Sviridov's music is a deeply national and equally modern phenomenon. It contains original strength, conviction, clarity and spiritual and moral heights. This is the music of the soul. Even the most sonorous, she is quiet, always sincere. It is so natural that, having heard it once, it is difficult to imagine that it once did not exist.
Sviridov's music is born from the need to think, listening to the world around him, to think, as it were, together with people, expressing them. His songs are the music of internal states. Music that, having heard, you need to absorb into yourself and not sing yourself on the streets, but preserve, just as we protect spiritual secrets from the eyes of others.
Sviridov’s music cannot be confused with any other - its imaginative world, soul-stirring intonations, and accessibility captivate listeners from the very first sounds. This music is simple and artless. But this simplicity is a consequence of a deep understanding of the complexity of life and desire, and also the ability to speak about it simply. This simplicity, against the backdrop of the most complex quests of most modern composers, seems phenomenal and incomprehensible.
Sviridov is one of the most remarkable composers of the second half of the 20th century, and this can be stated, first of all, by the extraordinary spiritual richness and meaningfulness of his music.
Outwardly, Sviridov’s life was ordinary, without any extraordinary affairs or adventures. The main event in it was the countless hours spent at the piano or table while he wrote the score.
The future composer was born in the small town of Fatezh in the Kursk province. His father was a postal worker and his mother was a teacher. When George was only four years old, the family was orphaned: his father died during the civil war. After this, the mother and her son moved to Kursk. There, Yuri (that was Sviridov’s name in childhood) went to school, where his musical abilities manifested themselves. At the same time, he mastered his first musical instrument - an ordinary balalaika. Sviridov took it from one of his comrades and soon learned to play by ear so much that he was accepted into an amateur orchestra of Russian folk instruments. He even tried to compose something. This was the birth of a musician.
The director of the orchestra, a former violinist Ioffe, organized concerts and musical evenings dedicated to classical composers. While playing in an orchestra, Sviridov honed his technique and never stopped dreaming of getting a musical education. In the summer of 1929, he decided to enter a music school. At the entrance exam, Georgy played a march of his own composition. The commission liked him and he was accepted into the school.
At the music school, Sviridov became a student of V. Ufimtseva, the wife of a famous Russian inventor in the field of aviation and energy. It was she who became the person who advised Sviridov to devote his life to music. Communicating with the Ufimtsev family, Sviridov fell in love with literature.
In 1932, Georgy Sviridov entered the Leningrad Music College to study piano, led by Professor I. Braudo. At that time, Sviridov lived in a hostel and, in order to feed himself, played in the evenings in cinemas and restaurants. Under the guidance of Professor Braudo, Sviridov quickly improved his performing technique. However, after just six months, his teacher was convinced that Sviridov had an innate gift for composition, and achieved his transfer to the composition department of the technical school, and to a class led by the famous musician M. Yudin.
At that time, many talented young people gathered under the roof of the first music college: N. Bogoslovsky, I. Dzerzhinsky, V. Solovyov-Sedoy. And in terms of the level of teaching, the technical school successfully competed with the Leningrad Conservatory.
Here he wrote his first course work - variations for piano. They are still famous among musicians and are performed as educational material. But the most famous was the cycle of six romances based on poems by Pushkin.
Malnutrition and hard work undermined the young man’s health; he had to interrupt his studies and take care of his health. And in the summer of 1936, Sviridov entered the Leningrad Conservatory and became the winner of a personal scholarship named after A. Lunacharsky. His first teacher was Professor P. Ryazanov, who was replaced six months later by D. Shostakovich.
Under the guidance of his new mentor, Sviridov completed work on a piano concerto, which premiered during the decade of Soviet music, simultaneously with Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.
Shostakovich became for Sviridov not only a teacher, but also an older friend for life. He graduated from the Sviridov Conservatory in 1941.
Successful completion of the conservatory promised brilliant prospects for the young composer; he finally got the opportunity to professionally do his favorite thing. However, all these plans were disrupted by the war. In its very first days, Sviridov was enrolled as a cadet at a military school and sent to Ufa. However, at the end of 1941 he was demobilized for health reasons.
Until 1944, Sviridov lived in Novosibirsk, where he wrote war songs, as well as music for performances.
In 1944, Sviridov returned to Leningrad, and in 1950 he settled in Moscow. He writes both serious music and light music with equal ease. His works vary in genre: symphonies and concertos, oratorios and cantatas, songs and romances.
Vocal music occupies a central place in Sviridov’s work, inextricably linked with the world of poetry. Working with poems by a variety of poets, the composer reveals their appearance in a new way.
He was attracted by Sergei Yesenin, a poet whose heightened sense of love for the Motherland, its nature and people is especially close to the composer.
G.V. Sviridov says about the poem “In this work, I wanted to recreate the appearance of the poet himself, the drama of his lyrics, his inherent passionate love for the people makes his poetry always exciting. It is these features of the work of this wonderful poet that are dear to me. And I wanted to say this in the language of music.
The composer not only paints the Russian winter, the beautiful spring, the vast expanses of fields, the enchantment of a magical summer night. Behind all this, the pulse of history beats loudly: the pictures of life in pre-October Russia are changing in a revolutionary whirlwind, sweeping away the old...
Listen to an excerpt from the cantata “In Memory of Yesenin” (1956), called “Winter Sings, Calls.” The music vividly paints a picture of winter, conveys the feeling of snowfall, winter blizzard, wind and the gradual onset of calm.
Three themes become leading in Sviridov’s work: one is connected with the images of the Motherland, the other with the revolution, and the third with the image of the poet, who appears as a citizen, artist, mind, eyes and conscience of his time, his people.
A large place in the music of G.V. Sviridov is occupied by images of Russian nature, sometimes bright, juicy, painted as if in large strokes (as in “Poem in Memory of Sergei Yesenin”), sometimes tender, as if blurred, “watercolor” (“In Autumn”, “ These poor villages" to the verses of F.I. Tyutchev), then strict, harsh ("Wooden Russia" to the verses of S.A. Yesenin). And what is depicted is always passed through the heart, sung with love. Nature is inseparable, inseparable from the worldview of the lyrical hero Sviridov. She is animated, mysterious - incomprehensible. Such a heightened perception of nature comes from the depth of the hero’s nature, his spiritual subtlety, and poetic sensitivity.
Cantata “Kursk Songs” (1964). G. Sviridov wrote based on the study of materials from a creative expedition in the Kursk region. Listening to the recordings of the songs, he said that everything in the songs is so perfect in terms of the choral score and texture that there is almost nothing for the composer to do. The composer treated the melodic material very carefully, which he tried to preserve in its original purity and beauty.
G.V. Sviridov strives to reflect in his work the most significant events and phenomena of our history and modern life, for example the Battle of Kulikovo (“Song of Russia” based on the poems of A.A. Blok), revolutionary events.
But not only epoch-making phenomena found their embodiment in Sviridov’s music, it reflected the simple, everyday life of people. And in this, the composer, rising to great social generalizations, creates unusually multifaceted images, and sometimes entire tragic destinies.
One of the first composers, Sviridov turned to the poetry of Velimir Khlebnikov and B.L. Pasternak. His small cantata “It’s Snowing” (1965) is distinguished by the subtlety of its means of expression, the chords are more refined, and here the same cosmic universality breaks through. The melody of the first movement is built on just two notes, creating a feeling of numb falling snow flakes. The mesmerizing detachment of the unhurried melody is supported by solemn chords, creating a symbol of the eternity of nature.
Georgy Sviridov is the creator of an interesting musical genre, which he called “musical illustration.” The composer seems to be telling a literary work through music. This is, first of all, a cycle dedicated to Pushkin’s story “The Snowstorm” (1974).
It couldn’t be more consistent with the spirit of Pushkin’s story, its simplicity and hopelessness, the innocence of the characters, their integral harmonious perception of life. This music is thoroughly permeated with a melodic principle, which decisively prevails in it. The harmonies in the works are quite simple, although sometimes original and refined in their own way.
The orchestral flavor stylizes the musical era of Pushkin. The colors of the orchestra are light, fresh watercolors. The timbres of strings and woodwind instruments predominate, and sometimes full orchestral sonority appears.
The first part, “Troika”, serves as a kind of intro to the work. Against the background of continuous movement, a melody of a distinctly Russian character appears, as if flying over an infinity snowy plain.
Music recreates the image of a snowy road (music plays).
Now we invite you to listen to another fragment from the “March” suite. Pay attention to how expressively and accurately the music illustrates A. Pushkin’s literary text. It bursts with timbre and dynamic contrast, depicting the entry of a hussar regiment into the town (an excerpt from A. Pushkin’s story “Blizzard” sounds in the background of the music).
Another excerpt is “Romance”, stylized in the manner of love lyrics of the early 19th century. This work is very popular today, and has entered our lives like the golden pages of Russian music. Often the melody of “Romance” is heard in Moscow underground passages.
Sviridov's works are widely known in our country and abroad. Sviridov’s stunning choral cycles brought him worldwide fame (“Decembrists” to the words of A. Pushkin and the Decembrist poets, “Poem in Memory of Sergei Yesenin”, “Patriotic Oratorio” after V. Mayakovsky, “Five Songs about Russia” to the words of A. Blok, etc. .). However, Sviridov also worked in popular genres, for example, in operetta (“Sparks”, “The Sea Spreads Wide”), in cinema (“Sunday”, “The Golden Calf”, etc.), in drama theater (music for plays by A. Rastnin “Don Cesar de Bazan”, etc.).
Sviridov was generously awarded with titles and awards under almost all authorities: he was awarded State Prizes of the USSR three times (1946, 1968, 1980), the Lenin Prize in 1960, in 1970 he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR, in 1976 - Hero of Socialist Labor. This is largely why - when perestroika broke out and it became fashionable to criticize the past - Sviridov and his music fell into disgrace. The famous opening sequence in the Vremya program (“Time, forward!” (1974) was taken off the air as an example of the “totalitarian past”). However, a few years later, justice was restored. Here is what film director M. Schweitzer wrote about this: “Because this music is forever. Because it contains the pulse of a life free from political fuss. In it, time, which, despite all the blows of fate, historical catastrophes and irreparable losses, continues forever.”
We will hear the beauty of music. Now lies in its indomitable energy, in its rapid movement forward. Each of you will definitely feel it. Perhaps you will feel a surge of strength, a desire to do something real, good, a desire to move forward towards your cherished dreams.
In this music, the composer wanted to express the spirit of our era, to convey what all good people on the globe live today: the desire to make life as better and more beautiful as possible, to build new cities, to conquer space, and most importantly - the desire to make all people on earth free, happy and joyful. The pulse of the modern world can be heard in this music. It sounds like a hymn to the bright life towards which humanity is moving. This is, truly, the beauty and power of this music.
Of all the contemporary composers of Russia, Sviridov most deserves the title of “folk” in the true sense of the word.
The noble simplicity and moral pathos of Sviridov’s art, his careful attitude to the treasures of Russian poetry, earned him the sincere love of a wide audience.
Sviridov, with his characteristic foresight, felt earlier and more deeply than many other figures of Soviet culture the need to preserve the Russian poetic and musical language, the priceless treasures of ancient art, created over centuries.
Sviridov's music has become a classic of Soviet art of the 20th century due to its depth and close connection with the rich traditions of Russian musical culture.
Dear readers! Who among us doesn't like listening to music? I have no musical education, but I listen to popular classical music with great pleasure and it evokes the most positive emotions in me. Recently I visited again the literary and musical lounge, the theme of which was “Composer Georgy Sviridov and his work.”
Music can be different. Some people love jazz, some folk, and some are simply fascinated by classical music. For many, the classics are not clear. But if this music is from the heart and easy to understand, there are hardly any indifferent people. There is hardly an indifferent person who would not freeze in admiration at the sound of a waltz, written as a musical illustration for Pushkin’s story “The Snowstorm”.
On December 15, 2015, Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov, the greatest composer of our time, would have turned 100 years old. This is a great Russian composer, as friends and admirers of his talent called him during his lifetime. In addition to this national title, this is the People's Artist of the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor, Lenin laureate and three times laureate of State Prizes.
The future composer was born on December 15, 1915 in the city of Fatezh, Kursk region. His father was a postal worker, and his mother was a teacher. When Georgiy was 4 years old, Denikin’s father was killed in the civil war. In 1924 the family moved to Kursk.
One day, the composer’s mother was rewarded for her good work and given the choice of a cow or a piano. Noticing the child's musical inclinations, the mother chose the piano and, as you can see, she was not mistaken. Although in those post-war times there was hunger and a cow would have been very useful.
Here Georgy became interested in reading books and did a little music education. But gradually musical studies became a burden to him and at some time he even abandoned his studies. Moreover, he preferred playing the balalaika to boring exercises on the piano. They didn’t have a balalaika, he took it from his comrades and after a while he learned to play it by ear so much that he was accepted into an amateur orchestra of Russian folk instruments.
Playing in an orchestra led by former violinist Ioffe, Georgy honed his skills and began to dream of musical education. And in 1929 he entered a music school. During the entrance exam we had to play something on the piano. But since he did not have any repertoire, the boy decided to play a march of his own composition.
Study in Leningrad
While studying at a music school, Sviridov learned to play the piano professionally. After finishing school, on the advice of teacher M. Krutyansky, he went to Leningrad to enroll in a music college to study piano. In order to somehow survive and feed himself, Sviridov worked part-time in cinemas and restaurants, playing the piano. But he did not study at this faculty for long.
Having noticed an innate gift for composition, six months after admission he was transferred to the composition department in the class of the famous musician M. Yudin. N. Bogoslovsky, V. Solovyov-Sedoy and other famous composers of the Soviet era studied with him. Studying at the music college at that time competed with the Leningrad Conservatory.
While studying under the guidance of Yudin, Sviridov wrote his first course work - variations for piano. Later, while studying at the technical school, he wrote many more of his works. Among them are romances based on poems by Pushkin, performed by Lemeshev and Pirogov.
Studying at the conservatory
Intense study and malnutrition undermined his health and the young man had to interrupt his studies and return to Kursk. But having recovered his health, he returned to Leningrad again and in 1936 entered the Leningrad Conservatory. His first teacher was P. Ryazanov, and six months later - D. Shostakovich. Shostakovich was not only a teacher, but became his closest friend for life.
Studying at the conservatory ended in the summer of 1941. His graduation work was his First Symphony and Concerto for String Instruments. There were many creative plans. But they were not destined to come true - the war began and the young composer was drafted into the army. But due to health reasons at the end of 1941 he was discharged.
Subsequently there was a lot of work and life in Novosibirsk, Leningrad and Moscow.
Creative life
Many people know the screensaver “Time, forward!” to the “Time” program, which was broadcast by central television during Soviet times. But during the years of perestroika, when it became fashionable to scold the entire past, Sviridov fell into disgrace. Even the famous screensaver was taken off the air.
However, after a few years, justice prevailed. This is how film director M. Schweider spoke about it:
“Because this music is forever. Because it contains the pulse of a life free from the political bustle. In it, time, which, despite all the blows of fate, historical catastrophes and irreparable losses, continues forever.”
Fascinated by the poems of Russian poets Yesenin and Pushkin, he wrote many musical illustrations. These were not just illustrations for poems he liked, it was his vision of reading poetry.
He wrote many different works from romances to cantatas and symphonies. It must be said that the works he wrote in recent years are very different from those that were written in his earliest creative age, as if they were written by different authors.
I am not a music critic, so I have no right to somehow describe the works he wrote. I just love the music of this great composer. Enjoy his music by listening to short videos.
Georgy Sviridov is the author of music for 13 films. Among them: “Virgin Soil Upturned”, “Przhevalsky”, “Rimsky-Korsakov”, “The Great Warrior of Albania Skanderbeg”, “Polyushko-Pole”, “Red Square”, “Resurrection”, “Russian Forest”, “Blizzard”, “ Time, forward", "Trust", "Red Bells, film 2. I saw the birth of a new world."
Sviridov died on January 6, 1998 after a serious and long illness. After the funeral service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, he was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
This is interesting
By the way, about the influence of music. Listening to music is accompanied by a feeling of euphoria, during which the hormone dopamine is released in the human body - the hormone of pleasure or satisfaction. Not only in humans, but also in animals, while listening to music, blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate can change. I have an article on this topic “”, read it.
Japanese studies have proven that breastfeeding mothers, while listening to classical music, increase the amount of milk by 20-100%, and when listening to jazz and pop music, on the contrary, it decreases by 20-50%. Draw your own conclusions.
There are people who are completely indifferent to music and are unable to recognize or perform it. This condition is called amusia.
With wishes of good health, Taisiya Filippova
The work of G. Sviridov is represented mainly by chamber vocal, oratorio and a capella choral works. The main features of Sviridov’s style developed by the early 50s and then varied only slightly. The main feature of Sviridov's style is the Russian national origin of his music, the songfulness characteristic of Russian folklore - hence the diatonism that underlies most of his works, the abundance of unisons and parallelisms, the widespread use of subvocal polyphony and choral pedals. Chromatics are also found in Sviridov’s choral harmony, most often where the music expresses a complex state of mind (cf. “Night Clouds” No. 1); according to A. Belonenko, “harmony becomes a mirror in which the slightest movements of the human soul are reflected” [Belonenko A. Choral creativity of G. Sviridov // G. Sviridov, Works for choir, issue 1. "Music", M.1989, p.12]. In general, Sviridov’s melody is diatonic; archaic modes are widely used, on the basis of which laconic and very expressive half-tone intonations are created. Sviridov's achievements in the field of melody are especially noticeable against the backdrop of the passion of many of his contemporaries for new writing techniques - sonorism, aleatorics, the introduction of onomatopoeic effects into the score - Sviridov remained faithful to the tradition of the singing choir, which, first of all, allowed him to convey the intonational richness of Russian melodic speech. Almost without quoting folklore melodies, the composer freely dissolves in his music the intonations of peasant and urban songs, Znamenny chant and spiritual verse, revolutionary and mass songs. Sviridov is one of the few modern composers who returned melody to its dominant role. Even harmony is largely dictated by the melody: this is the so-called resonating harmony, which includes and, as it were, prolongs the sound of all the tones of the melody. Hence its unusual structure, which is based on quart and second ratios. Sviridov’s harmony, as a rule, plays not a functional, but a phonic role, in it there is “a feeling of vast spaces, sounding distances, ringing bells.” A similar coloristic role is played by the orchestra. Despite the fact that Sviridov wrote few symphonic works, there is no doubt that he created a fundamentally new orchestral style, combining brightness and power with transparency, a sense of vocal sound with purely instrumental strumming and ringing. Sviridov contributed especially much to the sphere of choral visualization and sound recording: he masterfully masters the timbre palette of the choir, he is capable of the most subtle techniques and the most refined shades of sonority.
In songs, romances, and individual parts of large choral works, Sviridov uses simple traditional forms: two- and three-part, especially verse and verse-variation. Thanks to the constant, penetrating variation, its forms become end-to-end, most often the result is the last section or verse. The composition of cantata-oratorio works is individual each time and depends on the creative task being solved at the moment. The musical development in them is less subject to the laws of drama, there is no purposefully developing plot, unlike the cantatas and oratorios of the 30s ("Alexander Nevsky" by S. Prokofiev, "On the Kulikovo Field" by Y. Shaporin). In the foreground is not the image of the event as such, but its comprehension and emotional experience, therefore a certain type of dramaturgy arises, based on the gradual construction of a three-dimensional whole from seemingly insignificant details. This type of composition is close to ancient Russian epic works.
The theme of the Motherland in the broad sense of the word permeates all of Sviridov’s work. It occupies a central place, subordinating everything else: the historical fate of Russia, its nature, the fate of an individual and an entire nation, the role of art in human life. The theme of revolution, its place in the history of Russia and the destinies of people is repeatedly reflected upon. No less important for Sviridov is the theme of the Poet - the voice and conscience of the people. The poet is the main character of most of Sviridov's major works: the first in this series is Pushkin's cycle, and with the advent of the poem "The Country of the Fathers" this theme becomes the leading one.
After a cycle of poems by Burns, the composer focuses entirely on national subjects and Russian poetry. Created in the early 60s. diptych based on S. Yesenin’s poems, new trends in Sviridov’s creativity are visible: the first chorus (“You sing me that song that before ...”) adjoins the previous stage of creativity, abundant in songs, while the second chorus (“The soul is sad about heaven”) begins a new stage with his characteristic appeals to the musical and historical past of Russia, which will subsequently lead to the creation of three choirs for A. Tolstoy’s drama “Fyodor Ioannovich”, where Sviridov addresses the peculiarities of Znamenny chant; a little later, he approached the genre of the choral concert as an independent one, which became the most suitable form for the embodiment of major ideas, which can be considered in connection with the composer’s interest in antiquity and the desire to master ancient Russian artistic traditions. This generally affected the tone of many of his works - non-vain and sublime - and the peculiarities of the language, and the completion of his creative path was the creation of original spiritual chants. Sviridov continues and develops the traditions of Russian classics - Glinka and the Kuchkists, especially Mussorgsky, who, like Sviridov, in every work, especially vocal, constantly sought expressiveness of intonation, strived for the utmost cohesion of music and words. Sviridov’s turn to vocal music is a consequence of the deep connection of his work with national roots, since it is known that all ancient music, both professional and folk, was connected with the word - it was sung. The song, in the broadest sense of the word, became the basis of Sviridov’s style.
Creativity of G. V. Sviridov
Life and creative path
Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov was born on December 3, 1915 in the small town of Fatezh, located in the steppe Kursk province. Sviridov's father was a peasant. At the beginning of the revolution, he joined the Communist Party and in 1919 died defending Soviet power.
From the age of nine, Georgy Sviridov lived in Kursk. Here he began to learn to play the piano. But soon the lessons stopped. Much more than the piano, the young music lover was attracted to the balalaika. Sviridov learned to play it and joined an amateur orchestra of Russian folk instruments.
In 1929, he entered the piano class of a local music school. Three years later, Sviridov graduated from school and came to Leningrad to continue his music studies. He began studying at the piano department of the Central Music College.
In Leningrad, a seventeen-year-old boy learned a lot of new things. For the first time in his life, he visited the opera house and a symphony concert. But the main discovery was that, it turns out, you can learn to compose music and that there is even a special composing department at the music college. Sviridov decided to go there. He wrote two piano pieces and in May 1933 was accepted into the composition class of Professor M.A. Yudin. With extraordinary zeal, the new student began to make up for lost time. After just a month of hard work, they were presented with their first essay.
At the end of 1935, Sviridov fell ill and left for Kursk for a while. There he wrote six romances based on the words of Pushkin: “The forest drops its wind cover”, “Winter Road”, “To the Nanny”, “Winter Evening”, “Premonition”, “Approaching Izhora”. This cycle brought the young composer his first success and fame.
Surprisingly simple, close to the traditions of Russian music, and at the same time original, original Pushkin romances of Sviridov immediately fell in love with both performers and listeners.
In 1936, Sviridov entered the Leningrad Conservatory, where he became a student of D. D. Shostakovich. Years of persistent, intense work began, mastering the skill of composition. He began to master different styles, try his hand at various types of music - during his conservatory years, Sviridov composed violin and piano sonatas, the First Symphony, and the Symphony for string orchestra.
In June 1941, Sviridov graduated from the conservatory. In the very first days of the Great Patriotic War, he was enrolled as a cadet at a military school, but was soon demobilized for health reasons.
At the very beginning of the war, Sviridov wrote his first songs for the front. The musical comedy “The Sea Spreads Wide,” written at the same time, dedicated to the Baltic sailors, is also closely linked to military themes. Even before the end of the war, in 1944, Sviridov returned to Leningrad. Over the course of three years, he wrote several large chamber instrumental works that reflected the events and experiences of the war years.
The most original thing in Sviridov’s work of the 1940s is his vocal compositions: the poem “Songs of the Wanderer”, a suite based on the words of W. Shakespeare, new romances and songs based on the words of Soviet poets, which appeared in 1948.
Sviridov works a lot in theater and cinema. This experience helped him create new major works, which appeared in the early 1950s.
In 1949, Sviridov became acquainted with the work of the great Armenian poet Avetik Isahakyan and was shocked by his inspired poetry. One after another, romances based on Isahakyan’s poems began to appear in translations by A. Blok and Soviet poets. Soon the idea of a large vocal poem for tenor and bass with piano in eleven parts called “Country of Fathers” was formed. Sviridov’s poem is an “epic song” of our days about the perseverance and wisdom of the people, about the greatness of their spirit.
In 1955, Sviridov wrote nine songs for bass and piano based on poems by Robert Burns in an excellent translation by S. Marshak. Unlike the poem “Country of the Fathers,” this cycle does not contain monumental images and paintings reflecting events of great historical significance. At the same time, these two works have much in common - the seriousness of the concept, the composer’s ability to see behind particular phenomena their great, universal meaning.
If in the poem “Country of Fathers” each part was a picture, then the songs based on Burns’ words are a gallery of musical portraits of ordinary people, a string of scenes from their lives around one image - a young man, “the best guy of our age.”
In November 1955, Sviridov, carried away by the poetry of Sergei Yesenin, wrote several songs based on his poems. They were followed by a number of others, and in a burst of high creative inspiration, in just two weeks, the multi-part poem “In Memory of Sergei Yesenin” was born. It was first performed on May 31, 1956 in Moscow.
Yesenin’s lines, with their beauty and magical melodiousness, seem to be asking to be set to music. But the composer can read them in different ways. Sometimes in Yesenin only the “pure” lyricist, the “singer of love” with a guitar is appreciated. Sviridov saw in him a great national poet who loved Russia like a son.
As always, Sviridov’s music is not just a musical illustration of his favorite poems. The composer really knows how to “read” poetry; he is always very attentive and sensitive to the unique characteristics of this or that author.
The main line of the composer's work has clearly emerged - the creation of vocal music, although instrumental works do not disappear from the sphere of his interests. At first, chamber genres predominated in Sviridov’s work - song, romance; but gradually he moves on to larger forms, in particular to oratorios. And each of his works is marked by spirituality.
A special place in Sviridov’s work is occupied by “Pathetic Oratorio” (1959) for soloists, choir and orchestra based on poems by V. Mayakovsky. Many Soviet composers wrote works of various genres based on Mayakovsky’s poems. But, perhaps, Sviridov’s “Pathetic Oratorio” is the most significant and interesting of them.
“Pathetic Oratorio” is a monumental artistic canvas, woven from many intonations. Particularly impressive is the last, final part of the oratorio, which uses excerpts from the poem “An Extraordinary Adventure that Vladimir Mayakovsky had in the Summer at the Dacha.” This part is called “The Sun and the Poet.” Bright, jubilantly solemn music is accompanied by the ringing of bells, as if conveying the blazing sounds of “one hundred and forty suns.”
The line of revolutionary romance coming from the “Pathetic Oratorio” was further continued in the very dynamic music for the film “Time, Forward!” (1977), which for many years was the musical theme for the information television program “Time”, as well as in the oratorio “The Twelve” based on the poem by A. Blok.
Following the oratorio, “Spring Cantata” was written to the verses of N. Nekrasov, the cantata “Wooden Rus'” to the verses of S. Yesenin, several unaccompanied choral works to his poems “In the Blue Evening”, “Herd”, “The Soul is Sad about Heaven”, cantata “It’s snowing” based on poems by B. Pasternak.
These works are certainly mature, marked by high professionalism, filled with poetic images. As for the style, the urban song flow has become brighter and more prominent in them.
However, the composer did not part with peasant songwriting. In the 1960s, the composer's passion for this fundamental principle of Russian folk music became even more pronounced. Thus, the vocal cycle “Kursk Songs” was created, which was the pinnacle of Sviridov’s creativity in those years and one of the masterpieces of Soviet music.
The basis for the cycle was folk songs of the Kursk region, recorded by a group of folklorists and published in the late fifties. The result of the composer's creative work is this wonderful work of our time. In “Kursk Songs” the features of any particular era do not appear. However, the life of the Russian people with all its features is reflected in the music of this work.
Like a prophetic Bayan, the composer slowly unfolds this life before us, showing its various facets. He tells with enthusiasm, lively and at the same time strictly, sublimely, with the objective restraint of a chronicler.
The seven songs have a single dramatic line with a climax and a conclusion. Moreover, the result is a vibrant folk scene, optimistic in nature.
A sensitive comprehension of folk song material allowed the composer to create a special harmonic structure of musical accompaniment, which, with its capacity and expressiveness, is equivalent to the main melodic line and helps to identify the meaning and content of the whole.
In his late period of creativity, Sviridov seems to synthesize the harmony of being and the subtlety of feelings, which creates some kind of even more weightless spirituality and sublimity.
Examples of this are “Spring Cantata” to the words of Nekrasov (1972) with its amazing lightness, fresh as spring drops, the first part, and one of the most striking works of Sviridov - Three choruses from the music to the tragedy of A. K. Tolstoy “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich "(1973). Here the intonations of ancient cult chants acquire a modern sound and emotional poignancy. This music is perhaps close to the ancient hymns of early Christianity with their solemn sadness and deep sense of the imperfection of human existence.
It should also be noted “Concert in Memory of A. A. Yurlov” (1973) - a kind of requiem in three slow mournful parts with a very refined and complex choral texture, evoking sad and bright memories of an outstanding musician. This is a passionate, slow, painful funeral service, coming from the very depths of an agitated heart.
In the poem “Rus' Set Away” (1977), on the contrary, there are many contrasts, and there are also moments of a majestic tragic nature. But these are not pictures of social battles. All the “action” is raised, as it were, to cosmic heights. Hence the legendary nature of the images of good and evil, Christ and Judas.
The figurative world of Pushkin's poetry again attracts the composer and inspires him to create beautiful music. The music for the television film “Blizzard” (1974) based on Pushkin is unusually poetic. Even without looking at the screen, but only listening to the music, you can “see” pictures of nature, and genre scenes, and a ball, which all unfolds against the backdrop of a waltz, in the light “flying” intonations of which some tragic premonitions are felt. A gloomy alertness is felt in the music for the “Wedding” scene. And “Romance,” which immediately became popular and often performed, superficially resembles the romances of Pushkin’s time, but being filled with some kind of fatal forebodings brings it closer to an extended symphonic poem.
Editor Pavel Vyacheslavovich Muskatinyev
Corrector Marina Nikolaevna Sbitneva
© S. V. Venchakova, 2018
ISBN 978-5-4490-3341-3
Created in the intellectual publishing system Ridero
From the author
The goal of creating a series of methodological developments in the discipline “Domestic musical literature of the XX - XXI centuries” for fourth-year students of music schools (specialties: 53.02.04 “Vocal art”, 53.02.05 “Solo and choral folk singing”, 53.02.06 “Choral conducting” ", 02/53/03 "Instrumental Performance", 02/53/07 "Music Theory"), was, first of all, a systematization of research as well as fiction literature (including modern literature), in one way or another representing the personality of the great Russian composer of the 20th century – G.V. Sviridova.
It should be noted that textbooks on this subject have not been republished for a long period of time. The educational literature that has appeared in recent years contains the necessary basic information on the topics of the course, but the volume of educational publications is not capable of reflecting many current problems of composer creativity, as well as presenting a holistic analysis of musical works.
The cycle of methodological developments was the result of many years of teaching the above course. The works include a significant volume of educational material, which is based on a detailed overview of the most important aspects of the composer’s creative activity, as well as an analysis of a significant number of original works. The strict logical sequence of each methodological development clearly demonstrates the lesson plan, key thematic issues, and final requirements for student certification. Each work is accompanied by an updated list of scientific research literature, which can serve as a good help for music students in studying the works of the named author; as well as in the process of writing essays, term papers and creative works. Each course topic is demonstrated in the form of open lessons.
A series of methodological developments dedicated to creativity
G. V. Sviridova:
1. "G. V. Sviridov. Some features of creative style" – illustrates some aspects of the evolution of style, covers key positions regarding the characteristics of the social and artistic prerequisites for the formation of the composer’s musical language. The work includes a brief overview of the creative heritage, as well as the most important areas of creative activity of G. V. Sviridov. The “Conclusion” formulates the main conclusions regarding the artistic style. Many facts, including research and biographical ones, have appeared in recent years in the memoirs of contemporaries who knew the composer closely, as well as after the publication of the literary “diary” entries of Sviridov himself. These fragments are also included in the work.
2. "G. V. Sviridov. Vocal creativity" – presents the most important stylistic features of vocal music, considered in the context of artistic traditions and genre specifics. The work includes an analysis of some of the composer's works and sections revealing the composer's attitude to poetry, primarily domestic; work with various topics, as well as understanding the phenomenon of Sviridov’s intonation.
3. "G. V. Sviridov. Pathetic Oratorio" – to explore this topic, extensive artistic and cultural material was used, including a description of the specific features of V. Mayakovsky’s poetic style; a brief historical overview of the development of the oratorio genre, indicating that this area of composing activity remains relevant for the musical art of the 20th – 21st centuries. The content of the development includes a detailed analysis of the oratorio, and also covers broad sociocultural realities, stylistic and figurative-thematic priorities of Sviridov’s work, the specifics of the interaction of musical traditions and innovations and their embodiment in the composer’s work. This spectrum makes it possible to carry out a full analysis of the poetic texts of the “Pathetic Oratorio”, which determines its qualitative and artistic interpretation.
4. "G. V. Sviridov. Poem in memory of Sergei Yesenin" – the presented development is dedicated to one of the most significant works of the composer, which is considered in the context of the most important landmarks of creativity - the themes of the Poet, the Epoch, the Motherland. The composer was the first musician to present Yesenin's personality as a major national artist. An important fact for all of Sviridov’s creativity is the constant musical and artistic comprehension of Russian nature. These specific elements of the composer's creative style are also presented in the work.
5. "G. V. Sviridov. Kursk songs" – the stated topic of the work includes the most important issues related to the composer’s work: “G. V. Sviridov and the Russian choir", "G. V. Sviridov and Russian folklore.” The cantata “Kursk Songs”, created in 1964, was the result of the author’s work on a folklore expedition. The composition reflects one of the leading trends in Russian musical art of the second half of the 20th century - the emergence of the “New Folk Wave” style direction. The work also draws artistic and aesthetic parallels of the cantata with other works of the composer in order to identify specific stylistic patterns of Sviridov’s work. The cantata is analyzed holistically - a consistent description of the parts is given in terms of their figurative content and its embodiment in music.
6. "G. V. Sviridov. Cantatas “Wooden Rus'” at the station. S. Yesenina, “It’s snowing” at the station. B. Pasternak, “Spring Cantata” at st. N. Nekrasova" – the content of the methodological development reflects one of the most pressing problems of composer creativity – the interaction of musical forms and genres of folklore and academic musical traditions. For each of the poets, Sviridov finds his own “key”, sees individual stylistic features (sections “Sviridov and Yesenin”, “Sviridov and Pasternak”, “Sviridov and Nekrasov”). The cantatas clearly demonstrate Sviridov’s understanding of the phenomena of life, and, as a consequence of this, their ethical, ideological, philosophical meaning.
7. "G. V. Sviridov. Works based on Blok’s poems “Petersburg Songs”, cantata “Night Clouds” – the composer’s understanding of the poetry of various authors was expressed in works representing an artist-thinker with philosophical views on the problems of life. Sviridov managed to sense a special, rare musicality in Blok’s poems; his passion for Blok's poetry was very stable. The main unifying link of both geniuses of Russian culture is the theme of the Motherland, the nationality of creativity. The art of Blok, the epic poet of Russia, was in tune with Sviridov, a characteristic feature of whose national style was the mutual penetration and enrichment of the individual and the folk.
8. "G. V. Sviridov. Poem “Departed Rus'” on lyrics. S. Yesenin" – this composition presents the themes of the Motherland and the Poet as leading ones in the composer’s work. At the center of these spheres is Yesenin, one of Sviridov’s favorite poets. Yesenin’s poetic word and his Sviridov’s musical “reading” plunges into the deep areas of musical and poetic synthesis.
9 "G. V. Sviridov. Concert for choir “Pushkin's Wreath” – the content of the development covers the most important aspects of the holistic characteristics of the concert: general artistic and musical traditions that nourished the author’s style of G. V. Sviridov, a brief overview of the composer’s choral work in the 60-70s of the last century, the productivity of his appeal to the poetry of A. S. Pushkin in the context of the all-Russian trend of the Russian and Soviet school of composition, as well as the actual multilateral consideration of the work being studied from the point of view of its dramaturgy, the specifics of the chosen genre, and musical language.
10. “Aesthetics of the latest works by G. V. Sviridov “Chants and Prayers” for a mixed choir (1980 - 1997) on words from liturgical poetry” – the work reveals a number of key points necessary for understanding the artistic value of the work being studied: a general description of the aesthetic principles of G. V. Sviridov, a list of works written in the last period of creativity, biographical facts that contribute to a deeper understanding of the musical content of the work. The introductory article by Moscow musicologist A. Belonenko (nephew of G. Sviridov) to the publication of “Songs and Prayers” contributed to a deep disclosure of the topic - these fragments are also included in the work.
Svetlana Vyacheslavovna Venchakova, musicologist, teacher of theoretical disciplines at the Saransk Musical College named after. L.P. Kiryukova"
Introduction
The “Musical Literature” course program is aimed at developing students’ musical thinking, developing skills in analyzing musical works, and acquiring knowledge about the laws of musical form and the specifics of musical language.
The subject “National Musical Literature of the 20th Century” is the most important part of the professional training of students in theoretical and performing departments of music and art schools.
In the process of studying the course, there is a process of analysis and systematization of various features of musical and artistic phenomena, the knowledge of which is of direct importance for the subsequent performing and teaching practice of students. Conditions are created for scientific and creative awareness of artistic problems and comprehension of various performing interpretations of modern musical styles. In general, a flexible system of specialized training is being created, without the criterion of “narrow specialization”, which contributes to the deepening of professional skills and the activation of students’ creative interest in work.
A holistic study of artistic and aesthetic trends and styles is based on the integration of students’ knowledge in various fields: the history of foreign and Russian music (before the 20th century), world artistic culture, analysis of musical works, performing practice, which ensures the formation of new professionally generalized knowledge.
Methodological development on the topic: “G. V. Sviridov. Some features of creative style"
“Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov is a Russian genius who has not yet been truly appreciated.” His work will be of great importance in the coming revival of Russian culture" (academician
D. S. Likhachev).
The task of art is to open, reveal the human soul
(G.V. Sviridov)
According to researcher A. Belonenko, “...Georgy Sviridov does not need any special introduction for readers, especially for music lovers. After all, no effort is needed to recall a familiar melody, a sound image or association known from childhood. Sviridov's music is perceived as a kind of natural phenomenon, as an integral part of the Russian landscape.
... Quite recently, a new Sviridov was discovered - the author of unique literary works, notes collected in thick notebooks. They open the door to the hidden life of Sviridov’s soul and mind.
...Outwardly, Sviridov’s life was ordinary, without any extraordinary affairs or adventures. The main events in it were the countless hours spent at the piano or at the table while he wrote the score.
...It was in the music that the true biography of the composer was reflected. The secret of transformation into harmony is one of the greatest secrets on earth. It can hardly be known, it can only be touched.”
The purpose of the lesson - trace the evolution of style and dramatic principles using the example of some of G. Sviridov’s works.
Lesson plan:
1. Russian composer of the 20th century G. V. Sviridov
In the system of values of the national musical culture of Russia, the work of Georgy Sviridov occupies a special place. The significance of Sviridov lies in the fact that his work not only represents an original stylistic direction. Its entire essence and all the features of the musical language come from the composer’s worldview, the high position of the artist, his understanding of the ethical mission of art, and his rejection of a simplified idea of it. Sviridov’s work is an outstanding phenomenon of the spiritual culture of our people; the composer’s organic belonging to Russian culture is indisputable.
What makes an artist national? The origins of Sviridov’s creativity are in line with national traditions - folklore and individual, founded by each of the largest representatives of the Russian school. The artist’s affiliation with national culture also determines its participation in further progressive development. According to musicologist A. Sokhor, “...Russian culture grew on the soil of national life and is full of reflections of Russian nature. Thus, the work of Sviridov, as a worthy representative of this culture, is rooted not only in Russian art (including music), but also in the history of our country - from the distant past to the present - in the life of the Russian people, their spiritual make-up and character, in nature of Russia".
Discussing the global in the national, Sviridov said: “Yes, Russian culture is universal. And this is one of its very important advantages: it is addressed to all humanity, to all people of the earth. But perhaps its most important, most pressing, primary task is to nourish the soul of its people, elevating this soul, protecting it from corruption, from everything base” [cit. according to 3, p. 382]. Russian culture is inseparable from a sense of conscience. Conscience is what Russia brought to the world consciousness. These words also belong to G. Sviridov.
2. Some works by G. V. Sviridov
Sviridov's creative heritage is enormous. Here are just some of his works:
Instrumental works
Sonata for piano. In memory of I. I. Sollertinsky (1944);
Quintet for two violins, viola, cello and piano (1945);
Trio for violin, cello and piano (1945);
Twelve Pieces for Piano (Partita, 1946);
Seven Pieces for Piano (Partita in F Minor, 1957);
Album of plays for children. For piano (1957);
Music for chamber orchestra (1964);
Small triptych. For symphony orchestra (1964);
"Time forward!". Suite from film music. For symphony orchestra (1967);
"Blizzard". Musical illustrations for the story by A. Pushkin. For symphony orchestra (1974);
Six romances on the next. A. Pushkin (1935);
Romances on lyrics M. Lermontov (1938);
"Country of Fathers" Poem for tenor and bass with piano. Sl. A. Isahakyan (1950)
“Songs on lyrics. Robert Burns" trans. S. Marshak (1955);
“My father is a peasant,” lyrics. S. Yesenina. Song cycle for tenor and baritone with piano (1957);
"Sloboda Lyrics". Seven songs per ly. A. Prokofiev and M. Isakovsky (1958);
"Petersburg Songs", lyrics. A. Blok. For soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, bass, op. violin, cello and piano (1961 – 1963);
“The Rus' that set sail”, lyrics. S. Yesenina. Poem for voice and piano (1977);
Oratorios, cantatas, choirs
“Poem in memory of Sergei Yesenin”, lyrics. S. Yesenina. For tenor, choir and symphony orchestra (1956);
Five Choirs for unaccompanied mixed choir (1958);
"Pathetic Oratorio", lyrics. V. Mayakovsky. For bass, mixed choir and large symphony orchestra (1959);
"Kursk Songs", lyrics. folk. For choir and symphony orchestra (1964);
"Wooden Rus'". Small cantata for tenor, male choir and symphony orchestra, lyrics. S. Yesenina (1964);
"It is snowing". Small cantata for choir and symphony orchestra. Sl. B. Pasternak (1965);
"Spring Cantata" In memory of A. T. Tvardovsky. Sl. N. Nekrasova. For mixed choir and symphony orchestra (1972);
Three choirs from the music to A. K. Tolstoy’s drama “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich.” For unaccompanied choir (1973);
Concert in memory of A. A. Yurlov. For unaccompanied choir (1973);
“Hymns to the Motherland”, lyrics. F. Sologuba. For unaccompanied mixed choir (1978);
"Pushkin's Wreath", lyrics. A. Pushkin. Concerto for choir (1979);
"Night Clouds" Cantata. Sl. A. Blok. For mixed choir (1979);
"Ladoga". Choral poem, lyrics. A. Prokofiev. For chamber choir (1980);
"Songs of Timelessness". Choral cycle. Sl. A. Blok. For mixed choir (1981);
Chants and prayers. For mixed choir (1991 – 1994)
3. Semantic expression of sociocultural space in the works of Sviridov
Musical culture plays a special role in national politics and in the harmonization of interethnic relations. Through the means of musical art, culture is called upon to convey to the consciousness of everyone that the Motherland is a state with historical, social and spiritual traditions; every cultural phenomenon contributes to the impact on the national and cultural development of a person. The internal logic of this process is determined primarily by the continuity in the creation of the values of Russian national culture and the familiarization of each person with these values.
The history of our native country has always and everywhere attracted the attention of major national thinkers and artists. Without this, a necessary and important factor in uniting people into a nation cannot take shape and develop - national identity. The most prominent Russian writers, poets, and musicians dedicated their works to events from the history of Russia. It is this tradition that Sviridov picks up. In many of his works, he turns to critical, turning-point epochs in the country's history in order to comprehend its destinies and understand the path of Russia's development. These are “Songs about Russia” on lyrics. A. Blok, dedicated to the events of the Battle of Kulikovo; the theme of revolution in the “Poem in Memory of Sergei Yesenin”, “Pathetic Oratorio”, and many choral works. In some works, the image of Russia acquires a symbolic meaning, rising to the highest generalization. These are “My Rus', my life” from “Songs about Russia”, “Mother Rus'” from “Spring Cantata” (from Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”). Among these symbolic images, “Our Land” from the “Pathetic Oratorio” occupies a special place.
Another source of the composer’s varied creative impressions is the everyday life of the people, peasant labor and everyday life. The images of the Russian village are especially close to Sviridov - such are the episodes from the “Poem in Memory of Yesenin” (“Threshing”); from “Kursk Songs”, etc.
The images of ancient folk rituals also appeared in many ways - “The Night of Ivan Kupala” (“Poem in Memory of Yesenin”), “The bells are ringing in the city” from “Kursk Songs”. Close to them are song images of the everyday life of a family, which also emphasize the beauty and extraordinary poetry of forms of folk life that have developed over centuries: “In the evening” from the cycle “My father is a peasant”, “Oh, woe to my little swan” from “Kursk Songs”. The composer found the same qualities in Russian folk art: together with friendly, controversial work, performed according to the ancient Russian tradition along with ritual action, Sviridov depicts intricate tunes of the horn, pipe and harmonica (“Smolensk Horn”, “In the Evening”), or a modest song chant (“How the song was born”).
It should be especially noted the enormous importance of Russian nature for all of Sviridov’s creativity. The entire annual cycle, all seasons, the varied Russian landscape is “painted” in his music (“Cycle of Romances on the poems of A. Pushkin”, “Poem in Memory of Sergei Yesenin”, cycle “My Father is a Peasant”, cantatas “Kursk Songs” and “Wooden Russia”, “Spring Cantata”; music for the films “Russian Forest”, “Blizzard”; symphonic composition “Little Triptych”; songs “Hear me, good one”, “Fresh Day”, “In Autumn”, “Forest Side” , “These Poor Villages" and many other works. And everywhere Russian nature is felt with the heart and sung with love, everywhere it finds a deeply personal emotional echo in the composer’s soul, just as in it the author and his heroes hear a response to their most secret experiences.
Sviridov's creativity absorbed the best traditions of urban culture. In Russian pre-revolutionary art, tragic motifs were usually associated with the theme of the city. The capitalist city is a repository of sin and vice, inhuman oppression and all kinds of crimes, humiliation and grief (it is symbolic that these images of modern megacities are largely relevant today). The works of Nekrasov, Dostoevsky, Blok reflect these motives. Sviridov continues this theme in “Petersburg Songs” based on the poems of Blok (1961 – 1963), showing the idea of general troubles and disorder. The Sviridov cycle is a unique fragment of the life of a great city on the eve of terrible fatal events. The theme of the cycle is the tragic fate of a man and a woman who did not find their place in the big city. In every moment of music, the composer awakens sympathy for his heroes and their difficult lot, clarifies the moral value of their images: loyalty, work as a harsh necessity of human existence.
It should be noted that during the 60s (the previous decade was especially marked by large-scale oratorio works with global themes) Sviridov created several chamber cantatas with the general theme of unsettled personal life, the theme of the fate of the “little man”.
A. Belonenko notes: “...The main poet of Sviridov’s work in the 1960s became Alexander Blok, and the Blok of the 1910s, with his sense of social injustice aggravated by that time. Based on the words of Blok, Sviridov writes “Petersburg Songs”, cantatas “Sad Songs”, “Barque of Life”, the apocalyptic “Voice from the Choir” and much more. “The rich man is angry and glad again...”, “They will bury him, bury him deep...”, “The barge of life has become...”, “Sit and sit, look out the window, people are being driven by labor everywhere...” - Blok’s lines merged with Sviridov’s music, forming in this synthesis of a terrible, black picture of the world. At the same time, he created the cantata “It’s Snowing” to the words of Pasternak with its central “funeral” song “My sad soul...”. Rejection of reality, awareness of its unreasonableness - this is what will later fly off into the cosmic distances of “Rus' Set Away.” In the 1960s, the composer never declared his thoughts regarding fleeting life - his weapon was music.”
Many works of Russian art revealed a desire to capture man in his connections with the environment, with the national and social whole, with nature and everyday life. Sviridov also thinks in concrete and visible images, sees the individual traits of the psychology of his heroes. Therefore, many of his works (primarily vocal) are pictures, scenes, portraits, genre sketches, posters, popular prints. According to musicologist A. Sokhor, “...after many years of dominance in chamber-vocal creativity of the lyrical romance as a form of subjective “self-expression,” Sviridov was the first, following Shostakovich (“From Jewish Folk Poetry”), to revive the “objective” tradition of Dargomyzhsky and Mussorgsky and more, than anyone else did for its further development."
In the art of the 20th century, G. Sviridov is a representative epic line associated with the names of many figures of Russian culture from different eras. This honorable historical mission determines its special place in the development of national art of the next millennium.
4. Sviridov and painting
Researcher A. Belonenko notes: “...The visual element plays a large role in Sviridov’s music. The composer did not like to think in abstract formulas; his creativity came from the poetic word or from a visible image. ...Landscape occupies a significant place in his music. Georgy Vasilyevich possessed not only color hearing, but also a special gift for the sound embodiment of spatial concepts and plastic images. His work has a strong contemplative element, a lot of air and open space. There are also specific sound sketches, landscapes, paintings: “Our North”, “Fishermen on Ladoga”. The composer sang the praises of the Kursk land and the Moscow region. In his works based on the words of Pushkin and other poets, St. Petersburg is glorified. Sviridov’s music is most dedicated to the city of his youth. St. Petersburg sketches are present in the music for films (“Przhevalsky”, “Rimsky-Korsakov”, “Trust”, “Red Bells”). A. Sviridov’s Blok is almost entirely St. Petersburg - “Petersburg Songs”, a poem for baritone with piano “Petersburg”, cantata “Farewell to Petersburg”, “Petersburg Song”, “The Petrograd sky was clouded with rain...”, “To the Pushkin House”. There are small, purely lyrical etudes: the choral “watercolor” “Winter Groove” was written to the words of Nikolai Braun; there is also the majestic “Tomb of Kutuzov” (based on Pushkin’s poem “Before the Holy Tomb...”), where the Kazan Cathedral is sung in a solemn, quiet hymn.
...Sviridov was a subtle connoisseur of painting. Wherever he came, he always went to a museum or art gallery. The house on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya houses a collection of books and albums on painting. He had his own permanent attachments, and there were also short but strong hobbies. He had an excellent knowledge of ancient Russian icons, loved folk popular prints, applied art, especially everything made of wood. Among Russian artists he singled out A. Ivanov, Repin, Surikov, Nesterov, Petrov-Vodkin, Malyavin, Grigoriev, the Korin brothers and Deineka, appreciated the landscapes of Shishkin and Levitan, miniatures by S. Shchedrin and psychological portraits of Fedotov, book graphics by Bilibin and Lebedev, Petersburg by Dobuzhinsky and Ostroumova-Lebedeva. ...He knew the originals very well and loved the French impressionists, which did not prevent him from admiring the Spaniards Zurbaran and El Greco, Velazquez and Goya, the Dutch Rembrandt, Bruegel and I. Bosch. From contemporary painting, he was attracted to the monumental paintings of Diego Rivera, and he adored Salvator Dali’s “The Last Supper.” He appreciated any manifestation of national originality in painting; Pirosmanishvili and Marc Chagall, the fantastic Henri Rousseau and the Yugoslav primitivists were close to him. In his younger years, he was not indifferent to the fantasies of J. Miró, the childish world of Paul Klee or the dry geometricism of Piet Mondrian. ...Sviridov knew and appreciated sculpture, Rodin and Michelangelo Buonarroti, Matveev; Mukhina considered “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” an outstanding work of art. He really liked modern architecture, he appreciated functionalism...”
5. Sviridov and poetry
Sviridov spoke a lot about his love for Russian poetry and emphasized that he had been associated with it all his life. He turned to the work of foreign poets - Burns, Shakespeare, and among the poets of the 20th century he especially noted such names as Nikolai Rubtsov, Velimir Khlebnikov, Vladimir Sokolov, Yuri Kuznetsov, Vladimir Kostrov, Anatoly Zhigulin, Stanislav Kunyaev, Gleb Gorbovsky, Victor Bokov, Vasily Kazantsev and many others. It was they, according to Sviridov, who built bridges between our time and Pushkin, Lermontov, Baratynsky, Tyutchev, Fet, Blok, Klyuev, Yesenin. In this area of Russian poetry, Sviridov believed, there is a special topic worth higher just poetic self-expression. “This is the theme of the Motherland, the feeling of the Motherland as ... a great whole, as a world, as an understanding myself as part of this world. This is especially important precisely in our critical time, the era of the turn of the century... You need to feel more acutely than ever your kinship with the generations of people who once lived... Feeling your connection with the past, only then can you think correctly about the future.”
Researcher A. Belonenko notes: “...Sviridov knew the writing world well. Here he had many friends, perhaps more than among composers. He was aware of all the events among writers, closely observed the literary process, the struggle of literary trends and magazines, and closely followed every new product...
He met M. M. Zoshchenko, the poets Nikolai Tikhonov, N. V. Krandievskaya, Alexander Prokofiev, Nikolai Brown, Vadim Shefner, and later M. Dudin and G. Gorbovsky. Songs based on the words of Robert Burns brought him closer to S. Ya. Marshak. He was on friendly terms with A. T. Tvardovsky, who introduced the composer to A. I. Solzhenitsyn. Essays based on the words of Sergei Yesenin and Vladimir Mayakovsky attracted the attention of relatives and friends of the great poets. He personally knew Ekaterina and Alexandra Yesenin, and Lyudmila Mayakovskaya, Lilya Brik...
Sviridov was an expert and connoisseur of modern Russian prose. He was familiar with L. Leonov, met with M. Sholokhov. F. Abramov and V. Astafiev, V. Belov and V. Rasputin, V. Krupin, E. Nosov and V. Likhonosov - books of these writers with dedicatory inscriptions, as well as their letters, are stored in the composer’s library... In the writing circle he found ideological support, because in modern Russian literature he felt an important movement for society, in which he saw himself.”
Sviridov was the first musician to present the personality of S. Yesenin as a national artist, one of the greatest poets of the early 20th century. In fact, Sviridov was the first to represent the poets B. Pasternak and V. Khlebnikov in music. The composer, possessing enormous artistic courage, creates compositions based on the poems of V. Mayakovsky.
Musicologist A. Sokhor notes: “... in songs about Russia”, “Petersburg songs”, “Voice from the Choir” and some other works of recent years, Sviridov presents us with a not quite ordinary, but true Blok - the epic poet of Russia, tribune and prophet and in at the same time an artist of democratic themes, a continuer of Nekrasov’s traditions. And in “Spring Cantata,” Nekrasov’s poetry sounded fresh and unusual, turning out not to be an accusatory side, but an affirming one, reflecting the bright ideals of the people, their ideas about goodness and beauty.
The theme of the Poet in Sviridov’s work was one of the main ones. In many works, the Poet is the main character, the hero of the work. This phenomenon also belongs to the traditions of Russian art. For Sviridov, the artist, poet, singer is personified with the voice of the people, their conscience. This ideological position makes Sviridov similar to many great names of Russian art who thought about the purpose of the Poet.
6. Some features of creative style
Musicologists and researchers, when analyzing the nature of Sviridov’s genius, often mention the word “symbol”. In this regard, a poetic comparison with the forces of nature itself and its generic unity is also appropriate. Looking at a leaf that has fallen from a tree, you can understand and imagine all the beauty and power of the tree itself, its roots and crown. After all, the leaf is a symbol of this tree. So it is with Sviridov - he thinks and intones “in a generic way.” But in this phenomenon he does not move away from the present, but tries to find some ideal. The composer is looking both in the past, which has become a legend, and in the present, contemporary to all of us, for the original closeness of man to nature, the harmony of the human soul with the surrounding world. Only this, in his opinion, can preserve the integrity of the individual, bring to life that harmonious and good thing that would become a dream for the future.
