The direction of creativity Dargomyzhsky. Composer A

Where do children get the opportunity creative development. And who is Dargomyzhsky and how he is connected with the Vyazemsky land, you can find out by getting acquainted with his biography.

Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky (1813-1869)- Russian composer, who left a significant mark on the development of music, creating one of the new directions - realistic. Dargomyzhsky Alexander Sergeevich once wrote in an autobiographical letter: “I want the sound to directly express the word. I want the truth” and he did it very well, because it was not for nothing that Mussorgsky called him “teacher of musical truth”.

Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky short biography

Begins life path Dargomyzhsky and his short biography from birth. This happened in February 1913. That's when the world saw a little boy who was born into a noble family, and they named him Alexander, glorious biography which began in the Trinity village of the Tula region. As soon as Napoleon's troops were expelled from the territory of Russia, the Dargomyzhskys settled in the estate, which was inherited by Dargomyzhsky's mother, in the Tverdunovo estate, in the Vyazemsky district. The first four years of the future composer passed there, after which the whole family moved to St. Petersburg. There Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky is engaged in musical education. He learns to play the violin, piano, learns to sing, tried his hand at writing his first romances, pieces for the piano.

Among his acquaintances, there were many writers, among whom were Lev Pushkin, Zhukovsky Vasily, Pyotr Vyazemsky. Big role in the fate of Dargomyzhsky played a meeting and acquaintance with Glinka.

Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky created music and his first major work was work on the opera Esmeralda, which was not immediately put on stage, but when the author achieved its release, after the premiere, she quickly left the stage and was rarely staged. Such a failure with pain and worries was reflected in state of mind Dargomyzhsky, but he continues to create and writes a number of romances.

Mermaid creation story

Composer Dargomyzhsky goes abroad, so to speak, for inspiration. There he met musicologists, world composers, and upon returning to his homeland, Alexander became interested in folklore, whose echoes can be traced in many of his works, including his famous work, which brought great popularity to the author. And this is the work of Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky "Mermaid" on the plot of Pushkin's tragedy "Mermaid". If we talk about the work of Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky "Mermaid" and its history of creation, it is worth saying that it took about seven years to write the composer's work. He began to write it in 1848, and completed the work in 1855.

The next opera that Dargomyzhsky conceived was The Stone Guest, but it is being written slowly due to the author's creative crisis, which was caused by the exit from the theater repertoire of his work "Mermaid". Again Dargomyzhsky goes abroad for inspiration. Upon arrival, he again takes on the "Stone Guest", but could not complete it.

Opera by A.S.Dargomyzhsky Mermaid

Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky music

Dargomyzhsky - Melnik, sheet music

Melancholic waltz A. Dargomyzhsky

In 1869 Dargomyzhsky leaves our world. He was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery in the Necropolis of Masters of Arts.

Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky interesting facts from life

Studying the biography of Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky, one can note the following interesting fact his life, as the completion of the opera "The Stone Guest", which was completed by Caesar Cui.
After himself, Dargomyzhsky left a lot of works, and these are operas, and chamber vocal works, and songs of social content, and romances, and works for the piano.

During his life, Dargomyzhsky never met the one with whom he would start a family and raise children. In Vyazma, next to the art school, A.S. A monument was erected to Dargomyzhsky, and recently appeared.

Well, we invite you to get to know the composer better. After looking at the photo of Alexander Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky, you can also touch the work of Alexander Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky, listening to his works.

Dargomyzhsky was born on February 2 (14), 1813 in the village of Troitskoye, Tula province. His father, Sergei Nikolaevich, was illegitimate son rich nobleman Vasily Alekseevich Ladyzhensky. Mother, nee Princess Maria Borisovna Kozlovskaya, married against the will of her parents; According to the musicologist M.S. Pekelis, Princess M.B. Kozlovskaya inherited from her father the Tverdunovo family estate, now the Vyazemsky district of the Smolensk region, where the Dargomyzhsky family returned from the Tula province after the expulsion of the Napoleonic army in 1813. Alexander Dargomyzhsky spent the first 3 years of his life in his parental estate Tverdunovo. Subsequently, he repeatedly came to this Smolensk estate: in the late 1840s - mid-1850s, while working at the Mermaid opera, to collect Smolensk folklore, in June 1861 to free their peasants from serfdom in the village of Tverdunovo.

French Nikolai Stepanov

Until the age of five, the boy did not speak, his late-formed voice remained forever high and slightly hoarse, which did not prevent him, however, from subsequently touching him to tears with the expressiveness and artistry of his vocal performance. In 1817, the family moved to St. Petersburg, where Dargomyzhsky's father got a position as the head of the office in a commercial bank, and he himself began to receive musical education. His first piano teacher was Louise Wolgeborn, then he began studying with Adrian Danilevsky. That one was good pianist, however, did not share the interest of the young Dargomyzhsky in composing music (his small piano pieces this period). Finally, during three years Dargomyzhsky's teacher was Franz Schoberlechner, a student famous composer Johann Hummel. Having achieved a certain skill, Dargomyzhsky began to perform as a pianist at charity concerts and in private collections. At this time, he also studied with the famous singing teacher Benedikt Zeibig, and from 1822 he mastered playing the violin, played in quartets, but soon lost interest in this instrument. By that time, he had already written a number of piano compositions, romances and other works, some of which were published.

In the autumn of 1827, Dargomyzhsky, following in his father's footsteps, entered the public service and thanks to diligence and a conscientious attitude to business, he quickly began to move forward career ladder. During this period, he often played music at home and visited Opera theatre, whose repertoire was based on compositions Italian composers. In the spring of 1835, he met Mikhail Glinka, with whom he played the piano four hands, analyzed the work of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Glinka also gave Dargomyzhsky notes of the music theory lessons he received in Berlin from Siegfried Dehn. Having visited the rehearsals of Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar, which was being prepared for production, Dargomyzhsky decided to write a major stage work on his own. The choice of plot fell on Victor Hugo's drama Lucrezia Borgia, but the creation of the opera progressed slowly, and in 1837, on the advice of Vasily Zhukovsky, the composer turned to another work by the same author, which was very popular in Russia in the late 1830s - " Cathedral Notre Dame of Paris". Dargomyzhsky used an original French libretto written by Hugo himself for Louise Bertin, whose opera Esmeralda had been staged shortly before. By 1841, Dargomyzhsky completed the orchestration and translation of the opera, for which he also took the name Esmeralda, and handed over the score to the directorate of the Imperial Theaters. An opera written in the spirit French composers, has been waiting for its premiere for several years, since Italian productions were much more popular with the public. Despite the good dramatic and musical decision of Esmeralda, this opera left the stage some time after the premiere and was practically never staged in the future. In his autobiography, published in the newspaper Music and Theatre, published by A. N. Serov in 1867, Dargomyzhsky wrote:

Dargomyzhsky's worries about the failure of Esmeralda were aggravated by the growing popularity of Glinka's works. The composer begins to give singing lessons (his students were exclusively women, while he did not charge them) and writes a number of romances for voice and piano, some of which were published and became very popular, for example “The fire of desire burns in the blood ...”, “I am in love, beauty maiden…”, “Lileta”, “Night marshmallow”, “Sixteen years old” and others.

In 1843, Dargomyzhsky retired, and soon went abroad, where he spent several months in Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Vienna. He meets the musicologist François-Joseph Fethi, the violinist Henri Vieuxtan and the leading European composers of the time: Aubert, Donizetti, Halévy, Meyerbeer. Returning to Russia in 1845, the composer is fond of studying Russian musical folklore, elements of which were clearly manifested in the romances and songs written during this period: “Darling Maiden”, “Fever”, “The Miller”, as well as in the opera “Mermaid”, which the composer began to write in 1848.

"Mermaid" occupies a special place in the composer's work. Written for the plot tragedy of the same name in the verses of A. S. Pushkin, it was created in the period 1848-1855. Dargomyzhsky himself adapted Pushkin's poems into a libretto and composed the ending of the plot (Pushkin's work was not completed). The premiere of "Mermaid" took place on May 4 (16), 1856 in St. Petersburg. Biggest Russian musical critic At that time, Alexander Serov responded to it with a large-scale positive review in the Theater Musical Bulletin (its volume was so large that it was published in parts in several issues), which helped this opera to stay in the repertoire of the leading theaters of Russia for some time and added creative confidence Dargomyzhsky himself.

After some time, Dargomyzhsky becomes close to the democratic circle of writers, takes part in the publication of the satirical magazine Iskra, writes several songs to the verses of one of its main participants, the poet Vasily Kurochkin.

In 1859, Dargomyzhsky was elected to the leadership of the newly founded Russian Musical Society, he met a group of young composers, central figure among which was Mily Balakirev (this group would later become the "Mighty Handful"). Dargomyzhsky plans to write a new opera, but in search of a plot, he first rejects Pushkin's Poltava, and then the Russian legend about Rogdan. The choice of the composer stops at the third of Pushkin's "Little Tragedies" - "The Stone Guest". Work on the opera, however, is proceeding rather slowly due to the creative crisis that began at Dargomyzhsky, associated with the exit from the repertoire of the Mermaid theaters and the neglect of younger musicians. The composer again travels to Europe, visits Warsaw, Leipzig, Paris, London and Brussels, where his orchestral piece The Cossack, as well as fragments from The Mermaid, are successfully performed. Approvingly speaks about the work of Dargomyzhsky Franz Liszt.

Returning to Russia, inspired by the success of his works abroad, Dargomyzhsky, with renewed vigor, takes on the composition of The Stone Guest. The language he chose for this opera - built almost entirely on melodic recitatives with simple chordal accompaniment - interested the composers " mighty handful”, and especially Caesar Cui, who at that time was looking for ways to reform the Russian operatic art. However, the appointment of Dargomyzhsky to the post of head of the Russian Musical Society and the failure of the opera The Triumph of Bacchus, which he wrote back in 1848 and had not seen the stage for almost twenty years, weakened the composer's health, and on January 5 (17), 1869, he died, leaving the opera unfinished. According to his will, The Stone Guest was completed by Cui and orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Dargomyzhsky's innovation was not shared by his younger colleagues, and was condescendingly considered oversights. The harmonic dictionary of the style of the late Dargomyzhsky, the individualized structure of consonances, their typical characteristic were, as in ancient fresco, recorded with later layers, beyond recognition "ennobled" by Rimsky-Korsakov's editorial, brought into line with the requirements of his taste, like Mussorgsky's operas "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina", also radically edited by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Dargomyzhsky was buried in the Necropolis of Masters of Arts in the Tikhvin cemetery, not far from Glinka's grave.

Addresses in St. Petersburg

• autumn 1832-1836 - Mamontov's house, Gryaznaya street, 14.
• 1836-1840 - Koenig's house, 8th line, 1.
• 1843 - September 1844 - tenement house A. K. Esakova, Mokhovaya street, 30.
• April 1845 - January 5, 1869 - profitable house of A. K. Esakovoy, Mokhovaya street, 30, apt. 7.

Creation

During for long years Dargomyzhsky's name was associated exclusively with the opera The Stone Guest as a work that had a great influence on the development of Russian opera. The opera was written in an innovative style for those times: it contains neither arias nor ensembles (apart from two small inserted romances by Laura), it is entirely built on "melodic recitatives" and recitations set to music. As the goal of choosing such a language, Dargomyzhsky set not only the reflection of the "dramatic truth", but also the artistic reproduction of human speech with the help of music with all its shades and twists. Later, the principles of Dargomyzhsky's opera art were embodied in M. P. Mussorgsky's operas - "Boris Godunov" and especially vividly in "Khovanshchina". Mussorgsky himself respected Dargomyzhsky and, in the dedications of several of his romances, called him a "teacher of musical truth."

Another opera by Dargomyzhsky - "Mermaid" - also became a significant phenomenon in the history of Russian music - this is the first Russian opera in the genre of everyday psychological drama. In it, the author embodied one of the many versions of the legend about a deceived girl, turned into a mermaid and taking revenge on her offender.

Two operas regarding early period Dargomyzhsky's works - "Esmeralda" and "The Triumph of Bacchus" - were waiting for their first production for many years and were not very popular with the public.

Dargomyzhsky's chamber-vocal compositions enjoy great success. His early romances are sustained in a lyrical spirit, composed in the 1840s - they are influenced by Russian musical folklore (later this style will be used in the romances of P. I. Tchaikovsky), and finally, the later ones are filled with deep drama, passion, truthfulness of expression, being such way, harbingers vocal works M. P. Mussorgsky. In a number of works, the composer's comic talent was clearly manifested: "Worm", "Titular Advisor", etc.

Dargomyzhsky wrote four compositions for the orchestra: "Bolero" (late 1830s), "Baba Yaga", "Cossack" and "Chukhonskaya Fantasy" (all - early 1860s). Despite the originality of the orchestral writing and good orchestration, they are rarely performed. These works are a continuation of the traditions symphonic music Glinka and one of the foundations of the rich heritage of Russian orchestral music, created by composers of a later time.

In the 20th century, interest in Dargomyzhsky's music revived: his operas were staged in the leading theaters of the USSR, orchestral compositions were included in the Anthology of Russian Symphonic Music, recorded by E.F. Svetlanov, and romances became an integral part of the singers' repertoire. Among the musicologists who made the greatest contribution to the study of Dargomyzhsky's work, the most famous are A. N. Drozdov and M. S. Pekelis, the author of many works dedicated to the composer.

Compositions

• "Esmeralda". Opera in four acts to own libretto based on Victor Hugo's novel Notre Dame de Paris. Written in 1838-1841. First production: Moscow, Bolshoi Theatre, December 5 (17), 1847.
• "The Triumph of Bacchus". Opera-ballet based on the poem of the same name by Pushkin. Written in 1843-1848. First production: Moscow, Bolshoi Theatre, January 11 (23), 1867.
• "Mermaid". Opera in four acts to its own libretto based on the unfinished play of the same name by Pushkin. Written in 1848-1855. First production: St. Petersburg, May 4 (16), 1856.
• "Mazepa". Sketches, 1860.
• "Rogdan". Fragments, 1860-1867.
• "Stone Guest" Opera in three steps on the text of Pushkin's Little Tragedy of the same name. Written in 1866-1869, completed by Ts. A. Cui, orchestrated by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. First production: St. Petersburg, Mariinsky Theatre, February 16 (28), 1872.

• "Bolero". Late 1830s.
• "Baba Yaga" ("From the Volga to Riga"). Finished in 1862, first performed in 1870.
• "Cossack". Fantasy. 1864
• "Chukhon fantasy". Written in 1863-1867, first performed in 1869.

• Songs and romances for two voices and piano based on verses by Russian and foreign poets, including "Petersburg Serenades", as well as fragments of unfinished operas "Mazepa" and "Rogdana".
• Songs and romances for one voice and piano on the verses of Russian and foreign poets: "Old Corporal" (words by V. Kurochkin), "Paladin" (words by L. Uland, translated by V. Zhukovsky, "Worm" (words by P. Beranger, translated V. Kurochkina), “Titular Advisor” (words by P. Weinberg), “I loved you…” (words by A. S. Pushkin), “I’m sad” (words by M. Yu. Lermontov), ​​“I have passed sixteen years old” (words by A. Delvig) and others to the words of Koltsov, Kurochkin, Pushkin, Lermontov and other poets, including two inserted romances by Laura from the opera The Stone Guest.

• Five Pieces (1820s): March, Counterdance, "Melancholic Waltz", Waltz, "Cossack".
• "Brilliant Waltz" About 1830.
• Variations on a Russian Theme. Early 1830s.
• Esmeralda's Dreams. Fantasy. 1838.
• Two mazurkas. Late 1830s.
• Polka. 1844
• Scherzo. 1844
• "Tobacco Waltz". 1845
• "Eagerness and composure." Scherzo. 1847.
• "Song Without Words" (1851)
• Fantasy on themes from Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar (mid-1850s)
• Slavic tarantella (four hands, 1865)
• Arrangements of symphonic fragments from the opera "Esmeralda", etc.

tribute

• Monument on the grave of A. S. Dargomyzhsky, installed in 1961 in the Necropolis of Masters of Arts on the territory of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg. Sculptor A. I. Khaustov.
• Located in Tula School of Music bears the name of A. S. Dargomyzhsky.
• In the composer's homeland, not far from the village of Arsenyevo, Tula region, his bronze bust was erected on a marble column (sculptor V. M. Klykov, architect V. I. Snegirev). This is the only monument to Dargomyzhsky in the world.
• The composer's museum is located in Arseniev.
• A street in Lipetsk, Kramatorsk, Kharkov is named after Dargomyzhsky, Nizhny Novgorod and Alma-Ata.
• A memorial plaque has been installed at 30 Mokhovaya Street in St. Petersburg.
• The name of A. S. Dargomyzhsky is the Children's School of Arts in Vyazma. There is a memorial plaque on the facade of the school.
• Personal belongings of A. S. Dargomyzhsky are stored in the Vyazemsky Museum of Local History.
• The name "Composer Dargomyzhsky" was named the ship, the same type as the "Composer Kara Karaev".
• Released in 1963 Postage Stamp USSR dedicated to Dargomyzhsky.
• In 2003 in the former family estate A.S.Dargomyzhsky - Tverdunovo, now a tract in the Vyazemsky district of the Smolensk region, was established in his honor commemorative sign.
• By the decision of the Smolensk Regional Executive Committee No. 358 of June 11, 1974, the village of Tverdunovo in the Isakovo village council of the Vyazemsky district was declared a monument of history and culture of regional significance, as the place where the composer A.S. Dargomyzhsky spent his childhood.
• In the village of Isakovo, Vyazemsky district, Smolensk region, a street was named after A.S. Dargomyzhsky.
• On the highway Vyazma - Temkino, in front of the village of Isakovo, in 2007 a road sign was installed showing the road to former estate A.S.Dargomyzhsky - Tverdunovo.

(1813-1869) Russian composer

A contemporary of Pushkin and Lermontov, a friend of Glinka and Varlamov, a senior colleague of Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Dargomyzhsky was a brilliant pianist and violinist, in Hard times worked as a singing teacher, collaborated with the Iskra magazine, and was chairman of the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Musical Society. But for us, he is primarily a composer, one of the founders of classical Russian music.

A. Dargomyzhsky was born in a difficult time for Russia: Patriotic War 1812. Their family then lived in the Tula province with relatives. Returning home, Dargomyzhsky's father threw himself into business. In May 1816, a commission was set up to investigate abuses in the distribution of government benefits for the devastated Smolensk province. Participation in this commission brought S. Dargomyzhsky not only the respect and gratitude of fellow countrymen, but also the rank of collegiate secretary and the Order of St. Anna of the third degree. This was followed by an invitation to serve in St. Petersburg - in the State Commercial Bank. In a new place, Sergei Nikolayevich advanced to the rank of court adviser, but in 1826 he was fired without any explanation. After a long red tape, he got a job as an official in special assignments under the Ministry of the Imperial Court.

A modest salary, of course, was not enough to support big family and educating children, but helped by income from the estates of his wife and her brother. Dargomyzhsky's mother came from a family of princes Kozlovsky. It was clever woman endowed with a lively and cheerful character, kind and loving heart. She received the usual home education for that time, had a penchant for literature, composed poems that were even published in magazines and almanacs (one of them was placed in A. Delvig's almanac "Northern Flowers" in 1825).

Parents zealously cared about the fate of their children and sought to give them a versatile education. On the recommendation of friends, they were invited to the house the best teachers, and the father never spared money for this. great attention in the Dargomyzhsky family they devoted themselves to music. My brother played the violin, my sister played the harp. In 1819 Sasha was taught to play the piano. Noticing the child's inclination towards music, the parents invited a more experienced teacher.

In addition to the fact that the children of the Dargomyzhskys studied literature, history, and foreign languages, their parents encouraged them to compose poetry and translate from French. Children's literary albums were full of fables, parables, epigrams. Mother wrote small plays, which were played by the whole family.

For three years, from 1828 to 1831, Sasha studied with the Austrian musician Schoberlechner. Already in the thirties, Dargomyzhsky was considered a very strong pianist in St. Petersburg. Although the father, not without reason, feared that music lessons son, even the most successful, will not be able to provide him financially. Therefore, he began to worry early about his service career.

When Alexander was fourteen years old, he was appointed to the public service. In September 1827, the young official began his duties in the office, at first without a monetary reward - they began to pay him only two years later. True, this service was not too burdensome for Dargomyzhsky. He served under the command of his father's good friends, besides, they were great music lovers and did not interfere with Alexander's art. The track records noted the zeal of the young clerk, and he was regularly promoted: in 1829 Dargomyzhsky became a collegiate registrar, three years later - provincial secretary, and then - junior assistant controller. After that, he moved to the department of the Ministry of Finance - a clerical officer of the State Treasury. He finished his service in 1843, having retired with the rank of titular adviser.

In the thirties, disaster struck in the Dargomyzhsky family: two sons and a son-in-law died, a few years later a daughter and her child died. Because of these sad events, the Dargomyzhskys almost did not accept anyone, and therefore the grown-up Alexander, accustomed to home concerts from childhood, often visited literary and musical salons of his acquaintances. Watching with interest metropolitan life, young Dargomyzhsky was getting closer and closer to the circle creative intelligentsia Petersburg. He visited the houses of the poet I. Kozlov, V. Odoevsky, visited literary salon writer and historian N.M. Karamzin, where brilliant meetings were led by his widow and daughters. Here he played the piano and sang his romances with Karamzin's daughter, accompanied. It is believed that here he could also meet Lermontov, whose poems he loved very much. huge role in creative life Dargomyzhsky played a long-term friendship with M.I. Glinka.

Long conversations with Glinka and other composers strengthened Dargomyzhsky in his decision to write onera, and he set to work. He wrote his first opera Esmeralda for about four years and completed work on it in 1842, but it was staged in Moscow in Bolshoi Theater only five years later. I must say that the composer himself was not very pleased with his music.

In 1844 Dargomyzhsky went abroad for the first time. He visited Berlin, then went to Brussels, to Paris, played excerpts from his opera, romances, piano works. Returning to his homeland, the musician again plunged into work. At this time he wrote many romances, gave charity concerts in memory of his friend, composer A. Varlamov, to support his family. But the main thing for him was work on the new opera "Mermaid". In 1855, Dargomyzhsky finished writing the opera, and on May 4, 1856, it premiered. However, this time the composer was dissatisfied with the staging of his work, the sound of the orchestra.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he began to contribute to the democratic magazine Iskra. He showed the gift of a satirist, and he mostly wrote feuilletons in collaboration with one of the journalists. During these years, Dargomyzhsky decided to write satirical novel"Confessions of a Liberal". However, this work remained unfinished, only the opening page of the novel is known.

In 1864, another misfortune happened: Dargomyzhsky's father, his support and chief adviser, died. Not having own family, the composer lived all his life side by side with his father, whom he loved and respected very much. The father conducted the economic and financial affairs of his son, he was also responsible for managing the estate of his late wife, from where the family received the main means of subsistence.

In the last years of his life, the composer worked hard on the opera The Stone Guest, completely preserving the text of A.S. Pushkin. But he already felt unwell and more than once told his friends that he would like to transfer The Stone Guest for completion and staging to Caesar Antonovich Cui. He asked Rimsky-Korsakov to instrument the opera.

Soberly assessing the patient's condition, the friends still did not lose hope that Dargomyzhsky would have time to complete the work. At some moments he felt better, and then in the composer's apartment they again played and sang, and not only the works of the owner of the house. So, in November 1868, Mussorgsky introduced his friends to fragments from new opera"Boris Godunov", which Dargomyzhsky accepted with keen interest and said that Mussorgsky in this opera goes much further than him. He especially liked the scenes at the Novodevichy Convent and in the tavern.

Temporary improvement, however, was soon replaced by a new onset of illness, which eventually bedridden the composer. Now he wrote lying down, barely holding a naughty pencil with weak hands, suffering from unbearable pain in his chest: as he himself said, every breath "cut with a knife." And yet he continued to write, in a hurry to finish his last work.

The composer died at the very beginning of 1869. On January 9, a memorial service was held at the Semyonovskaya Church on Mokhovaya Street, which brought together the entire musical Petersburg: composers, Dargomyzhsky's colleagues in the Russian Musical Society, his students - students of the conservatory, friends, artists and simply admirers of the composer's talent. Dargomyzhsky was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Fulfilling his will, the composers C. Cui and N. Rimsky-Korsakov completed his opera The Stone Guest in September 1869. Then Cui proposed to the directorate of the Mariinsky Theater that the opera be staged with the line-up of performers that the author himself wanted to see. This opera has become the pinnacle of the talented composer's work, it clearly shows the author's desire to create a strong fusion of music and text, to look for new operatic forms, and above all a special, melodic recitative.

Evaluating all work last year life of Dargomyzhsky, the Russian music critic Stasov wrote: “This victory of the spirit over the body, this triumph of the spirit over the most unbearable suffering, this boundless devotion to the cause, with which the soul alone is full, is this not greatness! Indeed, such colossal creations as the “Stone Guest” can only come from the head of someone for whom the creation of his creative spirit is everything, all life, all love, all his existence.

Since then, the music of Dargomyzhsky, whom Mussorgsky called "the great teacher of musical truth," has been one of the best pages Russian classical culture.

Alexander Dargomyzhsky had a huge impact on the development of Russian musical art. Sitting down at the piano, this man was completely transformed. He delighted everyone with his passion for music and easy playing, although in Everyday life he did not make a strong impression on people.

Music is exactly the area where he revealed his talent, and then gave the world great works.

Childhood

Alexander was born in the village of Troitskaya in 1813 on 2/14.02. His family was large, in addition to him there were five more children. Up to five years little Sasha didn't talk. His voice developed late. For the rest of his life, he remained tall with a slight hoarseness, which was not considered a disadvantage, but helped him touch the hearts of listeners while singing.

In 1817 the Dargomyzhskys moved to Petersburg. His father got a position in the office there. And Alexander begins his musical education. Then he sat down at the piano for the first time. Passion to various types the arts were instilled in him at home. His mother, Maria Borisovna, was in close contact with literature. The atmosphere in the house was conducive to creativity. In the evenings, the children put on performances, and in the daytime they were engaged in humanitarian subjects: both poetry and foreign languages, and history.

His first music teacher was Louise Wolgenborn. After studying with him for two years, she gave him little knowledge in this field. Therefore, the teacher had to change. Since 1821, Alexander began classes with A.T. Danilevsky, already famous person V musical circles. After several sessions with him, Dargomyzhsky is making progress. In addition to regular lessons with a teacher, the boy tried to compose melodies himself.

Creative activity did not arouse approval from a strict teacher. He considered it indecent for a nobleman to devote time to writing. At the same time, the future composer had a second teacher - the serf Vorontsov, who taught the boy to play the violin. Unlike Danilevsky, he encouraged Alexander's creative experiments. To add concert practice to their son, his parents invited the pianist Franz Schoberlechner. They worked from 1828 to 1831. During this time, Dargomyzhsky honed his skills to such an extent that already in the 30s he was famous throughout St. Petersburg. In addition to playing musical instruments, Alexander had a craving for singing. He studied with vocal coach Benedikt Zeibich, who became last teacher composer. After classes with him, Dargomyzhsky independently continued his musical path.

mature years

In 1827, Alexander begins to work in the office. In the service, he had significant success. However, his life is still inextricably linked with music and writing. In 1835, M. Glinka became his close acquaintance, with whom he studied music. The opera of this composer - "Life for the Tsar" - inspired Dargomyzhsky to write his own great work.

He took the plot for the opera from Hugo's book Lucrezia Borgia. However, he subsequently abandoned this drama and turned to the Notre Dame Cathedral. In 1841 he finished the work, calling it "Esmeralda". However, the opera was not a success. First, she lay for a long 8 years in the composer's desk, and then, after a couple of years of productions at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, she completely forgot. The depressed musician, meanwhile, did not give up and continued to write romances, as well as give vocal lessons.

In 1843, he retired and went on a trip to Europe, where he met with famous musicians. Two years later, he returns to his homeland, and devotes all his time to studying folklore and writing works based on it. chief musical creation, which clearly shows folklore elements, was "Mermaid". It was shown for the first time on stage in 1856. She for a long time remained in the theater repertoire.

In society, he approached the circle of writers who adhere to democratic views. He even participates in the issue of the Iskra magazine. In 1859 Alexander became one of the leaders of the Russian Musical Society. At the same time he is looking new plot. Having rejected several of Pushkin's "tragedies", he settles on "The Stone Guest". However, the creative crisis that arose in him, due to the neglect of young composers towards him, interfered with writing music. Then Dargomyzhsky again goes abroad.

A big discovery for him was that his works are popular with foreigners. Inspired by this, he regains faith in himself and returns to Russia to finish his Stone Guest. But numerous failures and non-recognition have already played their part. The composer's health is undermined. Alexander does not have time to finish the opera and instructs Caesar Cui to finish it. Dargomyzhsky dies in 1869 5/17.02. at the age of 55 alone: ​​wife and children famous composer did not have.

Creativity Dargomyzhsky

Unusual musical solutions made Alexander an innovator in classical music. So, for example, his opera "Mermaid" was the first psychological drama of its kind with elements of folklore. And the famous "Stone Guest" was based on "melodic recitatives" set to music. The composer considered himself a writer of "dramatic truth" and tried to reproduce the singing of a person in such a way that it reflected all sorts of emotional shades.

If early work musicians are full of lyrical beginnings, then in later ones there is more and more drama and bright passion. In his works, he tried to display exceptionally tense moments, conflicts human life filled with both positive and negative emotions. Calmness in music was alien to him.

Famous works of Dargomyzhsky

• "Esmeralda" (1841)
• "The Triumph of Bacchus" (1848)
• "Mermaid" (1855)
• "Cossack" (1864)
• "Stone Guest" (1869)

• After the abolition of serfdom, he was one of those landowners who set the peasants free.
• He was not married, but there were rumors in society about his romantic relationship with his student Lyubov Miller.
• He taught vocals to singers for free.
• He lived all his life with his parents.
• During his lifetime, the works of the composer did not show too much big interest. Only decades after his death, Dargomyzhsky's music was appreciated by descendants. As the founder of realism in music, he had a huge impact on musicians of subsequent generations.

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Attention! The slide preview is for informational purposes only and may not represent the full extent of the presentation. If you are interested this work please download the full version.

The purpose of the event (lesson): familiarity with the main life stages and major creative achievements of the great Russian composer A.S. Dargomyzhsky.

Equipment: computer, projector, audio equipment.

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“I want the sound to directly express the word. I want the truth,” wrote A.S. Dargomyzhsky in one of his letters. These words became the creative goal of the composer.

Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky is an outstanding Russian composer, whose work had a huge impact on the development of Russian musical Art XIX century, one of the most prominent composers of the period between the work of Mikhail Glinka and The Mighty Handful. He is considered the founder realistic direction in Russian music, whose followers were many composers of subsequent generations. One of them is M.P. Mussorgsky called Dargomyzhsky "a great teacher of musical truth."

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The father of the future composer, Sergei Nikolaevich Dargomyzhsky, was the illegitimate son of a wealthy nobleman Vasily Alekseevich Ladyzhensky and owned land in the Smolensk province.

If fate had not played with the family of Alexander Dargomyzhsky bad joke, then the famous composer would have had the surname Ladyzhensky or Bogucharov.

This story of the Dargomyzhsky family begins with the composer's grandfather, nobleman Alexei Ladyzhensky. A brilliant young man, a military man, he was married to Anna Petrovna. The couple had three sons. It so happened that Aleksei Petrovich fell passionately in love with his children's governess, Anna von Shtofel, and soon their son Seryozha, the future father of Dargomyzhsky, was born to them. He was born in 1789 in the village of Dargomyzhka, then Belevsky district (now Arsenyevsky district).

Having learned about her husband's betrayal and not forgiving the betrayal, Anna Petrovna left him. A little later, she married the nobleman Nikolai Ivanovich Bogucharov. Alexei Ladyzhensky could not (or perhaps did not want to) give the boy either his last name or even his patronymic. He was a military man, he practically never visited the house and did not engage in raising the boy. Little Seryozha grew up to 8 years old like a blade of grass in a field.

In 1797, Anna Ladyzhenskaya and Nikolai Bogucharov committed an act that is rare even today: they adopted the unfortunate Seryozha.

After the death of Nikolai Ivanovich, his brother, Ivan Ivanovich Bogucharov, became Seryozha's guardian.

In 1800, when Seryozha was 11 years old, Alexey Ladyzhensky, being a retired lieutenant colonel, together with Ivan Bogucharov went to the Noble boarding house at Moscow University in order to attach Seryozha to study. Together with the inspector of the boarding house, they came up with the boy's patronymic Nikolaevich (after the name of his first stepfather), and the surname Dargomyzhsky - after the village of Dargomyzhka, in which he was born. So Sergei Nikolaevich Dargomyzhsky appeared. So the surname Dargomyzhsky is invented.

In 1806, Sergei Nikolayevich Dargomyzhsky completed his studies at a boarding house and got a job at the Moscow post office. In 1812, he wooed Princess Maria Borisovna Kozlovskaya and received a refusal from the bride's parents: although he was a nobleman, he was without a fortune! Then, Sergei Nikolaevich, without thinking twice, stole his Masha and took him to the Kozlovsky estate in the Smolensk province. So, the mother of Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky, nee Princess Maria Borisovna Kozlovskaya, married against the will of her parents. She was well educated, wrote poetry and small dramatic scenes published in almanacs and magazines in the 1820s and 30s, and was keenly interested in French culture.

A.S. Dargomyzhsky was born on February 2 (14), 1813 in the village of Troitskoye, Tula province. There were six children in the Dargomyzhsky family: Erast, Alexander, Sophia, Victor, Lyudmila and Erminia. All of them were brought up at home, in the traditions of the nobility, received a good education and inherited a love of art from their mother.

Dargomyzhsky's brother, Erast, played the violin (a student of Boehm), one of the sisters (Erminia) played the harp, and he himself was interested in music with early years. Warm friendly relations between brothers and sisters have been preserved for many years. So, Alexander, who did not have his own family, subsequently lived for several years with the family of Sophia, who became the wife of the famous cartoonist Nikolai Stepanov.

Until the age of five, the boy did not speak, his late-formed voice remained forever high and slightly hoarse, which did not prevent him, however, from subsequently touching him to tears with the expressiveness and artistry of his vocal performance.

In 1817, the family moved to St. Petersburg, where his father received a position as the head of the office in a commercial bank, and he himself began to receive a musical education. His first piano teacher was Louise Wolgeborn, then he began studying with Adrian Danilevsky.

He was a good pianist, but did not share the young Dargomyzhsky's interest in composing music (his small piano pieces from this period have been preserved). Finally, for three years Sasha's teacher was Franz Schoberlechner, a student of the famous composer Johann Hummel. Having achieved a certain skill, Alexander began to perform as a pianist at charity concerts and in private collections. At this time, he also studied with the famous singing teacher Benedikt Zeibig, and from 1822 he mastered playing the violin (he was taught by the serf musician Vorontsov). Dargomyzhsky as a violinist played in quartets, but soon lost interest in this instrument. By that time, he had already written a number of piano compositions, romances and other works, some of which were published.

Listening to a fragment of one of the early piano compositions, for example, “Melancholic Waltz”

In the autumn of 1827, following in the footsteps of his father, he entered the civil service and, thanks to his diligence and conscientious attitude to business, quickly began to move up the career ladder. During this period, he often played music at home and visited the opera house, the basis of the repertoire of which was the works of Italian composers.

In the spring of 1835 A.S. Dargomyzhsky met Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, with whom he played piano four hands, analyzed the work of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Glinka helped Dargomyzhsky with the study of musical-theoretical disciplines, giving him notes on music theory lessons that he received in Berlin from Siegfried Dehn.

Having visited the rehearsals of Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar, which was being prepared for production, Dargomyzhsky decided to write his first major stage work on his own. The choice of the plot fell on Victor Hugo's drama "Lucretia Borgia". However, the creation of the opera progressed slowly and in 1837, on the advice of Vasily Zhukovsky, the composer turned to another work by the same author, which was very popular in Russia in the late 1830s - Notre Dame Cathedral. The composer used the original French libretto written by V. Hugo himself for Louise Bertin, whose opera Esmeralda had been staged shortly before. By 1841, Dargomyzhsky completed the orchestration and translation of the opera, for which he also took the title Esmeralda and handed over the score to the directorate of the Imperial Theaters. The opera, written in the spirit of French composers, had been waiting for its premiere for several years, since Italian productions were much more popular with the public. Despite the good dramatic and musical solution of Esmeralda, this opera left the stage some time after the premiere and was practically never staged in the future.

The composer's worries about the failure of Esmeralda were aggravated by the growing popularity of Glinka's works. The composer begins to give singing lessons (his students were exclusively women) and writes a number of romances for voice and piano. Some of them were published and became very popular, for example, “The fire of desire burns in the blood ...”, “I am in love, beauty maiden ...”, “Lileta”, “Night marshmallow”, “Sixteen years” and others.

Listening to a fragment of one of the vocal compositions, for example, the romance “Sixteen Years”

In 1843, the composer retired, and soon (1844) went abroad, where he spent several months in Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Vienna. He meets the musicologist François-Joseph Fethi, the violinist Henri Vieuxtan and the leading European composers of the time: Aubert, Donizetti, Halévy, Meyerbeer. Returning to Russia in 1845, the composer was carried away by the study of Russian musical folklore, elements of which were clearly manifested in romances and songs written during this period: “Darling Maiden”, “Fever”, “Melnik”, as well as in the opera “Mermaid”, which the composer began writing in 1848.

In 1853, a solemn concert dedicated to the composer's fortieth birthday took place. At the end of the concert, all his students and friends gathered on the stage and presented Alexander Sergeevich with a silver bandmaster's baton encrusted with emeralds with the names of admirers of his talent.

In 1855, the opera "Mermaid" was completed. It occupies a special place in the composer's work. Written on the plot of the tragedy of the same name in verse by A.S. Pushkin, it was created in the period 1848-1855. Dargomyzhsky himself adapted Pushkin's poems into a libretto and composed the ending of the plot (Pushkin's work was not completed). The premiere of "Mermaid" took place on May 4 (16), 1856 in St. Petersburg. The largest Russian music critic of that time, Alexander Serov, responded to it with a large-scale positive review in the Theater Musical Bulletin (its volume was so large that it was printed in parts in several issues). This article helped the opera to stay in the repertoire of the leading theaters of Russia for some time and added creative confidence to him.

After some time, the composer becomes close to the democratic circle of writers, takes part in the publication of the satirical magazine Iskra, writes several songs to the verses of one of its main participants, the poet Vasily Kurochkin. In 1859, he was elected to the leadership of the newly founded St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Musical Society. He meets a group of young composers, the central figure among which was Milei Alekseevich Balakirev (this group would later become the “Mighty Handful”).

Dargomyzhsky plans to write a new opera. However, in search of a plot, he first rejects Pushkin's Poltava, and then the Russian legend about Rogdan. The choice of the composer stops at the third of Pushkin's "Little Tragedies" - "The Stone Guest". Work on the opera, however, is proceeding rather slowly due to the composer's creative crisis, connected with the exit from the repertoire of the Mermaid theaters and the neglect of younger musicians.

In 1864, the composer again travels to Europe: he visits Warsaw, Leipzig, Paris, London and Brussels, where his orchestral piece Cossack, as well as fragments from The Mermaid, are successfully performed. Franz Liszt speaks favorably of his work.

Returning to Russia, inspired by the success of his works abroad, Dargomyzhsky, with renewed vigor, takes on the composition of The Stone Guest. The language he chose for this opera - built almost entirely on melodic recitatives with simple chordal accompaniment - interested the composers of The Mighty Handful, and in particular Caesar Cui, who at that time was looking for ways to reform Russian opera art.

Listening to a fragment of the opera “The Stone Guest”, for example, the second song of Laura “I am here, Inezilla” from scene 2 of act 1

However, the appointment of the composer to the post of head of the Russian Musical Society and the failure of the opera-ballet "The Triumph of Bacchus", written by him back in 1848 and not seen on stage for almost twenty years, weakened the composer's health.

On January 5 (17), 1869, he died, leaving the opera The Stone Guest unfinished. According to his will, it was completed by Cui and orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1872, the composers of The Mighty Handful succeeded in staging the opera The Stone Guest on stage. Mariinsky Theater In Petersburg.

Dargomyzhsky was buried in the Necropolis of Masters of Arts in the Tikhvin cemetery, not far from Glinka's grave.

For many years the name of the composer was associated exclusively with the opera The Stone Guest as a work that had a great influence on the development of Russian opera. The opera was written in a style that was innovative for those times: it contains neither arias nor ensembles (not counting Laura's two small inserted romances). It is entirely built on "melodic recitatives" and recitations set to music. As the goal of choosing such a language, Dargomyzhsky set not only the reflection of the “dramatic truth”, but also the artistic reproduction of human speech with the help of music with all its shades and twists. Later, the principles of Dargomyzhsky's operatic art were embodied in MP Mussorgsky's operas Boris Godunov and especially vividly in Khovanshchina.

Another opera by Dargomyzhsky - "Mermaid" - also became a significant phenomenon in the history of Russian music - this is the first Russian opera in the genre of everyday psychological drama. In it, the author embodied one of the many versions of the legend about a deceived girl, turned into a mermaid and taking revenge on her offender.

Two operas from a relatively early period of the composer's work - "Esmeralda" and "The Triumph of Bacchus" - had been waiting for their first production for many years and were not very popular with the public.

Dargomyzhsky's chamber-vocal compositions enjoy great success. His early romances are sustained in a lyrical spirit, composed in the 1840s - they are influenced by Russian musical folklore (later this style will be used in the romances of P. I. Tchaikovsky), and finally, the later ones are filled with deep drama, passion, truthfulness of expression, being such way, forerunners of the vocal works of M. P. Mussorgsky. In a number of works of this genre, the comic talent of the composer was clearly manifested (“Worm”, “Titular Advisor”, etc.).

The composer created four works for the orchestra: “Bolero” (late 1830s), “Baba Yaga”, “Cossack Boy” and “Chukhonskaya Fantasy” (all from the early 1860s). Despite the originality of the orchestral writing and good orchestration, they are rarely performed. These works are a continuation of the traditions of Glinka's symphonic music and one of the foundations of the rich heritage of Russian orchestral music created by composers of a later time.

Listening to a fragment of one of the symphonic works, for example, “Cossack” (main theme)

In the 20th century, interest in music revived: A. Dargomyzhsky's operas were staged in the leading theaters of the USSR, orchestral compositions were included in the Anthology of Russian Symphonic Music, recorded by E.F. Svetlanov, and romances have become an integral part of the singers' repertoire. Among the musicologists who made the greatest contribution to the study of Dargomyzhsky's work, the most famous are A.N. Drozdov and M.S. Pekelis, the author of many works dedicated to the composer.

List of used information resources

1. Kann-Novikova E. I want the truth. The Tale of Alexander Dargomyzhsky / Stories about music for schoolchildren. - 1976. - 128 p.
2. Kozlova N. Russian musical literature. Third year of study. - M.: "Music", 2002.- p.66-79.
3. Shornikova M. Musical literature. Russian musical classics. Third year of study. - Rostov-on-Don: "Phoenix", 2008. - p.97-127.
4. Dargomyzhsky Alexander Sergeevich. Wikipedia. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/