Scenario for an evening of romances “The good old stuff will warm the soul. Romance of romance for the heart and soul “Message from the soul: modern Russian romance”

This strange juxtaposition of beauty and suffering was introduced to us by Sergei Yesenin, turning to a Khorossan Persian woman from border Persia, which he so wanted to visit, but never visited:

Goodbye, peri, goodbye, Even if I couldn’t unlock the doors, You gave beautiful suffering, I can sing about you in my homeland...

Yesenin wrote the poems of this cycle in Baku. Next door to Persia, but still not in it. S. M. Kirov, addressing Yesenin’s friend, journalist Pyotr Chagin, who accompanied the poet during his Baku business trip in the spring of 1925, said: “Why haven’t you yet created Yesenin’s illusion of Persia in Baku? Look how I wrote it, as if I was in Persia...” “In the summer of 1925,” recalls Chagin, “Yesenin came to my dacha. This, as he himself admitted, was a genuine illusion of Persia: a huge garden, fountains and all sorts of oriental ideas...”

This comment confirms the illusory-romantic pathos of “Persian Motifs”. Deliberately illusory, when it is clear that the roses with which the threshold of the unrealizable Persian woman is strewn were grown in the ethereal gardens of Babylon, and the mysterious doors, which remained unopened, did exactly the right thing, strictly following the poetics of the genre. But what genre?

MAYBE,

"SUFFERING BEAUTY"?

So, the poems themselves are a product of pure imagination. After all, all this happened before the Chagi gardens and fountains. The poet imagined everything. On the border with the non-existent. But inside the poem, “beautiful suffering” is a derivative of a different kind, designed to “beautify” the pain, but in such a way that this pain is compassionate. The boundary between an authentic chant and the decorative object of this chant.

Let's change the semantic emphasis - instead of beautiful suffering, let's say suffering beauty - and the peri will disappear from Khorossan. It’s true, perhaps the Persian princess Stenka Razin will emerge from the Volga depths. Let’s remove suffering, and what remains is Pushkin’s “I drink to Mary’s health,” also peri, only different, powerless to bestow not only beautiful, but any kind of suffering at all. And beauty - ringing and light - yes. Borders within lyrics, within its genres.

Please note: “I can sing about you in my homeland.” Sing someone else’s image of “beautiful suffering”; while maintaining this foreign image, but in their homeland.

Isn’t it true that we are little by little getting used to this strange juxtaposition of suffering and beauty? We have almost gotten used to how, from the depths of historical memory, a terrible ancient Roman legend emerges about one local music lover who invented a monstrous musical instrument - a golden box with iron partitions in it. This musical maestro drove the slave into the box, battened down the shutter and began to heat his torture organ over low heat. The inhuman screams of the man being roasted alive, repeatedly reflected from the specially placed partitions there, were transformed into captivating sounds that delighted the ears of aesthetically sophisticated listeners. Suffering incomprehensible to the mind has become beauty comprehensible to the ear; chaos of scream - harmony of sounds. The aesthetic, which is on the other side of the ethical, is obvious. The artistic boundary has been irrevocably crossed.

But beautiful suffering “in the days of... the people’s troubles” or in memory of these troubles must be supplanted by a different aesthetics that does not tolerate plausibility, but demands truth:

...And the soldier drank from a copper mug Half the wine with sadness

on the ashes of a hut burned by the Nazis;

Friends can't stand in the area, The movie goes on without them

that is, without Seryozha and Vitka with Malaya Bronnaya and Mokhovaya.

Wine with sadness, cinema with sadness. But from the position of a poet-chronicler with lyrical-epic vision.

These tragic poems are also sung, but they are sung differently, just like Simon’s “yellow rains” of expectation. Here beauty is of a different kind - the beauty of an act that conceals the particularity of a beautifully suffering gesture. Once again, the genre boundary: between the epic song and the elegy romance. An essential boundary for defining the romance genre as an ethical and aesthetic reality at the same time, corresponding to the “Russian-Persian” Yesenin formula, which paradoxically combined suffering and beauty.

“...Every cultural act essentially lives on boundaries: this is its seriousness and significance; abstracted from boundaries, he loses ground, becomes empty...”

So is romance, which is on the border of the aesthetic and ethical, artistic and social. To understand this, it is necessary to leave the “sounding” space into another, “listening” space.

What are they, the boundaries of perception of the romance lyric word (if, of course, a modern listener is able to hear in the lyrics the root lyre, which can be plucked, tested for sound and put to the voice)?

“HOW DOES THIS TAKE YOUR SOUL?”

The thirties, marked by the shock marches of the first five-year plans, are polemically included in the love “Poems in honor of Natalya” by Pavel Vasiliev:

Summer drinks from the brushes in her eyes, We are not afraid of your Vertinsky yet - Damn flyer, wolf's fill. We still knew Nekrasov, We also sang “Kalinushka”, We haven't started living yet.

The chamber world of Alexander Vertinsky, in the tragic grandeur of the prodigal son, who returned from “foreign cities” to the expanses of the “Moldovan steppe” of his homeland, is just “dust”. It is said harshly, but with a tinge of doubt about the success of the debunking - “yet... not scary.”

Around the same years, Yaroslav Smelyakov, in his no less love poem “Lyubka Feigelman”, asked puzzledly about the same intimate lyre:

I don't understand, How is it What it is Does it touch your soul?

To answer this question means to understand perhaps the most important thing in our subject.

Vasilyev’s salon romancer is opposed by Nekrasov. Obviously: Nekrasov “Peddlers”, but it is unlikely that Nekrasov is the most tender lyricist.

Sorry! Don't remember the days of the fall, Melancholy, despondency, embitterment, - Don't remember the storms, don't remember the tears, Don't remember the jealousy of threats!

Nekrasov... But almost romantic tears!

And in the same salon world we hear the wide-willed “We were riding in a troika with bells,” attracting not by semantic, but by lexical association, not someone else’s, but again Nekrasov’s:

You won't be able to catch up with the crazy three: The horses are strong, and well-fed, and spirited, - And the coachman was drunk, and to the other A young cornet rushes like a whirlwind.

The key (not all, of course) words of the romance dictionary are indicated: a crazy troika, a drunk driver, a young cornet... Vocabulary is perhaps the main reality of the genre definition of a romance. And then the “troika with bells”, performed by a chamber singer, and the “mad troika” with a young cornet are lexically one-order vocal and lyrical phenomena.

The confrontation did not take place. What touches the soul, and how it does it, should be sought beyond the boundaries of the pure genre: in later times, for romance, at first glance, there are few intended.

“AND YOU ARE ALL ABOUT LOVE...”

Although the era of scientific and technological revolution tried to reject romance as the realm of “tears, roses and love,” it not only failed, but, on the contrary, bards and minstrels of a neo-romantic type appeared, filling the palaces of culture and red corners with the achingly masculine strumming of a seven-string guitar, plugged in , if the ceilings are high and the hall is loud, to the city power grid.

However, the world of “tears, roses and love”, pushed to the periphery of public consciousness, has always been a secret aspiration.

The same Smelyakov wrote about the years of “industrial” literature, testifying to this unnatural situation:

Books about casting were created, Books about Ural cast iron, And love and its messengers They remained somewhat aloof.

But here too, like a true poet, he discovered a weak but evergreen blade of love.

A romance for a new city, new citizens - in every home. Guitar song on a glued-re-glued magnetic track. Or even with a camp guitar - by the fire.

And nearby, almost on the same small-format stage, Ruzana and Karina Lisitsian sing the famous “Do not tempt...”. In the monophony of a loving heart, they reveal the second, inner voice, putting both of them into a duet. But such, however, is a duet in which a gap is left in the monologue of two and for two, and therefore for everyone.

Director Eldar Ryazanov creates a new film version of A. N. Ostrovsky's "Dowry", calling it "Cruel Romance". And if in the previous film adaptation the gypsy breakdown “No, he didn’t love...” looks like just an insert number, here the phenomenon of romance is conceptualized as a phenomenon of personal fate, taken on the border of life and death, and not as a genre of vocal and poetic art. This is life for the last time. Romance as fate - fate as romance. Not everyday life, but being, but in the mirror of the genre. A self-aware vision of the genre - with a grain of salt - reveals its hidden nature from the perspective of new songs and new times, for romance, so to speak, "poorly equipped."

At the same time, the present time is reviving the genre in its historical diversity. And evidence of this is the sold-out concerts of Elena Obraztsova, Valentina Levko, Galina Kareva, Nani Bregvadze, Dina Dyan... The Russian romance, performed in the “gypsy” key, is glorified by the names of Tamara Tsereteli, Keto Japaridze, Isabella Yurieva. And the patriarch of romance performance Ivan Kozlovsky?! And Nadezhda Obukhova or Maria Maksakova, who brought Russian romance out of the “spiritual” philistine life into the spiritual existence of the singing people?..

Vocal interpretations of the romances of the past are sometimes unexpected and innovatively constructive (remember, for example, “The reeds rustled ...” performed by Zhanna Bichevskaya and Elena Kamburova).

The culture of a new romance is developing based on old words (Pushkin’s cycle by G.V. Sviridov, for example) and on poems by poets of the 20th century in their best examples (Tsvetaev’s “It seems to me that you are not sick with me...” to the music of Tariverdiev...).

And yet: why and how does “beautiful suffering” “touch the soul”?

“...GIVE EVERYONE WHAT THEY DON’T HAVE...”

For now we will remain in our time and in our lives. And let us turn to the world of Bulat Okudzhava, not without the former nobility and not without the new, soul to soul, artistry, singing his endless romance for almost thirty years in a huge city, either in a cozy room of a comfortable sixteen-story building or in a former communal apartment of a restored, almost antique old Arbat. We go out into crowded squares, and this long romance sounds in our souls - for each individual. And the street noise cannot drown it out, despite the quietest penetration of this voice. Okudzhava’s romance is fundamentally new, but it is precisely in it that there is the key to understanding the romance of the old, because the poet comprehends the mystery of romance as an independent substance, romance as a personal life lived for the sake of love.

Each poem-song is personal for everyone, and only because of that - for everyone. These uniquely authored “guilty”, “imagine”, “if you don’t mind” invite you not only to listen, but also to experience what you have not experienced. You find yourself in that same “blue trolleybus” next to and on an equal basis with everyone else. This is a modern symbol of the democracy of the genre in its original focus on love with its tragic end. "Road Song" by Okudzhava - Schwartz became a romance about a romance. Here they are - love and separation - in their almost banal, but essentially significant proximity, that is, in the primordial human proximity and distance. They are two friends, two wanderers, two roads, forever attached to a heart seeking love. And this is the meaning-forming center of this, like any romance in general. Its plot and content duality, reconciled in the happy misfortune of the lyrical hero. And then all the other attributes of the genre (“then the shore, then the sea, then the sun, then the blizzard, then the angels, then the crows...”) are a necessary thing, but still secondary.

You cannot suffer more or less. Personal suffering is always in full force. But the “beauty of suffering,” if we again follow Yesenin’s image, may be greater or lesser. Okudzhava's romance, as a consciously conscious romance, reveals the features of the genre in extremely expressed forms. This applies especially to affected “beauty” - in its contact with the decorative and ornamental life of Georgia, close to the poet. Look: before the poet’s gaze, “a blue buffalo, a white eagle, and a golden trout…” are actually swimming in reality, as in Pirosmani’s paintings. Much more picturesque than in Yesenin’s Khorossan! The border and limit of the genre canon.

But the secret of “beautiful suffering” is revealed in the romance about Francois Villon: “...Give everyone what he doesn’t have.”

All this for nothing - and you don’t have to ask - gives romance. And if you read and listen closely, everyone for whom the poet asks for lacks... love. This is why the world of “beautiful suffering” exists in culture, as if replenishing what is missing, carefully kept secret. For, Chekhov is right, every personal existence is kept secret.

Romance reveals this secret, but not in its alcove particularity, but in the general cultural musical and poetic objectivity. And in the sphere of perception, this objectivity again becomes personal. The illusion of dreams come true. For each of those sitting in the hall, but also for everyone in the same hall. In a collective-individual longing for the happiness of love, but love is short and finite and therefore suffering; but suffering ideally, that is, “beautifully.”

WITH MUSIC ON A FRIENDLY FOOT

“The fire of desire burns in the blood...”, “Do not tempt me unnecessarily...”, “In the midst of a noisy ball...”. This series can be continued for a long time.

You can build a series in a different way: “Khas-Bulat is daring...”, “Because of the island on the rod...”.

Or it could be completely different: “Only the evening will turn blue…”, “My fire is shining in the fog...”.

You can do this: “We just know each other...”, “Returning your portrait to you...”.

We can finally return to the classics, but new classics: “You are my fallen maple...”, “There will be no one in the house...”.

Just one line is said, and at the same moment music appears with subsequent words, freely drawn to each other and all together - to music; absolutely certain music, which - just start - is always heard, but always together with the word.

All the poetic beginnings listed here are individual signs of poetic and musical identities (even nameless ones); but such identities that, having met, revealed a different quality. And all this is a romance: elegiac, ballad, urban. Romance in its intuitively intelligible genre definition.

Fraternization of words and music; but words that are ready to become music, and music that is also ready to become a verbally expressed love and everyday situation. A word in a text that has not yet become a romance - with music “on a friendly footing.”

Remember;

He was catching up on Schubert, Like a pure diamond;

To us with blue music It's not scary to die.

The mundane and the sublime are side by side, together to the end. Another, primordial romance, overcoming boundaries.

However, the coincidence of music and words is a miracle, a creative impossibility: “... but the hand trembled and the motive did not agree with the verse.” Whether words have been translated into music, music into words, is judged by those who listen to the romance and at the same time listen to their soul and the beats of their heart.

The coincidence of words and music, logos and voice is the composer’s deepest aspiration. Is this why the history of Russian romance knows several dozen musical versions of the same poetic text? “Don’t sing, beauty, in front of me...” by Pushkin. Glinka, Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Rachmaninov wrote music for this poem. Only Glinka and Rachmaninov hit the mark. It is in their interpretations that the romance appeals to the ears of a mass audience. Based on Baratynsky’s text “Where is the sweet whisper...”, Glinka, Grechaninov, and Vik competed in a creative duel. Kalinnikov, Ts. Cui, N. Sokolov, N. Cherepnin, S. Lyapunov. It should be noted that if Glinka and Lyapunov read this poem as a romance, then Sokolov and Tcherepnin heard in it a two-voice musical piece, and Cui created a musical picture based on this text. Thus, it is also not easy for a romance to become itself: the multi-semantic nature of a poetic text, intended for a romantic life, contradicts its purpose, meeting with music that has plans for something else.

The attraction of the romance word to music is its essential feature. Afanasy Fet wrote: “I was always drawn from a certain area of ​​words into an indefinite area of ​​music, into which I went as far as my strength was possible.” Music in its initial uncertainty, as it were, reveals the instability of the romance word with all its semantic unambiguity as a word.

Composers also understand this theoretically based attraction. P. I. Tchaikovsky writes: “...Fet, in his best moments, goes beyond the limits indicated by poetry and boldly takes a step into our field... This is not just a poet, but rather a poet-musician, as if avoiding even such topics that easily lend themselves to expression in words." Composer and musicologist Cesar Cui wrote: “Poetry and sound are equal powers, they help each other: the word imparts certainty to the expressed feeling, music enhances its expressiveness, gives sound poetry, complements the unsaid: both merge together and act on the listener with redoubled force.” According to Cui, the word is not completely defined, because it can be explained by music. Thus, the composer is the first person from the public to listen to the romance in its formation that has not yet begun, but is ready to begin, with its unsaid - unsaid - secret. Music in its uncertainty is called upon to further define the word, which seems to be already defined in terms of meaning. Cui saw “the artistic task of vocal lyricism” in a balanced correspondence between musical and poetic forms. But this balance is only a striving for the ideal, “unexpected joy” from the convergence of words and music.

Word and music. Another significant borderland that has the ability to be overcome in an “ideal” romance.

A special type of coincidence is the romance theater of a poet, composer, musician and performer in one person, representing heterogeneous talents in his own personality.

NON-CLASSICAL CLASSICS

But it is unlikely that only aesthetic criteria determine this overcoming.

The great Glinka writes music to the poems of the third-rate poet Kukolnik, and as a result - the brilliant “Doubt”, “Only the evening will warm up blue...” by Alexei Budishchev (who knows this poet now?) set to music by A. Obukhov (and who, tell me, knows this composer?). The result is a popular urban romance known as “The Wicket”, without which not a single evening of old romance is complete.

Or, finally, not at all the classic - everyday - romance “Only Once” by P. German - B. Fomin, but “touches the soul...”.

Classics and non-classics - poetic and musical - have equal rights, because both are addressed to everyone. And this is a remarkable feature of Russian romance, a socially conditioned and deeply democratic phenomenon, but with keen attention to the spiritual world of man.

Perhaps this is why V.I. Lenin was so sensitive and interestedly partial to Russian romance in its best examples, who perfectly understood the social purpose of art and the revolutionary-democratic views of the leading writers of Russia.

M. Essen recalls: “Lenin listened with great pleasure to Tchaikovsky’s romances “Night”, “Among the noisy ball”, “We sat with you by the sleeping river”, and Dargomyzhsky’s song “We were not married in a church”... What a relaxation, what a pleasure for Vladimir Ilyich there were our songs!.. They recited poems by Nekrasov, Heine, Beranger.”

Lenin's attraction to the element of Russian romance with its deepest nationality and primordial love of freedom passed through his entire life, starting with youthful singing with his younger sister Olga. D.I. Ulyanov recalls: they sang a duet “Our Sea is Unsociable”, “Wedding” by Dargomyzhsky; Vladimir Ilyich himself sang. It was "Pretty Eyes" Gaines:

...These wonderful eyes on the heart They sealed my sorrows, I'm completely dying from them, Dear friend, what more to look for...

“I’m dying” - it was necessary to strike a very high note, and Vladimir Ilyich said, stretching it out: “I’m already dead, completely dead...”. “It was sung... not only for words,” continues D.I. Ulyanov. - It was sung because his soul was really yearning for another life. Sang. But she didn’t languish, she wasn’t sad. In Vladimir Ilyich’s singing, I almost don’t remember the minor key. On the contrary, he always sounded brave, daring, high, and appealing.”

These short excerpts vividly testify to the place of music, Russian romance, Russian song in the life of V. I. Lenin. And in fact: in Russian romance, love of freedom and heroism naturally coexist with subtle lyricism and love experience, sadness and sadness - with a smile and barely noticeable irony.

“I AM SINGING ABOUT YOU AT HOMELAND...”

The meaning-forming core of the romance is universal. This is, as a rule, a lyrical confession, a story about love in its eternal variations of the first date, jealousy, betrayal, youthful timidity, hussar bravado, separation, leaving for another, a memory of lost love. Eternal plots that know neither temporal nor spatial boundaries. The universal basis of romance involves the removal of national borders, the internationalization of the genre while preserving the national identity of each individual work.

“I drink to Mary’s health...” Pushkin’s primary source is the poems of Barry Cornwell; “Mountain peaks...” of Lermontov were called by him “From Goethe”; “Evening Bells” by Thomas Moore, which has become a surprisingly Russian thing, is sung in Ivan Kozlov’s translation...

This is enough to feel that the foreign language sources of the named texts, moreover, still merged with music, are behind the scenes and flicker only as weak flashes of a former foreign language. Now these works are living facts of Russian culture, which appeared especially democratic in the romance.

The most prominent poets working in the genre of romance lyrics actively go into foreign language spaces, into neighboring cultures, so to speak, to collect material. Interesting in this regard is the creative biography of “Zemfira’s Songs” (“Old husband, formidable husband…”) by Pushkin, which he included in the poem “Gypsies.” Commentators testify: while in Chisinau, the poet was interested in local folklore. He was especially fascinated, recalls V.P. Gorchakov, “with the famous Moldavian song “Tyu oobeski pitimasura”. But with even greater attention he listened to another song - “Arde - ma - frage ma” (“Burn me, fry me”), with which already at that time he related us with his marvelous imitation...” Initially, the tune of the song was recorded for Pushkin by an unknown person and published with corrections by Verstovsky along with the text, preceded by the following entry: “We enclose the notes of the wild tune of this song, heard by the poet himself in Bessarabia.”

Something alien, which became one’s own with an extremely caring attitude towards this alien, with the most tender preservation of the originality of the “wild melody of this song”, which remained wild and at the same time poetically and musically cultural.

The international character of Russian song and Russian romance is obvious. Exceptions only confirm this assertion, substantiated by researchers. The poem “Native” by Feodosius Savinov - “I see a wonderful freedom ...” (1885), which became a folk romance, is sung without the last stanza:

The “editorial” instinct of the singing people turned out to be impeccably accurate, protecting the basis of the foundations of Russian song, Russian romance - its universal human nature, alien to religious and chauvinistic obstacles and divisions.

At the same time, the national originality of the romance remains amazingly intact, striking the ears of Western connoisseurs of Russian romance and song creativity. One German philosopher of the 19th century wrote admiringly: “... I would give all the benefits of the West for the Russian way of grieving.” This “manner of sadness,” which surprised him, is rooted in Russian history, including the history of Russian romance.

“RUSSIAN SONG” - “RUSSIAN SONG” - ROMANCE

Romance (Spanish romance, literally in Roman, that is, in Spanish) is a chamber musical and poetic work for voice with instrumental accompaniment. This is roughly how romance is defined in encyclopedic publications.

The dual nature of the genre is immediately revealed: musical - poetic, vocal - instrumental.

In some languages, romance and song are denoted by one word: among the Germans it is Lied, among the English it is Song, among the French it is Lais (epic folk songs). English romance means an epic ballad song, a knightly poem. Spanish romancero (romancero) - folk, most often heroic, romances specially combined into a complete cycle. The fact that the main thing in romance (heroic passion), in Russian romance is only an opportunity, overcoming the personal, intimate love principle, but testifying, however, to the close connection of Russian song and romance culture with the historical destinies of the people and country.

Vladimir Dal places romance as a homogeneous word in the dictionary entry novel. He records the German and French origins of the concept of novel. Next come the interpretations of the words romantic and romantic, and only after that romance - “a song, a lyrical poem for singing with music.”

The word romance came to Russia in the middle of the 18th century. Then a romance was called a poem in French, necessarily set to music, although not necessarily by the French. But romance as a genre of Russian vocal and poetic culture was called differently - Russian song. This was an everyday romance, intended for solo one-voice performance with harpsichord, piano, harp, and guitar.

It was almost for the first time that romance as a title for a poem was used by Grigory Khovansky and Gavriil Derzhavin in their poetry books published in 1796. In any case, “A Pocket Book for Music Lovers for 1795” does not yet record this term as an independent poetic genre.

So, from the second half of the 18th century, the “Russian song”, or everyday single-voice romance, began.

The monophony of the “Russian song” is a fundamental phenomenon. The “Russian Song” was preceded by the so-called cant - a chant in three voices, followed by the replacement of the third voice with flute and violin accompaniment, turning it into a duet: the path to a one-voice song-romance, a work that captures personal destiny in its universal eventfulness. The second and third voices went to the listeners, listening to the inner voice of the lyrical hero.

One more significant point should be noted. G. N. Teplov, a composer and collector of cants from the 18th century, calls his, in fact, the first collection of this kind “Between things, idleness,” denoting the non-business nature of not only composing songs, but also listening to them. Everyone’s affairs are different, but in “idleness” people are equal in the empathy of universal human feelings. The three-voice cant, which has not yet become the monophony of the “Russian song,” testifies to the worldly nature of the genre.

Composers F. M. Dubyansky and O. A. Kozlovsky defined the musical image of the “Russian song” of the late 18th century. “Russian song” is a rather vague concept. It is as variegated in content as Kant’s concept is variegated and diverse. But a different poetics is obvious. The folk song element and the book culture of Kant naturally converged in this new genre, defining its bookish and folklore inconsistency, which reflected the peculiarities of Russian urban life of the late 18th - early 19th centuries in all its social and class heterogeneity. “Collection of Russian Songs” by V. F. Trutovsky (1776–1795) is, perhaps, the first collection of romance-like songs, or “poems,” as they were called then. An action in verse, a fragment of fate, a feeling in development.

By the turn of the century, the “Russian song” appeared in the following varieties: pastoral - shepherd - idyll, drinking song, elegiac song (close to classical romance), edifying chant, philosophical miniature. Poets Yuri Neledinsky-Meletsky, Ivan Dmitriev, Grigory Khovansky, Nikolai Karamzin work fruitfully in the genre of “Russian song”.

Combining texts into well-known musical images was a common phenomenon of that time. Poems “for voice” are evidence of the universal nature of music, but also of the popularity of these musical pieces. Individual destiny is based on a universally significant motive. Personal, not taken fully. Evidence of not yet overcome distrust of the individual - unique, valuable in itself.

The democratism of the “Russian song” made this genre a kind of tuning fork, revealing the true significance of a particular poet. For example, the ponderous epics of the classicist Mikhail Kheraskov have been forgotten, and his song “Lovely view, sweet eyes...” has survived not only its author, but has survived to this day.

These were songs for everyone - for the noble intelligentsia, urban philistinism, and peasants. Because in these songs they sang about the happiness and misfortune of an individual, about the torments and “delights” of love, about betrayal and jealousy, about “cruel passion”, which was taken quite seriously then and only now, perhaps, causing an indulgent smile.

In the genre of “Russian song” the opposition of three artistic and aesthetic systems was overcome - classicist, sentimentalist, pre-romantic on the way to musical and poetic realism. Another removal of boundaries at the point of “completion of times”, carried out in the “Russian song”.

In the first decades of the 19th century, the “Russian song” was transformed into the so-called “Russian song” with its sentimental and romantic experiences. This was what could be called the everyday romance of those times.

“Russian Song” is addressed to folk poetry and assimilates its artistic and social experience. But even then, in the works of progressive thinkers of that time, who treated folklore with care, warnings against archaization and stylization were heard. They insisted on mastering the versifier experience of the “newest folk songs”, in contrast to conservative figures focused on antiquity. The collections of “Folk Russian Songs” by I. Rupin and “Russian Songs” by D. Kashin (30s of the 19th century), as researchers note, were the first fundamental collections of “Russian songs” - a special form of Russian romance of the Pushkin-Glinka period.

The creative collaboration of the poet A. Merzlyakov and composer D. Kashin is evidence of the living development of the genre. About Merzlyakov, V.G. Belinsky wrote: “He was a powerful, energetic talent: what a deep feeling, what an immeasurable melancholy in his songs! “Among the flat valley...”, “Black-browed, black-eyed...” are masterpieces of song and romance lyrics by Alexei Merzlyakov.

“Not a fine autumn rain...”, “The Nightingale” are examples of the song-romance creativity of Anton Delvig, who in his own way comprehended the folk song origins and traditions of the contemporary “urban romance”. Composers A. Alyabyev, M. Glinka, A. Dargomyzhsky are his co-authors.

Nikolai Tsyganov and Alexey Koltsov are classics of “Russian song”. Their works most clearly reveal the features of this genre. “Don’t sew me, mother, a red sundress...” Tsyganova-Varlamova became a world-famous romance song. The same can be said about Koltsov’s “Khutorok”.

Studying the genre in its most characteristic examples allows us to determine its essential features. These are, first of all, conscious imitations of folk songs of trochaic, or trimeter (mostly dactylic), rhythmic pattern with parallelisms, negative comparisons, repetitions, and rhetorical appeals to birds, forests, and rivers inherent in folk songs. Symbolic allegories are typical (he is a falcon, she is a dove or a cuckoo; river - separation, bridge - meeting); traditional attributes (the mother of cheese is the earth, a clean field, wild winds, silken grass, clear eyes, a beautiful maiden, a good fellow); synonymous pairs (storm - bad weather, stranger - far side); flexural variations (diminutive suffixes, dactylic endings of poems); melodiousness, minor scale...

“Russian song” should be recognizable. People of different social groups empathize with the fate of others as if they were their own.

But the intensification of melodramatic moments broke the natural structure of the “Russian song” and exalted the melodic pattern. And then the Russian song-romance became a gypsy song-romance, a picture of gypsyism with its not so much “beautiful” as “luxurious” suffering, already satisfying other needs and aspirations. The boundary within the poetics of the genre itself.

At the same time, the “Russian song” is a poetic classic of the 30s of the 19th century. Let’s just name “The Ring of the Soul-Maiden...” by Zhukovsky, “Beautiful Maidens...” by Pushkin, “Scarily howling, howling...” by Baratynsky.

From the “Russian song”, brought to a complete “fatal” plot, rapidly developing, dialogically intonated, ornamented with ominous symbolism and with a tragic, as a rule, ending, a new variety of Russian romance grows - the romance ballad. The musical language is also different: expressive, with a recitative-declamatory vocal part, a “stormy” accompaniment that recreates the natural background of the dramatic action. Again, going beyond the boundaries of the original genre into another variety. "Svetlana" by Zhukovsky - Varlamov, "Black Shawl" by Pushkin - Verstovsky, "Airship" by Lermontov - Verstovsky, "Wedding" by Timofeev - Dargomyzhsky, "Song of the Robbers" by Veltman - Varlamov - a transitional form within the romance-ballad. This is a “well done”, “robber” song. The crisis of the poetics of Russian romanticism was clearly reflected in the melodramatic vicissitudes of the so-called “cruel romance.”

But all this - the romance-ballad and its varieties - is a natural development of the “Russian song” as an everyday romance.

The romance-elegy becomes the artistic epicenter of Russian musical and poetic culture. Actually, this is romance in its classical character.

It is clear that the “purity of the genre” of the romance-elegy narrowed the circle of performers and the circle of listeners, giving it, at least in its time, a certain elitism in comparison with the “Russian song” and the romance-ballad. But the future turned out to be his - the romance-elegy, which took shape in the first half of the 19th century and grew out of the folk-poetic and folk-melodic song elements of the same time. The second half of our century listens to the romance classics of the past not as a musical and poetic rarity, but as the voice of native and modern culture. They, these living examples, are not only in memory, but also in hearing: “I remember a wonderful moment...” Pushkin - Glinka, “I am sad because you are having fun...” Lermontov - Dargomyzhsky; later, the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, musical versions - “For the shores of the distant fatherland...” by Pushkin - Borodin, “Fountain” by Tyutchev - Rachmaninov. One has only to name how the text is reproduced, voiced, enters consciousness, and takes place.

But no less impressive and not quite equivalent communities: “I go out alone on the road...” Lermontov - Shashina, “The bell rattles monotonously...” Makarova - Gurilev.

The fundamental uncertainty of the formal and stylistic features of the romance-elegy distinguishes it from both the “Russian song” and the romance-ballad. It is here that the possibilities of creative individuality of both the poet and the composer are revealed. The accuracy of the psychological drawing, the realistic gesture of the lyrical hero, the meaningful nature of the accompaniment, the intensity of verbal and musical expression, rhythmic and melodic regularity are the features of this type of romance.

Not far from the romance-elegy there are other songs, close to it, but others about something else: romantic experiments on the themes of alien love and heroic events, perceived by the Russian song muse; freedom-loving songs of outcasts and imprisoned. The famous “Swimmer” (“Our sea is unsociable…”) by Yazykov - Vilboa is nearby. Let's add to this the free songs performed among the exiled Decembrists in the Herzen-Ogarevo circle. Many of them passed on to later times, testifying to the living revolutionary traditions of the people. At the other pole of song freedom live drinking, hussar, and student songs.

Thus, by the middle of the 19th century, the main artistic forms of Russian romance culture had emerged, which determined its history in subsequent times.

The development of democratic tendencies in Russian literature required a radical revision of the understanding of the nationality of Russian art, including the phenomenon of “Russian song” in its archaic-stylized quality. External signs of a falsely understood nationality are no longer needed. The folk character of “book” poetry is no longer determined by “word of mouth” and “leavened” attributes. Genuine nationality lies elsewhere - in the deep comprehension of the Russian character, capable of leading Russia to new historical frontiers for the fulfillment of national aspirations. Reinterpretation of the “Russian song” as a kind of antique was necessary. Without this, the development of vocal lyricism as a realistic and generally democratic kind of Russian poetry would have become difficult. A calculation with the inhibitory influences of the “Russian song”, which became especially noticeable by the middle of the 19th century, was made by the democratic critic V.V. Stasov: “In the 30s, as we know, we had a lot of talk about nationality in art... They also wanted they demanded the impossible: an amalgam of old materials with new art; they forgot that old materials corresponded to their specific time and that new art, having already developed its forms, also needs new materials.”

Genuine nationality, which does not need pseudo-national surroundings, is new material, cast in new forms. For example, the same romance-elegy, precisely because of its formal uncertainty, turned out to be especially susceptible to all forms. And then the signs of “nationality” of the “Russian song” are just an unacceptable means for new goals and objectives: the objectives are internationally universal, and the means are national-ethnographic.

There was a long-term discussion about the nationality of Russian art, including vocal lyrics. The “founding fathers” of the “Russian song” were critically discussed: Delvig, Tsyganov, Koltsov. The songwriting of Surikov, Drozhzhn, Nikitin, and Ozhegov was viewed with skepticism. Musical authorities were also overthrown (for example, Alyabyev, including his and Delvig’s famous “Nightingale”). The contemptuous label “Varlamovism” from the light hand of A. N. Serov marked “Russian song” as a genre for a long time. There was a lot of polemic in this criticism, and therefore not entirely fair. But the main thing was grasped: the “Russian song” little by little gave way to everyday romance and a new song.

It would be unfair not to talk about the life of the “Russian song,” which at that time became, in the best examples, evidence of overcoming a genre within a genre (“Don’t scold me, dear...” by A. Razorenova, “Between the steep banks...” by M. Ozhegova). They, these truly popular songs, are accompanied by songs, so to speak, for group purposes. But because of this, their nationality is diminished. These are anthemic, propaganda, satirical songs, funeral marches. And here there are magnificent choral examples (“Tortured by heavy captivity...” by G. Machtet, “There is a cliff on the Volga...” by A. Navrotsky). Their vibrant life in the revolutionary-democratic environment of Russian society is well known. This is an obligatory choral background, setting off the monophony of the urban romance. On the border of choir and muteness. Between them is the voice of personal fate: lonely, and therefore all-heard and all-responsive in their own way to everyone. Romance truly lives in its lyrical separation from everything else - one voice set to music. The heart is in the palm of your hand, and the soul is in the people.

The second half of the 19th century was marked by an even sharper separation between “everyday” romance and “professional” romance. According to researchers, their ratio is also changing. Everyday romance, presented by its “non-professional” creators, finds itself on the periphery of culture, but that does not make it any less popular among its rather varied and not particularly aesthetically demanding audience. But there are genuine masterpieces here too. Let’s take Apukhtin’s “A Pair of Bays” beyond the walls of home classrooms; but within their walls they will still remain: “Under the fragrant branch of lilac...” by V. Krestovsky and “It was a long time ago... I don’t remember when it was...” by S. Safonov.

New composers are again turning to the romance lyre of the first half of the 19th century. Balakirev, for example, writes a romance based on Lermontov’s poems “Song of Selim.” The young people of the sixties listen to it so seriously that they sing it themselves not only in living reality, but also in artistic reality. (Remember the “lady in mourning” singing this thing in Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?”.)

“You will soon forget me...” Y. Zhadovskaya - Dargomyzhsky, “I came to you with greetings...” Fet - Balakirev, Tchaikovsky’s romances - “I would like in a single word...” (L. May), “Among the noisy ball...” ( A.K. Tolstoy), “I opened the window...” (K.R.). True masterpieces of romance lyrics of the second half-century of the golden nineteenth!

In many cases, romance in its musical and poetic integrity is the most reliable repository for those poetic works that would be lost without music.

The vocal and poetic life of nineteenth-century romance lyrics labeled “classical” continues in our century in new musical versions - by Rachmaninov, Taneyev, Prokofiev, Grechaninov, Glier, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Myaskovsky, Sviridov. Another border is the convergence of centuries: the classical nineteenth and the twentieth, open to all cultural sides of the world. New poetry is coming, which decades later will become new classics, including romance: Bunin, Blok, Yesenin, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak, Zabolotsky.

The romantic twentieth century, especially its first half, has a special mosaic coloring. "Spring Waters" by Tyutchev - Rachmaninov are adjacent to "The Pied Piper" by Bryusov - Rachmaninov, "In the Invisible Haze..." by Fet - Taneyev with the romance "Sad Night..." by Bunin - Gliere.

The history of Russian romance is a living history, and therefore has the right to count on the future. The liveliness of this story is akin to the genre: the story, like the romance itself, lives on the borders, in the incompleteness of becoming. But this is exactly how someone who listens to a romance lives as their own or someone else’s lyrical destiny.

The time has come to turn to texts that can clarify the fundamental features of the genre, but again - at the moment when it itself goes beyond its own limits.

“WHEN WOULD HE KNOW...” - “TELL HER...”

Where does the song begin? Is it possible to find out the secret of the announcement of the word in romance singing, to reproduce this secret?

A comparison of the famous song - the romance-ballad “When I served as a coachman at the post office ...” with its original source (a poem by the Polish poet Vladislav Syrokomli translated by L. Trefolev) will help us understand how the original text is transformed into a song.

Let's look first at what they sing. The coachman may not be telling his story for the first time.

The death of his beloved, who suddenly appeared before him frozen in the middle of a snowy field. Actually, what else can I say? However, the last line of the song (“I can’t tell anymore”) suggests something more. But could there be anything more than this terrible horror in the middle of a field, wind and snow? And this is more that remains outside the text, each listener is called upon to personally speculate. And then what happened to the poor coachman happened to each of those listening. Of course, this is not exactly the case, but in the experience of possible interrupted love, the narrator and the listeners are equal.

Meanwhile, listening is active listening. The secret of the unsaid is deciphered by everyone in their own way. A romance-ballad monologue is, in fact, a dialogue, where the second voice (second voices) are the listeners and at the same time the unsung part of the coachman himself, which remains behind the text, but is mentally experienced by everyone as the unsung song of their own destiny.

Now let's look at the original source, which in its original form did not become a romance song. The poem is called "The Coachman". The beginning is purely narrative. The tavern's regulars ask the driver why he is so gloomy and unsociable, asking him to tell his grief, promising him a drunken glass and a tightly packed pipe in return. The coachman begins his story from the fourth stanza. from that very textbook line - “When I’m at the post office...”. At first the plot develops as in a song version. But... further!

Among the whistles of the storm I heard a groan, And someone asks for help. And snow flakes from different sides Someone gets carried away in the snowdrifts. I urge the horse to go and save it; But, remembering the caretaker, I’m afraid, Someone whispered to me: on the way back You will save the Christian soul. I felt scared. I could barely breathe My hands were shaking with horror. I blew the horn to drown it out Faint death sounds.

Here is an inner voice about the return journey, and a horn that drowns out the “faint sounds of death,” and fear of the caretaker. Every gesture is motivated; future behavior is also motivated. There is nothing left for speculation. The story is equal to itself. Voice upon voice, extinguishing one another. The supposed denouement is contained in the last stanzas:

And so at dawn I go back. I still felt scared And, like a broken bell, it’s out of tune My heart beat timidly in my chest. My horse got scared before the third mile And he ruffled his mane angrily: There the body lay, a simple canvas Yes, covered with snow...

It turns out that not only the death of his beloved ruined the life of the unfortunate coachman, but also reproaches of conscience to the end of his life. Fate is spelled out in its entirety and without omissions. There is no gap between the accomplished and the possible. The listener only listens to what happened not to him. The text in this form cannot be a romance-song, but it can become (which, in fact, it became) material for reciters, a concert number in its epic completeness. The lyrical openness in the text does not appear in a single line. You can cry, but you can't sing. But... I want to sing. The last stanza convinces us of this:

I shook off the snow - and my bride I saw extinct eyes... Give me wine, let's hurry, There is no point in telling further!

As you can see, the endings are almost the same. But if in the romance version speculation is possible, then in the original source it is only a rhetorical figure; but it’s still such rhetoric that it forces you to “edit” the text, take it into a song-romantic voice - turn it to everyone individually, and only because of that - to everyone. And the original text is for everyone, but not for everyone, because everything is told and therefore has become an instructive example.

And one more feature of the romance style. Compare two single-sense endings - the source poem and the ballad romance:

Give me some wine, let's hurry...

Pour, pour me some wine quickly...

The romantic gesture is more expressive, although here it is purely external. Much more important are the internal gestures of life itself, experienced by listeners of the romance-song in its intensely developing feeling, with visual realities. A. N. Tolstoy said: “You cannot fully feel an ancient lullaby without knowing, without seeing a black hut, a peasant woman sitting by a splinter, turning a spindle and rocking a cradle with her foot. A blizzard over the torn roof, cockroaches biting the baby. The left hand spins the wave, the right hand turns the spindle, and the light of life is only in the light of a splinter, falling like embers in the trough. Hence all the internal gestures of a lullaby.”

The coachman's story is close to the hearts of the listeners. After all, a snowy field, a snoring horse, a gusty wind, rearing snow, a secret hidden behind every bush and under every snowdrift - this is their field, their horse, the wind of their winters and their bad weather, their bushes and snowdrifts that keep the secret of their lives. And in a song there can only be external gestures, but they certainly point to the internal gestures of the everyday life of those who, listening, relive the romance.

To tell a personal fate means to abolish it as a romantic event, a romantic fate; stop the possibility of dialogue, the initiative of the second voice; declassify the secret.

Let us turn again to the living element of Russian romance.

Before us is the poem by Evdokia Rostopchina “If only he knew!”:

If only he knew that with a fiery soul I secretly merge with his soul! If only he knew that bitter melancholy My young life is poisoned! If only he knew how passionately and how tenderly He, my idol, is loved by his slave... If only he knew that in hopeless sadness I will wither away, not understood by them!.. If only he knew!.. If only he knew... in his soul the murder Love would speak its tongue again And the half-forgotten delight of youth It would warm him up and revive him again! And then, lucky girl!.. loved... Maybe they would love him! Hope flatters insatiable melancholy; He doesn’t love... but he could love! If only he knew!

It would seem that all you can do is sing this amazingly romantic poem! But no...

The first two stanzas (the second is omitted here) demand an answer, are addressed to it, ask questions, suggest a second voice, are confident in it, they themselves are filled with it. They are the first voice. They are themselves and... second.

But an answer is needed at this very moment. And so here it is - the last - stanza, with the desired answers, in fact, with one comprehensive answer; but the answer suggested by the one who asks.

The mystery has been abolished. What would a romance be without her?! Is this why the poem became a romance without this stanza that abolishes the mystery?

But this does not exhaust the vocal fate of the poem by Evdokia Petrovna Rostopchina, whose poetry was favorably treated by Zhukovsky, Pushkin, and Lermontov.

The affected questioning of the answer, in fact, caused the final stanza, rejected in musical and vocal existence. But the answer came from the outside - from N. A. Dolgorukov:

Tell her that with a fiery soul I secretly merge with her soul. Tell her that with bitter melancholy My young life is poisoned. Tell her how passionately and how tenderly I love her like a cherub God. Tell her that you are hopelessly sad I will wither away, soulless and unloved, Tell her!..

“If only he knew” and “Tell her!” composed a complete vocal and poetic composition: Rostopchina - Dolgorukov. Here we could put an end to this “musical history”. But…

At first hearing, all of Rostopchina’s questions are extinguished by Dolgorukov’s answers, as if composed exactly from the words of the questioner. The unsaid has been said. The first voice and the second voice merged into one. The romance with its mystery awaiting an empathetic response has disappeared. The question and answer became a concert number. But is it?

Reading into the text casts doubt on everything that was first heard.

The one who answers considers her soulless, his soullessness and lack of love, like ice, chilling his loving soul; and his pretense and his coldness are forced. The answers are, of course, parodies, but parodies with a catch, with a game that leaves the possibility of the mystery of the unsaid. The romance continues, lives, inviting you to listen to yourself; attracts empathy.

Dolgorukov's parody answer, in addition to this direct task, is also the first reaction of the first listener of the original. The response romance does not replace the third stanza of the original, removed in the version for performance. This is a listener's speculation; but open speculation is personal, and therefore not for everyone. It is one of the possible ones. The discrepancy remains. Romance lives in the personal destinies of listeners as an individual and collective experience. Parody, in its fidelity to the nature of the object being parodied, reveals this with particular expressiveness. But is it? And if so, then to what extent is this true?

It’s like a direct duel of romance gestures, their dialogic clash. Word for word. Speech to speech. But... let's listen: “If only he knew...” - “Tell her...”. About each other - in the third person. An appeal to a certain third person, who must, appointed by her and him as a mediator, convey her questions and convey his answers. In this third, two love destinies seem to be objectified, becoming public property. A personal secret degenerates into an open secret. It is removed, made “out of sight.” The “redundancy” of the author-heroes is erased. The source texts become equal to themselves. But the love situation in this detachment through an objectified intermediary is fully aestheticized, framed as an object of admiration. The ethical goes beyond the text. What remains is “beautiful” in its parodic-objective purity. And the “suffering” disappears. The romance was really played like a number in a concert. And the romance substance is ready for exhibition. The miracle of “beautiful suffering” disappears, but reveals its nature.

Examples of romance classics also reveal the dialogical nature of the confessional lyrical monologue within themselves. “Doubt” by Kukolnik - Glinka is the clearest example of a romance conjugate two-voice, manifested in one voice. An invitation to listen and participate in an intensely significant pause between “insidious vows” and no less “insidious slander.” Neither the author nor the listener is given a choice; but you are given the choice. And this is the satisfaction of romance aspirations for adherents of the genre, without which their personal life is not only incomplete, but is hardly possible at all. And then the album’s “excitements of passion” will not at all offend the sophisticated ears of connoisseurs of truly poetic words, if they, these connoisseurs, listen to romance today.

Romance attracts the listener to empathize not with lines, but with a living feeling, ready for development. Perception is based on the stable modality of the romance event, appealing to complicit sympathy.

Lensky's famous aria from Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin" "Where, where have you gone...", a farewell before his absurd death in a duel, is unlikely to evoke in the memory of an opera lover the way of introducing this lyrical digression into the text of Pushkin's novel. And this method is deliberately mocking. Listen:

Poems have been preserved just in case. I have them. Here they are: “Where, where have you gone, The golden days of my spring..."

The author's attitude towards his hero is immediately clarified by the context. But the composer’s attitude towards Pushkin, now towards his own hero, does not imply this context. The destruction of the stanza structure at the beginning of the aria is not significant for the vocal and musical development of the theme. The text is rethought, but the word music is preserved.

And now let’s return again to the folk element of Russian romance.

The voice of personal fate is adjacent to the voice of people's fate. These voices interact, transform into one another, and become almost indistinguishable. Pushkin’s “Prisoner” (“I’m sitting behind bars in a damp dungeon...”), as an example of purely verbal, non-musical lyricism, became a popular romance in the 70s of the 19th century, sung to a now well-known tune that arose in the song tradition of the revolutionary populist intelligentsia.

Personal lyrical love of freedom becomes folk-epic love of freedom. Individual authorship fades into history, but the longing for the will and desire for it of the oppressed people, singing this thing as a collective author, remains.

The “prisoner”, freedom-loving motif in romance and song creativity runs through the entire pre-revolutionary history of vocal and poetic genres.

In other guises, a different, no longer Pushkin’s, “Prisoner” emerges as a “new folk song” at the beginning of the 20th century - the famous “The Sun Rises and Sets...”, which our contemporary can hear at performances of M. Gorky’s play “At the Depths”. “Tramp love of freedom” is an accurate description of this work, reflecting its existence in various social environments precisely at that time, the time of the maturation of the Russian Revolution of 1905.

And again, an almost direct reminiscence of Pushkin’s text: “The young eagle flies by will...”. Of course, with alterations and options. But what is important here is this: the romance-song word, first spoken by the poet, is greater than itself; it continues to live its own life, independent of the original source, capturing the social experience of the people, the experience of their soul, sensitively responding to historical time, the time of possible social changes in the life of the country. Thus, in the lyric-epic word, the people's aspirations, hidden for the time being, seem to be realized.

But perhaps the most amazing thing is the personal-social duet of two solidary voices in the work of one poet. Thus, the march-revolutionary “Varshavyanka”, “Rage, Tyrants” and “Elegy”, marked by civic pathos, but strikingly personal, belong to the pen of one person. This is V.I. Lenin’s friend and comrade-in-arms, Gleb Maximilianovich Krzhizhanovsky, who in his own way comprehended and embodied in his works the traditions of Russian romance and song creativity.

“AH, THESE ARE BROTHERS, ABOUT ANOTHER THING!”

Now it is already obvious: to talk about romance, you need to talk about what it is not, but could become one under certain conditions. This research situation corresponds to the nature of our subject - internally borderline, structurally contradictory, living as a cultural integrity on the borders.

Let's remember these roll calls and crosshairs once again.

We thought about the suffering soul, but we had to talk about a beautiful word; they tried to penetrate the aesthetics of romance, but talked about the ethics of love; delved into the secret of reverently listening to the romance word, and came out of the 19th century into the present century; we were going to listen to the romance classics of the golden nineteenth, but we heard the romances of the new day; They talked about the musical and poetic delights of the ear, but touched on almost the most important thing - what romance gives a person in his life, making up for what is missing, but necessary.

They considered the romance a song of a special purpose and a special artistic quality, but it immediately turned out that the romance is more than itself. With a certain turn of thought, it can be a drama, a story.

We delved into the romance word, and it became music, which in itself - separately - was just waiting to be verbally told, to be explained.

They considered the romance a poetic and musical classic, when suddenly it turned out that “professionalism” and “perfection of forms” were a minor thing.

Talking about romance, we lived in Russia; but ended up in Spain and Persia, on the hills of sad Georgia in the darkness of the night. And only then, with even greater force, did they again listen to the bright sadness of Russian romance.

We were about to drop in to listen to romantic elegies in the exquisite music salons and living rooms of the nineteenth century, when a simple, publicly accessible song suddenly flew into those same salons.

Turning to etymology revealed new boundaries - philological, linguistic properties. And immersion in history revealed the genre uncertainty of romance as a musical and poetic phenomenon.

Analysis of specific texts revealed the internal dialogic nature of the genre, the need for a second voice, suggested by the first voice of the lyrical hero of the personal and universal vicissitudes of a love event.

They were talking about something else, but they still talked about romance. We thought about romance, but touched upon personal, human existence, which in its non-romance existence is incomplete and flawed.

Romance as a general cultural human value, a necessary fragment of human existence, is a natural combination of authenticity and dreams. He is aspiration embodied. Even if the one who listens to the romance is in old age, then even then he will take his own from the romance: the aspiration will appear as it was in his youth (“Once upon a time we were trotters...”). Furthermore. Romance gives the illusion of the attainability of the unattainable.

Russian romance is a phenomenon of national culture, but a phenomenon of a special kind. He has the ability to be in it and at the same time, as it were, to go beyond its limits, revealing a peculiar accomplishment of the times of a separate human destiny - remembering the past, calling to the future, fully testifying to the illusory realized “beautifully-suffering” present.

Russian romance is a living lyrical response from the soul of a people creating its own heroic history.

Without exaggeration, the most famous singer from Kazan in the world can be called Yulia Ziganshina, performer of ancient and modern Russian romances, domestic and foreign songs, Honored Artist of Tatarstan. She has been developing and supporting such a unique genre as “Russian romance” for many years, visiting various parts of the world with concerts and running the “Kazan Romance” salon in her hometown. “Russian Planet” talked with the singer about what changes the genre has undergone over the past few centuries, and what it can give to modern people.

- Julia, how has Russian romance changed over the course of its history?

Romance came to Russia at the end of the 18th century from Spain, where street musicians began to sing not in Latin and not about the love of God, but in their native Romance language and about love for a woman. In our country, romance fell on fertile soil; society felt the need for sentimental personal experiences. The romances fell into the reliable hands of the great poets and composers of the Golden Age - Pushkin, Glinka, Lermontov, Dargomyzhsky. The next surge is at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, when the salon, everyday romance is born. It is interesting that during this period, romances, with some exceptions, were written based on poems by semi-professional poets. The high poetry of the Silver Age was ahead of its time; it was sometimes incomprehensible to the average person. And romance is a human genre, earthly in every sense of the word. Romances began to be written based on Silver Age poems at the end of the 20th century. And cinema played an important role in the history of romance of this time. In the 1920s, the government decided that romance was an alien, bourgeois genre; performing and writing it was life-threatening. And he returned to the masses only along with the poetry of the Silver Age through films such as “The Irony of Fate” and “Cruel Romance.”

- What happened to the romance in terms of plots and the range of feelings it expresses?

Musically, intonationally, of course, something changes. Human thinking develops and vocabulary expands. We began to think more complexly, although this is not always necessary. Romances today are often performed with orchestras, previously mostly with guitar and piano. The range of feelings in the romance is from categorical hatred to deep love. Moreover, we are talking about earthly love in all its nuances - the expectation of love, love as a memory, bright or sad, love in the process.

- What kind of sensory experience and what technique should a performer of a romance have?

All genres require labor and work from the performer. But I am sure that romance is the most complex genre despite its apparent simplicity. There is still an opinion that romance is a trinket that is easy to perform. Many dramatic, opera and jazz artists think that singing a romance is very simple: “If I sing an opera, won’t I really sing a romance?” But you won’t sleep! There are catastrophically few real romance singers.

Let me explain. Opera, in my opinion, is about vocals. Jazz is freedom. An author's song is a text. Folklore is a state. Rock music is about rhythm. Pop music is show and exterior. But romance is a sense of proportion. And with this feeling, as you know, the greatest tension is not only in music. A romance also requires vocals, and competent and delivered ones, however, if there is too much of it, then, as a rule, the text disappears. When there is not enough vocals, this is also bad, because romance is still a vocal genre, without vocals it turns out to be an amateur performance. The text should also be in moderation: you can’t have too little: a romance is a dramatic work, and you can’t have too much - there is a danger of going into the author’s song.
The state is necessary, but just enough so that in three or even two verses you have time to immerse yourself in the work, immerse the listener, and come out of there together - impressed, inspired. Show and exterior are necessary. A concert costume, and not a simple one, but an appropriate one, is an integral part of the romance program. A show, or better yet, a mini-theater, is the basis of a romance concert, but again in moderation so that the spectacle does not overshadow the romance itself; after all, romance is a fragile, easily vulnerable genre, and the “interior” in it is no less important than the exterior.

Russian romance is a brand, it is unique, says Yulia Ziganshina. Photo: from personal archive

As for personal experience, it is not required. The singer must be observant and imaginative, able to arouse feelings - from his past, present and imaginary life, from the memory of ancestors, and so on. This is called memory of the heart.

- WhatAre you a fan of romance today?

This is a person who has life experience. Of course, these are mostly people who are... How much? Hard to tell. I sang romances to a children's audience, and the children listened with interest. Who didn’t fall in love in the first grade or experience feelings in the seventh? Experience that is beyond the control of years, which can be gained at 7, and at 25, and at 70. There is a person who has lived his whole life and has not understood anything. Listeners belong to different social strata. There are more women at concerts: I think because they are not afraid to show their feelings, men tend to be reserved.

- What does romance give to modern man?

An opportunity to feel like a person, to remember your feelings. Many people say that romance heals their soul. What kind of treatment is this? Tension is relieved, feelings and thoughts come into harmony, and the heart is cleansed.

- How is Russian romance received in the world?

I often perform abroad - not only for Russian audiences, but also for foreigners. For example, I recently returned from Italy, there was a concert in Parma for an Italian audience, there we worked with translators of Russian literature: before each romance, I talked a little about the romance itself, conveyed its brief content so that the audience would understand where to direct their feelings. And it works.

Russian romance is a brand. He is unique. There is no analogue to this genre anywhere. Everything that is sung with a guitar abroad is more like an art song than a romance. The genre of everyday salon romance cannot be found in any other country. However, as often happens with us, we treat our loved ones badly.

- In romanceIs continuity important?

Now there are a number of singers who have taken the style of performers of the early 20th century and joyfully sit on it. I think this is unacceptable. When they tell me that it’s the same as Vertinsky or Piaf, I answer that I’d rather listen to the original. Singers who copy achieve some success, they have fans, but they do not need fresh experiences, but the past, memories, antiques.

There is the other side of the issue - a complete denial of what was done before you. As they say, nothing is sacred. And again, the viewer can be attracted by such “innovation”, but, alas, not for long, because this speaks more of the artist’s stupidity than of originality: without taking into account the experience accumulated over centuries, he shows either lack of education or laziness. Here again the question arises about a great sense of proportion - where is the line so as not to fall into copying, but also not to leave the source? And here it is important to find guidelines.

- Why did you choose romance in your life?

Professionally, it all started when I became a laureate of the 1998 Romansiada competition. But long before that I was interested in this genre; in my early youth I tried to sing romances, but I could not learn the words by heart - I did not see the point in them. I was attracted to romances by their melody, a kind of languid melancholy, which, of course, was familiar to me, but I could not understand what they were about. And suddenly - the film “Cruel Romance”! An exact hit on me with an incredible combination of words, melody, guitars, keys, matching my condition, modernity of sound with the general surroundings of the 19th century! And most importantly - the voice! A voice where the text and experience were in the foreground. I can’t even say that it was the voice that struck me: real romance singers do not have a voice in its pure form - it is always a combination of sound, words, meaning and feeling. Then I bought a vinyl record and listened to it until I stumbled and scratched. And a strange thing - after some time, through the modern romances that were heard in the film, there came an understanding and awareness of what was happening in the ancient romances - they acquired meaning, they found logic, development, and an idea!

RUSSIAN ROMANCE - THE SOUL OF THE PEOPLE

The romance work of composers of the first half of the 19th century arose on the basis of folk song lyrics. The flourishing of the vocal creativity of composers of this period was accompanied by a high rise in Russian poetry in the pre-Pushkin and Pushkin eras. Developing during the heyday of Russian poetry, romance sensitively reflected its themes, stylistic evolution and figurative structure. The work of V.A. Zhukovsky was of great importance for the development of Russian romance. Batyushkova K.N., Baratynsky E.A., Delviga A.A. and especially Pushkin A.S..

Pushkin's poetry enriched Russian romance and made it a major artistic phenomenon. In the works of composers, those genres of Russian romance emerged, which subsequently received a high, perfect embodiment by classical composers. Two important lines of vocal lyrics are defined - romance and “Russian song”. The term “romance” was established in Russian musical usage at the very beginning of the 19th century. This name meant a lyrical vocal work with instrumental accompaniment, created on an independent poetic text. Another genre of vocal chamber music - “Russian song” - is closer to folklore samples. “Russian song” is the most beloved, widespread genre in music of the first half of the 19th century; it developed under the influence of deep interest in folk art, which appeared almost simultaneously in music and poetry. Many “Russian songs” by A.A. Alyabyev, A. E. Varlamov, A.L. Gurilev “returned to the people” and became folk - so subtly and poetically were the composers able to translate into them the features of folk song lyrics. Romantic lyrics largely determined the appearance of Russian musical art in the first half of the 19th century. In the simplest genre of romance, the foundations of the national musical style and language were developed, and the intonation principles of Russian melody were developed.

In addition to the “Russian song,” the formation of the main varieties of Russian romance dates back to this time - elegy, ballad, drinking song, etc. Elegy is a special type of lyrical-philosophical romance, in which deep thought, sadness, the theme of loneliness, etc. predominate. Elegy, having reached great heights in the works of Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, unusually enriched the romance with elements and intonations of Russian poetic speech. Along with elegy, it also includes meters typical of Russian versification - iambic tetrameter and pentameter, which determined a special type of melody: sad, melodious, declamatory. To the genre of elegy in the 20th century. addressed by Taneyev, Rachmaninov, Medtner. The ballad genre is distinguished by plot and narrative, hence the appearance of bright and expressive means. Unlike Western poetry, the Russian ballad is characterized by a more realistic development of the plot (the Western one is characterized by fantastic plots with elements of mysticism). Through the ballad, imagery of harmony and texture comes into Russian vocal lyrics. In the ballad, a certain type of vocal part is formed - pathetic, replete with broad, exclamatory lines intonations that emphasize particularly significant words of the text. The Russian ballad, developing in line with the realistic direction, incorporated historical subjects, heroic themes and freedom-loving motives. Examples - “Night View” by Glinka to the words of Zhukovsky, “Wedding” by Dargomyzhsky, “The Sea” by Borodin. “The imagery of harmony and texture comes into Russian vocal lyricism to a large extent through the ballad” (V. Vasina-Grossman). A common feature of the romance lyricism of Pushkin’s era was its close connection with poetic form. Composers have a very keen sense of strophicity, rhythm, and the structure of verse. In the romance genre, a harmonious classical form is gradually being developed - most often strophic, couplet.

The most common type of couplet is a simple two-part form corresponding to a stanza of eight verses (less commonly a period form). The harmonic plan of a romance is usually determined by modulation into the dominant tuning (in major works) or the parallel major tuning (in minor scale works) with a return to the main key. The connection with folk song origins is indicated by the chanting, intonation softness and smoothness of the melody. A feature of the vocal melody was the initial “start” with a wide jump up a sixth (sometimes a fifth or octave) and a subsequent smooth descent. Characteristic are soft, “feminine” endings of phrases, languid chromaticisms, intra-syllabic chants, emphasizing the smoothness of the melody. Techniques of melodic ornamentation (foreshlags , gruppetto) are completely dependent on the style of vocal performance; they are organically included in the musical fabric. In the development of Russian romance, the dance rhythms of the waltz, mazurka, and polonaise played a large role. Dance in Russian romance sometimes becomes a means of imagery and portrait characterization of the characters. Dance rhythms had a noticeable influence on poetry. Composers turn to subjects related to the East, the Caucasus, Italy, and Spain. The melody and rhythm of the romances were enriched, primarily with multinational dance elements. In the musical heritage of A.A. Alyabyev’s vocal lyrics occupy a special place; even during the composer’s lifetime, romances created great fame for him.

In the first period of his creativity, the composer turned primarily to elegiac, contemplative images of Russian poetry. He is attracted by the poetry of Zhukovsky, the bright lyrics of Delvig, and the youthful poetry of Pushkin. Typical of the young Alyabyev are the romances “A Voice from the Other World”, “Memory” (to the words of Zhukovsky), “The Singer”, “Tear” (to the words of Pushkin). The song-romances “Nightingale”, “In the evening I blush in the evening”, “Ring of the maiden soul”, written by him in the 20s, have firmly entered the life of ordinary layers of Russian society. Alyabyev’s famous song “Nightingale” with the text has acquired special significance in Russian vocal lyrics A.A. Delviga, which became a kind of synonym for everyday song lyrics of the Pushkin era. In it, the composer managed to summarize the typical features of sensitive lyrical songs-romances of urban life, while maintaining the noble simplicity and elegance of his vocal style. The romance is written in a simple verse form with a lead and chorus in each stanza. In the music of “The Nightingale” Alyabyev subtly reflected the inherent Russian folk song modal variability. The melody, covering an octave range, smoothly modulates in the first sentence from their minor to a parallel major, while forming the characteristic intonation of “chromaticism at a distance” (C-sharp - C, vol. 3-5). In the second sentence, it is colored by a colorful deviation into the major key of the VII degree (C major, t. 12), in order to return to the tonic of D minor.

The cadence with a colorful juxtaposition of the minor and major dominants highlights the smoothness of the melody. The song’s peculiar “leutintonation” is the final ascending melodic progression from the dominant to the tonic along the steps of the melodic minor scale - typical of everyday Russian romance. In the fast chorus (Allegro vivace), which affirms the main tonality, The same characteristic stylistic feature is the Russian sixth song - a move from the fifth to the third of the mode. Alyabyev's song spread all over Russia and became folk in the true sense of the word. The wide popularity of the work was facilitated by its piano arrangements - Glinka’s variations on the theme “The Nightingale” (1834) and Liszt’s virtuoso transcription (1842). Alyabyev enriched vocal music with new content and new means of musical expressiveness. The composer's romances showed attention to mode-harmonic expression, expressive means of timbre and color. Alyabyev’s harmony always emphasizes the meaning of a vocal melody and enriches it with subtle emotional nuances. Typical for the composer are the juxtaposition of the same keys of major and minor (in details and large parts of the form), sudden enharmonic modulations, the use of altered chords, and expressive unisons. His favorite sustained organ passages and ostinato figurations in the bass are used in different ways in romances of various genres - sometimes as a visual, genre or coloristic device (oriental dances from the collection “Caucasian Singer”), sometimes as a moment of purely psychological significance (“Beggar”) Alyabyev introduced great variety into the interpretation of the romance form, subordinating the general structure of the romance to the development of the poetic plot, using, depending on the text, various types of composition. Here there is a simple verse song with a refrain (“Nightingale”), and a verse form with a complex two-part structure of each stanzas (“Beggar Woman”), three-part reprise forms, sometimes complicated by variational development (“Like a little village stands behind the river”), free forms of end-to-end development, typical of ballad romances or dramatic monologues (“What is clouded, the clear dawn”, “Awakening” , “The Village Watchman”) The piano part is often the bearer of the main poetic image. Short instrumental introductions in the romances “Winter Road” and “Two Crows” convey the figurative structure of Pushkin’s poems with a few spare strokes. In this tendency of internal enrichment of the form, texture and musical language of the romance, innovative features of Alyabyev’s style emerged, bringing him closer to the Russian classics. The creative heritage of A.L. Gurilev consists of two main genres - vocal lyrics and piano miniatures. The appearance of the composer as a master of romance cannot be correctly understood if one does not take into account the important artistic and expressive role of piano accompaniment in his best romances. The prevailing idea about Gurilev’s supposedly “primitive” style has now been completely refuted by domestic musicologists, who were able to correctly establish in his vocal and piano music the common features of great grace and subtle soulful lyricism. The heyday of Gurilev’s work occurred in the 40s, when the folk songs of urban life were enriched new topic. The composer reflected the folk songs of his time, first of all, in the collection “47 Russian folk songs for voice and piano.” This material is currently one of the most valuable sources on the history of Russian urban folklore of the first half of the 19th century. It contains, along with romance songs of urban origin, also songs of the ancient peasant tradition. These are, first of all, the drawn-out songs “Luchinushka”, “There is more than one path in the field”, “Oh, you, my steppe”. Gurilev in his songs often uses techniques of ornamental variation, sometimes colorizing the theme, sometimes accompanying it with variations in the accompaniment. The contents of the collection are a kind of “encyclopedia” of urban songs of the 30-40s. Gurilev’s “Russian songs”, widespread in folk life, are closely related to the tradition of everyday music-making. They are dominated by the composer’s characteristic circle of lyrical-elegiac images, thoughtful and contemplative moods. The composer almost never resorts to the drawn-out melody of a wide-singing style - he builds his melody on shorter, but flexible and plastic chants. The character of rhythmic movement, almost always associated with the waltz formula, acquires great expressive significance in Gurilev's songs. We can say that waltzing is the main distinguishing feature of Gurilev’s “Russian songs”, in which the plastic grace of dance is always felt. Only a few examples of folk songs (including “Mother Dove”, “Sarafan”) were written by Gurilev in two-beat meter. However, waltzing does not contradict the vibrant national tradition of songs. With great skill, the composer melts typical waltz rhythms into the intonation structure of Russian folk songs and, as it were, reinterprets them in Russian melodies. The traditional five-syllable, with obligatory emphasis on the third, central syllable, size of folk verse (often called “Koltsovsky”) is the basis for Gurilev’s waltz songs . This poetic meter naturally fits into the composer’s three-beat, waltz meter rhythm (“Don’t make noise, rye, with a ripe ear”, “The sadness of a girl”, “A blue-winged swallow flutters”, “Tiny house”, etc.). The smoothness of the waltz movement combined with Russian song intonations gives these Gurilev songs a special touch of soft sensitivity. Smooth, sliding chromatisms and rounded cadences are typical. One of the best examples of this elegiac song-romance style is the popular “Russian song” “The Blue-Winged Swallow is Floating.” The song “Bell” is distinguished by its soulfulness and deep lyricism. With poetic sadness, the composer conveys a picture of Russian nature, the sad sounds of a coachman's song. Characteristic is the complete fusion of text and music, melody and words, which speaks of Gurilev’s subtle “poetic ear”, of his ability to understand the music of poetry. The composer, using his typical waltz movement, uses a poetic meter (often found in Nekrasov) - a trimeter anapest: “The bell rattles monotonously, and the road gathers dust a little...” In his songs, Gurilev touched upon the theme of a girl’s share, characteristic of Russian folk poetry. The images of Russian girls and the sphere of femininity perfectly corresponded to Gurilev’s subtle and gentle style of writing and the intimate chamberness of his style. The genre of “female portrait” is represented in such songs as “Sarafanchik”, “Fortune telling”, “Guess it, my dear”, “Who sheds tears”, etc. The composer’s romances, in comparison with “Russian songs”, did not gain wide popularity, with few exceptions, although Gurilev's romance creativity in the conditions of his time was a significant phenomenon. His best romances have points of contact with Varlamov, Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, whose work he undoubtedly loved and knew well. The influence of Glinka and his elegiac style was manifested in Gurilev in romances of a lyrical-contemplative plan (general melodic turns, characteristic techniques of take-offs and fills of the leap, chromatic descents, soft cadences with female endings, singing and surrounding the central sound with figures of the gruppetto type, for example in the romance “Don’t leave your native land.” A special group in Gurilev’s legacy consists of lyrical-dramatic romances. In the romances “Separation” (words by A. V. Koltsov), “I spoke at parting” (words by A.A. Fet), “You poor girl,” “Who sheds tears, stretching out his hands” (words by I.S. Aksakov), in works based on texts by M.Yu .Lermontov, the composer acts as a worthy contemporary of Dargomyzhsky, as a composer who managed to touch upon deep psychological processes and show the hidden life of the human soul. Gurilev can rightfully be considered one of the first talented interpreters of the elegiac poetry of M.Yu. Lermontov. The composer’s romances “Both Boring and Sad” and “Justification” can be attributed to the new genre of “lyrical monologue”, which was highly embodied in the work of his younger contemporary A. S. Dargomyzhsky. The romance “Both Boring and Sad” is distinguished by a declamatory melody , naturally broken down into short “conversational” phrases, a compressed range. Expressive speech accents give the romance a special intonation mood of a simple statement, a conversation with oneself. The declamatory nuances of the vocal part stand out especially against the backdrop of the transparent and laconic piano accompaniment. Rhythmic stops in the piano part enhance the mood of mournful, painful reflection. Regardless of genre, a distinctive feature of Gurilev's romances is the subtlety of the piano texture. The piano part is technically simple, accessible for amateur performance. Meanwhile, the composer’s piano texture is polished, distinguished by the purity and smoothness of the voice, and the grace of expressive details. Often the composer enriches the piano part with supporting voices, short replicas that counterpoint with the main voice. The general impression of grace is facilitated by precise indications of the tempo, dynamics and nature of the performance. M. I. Glinka turned to romance lyrics throughout his life. “Each of his vocal works is a page or line from his life, a particle of his delights, joys and sorrows,” V.V. wrote about them. Stasov. But not only the emotional experiences of a person, but also images of the outside world, pictures of nature, genre and everyday moments are clearly reflected in Glinka’s vocal lyrics. In terms of objectivity and breadth of content, his romances are compared with the lyrical poems of A.S. Pushkin; it was in Glinka’s music that Pushkin’s poetry first received equivalent expression. One cannot help but recall the words of G.G. Neuhaus, who in one of his articles wrote: “If a musician is an artist, then he cannot help but feel the music of poetry with the same force with which he feels the poetry of music... I consider Glinka’s romances to be the most perfect music for Pushkin’s poems. Music here is like a modest friend, an unpretentious companion of poetry, it does not impose anything, does not interfere with anything, its dignity and charm lie in its “service role.” And all this is achieved by the amazing fidelity of conveying the intonation beginning of Pushkin’s verse. From this point of view (and not only from this) the slogan: “Forward, to Glinka” seems to me to be the most fruitful for our young composers who set Pushkin’s texts to music...” Glinka’s vocal creativity was the pinnacle and completion of a long period of development of chamber vocal culture, originated in the 18th century. The genres of sentimental-lyrical romance, elegy, “Russian song,” and ballads were raised by the composer to a new artistic level. The richness of content in the composer’s romances is combined with the high perfection of artistic form. The vocal melody is distinguished by rare plasticity and completeness. Along with the verse structure, he makes extensive use of a symmetrical three-part or three-five-part form with a contrasting middle episode. A large role in the overall composition of the romance is played by solo piano episodes, introductions and conclusions, containing a generalized image of the romance. In the romances, Glinka does not strive to complicate the texture or external virtuosity, however, despite the apparent simplicity of the means, they require high skill from the performer. It is known that Glinka, himself an outstanding singer and teacher-vocalist, was fluent in vocal performance techniques. The composer created truly vocal romances, in which the leading role always belongs to the singer and the main content is expressed in a bright melodic image. Almost all of Glinka’s romances were written to texts by Russian contemporary poets. They were created at a time of high prosperity of Russian lyric poetry. The composer had a keen sense of modern literary and artistic trends. The inextricable connection between Russian music and modern poetry further determines the entire path of development of Russian classical romance. The lyrics of reflection and contemplation in the beautiful elegies of Glinka’s contemporary poets - Zhukovsky, Baratynsky, Batyushkov, were in tune with the creative aspirations of the young composer. The famous romance “Do not tempt” to the text of E.A. Baratynsky is a classically perfect example of the elegy genre in Russian music of the early 19th century . The mood of “silent melancholy”, longing and hidden hope, expressed in Baratynsky’s poem, is conveyed by the composer with rare perfection. The melody of the romance is distinguished by noble simplicity; it harmoniously merges with the poetic text of Baratynsky, who is very expressive in himself. Glinka avoids the “strain” that is so often found in the lyrics of the “cruel romance”. The music of the romance is extremely simple. An expressive introduction, with falling sequences, immediately introduces the listener to the poetic structure of Baratynsky’s poem. The mournful intonation is further developed in the vocal part. Most of Glinka’s “Russian songs” are written to poems by A.A. Delviga. In this genre, the composer develops mainly lyrical plots. “Russian Songs” are imbued with sincere, dreamy moods, which brings them closer to the general atmosphere of urban everyday romance of the 20s, but Glinka’s style of everyday lyrics is maintained with great artistic taste. In the songs “Oh, you, darling, a beautiful maiden,” “Oh, is it night, little night,” the composer does not go beyond the usual techniques and means of everyday romance, the piano part is reduced to a minimum (restrained chords and simple guitar-type accompaniment), but the simplicity of the texture in the “Russian songs” further emphasizes their song nature. The vocal part is presented in an improvisational manner and requires great performing skill from the singer. Glinka’s romance “Don’t sing, beauty, in front of me” to the words of A.S. Pushkin is one of the first experiences of embodying the theme of the East in Russian music. The simple theme of a folk song is handled by the composer with his usual skill - the folk motif calmly and smoothly unfolds against the backdrop of subtle harmonization with chromatic echoes in the middle voice. Vocal creativity of the 30s is represented by romances, which reflect the composer’s impressions of the nature and life of Italy, its singing culture . The Italian theme found its classical reflection in the romances “Venice Night” to the words of I. Kozlov, “Desire” to the poems of F. Romani, in them one can feel the romantic feeling of beauty - youth, beauty, happiness. The barcarolle romance “Venetian Night” has two editions , significantly different from each other in melodic and harmonic language. In performing practice, the second option is more often used, in which Glinka’s desire to saturate the texture with polyphony, line and harmonic diversity was manifested. The rhythm of the barcarolle serves as the main means for recreating the musical landscape. Measured rhythmic swaying, “splashes of waves” in the accompaniment, and a light melodic line expressively highlight the poetic feeling of nature. Glinka showed constant interest in the Spanish theme. The element of rhythm, temperament and sincerity of feelings, nobility and warmth - these are the qualities of the Spanish folk song that captivated Glinka. “Winner” to the words of V.A. Zhukovsky is a heroic “knightly” romance, permeated with active, energetic rhythms, saturated with ringing coloratura, glorifying the triumph of victory and the joy of love. The romance has a touch of brilliant concert style. Despite the Polish polonaise as the rhythmic basis, the romance subtly emanates a Spanish flavor; the abundance of clearly organized vocal flourishes using the second low step gives a “southern” touch to the melody and the entire musical language of the work. Some episodes of the piano accompaniment were also written in a virtuoso style, especially the final ritornello, where two important intonations of the romance and two main rhythmic patterns interact. The end of the 30s and the beginning of the 40s is the “Pushkin” period of the composer’s romance work. The romances “I’m here, Inesilya”, “Night Zephyr”, “Where is our rose”, “The fire of desire burns in the blood”, “I remember a wonderful moment” and the later created “Zazdravny Cup”, “Mary”, “Adele” - classic examples of the unity of music and poetry. The traditional genre of the “Spanish serenade” received a unique interpretation. In the romance “I am here, Inesilla”, the traditional love serenade turns into a passionate confession - a monologue, a scene of love and jealousy. The rapid, sharply accented melody takes on a tone of dramatic declamation, expressively embodying Pushkin's image of determination and courage. The composer wrote the romance in a three-part form, the outer sections frame the central episode, containing a love confession and jealous reproaches of the hero. Glinka presents the theme concisely (14 bars, not 16), this achieves swiftness and rapidity of musical speech. This is also emphasized by rhythmic means - syncopation and accents on the words “sword”, “I’m here”, and a short piano conclusion. The serenade genre is confirmed by the “guitar” accompaniment and the type of melody in the extreme sections (slight rise and smooth return in the extreme sections. The contrasting middle, like the extreme sections, is built on the principle of constant emotional escalation. The accompanist, like the soloist, is required to have instant figurative switching, elasticity rhythm, sometimes lightness, and sometimes richness of sound. The entire composition of the romance "Night Zephyr" (three-five-part form) is based on the contrast of two images. The first - the initial theme of the southern night, serves as a landscape background on which the love scene takes place, the second - light and gentle serenade. The contrast of “landscape” and “serenade” is shaded by means of coloristic expressiveness, tertian comparison of tonalities, differences in registers and textural presentation (soft F major, dull rumble of waves in the first part of the romance and light A major, guitar accompaniment in the love serenade). Three are known. edition of the romance “Where is our rose”. The “inner music” of this poem by Pushkin is based on the alternation of four and five syllable verses. Glinka conveys the musicality of Pushkin’s verse with the help of a flexible five-beat meter and a uniform, smooth rhythm. In the romance “Adele”, next to the Allegro tempo designation in brackets, the composer indicates: Tempo di Polka, although the small four-bar introduction does not in any way resemble this dance, it sounds pastoral, pipe theme, which plays a connecting role in further dramatic development. Immediately after the first four-bar of the vocal part, which sets the tone for the dance beginning of the romance, Glinka entrusts this theme to the voice (bars 11-16) and it sounds three times, first accompanied by a lyrical interlude, and then transformed into an enthusiastic anthemic apotheosis of love. The piano part plays an important role in the dramaturgy of the romance, not only in solo episodes, but also as accompaniment. All piano passages are built on thematic material that grew out of the material in the introduction. In the bacchanalian drinking song “Zazdravny Cup” and another drinking song, “Mary,” Glinka embodied the life-loving, epicurean mood of Pushkin’s verse. “Zazdravny Cup.” The poet chooses a rarely used meter (dactyl) for his table ode, thanks to which the precise, chopped verse sounds full-blooded and laconic. Glinka uses the entire poem as a text, first of all, recreating the festive atmosphere in music. Glinka’s “Cup” is a joyful, sonorous hymn in which there is no place for despondency. Glinka pays special attention to the form and content of the poem. In Pushkin, each stanza has its own “theme” (bad glory, beauty, love, wine). Glinka separates the stanzas from each other tonally (As, Es, E, As), limiting them also to the repetition of the final lines and piano interludes. The composer combines the principle of separation with the principle of unity, ending the last verse of each stanza with one melodic refrain, which ensures the dynamics of development and the integrity of the overall mood. The romance “Mary” is written in a three-part form. The outer parts are built on similar musical material, the middle one is a kind of lyrical center. Glinka uses his favorite technique of variant reprise, placing new episodes in the last part of the romance that echo the mood of the middle part. Almost everywhere where the melody is repeated, the composer changes the texture of the accompaniment, as a result of which new facets of the intonation-figurative language of the romance are highlighted. In the vocal lyrics of the late period of the 40s - 50s, the number of romances is small. Along with the cheerful, light Pushkin romances, Glinka’s works contain dramatic romances-monologues, full of tragic and sorrowful moods, hidden anxiety, painful thoughts: “Margarita’s Song”, “Prayer”, “You will soon forget me”, “Don’t say that my heart hurts.” The second half of the 19th century was a period of extraordinary growth of creative forces in Russian music. The end of the 50s and 60s brought forward a whole galaxy of composers, whose names constitute the pride and glory of Russia: P.I. Tchaikovsky, A.P. Borodin, M.P. Mussorgsky. Russian musical culture of the 80-90s shines with the names of S.I. Taneev, A.S. Arensky, A.K. Lyadov, A.K. Glazunov. In the second half of the 19th century, Russian song from the subject of everyday music-making became the subject of close interest and study. During this period, folk song and songwriting still remain the basis of professional art, and the nature of the connections between Russian romance and poetry became more complex. Poetry gives way to the leading role of prose, while at the same time experiencing its influence in relation to themes, plots, the nature of poetic speech (vocabulary, syntax, etc.). Russian vocal creativity is greatly influenced by Nekrasov’s poetry, this is especially clearly manifested in the song creativity of M.P. . Mussorgsky, as well as in the works of A. Borodin, Ts. Cui, P. Tchaikovsky. During these years, poets of a different direction, such as A.A. Fet, A.K. Tolstoy, A.N. Maikov, Ya.P. Polonsky, Tyutchev created a lot of valuable things in the field of psychological lyrics, revealed the beauty of their native nature, etc. The leading role at this time was occupied by opera as the type of musical art most perceived by the broad masses of the people , and under the influence of opera art the dramatic possibilities of the romance expand. Not only individual romances are created, but also cycles of songs and romances of various themes. New styles of Russian vocal music are appearing: characteristic monologues, musical portraits, romances-poems, romances-serenades, etc. The role of piano accompaniment increases significantly. In the process of formation, romance turns into a classically completed genre of vocal-symphonic poem, while preserving the sincerity and spontaneity characteristic of chamber lyrics. The pinnacle, the culmination of Russian romance lyrics is the work of P.I. Tchaikovsky. The composer's chamber vocal work is the emotional dominant of vocal lyrics, a lyrical diary, on the pages of which we encounter a passionate thirst for happiness and the bitterness of unfulfilled hopes, a feeling of acute mental discord and dissatisfaction, an ever-increasing contrast between high impulses towards the ideal and monotonous gray reality. The main part of Tchaikovsky's vocal creativity belongs to the field of lyrics. The composer identifies in a particular poetic text, first of all, the dominant psychological motive, finds the corresponding musical intonation, which becomes the basis of an integral composition. The form of romances was determined in the interaction of poetic and musical principles with obligatory attention not only to the vocal, but also to the piano part. The role of the piano in Tchaikovsky's vocal lyrics is very great. The piano acts as an equal partner of the vocal performer and a kind of dialogue, a confidential conversation arises between them. The circle of poets whose work Tchaikovsky addressed is wide and varied. Among them there are also little-known names. The composer could be attracted by some successful, vivid image, general emotional mood, or one motive, although overall the poem did not have significant poetic merits. The main part of the romances is written on highly artistic texts written by A.K. Tolstoy, V.I. A.N. Maykov, F.I. Tyutchev, A.A. Fet, Y.P. Polonsky, A.N. Pleshcheeva, L.A. Meya, N.A. Nekrasova. The first series of romances by P.I. Tchaikovsky was published in 1869. These are mainly romances of a lyrical-elegiac nature, imbued with moods of sadness and regret for lost happiness. Romances “No, only the one who knew”, “Why?” (translated by L.A. May from Goethe and Heine) are the most popular examples of the composer’s vocal lyrics. In the romance “No, only the one who knew,” the depth and brightness of expression are combined with laconicism and elegance of form. The melody unhurriedly unfolds, a special expressive poignancy is given to it by the initial move on the minor seventh in a descending movement with further smooth gradual filling; a similar turn is used by Tchaikovsky as the intonation of mournful reflection or persistent assurance. An expressive dialogue arises between the vocal and piano parts and continues throughout the entire romance. The romance “Why?” - an example of excellent expressive nuance of one short melodic turn. A simple thoughtful phrase, arising from the intonation of a timid question, reaches an almost tragic sound at the moment of its climax. A short piano conclusion seems to restore the disturbed balance, but the desperate cry of suffering and pain continues to ring in the ears of the listeners. The romance “To Forget So Soon” based on the verses of A.N. Apukhtin was published in 1870. The words of the title of the romance serve as a refrain in the text of the poem, completing individual stanzas. Tchaikovsky gives them different meanings, intonating them differently. The first two stanzas end softly and thoughtfully, and the third (which forms the middle of the three-part form) sounds with greater expressiveness, due to the use of an increased fourth and a mournful descending low-second intonation. The fourth (last) stanza sounds especially dramatic, thanks to the interval of a diminished seventh with a further drop to a minor sixth and transfer to a high register with a change in dynamic shades ff and p; these words are perceived as a cry of despair. Despite the fact that the romance is written in a simple three-part form, short in length, the composer achieves extraordinary power of dramatic growth, creating a brightly dynamic reprise with the major replaced by the minor of the same name. In the 70s, the composer wrote almost half of all romances. The figurative and thematic sphere of vocal creativity is expanding, the range of expressive means is becoming more diverse, new forms and genres of works for Tchaikovsky are emerging. Among them are a song in the folk spirit, imbued with bitter humor, “How They Set It Up: Fool” (words by Mey), the oriental romance “Canary” (words by Mey), two mazurkas based on poems by A. Mickiewicz - “Ali’s mother gave birth to me” and “The Mistress.” During this period, the romances “Carry My Heart Away” (words by Fet) and “I would like in a single word” (words by Heine, translated by Mey) were composed; they are imbued with a single passionate impulse, similar not only in general emotional coloring, but also in the form of presentation : easily soaring, as if soaring melodic pattern of the vocal part, evenness and continuity of rhythmic pulsation within the framework of a six-beat meter corresponding to two feet of the poetic text (anapestic and amphibrachic). The highest point in the development of Tchaikovsky’s vocal creativity was the turn of the 70s and 80s. Two series of romances (op. 38 and 47) include a number of the highest examples of the composer's vocal lyricism in terms of artistic perfection and subtlety of expression. Most of these romances were written based on poems by A.K. Tolstoy (eight out of twelve). Among them are the vocal miniatures “That Was in Early Spring”, “Among the Noisy Ball”. The romance “Does Day Reign” to the words of Apukhtin (op. 47) is remarkable for its power of expression of the bright, enthusiastic feeling that fills the soul. An important expressive role is played in the romance by the piano part with its violently rising and rolling back wave-like passages. This series includes two dramatized songs in the folk spirit, “If only I knew, if only I knew” (lyrics by A. K. Tolsky) and “Was I in the field but there was no grass” (words by I.Z. Surikov). In the vocal lyrics of the 80s, dramatic moods intensified, especially concentrated expression is received in the romance “To the Yellow Fields” (words by A. K. Tolstoy) from the series op. 57. But if in Tolstoy’s poem one can hear soft elegiac sadness and thoughtfulness, then in Tchaikovsky nature itself is painted in gloomy tones. In the opening section of the romance, the recitative phrases of the voice are accompanied by heavy piano chords in a low register, reminiscent of the monotonous strikes of a funeral bell. In the middle section, vocal speech acquires an excited character, rushing to a dynamic peak, but this impulse quickly fades away. The repetition of the main structure at the end of the romance (Tolstoy does not have this repetition) without any changes in the musical material and with the same words emphasizes hopelessness and a feeling of immense loneliness. The series of romances op.60 is quite varied in composition. These are sad, lonely reflections in the silence of the night - “Crazy Nights” to the words of Apukhtin, “Night” to the poems of Polonsky, and unrequited suffering in “Oh, if only you knew” to the poems of A.N. Pleshcheev, and inspired, full of bright poetic lyrics “I won’t tell you anything” to the words of Fet, “The gentle stars shone for us” to the poems of Pleshcheev. Of the romances op.63 and op.65, the most interesting are the romances of a lyrical nature “I opened the window” and “The lights were already going out in the room,” attracting with melodic expressiveness and subtlety of color. The latest work in the field of vocal miniatures was the romances op. 73 to the poems of D.M. Rathausa. The young poet’s poems attracted the composer’s attention due to their emotional consonance with the mood he was in at the time. New features of Tchaikovsky’s lyrics were reflected mainly in the first two romances “We sat with you,” “Night” and the last “Again, as before, alone,” imbued with the tragic mood of loneliness, hopeless spiritual darkness and despondency. In the romance “We sat with you”, the constant return of the melody to the original sound conveys a state of numbness of feelings, “bewitched” by the surrounding silence and peace, and the ostinato chromatic descending movement of the middle voices in the piano part at the tonic organ point enhances the feeling of complete stillness. A short tremolo in the bass (“a clap of thunder”) awakens a storm in the soul, peace is replaced by tragic despair. The rapid growth is interrupted by an unexpected decline. The initial melodic turn is repeated, which emphasizes the hopelessness of suffering. The contrast of the extreme sections is emphasized by the change of major to parallel minor. A special place in Tchaikovsky’s chamber vocal work is occupied by a cycle of sixteen songs for children, written to words from Pleshcheev’s collection of poems “Snowdrop” (with the exception of “Swallow” to poems by Surikov and “Children’s Song” to words K.S. Aksakova). The composer addresses in his songs directly to the children themselves, taking into account their level of perception and the range of children's everyday interests. This determines both the theme of the songs and the comparative simplicity of their musical language. Among the best and most frequently performed are the songs “My Kindergarten”, “Cuckoo” and “Lullaby in a Storm”.

The folk legend about Genoveva of Brabant, which should not be confused with St. Genoveva, patroness (patronne) of Paris, who saved ancient Lutetia from Attila, is one of the very ancient ones. Its content is as follows: Paladin Siegfried goes on a crusade. Before leaving, he entrusts his friend, the knight Golo, with his wife Genoveva and transfers to him the management of his possessions. Golaud is in love with Genoveva; taking advantage of her husband’s absence, he pursues her with his love; but, despite the false news of her husband’s death, she rejects his obsessive seeking with contempt. Then persecution and oppression begin; Golo removes all her servants, and then a son is born to the abandoned Genoveva. Meanwhile, Siegfried returns from the campaign. Golo fears his revenge and does not know what to do. One old woman advises him to accuse Genoveva of infidelity, confirming this accusation with the birth of a child in the absence of her husband. Gullible Siegfried orders murder
Genoveva and her son. Golo instructs his servants to drown them in the lake. But the servants feel sorry for the innocent victims: they take them into a dense forest, leave them there, take a promise from Genoveva that she will not leave her wild refuge, and Golo reports that they have carried out his orders. Exhausted, weak Genoveva is not able to feed the child, but a doe appears here, which replaces the child's mother, and Genoveva herself feeds on plant roots and forest fruits. So six years and three months passed.
One day, while hunting, Siegfried, chasing this doe, was drawn into the thicket of the forest, among which he saw a naked woman, covered only with her luxurious hair, and near her a charming boy. This woman boldly stepped forward in defense of the doe. Struck by this sight, Siegfried began questioning her and soon recognized her as his wife, and recognized the boy as his son. The matter has been clarified. Siegfried ordered Golaud to be brutally executed. They tied him by the arms and legs to four wild bulls and tore him to pieces. Genoveva, fulfilling her promise, returned to her husband’s castle only with the permission of the bishop, and a chapel was erected in the forest. In the castle, Genoveva, unaccustomed to ordinary food, continued to eat plant roots and forest fruits and soon died quietly, surrounded by the reverent care of her husband and everyone around her. This legend served as the theme for several folk songs, several dramas, an opera by Schumann and an operetta by Offenbach.
In the libretto of Schumann's opera, compiled from the dramas of Tieck and Goebel, the legend is developed and something is added to it.

Golo is not an absolute villain. There is a strong struggle between passion and a sense of duty. If he succumbs to temptation, it is at the instigation of the old woman Margareta, and he decides to take revenge on Genoveva after the insult inflicted on him, when Genoveva, rejecting his quest with indignation, calls him a batard. He takes revenge more difficult than in the legend. He assures Siegfried's faithful servant Drago that Genoveva is unfaithful to her husband, and hides him in her bedroom to waylay her lover. Then he convenes the entire court and assures that Drago is Genoveva’s lover. Indeed, he is found in her bedroom, killed, and Genoveva is taken to prison. Then Golaud goes to Siegfried with a letter from his confessor informing him of Genoveva’s betrayal, and in order to finally convince him of this, Golaud resorts to the help of Margaretha. Margareta is Golaud's mother, and perhaps even her mother; Siegfried once kicked her out of the castle, so she takes revenge on him; she treats the wounded Siegfried, who for some reason does not recognize her; She is also a sorceress and shows Siegfried three times in the mirror how Genoveva is being nice to Drago. Then Siegfrsch orders Golo to kill Genoveva, but she is saved from death by the same Margareta, to whom the ghost of Drago appeared and ordered to reveal the whole truth to Siegfried. Genoveva is saved, but Golo and Margareta disappear to an unknown location.
From this it is clear that the libretto was compiled ineptly, by an inexperienced hand; much in it is unclear, unsaid, confused, incomprehensible. But there are many dramatic situations in it, many scenes that provide an excellent canvas for music. In any case, it is a pity that Siegfried finds his wife not hunting, in rags, alone with his son, but with his murderers; and it is even more unfortunate that the opera does not end with the touching death of Ge-ioveva, which would have made a stronger impression than her solemn return to the castle.

Who among those who love and are interested in music does not know R. Schumann and does not admire him? Who does not admire his inspired works, full of thoughts, deep, strong, tender, cheerful, playful, capricious, always expressed in impeccable forms, always individual, sincere, sincere? Schumann is especially great in symphonic and chamber music, in the broadest sense of the word. Indeed, in addition to sonatas, trios, quartets and one quintet, he created a new type of small, picturesque, characteristic piano pieces (“Carnival”, “Phantasie-stucke”, “Waldscenen”, etc.), wrote many excellent romances (vocal chamber music). His large vocal works (“Paradise and Peri”, “The Wanderings of the Rose”, “Scenes from Faust”, etc.) are less perfect: it is difficult to maintain inspiration at the same height throughout such voluminous works. His only opera, Genoveva, is even less perfect because, apart from the reason just given, Schumann did not have the qualities necessary for an opera composer with an eye to effect and success. One must think that Schumann himself was aware of this (like Beethoven, like Schubert, like Chopin), since, despite his need to continuously create, despite the irresistible temptation of the stage, he wrote only one opera.
The main drawback of Genoveva as an opera is its gray coloring. It looks like old tapestries with faded colors, like old paintings with worn out, vague outlines. Many reasons came together to give rise to this gray coloring of Schumann's opera. There are almost no contrasts or oppositions in the opera; the lyrical element almost entirely predominates, and the few dramatic scenes are expressed by Schumann insufficiently vividly due to the inappropriate symphonic style in this case. The music of Genoveva, with the exception of a few bright flashes, lacks brilliance and effect. Everything harsh and crudely decorative was contrary to Schumann’s delicate, noble nature. He had a strong feeling, a passion, but he hid them in the depths of his soul and did not show them outwardly with uncontrollable impulses, which alone act on the masses; he protected his intimate world from contact with the vulgar and indifferent outside world; Therefore, we always find in Schumann great restraint in expressing the strongest feelings - restraint, which, however, does not exclude either the depth or warmth of feeling. In "Genoveva" there is no characterization of the characters. The only exception is Margareta, who is more clearly outlined; but even she, in her monologue, in the 2nd scene of Act III, turns into the generally beautiful lyricism of all the characters in the opera. The instrumentation of "Genoveva", with the most minor exceptions, is monotonous. Schumann belonged to a very to a limited number of major composers (Dargomyzhsky, Brahms), who had poor command of the orchestra:1 the constant doubling of string instruments with wind instruments not only deprives his orchestra of a variety of colors, but even makes it difficult to convey shades. To this must be added the abuse of the symphonic style. What Schumann then did not do in Genoveva wanted to abandon it - this is understandable: he was afraid of the hackneyed, afraid of the idealess; therefore, in “Genoveva” we see a continuous, uninterrupted series of musical thoughts that Schumann was accustomed to express symphonically. And so, instead of the phrases of the characters standing out in relief in dramatic scenes, unconstrained by anything, he arranges them measuredly against the music of the orchestra, cools them down and increases the monotonous color of the opera
As for operatic forms, although Genoveva is already about fifty years old, they are still almost impeccable. Everywhere the music follows the text and obeys its demands. The entire opera consists of short scenes, mostly interconnected, occasionally completed musically where the stage situation allowed it. It is also worthy of special attention that Schumann in “Genoveva” attached special importance and development to melodic recitative. So, "Genoveva" belongs to the less perfect works of Schumann; As an opera, it is not without significant shortcomings, but there is so much excellent music in it!
The overture is magnificent in the full sense of the word. This is Genoveva's best performance. It combines all the high qualities of Schumann’s work: the charm of the themes and their inspired development. The introduction to the overture is distinguished by its depth and calmness; the first theme is lyrically nervous; the second is a love affair with a knightly character; the middle part is widely developed, the conclusion is passionate and extremely exciting. The first choir, or rather chorale, is not particularly inventive, but it is characteristic and solemn. It is interrupted by rather ordinary recitatives from the bishop and repeated again, which gives this scene a rounded harmony. The only pity is that it is repeated in its entirety: the impression would have been stronger if Schumann had repeated it in a more condensed form. Golo's aria and the following duet between Siegfried and Genoveva are beautiful (especially the first) and imbued with genuine feeling.
The choir march, to the sounds of which Siegfried goes on a campaign, is just as characteristic as the first chorale, and could have made a great impression with a better use of voices. The arrival of the knights on stage and departure from the stage evokes a natural, effective crescendo and diminuendo, but Schumann does not and cannot have it, because he entrusts the main theme only to the basses, and he entrusts individual counterpoint exclamations to the tenors and women. This may be very true, but it obscures the main idea, which is repeated many times and therefore somewhat annoying. It would be a completely different matter if the remaining voices gradually joined the bass. Further, in the first act there is a beautiful scene in which Golaud kisses Genoveva, who is in oblivion; Margaretha's appearance is typical, brilliant and superbly orchestrated; her scene with Golaud is carried out passionately and ends with a magnificent, although overly symphonic, coda.

The beginning of the second act is charming: Genoveva's monologue is sympathetic and full of content; the wild, colorful chorus of riotous servants makes an excellent contrast with it. The duetist who sings Genoveva with Golo is very sweet in his naive simplicity; it's slightly reminiscent of Schubert and has a folky, old-time feel to it. It is interrupted dramatically, and the entire subsequent scene between Golaud and Genoveva is not devoid of magnification; the only pity is that in it harmonic interest prevails over melodic interest. The short monologue of the offended Golo left alone is simply brilliant - there is so much beauty, expressiveness and deep feeling in it. It consists entirely of recitative phrases, and it should be noted that there is even more inspiration in the recitative phrases of “Genoveva” than in its formal themes. Genoveva’s prayer is very delicate and with a subtle poetic flavor, especially its conclusion. The beginning of the finale - the appearance of the choir - is original and bright. In the further development of the finale there is fire, strength, energy. Maybe due to its stage position it is a little long.
In the first scene of the third act, the song of Siegfried, dreaming of returning to the castle, is effective; Golo's arrival is amazingly depicted in the orchestra; the recitative phrases of Siegfried, struck by the news of his wife’s infidelity, are heartfelt and sympathetic to a high degree. In the second scene, Margaretha's initial monologue along with the monologue
The holos in the previous act constitute the most sublime pages of Genoveva. It is difficult to convey in words all the charming charm of this heartfelt, inspiring, ideally beautiful music. The vision scene is unfortunate: there is nothing fantastic in its music. Her choruses, especially the first two, are beautiful, but this is earthly beauty, not magical. And it must be said that the charm of the music of these three choirs should be enhanced, but this is not the case, and the last choir does not even correspond to the mood of the text.
The latter effect is much weaker. And in it we find almost entirely beautiful, general Schumann music, but much less outstanding episodes, which abound in the previous actions. These should include in the fourth act only: the typical, rude, maliciously mocking song of Siegfried’s servants, whom Golaud instructed to kill Genoveva; Genoveva’s address to these servants, for some reason reminiscent of Beethoven’s dervish choir in its triplets: a beautiful, soft end to the duet of Siegfried’s meeting with Genoveva and the choir merging with the chorale of the first act. On the whole, as has been noted, the fourth act is weaker than the previous one, and since it is the last, the final impression is less favorable than that which the listener makes after the three preceding acts.

From what has been said it is clear that Genoveva is not a completely successful and not at all spectacular opera, but a noble work of a noble and highly talented artist, in which there is a lot of excellent music. It will not please those who admire the latest Italian musical insanites; those who need vocal, at least hackneyed voice effects, high notes, fermata; those who want brilliance in staging and orchestration; but it will be dear to those who love good music in all its manifestations, even the most intimate and delicate, and it will be all the more dear to them the more often they listen to it, the closer they get to know it.
Consequently, we should be extremely grateful to the St. Petersburg Society of Musical Collections for staging this major, little-known work by Schumann, especially since its staging presented many difficulties, and by the very nature of the work one could not count on its resounding success.2 [ .]