Where children get the opportunity for creative development. And who Dargomyzhsky is and how he is connected with the Vyazemskaya land, you can find out by reading his biography.
Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky (1813-1869)- Russian composer who left a significant mark on the development of music, creating one of the new directions - the realistic. Dargomyzhsky Alexander Sergeevich once wrote in his autobiographical letter: “I want the sound to express the word directly. I want the truth ”and he did it very well, because it was not for nothing that Musorgsky called him“ the teacher of musical truth ”.
Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky short biography
The life path of Dargomyzhsky and his brief biography begins from birth. This happened in February 1913. It was then that the world saw a little boy who was born into a family of nobles, and they named him Alexander, whose glorious biography began in the Troitskoye village of the Tula region. Immediately, as Napoleon's troops were expelled from the territory of Russia, the Dargomyzhskys settled on the estate, which was inherited by Dargomyzhsky's mother, on the estate of Tverdunovo, in the Vyazemsky region. The first four years of the future composer passed there, after which the whole family moved to St. Petersburg. There, Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky is engaged in musical education. He learns to play the violin, piano, learns to sing, tried himself in writing his first romances, pieces for piano.
Among his acquaintances, there were many writers, among whom were Lev Pushkin, Zhukovsky Vasily, Pyotr Vyazemsky. An important role in the fate of Dargomyzhsky was played by the meeting and acquaintance with Glinka.
Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky created music and his first major work was work on the opera "Esmeralda", which was not immediately staged on stage, and when the author achieved its release, after the premiere, he quickly left the stage and was rarely staged. Such a failure with pain and worries affected Dargomyzhsky's state of mind, but he continues to create and write a number of romances.
Mermaid creation story
Composer Dargomyzhsky goes abroad, so to speak, for inspiration. There he met musicologists, world composers, and upon returning to his homeland, Alexander began to get carried away with folklore, whose echoes can be traced in many of his works, including his famous work, which brought great popularity to the author. And this is the work of Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky "Mermaid" on the plot of Pushkin's tragedy "Mermaid". If we talk about the work of Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky "Mermaid" and its history of creation, it should be said that it took about seven years to write the work of the composer. He began to write it in 1848, and completed the work in 1855.The next opera, which Dargomyzhsky conceived, was The Stone Guest, but it is being written slowly because of the creative crisis experienced by the author, which was caused by the withdrawal of his work Rusalka from the theater repertoire. Again, Dargomyzhsky goes abroad for inspiration. Upon arrival, he takes up the "Stone Guest" again, but he could not complete it.
Opera by A.S.Dargomyzhsky The Mermaid
Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky music
Dargomyzhsky - Melnik, sheet music
Melancholic Waltz A. Dargomyzhsky
In 1869 Dargomyzhsky leaves our world. They buried him at the Tikhvin cemetery in the Necropolis of Artists.
Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky interesting facts from life
Studying the biography of Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky, one can note such an interesting fact of his life as the completion of the opera "The Stone Guest", which Caesar Cui completed.After himself, Dargomyzhsky left many works, and these are operas, and chamber vocal works, and songs of social and everyday content, and romances, and works for the piano.
During his life, Dargomyzhsky never met the only one with whom he would create a family and raise children. In Vyazma, next to the school of arts, A.S. A monument has been erected to Dargomyzhsky, and has recently appeared.
Well, we invite you to get to know the composer better. After looking at the photo of Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky, you can also touch the work of Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky by listening to his works.
Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky, whose brief biography is presented in the article, is a great Russian composer who introduced a lot of new things into Russian classical music. The years of his life are 1813-1869. Dargomyzhsky was born on February 14, 1813. His biography begins with. Troitsky (Dargomyzh) Tula province, where he was born. His father served as an official, and Alexander's mother was an amateur poet.
How Dargomyzhsky spent his early childhood
Biography, a summary of the works, interesting facts about the composer - all this interests many fans of his work. Let's start from the very beginning and tell you about the early childhood of the future composer.
Alexander Sergeevich spent it on the estate of his parents, which was located in. After a while, the family moved to St. Petersburg. Here Alexander Dargomyzhsky received his home education. His biography of this time is marked by music, theater and literature. Alexander Dargomyzhsky's teachers were A. T. Danilevsky (pianist), P. G. Vorontsov (serf violinist), F. Schobernekhler (Viennese composer and pianist), B. L. Tseibikh (singer).
In addition, Dargomyzhsky met M.I. Glinka (his portrait is presented above), who gave him theoretical manuscripts brought from Professor Dehn from Berlin. They contributed to the expansion of Alexander Sergeevich's knowledge in the field of counterpoint and harmony. At the same time, Dargomyzhsky began to study orchestration. His biography continues with the creation of the first independent works.
The first works, students of Dargomyzhsky
The first piano pieces and romances were published in the 1830s. The romances created to the words of Pushkin have the greatest artistic value: "Night Marshmallow", "Vertograd", "Young Man and Maiden", "I Loved You", etc. And in subsequent years, vocal music was one of the main creative interests of Alexander Dargomyzhsky, who gladly gave vocal lessons, and for free. The number of his students is enormous. Among them, L.N. Belenitsyna (Karmalina), Bibibina, Shilovskaya, Girs, Bartenev, Purgolt (Molas), Princess Manvelova. Dargomyzhsky was always inspired by female sympathy, especially by singers. About the latter, he half-jokingly said that if it weren't for them, it wouldn't be worth becoming a composer.
Opera "Esmeralda"
The opera "Esmeralda" (years of creation - 1837-41) is considered the first serious work of Alexander Sergeevich. The libretto for it was previously created by Hugo himself based on the famous novel This work, for all its immaturity (it was written after the type of French opera), testifies to Dargomyzhsky's realistic aspirations. Esmeralda was never published. In St. Petersburg, in the library of the Imperial Theaters, the claviraustsug, handwritten score and autograph of Dargomyzhsky are kept. A few years later, this work was staged. The premiere took place in St. Petersburg in 1851, and in Moscow in 1847.
Dargomyzhsky's romances
Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky was dissatisfied with the production of the opera. His biography is marked by a turn in creativity. Esmeralda apparently disappointed the composer. Dargomyzhsky again began to compose romances, whose biography was marked by their writing earlier. Together with the early works, new ones (30 songs in total) were published in 1844. They brought fame to Dargomyzhsky. The best romances of the 1840s are considered to be works based on Pushkin's poems: "Night Marshmallow", "Tear", "Wedding", "I Loved You". In 1843, Dargomyzhsky's cantata "The Triumph of Bacchus" was created on the verses of the same poet. This work was presented in 1846 at the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater at a directorate's concert. However, the author was refused permission to stage The Triumph of Bacchus in the form of an opera, created in 1848. Only much later, only in 1867, was a work created by the composer Dargomyzhsky presented in Moscow. His biography continues with the next period of creativity.
Travel and new trends in the work of the composer
New trends in Dargomyzhsky's work appeared in the second half of the 1840s - early 1850s. They were associated with the birth and flowering of the so-called natural school in art and literature in our country. Alexander Sergeevich began to be attracted mainly by folk subjects. In addition, his interest in folklore grew even more. Dargomyzhsky took up the processing of a peasant song. We can say that the aggravation of national consciousness at this time is due to the fact that the composer was abroad in the period from 1844 to 1845. He visited Germany, Vienna, Brussels and Paris. Dargomyzhsky went there as an admirer of everything French, and returned to Petersburg as a follower of Russian, as in the case of Glinka.
It was at this time that the final formulation of "intonational realism" - the composer's creative method (reproduction of speech intonations is the main means by which images are created) - belongs. The composer said that he strives for the sound to express the word. In the song "Melnik" the principle that Alexander Dargomyzhsky professed was put into practice. His brief biography is marked by the active realization of "intonational realism". From "The Miller", songs to the verses of Pushkin stretch threads to "The Stone Guest" - an opera where the principles of musical recitation were embodied. "Musical speech" appears in the romances "You will soon forget me" and "Both boring and sad".
Opera "Mermaid"
Opera "Mermaid", created in 1855 based on the drama of A.S. Pushkin, is the central work of this period. It truthfully describes the tragic fate of a peasant girl who was deceived by the prince. Dargomyzhsky in this work created a genre that raises the problem of social inequality (folk musical drama). On May 4, 1856, "Rusalka" was presented for the first time at the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theater. It was staged with old sets, careless execution, inappropriate costumes, inappropriate cuts. Unsurprisingly, this opera was not successful. By the way, the production took place under the direction of K. Lyadov, who did not like Dargomyzhsky. Until 1861, "Mermaid" withstood only 26 performances. However, in 1865 it was renewed by Komissarzhevsky and S. Platonova. The new version of the opera was a huge success. It has been included in the repertoire of many theaters and has become one of the most beloved Russian operas.
Musical and social activities
How much do you know about a composer like Dargomyzhsky? The biography in the table, placed in the textbooks, contains only the most basic information about him. And yet Dargomyzhsky was not only a composer. The musical and social activities of Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky began in the late 1850s. In 1859, the composer became a member of the committee of the RMO (Russian Musical Society). By participating in the commission that considered the compositions sent to the competition, he contributed to the development of Russian music. Dargomyzhsky also participated in the creation of the charter of the first conservatory in our country. At the same time, Alexander Sergeyevich became close to composers who later became members of the "Mighty Handful" (Balakirevsky Circle "). The result was mutual creative enrichment.
Cooperation with Iskra
Dargomyzhsky, whose biography and work are closely linked throughout his life, in 1859 collaborated with Iskra. It was an influential satirical magazine at the time. The collaboration left an imprint on the composer's further work. Alexander Sergeevich created music to the verses of PI Weinberg and VS Kurochkin - poets who were published in Iskra. The social content permeated Dargomyzhsky's innovative romances dating back to this time: "The Worm", "The Titular Counselor", "The Old Corporal". At the same time, the composer's studies with amateur singers continued, and lyrical romances were also created: "I remember deeply", "What's in my name for you", "We parted proudly".
Dargomyzhsky's last opera
The composer's attention in the last years of his life was again riveted on the opera. Having conceived to carry out a radical reform, Dargomyzhsky in 1866 began to work on "The Stone Guest" based on the work of Alexander Pushkin. He wanted to write music without changing the text of Pushkin. Dargomyzhsky abandoned the operatic forms that had developed historically: vocal ensembles, expanded arias. His goal was the continuity of musical action. The recitative-ariose recitation was taken as a basis, that is, the opera is almost entirely built on melodic recitative. The work was almost completed a few months later. The death of Dargomyzhsky prevented him from creating music only for the last 17 verses. C. Cui completed The Stone Guest according to the composer's will. He also created the introduction to this opera, orchestrated by N. Rimsky-Korsakov.
The meaning of "The Stone Guest"
Through the efforts of friends of Alexander Dargomyzhsky, "The Stone Guest" was staged on February 16, 1872 at the Mariinsky Stage in St. Petersburg. In 1876 the opera was resumed, but it did not stay in the repertoire. To this day, it is still not appreciated at its true worth. Not only among Russian composers (Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky) did the innovative principles of Alexander Sergeevich's final opera find followers. It was also appreciated by foreign musicians. In particular, Ch. Gounod wanted to create his own opera, taking "The Stone Guest" as a model. In the work "Pelléas and Melisandre" K. Debussy relied on the principles of the reform carried out by Dargomyzhsky. His brief biography would be incomplete if we did not talk about the orchestral works of Alexander Sergeevich.
Orchestral works by Dargomyzhsky
The most striking among them can be considered "Babu Yaga", "Chukhonskaya Fantasy" and "Little Russian Cossack". The everyday images of these works are sharpened by the composer with the help of a grotesquely exaggerated interpretation. It is from here that the novelty of the artistic techniques used by him stems. They found a continuation in the work of such Russian composers as A. Lyadov, M. Mussorgsky and others. On January 17, 1869, Dargomyzhsky died in St. Petersburg (the photo below shows his grave).
His short biography is being studied today in all music schools in Russia. And the works of Alexander Sergeevich are performed in the best theaters of our country to this day. There are not many among our compatriots who have never heard of such a composer as Dargomyzhsky. The biography for children and adults presented in this article concerns only his main works and achievements. We will be glad if you would like to continue your acquaintance with Russian classical music. Such a representative as Dargomyzhsky (biography and creativity) is very interesting. Now you can also briefly talk about his life and legacy.
In 1813, on February 2, Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky was born in the Tula province. Unfortunately, the exact name of the village where the future composer was born is unknown. In the same year, a few months after the boy's birth, the Dargomyzhskys leave the Tula province and go to the estate near Smolensk. It is located near the town of Vyazma. It is in the Tverdunovo estate that the very young Alexander spends the first years of his childhood. At the age of 3, Sasha and his family moved to Smolensk, and a year later to St. Petersburg. The estate of the parents, Tverdunovo, will forever remain in the memory of the composer. Much later, at the age of 48, he will return here. He will return to distribute to former forced laborers not only their allotted shares of land, but all the lands that they had to cultivate earlier. He also did not raise the land tax. This behavior of a wealthy landowner caused confusion and gossip.
From a young age, Alexander loved to attend musical performances and operas. At the age of 22, a fateful acquaintance took place in his life. Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka became his faithful friend and inspirer. It is thanks to communication with Mikhail Ivanovich that Alexander Sergeevich decides to write a major work. Unfortunately, his opera "Esmeralda" was waiting for a production for a very long time, and practically did not gain recognition. This becomes a serious trauma for the composer.
After the unsuccessful staging of the opera, Alexander Sergeevich devotes himself to writing romances. Many of them (for example, "I have passed 16 years old") were subsequently published and became known.
In 1843, the composer left the country and returned only in 1845. Dargomyzhsky's next opera, Mermaid, which was produced from 1848 to 1855, was staged only in May 1856. It was a success! Positive reviews from critics greatly influenced the further work of Alexander Sergeevich. Later, when the excitement from the production noticeably subsides, and Dargomyzhsky again begins to experience a crisis in his work, he decides to go to Europe again.
Seeing how they appreciate his "Mermaid" in Europe, Alexander Sergeevich returns to Russia and begins to actively work on the work "The Stone Guest". However, the composer's weakened health, as well as his position in the leadership of the musical society, do not allow the composer to complete the work begun. He dies in January 1869. The Stone Guest was subsequently completed. The performance also took place, but only in 1872 in St. Petersburg.
Biography details
Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky, a music figure, teacher and author of musical works of the middle of the 19th century, was born on February 2 (14), 1813 in the Russian outback, in the Tula province (Belevsky district, Troitskoe village). However, in terms of the place of birth of the future musician, there are discrepancies. According to some sources, this place is the village of Voskresenskoye, Chernsky district, in the Tula province. The father of the future musician and composer, Sergei Nikolaevich, was an illegitimate descendant of a wealthy landowner and bore the surname Ladyzhensky, who was later sent to be raised by Boucharov (an army colonel) and lived in his estate Dargomyzhka, hence the future surname of Alexander Sergeevich. The composer's mother, Maria Borisovna Kozlovskaya, of princely origin, married Sergei Nikolaevich against the will of her parents. The family was large, except for little Sasha, it had five more children.
In 1817, the whole family moved to the capital, my father got a job in St. Petersburg. Alexander gets the opportunity to study music. In 1821, musician A.T.Danilevsky, well-known in the capital, began to conduct musical studies with Alexander. The parents invited the famous pianist Franz Schoberlechner to study with the boy. In addition, a significant influence on the formation of the future author was exerted by: the serf musician Vorontsov, who introduced the boy to the violin and encouraged his composing experiments, Benedict Tseibikh, who developed the vocal abilities of Dargomyzhsky.
In 1827, the young man begins to work in the office, in the civil service, where he is promoted and quite successful. During this period, he performed a lot at home the works of leading Italian authors and musicians. The composer was greatly influenced by his acquaintance and work with MI Glinka, which took place in the spring of 1835.
In 1841 Dargomyzhsky finished work on his first major work, the opera Esmeralda, which did not have any particular success with the public. During this period, he writes romances, gives vocal lessons (and often on an absolutely free basis). After a couple of years, the composer leaves the service and for two years visits Europe, gets acquainted with various composers, authors and musicians of that time, studies musical material and folklore. Writes the opera The Triumph of Bacchus. A prominent place among the works of Alexander Sergeevich is occupied by the opera "Mermaid", written in the period from 1848 to 1855.
In the 60s Dargomyzhsky worked on the operas Mazepa and Rogdan, which remained unfinished, wrote works for orchestra, vocal chamber works and works for piano. And in 1866 - 1869, the composer was working on his most famous creation, the opera "The Stone Guest", based on one of the "Little Tragedies" (written by Alexander Pushkin). The author did not manage to complete his most famous work, he was finishing work on "The Stone Guest" by Ts. A. Cui.
The famous Russian composer completed his earthly journey on February 5 (17), 1869, having lived for 56 years. He spent the last days completely alone - the great Russian composer had no family or heirs.
Biography by dates and interesting facts. The most important thing.
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The purpose of the event (lesson): acquaintance with the main stages of life and major creative achievements of the great Russian composer A.S. Dargomyzhsky.
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Slide 3
“I want the sound to express the word directly. I want the truth ”- wrote A.S. Dargomyzhsky in one of his letters. These words became the creative goal of the composer.
Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky is an outstanding Russian composer, whose work had a tremendous impact on the development of Russian musical art of the 19th century, one of the most prominent composers of the period between the work of Mikhail Glinka and The Mighty Handful. He is considered the founder of the realistic trend in Russian music, followed by many composers of subsequent generations. One of them - M.P. Mussorgsky called Dargomyzhsky "a great teacher of musical truth."
Slide 4
The father of the future composer, Sergei Nikolaevich Dargomyzhsky, was the illegitimate son of a wealthy nobleman Vasily Alekseevich Ladyzhensky and owned land in the Smolensk province.
If fate had not played a cruel joke on the family of Alexander Dargomyzhsky, the famous composer would have had the surname Ladyzhensky or Bogucharov.
This story of the Dargomyzhsky family begins with the composer's grandfather, nobleman Alexei Ladyzhensky. A brilliant young man, a military man, he was married to Anna Petrovna. The couple had three sons. It so happened that Aleksey Petrovich fell passionately in love with the governess of his children, Anna von Shtofel, and soon they had a son, Seryozha, the future father of Dargomyzhsky. He was born in 1789 in the village of Dargomyzhka, then still Belevsky district (now Arsenyevsky district).
Having learned about her husband's betrayal and not forgiving the betrayal, Anna Petrovna left him. A little later, she married the nobleman Nikolai Ivanovich Bogucharov. Alexey Ladyzhensky could not (or perhaps did not want to) give the boy either his last name, or even his patronymic. He was a military man, he practically did not visit home and was not involved in raising the boy. Little Seryozha, up to 8 years old, grew up like a blade of grass in a field.
In 1797, Anna Ladyzhenskaya and Nikolai Bogucharov committed an act that is rare in our time: they adopted the unfortunate Seryozha.
After the death of Nikolai Ivanovich, his brother, Ivan Ivanovich Bogucharov, became Seryozha's guardian.
In 1800, when Seryozha was 11 years old, Aleksey Ladyzhensky, being a retired lieutenant colonel, went with Ivan Bogucharov to the Noble boarding house at Moscow University in order to attach Seryozha to study. Together with the inspector of the boarding house, they came up with a patronymic for the boy Nikolayevich (named after his first stepfather), and the surname Dargomyzhsky - for the village of Dargomyzhka, in which he was born. This is how Sergei Nikolaevich Dargomyzhsky appeared. So the surname Dargomyzhsky is invented.
In 1806, Sergei Nikolaevich Dargomyzhsky finished his studies at a boarding house and got a job at the Moscow post office. In 1812, he wooed Princess Maria Borisovna Kozlovskaya and received a refusal from the bride's parents: although he was a nobleman, but without a fortune! Then, Sergei Nikolaevich, without thinking twice, stole his Mashenka and took her to the Kozlovsky estate in the Smolensk province. So, the mother of Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky, nee Princess Maria Borisovna Kozlovskaya, got married against the will of her parents. She was well educated, wrote poetry and small dramatic scenes, published in almanacs and magazines in the 1820s - 30s, was keenly interested in French culture.
A.S. Dargomyzhsky was born on February 2 (14), 1813 in the village of Troitskoye, Tula province. The Dargomyzhsky family had six children: Erast, Alexander, Sophia, Victor, Lyudmila and Herminia. All of them were brought up at home, in the traditions of the nobility, received a good education and inherited from their mother a love for art.
Dargomyzhsky's brother, Erast, played the violin (a student of Boehm), one of the sisters (Erminia) played the harp, and he himself was interested in music from an early age. The warm friendship between the brothers and sisters has been maintained over the years. So, Alexander, who did not have his own family, subsequently lived for several years with the family of Sophia, who became the wife of the famous cartoonist Nikolai Stepanov.
Until the age of five, the boy did not speak, his late-formed voice remained forever high and slightly hoarse, which did not prevent him, however, later to touch to tears with the expressiveness and artistry of vocal performance.
In 1817, the family moved to St. Petersburg, where his father got a job as the ruler of the chancellery in a commercial bank, and he himself began to receive a musical education. His first piano teacher was Louise Wolgeborn, then he began to study with Adrian Danilevsky.
He was a good pianist, but did not share the young Dargomyzhsky's interest in composing music (his small piano pieces from this period have survived). Finally, for three years Sasha's teacher was Franz Schoberlechner, a student of the famous composer Johann Gummel. Having achieved a certain skill, Alexander began performing as a pianist at charity concerts and in private meetings. At this time, he also studied with the famous singing teacher Benedict Zeibig, and from 1822 he mastered playing the violin (he was taught by the serf musician Vorontsov). Dargomyzhsky played in quartets as a violinist, but soon lost interest in this instrument. By that time, he had already written a number of piano compositions, romances and other works, some of which were published.
Listening to a fragment of one of the early piano compositions, for example, "Melancholic Waltz"
In the fall of 1827, following in his father's footsteps, he entered the civil service and, thanks to his hard work and conscientious attitude to work, quickly began to move up the career ladder. During this period, he often played music at home and visited the opera house, whose repertoire was based on the works of Italian composers.
In the spring of 1835 A.S. Dargomyzhsky met Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, with whom he played piano in four hands, analyzed the works of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Glinka helped Dargomyzhsky with the study of musical-theoretical disciplines, giving him notes of music theory lessons that he received in Berlin from Siegfried Dehn.
After attending rehearsals of Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar, which was being prepared for the production, Dargomyzhsky decided to write his first major stage work on his own. The choice of the plot fell on the drama Lucrezia Borgia by Victor Hugo. However, the creation of the opera progressed slowly and in 1837, on the advice of Vasily Zhukovsky, the composer turned to another work by the same author, which in the late 1830s was very popular in Russia - Notre Dame Cathedral. The composer used the original French libretto, written by V. Hugo himself for Louise Bertin, whose opera Esmeralda had been staged shortly before. By 1841 Dargomyzhsky completed the orchestration and translation of the opera, for which he also took the title "Esmeralda" and handed the score to the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters. The opera, written in the spirit of French composers, had been waiting for its premiere for several years, since Italian productions were much more popular with the public. Despite the good dramatic and musical decision of Esmeralda, this opera left the stage some time after the premiere and was practically never staged in the future.
The composer's worries about the failure of Esmeralda were aggravated by the growing popularity of Glinka's works. The composer begins to give singing lessons (his students were exclusively women) and writes a number of romances for voice and piano. Some of them were published and became very popular, for example, “The fire of desire burns in my blood ...”, “I am in love, a virgin beauty ...”, “Lileta”, “Night marshmallow”, “Sixteen years old” and others.
Listening to a fragment of one of the vocal compositions, for example, the romance "Sixteen Years"
In 1843, the composer retired, and soon (1844) went abroad, where he spent several months in Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Vienna. He met the musicologist François-Joseph Feti, the violinist Henri Vietant and the leading European composers of that time: Aubert, Donizetti, Halévy, Meyerbeer. Returning to Russia in 1845, the composer became interested in the study of Russian musical folklore, the elements of which were clearly manifested in the romances and songs written during this period: "Darling Maiden", "Likhoradushka", "Miller", as well as in the opera "Mermaid", which the composer began writing in 1848.
In 1853, a gala concert of his works, timed to coincide with the fortieth birthday of the composer, took place. At the end of the concert, all his students and friends gathered on the stage and presented Alexander Sergeevich with a silver bandmaster inlaid with emeralds with the names of admirers of his talent.
In 1855 the opera "Mermaid" was completed. It occupies a special place in the composer's work. Written on the plot of the tragedy of the same name in the poems of A.S. Pushkin, it was created in the period 1848-1855. Dargomyzhsky himself adapted Pushkin's poems into the libretto and composed the ending of the plot (Pushkin's work is not finished yet). The premiere of "Mermaid" took place on May 4 (16), 1856 in St. Petersburg. The largest Russian music critic of that time, Alexander Serov, responded to it with a large-scale positive review in the "Theatrical Musical Bulletin" (its volume was so great that it was published in parts in several numbers). This article helped the opera to stay in the repertoire of the leading Russian theaters for some time and added creative confidence to itself.
After some time, the composer becomes close to the democratic circle of writers, takes part in the publication of the satirical magazine Iskra, writes several songs to the verses of one of its main participants, the poet Vasily Kurochkin. In 1859 he was elected to the leadership of the newly founded St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Musical Society. He met a group of young composers, the central figure among whom was Miley Alekseevich Balakirev (this group would later become “The Mighty Handful”).
Dargomyzhsky is planning to write a new opera. However, in search of a plot, he rejects first Pushkin's “Poltava”, and then the Russian legend of Rogdan. The choice of the composer stops at the third of Pushkin's "Little Tragedies" - "The Stone Guest". Work on the opera, however, is proceeding rather slowly due to the composer's creative crisis, connected with the withdrawal from the repertoire of the Rusalka theaters and the disdainful attitude of the younger musicians.
In 1864, the composer again went to Europe: he visited Warsaw, Leipzig, Paris, London and Brussels, where his orchestral piece “Kazachok”, as well as fragments from “Mermaid”, were successfully performed. Franz Liszt speaks favorably of his work.
Returning to Russia, inspired by the success of his works abroad, Dargomyzhsky with renewed vigor takes on the composition of The Stone Guest. The language he chose for this opera - almost entirely based on melodic recitatives with simple chord accompaniment - interested the composers of The Mighty Handful, and especially Caesar Cui, who was looking for a way to reform Russian opera at that time.
Listening to a fragment of the opera “The Stone Guest, for example, Laura's second song“ I am here, Inesilla ”from 2 scenes 1 act
However, the appointment of the composer to the post of head of the Russian Musical Society and the failure of the opera-ballet The Triumph of Bacchus, written by him back in 1848 and having not seen the stage for almost twenty years, weakened the composer's health.
On January 5 (17), 1869, he died, leaving the opera "The Stone Guest" unfinished. According to his will, it was completed by Cui and orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1872, the composers of The Mighty Handful achieved the staging of the opera The Stone Guest at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.
Dargomyzhsky was buried in the Necropolis of the Artists of the Tikhvin Cemetery, not far from Glinka's grave.
For many years, the composer's name was associated exclusively with the opera "The Stone Guest" as a work that had a great influence on the development of Russian opera. The opera was written in an innovative style for those times: there are no arias or ensembles in it (apart from Laura's two small inserted romances). It is entirely built on "melodic recitations" and recitations set to music. As the goal of choosing such a language, Dargomyzhsky set not only the reflection of the “dramatic truth”, but also the artistic reproduction of human speech with all its shades and bends with the help of music. Later, the principles of Dargomyzhsky's operatic art were embodied in M. P. Musorgsky's operas “Boris Godunov” and especially vividly in “Khovanshchina”.
Another opera by Dargomyzhsky - "Mermaid" - also became a significant phenomenon in the history of Russian music - this is the first Russian opera in the genre of everyday psychological drama. In it, the author embodied one of the many versions of the legend about a deceived girl turned into a mermaid and taking revenge on her abuser.
Two operas from a relatively early period of the composer's work - "Esmeralda" and "Triumph of Bacchus" - had been waiting for their first performance for many years and were not very popular with the public.
The chamber-vocal compositions of Dargomyzhsky are very popular. His early romances are sustained in a lyrical spirit, composed in the 1840s - they are influenced by Russian musical folklore (later this style will be used in PI Tchaikovsky's romances), finally, later ones are filled with deep drama, passion, truthfulness of expression, being such way, the forerunners of the vocal works of M. P. Mussorgsky. In a number of works of this genre, the comic talent of the composer was clearly manifested ("Worm", "Titular Counselor", etc.).
The composer created four works for the orchestra: Bolero (late 1830s), Baba Yaga, Kazachok and Chukhonskaya Fantasy (all - early 1860s). Despite the originality of the orchestral writing and good orchestration, they are rarely performed. These works are a continuation of the traditions of Glinka's symphonic music and one of the foundations of the rich heritage of Russian orchestral music created by composers of later times.
Listening to a fragment of one of the symphonic works, for example, "Kazachok" (main theme)
In the 20th century, interest in music revived: A. Dargomyzhsky's operas were staged in leading theaters of the USSR, orchestral works were included in the Anthology of Russian Symphonic Music, recorded by E.F. Svetlanov, and romances have become an integral part of the singers' repertoire. Among the musicologists who made the greatest contribution to the study of Dargomyzhsky's work, the most famous are A.N. Drozdov and M.S. Pekelis, the author of many works dedicated to the composer.
List of used information resources
- Kann-Novikova E. I want the truth. The Story about Alexander Dargomyzhsky / Stories about music for schoolchildren. - 1976 .-- 128 p.
- Kozlova N. Russian Musical Literature. Third year of study. - M .: "Music", 2002.- p. 66-79.
- Shornikova M. Musical literature. Russian musical classics. Third year of study. - Rostov-on-Don: “Phoenix”, 2008. - p. 97-127.
- Dargomyzhsky Alexander Sergeevich. Wikipedia. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/
I do not intend to condescend ... music to fun. I want the sound to express the word directly. I want the truth.
A. Dargomyzhsky
At the beginning of 1835, a young man appeared in the house of M. Glinka, who turned out to be a passionate lover of music. Not tall, outwardly unremarkable, he was completely transformed at the piano, delighting those around him with his free playing and excellent sight-reading. It was A. Dargomyzhsky, in the near future the largest representative of Russian classical music. The biographies of both composers have a lot in common. Dargomyzhsky's early childhood was spent on his father's estate not far from Novospassky, and he was surrounded by the same nature and peasant way of life as Glinka. But he came to St. Petersburg at an earlier age (the family moved to the capital when he was 4 years old), and this left its mark on artistic tastes and determined his interest in the music of urban life.
Dargomyzhsky received a home, but broad and versatile education, in which poetry, theater, and music took the first place. At the age of 7 he was taught to play the piano, violin (later he took singing lessons). The craving for musical composition was revealed early, but it was not encouraged by his teacher A. Danilevsky. Dargomyzhsky completed his pianistic education with F. Schoberlechner, a student of the famous I. Gummel, studying with him in 1828-31. During these years he often performed as a pianist, took part in quartet evenings and showed an increasing interest in composition. Nevertheless, Dargomyzhsky still remained an amateur in this area. There was not enough theoretical knowledge, moreover, the young man plunged headlong into the whirlpool of social life, "was in the heat of youth and in the claws of pleasure." True, even then there was not only entertainment. Dargomyzhsky attends musical and literary evenings in the salons of V. Odoevsky, S. Karamzina, is in the circle of poets, artists, actors, musicians. However, an acquaintance with Glinka made a complete revolution in his life. “The same education, the same love for art immediately brought us closer together ... We soon became friends and became sincerely friends. ... For 22 years in a row we were constantly with him in the shortest, most friendly relations, "Dargomyzhsky wrote in his autobiographical note.
It was then that for the first time before Dargomyzhsky the question of the meaning of composer's work really arose. He was present at the birth of the first classical Russian opera "Ivan Susanin", took part in its stage rehearsals and was personally convinced that music is designed not only to delight and entertain. Music-making in the salons was abandoned, and Dargomyzhsky began to fill in the gaps in his musical theoretical knowledge. For this purpose, Glinka handed over to Dargomyzhsky 5 notebooks containing the notes of the lectures of the German theoretician Z. Dena.
In his first creative experiments, Dargomyzhsky already showed great artistic independence. He was attracted by the images of "humiliated and insulted", he seeks to recreate various human characters in music, warming them with his sympathy and compassion. All this influenced the choice of the first opera plot. In 1839 Dargomyzhsky finished the opera Esmeralda to the French libretto by V. Hugo based on his novel Notre Dame Cathedral. Its premiere took place only in 1848, and “this eight years in vain expectation, "wrote Dargomyzhsky," laid a heavy burden on my entire artistic career. "
Failure also accompanied the next major work - the cantata "Triumph of Bacchus" (at the station of A. Pushkin, 1843), reworked in 1848 into an opera-ballet and staged only in 1867 "Esmeralda", which was the first attempt to embody the psychological drama " Little People ", and" The Triumph of Bacchus ", which took place for the first time in the framework of a large-scale composition of the windy with the genius Pushkin's poetry, with all the imperfections were a serious step towards the" Mermaid ". Numerous romances also paved the way to her. It was in this genre that Dargomyzhsky somehow at once easily and naturally reached the top. He loved vocal music making, until the end of his life he was engaged in pedagogy. “... Addressing constantly in the society of singers and singers, I practically managed to study both the properties and curves of human voices, and the art of dramatic singing,” wrote Dargomyzhsky. In his youth, the composer often paid tribute to the salon poetry, but even in his early romances he comes into contact with the main themes of his work. Thus, the lively vaudeville song "I Confess, Uncle" (Art. A. Timofeev) anticipates the satirical song-scenes of the later times; The burning theme of the freedom of human feeling is embodied in the ballad "Wedding" (art. A. Timofeev), so beloved later by V. I. Lenin. In the early 40s. Dargomyzhsky turned to Pushkin's poetry, creating such masterpieces as the romances "I Loved You", "The Young Man and the Maiden", "Night Zephyr", "Vertograd". Pushkin's poetry helped to overcome the influence of the sensitive salon style, stimulated the search for more subtle musical expressiveness. The interrelation of words and music became ever closer, requiring the renewal of all means, and first of all - melody. Musical intonation, fixing the bends of human speech, helped to sculpt a real, living image, and this led to the formation of new varieties of romance in the chamber vocal work of Dargomyzhsky - lyric and psychological monologues ("I am sad", "I am both bored and sad" at Art. Lermontov), theatrical genre-everyday romances-scenes ("The Miller" at the station. Pushkin).
An important role in the creative biography of Dargomyzhsky was played by a trip abroad at the end of 1844 (Berlin, Brussels, Vienna, Paris). Its main result is an irresistible need to "write in Russian", and over the years this desire is acquiring an ever clearer social orientation, echoing the ideas and artistic quests of the era. The revolutionary situation in Europe, the tightening of political reaction in Russia, the growing peasant unrest, anti-serfdom tendencies among the advanced part of Russian society, the growing interest in popular life in all its manifestations - all this contributed to serious shifts in Russian culture, primarily in literature, where by the middle of the 40s. the so-called "natural school" was formed. Its main feature, according to V. Belinsky, was "in closer and closer rapprochement with life, with reality, in greater and greater proximity to maturity and maturity." The themes and plots of the "natural school" - the life of the common class in its unadorned ordinariness, the psychology of a little man - were very consonant with Dargomyzhsky, and this was especially evident in the opera "Mermaid", accusatory romances of the late 50s. ("Worm", "Titular Counselor", "Old Corporal").
"Mermaid", on which Dargomyzhsky worked intermittently from 1845 to 1855, opened a new direction in Russian operatic art. This is a lyrical and psychological drama of everyday life, its most remarkable pages are detailed ensemble scenes, where complex human characters enter into acutely conflicting relationships and are revealed with great tragic force. The first performance of "The Mermaid" on May 4, 1856 in St. Petersburg aroused the interest of the public, but the high society did not honor the opera with their attention, and the management of the imperial theaters reacted unkindly to it. The situation changed in the mid-60s. Renewed under the direction of E. Napravnik, "Rusalka" was a truly triumphant success, noted by critics as a sign that "the views of the public ... have radically changed." These changes were caused by the renewal of the entire social atmosphere, the democratization of all forms of social life. The attitude towards Dargomyzhsky has changed. Over the past decade, his authority in the musical world has greatly increased, a group of young composers headed by M. Balakirev and V. Stasov have united around him. The composer's musical and social activities also intensified. In the late 50s. he took part in the work of the satirical magazine "Iskra", from 1859 he became a member of the Committee of the RMO, participated in the development of the draft charter of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. So when in 1864 Dargomyzhsky undertook a new trip abroad, the foreign public in his person greeted a major representative of Russian musical culture.
