"Pushkin and Music"

Dear friends!

On June 6, the world community celebrates “Russian Language Day”, a holiday established by the UN in 2010.

As part of the UN program “Memorable Days of Languages”, days of the French, Chinese, English, Spanish, and Arabic languages are also celebrated. In each country, these days are dedicated to the birthdays of the great writers Tsang Jie, William Shakespeare, Miguel Cervantes, as well as to celebrate the founding of the international cooperation organization of French-speaking countries of the world “Francophonie” and the inclusion of Arabic among the official and working languages of the UN.

In Russia, this day was previously celebrated as the “Day of Protection of the Russian Language”; back in 1996, it was first celebrated in the Russian community of Crimea. Since 2007, the holiday has been held in Crimea as the International Festival of Russian and Slavic Culture “The Great Russian Word”. In 2011, this day was established as a public holiday and this is not without reason, since June 6 is the birthday of the great Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, the founder of the modern Russian literary language!

On the eve of the Russian Language Day holiday, we invite you to immerse yourself in musical interpretations of the literary heritage of the Sun of Russian Poetry.

“Of the pleasures of life, music is second only to love, but love is also a melody!”< /span>

(A.S. Pushkin, “The Stone Guest” from the series “Little Tragedies”)

In the history of world literature one can hardly find the name of a writer or poet whose work would be as widely reflected in music as the work of A.S. Pushkin. Musical Pushkiniana has thousands of titles. This includes operas and romances, symphonic works and musical dramas, ballets and folk songs.

“Pushkin is an inexhaustible spring for Russian music,” wrote composer Alexander Nikolaevich Serov. And his fellow composer Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov said: “Oh, Pushkin, Pushkin! Eternal, radiant, free artist... That’s who I can kneel before!”

Pushkin was not a specialist musician; he did not play musical instruments, did not have a singing voice, but all this does not at all exclude his musical talent and constant, lively and sincere attention to music, penetration into its essence. The poet's life was filled with musical impressions: from folk songs to Italian opera, from the ballets of Charles Louis Didelot and vaudevilles to the symphonies of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to the first Russian operas...

A special place in the musical heritage inspired by the work of A.S. Pushkin, assigned to the composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, a contemporary of the poet. Both Pushkin and Glinka are “the founders of the national... both created the new Russian language - one in poetry, the other in music.” Living at the same time and in the same city, moving in a circle of mutual acquaintances, attending the same concerts and performances, Pushkin and Glinka were friendly and knew how to appreciate each other. Pushkin attended the premiere of the opera “A Life for the Tsar” and took part in honoring the composer. Throughout his life, Glinka turned to Pushkin’s poetry (the opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila” and numerous romances).

Contemporaries of Pushkin and Glinka - Alexander Sergeevich Griboedov, Count Matvey Yurievich Vielgorsky, Alexander Nikolaevich Verstovsky, Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky created a lot of music based on the poet’s poems. It was Pushkin’s poetry that largely determined the musical language of Russian romance and Russian opera.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov - all of them could repeat the words of A.S. Dargomyzhsky: “I can’t live a day without Pushkin.” The same applies to many Russian musicians of subsequent generations, for example, Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov, Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky, Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev, Georgiy Vasilyevich Sviridov.

During the poet’s lifetime, premieres of such works as the ballet “Ruslan and Lyudmila, go overthrow of Chernomor, the evil wizard” took place (choreographer A.P. Glushkovsky, composer F.E. Scholz, Moscow Theater on Mokhovaya), ballet “Prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shadow of the Bride” (choreographer S.L. Didelot, composer K. Kavos, St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater), magical comedy “Finn” based on the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila” (Bolshoi Theater , Moscow), one-act ballet “Black Shawl, or Punished Infidelity” based on the poem “Black Shawl” (choreographer A.P. Glushkovsky, Commonwealth of Composers, Bolshoi Theater, Moscow).

In 1842, the premiere of the opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by M.I. took place. Glinka. In the period from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries, the following works were staged: the opera “The Queen of Spades” by F. Halevi, the operas “The Mermaid”, “The Stone Guest” by A.S. Dargomyzhsky, operas “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Feast during the Plague”, “The Captain's Daughter” by T.A. Cui, ballet “Golden Fish” by A. Saint-Leon to music by L. Minkus, opera “Boris Godunov” by M.P. Mussorgsky, the operas “Eugene Onegin, “Mazeppa” and “The Queen of Spades” by P.I. Tchaikovsky, opera “Aleko” by S.V. Rachmaninov, opera “Dubrovsky” by E.F. Napravnik, operas “Mozart and Salieri”, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, “The Miserly Knight”, “The Golden Cockerel” by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, ballet “Egyptian Nights” by A.S. Arensky.

In 1922, the comic opera “Mavra” by I.F. was presented. Stravinsky based on the poem "The Little House in Kolomna". In 1934-1984, the ballets “The Fountain of Bakhchisarai”, “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “The Young Lady-Peasant Woman” by B.F. saw the light of day. Asafiev, ballet M.M. Fokina “The Golden Cockerel”, ballet “The Golden Fish” by M.M. Mordkin, ballet “The Tale of the Pope and his worker Balda” by M.I. Chulaki, ballet by R.M. Glier "The Bronze Horseman", ballet to music by A.K. Lyadov’s “The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights”, D. Hristov’s satirical opera “Golden Fish”, operas by V.G. Kicks "Dubrovsky". In 1997, the chamber opera by A.V. Tchaikovsky “Tsar Nikita and His Forty Daughters.”

The list of chamber works from different eras based on poems by A.S. is extensive. Pushkin - these are the romances of M.I. Glinka, A.S. Dargomyzhsky, Ts.A. Cui, A.A. Alyabyeva, A.A. Alexandrova, I.I. Schwartz... A special place in this list is occupied by the work of the composer Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov - his first major work was the cycle of romances “Pushkin’s Wreath”; He also penned musical illustrations for the film adaptation of the story “Blizzard” (1964), the unfinished oratorio “Decembrists” to the words of A.S. Pushkin and the Decembrist poets.

Word by A.S. Pushkin is revealed in a special way through the works of composers who wrote musical works based on his poems. Russian music has always been inextricably linked with classical literature, and Russian opera was oriented towards the poet. He always created a special rhythm for the work, therefore, it is no coincidence that his creations were and still are very popular among composers and musicians.

The most famous musicians of different times worked with the works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, they reinterpreted literary lines in their own way, trying to recreate in music all the plot depth and dramatic images. It is quite fair to think that great music received its even more complete development in our country thanks to the poet, who saturated his creativity and the creativity of his musical heirs with poetry from the sources of folk inspiration living through the centuries.