riemann Musiklexikon, Sachteil, Mainz, 1967), sometimes even refuse c.-l. definitions (Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik, Bd 10, Kassel u. a., 1962).
In Russia, the study of the problem of programming began in the period of activity of the Rus. classical music schools, representatives of which left important statements on this issue. Attention to the problem of programming was especially intensified in Sov. time. In the 1950s on the pages of the magazine. " Soviet music" and gas. "Soviet Art" held a special discussion on the issue of musical programming. This discussion also revealed differences in the understanding of the phenomenon of P. m. , about programmability "declared" and "unannounced", about programmability "for oneself" (the composer) and for listeners, about programmability "conscious" and "unconscious", about programmability in non-program music, etc. The essence of all these statements boils down to the recognition of the possibility A musical composition without a program attached to the composition by the composer himself Such a point of view inevitably leads to the identification of programmability with content, to the declaration of all music as programmatic, to the justification of "guessing" unannounced programs, i.e., an arbitrary interpretation of the composer's intentions, against In the 1950s and 1960s, quite a few works appeared that made a definite contribution to the development of problems of programmability, in particular, to the area of delimitation of types of musical instruments.
Literature: Tchaikovsky P. I., Letters to H. R. von Meck of February 17 / March 1, 1878 and December 5/17, 1878, in the book: Tchaikovsky P. I., Correspondence with N. F. von Meck, vol. 1, M.-L., 1934, the same, Poln. coll. soch., vol. VII, M., 1961 p. 124-128, 513-514; his, O program music, M.-L., 1952; Cui Ts. A., Russian romance. Essay on its development, St. Petersburg, 1896, p. 5; Laroche, Something about program music, "The World of Art", 1900, v. 3, p. 87-98; his own, Translator's Preface to Hanslik's book "On Musically Beautiful", Sobr. music critical articles, vol. 1, M., 1913, p. 334-61; his, One of Hanslick's opponents, ibid., p. 362-85; Stasov V.V., Art in the 19th century, in the book: 19th century, St. Petersburg, 1901, the same, in his book: Izbr. soch., vol. 3, M., 1952; Yastrebtsev V.V., My memories of N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, vol. 1, P., 1917, L., 1959, p. 95; Shostakovich D., On genuine and imaginary programming, "SM", 1951, No 5; Bobrovsky V.P., Sonata form in Russian classical program music, M., 1953 (abstract of diss.); Sabinina M., What is program music?, "MZH", 1959, No 7; Aranovsky M., What is program music?, M., 1962; Tyulin Yu. N., About programmability in the works of Chopin, L., 1963, M., 1968; Khokhlov Yu., About musical programming, M., 1963; Auerbach L., Considering the problems of programming, "SM", 1965, No 11. See also lit. under the articles Musical Aesthetics, Music, Sound Painting, Monothematism, Symphonic Poem.
Program visual music
In a person's life, music can be both a friend, a comforter, and a dream. But some people (often unknowingly) assign her the role of a simple servant, not even suspecting that she is a goddess capable of elevating the human soul, touching good, noble strings in it.
Our great compatriot writer Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov expressed an important thought about music: “Music is impossible not to love. Where there is music, there is no evil.”
Even while listening to unfamiliar music, you suddenly realize that it is precisely your feelings and moods that are expressed in it: either sadness, or stormy joy, or such a shade of mood that cannot be defined in words ...
It turns out that another person, the composer, also experienced all these emotions, and then managed to express in the sounds of music a huge variety of feelings and moods that excited him. And it doesn't matter what century the composer lived in - in the 18th or 20th century, there are no boundaries for music: it passes from heart to heart. It is in this property of music - expressiveness - that lies its main force. Even a short song or a small instrumental piece can compete with a complex sonata or symphony in terms of power of expression. The reason for such an unusual phenomenon is that music, "speaking" in a simple musical language, is understandable and accessible to everyone, and musical language"sonata" or "symphony" requires the listener to prepare, musical culture. This training - knowledge about music, its language, its expressive and visual possibilities - are designed to give our classes in music.
You have already become acquainted with a large number of musical works. Many of them have names. “A well-chosen name enhances the impact of music and the most prosaic person will make you imagine something, focus on something”(R. Schumann).
If, for example, you open the "Children's Album" and read the title of the first play: "Morning Prayer", then immediately tune in to a certain tone, strict, bright and focused. The title helps the performer to reveal the nature of the music as closely as possible to the author's intention, and the listener to better perceive this intention.
All works that have titles, headings of individual parts, epigraphs or extended literary program are called software.
IN vocal works- songs, romances, vocal cycles, as well as in musical and theatrical genres - there is always a text and a clear program.
And if the music is instrumental, there is no text in it, then how best to understand it and perform it? This was taken care of by composers who gave names to their instrumental compositions, especially those in which the music depicts something or someone. So, now we are going to talk about programmatic visual music.
What an ocean of sounds surrounds us! The singing of birds and the rustling of trees, the sound of the wind and the rustle of rain, the peals of thunder, the roar of the waves ... Music can depict all these sound phenomena of nature, and we, the listeners, can imagine. How does music "depict" the sounds of nature?
One of the brightest and most majestic musical pictures has been created. In the fourth part of his Sixth (“Pastoral”) Symphony, the composer “painted” a picture of a summer thunderstorm with sounds (this part is called “Thunderstorm”). Listening to the mighty crescendo of the intensifying downpour, the frequent peals of thunder, the howling of the wind, depicted in music, we imagine a summer thunderstorm.
The symphonic painting "Three Miracles" depicts a sea storm (the second "miracle" is about thirty-three heroes). Pay attention to the author's definition - "picture". It is borrowed from visual arts- painting. In the music one can hear the menacing roar of the waves, howling and whistling of the wind.
One of the most favorite visual techniques in music is the imitation of the voices of birds. You will hear a witty "trio" of a nightingale, a cuckoo and a quail in the "Scene by the Stream" - the second part " Pastoral symphony» Beethoven.
Birds' voices are heard in the pieces for harpsichord "Call of the Birds" and "The Hen" by Jean-Philippe Rameau, "The Cuckoo" by Louis-Claude Daquin, in the piano piece "Song of the Lark" from the cycle "The Seasons" by Tchaikovsky, in the prologue of the opera "The Snow Maiden" by Rimsky -Korsakov and in many other works. So, imitation of the sounds and voices of nature is the most common method of visualization in music.
Another technique exists for depicting not the sounds of nature, but the movements of people, animals, birds. Let us turn again to the fairy tale "Peter and the Wolf". Drawing Bird, Cat, Duck and other characters in music, the composer depicted them characteristic movements, habits, so skillfully that you can personally imagine each of them in motion: a flying Bird, a crouching Cat, a jumping Wolf, etc.
The bird chirps cheerfully: "Everything around is calm." It sounds like a light, fluttering melody on high sounds, witty depicting bird chirping, fluttering Birds. It is performed by a woodwind instrument - a flute.
The melody of the Duck reflects her sluggishness, her gait waddling from side to side, and even her quacking seems to be heard. The melody becomes especially expressive in the performance of a soft-sounding, slightly "nasal" oboe.
The staccato sounds of the melody in a low register convey the soft, insinuating tread of the cunning Cat. The melody is performed by a woodwind instrument - a clarinet.
Here rhythm and tempo became the main visual means. After all, the movements of any living being occur in a certain rhythm and tempo, and they can be very accurately conveyed by music.
The nature of movements can be different: smooth, flying, sliding, or, conversely, sharp, clumsy ... Music sensitively responds to this. Smooth movements are reflected in a flexible melodic pattern, a legato stroke, and sharp movements are reflected in a “prickly”, angular melody pattern, a sharp staccato stroke.
The musical theme of Grandfather expressed his mood and character, speech features and even gait. Grandfather speaks in a bass voice, slowly and as if a little grumbling - this is how his melody sounds when performed by the lowest woodwind instrument - the bassoon.
Depicting the movements, gait of his characters, the composer reveals their character. So, musical portraits the boy Petya and Grandfather are “painted” by Prokofiev with bright, contrasting colors: both heroes of the fairy tale are depicted in motion, therefore their music is associated with the march genre. But how dissimilar are these two marches.
Petya walks briskly and fervently to the music of the march, as if singing a light, mischievous melody. The bright, cheerful theme embodies the resilient nature of the boy. Petya S. Prokofiev portrayed with the help of all string instruments- violins, violas, cellos and double basses.
Petya's theme, light, elastic in rhythm and mobile, looks like a perky song, and in Grandfather's theme, the features of the march appear more sharply: it is “hard”, sharp in rhythm, dynamics, and more restrained in tempo.
Vivid examples of this kind of figurativeness can be found in Mussorgsky's plays "The Dwarf", "The Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks", "The Hut on Chicken Legs" from the piano cycle "Pictures at an Exhibition".
French composers of the 18th century were the first to learn to "draw" musical portraits. François Couperin gave titles to many of his harpsichord pieces. The author wrote: "The plays with the title are a kind of portraits, which, in my performance, were found to be quite similar." Listening to the play "Sister Monique", it is not difficult to imagine her cheerful disposition.
In the play "Florentine" a swift Italian tarantella dance sounds, which becomes the main feature of her musical portrait. "Hints" for the listener were program headings "Gossip", "Mysterious" and others.
The tradition of painting musical portraits was continued in the 19th century by Schumann, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Lyadov...
Vividly and aphoristically "written" female portraits-characters in piano cycle Robert Schumann "Carnival" Let's compare two of them: Chiarina and Estrella. What do they have in common? First of all, romantic genre waltz - dance of the century. Its "flying" and grace perfectly match the female images, but at the same time the nature of the two waltzes is sharply different. Under the carnival mask of "Kiarina" appears a portrait of Clara Wieck, the wife of the composer, an outstanding pianist. The restrained and passionate theme of the waltz expresses sublime spirituality, poetry musical image. And here is another waltz - "Estrella", and before us is a "participant" of the carnival, completely unlike "Kiarina", - a temperamental, ardent girl. The music is full of external brilliance, bright emotionality.
Can music represent space? Is it possible, listening to her, to mentally see the endless plains, expanses of fields, boundless seas? It turns out you can. For example, the first movements of P. Tchaikovsky's First Symphony Dreams on a Winter Road. It begins barely audibly - as if dry snow rustled from the wind, frosty air rang. A moment... and a sad melody appeared. It gives the impression of a wide expanse, desert, loneliness.
The same impression of spaciousness, voluminous sound helps to create wide intervals that sound “transparent”, “empty”. These are fifths, octaves. Let's name the first movement of Shostakovich's Eleventh Symphony. The composer depicted the vast expanse of Palace Square, enclosed by the bulk of palaces. To do this, he chose simple and precise visual techniques: a sparse orchestral texture with an empty middle register and a transparent sonority of "empty" fifths in the extreme registers, a special timbre coloring of muted strings and a harp.
Big pictorial role music is played by the harmony and timbres of the instruments. We have just mentioned the peculiarity of the sound of the orchestra in Shostakovich's symphony.
Let's name some other works. Among them is the episode magical transformation swans into girls in the second scene of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "Sadko", the play "Morning" from the suite "Peer Gynt".
There are a lot of software works in music. We will meet with them more than once in our lessons.
Questions and tasks:
- What is program music?
- Why do composers give names to instrumental works?
- In what form can a generalized program be expressed?
- List all the programs you are familiar with.
Presentation
Included:
1. Presentation - 34 slides, ppsx;
2. Sounds of music:
Beethoven. Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral". II part. "Scene by the stream" (fragment), mp3;
Beethoven. Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral". IV part. "Thunderstorm" (fragment), mp3;
Daken. "Cuckoo" (2 versions: piano and ensemble), mp3;
Couperin. "Sister Monique" (harpsichord), mp3;
Couperin. "Florentine" (harpsichord), mp3;
Mussorgsky. "Ballet of Unhatched Chicks" from the series "Pictures at an Exhibition" (2 versions: Symphony Orchestra and piano), mp3;
Prokofiev. Fragments of the symphonic fairy tale "Peter and the Wolf":
Grandfather's theme, mp3;
Theme Cats, mp3;
Petya's theme, mp3;
Theme Birds, mp3;
Duck theme, mp3;
Rimsky-Korsakov. "33 Bogatyrs" from the opera "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", mp3;
Rimsky-Korsakov. "The transformation of swans into girls" from the opera "Sadko", mp3;
Chaikovsky. "Morning Prayer" from " children's album» (2 versions: symphony orchestra and piano), mp3;
Chaikovsky. Symphony No. 1. I movement. (fragment), mp3;
Shostakovich. Symphony No. 11. I movement. (fragment), mp3;
Schumann. "Kiarina" from the Carnival cycle (piano), mp3;
Schumann. "Estrella" from the cycle "Carnival" (piano), mp3;
3. Accompanying article, docx.
What do you think is different piano concert Tchaikovsky from his own symphonic fantasy "Francesca da Rimini"? Of course, you will say that in the concerto the piano is the soloist, but in fantasy it is not at all. Perhaps you already know that a concerto is a work of many parts, as musicians say, it is cyclic, and in fantasy there is only one part. But now we are not interested in this. You are listening to a piano or violin concerto, a Mozart symphony or a Beethoven sonata. While enjoying beautiful music, you can follow its development, how different musical themes replace one another, how they change, develop. Or you can reproduce in your imagination some pictures, images that sound music evokes. At the same time, your fantasies will certainly be different from what another person who listens to music with you imagines. Of course, it does not happen that you feel the noise of battle in the sounds of music, and someone else - an affectionate lullaby. But stormy, formidable music can evoke associations with the rampant elements, and with a storm of feelings in a person’s soul, and with a formidable roar of battle...
And in Francesca da Rimini, Tchaikovsky, by the very title, indicated exactly what his music depicts: one of the episodes of Dante's Divine Comedy. This episode tells how among the hellish whirlwinds, in the underworld, the souls of sinners rush about. Dante, who descended into hell, accompanied by the shadow of the ancient Roman poet Virgil, meets among these spirits carried by a whirlwind the beautiful Francesca, who tells him the sad story of her unhappy love. The music of the extreme sections of Tchaikovsky's fantasy draws hellish whirlwinds, the middle section of the work is Francesca's sorrowful story.
There are many pieces of music in which the composer in one form or another explains their content to the listeners. So, Tchaikovsky called his first symphony "Winter Dreams". He prefaced the first part of it with the heading "Dreams on a winter road", and the second - "A gloomy land, a foggy land".
Berlioz, in addition to the subtitle "An Episode from the Life of an Artist", which he gave to his Fantastic Symphony, also set out in great detail the content of each of its five parts. This story is reminiscent of a romantic novel.
Both Francesca da Rimini, Tchaikovsky's Winter Dreams symphony, and Berlioz's Fantastic Symphony are examples of so-called program music. You probably already understood that program music is called such instrumental music, which is based on a "program", that is, some very specific plot or image.
Programs are of different types. Sometimes the composer retells in detail the content of each episode of his work. So, for example, did Rimsky-Korsakov in his symphonic picture "Sadko" or Lyadov in "Kikimor". It happens that, referring to well-known literary works, the composer considers it sufficient only to indicate this literary source: it means that all listeners know him well. This is done in Liszt's Faust Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, and many other works.
There is also a different type of programming in music, the so-called pictorial, when plot outline is absent, and the music draws one image, a picture or a landscape. Such are Debussy's symphonic sketches of The Sea. There are three of them: "From dawn to noon at sea", "The play of the waves", "The conversation of the wind with the sea". And “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Mussorgsky are called so because in them the composer conveyed his impression of some of the paintings by the artist Hartmann. If you haven't heard this music yet, try to get to know it by all means. Among the pictures that inspired the composer are “Gnome”, “Old Castle”, “Ballet of Unhatched Chicks”, “Hut on Chicken Legs”, “Bogatyr Gates in ancient Kyiv"and other characteristic and talented sketches.
L. V. Mikheeva
I don’t know if you have noticed that when you listen to music, its sounds resonate inside us not only with feelings and thoughts, but also with visual pictures. And although everyone does this in their own way, similar ideas often arise.
The fact is that music has the ability to express certain moods of people and depict many actions, phenomena of the world around us: the singing of birds, the movement of waves, the ticking of clocks, echoes, the sound of wheels, raindrops, etc., etc. Therefore, more in antiquity, and in modern times - from the beginning of the 18th century - works appeared that were titled by those images and plots that the composer represented when composing music. Such essays are called programs. Composers, performers, and listeners love program music; there are a great many such works.
Just don't think that program music is more meaningful and accessible than non-program music. A composer cannot compose with only notes in mind. His thoughts, feelings, imagination are quite specific images. Another thing is that instrumental music, without lyrics, is always mysterious in some way. No one, not even the composer himself, can express its content in detail in words. And thank God. Otherwise it would cease to be music. "Music begins where words end," said Robert Schumann. Therefore, even when listening to program music, do not try at all costs to present exactly what is in the title. Trust your own feelings and associations more. It may seem paradoxical, but in many cases, and even in most cases, the composer first writes the music, and only then comes up with a program name for it.
M. G. Rytsareva
