The song genre was popular in the 19th century. History of Russian musical culture of the 19th century

(Cassette No. 9. Side A)

Romantic musical art is a large-scale, complex and contradictory phenomenon. It combined both reactionary and progressive trends approaching realism, many national schools and individual styles that were different in their aesthetic, stylistic, genre and intonation settings.

Having declared itself at the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries, romanticism, including music, went a long way of development until the end of the 19th century, often combining largely opposite aesthetic views.

The romantic vision of the world in art was prepared by many circumstances. Its most important socio-historical prerequisite is a reaction to the results of the French bourgeois revolution, disappointment in the ideals of brotherhood and unity of peoples, in the ideals of universal, universal happiness. The rational, clear, logical and optimistic attitudes of the Enlightenment no longer corresponded to the atmosphere of gloom and depression that marked the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries.

The earliest romantic trends arose in the literary schools of Germany (the Jena school) and England at the end of the 18th century. In painting at the turn of the century, romantic tendencies color the work of French painters - Géricault and Delacroix and German masters - F. O. Runge, K. D. Friedrich. In literature and painting, the romantic trend by the middle of the 19th century. basically exhausted itself. In music, romanticism was destined for a much longer life.

In the 20s of the XIX century. romantic attitudes begin to take shape in the works of E. T. A. Hoffmann, K. M. Weber, F. Schubert.

30s - 50s - the time of the creative maturity of musical romanticism, marked by the work of R. Schumann, F. Chopin, G. Berlioz, F. Liszt. The most complex and ambiguous was the late stage of the development of romantic music, associated with the names of R. Wagner, I. Brahms, F. Liszt, A. Bruckner, G. Mahler and representing a synthesis of realistic, classical and romantic traits. The 90s became the pinnacle of romantic musical art in Finland, Norway - in the work of J. Sibelius and E. Grieg. Italian romanticism, inextricably linked with realistic attitudes in the work of G. Verdi, G. Puccini, P. Mascagni, had an exceptionally original appearance.

With all the richness and uniqueness of individual and national styles and trends, romantic musical art contained within itself a fairly clear aesthetic and figurative system.

The chronological connection with the Enlightenment and at the same time the awareness of musical romanticism as a reaction to it formed a very special, ambiguous attitude towards it. A similar situation developed in other types of art as well. The poets of the "lake" school of England - Wordsworth, Coleridge - sharply criticized the ideas of the Enlightenment and classicist aesthetics and imagery, Shelley and Byron - supported the tradition of revolutionary, civic orientation of art.

A kind of link between classicism and romanticism in Germany was the Sturm und Drang movement, the work of Grillparzer, Fr. Hölderling. German musical romantic art was especially strongly associated with the classical heritage.

However, the specificity of musical romanticism is by no means exhausted by the uniqueness of the connection with the previous artistic tradition.

The picture of the world in the view of the romantics and the place of man in it are exceptionally original. In place of an integral, optimistic worldview, in place of a single all-human idea, comes a world split into two opposite spheres. One of them is a cruel, rude, incomprehensible and rejecting world. The second is the world of fairy tales, dreams, magical fanaticism, the embodiment of an idealized dream.

The sharp differentiation of the previously unified picture of the world was due - on the one hand - and entailed - on the other hand - the emergence of a completely new interpretation of the image of man. The hero, a fighter for the happiness of all mankind, a titan, suffers a severe defeat in his struggle. He is replaced by a small man - one of many, forced to live in the real world, but dreaming of an ideal world. The principle of duality determines the specifics of the worldview of romantic musicians and, in many respects, their musical language. At the same time, another type of hero is being formed in romantic musical art - an exceptional personality, deeply and tragically perceiving the world. The works of many romantics also reflected the revolutionary ideas of the era associated with the processes of the national liberation movement in European countries (the works of Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz).

The exceptional attention of the romantics to the subjective principle, to lyrical imagery, to the fullness of the disclosure of human individuality (in comparison with the prevailing objectivity of classicism) caused radical changes in the interpretation of genres, themes and musical language. The essential component of the figurative world of romantics was nature - in its diversity and grandeur.

As an antithesis of pure instrumental music in the work of the Romantics, there is a desire for a synthesis of the arts. New musical genres are being formed, based on the closest connection between music and literature. This is a poem, a ballad, a leaf from an album. Literary methods of presentation and storytelling penetrate into the sphere of musical creativity.

The result of the synthesis of music and poetry was such a specific feature of musical romanticism as programmaticity. It was reflected in the literary programs of musical works - subtitles, as well as in the creation by the composers themselves literary scenarios works. Thus, often the musical creations of the Romantics had a dual essence - the actual musical and verbal, two plans for the functioning of the work. Such literary programs were often necessary to explain such unusual romantic musical images.

The attention of romantics to the genres of vocal music is also one of the manifestations of the connection between literature and music in romantic art. The vocal sound perfectly corresponded to the subjective orientation of romanticism. The intonational basis of the music of the Romantics is deeply lyrical song intonations, which determine the specifics of vocal lyrics and penetrate both symphonic and piano music. In this regard, the so-called Schubert song symphonism, a new piano genre in the work of F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a song without words, is being formed.

The song and vocal quality of romantic music was also associated with the deep interest of romantics in historical - legendary and fairy tale themes and folklore, but in an idealized - patriarchal refraction. This can also be seen as an attempt to gain life ideal in the past without finding it in the present. Folklore in romantic music often acquired a poetic look. For the first time in the history of the world musical art folk dances - polonaise, krakowiak, mazurka, kamarinskaya - in the works of Chopin, Glinka, combined with the intonations of folk songs, become the basis of musical works.

One of the fundamental qualities of musical romanticism is the exceptional individualization of musical styles. This led to a multiplicity of individual interpretations of genres, including those that were previously almost canonical - symphonies and sonatas. The 4-part symphonic cycle, based on song melody and improvisational expression and presentation of musical - lyrical - images, is rethought into a large-scale symphonic work with the number of parts depending on the specific intention of the author - from 2 in Schubert's "Unfinished" symphony to 5 -ti in the "Fantastic" symphony of Berlioz. The sonata genre is based on a free, fantasy presentation of musical themes and is transformed into the fantasy sonata genre (in the work of F. Liszt). However, the classical version of both sonata and symphonic genres in romantic music is preserved (symphonic works of I. Brahms). An entirely new genre is emerging. symphonic music- a one-movement symphonic program poem.

An individualized, personal vision of the world led to the emergence of new musical genres. In line with the development trend home music making, chamber performance, not designed for a mass audience and perfect performing technique, this brought to life the genre of piano miniatures - impromptu, musical moments, nocturnes, preludes, many dance genres that had not previously figured in professional music. The property of the musical language of romanticism, along with song, was a huge attention to brilliance, color (which led to changes in the interpretation of the chord and tonal ratios).

Franz Peter Schubert (1797 - 1828, Austria).

With the greatest completeness, the musical romantic art revealed itself on the Austrian and German musical soil.

One of the outstanding representatives of Austrian musical romanticism is Franz Peter Schubert. A contemporary of Beethoven, Schubert, nevertheless, belonged to his work to new era and a new musical style, which, at the same time, bore a significant imprint of the classical heritage.

Schubert's work is organically connected with the musical life of Vienna, which at that time was truly the musical capital of the world. All the novelties of the opera genre were shown in the court opera house - works by Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini. Of great importance in the Viennese musical life were paid open concerts, which were organized by the Society of Friends of Music and the association of amateur musicians.

Famous performers toured in Vienna, many charity concerts were held. The home concerts of non-professional musicians also enjoyed great love among the Viennese. But in all these cases masterpieces of world musical art were not always brought to the attention of the listeners, which in many respects corresponded to the reactionary atmosphere of that time.

It was the heyday of the Metternich system that became the heyday of Schubert's talent. However, the composer did not embody his awareness of the inertia and reactionary nature of the regime in the images of the struggle - revolutionary, transforming, and in the images of a popular upsurge. His figurative world is the world of the soul of a small person, ordinary in his everyday life, but deeply feeling and suffering in this cruel and unfair world to him. But the lyrical hero of Schubert does not oppose himself to society. This reflects the organic synthesis of romantic and classical tendencies in the composer's work. In many ways, his connection with the art of classicism was reflected in Schubert's exclusive attention to poetic heritage the great classic of German poetry Goethe, which became the basis of many of the composer's vocal compositions.

The democratic orientation of Schubert's work is due to the reliance of his musical style on folk song and dance. The folk origins of his music are the foundation of the objective nature of the lyrics (while the aesthetics of many romantic musicians has a clear subjective coloring).

The leading genre in Schubert's work is the song. In the history of world musical culture, there have never been examples of such close attention to this genre and its introduction into the sphere of high professional music, its transformation into a conceptual artistic phenomenon.

The scale of the composer's song work is striking - more than 600 examples of the genre, created on the texts of Goethe, Schiller, Mayrhofer, Müller, Heine. Most of all, the composer was attracted love lyrics, motifs of loneliness, folk-genre images and pictures of nature. Schubert's song genre is represented by many of its variants - these are miniatures, unpretentious in content and musical language, and large-scale dramatic monologues based on a contrasting juxtaposition of diverse images.

The peaks of Schubert's song creativity - "Margarita at the Spinning Wheel" (1814), the ballad "The Forest King" to the words of Goethe (1815), "The Wanderer" to the verses of Schmidt (1816), "The Double" to the verses of Heine (1828 G.)

Schubert became the creator of a new genre - the story song cycle. These are such works as "The Beautiful Miller's Woman" (1823) and "The Winter Road" (1827) to the verses of W. Müller, "The Swan Song" (1828) to the words of Relshtab, Seidl, Heine.

Schubert's symphonic work is a vivid example of the synthesis of classical and romantic features.

In the early symphonies, the classical 4-movement cycle is filled with romantic lyrical imagery. The originality of the composer's symphonic style was fully reflected in the 8th symphony in B minor - "Unfinished" (1822)

With a strong reliance on the achievements of the Viennese classical symphony school, Schubert in this work created a new type of symphonism - lyric-song, psychological, one of the important aspects of which is the romance of nature.

The cycle "Unfinished" consists of 2 parts (although according to some information, Schubert conceived this work as a 4-part one). But already within the framework of the 1st part, the composer reflected the problem of the psychological drama of the individual that worried him, the typically romantic theme of loneliness, the tragic conflict of the individual and society.

Romantic imagery defines all the parameters of the musical fabric - from the thematic, intonations and structure of the musical fabric to the form musical themes and parts as a whole.

The concentrated expression of the idea of ​​the work - the theme of the introduction - is a tragic question, eternal romantic longing, languor, primordial hopelessness and tragic predetermination of human destiny. Repeatedly appearing in the 1st movement, this theme acquires the status of the semantic core of the symphony.

The lyrical world of images determines the unconventional appearance of the themes of the work. Instead of active effectiveness, which is so characteristic of some themes of the 1st parts of the symphonic genre in classic version, here there is a song, vocal intonations that create the image of the romantic quest of a restless soul. Within the framework of the 1st movement, Schubert freely combines romantic methods of developing musical themes and classical ones (in many respects inheriting the traditions of Beethoven's symphonism).

The 2nd part of the symphony is devoted to the depiction of light images of nature.

It should be noted that in the first half of the 19th century the "Unfinished" symphony was not known, its manuscript was discovered only in 1865.

Quintet in A major (1819)

The A Major Quintet is one of the most popular works by F. Schubert for chamber ensemble. The quintet is dominated by poetic images of nature, simple, bright lyrics.

The basis of the 4th part of the quintet was Schubert's song "Trout" - very elegant, playful. In the finale of the work, the composer also uses the rhythms and intonations of Austrian, Slavic, Hungarian and Italian folklore.

Impromptu in F minor.

8 impromptu were created by Schubert in 1827. An absolutely new piano genre - impromptu - was a miniature fantasy for Schubert, free in form and content from any canons and based on the widest figurative circle.

Impromptu in F minor is based on the alternation and development of 3 main images - lyrical-dramatic, peacefully light and contemplative, philosophically profound.

Landlers from the cycle op. 67.

In the creative heritage of Schubert there are many highly professional interpretations of folk and everyday genres of dance music. One of them is the Lendler, a German everyday three-beat dance, the forerunner of the waltz.

Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856, Germany)

The work of R. Schumann marked the flowering of musical romanticism in Germany. 30 - 40s 19th century - the time of formation and definition of the composer's creative style - became a rather unusual page in the history of romantic art. On the one hand, romantic ideals were most actively affirmed in the works of Schumann, Liszt, and Wagner. On the other hand, tendencies to follow the classical canons were strengthened in the art of music - in the works of Mendelssohn and Brahms.

These two sides of the musical-historical process in Germany became the basis of Schumann's work. Very sensitively reacting to the revolutionary atmosphere in the country, the composer, in the special emotionality of his works, in the freedom of expression of the creative spirit and will, reflected the rebellious and rebellious moods of the time. Revolutionary events of 1848-1849 directly influenced the creation of such works by Schumann as "4 Marches for Piano", male choirs "Three Songs of Freedom", overture "Manfred".

However, the revolutionary images in the work of Schumann are only a component of his richest creative world. Schumann is the very expression of German musical romanticism with its emotionality, striving for an unattainable ideal of spirituality and beauty, with its painful irony, and at the same time with sincerity, softness and penetration. Schumann's music is both a firework of brilliant passages and the most peaceful lyrical episodes. Such is his whole artistic world - initially dual, reflected in the images of the composer's literary heroes - Florestan and Eusebius (on their behalf, in his critical articles, Schumann reflected on the fate of modern German music).

And therefore, Schumann's hero - in comparison with the heroes of Schubert - is much more emotional, since he himself contains the features of two romantic worlds. Hence the much sharper and more impulsive musical language - with an abundance of contrasts, frequent disharmony and truly romantic explosiveness.

The work of Schumann is equally dual in terms of genre priorities. Gravitating to reflect momentary, instantaneous states and moods, being a “lyricist of brief moments” - in the words of B. Asafiev, he strove for the genre of piano miniature. cyclic forms, consisting of miniature, integral sections within themselves. The genre of the piano cycle also gave the composer the opportunity to maximally embody the spirit of free creativity, which has always been an ideal for him.

Perhaps, among the romantic musicians there is no artist for whom literature and music would merge more strongly than for Schumann. Previously, romanticism followed the path of musicalization of literature, with the beginning of Schumann's creative activity, this process proceeded along the path of deepening their synthesis. The pinnacle of this path was completely new genres - musical novels, cycles of musical "stories".

A natural expression of the romantic ideal of the synthesis of the arts for Schumann was both the desire for programming and his interest in literary and musical criticism. And in this aspect of his work (as well as in composing) one can clearly see an evolution towards realism.

In his youth, Schumann's idol was the writer Jean Paul. It was his works that became the basis of the aesthetic duality so characteristic of Schumann, which reveals itself in the presence of two contrasting images-characters in the composer's literary and musical works. Most of all in the prose of Jean Paul Schumann attracted the spirit of lyricism and humor, romantic daydreaming, bordering on sentimentalism, the principle of cyclicity, interrupting the plans of the story.

Somewhat later, Schumann was attracted by the ideals of Hoffmann - the sharpening of the perception of reality, the nakedness of the conflict between the spiritual and the real, the sharpness, unusualness, sometimes grotesqueness of characters, the principle of romantic painful irony.

Later years were marked by the aesthetic closeness of Schumann's ideals to the views of Heinrich Heine, the desire for objectification, and the involvement of the epic principle in the creative orbit.

The phrase of one of the most prominent aesthetics of the musical art of Novalis: “The ordinary is given the highest meaning, the familiar - a mysterious look, the familiar - the dignity of the unfamiliar, the finite - the appearance of the infinite" - fully characterizes R. Schumann's understanding of romantic art. The transmutability of phenomena has a tendency to reflect life in all its versatility. This was also reflected in the fact that, being a romantic in his creative vision of the world, Schumann was at the same time the most active representative of the creative intelligentsia of Germany.

In 1834 he created the "New Musical Journal" in Leipzig. The focus of this periodical, where Schumann was the author, editor, and publisher (the magazine was a weekly one), was clearly educational. In his articles, Schumann created a kind of spiritual brotherhood Davidsbund, which defended innovative trends in the art of music, supported young talents and at the same time sharply condemned the philistinism and philistinism in art, the routine of German society. In this, Schumann was very close to the direction of "Young Germany", but unlike him, the composer and his magazine did not have a specific political program.

A brilliant composer, a bold innovator - Schumann - was also a great pianist. Naturally, his creative searches were first of all captured in the genres piano music.

One of Schumann's early works for pianoforte is the cycle of pieces "Butterflies". It is a kind of response to the novel by Jean Paul "Boyish years". In this cycle - a series of dances and portrait sketches - the characteristic features of Schumann's cycles are already clearly defined - portraiture, sharpness, imagery of the musical language and internal contrast of the images of the plays.

Schumann's software piano cycles include such wonderful works as "Fantastic Fragments", "Forest Scenes", "Children's Scenes", "Carnival", "Davidsbundlers", "Kreisleriana".

"Carnival" - 1834 - one of the peaks of Schumann in the field of piano music. This is a large-scale, colorful picture of the festivities, in which the Davidsbundlers (members of the fictional literary and social circle "David's Brotherhood", created by Schumann on the pages of his magazine) oppose the philistines (reactionary cultural figures).

In fact, this is a carnival of masks - "Pierrot", "Harlequin", "Colombine", "Pantalone", fantastic characters, images of Schumann's favorite heroes - "Florestan" and "Eusebius", musical portraits of the composer's contemporaries - "Chopin" and "Paganini ".

All this motley series of images is strictly ordered thanks to the leitmotif of 4 sounds. Latin name These 4 notes form the name of the town of Ash in the Czech Republic (Bohemia), where Ernestine Frikken lived - the object of Schumann's youthful adoration. The same letters are included in the spelling of the name of the composer himself. All pieces are variations on this theme.

(Cassette No. 9. Side B)

"Arabesque" op. 18 for piano.

Arabesque is a romantic genre of piano art, a miniature with exquisite melody with many decorations and whimsical rhythm. This work was created by Schumann in 1839 and is a cycle of fairly virtuoso pieces of various characters.

Vocal lyrics are one of the remarkable areas of Schumann's work. The appeal to vocal sound was dictated by the romantic nature of the composer's creative nature, his desire for a synthesis of the arts - music and literature.

Continuing the Schubert traditions in the field of vocal music, Schumann turns to the genre of the song in all its diversity and to the genre of the vocal cycle. But at the same time, Schumann, unlike Schubert, always gravitated towards the musical embodiment of modern romantic poetry.

The most fruitful and significant period in Schumann's vocal work was the 40s. 19th century By this time, the composer created such masterpieces of vocal lyrics as the cycles "Myrtle" (on the station of Goethe, Rückert, Heine, Byron, Burns, Moore, Mosen), "Circle of Songs" (on the station of Eichendorff), "Circle of Songs" ( on the text of Heine's Youthful Sufferings), “Love and Life of a Woman” (at Chamisso station).

The peak of the composer's vocal work was the cycle "The Poet's Love" on the text from Heine's "Lyrical Intermezzo", created in 1840.

The plot basis of the cycle is the story of poetic love: from the first feeling to disappointment and loss of a beloved. Each of the songs in the cycle is an integral, complete image in which emotions find romantic sincerity, classical simplicity and clarity of embodiment. The dramaturgy of the work is unique - a steady movement towards a tragic denouement, an unstoppable increase in tragedy. Starting with an emotional culmination, images of joy and rapture with life, the work ends with images of deep sorrow and typically romantic irony - the moan of the soul.

Symphony No. 4 in D minor op. 120 h. 1, 3, 4.

Schubert created 4 symphonies and several symphonic overtures.

The composer's symphonic works date back to the 1940s, when new, romantic principles and imagery were already established in the field of the symphonic genre. But in many ways, Schumann's symphonies are guided by classical examples, in particular, Beethoven's lyric-genre symphonies. Special meaning in Schumann's symphonic works it acquires a subtle national flavor.

The composer worked on the 4th symphony for a long time. Created in 1841 in a very short time, 10 years later it was radically reworked. The author himself called this work "Symphonic Fantasy for Orchestra". Unlike Schumann's other symphonies, romantic images reign supreme in the 4th.

Concerto for piano and orchestra in A-minor, op. 54, part 2, 3.

The composer's work on this work was chronologically "broken". The 1st part was created in 1841, the 2nd and 3rd - in 1845.

The 1st part of the concerto is a series of poetically inspired lyrical images, brilliant in skill and technique. The author himself referred to this part as a fantasy.

The parts of the concerto are interconnected by the intonational relationship of thematics.

Part 2 is an elegant miniature, in which capriciousness, whimsical melody and rhythm attract attention.

The 3rd part is in many ways close to Schumann's carnival images with its brilliance, solemnity and festivity.

(Cassette No. 10. Side A)

Fryderyk Chopin (1810 - 1849, Poland).

Mid 19th century - the time of the most active formation of national composer schools. The formation of Polish professional music is inextricably linked with the name of the great pianist and composer Fryderyk Chopin. All his work is marked by a strong connection with Polish folk music. The patriotic orientation of the composer's aesthetics and style, unlike many other romantic musicians, was not peacefully contemplative. Chopin's patriotism was revolutionary, effective, largely determined by the tense atmosphere of the national liberation struggle of Poland in the middle of the 19th century. And despite the fact that Chopin left his homeland early and lived mainly in France, folk and revolutionary images became the basis of his music.

The most famous pianist, a magnificent virtuoso, Chopin, naturally, in his work relied on the genres of piano music. Continuing the traditions of Schubert in terms of the development of everyday dance genres, Chopin paid great attention to the genres of waltz, polonaise, Krakowiak, mazurka, poeticizing truly folk dance music.

One of the genres in the composer's work was the piano concerto. The Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor is one of Chopin's early works, which, however, embodied the most significant features of his style - the brightness of the images, the melodiousness of the melody, and the closeness to folk dance origins. A concert in Warsaw in 1830, where Chopin performed this work with stunning success, became a kind of farewell of the composer to his homeland. Chopin has never been on Polish soil again.

Piano Sonata in B-flat - minor, op. 35, part 1 (1839 - 1840) does not have a literary program, so characteristic of the musical culture of romanticism. But the natural development of images - embossed, brightly theatrical - creates a kind of musical "plot" - dramatic, closely connected with patriotic ideas. Sonata in B-flat - minor - a lyrical drama in which the image of the hero, his tragic fate is identified with the fate of the people, their desire for freedom.

Scherzo for piano in C-sharp - minor, op. 39. The scherzo genre was previously used in symphonic music as the genre basis of one of the parts of the symphony - in particular, in Beethoven's 3rd symphony. In the era of romanticism, the scherzo acquires independence as a piano genre based on the juxtaposition of contrasting images.

Ballade for Piano in F Major, op. 36. Romantic art, striving for contrast and brightness of images, their emotionality, has formed many new genres. One of them, genetically related to literature, was the ballad. For the first time this genre arose in the vocal work of Schubert - the vocal ballad "Forest King" on st. Goethe. In the music of Chopin, a piano version of the genre appears, the development of which continued in the work of Liszt, Grieg, Brahms.

Chopin's ballads are often associated - both in plot and figuratively - with the ballads of A. Mickiewicz. They are based on deeply realistic, folk images that tell about the dramatic fate of the composer's homeland. Chopin's ballads are a series of contrasting images - tragic, mournful, lyrical, peaceful, pastoral. The form of ballads does not fit into the framework of known genres and is a free, improvisational synthesis of sonatas, variations, rondo forms, etc.

Preludes No. 22 in G minor, No. 23 in F major.

The ancient genre of prelude finds a new life in the works of F. Chopin. The prelude attracted the attention of the composer with its improvisation, freedom, lack of normative genre frameworks and breadth of figurative range. This fully corresponded to the desire of romantic art for the individualization of genres and the anorativity of the musical language.

The immediate predecessor of Chopin's 24 Preludes was the Well-Tempered Clavier cycle by J.S. Bach, in which preludes and fugues were written in each of the known keys. The main principle of the succession of preludes in the Chopin cycle is the contrast of images, but in some cases several preludes are connected by a single figurative rod. Often in the preludes "slip" and features of other genres - polonaise, mazurka, nocturne.

Mazurka for piano in A minor, op. 59, no. 1.

The national originality of Chopin's creativity was most clearly reflected in his piano incarnations of folk dances - polonaise, krakowiak, mazurka. Folk Polish dance became for the composer the basis of the richest world of images. These are lyrical, dramatic mazurkas, often taking on the appearance of landscape sketches.

At the heart of the mazurka is a sharp rhythm, a perky character. But Chopin, as a rule, almost never used genuine folk melodies in his mazurkas, creating author's interpretations of the most typical intonations and rhythms on a folklore basis.

(Cassette No. 10. Side B)

Nocturne in C minor op. 48, no. 1.

Nocturne (night) is the most popular genre of romantic music. In Chopin's work, this genre takes on the appearance of a small piano work, free in form, in which lyrical images often develop along the line of increasing dramatic tension.

Some nocturnes "outgrow" the framework of a lyrical miniature, becoming small piano poems. One such piece is the nocturne in C minor.

Polonaise in A-flat major No. 6. Compared to other dance genres in Chopin's work, polonaises are more ambitious and monumental. Their main content is heroic, festive images.

Waltz in A flat major op. 69, No. 1. Waltz is a favorite genre of everyday music of the 19th century. In Schubert's work, it becomes an independent genre of solo piano music and loses its dance purpose. This process is further developed in the music of Chopin, where the waltz becomes a large-scale concert piece of a virtuoso nature.

Etude for Piano in C Minor op. 25, No. 12. Previously, the etude genre had a purely technical, auxiliary meaning. Etudes were used to develop the technical skills of the performer. Chopin saw the etude as an independent and highly artistic musical genre. But at the same time, Chopin's etudes always retained - as a necessary feature of the genre - the highest technical level and reliance on the repetition of some complex technical technique of piano playing.

Several collections of etudes created by the composer are diverse artistic implementations of the genre, arranged according to the principle of figurative contrast of pianistic techniques. Etude C-minor was called "revolutionary". Created under the impression revolutionary events in Poland, it is a passionate, agitated monologue, full of patriotic pathos, a heroic upsurge of feelings.

Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904, Czech Republic).

The development of the Czech national romantic school of music is associated primarily with the names of Antonin Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana. The work of Antonin Dvorak was largely due to the rise of the patriotic movement, the growth of national consciousness in the conditions of national and social oppression in the Czech Republic, which was under the rule of the Habsburgs.

80-90s The 19th century, which at times became the heyday of Dvořák's creative talent, was a period of extremely rich artistic life in Prague. An important role in the formation of the national art school was played by the opening of a number of musical and pedagogical institutions and the expanded access of Czech authors to the dramatic and musical scene.

Patriotism, democracy, along with lyricism and subjective vision of the world are the characteristic features of Dvorak's aesthetics. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he possessed a universal composer's gift, allowing him to apply to virtually all genres - opera, oratorio, symphony, concerto, vocal and solo instrumental music.

Continuing the traditions of the founder of Czech musical classics - B. Smetana, Dvořák develops the national identity of the opera genre. Among his operas are folk-household musical comedies "Stubborn", "Cunning Peasant", "Jacobin", historical and romantic "Alfred", "Dmitry", "Armida" and folk fairy-tale - "The King and the Coal Miner", "Devil's Wall ”, “Devil and Kacha”, as well as the most famous and popular opera by Dvorak - “Mermaid”.

Among the significant works of Dvořák is the Slavic Dances cycle for orchestra, which captures all the richness of images, melodies and rhythms not only of Czech, but also of Ukrainian, Slovak, Polish dances.

Dvorak paid great attention to the sonata-symphony genre. From 1865 to 1893 he created 9 symphonies.

Symphony No. 9 (in the first edition No. 5) has the program title "From the New World". It was created in 1892 under the impression of the composer's stay in New York, where he was invited as a conductor and head of the conservatory. The ideological and meaningful core of the work was Henry Longfellow's poem "The Song of Hiawatha", based on the legends and traditions of Indian tribes. The poem was familiar to the composer even before his arrival in the United States. But despite the indirect reflection in the symphony of the typical intonations of Negro spiritual spiritual songs, the symphony is fundamentally a deeply national, original work that reflects all the richness of Czech folklore.

At the end of the symphony the democratic folk spirit manifested itself with particular completeness, since the main musical themes of this movement recreate the typical melodic turns of Czech folk music - the Hussite march, round dance, song lyrics and dance.

Bedrich Smetana (1824 - 1884, Czech Republic).

B. Smetana is the founder of the Czech classical music school. Creating a truly national musical art, Smetana turned to the most popular and relevant genres of the era - symphonies and operas. His creative legacy includes works for choir, piano, string orchestra. But in the works of any genre in the work of Smetana, nationality and democracy come to the fore, as the most important qualities of his style.

Seeing in the opera genre the highest example of the synthesis of music and literature, the most favorable ground for reflecting national ideas, themes, images, Smetana developed two areas of this genre - the heroic (the operas Dalibor, Firefighters in the Czech Republic, Libushe) and comic ( "The Bartered Bride", "Two Widows").

Dvorak's symphonic works are extremely popular, especially the cycle of 6 major symphonic poems "My Motherland". Each of the poems has a programmatic subtitle and is a diverse interpretation of the patriotic idea. These are musical landscapes, and memories of antiquity, legends about legendary heroes, memories of the people's struggle for liberation.

The piano cycle "Sketches" (1858) is an example of a piano cycle of miniatures, a typical romantic genre. At the heart of the work is the national theme that defines Smetana. The features of Czech folklore are vividly realized in the miniatures of the cycle.

(Cassette No. 11. Side A)

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 - 1847, Germany).

Mendelssohn's work occupies a special place in the history of German romantic musical culture. In the era of the dominance of romantic ideals, Mendelssohn proclaims the ideals of the classics - on a new, romantic basis. In the composer's work, lyrical romantic images acquired a classical balance, restraint and objectivity, epic.

Sincere reverence for the legacy of Bach, Handel, and Beethoven enriched the composer's work with specific writing techniques, completeness and rigor of musical thought, integrity and consistency of musical form.

Classical and romantic merged in the works of Mendelssohn into an inseparable whole. The fruitfulness of this path was later proved by the symphonic works of Johannes Brahms.

In the field of literature, a kind of ideal for F. Mendelssohn was the work of both romantics and classics - Jean Paul and Heine, Goethe and Shakespeare.

The synthesis of classical and romantic features led to the emergence of new genres in the work of Mendelssohn - the "lyric-landscape" symphony (continuing the traditions of Beethoven's 6th "Pastoral" symphony and Schubert's "Unfinished" symphony), lyrical instrumental concerto (based on the achievements of Mozart and Beethoven) , romantic oratorio.

Based on the achievements of Schubert and Schumann in the field of software piano miniatures, Mendelssohn creates a new piano genre - "a song without words".

This new type of piano miniature clearly proves the dominance of the song principle in the composer's work as a romantic artist. In his works, such truly romantic attitudes are also revealed - such as the desire for poetic improvisation of the presentation of musical thought, the expansion of the lyrical sphere in the sonata-symphony cycle - and as a result of this - the emergence of specific methods for the development of musical thematics.

The creative world of the composer, unlike many of his romantic contemporaries, was peacefully lyrical, classically strict and pure, objectively balanced. In many ways, the formation of the composer's worldview and aesthetics was due to his life, devoid of collisions and tragic disappointments. Coming from a wealthy banking family, Mendelssohn received an excellent education. The intellectual elite of Germany at that time gathered in the house of his parents. Since childhood, Mendelssohn was familiar with Hegel, Humboldt, Heine, Weber, Spohr, Paganini. From the age of 12, Mendelssohn communicated with Heine, which, of course, could not but influence the formation of the worldview of the future composer, his rejection of the subjective extremes of romanticism.

Mendelssohn received an excellent education, knew languages ​​very well, had many friends in different countries, but with all his heart he always belonged to Germany. At the same time, he was painfully aware of all the shortcomings and imperfections of the domestic culture of his time, especially the musical one. This determined the exceptional importance of musical and educational activities for him.

His greatest merit as an educator is the return to life of the music of J. S. Bach. It was under the direction of Mendelssohn that the Berlin Singing Chapel in 1829 - 100 years after its creation - performed Bach's Matthew Passion.

Having started writing music at the age of 10, Mendelssohn very early - in the octet (1825) and in the overture "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1826) - brings his style to perfection, the unity of which is preserved throughout his life. Working in Düsseldorf and Leipzig, Mendelssohn devotes all his strength to the promotion of classical musical art, the best examples of modern music. Orchestras under his direction performed the most complex works Cherubini, Palestrina, Handel, Lasso, Pergolesi, Mozart, Beethoven.

In 1843, Mendelssohn organized the first German conservatory in Leipzig. For about 12 years he led the famous Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig.

Along with the piano "songs without words", Mendelssohn was the creator (continuing the traditions of Beethoven) of another new genre - the romantic symphonic overture, giving it independence and significance. The formation of a new genre was largely facilitated by the fact that truly romantic - lyrical and fantastic - images were embodied in a classically harmonious and orderly form.

The independence of the overture genre in Mendelssohn's work was facilitated by the fact that they were created not as introductions to a dramatic or musical-theatrical performance, but as complete musical works.

Such is the overture "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1826). In Shakespeare's play, Mendelssohn was attracted, first of all, by sparkling humor, fantasy, brightness and vitality of images. The overture was created during Beethoven's lifetime and, in comparison with the grandeur and scale of his symphonic canvases, the young composer's small overture did not seem like a masterpiece to his contemporaries. But on the way to creating a new romantic version of the genre, Mendelssohn was the first. Subsequently, it is the symphonic overture that will become a specifically romantic genre. Thus, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is the most important work not only in the creative heritage of the composer, but also in the history of musical romanticism.

"Magnificat" No. 6 "Gloria" ("Glory to God in the highest").

A significant area of ​​​​Mendelssohn's work is vocal and choral works - oratorios "Paul" and "Elijah", as well as "Magnificat" - a solemn laudatory large-scale spiritual work to traditional Latin text.

Carl Maria von Weber (1786 - 1826, Germany).

Carl Maria Weber is one of the founders of German musical romanticism. Along with the creator of the first German romantic opera Ondine, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Weber laid the foundations of the German national romantic opera theater with his work. Advocating for the revival of German opera, Weber enriched the truly national traditions musical and dramatic theater with new, typically romantic images and musical intonations.

His operas - "The Magic Shooter" (sometimes they use a different name for the work - "Free Shooter"), "Evryant", "Oberon" are largely similar. First of all - thanks to the fabulously legendary plot, bright individual, psychologically in-depth features heroes, the exceptional significance of the lyrical beginning and images of nature, the creation of two musical worlds to embody two spheres of images - real and fantastic. The most important quality of German opera, which was formed in the works of Weber, is the unity of music, action and scenography.

Carl Maria Weber was also an active public figure. In 1811, he organized the "Harmonic Society", which had as its goal the promotion of national art.

Opera "Oberon", overture.

The opera Oberon was created in 1826 based on the plot of Wieland. The product has been ordered English theater"Covent Garden" and as a libretto the composer was offered a rather weak poetic work by the English poet James Robinson Planchet. Despite the obvious dramatic miscalculations in the libretto, Weber created amazing work- a whole world of fairy-tale fantasy - naiads, gnomes, elves.

The opera is based on the German national musical and theatrical genre Singspiel, in which musical and spoken numbers alternate.

One of brightest episodes operas - an overture on the most important themes of the opera in terms of dramaturgy. Weber's achievements in the field of the symphonic overture genre largely contributed to his independence in the work of the romantics (in particular, in the work of Mendelssohn).

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897, Germany).

The second half of the 19th century was a rather difficult stage for German musical art. On the one hand, romantic tendencies deepened, entailing the mood of an increasingly aggravated subjectivism and the anorativity of the musical language. On the other hand, progressive tendencies became more and more active.

In an atmosphere of ideological and artistic crisis, classical realistic traditions gained new relevance, concert activity intensified, traditions of home chamber music were strengthened, philharmonic and other musical societies were formed - Bach, Handel, various music festivals and festivities were held.

In this diverse and colorful palette, the name of Johannes Brahms occupies a very special place, thanks to the synthesizing direction of his style. In his work, Brahms combined classical and romantic traditions, traditions coming from the deep philosophy of Bach and traditions originating in folk music. The synthesis of these directions is so deep and organic that it affects all levels of the musical fabric - both form and content.

However, the spheres of influence of these traditions are still distinguishable. Aesthetics of Brahms, his worldview is certainly classical in its foundations - balanced, rational. But the forms of its reflection - musical language, dramaturgy - have a clearly romantic basis. All this is naturally combined with the deepest penetration into the very foundations of folk Slavic, German, Hungarian melody.

Connections with national culture are not limited to reliance on folk intonations and genres. Along with several collections of folk songs - more than a hundred - in the composer's work there are also vocal works to the words of the classics of German poetry - Goethe, Schiller, Hölderling.

The democratic orientation of Brahms's work was also reflected in close attention to traditional everyday German and Austrian cultures - this is a lot of waltzes, piano miniatures, the famous "Hungarian Dances".

It should be noted that, paradoxically relying on late romantic musical trends, Brahms refuted them with all his work. During the period of the declared synthesis of music and words (on the one hand, these are Wagner's musical dramas, on the other, Liszt's program symphonism), Brahms asserted the classicist independence of music as an art form, its ability to embody the aesthetic settings of the era with its own means.

Brahms' creative heritage is huge - more than 200 songs and romances, many choral and vocal-symphonic works, sonatas for piano, violin, cello, clarinet, instrumental ensembles - trios, quartets, quintets, sextets, 4 symphonies, 2 piano concertos.

One of the composer's large-scale and significant vocal and symphonic works is the German Requiem, created in 1861-1868. In the original version, the work was supposed to be a 3-part cantata, but then the number of parts grew to 7.

As a genre of sacred music, the requiem is based on a traditional Latin text. But Brahms departs from this genre setting and uses the text in German. The main sphere of images of the requiem is lyrics and epic. This is the only example of a genre of that time that is not based on a theme doomsday and punishment for sins, but the theme of consolation, peace of mind, purification. In many ways, these features of the ideological concept of the work are due precisely to the lyric-contemplative orientation of the non-traditional text.

The 2nd part of the requiem is the sphere of focus of the most gloomy, tragic images of the work. In the ominous funeral march, bright images of hope and joy seem to “flash”, fading under the inexorable rhythm of the funeral procession.

The symphonic work of Brahms most clearly reflected the synthesizing nature of the composer's style. The symphonies of Brahms asserted the classical traditions during the period of unconditional dominance of the genre of the romantic program one-movement poem.

The ideological basis of the 1st symphony was Beethoven's concept - with the effective nature of the first movement, with the leitmotif role of the fundamental themes, with an almost exact citation of the theme of "joy" from Beethoven's 9th symphony.

The 2nd Symphony demonstrated the strongest connection between Brahms' style and the traditions of Haydn and Schubert. The well-known Soviet musicologist I. I. Sollertinsky called the 3rd symphony a “pathetic ode”. Musicologist B. Asafiev saw the specificity of this work in the fact that each of the four parts of the symphony comes to calm and lyrical completion.

The 4th symphony (1885) became the pinnacle of Brahms' symphonic work. The aesthetic basis of the cycle, according to Sollertinsky, is "the movement from elegy to tragedy."

In the 1st part of the work, romantic lyrical images dominate - simple, sincere, embodied in music with truly classical simplicity and clarity.

Concerto for piano and orchestra in B-flat major, part 2.

The concert genre occupies an important place in Brahms's work. The composer was more guided by the classical traditions of the genre (in particular, the traditions of Beethoven) than by the romantic ones, despite the extreme popularity of the concert genre among the romantics.

originality piano concertos Brahms - in their maximum closeness to the symphonic genre, the significance of epic images and in the inseparable synthesis of lyricism and drama.

The Concerto in B flat major was written in 1881 under the influence of a trip to Italy. In this concerto, due to the 4-part structure (as opposed to the traditional 3-part), the composer's desire to bring the concerto and symphonic genres closer together was clearly revealed.

The 2nd part of the work is the world of expression, rebellious, dramatic images.

Brahms' vocal music is the most extensive sphere of his work. He created about 200 songs and romances, many adaptations of folk songs, 20 duets, 60 quartets, a large number of choral works.

It was in the sphere of solo vocal music that the folk basis of his style was most revealed. In folklore, Brahms saw not a frozen, ancient art, but an ever-living, new, constantly renewing art. The result of his many years of work on collecting and processing musical folklore was a collection of 49 German folk songs (1984)

Brahms created his vocal works on both folk and author's texts. Among the masterpieces of Brahms's song lyrics are such works as "4 Strict Melodies" (a kind of solo cantata), songs on poems by Klaus Groth and Georg Friedrich Daumer, "15 Romances from Magelona" on Art. Tika.

"Serenade" is one of the samples of the composer's vocal creativity, demonstrating such a specific quality as his penetrating lyricism and the folk basis of melody.

(Cassette No. 11. Side B)

Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886, Hungary).

The process of formation of national music schools in the romantic era, it was continued by the work of F. Liszt, whose name is inextricably linked with the formation of the Hungarian music school.

F. Liszt is the largest romantic composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, musical and public figure. The composer left his homeland very early and returned to Hungary only at the end of his life. But, despite the fact that he spent many years in France and Germany, a sense of national pride, national self-consciousness was always inherent in him.

The Hungarian theme has taken a strong place in Liszt's work: the cantata "Hungary", several notebooks "Hungarian national melodies and rhapsodies" (21 pieces), 3 symphonic poems - "Lament for the Heroes", "Hungary", "Battle of the Huns", 19 Hungarian rhapsodies etc.

Intonations of Hungarian folk melodies, characteristic techniques of folk ensemble instrumental performance penetrated into other works of the composer, forming a new melodic style that creatively transforms folk melody and combines with the best achievements of romantic and classical musical art. In many ways, this synthesis was due to the fact that the artist Liszt saw his task not only in creative, but also in active social propaganda activities. Being a brilliant virtuoso pianist, he performed both his own works and works of the classics, he advocated in every possible way for the democratization of musical art, for bringing it closer to a wide audience.

The tendency to democratize art, the desire to make it accessible to any listener, and the typically romantic ideal of the synthesis of the arts are the reasons for the closest connection between literary and musical principles in Liszt's work, the formation of a new understanding of programming - a generalized psychological one. And it is precisely in the programs of Liszt's works that the direction of the evolution of his work, his aesthetics, is most tangible, often leading to abstract philosophizing and mysticism.

The significance of the composer's creative achievements is immeasurable.

He created new genres of symphonic music - program symphonic romantic monothematic poem, program monothematic romantic symphony, piano poem.

In his works, new principles of musical development were fixed - monothematic, the principle of genre and figurative transformation of themes.

He transformed piano art - along the lines of symphonization and orchestral sonority.

Liszt's vocal work is quite large-scale. These are songs to poems by Goethe, Heine, Hugo, to the words of Hungarian songs. The composer also turned to the poetic works of the authors of the 18th century and the Renaissance (in particular, to the sonnets of Petrarch). In addition to secular vocal music, Liszt also owns spiritual works - the Granskaya mass (written in honor of the consecration of the cathedral in Gran in 1856) and the Hungarian Coronation Mass (which was created in honor of the coronation of the Austrian emperor by the Hungarian king).

The oratorio "The Legend of Saint Elizabeth" is one of Liszt's best vocal and instrumental works (1857-1862). In the center of the oratorio is the image of Elizabeth, the devoted daughter of the Hungarian people.

The last part of the oratorio - "The Solemn Burial of Elizabeth" - glorifies selflessness and humility main character.

Liszt's symphonic and piano music are the two most extensive areas of the composer's work, areas in which he showed himself primarily as a brilliant innovator.

The middle of the 19th century is the time of the most active renewal of symphonic music - genre, structural, figurative and meaningful. Many new varieties of the symphonic genre arise - a program lyrical-genre symphony (in the work of Schubert), a program concert overture (in the work of Mendelssohn) ... In the work of Liszt, two completely new versions of symphonic music are formed - a symphonic program one-movement romantic poem and a program monothematic romantic symphony.

Liszt created 13 programmatic symphonic poems. These works are united by a common form - free fantasy one-partness, free implementation of sonata principles for the development of musical themes, the use of variational principles for the development of musical material, and frequent adherence to the principles of a 4-part symphonic cycle.

With all the variety of themes and plots in the poems, List gives a clear preference to the heroic theme - "Prometheus", "Mazeppa", "Hamlet", "Lament for the Heroes".

Almost always, the composer prefaced symphonic poems with detailed literary programs, the embodiment of which in music had, as a rule, a generalized psychological character.

Focusing on the all-round disclosure of one leading image, Liszt comes to the creation of new principles of form formation, to special musical themes, which, in the process of various genre transformations, reveal all their potential figurative and content possibilities. In this case, two most important components of the composer's musical thinking arise - monothematism and the principle of genre and figurative transformation of themes.

With all the freedom of presentation of musical thought and the unconventionality of its development, Liszt often refers to the laws of the sonata form - as the most philosophical and capacious in content.

The symphonic poem "Mazepa" was created in 1851. As in many heroic symphonic poems by Liszt - "Tasso", "Preludes", in "Mazepa" the core of the work - both ideological and figurative - is one leading typical heroic-dramatic image of a person - a fighter, a titan, a unique personality who suffered a lot and endured a lot. Almost all heroic poems, including Mazeppa, are built on a monothematic principle, which determines the genre and figurative transformation of the main theme.

The poem "Preludes" in its first version was an introduction to 4 male choirs on verses French poet Joseph Autran "The 4 Elements - Earth, Winds, Waves and Stars" (1844)

Only much later did Liszt create the program for this work on the basis of Lamartine's religious-mystical poem ("From New Poetic Reflections"), which tells of the vanity and futility of human life. But, despite the philosophically vague program, Liszt saturated the musical work with very specific, effective content, which practically did not correspond to the literary source. The work of Lamartine became for Liszt only an impetus to his own reflections, in the center of which are heroic and optimistic images. In the poem, images of philosophical reflections replace each other (typically the romantic theme of a “question”, which initially has no answer), heroic, dreamy-lyrical, developing into a victorious, triumphant anthem.

Liszt was one of the greatest pianists of his time and the greatest composer of piano music. In the field of piano creativity, Liszt's innovation was clearly reflected - harmonic, melodic, innovation in the interpretation of traditional genres and the creation of new ones, the formation of an orchestral, symphonic sonority of the piano.

In Liszt's piano heritage, along with romantic genres, there are also classical ones. These are 2 sonatas - "Fantasy-sonata after reading Dante" and sonata in B-minor, which exclusively freely interpret the traditional genre.

Liszt was the creator of a new piano genre - rhapsodies. Previously, this genre existed in composer practice, but it was a paraphrase on themes from various operas, without claiming independence and significance. Liszt, on the other hand, creates his rhapsodies as original works based on folk song and dance music. It should be noted that Liszt's interest in folklore was due not only to the patriotic aspirations of the composer himself, but also to the atmosphere of an active discussion of folklore problems in French culture of that time. In many ways, Liszt's interest in folk art was also aroused by the enthusiasm of his teacher Antonio Reicha. This Czech musician argued that without relying on folk art, it is difficult to create a meaningful work.

For Liszt, folklore becomes one of the pillars of his work: folk music in his understanding is not a frozen archaic, but an effective, living, progressive art. Therefore, the themes of the composer's rhapsodies are mainly based on folklore sources (with the exception of only a few). Very often, Liszt combined the themes of old verbunkos (the national virtuosic style of performance and Hungarian folk music), szardas and urban everyday modern songs within one work.

It is interesting that almost all the themes of the Hungarian Rhapsodies and "Hungarian National Melodies and Rhapsodies" were taken by Liszt from the folklore of the Hungarian gypsies. Liszt himself called his rhapsodies precisely the gypsy epic. The ideal that Liszt sought to achieve was ease, freedom of presentation - from the freedom of spirit and the performance of Hungarian-gypsy orchestras. The sequence of themes in Liszt's rhapsodies - with all its freedom - still has its bonding points: the principle of contrast in the alternation of episodes and the principle of growth - tempo, dynamic, etc.

The fundamental genres in Liszt's piano legacy were also program miniatures, paraphrases, etudes, and concertos.

Liszt's concertos are a new page in the history of the genre. Being closely related to the symphonic poems, the concertos are also based on the principle of monothematism.

The 1st concerto for piano and orchestra was completed in 1856. The work is dominated by heroic, bravura and lyrical (and dreamy and expressive) images.

Like many romantic musicians, in his piano work Liszt turned to genres that did not have a strictly fixed structure and figurative content. One such genre is the etude. Following the traditions of Chopin, Liszt develops the etude genre not only as an educational and technical, auxiliary, but primarily as a highly artistic genre. In Liszt's work, an etude turns into a large-scale piano work of a virtuoso nature, containing a wide variety of images - heroic, dreamy-lyrical, fabulous-fantastic, dramatic. Liszt originally intended to create a cycle of 48 studies in all keys. But he wrote only 12 sketches (1826), which had a clearly pedagogical, technical orientation. After numerous editions and revisions in 1851, the 5th edition of the cycle appeared, which was called "Etudes of the highest performing skill". In this edition, 10 out of 12 studies acquired program names: No. 1 - "Prelude", No. 3 - "Landscape", No. 4 - "Mazeppa" (the theme of this study later became the basis of the symphonic poem of the same name), No. 5 - "Wandering Lights" , No. 6 - "Vision", No. 7 - "Heroic", No. 8 - "Wild Hunt", No. 9 - "Memories", No. 11 - "Evening Harmonies", No. 12 - "Snowstorm".

Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869, France).

The name of Berlioz and his work has always caused fierce controversy among his contemporaries. His works sounded too new, too unusual, in which the composer, first of all, pushed the boundaries of the concept of music (thanks to the creation of a new type of melody, gravitating towards instrumentality and the embodiment of the mass principle). The origins of this are in the specifics of French romanticism itself, which merged the desire for intimate lyrics, fantastic and humorous images and civil, revolutionary themes.

With the emergence of Berlioz's symphonic works, it became possible to speak of the formation of truly French national romantic symphonism. The origins of French symphonic music are in the instrumental intervals of the operas by Rameau, Gluck, Cherubini's overtures. Continuing these traditions, Berlioz enriched symphonic music with vivid theatricality, visibility and concreteness of images.

French musical culture has always strived for clarity, the reality of images. It should be noted that these traditions were formed in the XVII - 1st half. 18th century in the work of composers of the French harpsichord school. And to a large extent, this was facilitated by the programmatic nature of the works of harpsichordists. Berlioz is often called the "inventor of the program" of symphonic works. The composer's innovation and artistic "sensitivity" manifested itself in the fact that he intuitively foresaw the aesthetic necessity of merging literature and symphonic music.

Berlioz and Liszt became the founders of two areas of programming in the art of music. Liszt tended to reflect the generalized ideological and psychological content of the work. Berlioz strove to reproduce plot, narrative in his work.

However, Berlioz's innovation lies not only in the programmatic nature of his symphonic works. Historically new in his symphony is the modernity of the content, the creation of the image of a modern artist. All this brought to life new principles of shaping, the nature of thematism and the principles of its development. This is especially clearly reflected in the melodic language of the composer. Berlioz's melody had a very special - instrumental - character (in contrast to the vocal melodic style that dominated the Romantics), it combined truly romantic lyricism, sincerity, trepidation and pathos of French revolutionary songs (Berlioz owns the orchestral version of "La Marseillaise"). The desire to reflect the music of the French street on the big professional stage was due to Berlioz's protest against bourgeois philistinism, averageness, his desire to revive heroic images in romantic music, the dream of a mass audience and a truly popular, democratic art.

That is why the basis of Berlioz's work was the symphonic genre, which involves a large audience. The composer's program symphonies - "Fantastic", "Harold in Italy", "Romeo and Juliet" - are inextricably linked with the national culture of France, primarily due to their exceptional theatricality (they also offer a stage embodiment). Considering himself a successor to Beethoven's traditions, Berlioz creates a very special figurative world - colorful, ambiguous, imbued with effectiveness. The composer's innovation also affected the field of interpretation of the sonata-symphony cycle, sometimes growing to 5-parts, sometimes based on the principles of monothematism.

In the field of orchestral writing, Berlioz relies on the achievements of composers of the era french revolution who wrote for very large-scale orchestras with an expanded group of wind and percussion instruments. Berlioz's orchestra is rich in colors, the composer often creates a special timbre dramaturgy, uses new, unconventional playing techniques, and includes unusual, previously unused instruments in the orchestra.

Berlioz's vocal and choral heritage is very large-scale, and many works for the choir acquire a completely new genre look from the composer. This is a lyrical scene - according to the composer's own designation - "The Death of Orpheus", "The Condemnation of Faust" by Berlioz was defined as a dramatic legend.

"Requiem" (1837) was created in honor of the memory of the heroes of the July Revolution. By his convictions, Berlioz was an atheist, and the traditionally spiritual genre of the requiem acquired a new sound in his work. This is the highest example of civil lyrics. Using the canonical Latin text of the requiem, Berlioz strives primarily to embody its emotional and dramatic content. "Requiem" is exceptionally original. His new melody is pathetic, oratorically elevated, combining pathos and penetrating lyricism. Unusual in its grandiosity is the performing staff - 200 choristers, 140 orchestra members, additional wind instruments and an extremely extended percussion group.

Part 2 "The Day of Wrath", section "The Trumpet of the Eternal".

"Fantastic Symphony" (Episode from the artist's life).

Part 5 - "The Sabbath of Witches."

"Fantastic Symphony" was created in 1830-1831. and was a declaration of the romantic ideals of French culture in the symphonic genre.

The author himself prefaced the symphony with a detailed script program, in which he set out in detail the plot of the work. This script is largely autobiographical. From this point of view, Berlioz continues the traditions of the lyrical musical intimate diaries of Schubert and Schumann, embodying the eternal - but especially relevant in romantic art - theme of the artist's loneliness and his discord with reality.

The plot of the work is based on the fantasies and visions of a young musician who is driven to suicide by hopeless love. An attempt to poison himself with opium turns out to be unsuccessful and the unfortunate lover plunges into an unreal world in which he sees the face of his beloved everywhere. This image is embodied by an extremely expressive, restless theme, which becomes the leitmotif of the work and in each part takes on a new look, undergoing various transformations.

Each part of the symphony has its own program name. 1st part - "Dreams, passions", 2nd part - "Ball", 3rd part - "Scene in the fields", 4th part - "Procession to the execution", 5th part - "A dream on the night of the witches' sabbath."

The last part of the work is a large-scale orchestral-“theatrical” scene in which contrasting episodes alternate. Embodying the demonic principle in music, Berlioz - at a new level - refers to the traditions of dark fantasy in the work of K. M. Weber. The leitmotif of the work - the theme of the beloved - undergoes a radical rethinking in the finale. From a dream of a distant ideal, it turns into a caricature, vulgar, shrill dance, "reducing" the image.

Thus, it is in the finale that the general idea of ​​the symphony is affirmed - the idea of ​​the disappointment of a romantic artist in life.

A little later, Berlioz, in an attempt to rethink the symphony and create its new ideological concept, writes a kind of “continuation” - a new movement called “Lelio, or Return to Life”. By genre, it is a lyrical monodrama for voice, choir and orchestra. But the music of this part was a reworking of the composer's early works, was rather weak, and the original, 5-movement version of the symphony was entrenched in performing practice.

(Cassette No. 12. Side A)

Gioacchino Rossini (1792 - 1868, Italy).

Italian musical romanticism - in comparison with German and Austrian - had a specific appearance. Its unusualness was largely determined by the relevance of civil, patriotic ideas, its connection with the Italian people's liberation movement, with the activities of the Carbonari, with protest against French oppression and with the uprisings of the 1820s. Great importance in the 1830s. had the activities of the organization "Young Italy", aimed at raising the liberation movement. 1840s brought with them the rebirth of the Italian state. This period - the Risorgimento - was marked by the formation of a new literary school based on the ideas of the people's liberation struggle. The works of Hugo Foscolo, Manzoni, Rosetti reflect historical themes and plots aimed at reviving interest in national history, at embodying patriotic and heroic themes. In music, the romantic ideals of a liberating, fighting Italy found a slightly different expression.

First of all, the opera genre finds itself in a very difficult, ambiguous position. Opera by this time was burdened with many clichés, stereotyped situations, and traditions of virtuoso singing. In addition, the opera is perceived as an entertainment genre. Being the most democratic, mass and popular genre in the musical culture of Italy, the opera at the same time turned out to be the most suitable for the implementation of advanced and innovative settings. But the next obstacle on this path was censorship oppression.

The honor of transforming the traditional image of the Italian opera house and creating a new romantic Italian opera belongs to Gioacchino Rossini.

Peru Rossini owns 38 operas, including such masterpieces of the operatic genre as "The Thieving Magpie", "Moses in Egypt", "The Barber of Seville", "William Tell".

The Barber of Seville and William Tell were pinnacles in the evolution of Italian opera. William Tell is actually the first historical-heroic opera of the 19th century. The Barber of Seville is a brilliant conclusion to the centuries-old development of the Italian comic opera. Rossini gave particular preference to this genre. The opera was created in 1816 from a libretto by Sterbini (based on a play by Beaumarchais). The differences from the literary source consisted in the almost complete rejection of social sharpness, in the emphasis on the comic principle, and in democratization tendencies. Despite the French basis of the plot, the characters of the opera are typical images Italian theater - the genre of commedia dell'arte.

Despite the importance of solo performance, the opera lacks excessive vocal virtuosity and coloratura, so beloved by the Italian public. The melodic style of the work is exquisite in its naturalness and grace, full of rhythms and intonations of modern urban everyday and folk music. Such is the famous overture to the opera.

Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893, France).

Opera "Faust", act 2, scene 3 - Mephistopheles' serenade.

In the middle of the 19th century, a new opera genre was formed in French musical art - the lyric opera, which marked significant changes in the aesthetics of French opera music. Romantic interest in the hyperbolization of feelings and the image of an exceptional personality is losing relevance. These trends are being replaced by an interest in the life of a simple person in his everyday life, the desire to embody sincere, simple lyrical feelings. These changes led to the emergence of new features of the musical language - democracy, simplicity of intonation, reliance on the melody of modern urban and folk songs and dances.

The genre of lyrical opera finally took shape in the work of Ch. Gounod, whose legacy includes 12 operas, including The Unwitting Doctor, Romeo and Juliet, and Faust.

The opera "Faust" was created in 1859. The basis of the work was the deeply philosophical work of Goethe, but only in its lyrical aspect. The ideological core of the opera is the personal drama of the main character Margarita, the images of Faust and Mephistopheles play rather an auxiliary role. "Faust" is a brilliant series of bright, individual musical characteristics of the characters - a kind of musical "portraits". The image of Mephistopheles acquires a very characteristic interpretation of the 19th century: the images of evil are embodied in musical art as theatrical and conditional. The serenade of Mephistopheles is an evil mockery, a kind of “inverted” love song that characterizes the image, first of all, evil-ironic.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901, Italy).

Opera has always been the dominant genre in Italian musical life. But in the 40s and 50s 19th century - after the end of Rossini's creative career, this genre again finds itself in a difficult and crisis situation. The explosive revolutionary atmosphere saturated the melody of the operas with the intonations of revolutionary, patriotic songs. But these progressive tendencies were drowned out by the strictest censorship. One of the most democratic genres, opera, demanded new, topical themes and plots, which, in turn, was hindered by many outdated canons of the genre. A kind of way out of this crisis is the actualization of historical plots, disguised and "smoothly" embodying modernity.

In addition, the existing system of seasons for opera troupes relied practically on the production of new works, which led to the need for composers to work very quickly. Of course, this could not but affect the skill of artists and singers, the value of the operatic works themselves. Italian opera was gradually fettered by craftsmanship, routine and mediocrity.

The operatic work of G. Verdi marked a new, brilliant page in the history of Italian opera, its turning to realistic themes and plots, the democratization of the operatic language, and the formation of deeply philosophical dramatic concepts.

The opera Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco, 1840) was the brightest reflection in opera music revolutionary and patriotic ideas. Based on a biblical story, it turned out to be consonant with modernity by the desire to embody the people's suffering. The musical language of the opera was largely based on the intonations of revolutionary songs. The tendency towards the embodiment of a mass, folk principle determined the exceptional dramaturgical significance of the choral episodes. One of them is chorus number 13 from the 3rd act.

In the 40s. 19th century Verdi also created such wonderful examples of the operatic genre as "Lombards in the First Crusade", "Ernani", "Macbeth", "Battle of Legnano".

Opera "Troubadour". Act 2, No. 4.

The opera Il trovatore belongs to the famous triad of operas by Verdi of the 1950s. ("Rigoletto", "La Traviata"). Significant changes are taking place in the composer's work of this period - ideological, figurative, meaningful. The failures of the revolutionary movement in Italy lead to a new interpretation of the patriotic and heroic themes, which the composer solves in a social “section”, strengthening the personal principle in the dramas of his heroes. For the first time in the work of Verdi (and in the musical art of the 1st half of the 19th century), the theme of social inequality arises. Verdi is primarily interested in the fate of ordinary people, which forms a special psychological sharpness of the composer's work of this period.

The opera Il trovatore was written in 1850-1851. based on the play by the Spanish playwright A. Gutierrez. The creators of the libretto are Salvatore Cammarano and Leon Emmanuele Bardare. The libretto of the opera, like its literary source, was a romantic drama with an extremely intricate tragic plot and many melodramatic scenes. Verdi, in this rather illogical work with weak and far-fetched dramaturgy, was attracted primarily by the spirit of rebellion, the desire for freedom and the heroic appearance of the protagonist of the work.

The opera "Aida" was written in 1871 by order of the Egyptian government in honor of the opening of the Suez Canal. The plot was developed by the famous French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette and Camille du Locle, the libretto was written by Antonio Ghislanzoni. The historical plot acquires an exclusively modern sound from Verdi, the images of the characters are real and psychologically reliable, the central idea of ​​the opera was no less modern - the idea of ​​the national liberation movement, the depravity and perniciousness of wars that destroy human destinies. Aida is an amazing example of the operatic genre, in which ethical issues, personal drama and drama of moral duty are intertwined.

One of the central problems that worried researchers of Verdi's work was the problem of the embodiment of folklore in Aida. While working on the work, Verdi repeatedly turned to Auguste Mariette for advice, he himself studied the history and art of Egypt. But in the music of the opera there are practically no hints of folklore sources. Oriental flavor is embodied in a very "transparent" way - in romantic, colorful harmonies, in fine orchestration.

Act 4, scene 2. Duet of Radames and Aida. One of Verdi's contemporaries described this episode of the farewell of the heroes of the work with life as follows: "Not so much sounds as tears." In this duet, the melodic style of the opera - bright, individualized, lyrically expressive - reached its climax.

Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883, Germany).

In the middle of the XIX century. significant changes are taking place in the musical culture of Germany. In the 50s. 19th century two main musical schools are formed in the country: Weimar or New German (Liszt, Wagner) and Leipzig (representatives of "moderate" romanticism - Karl Reinecke, Franz Abt). Over time, the confrontation of these schools takes on a slightly different form, Brahms and Wagner are opposed to each other. The New German school saw as its task the all-round propaganda of Wagner's work, his "music of the future." In the 70s. the "Wagnerian Society" also arises.

Wagner became practically the last representative of romanticism in German music. And like many of the romantic artists, he often contradicted his own aesthetic declarations with his work.

A subjective idealist in his convictions, he embodied in music completely real psychological images (although they were often colored with fantasy and mysticism), a protest against the existing reality, which infringes on the creator with its routine and philistinism, the drama of human feelings, the contradictory nature of life and its often hostility to man. Like many romantics, Wagner was a universal artist - not only a composer, but also an excellent conductor, a sharp and insightful critic, a talented musicologist, and a librettist.

Wagner's path to the opera ran through intensive conducting activities in Magdeburg and Riga.

Of great importance in shaping the aesthetics and style of the composer was the period of his work in Dresden as the chief conductor of the opera house (since 1842). At this time, the foundations of his aesthetic views were laid, which are an ambiguous synthesis of the ideals of "Young Germany" - the renewal of art, the contemplative philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach, the ideas of utopian socialism, the ideas of anarchism. In addition, all the composer's work since that time reflects the rejection of the capitalist system, philistinism and narrow-mindedness.

The opera The Flying Dutchman, which arose during this period, marked the final formation of the composer’s innovative style, in which from now on the appeal to national themes, plots and images, the desire to create a holistic dramaturgy of the work come to the fore - and for this purpose independent work as a librettist. The most important thing for the composer was the appeal to the fabulously legendary sphere, to the area of ​​myth - a universal artistic whole that combines artistic creativity, morality, history, lyrics, drama and epic. With its allegoricalness, universality, the myth teaches and instructs, actualizing historical plots. The appeal to myth as the focus of the long-standing historical, ethical, artistic experience of mankind, as a concentrate of spirituality, fully confirms Wagner's special understanding of art as an all-conquering, supreme purifying force.

The Flying Dutchman draws heavily on the traditions of German romantic opera, primarily due to the fusion of the lyrical and the fantastic, the real and the unreal worlds. At the same time, the work became one of the first stages in the formation of a deeply philosophical concept of Wagner's operatic work and the transformation of the genre of opera into the genre of philosophical musical drama. At the center of the ideological concept of the opera is one of the fundamental ethical and aesthetic features of Wagner's creative world - an appeal to the idea of ​​expiation of sin by love, which alone can help a person overcome the materiality and commercialism that binds him. IN " Flying Dutchman"for the first time, a female character so characteristic of Wagner's operas appears - semi-fantastic, semi-real, associated with higher powers and possessing a great gift of foresight.

From the point of view of musical language and dramaturgy, The Flying Dutchman was an innovative work in which the principles of the composer's leitmotif system were formed. By saturating the entire work with the constant introduction of short, extremely meaningful fundamental themes-symbols, Wagner brings the opera and the symphony as close as possible.

Wagner refuses the traditional number structure of the opera (dividing it into episodes closed within itself). In an effort to activate the musical action, to make it continuously developing, Wagner makes the main structural unit of the opera not an aria, but a large-scale scene consisting of several vocal episodes that grow into one another.

Opera "Lohengrin", introduction.

The libretto of the work was created in 1845, the musical text - in 1846-1848. The libretto of "Lohengrin" - like many other works of Wagner - is a combination of several storylines of legends about the knights of the Grail - fighters for justice. The main idea of ​​the work has an ethical focus, in the center is the problem of the eternal struggle between good and evil. Symbolic and mythological motifs are of great importance in the opera.

Lohengrin is the composer's most lyrical opera. Like The Flying Dutchman, two musical worlds confront each other in the opera, characterizing good (Lohengrin) and evil (Ortrud). As a rule, the themes of evil are based on a downward movement, sharp, expressive intonations. The more complex the ethical and aesthetic content of the topics that describe the negative principle, the more complex their melodic, harmonic, orchestral embodiment. The sphere of goodness is recreated in the opera with the help of choral intonations (we recall that the chorale was a kind of embodiment of the spirituality of German culture, its symbol), simple harmonies, clear and transparent orchestral writing.

In Lohengrin, the structure of Wagner's operatic genre is finally formed, based on the free alternation of scenes of through development.

Along with leitmotifs, in this work Wagner actively uses leittimbres (associating the image with the sound of an instrument or group of instruments), which leads to a kind of symphonization of the opera.

Despite the brilliance and authenticity of the mass scenes, in Lohengrin a specific feature of the Wagnerian opera theater is outlined - the predominance of the psychological principle over the plot, emotions over action.

Opera "Meistersingers of Nuremberg". Act 3 "Procession of shops".

The opera Die Meistersingers of Nuremberg is one of Wagner's best works. This is a rather unusual work for the composer - realistic in its foundations, approaching the genre of comic opera. In the plot, the main place is occupied by the chanting of folk-national ideals and the art of medieval burgher singers - meistersingers. But despite the brightness and individuality of the characters, the opera is somewhat "overloaded" with rather lengthy discussions about art. The work was created in 1867.

Opera Tannhäuser. Act 1, scene 2. Grotto of Venus. Anthem of Tannhäuser.

The opera was created in 1843-1845. Wagner wrote the libretto himself, based on several medieval chivalric legends. But the image of the protagonist, according to the composer, was exceptionally modern: like many romantic creators, Tannhäuser could not find satisfaction and happiness in this world.

The ideological and aesthetic core of the work is the theme of atonement for sin by feat. Tannhäuser is looking for the meaning of life in the sensual world - in the arms of Venus, and in the spiritual world - in the circle of pilgrims. Two worlds of emotions and feelings cause the emergence of two musical worlds. The music of the grotto of Venus is sensual, whimsical and expressive melody, refined and colorful harmonies. The spiritual world (pilgrims and loving Teigenzer Elizabeth) are characterized by choral melody, simple and clear harmonic consonances.

In Tannhäuser, the composer's leitmotif system is formed, in which symbolic images, ethical concepts, mythological motives. The characteristic features of the vocal style are outlined - the "infinity" of the melody, the "fluidity" of intonations. In addition, Wagner no longer distinguishes between singing and recitative, recitation and cantilena. Traditional opera forms - arias, duets - are replaced in the opera by extremely free monologues and dialogues.

In connection with the reliance on the leitmotif - as the most important dramatic means - the importance of the orchestral principle immeasurably increases, so the leitmotifs are predominantly performed by the orchestra.

Wagner also created a unique opera tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelungs", "Gold of the Rhine", "Valkyrie", "Siegfried", "Death of the Gods" (or "Twilight of the Gods"), as well as a brilliant opera that fully reflected all the originality of the late German romanticism- Tristan and Isolde.

Wagner is one of the original musicologists of the 2nd floor. 19th century His musical and aesthetic views are largely connected with the philosophy of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. His most significant musicological works are "Pilgrimage to Beethoven", "Art and Revolution", " Piece of art of the Future”, “Opera and Drama”, “My Life”.

(Cassette No. 12. Side B)

Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875, France).

In the second half of the 19th century, two trends more and more clearly manifest themselves in opera culture. One of them, realistic in its aesthetics, was associated with the work of G. Verdi. The other, connected with the work of R. Wagner, was essentially late romantic, leading to the formation of the genre of musical drama.

In French music, the traditions of opera realism found their brightest embodiment in the work of Georges Bizet. Turning to various genres of musical art, the composer, first of all, sought to create real, life-like images consonant with the era (in this his aspirations were similar to active public position and aesthetics mighty handful" in Russia).

Bizet was an excellent pianist and paid much attention to piano music. But his name entered the history of world musical culture primarily in connection with his music for the theater. These are the operas The Pearl Seekers, Jamile, The Beauty of Perth, the music for A. Daudet's drama The Arlesian and the composer's masterpiece, the opera Carmen (1874).

The literary primary source of "Carmen" - the short story of the same name by P. Mérimée - was radically rethought by the efforts of the librettists - Meliac, Halévy and Bizet himself. First of all, this concerned the appearance of the main characters, who appeared in a poetic form, devoid of all "reducing" moments. And therefore the idea of ​​human freedom, freedom of choice, purity and naturalness of feelings dominates in the opera. Bizet's innovation also consisted in the fact that the heroes of the opera, contrary to the traditions of the genre, were modern people.

In addition, folk scenes were also included in the libretto, which transformed the gloomy, tragic romance of the literary source into a humanistic, positively resolved drama. The folk principle is the most important aspect of the aesthetics of Carmen, which forms both the optimistic concept of the tragedy, and the interpretation of the images, and the peculiarities of the musical language of the work.

Only a few authentic folk songs are used in the opera. But the whole fabric of the opera is permeated with the most characteristic intonations and rhythms of Spanish folk music. Many episodes of the opera are based on folk genres - habanera, seguidilla, tarantella.

In Carmen, Bizet, relying on all the richness of folklore melos, freely used the traditions of the classical, numbered structure of the opera and innovative trends in creating large-scale, dramatically purposeful scenes, permeated with the unity of intonational development.

The theme of the entire work is the leitmotif of Carmen (in two versions), which becomes a symbol of the freedom of the spirit.

Act 4. The duet of José and Carmen is the last duet of the main characters. The tragedy of the feelings of Jose, rejected by Carmen, is greatly enhanced by the contrast of the festivity of the folk scenes. The "mismatch" of the personal and general plans of the narrative creates a dramatic situation that is phenomenal in terms of tension, at the same time vital and real, which corresponded exclusively to the realistic aspirations of the composer.

(Cassette No. 13. Side A)

Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907) - Norwegian composer, conductor, pianist, musical figure. Grieg is one of those artists whose role turned out to be decisive for the development of national culture. Starting his creative life in a small "provincial" country, the composer elevated Norwegian music to the heights of world classics by the power of his genius. Grieg's style is marked by a bright individuality and national character. From the first steps of his creative life, he strove to master the "native language" of Norwegian music. The composer freely implements the modal, intonational features of the Norwegian melos. Having absorbed the influence of German romanticism in his youth, Grieg then showed his individuality more and more vividly. Naturally endowed with a special sense of color, he introduced a lot of new things in the field of harmony and texture. His inherent qualities of subtle pictorial depiction permeate his music with a special sense of light, air and space. The brilliance of harmony in Grieg's works brings the composer closer to his French contemporary, Claude Debussy, a representative of impressionism. Constantly enriching his style, Grieg pursued the main goal - to raise national art to the level of outstanding world phenomena.

Grieg's vast legacy includes the main musical genres: stage and choral music, symphonic works, chamber ensembles, piano compositions, romances. Predominantly a miniaturist, Grieg most fully manifested himself in the field of piano and chamber vocal creativity. In these genres, the best aspects of his talent, subtle and sincere lyricism, affected. Grieg's piano work is multifaceted. It reflected both images of nature, and poetic pictures of folk life, and hidden movements of the human soul. His small piano pieces can be compared to lyrical poems, in which the fullness of impressions is expressed in a few words.

Grieg's piano compositions closely adjoin his chamber ensembles. The composer subtly felt the nature of bowed instruments, which have their own long tradition in Norway.

Grieg's interpretation of orchestral and symphonic genres is peculiar. All of his orchestral compositions, with the exception of an early unpublished symphony, are of the suite or program miniature type. The best orchestral compositions by Grieg are connected with the literary program, inspired by the work of G. Ibsen and B. Bjornson. Suites from the music to G. Ibsen's drama Peer Gynt (1888-1896), in which Grieg gave his interpretation of the plot, enhancing its lyrical features and introducing landscape moments, are world famous. Here, the three main lines that define the nature of Grieg's music for "Peer Gynt" - folk life, fantasy, lyrics - appear in an organic synthesis. The fantasy of "Peer Gynt" - the world of trolls and mountain spirits - was perceived by Grieg with great spontaneity, in the spirit of the Norwegian folk tale. The folk-song principle also dominates the lyrics of Peer Gynt - warm, cordial and tender in Griegian style. Common to all the musical pictures that make up the composition of "Peer Gynt" is their pronounced national character.

In the First Suite, Grieg included the composition "Morning" as the first number. This picture, according to Grieg himself, is “the mood of morning nature, where ... at the very first“ forte ”the sun breaks through the clouds.” The music of "Utra" is permeated with pastoral, idyllic tunes, breathes with the freshness of the northern morning. The charm of this music lies in the subtle play of timbres and light, shining harmonic colors. The pastoral duet of flute and oboe, and then the warm sound of the strings, the singing of the French horn and the chirping of the flutes paint a picture of awakening nature.

Jan Sibelius (1865 - 1957) Finnish composer and conductor.

The master's work was formed in line with classical and romantic traditions. In the vast and diverse musical heritage of Sibelius in terms of genres and forms, the most significant are large orchestral works that made him famous as one of the prominent representatives of the world symphony. The composer was inspired by the peculiar flavor of Finnish musical folklore, the harsh northern nature, the poetic images of the Kalevala national epic, the historical past and problems modern life Finnish people. Without quoting folk melodies, Sibelius organically implemented the features of Finnish musical and poetic folklore, its intonational, harmonic and rhythmic turns, as well as the performing traditions and techniques of Finnish rune-singers. The vocal works of Sibelius are mainly associated with the work of Finnish national poets.

The main place in the musical heritage of Sibelius is occupied by 7 symphonies, diverse in their emotional-figurative structure and methods of musical embodiment. Sibelius interpreted the symphony as an instrumental drama, generalizing a wide range of images - heroic-epic, dramatic, lyrical, pastoral, in-depth psychological.

Throughout his career, Sibelius gravitated toward programming. Among his numerous program symphonic works are the Kullervo Symphony, symphonic poems, overtures, and suites.

One of Sibelius's best works is the Violin Concerto (1905), written with a subtle knowledge of the nature of the instrument, on a truly symphonic scale and taking a prominent place in world violin literature. The composition of the concerto is romantically free and at the same time strict, the music is distinguished by its depth, originality, breadth of melodic breathing (especially in the violin part), brilliant and expressive virtuosity.

In the finale (3rd part) of the concerto, the music seems to lead away from the dramatic conflict of the previous parts and, as it were, resurrects long-forgotten pictures of ancient festive pagan ritual rites. Two melodies, in terms of intonation, mode and rhythm close to folk songs, dominate this part. The first is mobile, motor, like a bewitching tune, the second imitates a rough-hearted folk dance, which in its development reaches a huge elemental force.

The finale is completed by a major coda, which is based on the motives of the main part of the first movement. This relationship creates a kind of intonation-semantic arch, which crowns the whole cycle with a bright apotheosis.

Charles Camille Saint-Saens (1835 - 1921) - French composer, pianist, organist, conductor, music critic and writer, teacher, musical and public figure.

The creative principles of Saint-Saens developed under the influence of national traditions (harpsichordists, G. Berlioz, grand opera, lyric opera), as well as the art of J. S. Bach, G. F. Handel, the Viennese classics, F. Liszt's program symphony. Composer activity of Saint-Saens was distinguished by exceptional intensity: he created numerous works in many musical genres. He is the author of eleven operas (the most popular of them - "Samson and Delilah" - took pride of place in the repertoire of opera houses around the world). However, the most striking area of ​​his work is instrumental music, primarily concert virtuoso. Such works as a symphony with an organ (dedicated to the memory of F. Liszt, 1886), program symphonic poems (especially popular "Dance of Death", 1874), 2nd, 4th, 5th piano (1868, 1875, 1896) , 2nd cello (1902), 3rd violin (1880) concertos, "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso" for violin and orchestra (1863) put him among the largest French composers.

Saint-Saens's works are dominated by light poetic lyrics, moods of joy and vivacity, born from the expressive dynamics of movement, juicy genre sketches, peaceful contemplation, noble pathos, and restrained drama. A combination of a lively impulsive temperament with poise is characteristic. By its nature, the art of Saint-Saens is objective, logical, clear, intellectual beginning it often prevails over the emotional. The composer's style is characterized, in particular, by the song and declamation warehouse of thematics, the widespread use of folklore intonations and genres, and dance rhythms. The works of Saint-Saens are distinguished by melodic saturation, infinitely changeable, flexible, mobile and elastic rhythm, grace and variety of texture, logical harmony and completeness of the composition, combined with free construction. All these features are largely inherent in one of the most popular works of Saint-Saens - concerto No. 2 for piano and orchestra. It was written on the initiative of A. G. Rubinstein, with whom Saint-Saens became close during the Russian musician's Paris tour in 1868. At the same time, the work was performed by the author in a concert conducted by Rubinstein. The first part of the Concerto captivates with free, unconstrained improvisation, richness of rhythm, the second is full of wit and grace, the finale is based on continuous movement in the spirit of a tarantella, which at the end of the movement leads to a large dynamic increase.

Cesar Franck (1822 - 1890) - French composer, organist, teacher.

In his work, Frank combined romantic imagery with the desire for classical clarity of style. At the same time, Frank's music is characterized by antitheses of enthusiasm and rigor, freedom of expression and a clear structural organization (monothematism), organ viscosity of orchestral writing and recitatives. Synthesizing the influences of J. S. Bach and L. Beethoven, the late romantics (R. Wagner, F. Liszt) and French folk melodics, Frank developed his own individual style.

The most famous symphonic (symphony), chamber-instrumental (sonata for violin and piano, string quartet), organ (3 chorales) and piano (prelude, chorale and fugue) works of Frank belong to the late period of creativity (by the 80s; during this period he also wrote operas, choral compositions, romances). They are characterized by more direct lyrics, filled with a feeling of love for nature.

Frank entered the history of music as a representative of the so-called renewal movement. The main place in Frank's legacy is occupied by instrumental compositions; they are characterized by generalization, intellectualism. One of the greatest French composers and thinkers, who absorbed the national traditions of French and Belgian music, Frank combined in his art philosophical depth with clarity, correlation of feeling and reason; he was distinguished by such national French qualities as delicacy of taste, brilliance of expression.

Among Frank's orchestral compositions, the D-minor symphony stands out - one of his best works. It very organically combines the features of romanticism and classicism. The focus of the artist's attention is the human personality with its complex inner world. Hence - the prevailing lyricism, increased emotional expression of music, its psychological depth, so characteristic of the works of the late romantics. But with all this, Frank does not destroy the objective laws of the strict architectonic construction of the classical form, but expands and enriches the genre of the symphony, as was also characteristic of his contemporaries.

In the musical images of the work, to a certain extent, both Beethoven's heroism and Liszt's philosophy are "melted down". But Frank is characterized by exceptional immediacy of expression, emotional warmth, penetration, a tendency to figurative concreteness, which gives his music a characteristic and uniquely individual coloring.

In the first movement and finale, Franck uses a rich, dense orchestra, more typical of operatic than symphonic scores of the time. Perhaps, in the “density” of some pages of the score, in the sometimes commitment to “thick”, low basses, the composer’s habit of organ sonority affected.

Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918) French composer.

The significance of Debussy for world musical culture is determined mainly by the compositions of the middle period of creativity, when his talent flourished as the largest representative impressionism in music. Debussy develops a very original individual style, which manifests itself in almost all genres that the composer addresses, including synthetic ones (for example, the opera Pelléas et Mélisande, music for the mystery of G. D'Annunzio "The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian", etc.) . However, predominantly instrumental music demonstrates the most striking results of his creative search. Debussy created an impressionistic melody, distinguished by the delicacy and flexibility of nuances, but at the same time by a certain vagueness and uncertainty. Its most important qualities are fragility, capriciousness, blurred contours. The essence of Debussy's impressionistic polyphony is the imposition and interweaving of coloristic strokes. Rhythm, on the other hand, combines a variety of details, countlessness of the smallest shades with a departure from clear and broad rhythmic generalizations. Debussy is constantly striving to create the effect of "flickering" of harmonic colors, resorting to various combinations of harmonies. At the same time, Debussy's music combines the fragility of musical images with clarity and simplicity of form.

Debussy constantly wrote program music, but this is a typically impressionistic program, proclaiming a veiled imagery, full of vague hints, capable of exciting fantasy. Debussy's programming usually avoids plotlines, where this plotliness is outlined, it is hidden.

Debussy diversified the ability of music to extremely refined and vaguely exciting reflection and embodiment of shades of human emotions and natural phenomena.

An outstanding work of Debussy is the orchestral triptych "Nocturnes" (1897-1899), in which he achieved a direct and truthful transmission of impressions, free poetic sound painting. Debussy understood the unusual nature of his works and provided the program of the first concert with author's comments:

The title - "Nocturnes" - here acquires a more general and even more decorative meaning. We are not talking about the usual form of nocturne, but about everything that connects this word with certain impressions and light sensations.

"Clouds" is a picture of a still sky with slowly and melancholy passing clouds, floating away in a gray agony, gently tinted with white light.

"Celebrations" - movement, dancing rhythm of the atmosphere with explosions of sudden light, as well as an episode of the procession (dazzling and chimerical vision), passing through the holiday and merging with it; but the background remains - it is a celebration, a mixture of music with luminous dust, which is part of the overall rhythm.

"Sirens" - the sea and its infinitely diverse rhythm; then, among the waves silvering under the moon, the mysterious singing of the sirens arises, crumbles with laughter and subsides.

The creation of "Nocturnes" testified to the expansion of the circle of images of Debussy's work.

A similar trend extended to his piano works. This is especially true of his two notebooks of preludes (1910, 1913), Debussy's outstanding achievement in the field of piano music. The preludes contain the quintessence of his pianism; they are, as it were, an encyclopedia of the composer's creative methods, where one can find features reminiscent of his most diverse works. Each of the preludes is a finished picture of high artistic perfection, polished to the smallest detail. The whole cycle of 24 preludes demonstrates the variety of creative tasks solved in them.

For example, the third prelude “Wind on the Plain” is interesting: the music conveys not only a sense of space, not only movement, but also a feeling of anxiety and restlessness, which runs like a red thread through the entire work. Wind on the Plain is one of the masterpieces of Debussy's pianistic writing; every detail is carefully weighed and reduced to the essentials. At the same time, there is so much originality in this stinginess of texture - in the quivering passages that set off a simple and noble melody in the first bars, in the composer's favorite chains of parallel chords that create the effect of spatiality. "Wind on the Plain" can serve as a vivid example of the diversity of Debussy's pianistic writing, which equally owned both strict laconicism and full-sounding presentation.

Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937) - French composer, one of the greatest musicians of the first half of the 20th century.

In his works, the composer sang of nature, "eternal ideals" of harmony and beauty, drawn from antiquity and the Renaissance, from fairy tales. Ravel's temperamental music is marked by a sense of proportion, restraint of expression and a certain intellectualism.

Ravel's work has undergone a complex evolution from the joyful perception of the world, the intoxication with beauty in his early works - to the drama of recent years. Having experienced the influence of the aesthetics of impressionism, Ravel went far beyond its scope. In his work, various aesthetic and stylistic trends were intertwined: classicist, romantic-impressionist and neoclassical (in the late period). They manifested themselves most clearly in his instrumental music.

Interest in folklore (French, Spanish, and other countries) is one of the characteristic features of Ravel's work, which first manifested itself already in the piano piece Habanera (1895, later included in the Spanish Rhapsody). Flexibility, plasticity of melodic lines come from the peculiarities of the French folk epic. Ravel's role in the renewal of French pianism is great. In the virtuoso-impressionist piano piece The Play of Water (1901), he created, starting from the pianistic achievements of Liszt, a new type of piano writing, which he subsequently developed. At the same time, in the piano work of Ravel, continuity with the French classics of the 18th century is established. The musical language of many of Ravel's works is associated with Spanish culture (opera Spanish Hour, Spanish Rhapsody, Bolero). Ravel reaches the heights of orchestral skill in Rhapsody Spanish (1907), marked by the modal and rhythmic originality of melodies (as a rule, short, but very embossed). Basically, the composer uses Mauritanian-Andalusian themes here (only the Malaguena theme is of Basque origin). The score of "Spanish Rhapsody" is characterized by refinement, brilliance of orchestral colors. The idea to convey the effect of plein air sound dictates the techniques of numerous various orchestral echoes, influxes and dissolution of motives.

"Spanish Rhapsody" is not just a series of genre-painting plays. Its parts, being in a certain tempo and figurative relationship with each other, make up a kind of cycle: the secret “Prelude of the Night”, a genre scene of a mobile character - “Malagenya”, a languid “Habanera”, an incendiary “Feeria”.

Dance occupies a large place in Ravel's work. The composer very originally used a wide variety of dance genres: minuet, habanera, waltz, later - foxtrot, blues (2nd part of the sonata for violin and piano). The emotional structure of the orchestral "Waltz", written during the First World War, is indicative. Here, the principle of constant intensification of drama is consistently carried out: the rapture of dance develops into a frenzy, the themes are transformed, they sound grotesque. The end of the "Waltz" is perceived tragically, as a breakdown into the abyss.

One of the pinnacles of the French symphony of the twentieth century is M. Ravel's "Bolero" (1928). It combines the utmost clarity of conception with the virtuoso use of the orchestra. The whole work is built on the repetition of one theme, which consists of two parts: the first is rooted in Basque folklore, the second in Mauritanian-Andalusian. With great skill, Ravel varies the thematic material. This is the secret of the inexhaustible interest for hearing extended (34 measures) melody and its seemingly endless variety. The development of musical material takes place primarily through timbre. In "Bolero" (as in "Waltz") the dance serves as a means of "generalization through the genre".

Manuel de Falla (1876 - 1946) was a Spanish composer and pianist.

In the work of M. de Falla, the line of development of the national Spanish school in music, begun by figures of Spanish culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was continued. In his compositions, the composer expressed the Spanish character in its national content and musical form, free from local limitations. Falla's brightly individual style is characterized by compactness of form, exquisite refinement of musical presentation, concentration of musical thoughts, intense expressiveness and at the same time restraint of emotions, richness and variety of rhythms, juicy, relief thematics, colorfulness (in later compositions - ascetic rigor) orchestration.

Falla's work is quite diverse in terms of genre, however most famous received his orchestral and musical-theatrical compositions. The symphonic suite for piano and orchestra "Nights in the Gardens of Spain" and the one-act ballet "Love is a Witch" (1915) are the central compositions of Falla in the mid-1910s and at the same time, along with his second ballet "The Three-Cornered Hat" (1916) and Chamber Concerto (1926), the composer's most popular and frequently performed works.

"Nights in the Gardens of Spain" concentrates the best features of the mature style of the composer of the middle period. This score is exquisitely luxurious and at the same time economically austere, where the most impressive effects are achieved by very simple means; she put Falla on a par with the leading European masters of the orchestra - N. Rimsky-Korsakov, C. Debussy, M. Ravel.

In the one-act pantomime ballet Love is a Witch, Falla paints vivid pictures of the life of the Spanish gypsies. The content of the ballet is as follows. The gypsy Carmelo and the young gypsy Candelas love each other, but their happiness is hindered by the ghost of the dead beloved Candelas appearing at night. To get rid of his persecution, Carmelo persuades Candelas' friend, the windy Lucia, to flirt with the ghost. The trick succeeds, the ghost is fascinated by Lucia and leaves the lovers.

Melodies, bright in their original wildness, sharp harmonic contours, naked timbres, sharp emotional contrasts, bizarre rhythms - these are the predominant features of the ballet; everything in it is full of elemental temperament, strength, everything is fresh and unusual. Among the most popular pages of the ballet are "Dance of Fear" (No. 5) and "Ritual Dance of Fire" (No. 8), which recreate the melos, rhythms and general color of Andalusian gypsy dances that have now almost disappeared. Finally, unusual, and in the time of Falla - innovatively bold, is the inclusion of three independent vocal numbers in the ballet: these are the “Song of Love Yearning”, “Song of the Wandering Fire” and “Dance of the Love Game”. Several vocal phrases (“The day is already dawning! Sing, bells, sing, happiness returns to me!”) are also heard in the Finale (No. 13) - against the backdrop of a solemn ringing of bells welcoming a new dawn.

Bela Bartok (1881 - 1945) - Hungarian composer, pianist, musicologist-folklorist and teacher.

Bartok's work had a huge impact on the formation of Hungarian music of a new direction in the 1930s-1950s, as well as on the development of young national composer schools in the countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

Instrumental works occupy a central place in Bartók's extensive heritage: pieces for pianoforte, 6 string quartets, sonatas and rhapsodies for violin, concertos for pianoforte (3), for violin (2), many-part works for orchestra. More episodic were his appeals to vocal and musical stage genres (the ballets The Wooden Prince (1917), The Wonderful Mandarin (1919), the opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1918).

Bartok's activity contributed to a bold renewal of the figurative and intonational structure of modern music through a brightly innovative implementation of musical folklore. He deliberately contrasted the aesthetic perfection of old peasant folklore with the spiritual impoverishment of urban culture.

Old peasant songs served Bartok not only as an example of the highest wisdom and beauty, but also as a source of renewal of the modern musical language. The experience of folk music-making, carefully studied by him in folklore expeditions, was reflected in the peculiar modal, rhythmic, timbre features of his own style. A characteristic feature of his creative appearance is also the fact that he combines the development of folklore elements with the creative development of the experience of outstanding European masters, such as R. Strauss, C. Debussy, I. Stravinsky, A. Schoenberg. At a certain stage, his works reflected the tendencies characteristic of European music of the 20th century: hypertrophied dynamism, a penchant for harsh, shock-noise sonorities, and refined intellectualism. The best creations of Bartók captivate with spontaneity of rhythms, exuberant brilliance, acute dramatic contrasts and lapidary clarity of thematics. For them, a sharp opposition to the images of raging barbarism and terrible night visions, the bright and healthy elements of folk art is typical.

Bartók made a rich contribution to the world violin repertoire. In addition to sonatas for violin and piano and two violin concertos, he wrote two rhapsodies for violin and orchestra, a sonata for solo violin, and 44 violin duets.

The Violin Sonatas (1921-1922) were the culmination of impressionist influences in Bartók's work. This is combined with elements of constructivism, which came out a little later in the first place in the piano sonata and in the first concerto for piano and orchestra.

In the First Sonata for Violin and Piano, folklore intonations appear dressed in a new harmonic attire. In all three parts of the sonata, the composer thinks polytonally, looking for colorful harmonies, timbres, trying to overcome their static nature with the energy of ostinant rhythms, reminiscent of his famous “Barbarian Allegro”. The violin part is written virtuoso, it freely uses the entire range of the instrument. Virtuosity was not an end in itself for Bartók, it is connected with the nature of the music, especially the temperamental and sweeping in the first and third movements.

main art directions. Formation of Russian classical composer school

The 19th century entered the history of Russian national culture as a period of great conquests of musical art, its full, all-round development. Already in the 1830s, Russian music reached the classical level in the work of Glinka. And in the second half of the century, it rapidly rose to the heights of world culture, enriching the world with works of enduring artistic value. In the work of Glinka and his successors - Tchaikovsky, Musorsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, music became a true expression of people's thoughts and aspirations, the result of centuries of experience accumulated in the people's consciousness.

In its historical development, the Russian composer school of the 19th century passed not only a rapid, but also a difficult path. In the development of Russian culture in the first half of the 19th century, two stages clearly develop, sharply demarcated by the events of December 14, 1825: the first quarter of the century - the years of the Patriotic War and the ripening of Decembrism. The entire subsequent period, which came after the Decembrist uprising, until 1855, marked by the end of the Crimean War. In the history of Russian art, the Decembrist uprising lived a deep milestone. The ideology of Decembrism served as the soil on which Pushkin's work grew. Here is the rich, diverse work of the poets of the Pushkin circle N.M. Yazykova, A.A. Delviga, E.A. Baratynsky, D.V. Venivitinova.

Decisive shifts were also made in the field of the younger art of music. In the period of the 1920s, Glinka began his career. There comes the rise of Russian romance lyrics, nourished by the work of Russian poets. Glinka's gifted contemporaries, Alyabyev and Verstovsky, are coming forward. On theater stage Verstovsky's romantic operas appear for the first time and win huge success, and a new, psychologically rich genre of romance-monologue is being formed in Alyabyev's work.

All these significant phenomena of Russian music arose in close connection with aesthetic quests, born in an atmosphere of stormy, disturbing events. This applies primarily to the art of Pushkin, who had a decisive influence not only on Glinka, but on the entire path of development of Russian music.

The realistic aesthetics of Pushkin, the "poet of reality", left a deep imprint on Russian music of the 19th century. Pushkin's conception of historical drama prepared Glinka's path for the folk-heroic opera Ivan Susanin. Pushkin's "Ruslan and Lyudmila" and "Mermaid", deeply folk in spirit and style, determined the further development of Russian classical opera by Glinka and Dargomyzhsky. His lyric poems became the basis of the Russian classical romance.

The principles of realistic aesthetics, which nourished musical thought, served as the most important basis for the creative activity of classical composers. In Russian classical music. As in the works of the great Russian writers, the versatility of the realistic method was manifested with particular completeness. Received a specific expression in each independent field of art.

Considering the complex picture of the development of the musical culture of the 19th century, one should not forget about the deep contradictions that accompanied this process. Russian composers asserted their art, their aesthetic principles in the struggle against the backward tastes of the court and the aristocracy, against the dominance of pale, imitative music that flourished in this environment with the banal tastes of an "educated" public, essentially not involved in high musical culture. An example is the stage history of the operas by Glinka and Dargomyzhsky, which provoked sharp condemnation from reactionary critics. The struggle for Russian classics further escalated even more in connection with the revolutionary democratic movement of the 60s. The fate of Balakirev. Forced to leave musical activity in the prime of life and talent, the premature death of Mussorgsky - these are the facts that testify to the exceptional complexity of the creative path of Russian classical composers.

Faithful allies of these musicians were the most prominent music critics, the creator of Russian musicological science Odoevsky, Serov, Stasov. Their views were formed under the direct influence of Glinka. Odoevsky was a peer and friend of the great composer, Stasov and Serov were his younger contemporaries and admirers. They are credited with the theoretical substantiation of the creative principles of the Glinka school, the establishment in Russian musical science and the criticism of the most important principles of nationality and realism.

In the first half of the 19th century, Russian classical music began to flourish. The work of Glinka and Dargomyzhsky opens a period of rapid rise of national musical art to the heights of world culture. The development of music was part overall process- the rise of all Russian art in a significant period of the historical development of the Russian state. The Patriotic War of 1812 and the Decembrist uprising in 1825 caused a powerful explosion of patriotic feelings, an upsurge of the spiritual strength of the nation. “The twelfth year,” Belinsky wrote, “shaking all of Russia from end to end, awakened her dormant forces and discovered in her new, hitherto unknown sources of strength ...”

It was during this period that the formation of the Russian classical literature, music and painting. The leading role belonged to literature. The sign of the era was the work of Pushkin, which was prepared by the works of Zhukovsky, Karamzin, Batyushkov, Krylov. Pushkin was the creator of the Russian literary language, thereby determining the further path of development of national literature. At the same time as Pushkin, Griboyedov, Ryleev, Vyazemsky, Delvig, Yazykov, Baratynsky composed their works; later, the creative life of Lermontov, Gogol, Koltsov, Belinsky begins. By the middle of the century, a new generation of writers will appear - Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Nekrasov, Turgenev, Goncharov and others.

The first half of the 19th century marked the beginning of Russian classical painting (paintings by Kiprensky, Tropinin, Venetsianov, Shchedrin, Bryullov, Ivanov, Fedotov) and sculpture (Klodt and others), architecture (Voronikhin, Zakharov, Beauvais, Gilardi, Rossi).

Russian art in the first decades of the 19th century was strongly influenced by the new European artistic trend - romanticism. “Romanticism is the first word that announced the Pushkin period,” wrote Belinsky. The independence of the artist’s creativity and attention to the inner world of a person, his interest in the life of his native people, his history, songs, fairy tales and legends, the rebelliousness of the spirit and love of freedom, the passion and courage of expression, enthusiastic elation, characteristic of him, are embodied in the works of this time. Through romanticism, its heightened emotionality and subjectivity Russian art led to the establishment of the principles of artistic realism.

The musical life of Russia from the beginning of the 19th century begins to acquire new features. Lyceums, boarding schools, universities, as well as literary and artistic circles are becoming important musical centers. Art lovers, writers, actors, painters, musicians united in these circles. New works were performed here, opera performances and concerts were discussed. Such meetings were held in St. Petersburg in the houses of Delvig, Odoevsky, Count Mikhail Vielgorsky, in Moscow - at Griboyedov, Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya.

Concert life revived: in 1802, the first Russian concert organization, the Philharmonic Society, was created in St. Petersburg, which organized public symphony concerts. Chamber music concerts are held in private homes, noble assemblies and various educational institutions, both Russian and foreign musicians take part in them. Choirs and symphony orchestras of serf musicians, which existed in many noble estates, continue to play a significant role.

One of the favorite genres of symphonic music at that time was program overtures to operas and dramatic performances composed by Kozlovsky, Davydov, Alyabyev, Verstovsky. The musical theater genre is also undergoing significant changes. The everyday comic opera, beloved in the 18th century, is gradually giving way to fairy-tale operas (The Invisible Prince and Ilya the Bogatyr by Kavos, Davydov's Dnieper Mermaid) and romantic operas (Askold's Grave by Verstovsky). Along with opera, vaudeville, music for dramatic performances (“tragedies on music”), as well as ballet, which flourished in Russia with the work of the great French choreographer Charles Didelot, are widely used.

The successful development of these genres was inseparable from the formation of Russian performing schools in opera (E. Sandunova, O. Petrov, A. Petrova-Vorobyeva), ballet (A. Istomina, E. Kolosova, A. Glushkovsky), drama (E. Semenova, P. Mochalov, M. Shchepkin).

Everyday domestic music-making is becoming widespread. Music lovers gathered in the evenings, played and sang to the accompaniment of a guitar, harp or piano. The repertoire included folk songs - peasant, city, soldier. Their arrangements were made by many composers, the most popular were the collections by Kashin and Rupin. They have been performed as solo songs, duets, and as instrumental variations and ensembles. In this environment, the favorite genre of the era was formed and developed - romance .

romance and song

Romance creativity of composers of the first half of the 19th century developed on the basis of folk peasant, urban and Russian songs. It was in the romance that the features of the Russian musical language, the national musical style, were formed. Its development was closely connected with the flourishing of Russian poetry in the Pushkin era and the work of Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Baratynsky, Delvig, Batyushkov, Yazykov, Pushkin himself and other poets. O. Kozlovsky wrote their romances on their poems,

A. Zhilin, Titov brothers, Mikh. Vielgorsky, A. Verstovsky, A. Alyabiev, A. Varlamov, A. Gurilev, P. Bulakhov, M. Glinka, A. Dargomyzhsky. In their work, the main genres of Russian romance have developed. This lyrical romance - the most common at this time; "Russian song" , which arose as an imitation of folk music; elegy - lyrical-philosophical reflection; romantic ballad , whose creator in Russia was Verstovsky; drinking song , born from marching marching songs and singing about freedom, enlightenment and patriotism; lyrical romances about "distant countries" , in which romantic images of Italy, Spain, the Caucasus, the East, as well as romances in dance rhythms (waltz, polka, mazurka, polonaise, bolero and others).

At the same time, a uniquely original Russian vocal style is being formed, in which the intonations and traditions of folk singing are combined with the features of the Italian bel canto vocal culture, which is so popular in Russia. Each romance creates its own individual, easy-to-remember image, touching the most sensitive strings in the heart of the listener. The sincerity of the Russian romance is its special feature, coming from the sincerity of the author's empathy for his lyrical hero, from the properties of the Russian soul.

A.A. Alyabiev

The fate of Alexander Alexandrovich Alyabyev (1787-1851) was dramatic, although the first half of his life did not portend severe trials. He was born in Tobolsk; his father served as governor, was considered an enlightened and liberal man, and was a great lover of music. The child received a serious home education, which included playing the piano as an obligatory part.

With the family moving to Moscow, Alexander began to seriously study music, and soon his first compositions appeared - romances and piano pieces.

In the early days of the Patriotic War of 1812, Alyabyev volunteered to join the army. He fought along with the legendary partisan poet Denis Davydov, was wounded, went with his hussar regiment all the way to Paris; Alyabyev was awarded orders and a medal for bravery and military merits.

At the end of the war, he continues his military service, lives in St. Petersburg, and after retiring, he settles in Moscow, where he becomes close to the artistic world, communicates with Griboedov, Krylov, Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, Odoevsky, Verstovsky, the Vielgorsky brothers. As a pianist and singer, he participates in amateur concerts, composes theatrical music (operas, vaudeville), chamber instrumental works, romances, which are very popular with listeners.

But this bright creative life was interrupted by a fatal accident. In 1825, a major quarrel took place in Alyabyev's house during a card game, after which one of its participants died suddenly. Alyabyev was arrested on suspicion of murder and after a lengthy trial, despite the fact that the crime was not proven, he was sentenced to the deprivation of all rights, the title of nobility and to exile in Siberia.

Alyabyev's long-term wanderings began. The link lasted over 15 years; he lived in Tobolsk, in the Caucasus, in Orenburg, Kolomna. But, despite the difficult trials and loneliness, the composer continues his active creative work. While still in prison, he composes romances (including the famous "Nightingale"), as well as instrumental plays, music for vaudeville and the ballet "Magic Drum". In Tobolsk exile, he organizes a military brass band and choir, conducts their performances, writes orchestral music and romances; such of them as "Irtysh", "Winter Road", "Evening Bells" are connected with the theme of exile and became the composer's lyrical confession.

During a trip to the Caucasus, allowed for treatment, Alyabyev was captivated by his nature, customs, music. He recorded Georgian, Armenian, Kabardian, Azerbaijani folk melodies, the rhythms and intonations of which were then reflected in works of various genres.

Only in 1843, Alyabyev, with great difficulty, received permission to live in Moscow, but under police supervision and "without the right to appear in public." He leads a solitary life, devoting all his time to writing. Life trials did not break the composer. His attention is drawn to the poems of the democratic poet N. Ogarev, dedicated to themes and plots from the life of the common people. The romances "Tavern", "Hut", "Village watchman" appear, as well as one of Alyabyev's masterpieces - "The Beggar Woman" (verses by Beranger), in which the theme of the "little man", the theme of social inequality, first sounded, anticipating the works of Dargomyzhsky and Mussorgsky. These works were the last in the life of the composer.

Alyabiev's work is diverse, it includes various genres - operas, ballet, vaudeville, works for orchestra, piano pieces, chamber ensembles (trios, quartets), choral compositions. But the most important place among his works is occupied by numerous romances (over 150). One of the most popular is created in 1825 on the verses of Delvig "Nightingale". The romance belongs to the genre of "Russian song" and is written in couplet form with a leisurely chorus and fast chorus. The gentle soulful melody is closely connected with the intonations of Russian lyrical songs, it is characterized by modal variability, coming from folk music (D minor - F major, C major - A minor). Her flowing, rounded four-bar phrases are supported by modest "guitar" accompaniment:

Slowly, with feeling

At the same time, the bright and impetuous piano conclusions of the verses contrast sharply with the plastic vocal cantilena.

Subsequently, outstanding performers of the romance - Adeline Patti, Henriette Sontag, Polina Viardot, as well as many Russian singers - saturate the vocal part with virtuoso passages and cadences. The popularity of the work was facilitated by its piano arrangements - Glinka's variations and Liszt's transcription, as well as the violin fantasy of Henri Vietain.

A.E. Varlamov

Alexander Egorovich Varlamov (1801-1848) was born in Moscow in the family of a modest official. The boy's passion for music and his giftedness manifested itself early: picking up folk songs by ear, he himself learned to play the violin. Thanks to his outstanding abilities and beautiful voice, at the age of ten he was accepted as a chorister in the St. Petersburg Court Singing Chapel. Here Varlamov studied under the guidance of the director of the chapel, the outstanding composer D. S. Bortnyansky. Success in singing allowed him to soon become a soloist in the choir; he also learned to play the guitar, piano and cello.

After studying at the chapel, Varlamov is assigned to serve in Holland as a regent ( Regent - leader and vocal teacher of the chorus of singers) of the Russian embassy church in The Hague. The years spent abroad had a great influence on the musical development of the future composer: he often attends opera and concerts, he himself performs as a singer and guitarist.

Upon his return to St. Petersburg, Varlamov first taught at the Theater School, and then again entered the Court Singing Chapel as a chorister and singing teacher. In 1827 he met Glinka; communication with him was of great importance for the creative aspirations of the young musician.

The first romances and church choirs of Varlamov date back to the end of the 1820s, but the real heyday of composing activity begins after moving to Moscow in 1932, where he received the position of bandmaster, and then "composer of music" of the imperial theaters. Varlamov quickly became close to the Moscow artistic world, made friends with composers Gurilev and Verstovsky, writer M. Zagoskin, actors M. Shchepkin and P. Mochalov, poet-actor N. Tsyganov, on whose poems he created many romances. All of them were united by common artistic interests and love for Russian song.

Varlamov composes many vocal works that glorified him - these are “Oh, you, time, time”, “What kind of heart is this”, “Mountain peaks”, “A blizzard sweeps along the street”, “At dawn you don’t wake her up”, “What do I to live and grieve”, “I will saddle a horse” and others. Among them, one of the most famous was the "Red Sundress" (poems by N. Tsyganov), which, according to a contemporary, "was sung by all classes - both in the living room of a nobleman and in a peasant's chicken hut." By the nature of his service, Varlamov writes a lot of theatrical music for tragedies, melodramas, ballet, and also constantly performs in concerts as an orchestral and choir conductor, as well as a singer. He had a small but beautiful tenor, his singing was distinguished by excellent vocal technique and extraordinary sincerity. In 1840, Varlamov published The School of Singing, which became the first textbook on vocal art in Russia and played an important role in the education of many Russian singers.

The last years the composer spent in St. Petersburg, where his life was very difficult. Widespread fame did not help him get service in the chapel again, and Varlamov and his family were in a difficult situation. financial situation. His health deteriorated and he died of consumption in 1848.

Varlamov entered the history of Russian music as the author of romances and songs, creating about 200 works. In choosing poems, he turned to Russian poets - Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Delvig, Lermontov, Pleshcheev, Fet, Koltsov, and to Goethe, Heine, Beranger. The main genres for the composer were "Russian song" and lyrical romance. In his writings, full of sincerity, pensive reverie, and impetuous romantic aspiration and elation coexist.

Varlamov was one of the first composers to turn to Lermontov's poetry, which was in tune with the spiritual atmosphere of the 1830s and 1840s and conveyed the acute dissatisfaction with the surrounding life and the "freedom-loving dreams" of Russian people. In romance "The lonely sail turns white" the composer managed to reflect these feelings and moods. In his music, one can hear the “thirst for the storm” of the Lermontov hero, his intransigence and rebelliousness. A wide energetic melody at the beginning of the verse immediately reaches its climax - the sound salt, which is the pinnacle of a bright expressive cantilena. The excitement of feeling in the romance is emphasized by the chord accompaniment with the chased rhythm of the polonaise-bolero:

moderately soon

A.L. Gurilev

Alexander Lvovich Gurilev (1803-1858) was born in Moscow into a musical family. His father L. S. Gurilev, a famous pianist, composer and conductor, was a serf musician of Count V. Orlov. The boy began to study music under the guidance of his father, and then took piano and music theory lessons from J. Field and I. I. Genishta, who taught in the count's family. From his youth, Gurilev played the violin and viola in the fortress orchestra, which was considered one of the best at the beginning of the 19th century.

In 1831, after the death of Count Orlov, the Gurilev family received freedom. From that time on, Gurilev's composing activity began. He also performs a lot in concerts as a pianist and teaches singing and piano.

A great influence on the formation of Gurilev's vocal style was his friendship with Varlamov; they were brought together by a common love for folk music and gypsy singing. Soon, the composer's works begin to gain popularity. Such romances as “In a difficult moment of life”, “A gray-winged swallow is winding”, “Tiny house”, “Separation”, “Bell”, “Sarafan”, “Sadness of a girl”, sounded in secular living rooms, and in the houses of officials, merchants, townspeople. Among Gurilev's piano works, dance miniatures and numerous variations on the themes of well-known romances and arias from operas enjoyed the greatest love.

But, despite the recognition, the composer was constantly pursued by need, although he sometimes took on any job for the sake of earning money. A difficult fate did not spare Gurilev: in the last years of his life, he suffered from a severe mental illness. The composer died in Moscow in 1858.

Gurilev's vocal work includes about 90 romances and a collection of "47 Russian Folk Songs" arranged for voice and piano. He, like Varlamov, preferred the genre of "Russian song" and lyrical romance. His music is characterized by gentle elegiacity, dreaminess and sincere sincerity of expression.

Song "Bell"(verses by I. Makarov) is characteristic of the composer for its thoughtful lyrical mood, associated with images of Russian nature and a long journey, so widely sung by Russian poetry. Here one of the main features of Gurilev's "Russian songs" manifested itself - the use of an elegant waltz rhythm in combination with a simple and restrained melody, its subtle poignant intonation:

The repetition of the rhythmic figure of the accompaniment is occasionally colored by a thin sound-imaginative stroke - a gentle staccato octave in the upper register.

The romances and songs of Alyabyev, Varlamov, Gurilev had a great influence on the work of his contemporaries - Glinka and Dargomyzhsky. Later, the traditions of their lyrics, attention to the inner world of a person will be continued in the brilliant romances of Tchaikovsky.

Questions and tasks

1. What events influenced the social and cultural life of Russia in the first half of the 19th century?

2. Name the composers, writers, painters, architects and sculptors of this time.

3. What changes have taken place in the musical life of Russia since the beginning of the 19th century?

4. List the most popular musical genres of this era. What was the content of home music making?

5. Name the genres of Russian romance in the first half of the 19th century and their authors - composers and poets.

6. Tell us about the life and work of Alyabyev, Varlamov, Gurilev.

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka

1804 - 1857

Glinka is the founder of Russian classical music and the first Russian composer of world significance. Glinka's work completed the formation of the national school of composers and at the same time opened up new paths for Russian music, which in the 19th century occupied one of the leading places in European culture. In the works of Glinka, the rise of Russian national culture, generated by the events of the Patriotic War of 1812, found its vivid expression. Like Pushkin, Glinka created beautiful and harmonious art, glorifying the beauty and joy of life, the triumph of reason, goodness and justice.

In his work, Glinka turned to various musical genres - opera, romance, symphonic works, chamber ensembles, piano pieces and other compositions. The most important qualities of Glinka's music were the expressiveness and plasticity of melodies, the subtlety of harmony and harmony of form, and the elegance of instrumentation. His musical language, having absorbed the peculiar features of Russian folk songs and Italian bel canto, the Viennese classical school and romantic art, became the basis of the national style of Russian classical music.

Biography

Childhood and youth. Glinka was born on May 20 (old style) 1804 in the village of Novospasskoye, Smolensk province. In the estate of his parents, he was surrounded by love and care, and his first childhood impressions associated with Russian nature, village life and folk songs influenced his entire future fate. "The liveliest poetic delight" filled his soul with the ringing of bells and church singing. The boy also got acquainted early with professional music when he listened to home concerts of a small orchestra of serf musicians that belonged to his uncle, and often played by ear with them. Much later, the composer recalled in his Notes:

“... Once they played the Kruzel quartet (B. Crusell - Finnish composer and virtuoso clarinetist, an older contemporary of Glinka) with clarinet; this music made an incomprehensible, new and delightful impression on me - I remained the whole day afterwards in some kind of feverish state, was immersed in an inexplicable, languishingly sweet state, and the next day during a drawing lesson I was distracted; In the next lesson, the absent-mindedness increased even more, and the teacher, noticing that I was already drawing too carelessly, repeatedly scolded me and, finally, however, having guessed what was the matter, once told me that he noticed that I was only thinking about music: what to do?- I answered, - music- my soul/»

At the same time, Glinka began to learn to play the piano, and then the violin. Home education typical of noble families at the beginning of the 19th century, included various items; young Glinka drew well, was passionately fond of geography and travel, studied literature, history and foreign languages(later he spoke eight languages).

The events of the Patriotic War of 1812 made an indelible impression on the boy. At the time of the Napoleonic invasion, the Glinka family was forced to leave the estate and move to Oryol. But upon returning home, the stories he heard about the heroism of the Russian people and the exploits of the partisans of the Smolensk region remained in his memory for life.

House in the village of Novospaskom, where Glinka was born

Since 1818, Glinka continued his education in one of the best educational institutions in St. Petersburg - the Noble Boarding School at the Main pedagogical institute. The boarding school was famous for its progressively thinking teachers and advanced scientists, among whom the outstanding Russian lawyer A.P. Kunitsyn, one of Pushkin's favorite teachers, stood out for his bold talent and originality. Glinka's tutor at the boarding school was V. K. Kuchelbecker, Pushkin's lyceum friend, poet and future Decembrist. Communication with him contributed to the development of Glinka's feelings of love for folk art and interest in poetry. At the same time, Glinka also met Pushkin, who often visited Kuchelbecker and his younger brother Leo.

The years of study were spent in an atmosphere of heated literary and political disputes with friends, which reflected the unsettling spirit of the times. In the Noble Boarding School, as in the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, the personalities of the future "rebels" - direct participants in the tragic events of December 14, 1825 - were formed.

During his stay at the boarding house, the development of Glinka's musical talent continued. He takes piano and violin lessons, as well as music theory lessons from the best Petersburg teachers (including several piano lessons from J. Field), constantly attends chamber and symphony concerts, opera and ballet, takes part in amateur performances and, finally, taking the first steps in writing.

Early period of creativity. After graduating from the boarding school in 1822, Glinka spends some time in Novospasskoye, where he tries his hand as a conductor with his uncle's home orchestra, learning the art of orchestral writing. In the summer of next year, he makes a trip to the Caucasus for treatment, which brought many vivid impressions. Then for several years Glinka lives in St. Petersburg. After serving for a short time as an official in the office of the Council of Railways, he soon resigns in order to devote himself entirely to his main and favorite pastime - music.

Of great importance for the artistic formation of the composer was his acquaintance and constant communication with the largest poets and writers - Pushkin, Delvig, Griboedov, Zhukovsky, Mickiewicz, Odoevsky, as well as with the best musicians of that time: Glinka often meets and plays music with Varlamov, the Vielgorsky brothers.

Anna Petrovna Kern, in whose house Glinka often visited, spoke in her memoirs about the composer's performing arts:

“Glinka ... bowed in his expressive, respectful manner and sat down at the piano. One can imagine, but it is difficult to describe my surprise and delight when the wonderful sounds of brilliant improvisation rang out ... Glinka's keys sang at the touch of his small hand. He mastered the instrument so skillfully that he could express exactly what he wanted; it was impossible not to understand what the keys sang under his miniature fingers... In the sounds of improvisation, one could hear both a folk melody, and tenderness peculiar only to Glinka, and playful gaiety, and a thoughtful feeling. We listened to it, afraid to move, and after the end we remained for a long time in a wonderful oblivion.

When he used to sing ... romances, he took so much for the soul that he did with us what he wanted: we both cried and laughed at his will. He had a very small voice, but he knew how to give it extraordinary expressiveness and accompanied it with such an accompaniment that we were heard. In his romances, one could hear a close skillful imitation of the sounds of nature, and the voice of tender passion, and melancholy, and sadness, and sweet, elusive, inexplicable, but understandable to the heart.

Along with this, the novice composer devotes a lot of time to the independent study of opera and symphonic literature. After the first imperfect experiments, such vivid compositions appeared as the romances “Do not tempt” (words by E. Baratynsky), “Poor singer” and “Do not sing, beauty, in front of me” (both to the words of Pushkin), sonata for viola with piano and others instrumental works. Wanting to develop and improve his skills, Glinka went abroad in 1830.

The path to mastery. For four years, Glinka visited Italy, Austria and Germany. Being by nature a kind, sociable and enthusiastic person, he easily converged with people. In Italy, Glinka became close to such luminaries of Italian operatic art as Bellini and Donizetti, met Mendelssohn and Berlioz. Eagerly absorbing various impressions, carried away by the beauty of the Italian romantic opera, the composer studies inquisitively and seriously. In communication with first-class singers, he enthusiastically comprehends the great art of bel canto in practice.

In Italy, Glinka continues to compose a lot. Works of various genres appear from his pen: the Pathetic Trio, the sextet for piano and string instruments, the romances Venetian Night and The Winner, as well as a number of piano variations on the themes of popular Italian operas. But soon other aspirations arise in the composer’s soul, as evidenced in the “Notes”: “All the plays I wrote to please the inhabitants of Milan ... convinced me only that I was not going my own way and that I sincerely could not be an Italian . Longing for the fatherland led me gradually to the idea of ​​writing in Russian.

Leaving Italy in the summer of 1833, Glinka first visited Vienna, then moved to Berlin, where in the winter of 1833-1834 he improved his knowledge under the guidance of the famous German music theorist Siegfried Dehn.

Central period of creativity. In the spring of 1834, Glinka returned to Russia and began to implement his cherished plan, which had arisen abroad, - the creation of a national opera based on a domestic plot. This opera was Ivan Susanin, which premiered in St. Petersburg on November 27, 1836. The music writer and critic V. F. Odoevsky highly appreciated this event in Russian music: “With Glinka’s opera, something that has long been sought and not found in Europe is a new element in art - and begins in its history new period: the period of Russian music. Such a feat, let's say, in all honesty, is a matter not only of talent, but of genius!

Success inspired the composer, and immediately after the premiere of Ivan Susanin, he began working on a new opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila. Glinka learned Pushkin's poem in his youth and was now burning with the desire to embody bright fairy-tale images in music. The composer dreamed that the poet himself would write the libretto, but fate decreed otherwise. The death of Pushkin destroyed Glinka's original plans, and the creation of the opera dragged on for almost six years. Other life circumstances also did not favor the creative process. In 1837, Nicholas I, as an encouragement, appointed Glinka to the post of Kapellmeister of the Court Choir. This service, which first attracted the composer with its creative side, gradually began to burden him with numerous bureaucratic duties, and he resigned. Glinka's marriage, which ended in divorce proceedings, turned out to be unsuccessful. All these events made the life of the composer more and more difficult. Glinka breaks off her former acquaintances in secular society and seeks refuge in the artistic world. His closest friend becomes famous writer and playwright N. Kukolnik. In his house, Glinka communicates with artists, poets, journalists and finds deliverance from the attacks and gossip of his high society ill-wishers.

Composer and music critic A. N. Serov in his memoirs left an expressive portrait of Glinka dating back to this time:

“... A brunette with a pale swarthy, very serious, thoughtful face, bordered by narrow, jet-black sideburns; the black tailcoat is buttoned up to the top; White gloves; posture dignified, proud ...

Like all true artists, Glinka had a nervous temperament. The slightest irritation, the shadow of something unpleasant, suddenly made him completely out of sorts; in the midst of a society that was not for him, he, even to the extent of himself, was resolutely unable to play music. On the contrary, in the circle of people who sincerely love music, who ardently sympathize with it ... more distant from the conventional, cold etiquette and empty ceremony of high-society living rooms, Glinka breathed freely, freely devoted himself entirely to art, captivated everyone, because he himself was carried away, and the farther, the more he was carried away, because he attracted others.

At the same time, during these difficult years, while working on Ruslan, the composer created many other compositions; among them are romances based on Pushkin's words "I remember a wonderful moment" and "Night marshmallow", the vocal cycle "Farewell to Petersburg" and the romance "Doubt" (both to the words of the Dollmaker), as well as music for the tragedy of the Dollmaker "Prince Kholmsky", the first version (for piano) "Waltz Fantasy". Glinka's activities as a singer and vocal teacher: on his studies and exercises and with his participation, the singers D. Leonova, S. Gulak-Artemovsky comprehended the secrets of mastery; O. Petrov and A. Petrova-Vorobyeva (the first performers of the roles of Susanin and Vanya) used his advice.

Finally, the opera Ruslan and Lyudmila was completed and on November 27, 1842, exactly six years after the premiere of Ivan Susanin, it was staged in St. Petersburg. This premiere brought Glinka a lot of hard feelings. The emperor and his retinue left the hall before the end of the performance, which determined the "opinion" of the aristocratic public. There has been a heated debate in the press about new opera. An excellent response to Glinka's ill-wishers was an article by V. F. Odoevsky and a line from it: “Oh, believe me! A luxurious flower has grown on Russian musical soil - it is your joy, your glory. Let the worms try to crawl onto its stem and stain it, the worms will fall to the ground, but the flower will remain. Take care of him: he is a delicate flower and blooms only once in a century.

"Ruslan and Lyudmila" - "big magic opera”(by definition of the author) - became the first Russian fairy-tale-epic opera. It intricately intertwined a variety of musical images - lyrical and epic, fantastic and oriental. The opera, imbued with sunny optimism, expresses the eternal ideas of the victory of good over evil, fidelity to duty, the triumph of love and nobility. Glinka, according to the scientist and critic B. Asafiev, “sang Pushkin’s poem in an epic way,” in which the unhurried, as in a fairy tale, epic, unfolding of events is built on the contrast of colorful paintings replacing each other. The traditions of Glinka's "Ruslan and Ludmila" were subsequently diversified by Russian composers. Epicness and picturesqueness came to life in a new way in the opera "Prince Igor" and "Bogatyr Symphony" by Borodin, and fabulousness found its continuation in many works by Rimsky-Korsakov.

The stage life of "Ruslan and Lyudmila" was not happy. The opera began to be staged less and less due to the sharply growing enthusiasm of the aristocratic public for Italian opera, and after a few years it disappeared from the repertoire for a long time.

Late period of life and creativity. In 1844 Glinka left for Paris, where he spent about a year. The artistic life of the French capital makes a great impression on him; he meets with the French composers Giacomo Meyerbeer, as well as Hector Berlioz, who successfully performed fragments from Glinka's operas in his concerts and published a laudatory article about the Russian composer. Glinka was proud of the reception given to him in Paris: “... I am the first Russian composer who introduced the Parisian public to my name and my works written in Russia and for Russia,” he wrote in a letter to his mother.

In the spring of 1845, having specially learned Spanish, Glinka went to Spain. He stayed there for two years: he visited many cities and regions, studied the customs and culture of this country, recorded Spanish melodies from folk singers and guitarists, and even learned folk dances. The trip resulted in two symphonic overtures: Jota of Aragon and Night in Madrid. Simultaneously with them, in 1848, the famous "Kamarinskaya" appeared - an orchestral fantasy on the themes of two Russian songs. Russian symphonic music originates from these works.

For the last decade, Glinka lived alternately in Russia (Novospasskoe, St. Petersburg, Smolensk), then abroad (Warsaw, Paris, Berlin). During these years, new trends in Russian art were born, associated with the flourishing, according to V. Belinsky, of the “natural” (realistic) school in literature. They permeate the work of Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Ostrovsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Tolstoy and other writers. This trend did not pass by the attention of the composer - it determined the direction of his further artistic searches.

M.I. Glinka with her sister L.I. Shestakova (1852)

The music of the first half of the 19th century was influenced by the general patriotic. rise in connection with the war of 1812. Composers began to turn more often to heroic-historical plots and folk melodies (opera Ivan Susanin). The emergence of the national school (M.I. Glinka) whose musical realism was prepared by decades of convergence of professional and folk music. Glinka "created national Russian opera, national instrumental music, Russian national romance." A.S.Dargomyzhsky created new genres - folk-everyday musical drama, satirical-comic song "Tituryarny adviser").

Public upsurge 1850s–60s - concert life becomes more intense, the foundations of professional music are being created. education. "Mighty bunch" : group leader M.A. Balakirev. The ideological and artistic aspirations of the Mighty Handful were formed under the influence of the aesthetic principles of the Russian revolutionary democrats. Developing the traditions of Glinka and Dargomyzhsky, the musicians found a source of inspiration in folk art and at the same time mastered the European system. thinking and expression. Fundamentals: realism and folk. The contribution of MK to the development of chamber and symphonic music is great.

Creativity of P.I. Tchaikovsky - 6 symphonies ("Manfred", "Romeo and Juliet", etc.), violin and piano concertos belong to world masterpieces; a ballet reformer who made music the leading component of ballet dramaturgy (Swan Lake; The Sleeping Beauty; The Nutcracker), he also created a new type of opera (Eugene Onegin, 18). A.N. Serov - Composer and music critic, champion of art close to folk origins. Brothers Rubinstein , outstanding pianists, conductors, were the founders of the first Russian conservatories in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

The theme of waiting for great changes- Scriabin, Rachmaninov. Ideas related to the revolutionary upsurge - Rimsky-Korsakov (operas "Kashchei the Immortal" and "The Golden Cockerel"). Change of accents: opera fades into the background, symphonic and chamber music comes to the fore.

4. Features of the "golden age" of Russian literature

19th century AD The "golden age" of Russian poetry and the age of Russian literature on a global scale. The 19th century is the time of the formation of Russian letters. language, cat. took shape largely thanks to A.S. Pushkin. But the 19th century began with the flourishing of sentimentalism and the formation of romanticism (in poetry - Zhukovsky, Fet). Creativity F.I. Tyutchev's "Golden Age" of Russian poetry was completed. The central figure of this time was A. S. Pushkin- the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila", the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" was called an encyclopedia of Russian life.

Poems by A.S. Pushkin " Bronze Horseman”, “Gypsies” opened the era of Russian romanticism.

Pushkin's follower Lermontov(Mtsyri, lead the Demon). Russian poetry of the 19th century was closely connected with the social and political life of the country. Poets tried to comprehend the idea of ​​their special purpose. The poet in Russia was considered a conductor of divine truth, a prophet. The development of Russian prose in the 19th century began with prose works A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol. Pushkin under the influence of English historical novels creates the story "The Captain's Daughter", where the action takes place against the backdrop of grandiose historical events: during Pugachev rebellion. A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol identified the main artistic types, which will be developed by writers throughout the 19th century: the type " extra person"(Onegin) and the type of" little man "(the story of Gogol's Overcoat, Pushkin - Stationmaster). Characteristics: publicism and satirical character ( Dead Souls, Inspector Gogol).

The trend of depicting vices and shortcomings Russian society- a characteristic feature of all Russian classical literature. Since the middle of the 19th century, the formation of Russian realistic literature has taken place, a cat. created against the backdrop of a tense social policy. the situation that developed in Russia during the reign of Nicholas I. A crisis of feudal society is brewing, contradictions between the government and the common people are strong. There is a need to create a realistic literature, acutely responsive to the general watered. the situation in the country. Literary critic V.G. Belinsky marks a new realistic trend in literature. His position is being developed by N.A. Dobrolyubov, N.G. Chernyshevsky. A dispute arises between Westernizers and Slavophiles about the paths of Russia's historical development. The end of the 19th century - Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Gorky. Completion of the 19th century - decadent literature, hallmarks cat. were mysticism, religiosity, as well as a premonition of changes in the general watered. the life of the country. Subsequently, decadence grew into symbolism.

5. Literature of the Russian Diaspora in the first half of the 20th century.

Lit-ra of the Russian diaspora is a branch of Russian literature that arose after the Bolshevik coup of 1917. There are three periods or three waves of Russian emigrant literature. 1 wave- from 1918 to early. World War II, the occupation of Paris - wore a massive character. wave 2- at the end of World War II.3 wave- after Khrushchev's "thaw" and brought the largest writers out of Russia (Solzhenitsyn, Brodsky). The greatest cult. and letters. What matters is the work of the writers of the first wave of Russian emigration. The first wave of emigration (1918-1940). Concept " Russian diaspora" arose after the October Revolution of 1917, when refugees began to leave Russia en masse (more than 2 million people), in Berlin, Paris, Harbin - "Russia in miniature": Russian newspapers and magazines were published, schools and universities were opened, the ROC acted, but the situation of refugees it was still tragic (loss of family, homeland, social status, understanding that it was impossible to return) Refugees: regal philosophers (Berdyaev, Bulgakov), F. Chaliapin, I. Repin, K. Korovin, ballet stars A. Pavlova, V. Nizhinsky, composers (S. Rachmaninov and I. Stravinsky), writers (Bunin, Z. Gippius, Kuprin, Severyanin, M. Tsvetaeva) Lit-ra was in emigration one of the spiritual strongholds of the nation, but at the same time they were unfavorable conditions: the absence of readers, the collapse of the social-psychological foundations, poverty.BUT since 1927, Russian foreign literature began to flourish, the right to creative freedom. Lit-ra of the older generation : they professed the position of "preserving the covenants" - "We are not in exile, we are in messages", literature is represented by prose (Merezhkovsky, Bunin, Kuprin, Gippius); the main motive is the nostalgic memory of the lost homeland, many biographies of writers, works on a religious theme are published Lit-ra of the younger generation: did not have time to gain a strong reputation in Russia before the revolution, but many became popular in Europe and the world, the authors recognized the intrinsic value of the tragic experience of emigration, there were writers focused on Western tradition(V. Nabokov, Adamovich, Tsvetaeva, Gorky), depicted reality in exile, many writers went unnoticed, a great contribution to memoirs

Eastern scattering centers- Harbin and Shanghai. Prague (Tsvetaeva) was the scientific center of the Russian emigration for a long time. In Prague, the Russian People's University was founded, 5 thousand Russian students were invited, a cat. could continue their education. Many professors and university lecturers also moved here. Important role in conservation Slavic culture, the development of science played "Prague Linguistic Circle". Russian dispersion also affected Latin America, Canada, Scandinavia, the USA (Grebenshchikov).

The main events in the life of the Russian literary emigration. Young poets of the Crossroads group united around Khodasevich: G. Raevsky, I. Golenishchev-Kutuzov, Yu. Mandelstam, V. Smolensky. Adamovich demanded from young poets not so much skill as simplicity and truthfulness of "human documents": "drafts, notebooks". Adamovich did not reject the decadent, mournful attitude, but reflected it. G. Adamovich is the inspirer of the literary school, which entered the history of Russian foreign literature under the name of "Parisian note".

Section 5 RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Music occupied a special place in the life of Russian society in the first half of the 19th century. Musical education was a necessary component of the upbringing and enlightenment of a young man. The musical life of Russia was quite eventful. In 1802 the Russian Philharmonic Society was founded. Sheet music is made available to the general public.

Interest in chamber and public concerts increased in society. Particularly attracted the attention of many composers, writers, artists, musical evenings at A. A. Delvig, V. F. Odoevsky, in the literary salon of Z. A. Volkonskaya. The summer concert seasons in Pavlovsk enjoyed great success with the public. Railway from Petersburg. The Austrian composer and conductor J. Strauss performed repeatedly in these concerts.
First decade XIX V. chamber-vocal music became widespread. The romances of A.A. Alyabyev (“The Nightingale”), A.E. Varlamov (“Red Sundress”, “Along the street a snowstorm mete g ...”, etc.) enjoyed special love of the audience, (romances, songs in folk style - “The bell”, “The gray-winged swallow is winding ...” A.L. Gurilev).
The operatic repertoire of Russian theaters at the beginning of the century consisted mainly of works by French and Italian composers. Russian opera developed mainly in the genre of the epic character. The best representative of this trend was A.N. Verstovsky, the author of the opera Askold's Grave (1835), as well as several musical ballads and romances (The Black Shawl, etc.). In the operas and ballads of A.N. Verstovsky, the influence of romanticism affected. The opera "Askold's Grave" reflected the appeal to historical plots and epic, characteristic of romantic art, which fixed the idea of ​​the people about their past.
It was possible to approach the level of the great works of Western European composers - Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. only on the basis of a deep mastery of folk-national melody with its simultaneous transformation in line with the main achievements of European musical culture. This work began in the 18th century. (E.Formin,
F. Dubyansky, M. Sokolovsky) and continued successfully in the first decades of the 19th century. A.Alyabiev, A.Gurilev, A.Varlamov, A.Verstovsky. However, the beginning of a new (classical) period in the development of Russian music is associated with the name of M.I. Glinka.
M.I. Glinka (1804-1857) belonged to a noble family from the Smolensk province. Glinka received his first musical impressions from his uncle's serf orchestra. Russian folk songs heard in childhood had a great influence on the nature of Glinka's musical works. In the late 20s - early 30s of the XIX century. Glinka created a number of outstanding vocal works, including such romances as "Night Zephyr" (poetry by A.S. Pushkin, 1834), "Doubt" (1838), "I remember a wonderful moment ..." (1840). An outstanding event in the musical life of Russia was the staging in 1836 of the opera A Life for the Tsar (Ivan Susanin). In the face of the Kostroma peasant Ivan Susanin, the composer showed the greatness of the common people, their courage and fortitude. Glinka's innovation was that the representative of the Russian people, the Russian peasant, became the central figure of the musical narrative. Folk-heroic pathos was vividly embodied on the basis of virtuoso technique and a wide variety of vocal and instrumental parts. The opera "Life for the Tsar" was the first classical Russian opera, which marked the beginning of the world recognition of Russian music. High-society society met the opera rather dryly, but true connoisseurs of art enthusiastically welcomed the performance. The admirers of the opera were A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, V.G. Belinsky, V.F. Odoevsky and others.
Following the first opera, Glinka wrote the second - "Ruslan and Lyudmila" (1842) based on the fairy tale by A.S. Pushkin. Based on Pushkin's poems, Glinka wrote a number of wonderful romances, which are still widely known today. The romance "I remember a wonderful moment" convinces how close Glinka's musical style was close to Pushkin's lyrics. Glinka was the author of instrumental pieces, the symphonic poem "Kamarinskaya".
It is difficult to overestimate Glinka's contribution to the development of Russian national music. Glinka is the founder of the genres of domestic professional music. He created the national Russian opera, the Russian romance. Glinka was the first Russian musical classic. He was the founder of the national school in music.
Another remarkable composer was A.S.Dargomyzhsky (1813-1869) - a student of M.I.Glinka. His work is characterized by great dramatic tension (opera "Mermaid", 1856). Dargomyzhsky took stories from everyday life and chose ordinary people as his heroes. Russian intelligentsia welcomed Dargomyzhsky's opera
"Mermaid", which depicted the bitter fate of a peasant girl deceived by the prince. This work was in tune with the public mood of the pre-reform era. Dargomyzhsky was an innovator in music. He introduced new techniques and means of musical expression into it. It was in Dargomyzhsky's opera "The Stone Guest" that an impressive melodic recitative appeared. The declamatory form of singing had a great influence on the subsequent development of Russian opera.