Composer Alexander Dargomyzhsky: biography, creative heritage, interesting facts. Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky biography

Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky, whose brief biography is presented in the article, is a great Russian composer who brought a lot of new things to Russian classical music. The years of his life - 1813-1869. Dargomyzhsky was born on February 14, 1813. His biography begins in p. Troitsky (Dargomyzhe) Tula province, where he was born. His father served as an official, and his mother Alexandra was an amateur poetess.

How Dargomyzhsky spent his early childhood

Biography, a summary of the works, interesting facts about the composer - all this is of interest to many fans of his work. Let's start from the very beginning and talk about the early childhood of the future composer.

Alexander Sergeevich spent it in the estate of his parents, which was located in. After some time, the family moved to St. Petersburg. Alexander Dargomyzhsky received his home education here. His biography of this time is marked by music, theater and literature. The teachers of Alexander Dargomyzhsky were A. T. Danilevsky (pianist), P. G. Vorontsov (serf violinist), F. Schobernehler ( 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.

First works, students of Dargomyzhsky

The first piano pieces and romances were published in the 1830s. the largest artistic value have romances created to the words of Pushkin: "Night Zephyr", "Vertograd", "Young Man and Maiden", "I Loved You", etc. And in subsequent years, vocal music was one of the main creative interests Alexander Dargomyzhsky, who happily gave vocal lessons, and for free. A huge number of his students. Among them, L.N. Belenitsyna (Karmalina), Bibibina, Shilovskaya, Girs, Barteneva, Purholt (Molas), Princess Manvelova. Dargomyzhsky was always inspired by female sympathy, especially singers. About the latter, he half-jokingly said that if it were not for them, it would not 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 famous novel This work, for all its immaturity (it was written in the style of a French opera), testifies to the realistic aspirations of Dargomyzhsky. Esmeralda was never published. In St. Petersburg, in the library of the Imperial Theaters, there is a clavier, a handwritten score and an autograph of Dargomyzhsky. A few years later, this work was staged. The premiere took place in St. Petersburg in 1851, and in Moscow in 1847.

Romances of Dargomyzhsky

Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky was dissatisfied with the production of the opera. His biography is marked by a turn in his work. "Esmeralda", apparently, disappointed the composer. Dargomyzhsky again began to compose romances, whose biography was marked by their writing before. Together with early works new ones (only 30 romances) were published in 1844. They brought Dargomyzhsky fame. The best romances of the 1840s are works based on Pushkin's poems: "Night Marshmallow", "Tear", "Wedding", "I Loved You". In 1843, Dargomyzhsky's cantata "The Triumph of Bacchus" was created to the verses of the same poet. This work was presented in 1846 at the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater at a directorate 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.

Journey and new trends in the composer's work

New trends in Dargomyzhsky's work appeared in the second half of the 1840s and early 1850s. They were associated with the birth and flourishing in our country of the so-called natural school in art and literature. Alexander Sergeevich began to be attracted mainly by folk stories. In addition, his interest in folklore became even greater. Dargomyzhsky took up the processing of a peasant song. We can say that the aggravation of the national consciousness at that 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 St. Petersburg as an adherent of Russian, as in the case of Glinka.

It was to this time that the final design of "intonational realism" belongs - creative method composer (reproduction of intonations of speech is the main means by which images are created). The composer said that he strives to ensure that the sound expresses the word. In the song "Melnik" the principle professed by Alexander Dargomyzhsky was put into practice. short biography it is marked by the active implementation of "intonational realism". From the "Melnik" song to Pushkin's poems, threads stretch 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"

The opera "Mermaid", created in 1855 based on the drama by A.S. Pushkin, is the central work of this period. It truly 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-everyday musical drama). On May 4, 1856, "Mermaid" was first presented at the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theater. It was staged with old sets, sloppy performances, inappropriate costumes, inappropriate bills. It is not surprising that this opera was not a success. 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 was included in the repertoire of many theaters and became one of the most beloved Russian operas.

Musical and social activities

How much do you know about such a composer as Dargomyzhsky? The biography in the table placed in textbooks contains only the most basic information about him. Meanwhile, 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 RMS (Russian Musical Society). 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 Sergeevich became close to the composers who later became members of the " mighty handful"(Balakirev circle"). The result was mutual creative enrichment.

Cooperation with Iskra

Dargomyzhsky, whose biography and work are closely connected throughout his life, in 1859 collaborated with Iskra. It was an influential satirical magazine at the time. Collaboration has left its mark on further creativity composer. Alexander Sergeevich created music to the verses of P. I. Veinberg and V. S. Kurochkin - poets who were published in Iskra. Dargomyzhsky's innovative romances dating back to this time are permeated with social content: "Worm", "Titular Counselor", "Old Corporal". At the same time, the composer's classes with amateur singers continued, and lyrical romances were also created: “I remember deeply”, “What is in my name for you”, “We parted proudly”.

Dargomyzhsky's last opera

Composer's attention last years his life was again riveted to the opera. Having decided to carry out a radical reform, Dargomyzhsky in 1866 began to work on "The Stone Guest" based on the work of A. S. Pushkin. He wanted to write music without changing Pushkin's text. Dargomyzhsky abandoned operatic forms that had developed historically: vocal ensembles, deployed arias. His goal was the continuity of the musical action. The recitative-ariose recitation was taken as a basis, that is, the opera is almost completely 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 will of the composer. He also created the introduction to this opera, which was orchestrated by N. Rimsky-Korsakov.

Meaning of "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 did not stay in the repertoire. To this day, it is still not appreciated. Not only among domestic composers (Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky) did the innovative principles of Alexander Sergeevich's final opera find followers. She was appreciated and 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 that Dargomyzhsky carried out. A brief biography of him would be incomplete if we did not talk about the orchestral works of Alexander Sergeevich.

Orchestral works by Dargomyzhsky

The brightest among them can be considered "Baba Yaga", "Chukhon fantasy" and "Little Russian Cossack". Everyday images of these works are exacerbated by the composer with the help of a grotesque exaggerated interpretation. It is from here that the novelty of the artistic techniques. They found continuation in the work of such Russian composers as A. Lyadov, M. Mussorgsky and others. On January 17, 1869, Dargomyzhsky died in St. Petersburg (his grave is shown in the photo below).

A brief biography of him today is studied in all music schools in Russia. And the works of Alexander Sergeevich are performed in the best theaters 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. Very interesting is such a representative of it as Dargomyzhsky (biography and creativity). You can now briefly talk about his life and legacy.

Dargomyzhsky created a vocal style that lies between cantilena and recitative, a special melodious or melodic recitative, elastic enough to be in constant correspondence with speech, and at the same time rich in characteristic melodic twists, spiritualizing this speech, bringing into it a new, lacking emotional element.

(2 (14) .2.1813, Troitskoye village, now the Belevsky district of the Tula region, -

5(17).1.1869, Petersburg)

Dargomyzhsky, Alexander Sergeevich - famous Russian composer. Born February 14, 1813 in the village of Dargomyzhe, Belevsky district, Tula province. He died on January 17, 1869 in St. Petersburg. His father, Sergei Nikolaevich, served in the Ministry of Finance, in a commercial bank.

Dargomyzhsky's mother, nee Princess Maria Borisovna Kozlovskaya, married against the will of her parents.

She was well educated; Her poems were published in almanacs and magazines. Some of the poems she wrote for her children, mostly of an instructive nature, were included in the collection: "A Gift to My Daughter."

One of the Dargomyzhsky brothers played the violin beautifully, participating in chamber ensemble at home evenings; one of the sisters played the harp well and composed romances.

Until the age of five, Dargomyzhsky did not speak at all, and his late-formed voice remained forever squeaky and hoarse, which did not prevent him, however, from subsequently touching him to tears with the expressiveness and artistry of vocal performance at intimate meetings.

Education Dargomyzhsky received home, but thorough; he knew the French language and French literature perfectly.

Playing in puppet show, the boy composed small vaudeville plays for him, and at the age of six he began to learn to play the piano.

His teacher, Adrian Danilevsky, not only did not encourage his student to compose from the age of 11, but exterminated his composing experiments.

Piano learning ended with Schoberlechner, a student of Hummel. Dargomyzhsky also studied singing, with Tseibih, who informed him of information about intervals, and violin playing with P.G. Vorontsov, participating from the age of 14 in the quartet ensemble.

of the present system in music education Dargomyzhsky was absent, and he owed his theoretical knowledge mainly to himself.

His earliest compositions - rondo, variations for piano, romances to the words of Zhukovsky and Pushkin - were not found in his papers, but even during his lifetime, "Contredanse nouvelle" and "Variations" for piano were published, written: the first - in 1824, the second - in 1827 - 1828. In the 1830s, Dargomyzhsky was known in the musical circles of St. Petersburg as a "strong pianist", as well as the author of several piano pieces in a brilliant salon style and romances: "Oh, ma charmante", "The Maiden and the Rose", "I confess, uncle", "You are pretty" and others, not much different from the style of romances by Verstovsky, Alyabyev and Varlamov, with an admixture of French influence.

Acquaintance with M.I. Glinka, who handed over to Dargomyzhsky the theoretical manuscripts he had brought from Berlin from Professor Den, contributed to the expansion of his knowledge in the field of harmony and counterpoint; at the same time he began to study orchestration.

Assessing Glinka's talent, Dargomyzhsky for his first opera "Esmeralda" chose, however, the French libretto compiled by Victor Hugo from his novel "Notre Dame de Paris" and only after the end of the opera (in 1839) did he translate it into Russian.

"Esmeralda", which remains unpublished (handwritten score, clavieraustsug, Dargomyzhsky's autograph, are stored in the central music library of the Imperial Theaters in St. Petersburg; found in the notes of Dargomyzhsky and a lithographed copy of the 1st act) - a work weak, imperfect, unable to be compared with "Life for the king."

But the features of Dargomyzhsky were already revealed in it: drama and a desire for expressiveness of the vocal style, under the influence of acquaintance with the works of Megul, Aubert and Cherubini. Esmeralda was staged only in 1847 in Moscow and in 1851 in St. Petersburg. “Those eight years of vain waiting and in the most ebullient years of my life laid a heavy burden on my entire artistic activity,” writes Dargomyzhsky. Until 1843, Dargomyzhsky was in the service, first in the control of the Ministry of the Court, then in the Department of the State Treasury; then he devoted himself entirely to music.

Failure with "Esmeralda" suspended opera Dargomyzhsky; he took up writing romances, which, together with earlier ones, were published (30 romances) in 1844 and brought him honorable fame.

In 1844 Dargomyzhsky traveled to Germany, Paris, Brussels and Vienna. Personal acquaintance with Aubert, Meyerbeer and other European musicians influenced his further development.

He became close friends with Halévy and with Fetis, who testifies that Dargomyzhsky consulted with him regarding his compositions, including "Esmeralda" ("Biographie universelle des musiciens", Petersburg, X, 1861). Having left as an adherent of everything French, Dargomyzhsky returned to Petersburg a much greater champion of everything Russian than before (as happened with Glinka).

Reviews of the foreign press about the performance of Dargomyzhsky's works at private collections in Vienna, Paris and Brussels contributed to a certain change in the attitude of the theater management towards Dargomyzhsky. In the 1840s he wrote a large cantata with choirs based on Pushkin's text "The Triumph of Bacchus".

It was performed at the directorate's concert at the Bolshoi Theater in St. Petersburg in 1846, but the author was refused permission to stage it as an opera, completed and orchestrated in 1848 (see "Autobiography"), and only much later (in 1867) it was staged in Moscow.

This opera, like the first, is weak in music and not typical of Dargomyzhsky. Disappointed by the refusal to stage Bacchus, Dargomyzhsky again closed himself in a close circle of his admirers and admirers, continuing to compose small vocal ensembles (duets, trios, quartets) and romances, then published and made popular.

At the same time, he took up teaching singing. The number of his students and especially his female students (he gave lessons for free) is enormous. L.N. Belenitsyn (by Karmalin's husband; Dargomyzhsky's most interesting letters to her have been published), M.V. Shilovskaya, Bilibina, Barteneva, Girs, Pavlova, Princess Manvelova, A.N. Purholt (by husband Molas).

The sympathy and worship of women, especially singers, always inspired and encouraged Dargomyzhsky, and he used to say half-jokingly: "If there were no singers in the world, it would not be worth being a composer." Already in 1843, Dargomyzhsky conceived a third opera, Rusalka, based on a text by Pushkin, but the composition moved extremely slowly, and even the approval of friends did not speed up the work; meanwhile, the duo of the prince and Natasha, performed by Dargomyzhsky and Karmalina, caused tears in Glinka.

A new impetus to the work of Dargomyzhsky was given by the resounding success of a grandiose concert from his compositions, arranged in St. Petersburg in the hall of the Nobility Assembly on April 9, 1853, according to the idea of ​​Prince V.F. Odoevsky and A.N. Karamzin. Taking up the "Mermaid" again, Dargomyzhsky finished it in 1855 and transferred it to 4 hands (an unpublished arrangement is kept in the Imperial public library). In Rusalka, Dargomyzhsky consciously cultivated Russian musical style created by Glinka.

New in "Mermaid" is its drama, comedy (the figure of a matchmaker) and bright recitatives, in which Dargomyzhsky was ahead of Glinka. But the vocal style of "Mermaid" is far from sustained; next to truthful, expressive recitatives, there are conditional cantilenas (Italianisms), rounded arias, duets and ensembles that do not always fit in with the requirements of the drama.

The weak side of the "Mermaid" is still technically its orchestration, which cannot be compared with the richest orchestral colors of "Ruslan", and from an artistic point of view - the whole fantastic part, rather pale. The first performance of The Mermaid in 1856 (May 4) at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, with an unsatisfactory production, with old scenery, inappropriate costumes, careless performance, inappropriate cuts, conducted by K. Lyadov, who did not like Dargomyzhsky, was not successful .

The opera lasted only 26 performances until 1861, but resumed in 1865 with Platonova and Komissarzhevsky, it was a huge success and has since become a repertoire and one of the most beloved of Russian operas. In Moscow, "Mermaid" was staged for the first time in 1858. The initial failure of "Mermaid" had a depressing effect on Dargomyzhsky; according to the story of his friend, V.P. Engelhardt, he intended to burn the scores of "Esmeralda" and "Mermaid", and only the formal refusal of the directorate to give these scores to the author, supposedly for correction, saved them from destruction.

The last period of Dargomyzhsky's work, the most original and significant, can be called reformatory. Its beginning, already rooted in the recitatives of The Mermaid, is marked by the appearance of a number of original vocal pieces, distinguished either by their comicality - or, rather, by Gogol's humor, laughter through tears ("Titular Counselor", 1859), then by drama ("Old Corporal", 1858; "Paladin", 1859), then with subtle irony ("Worm", on the text of Beranger-Kurochkin, 1858), then with a burning feeling of a rejected woman ("We parted proudly", "I don't care", 1859) and always remarkable in strength and truth of vocal expressiveness.

These vocal pieces were a new step forward in the history of Russian romance after Glinka and served as models for the vocal masterpieces of Mussorgsky, who wrote on one of them a dedication to Dargomyzhsky, "the great teacher of musical truth." The comic vein of Dargomyzhsky also manifested itself in the field of orchestral composition. His orchestral fantasies belong to the same period: "Little Russian Cossack", inspired by Glinka's "Kamarinskaya", and quite independent: "Baba Yaga, or From the Volga nach Riga" and "Chukhonskaya Fantasy".

The last two, originally conceived, are also interesting in terms of orchestral techniques, showing that Dargomyzhsky had taste and imagination in combining the colors of the orchestra. Dargomyzhsky's acquaintance with composers in the mid-1850s" Balakirev circle"It was good for both parties.

The new vocal verse of Dargomyzhsky influenced the development of the vocal style of young composers, which especially affected the work of Cui and Mussorgsky, who met Dargomyzhsky, like Balakirev, earlier than the rest. Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin were particularly affected by Dargomyzhsky's new opera techniques, which were the practical implementation of the thesis expressed by him in a letter (1857) to Karmalina: "I want the sound to directly express the word; I want the truth." An opera composer by vocation, Dargomyzhsky, despite failures with the government administration, could not endure inaction for a long time.

In the early 1860s, he began to work on the magic-comic opera "Rogdan", but wrote only five numbers, two solo ones ("Duetino of Rogdana and Ratobor" and "Comic Song") and three choral ones (chorus of dervishes to Pushkin's words "Arise , timid", of a severe oriental character and two female choirs: "Quietly pour streams" and "As the luminiferous daylight appears"; all of them were first performed in concerts of the Free Music School 1866 - 1867). Somewhat later, he conceived the opera "Mazepa", based on the plot of Pushkin's "Poltava", but, having written a duet between Orlik and Kochubey ("Again you are here, despicable person"), he stopped at it.

Lacked determination to expend energy on big essay whose fate seemed uncertain. Traveling abroad, in 1864-65, contributed to the rise of his spirit and strength, as it was very successful artistically: in Brussels, Kapellmeister Hanssens appreciated Dargomyzhsky's talent and contributed to the performance of his orchestral works in concerts (overture to "Mermaid" and "Cossack "), which was a huge success. But the main impetus to the extraordinary awakening of creativity was given to Dargomyzhsky by his new young comrades, whose talents he quickly appreciated. The question of opera forms then became another.

Serov was engaged in it, intending to become an opera composer and carried away by the ideas of Wagner's operatic reform. Members of the Balakirev circle, especially Cui, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, also dealt with it, solving it on their own, based largely on the features of Dargomyzhsky's new vocal style. Composing his "William Ratcliffe", Cui immediately introduced Dargomyzhsky to what he had written. Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov also introduced Dargomyzhsky to their new vocal compositions. Their energy was communicated to Dargomyzhsky himself; he decided to boldly embark on the path of operatic reform and sang (as he put it) the swan song, setting about composing The Stone Guest with extraordinary zeal, without changing a single line of Pushkin's text and without adding a single word to it.

Did not stop creativity and Dargomyzhsky's disease (aneurysms and hernia); in the last weeks he had been writing in bed with a pencil. Young friends, gathering at the patient's, performed scene after scene of the opera as it was being created, and with their enthusiasm gave new strength to the fading composer. Within a few months the opera was almost finished; death prevented him from completing the music only for the last seventeen verses. According to Dargomyzhsky's will, he completed Cui's The Stone Guest; he also wrote the introduction to the opera, borrowing thematic material from it, and orchestrated the opera by Rimsky-Korsakov. Through the efforts of friends, The Stone Guest was staged in St. Petersburg on the Mariinsky Stage on February 16, 1872 and resumed in 1876, but it did not stay in the repertoire and is still far from appreciated.

However, the significance of The Stone Guest, which logically completes the reformist ideas of Dargomyzhsky, is beyond doubt. In The Stone Guest, Dargomyzhsky, like Wagner, seeks to achieve a synthesis of drama and music, subordinating the music to the text. The operatic forms of The Stone Guest are so flexible that the music flows continuously, without any repetitions that are not caused by the meaning of the text. This was achieved by the rejection of the symmetrical forms of arias, duets and other rounded ensembles, and at the same time the rejection of a continuous cantilena, as insufficiently elastic to express rapidly changing shades of speech. But here the paths of Wagner and Dargomyzhsky diverge. Wagner transferred the center of gravity of the musical expression of the psychology of the characters to the orchestra, and his vocal parts were in the background.

Dargomyzhsky concentrated musical expressiveness on vocal parts, finding it more expedient for the actors themselves to talk about themselves. Opera links in the continuously flowing music of Wagner are leitmotifs, symbols of persons, objects, ideas. The operatic style of The Stone Guest is devoid of leitmotifs; nevertheless, the characteristics of the characters in Dargomyzhsky are bright and strictly sustained. Different speeches are put into their mouths, but they are the same for everyone. Denying a solid cantilena, Dargomyzhsky also rejected the ordinary, so-called "dry" recitative, which has little expressiveness and is devoid of pure musical beauty. He created a vocal style that lies between cantilena and recitative, a special melodious or melodic recitative, elastic enough to be in constant correspondence with speech, and at the same time rich in characteristic melodic twists, spiritualizing this speech, bringing into it a new, lacking emotional element.

This vocal style, which fully corresponds to the peculiarities of the Russian language, is the merit of Dargomyzhsky. Opera forms of "The Stone Guest", caused by the properties of the libretto, the text, which did not allow wide application choirs, vocal ensembles, independent performance of the orchestra, cannot, of course, be considered immutable models for any opera. Artistic tasks admit not one, not two solutions. But the resolution of Dargomyzhsky's operatic problem is so characteristic that it will not be forgotten in the history of opera. Dargomyzhsky had not only Russian followers, but also foreign ones.

Gounod intended to write an opera on the model of The Stone Guest; Debussy in his opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" implemented the principles of Dargomyzhsky's operatic reform. - Dargomyzhsky's social and musical activity began only shortly before his death: from 1860 he was a member of the committee for the consideration of compositions submitted to competitions of the Imperial Russian Musical Society, and from 1867 he was elected director of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Society. Most of Dargomyzhsky's works were published by P. Jurgenson, Gutheil and V. Bessel. Operas and orchestral works are named above. piano pieces Dargomyzhsky wrote little (about 11), and all of them (except for "Slavic Tarantella", composed in 1865) belong to the early period of his work.

Dargomyzhsky is especially prolific in the field of small vocal pieces for one voice (over 90); he wrote 17 more duets, 6 ensembles (for 3 and 4 voices) and "Petersburg Serenades" - choirs for different voices (12 ©). - See the letters of Dargomyzhsky ("Artist", 1894); I. Karzukhin, biography, with indexes of works and literature about Dargomyzhsky ("Artist", 1894); S. Bazurov "Dargomyzhsky" (1894); N. Findeisen "Dargomyzhsky"; L. Karmalina "Memories" ("Russian Antiquity", 1875); A. Serov, 10 articles about "Mermaid" (from a collection of critical essays); C. Cui "La musique en Russie"; V. Stasov "Our music for the last 25 years" (in collected works).

G. Timofeev

Russian Civilization

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The purpose of the event (lesson): familiarity with the main life stages and major creative achievements of the great Russian composer A.S. Dargomyzhsky.

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“I want the sound to directly express the word. 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 huge impact on the development of Russian musical art of the 19th century, one of the most notable 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, which was followed by many composers of subsequent generations. One of them is M.P. Mussorgsky called Dargomyzhsky "a great teacher of musical truth."

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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, then 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 Aleksei Petrovich fell passionately in love with his children's governess, Anna von Shtofel, and soon their son Seryozha, the future father of Dargomyzhsky, was born to them. He was born in 1789 in the village of Dargomyzhka, then 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. Alexei 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 never visited the house and did not engage in raising the boy. Little Seryozha grew up to 8 years old like a blade of grass in a field.

In 1797, Anna Ladyzhenskaya and Nikolai Bogucharov committed an act that is rare even today: 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, Alexey Ladyzhensky, being a retired lieutenant colonel, together with Ivan Bogucharov went 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 the boy's patronymic Nikolaevich (after the name of his first stepfather), and the surname Dargomyzhsky - after the village of Dargomyzhka, in which he was born. So Sergei Nikolaevich Dargomyzhsky appeared. So the surname Dargomyzhsky is invented.

In 1806, Sergei Nikolayevich Dargomyzhsky completed 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 a nobleman, he was without a fortune! Then, Sergei Nikolaevich, without thinking twice, stole his Masha and took him to the Kozlovsky estate in the Smolensk province. So, the mother of Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky, nee Princess Maria Borisovna Kozlovskaya, 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 and 30s, and was keenly interested in French culture.

A.S. Dargomyzhsky was born on February 2 (14), 1813 in the village of Troitskoye, Tula province. There were six children in the Dargomyzhsky family: Erast, Alexander, Sophia, Victor, Lyudmila and Erminia. 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 of 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 with early years. Warm friendly relations between brothers and sisters have been preserved for many 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, from subsequently touching him to tears with the expressiveness and artistry of his vocal performance.

In 1817, the family moved to St. Petersburg, where his father received a position as the head of the office in a commercial bank, and he himself began to receive a musical education. His first piano teacher was Louise Wolgeborn, then he began studying with Adrian Danilevsky.

That one was good pianist, however, did not share the interest of the young Dargomyzhsky in composing music (his small piano pieces of this period have been preserved). Finally, for three years Sasha's teacher was Franz Schoberlechner, a student of the famous composer Johann Hummel. Having achieved a certain skill, Alexander began to perform as a pianist at charity concerts and in private collections. At this time, he also studied with the famous singing teacher Benedikt Zeibig, and from 1822 he mastered playing the violin (he was taught by the serf musician Vorontsov). Dargomyzhsky as a violinist played in quartets, 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 autumn of 1827, following in the footsteps of his father, he entered public service and thanks to diligence and a conscientious attitude to business, he quickly began to move up the career ladder. During this period, he often played music at home and visited Opera theatre, 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 four hands, analyzed the work of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Glinka helped Dargomyzhsky with the study of musical-theoretical disciplines, giving him notes on the lessons of music theory, which he received in Berlin from Siegfried Dehn.

Having visited the rehearsals of Glinka's opera Life for the Tsar, which was being prepared for production, Dargomyzhsky decided to write his first major stage work on his own. The choice of the plot fell on Victor Hugo's drama "Lucretia Borgia". 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 - “The Cathedral Notre Dame of Paris". 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 over 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 solution 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 the blood ...”, “I am in love, beauty maiden ...”, “Lileta”, “Night marshmallow”, “Sixteen years” 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 meets the musicologist François-Joseph Fethi, the violinist Henri Vieuxtan and the leading European composers of the time: Aubert, Donizetti, Halévy, Meyerbeer. Returning to Russia in 1845, the composer was carried away by the study of Russian musical folklore, elements of which were clearly manifested in romances and songs written during this period: “Darling Maiden”, “Fever”, “Melnik”, as well as in the opera “Mermaid”, which the composer began writing in 1848.

In 1853, a solemn concert dedicated to the composer's fortieth birthday 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's baton encrusted 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 verse by A.S. Pushkin, it was created in the period 1848-1855. Dargomyzhsky himself adapted Pushkin's poems into a libretto and composed the ending of the plot (Pushkin's work was not completed). 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 Theater Musical Bulletin (its volume was so large that it was printed in parts in several issues). This article helped the opera to stay in the repertoire of the leading theaters of Russia for some time and added creative confidence to him.

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 meets a group of young composers, the central figure among which was Milei Alekseevich Balakirev (this group would later become the “Mighty Handful”).

Dargomyzhsky plans to write a new opera. However, in search of a plot, he first rejects Pushkin's Poltava, and then the Russian legend about 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 exit from the repertoire of the Mermaid theaters and the neglect of younger musicians.

In 1864, the composer again travels to Europe: he visits Warsaw, Leipzig, Paris, London and Brussels, where his orchestral piece Cossack, as well as fragments from The Mermaid, are 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 - built almost entirely on melodic recitatives with simple chordal accompaniment - interested the composers of The Mighty Handful, and in particular Caesar Cui, who at that time was looking for ways to reform Russian opera art.

Listening to a fragment of the opera “The Stone Guest”, for example, the second song of Laura “I am here, Inezilla” from scene 2 of act 1

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 not seen on 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 succeeded in staging the opera The Stone Guest on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.

Dargomyzhsky was buried in the Necropolis of Masters of Arts in the Tikhvin cemetery, not far from Glinka's grave.

During for long years the name of the composer 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 a style that was innovative for those times: it contains neither arias nor ensembles (not counting Laura's two small inserted romances). It is entirely built on "melodic recitatives" 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 the help of music with all its shades and twists. Later, the principles of Dargomyzhsky's operatic art were embodied in MP Mussorgsky'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 offender.

Two operas from a relatively early period of the composer's work - "Esmeralda" and "The Triumph of Bacchus" - had been waiting for their first production for many years and were not very popular with the public.

Dargomyzhsky's chamber-vocal compositions enjoy great success. 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 the romances of P. I. Tchaikovsky), and finally, the later ones are filled with deep drama, passion, truthfulness of expression, being such way, 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 Advisor”, etc.).

The composer created four works for the orchestra: “Bolero” (late 1830s), “Baba Yaga”, “Cossack Boy” and “Chukhonskaya Fantasy” (all from the 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 later composers.

Listening to a fragment of one of the symphonic works, for example, “Cossack” (main theme)

In the 20th century, interest in music revived: A. Dargomyzhsky's operas were staged in the leading theaters of the USSR, orchestral compositions 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

1. Kann-Novikova E. I want the truth. The Tale of Alexander Dargomyzhsky / Stories about music for schoolchildren. - 1976. - 128 p.
2. Kozlova N. Russian musical literature. Third year of study. - M.: "Music", 2002.- p.66-79.
3. Shornikova M. Musical literature. Russian musical classics. Third year of study. - Rostov-on-Don: "Phoenix", 2008. - p.97-127.
4. Dargomyzhsky Alexander Sergeevich. Wikipedia. https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Russian composer Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky was born on February 14 (2 according to the old style) February 1813 in the village of Troitskoye, Belevsky district, Tula province. Father - Sergey Nikolaevich served as an official in the Ministry of Finance, in a commercial bank.
Mother - Maria Borisovna, nee Princess Kozlovskaya, composed plays for stage production. One of them - "Chimney sweep, or a good deed will not go unrewarded" was published in the magazine "Good-meaning". St. Petersburg writers, representatives of the "Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Science and Art" knew the composer's family.

In total, the family had six children: Erast, Alexander, Sophia, Lyudmila, Victor, Erminia.

Until the age of three, the Dargomyzhsky family lived at the Tverdunovo estate in Smolensk Governorate. A temporary move to the Tula province was associated with the invasion of Napoleon's army in 1812.

In 1817 the family moved to St. Petersburg, where Dargomyzhsky began to study music. His first teacher was Louise Wolgenborn. In 1821-1828, Dargomyzhsky studied with Adrian Danilevsky, who was opposed to composing music by his student. In the same period, Dargomyzhsky began to learn to play the violin together with the serf musician Vorontsov.

In 1827 Dargomyzhsky was enrolled as a clerk (without salary) in the staff of the Ministry of the Court.

From 1828 to 1831, Franz Schoberlechner became the composer's teacher. To develop vocal skills, Dargomyzhsky also works with teacher Benedikt Tseibih.

IN early period creativity, a number of works for piano were written ("March", "Counterdance", "Melancholic Waltz", "Cossack") and some romances and songs ("The moon shines in the cemetery", "Amber Cup", "I loved you", "Night marshmallow", "Young man and maiden", "Vertograd", "Tear", "The fire of desire burns in the blood").

The composer takes an active part in charity concerts. At the same time, he met writers Vasily Zhukovsky, Lev Pushkin (brother of the poet Alexander Pushkin), Peter Vyazemsky, Ivan Kozlov.

In 1835, Dargomyzhsky met Mikhail Glinka, using whose notebooks the composer began to study harmony, counterpoint and instrumentation.

In 1837 Dargomyzhsky began work on the opera Lucretia Borgia, based on the drama of the same name. French writer Victor Hugo. On the advice of Glinka, this work was abandoned and the composition began. new opera"Esmeralda" also on the plot of Hugo. The opera was first staged in 1847 on stage Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.

In 1844-1845, Dargomyzhsky traveled around Europe and visited Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Brussels, Paris, Vienna, where he met many famous composers and performers (Charles Berio, Henri Vieuxtin, Gaetano Donizetti).

In 1849, work began on the opera Rusalka based on the work of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere of the opera took place in 1856 at the St. Petersburg Circus Theatre.

Dargomyzhsky during this period focused on the development of a natural recitation of the melody. The composer's creative method, "intonation realism", is finally being formed. The main means of creating individual image served for Dargomyzhsky to reproduce the living intonations of human speech. In the 40s and 50s of the 19th century, Dargomyzhsky wrote romances and songs ("You will soon forget me", "I'm sad", "Both boring and sad", "Fever", "Darling girl", "Oh, be quiet, Quiet, quiet, ty", "I'll light a candle", "Without mind, without mind", etc.)

Dargomyzhsky became close to composer Mily Balakirev and critic Vladimir Stasov, who founded creative association"Mighty Bunch".

From 1861 to 1867, Dargomyzhsky wrote three consecutive symphonic overtures-fantasies: "Baba Yaga", "Ukrainian (Little Russian) Cossack" and "Fantasy on Finnish Themes" ("Chukhonskaya Fantasy"). During these years, the composer worked on chamber vocal works "I remember deeply", "How often I listen", "We parted proudly", "What is in my name", "I don't care". Oriental lyrics, previously represented by the romances "Vertograd" and "Eastern Romance", were replenished with the aria "Oh, the maiden rose, I am in chains." A special place in the composer's work was occupied by songs of social and domestic content "Old Corporal", "Worm", "Titular Counselor".

In 1864-1865, Dargomyzhsky's second trip abroad took place, where he visited Berlin, Leipzig, Brussels, Paris, and London. The composer's works were performed on the European stage ("Little Russian Cossack", overture to the opera "Mermaid").

In 1866, Dargomyzhsky began work on the opera The Stone Guest (based on the short tragedy of the same name by Alexander Pushkin), but did not have time to finish it. According to the author's will, Caesar Cui finished the first picture, orchestrated the opera and compiled an introduction to it by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Since 1859, Dargomyzhsky was elected to the Russian Musical Society (RMO).

Since 1867, Dargomyzhsky was a member of the directorate of the St. Petersburg branch of the RMO.

On January 17 (5 according to the old style) Alexander Dargomyzhsky died in St. Petersburg. The composer had no wife and children. He was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (Necropolis of the Masters of Arts).

In the territory municipality Arsenievsky district Tula region the world's only monument to Dargomyzhsky by sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov was erected.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

1. Fyodor Chaliapin performs "Miller's Aria" from Dargomyzhsky's opera "Mermaid". Recorded 1931.

2. Fyodor Chaliapin in the scene "Aria of the Miller and the Prince" from Dargomyzhsky's opera "Mermaid". Recorded 1931.

3. Tamara Sinyavskaya performs Laura's song from Dargomyzhsky's opera The Stone Guest. Orchestra of the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre. Conductor - Mark Ermler. 1977

Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky was born on February 2, 1813 in the village of Troitskoye, Tula province. For the first four years of his life, he was away from St. Petersburg, but it was this city that left the deepest imprint on his mind.

The Dargomyzhsky family had six children. Parents made sure that they all received a wide liberal education. Alexander Sergeevich received a home education, he never studied in any educational institution. The only source of his knowledge was his parents, a large family and home teachers. They were the environment that shaped his character, tastes and interests.

Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky

Music occupied a special place in the upbringing of children in the Dargomyzhsky family. Her parents gave her great importance, believing that it is the beginning, softening morals, acting on feelings and educating hearts. Children learned to play various musical instruments.

Little Sasha at the age of 6 began to learn to play the piano from Louise Wolgeborn. Three years later, the then-famous musician Andrian Trofimovich Danilevsky became his teacher. In 1822, the boy began to learn to play the violin. Music became his passion. Despite the fact that he had to learn many lessons, Sasha, at about 11 or 12 years old, already began to compose small piano pieces and romances himself. An interesting fact is that the boy's teacher, Danilevsky, was categorically against his writing, and there were even cases when he tore up manuscripts. Subsequently, the famous musician Schoberlechner was hired for Dargomyzhsky, who completed his education in the field of playing the piano. In addition, Sasha took vocal lessons from a singing teacher named Zeibich.

In the late 1820s, it became finally clear that Alexander had a great passion for composing music.

In September 1827, Alexander Sergeevich was enrolled in the control of the Ministry of the Court for the position of clerk, but without salary. By 1830, all of St. Petersburg knew Dargomyzhsky as a strong pianist. No wonder Schoberlechner considered him his best student. Since that time, the young man, despite departmental duties and music lessons, began to pay more and more attention to social entertainment. It is not known how the fate of Dargomyzhsky the musician would have developed if Providence had not brought him together with Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka. This composer managed to guess the real vocation of Alexander.

They met in 1834 at Glinka's apartment, and all evening they talked animatedly and played the piano. Dargomyzhsky was amazed, fascinated and stunned by Glinka's playing: he had never heard such softness, smoothness and passion in sounds. After this evening, Alexander becomes frequent guest in Glinka's apartment. Despite the difference in age, a close friendship was established between the two musicians, which lasted 22 years.

Glinka tried to help Dargomyzhsky master the art of composing as best as possible. For this, he gave him his notes on music theory, which he was taught by Siegfried Den. Alexander Sergeevich and Mikhail Ivanovich met just at the time when Glinka was working on the opera Ivan Susanin. Dargomyzhsky helped his older friend a lot: he got the instruments needed for the orchestra, learned the parts with the singers and rehearsed with the orchestra.

In the 1830s, Dargomyzhsky wrote many romances, songs, duets, etc. Pushkin's poetry became a fundamental moment in artistic formation composer. Such romances as “I loved you”, “Young man and maiden”, “Vertograd”, “Night marshmallow”, “The fire of desire burns in the blood” were written to the poems of the brilliant poet. In addition, Alexander Sergeevich also wrote in civilian, social topics. A prime example this can be the fantasy song "Wedding", which has become one of the favorite songs of student youth.

Dargomyzhsky was a frequenter of various literary salons, often appeared at secular parties and in art circles. There he played the piano a lot, accompanied singers, and sometimes sang new vocal pieces himself. In addition, he sometimes participated in quartets as a violinist.

At the same time, the composer decided to write an opera. He wanted to find a plot with strong human passions and experiences. That is why he chose the novel by V. Hugo "Notre Dame Cathedral". By the end of 1841, work on the opera was completed, as reported in the newspaper "Various News". In a short note, the author wrote that Dargomyzhsky had completed the opera Esmeralda, which was accepted by the directorate of St. Petersburg theaters. It was also reported about the imminent production of the opera on the stage of one of the theaters. But one year passed, then another, a third, and the score of the opera lay somewhere in the archive. No longer hoping for a production of his work, Alexander Sergeevich in 1844 decided to go abroad.

In December 1844 Dargomyzhsky arrived in Paris. The purpose of his trip was to get acquainted with the city, its inhabitants, way of life, culture. From France, the composer wrote many letters to his relatives and friends. Alexander Sergeevich regularly visited theaters, where he most often listened to French operas. In a letter to his father, he wrote: “French opera can be compared to the ruins of an excellent Greek temple... meanwhile, the temple no longer exists. I can be fully convinced that the French opera could compare and surpass any Italian, but still I judge by one fragment.

Six months later, Dargomyzhsky returned to Russia. During these years, socio-political contradictions intensified in the homeland. One of the main tasks of art has become the truthful disclosure of irreconcilable differences between the world of the rich and ordinary people. Now the hero of many works of literature, painting and music is a person who came out of the middle and lower strata of society: an artisan, a peasant, a petty official, a poor tradesman.

Alexander Sergeevich also devoted his work to showing the life and way of life of ordinary people, to a realistic disclosure of their spiritual world, and to exposing social injustice.

Not only the lyrics sound in Dargomyzhsky's romances to the words of Lermontov "Both boring and sad" and "I'm sad." In order to fully understand and comprehend the meaning of the first of the above-mentioned romances, one must remember how these verses of Lermontov sounded during these years. The composer, however, sought to emphasize in the work the significance and weight of not only every phrase, but almost every word. This romance is an elegy that is reminiscent of a song set to music. oratory. There were no such romances in Russian music. It would be more correct to say that this is a monologue of one of the lyrical Lermontov's heroes.

Another lyrical monologue of Lermontov - "I'm sad" - is built on the same principle of combining song and recitation as the first romance. These are not reflections of the hero alone with himself, but an appeal to another person, filled with sincere warmth and affection.

One of the most important places in the work of Dargomyzhsky is occupied by songs written to the words of the songwriter A.V. Koltsov. These are sketch songs showing life ordinary people their feelings and experiences. For example, the lyrical song-complaint "Without Mind, Without Mind" tells about the fate of a peasant girl who was forcibly married to an unloved one. The song "Fever" is almost the same in character. In general, most of the songs and romances of Dargomyzhsky are devoted to the story of a difficult female lot.

In 1845, the composer began work on the opera Mermaid. He worked on it for 10 years. The work was uneven: in the first years the author was busy studying folk life and folklore, then he moved on to writing the script and libretto. The writing of the work progressed well in 1853 - 1855, but at the end of the 1850s, work almost stopped. There were many reasons for this: the novelty of the task, creative difficulties, the tense socio-political situation of that era, as well as the indifference to the composer's work on the part of the directorate of theaters and society.

An excerpt from the romance "I'm sad" by A. S. Dargomyzhsky

In 1853, Alexander Sergeevich wrote to V. F. Odoevsky: “To the best of my ability and ability, in my Mermaid I am working on the development of our dramatic elements. I will be happy if I manage to do this at least half against Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka ... "

On May 4, 1856, the first performance of The Mermaid was given. The performance was attended by the then young Leo Tolstoy. He sat in the same box with the composer. The opera aroused wide interest and attracted the attention of not only musicians, but also a diverse listener. However, the performance did not receive a special visit. royal family and high Petersburg society, in connection with which, since 1857, it began to be given less and less, and then completely removed from the stage.

An article devoted to Dargomyzhsky's opera "Mermaid" appeared in the journal "Russian Musical Culture". Here is what the author said in it: “The Rusalka is the first significant Russian opera that appeared after Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila. At the same time, this is an opera of a new type - a psychological everyday musical drama ... Revealing a complex chain of relationships between actors, Dargomyzhsky achieves special completeness and versatility in the depiction of human characters ... "

Alexander Sergeevich, according to his contemporaries, for the first time in Russian opera embodied not only the social conflicts of that time, but also internal contradictions human personality, i.e., the ability of a person to be different in certain circumstances. P. I. Tchaikovsky highly appreciated this work, saying that in a number of Russian operas it occupies the first place after the brilliant operas of Glinka.

1855 was a turning point in the life of the Russian people. The Crimean War had just been lost, despite the 11-month defense of Sevastopol. This defeat of tsarist Russia revealed the weakness of the serf system and became the last straw that overflowed the cup of people's patience. A wave of peasant riots passed through Russia.

During these years, journalism flourished. A special position among all publications was occupied by the satirical magazine Iskra. Almost from the moment the journal was created, Dargomyzhsky was a member of the editorial board. Many in St. Petersburg knew about his satirical talent, as well as about his socially accusatory orientation in his work. Many notes and feuilletons about theater and music were written by Alexander Sergeevich. In 1858, he composed the dramatic song "Old Corporal", which was both a monologue and a dramatic scene. She sounded an angry denunciation social order which allows the violence of man over man.

The Russian public also paid much attention to Dargomyzhsky's comic song "Chervyak", which tells about a petty official who grovels in front of a illustrious count. The composer also achieved vivid figurativeness in "Titular Counselor". This work is nothing more than a small vocal picture showing the unfortunate love of a modest official for an arrogant general's daughter.

In the early 60s, Alexander Sergeevich created whole line essays for symphony orchestra. Among them we can name the "Ukrainian Cossack", which echoes Glinka's "Kamarinskaya", as well as "Baba Yaga", which is the first program orchestral composition in Russian music, containing sharp, ornate, sometimes simply comical episodes.

At the end of the 60s, Dargomyzhsky took up composing the opera The Stone Guest based on the verses of A. S. Pushkin, which, in his opinion, became a “swan song”. Having opted for this work, the composer set himself a huge, complex and new task- keep intact full text Pushkin and, without composing the usual operatic forms (arias, ensembles, choirs), write music for him that would consist of only recitatives. Such work was up to the musician who perfectly mastered the abilities of the musical transformation of a living word into music. Dargomyzhsky coped with this. He not only presented a work with individual musical language for each character, but also managed with the help of recitative to depict the habits of the characters, their temperament, manner of speech, mood swings, etc.

Dargomyzhsky repeatedly told his friends that if he died before completing the opera, then Cui would complete it, and Rimsky-Korsakov would instrument it. On January 4, 1869, Borodin's First Symphony was performed for the first time. Alexander Sergeevich at that time was already seriously ill and did not go anywhere. But he was keenly interested in the success of the new generation of Russian musicians, he wanted to hear about their work. While the rehearsals of the First Symphony were going on, Dargomyzhsky asked everyone who came to visit him about the preparations for the performance of the work. He wanted to be the first to hear about how it was received by the general public.

Fate did not give him this chance, because on January 5, 1869, Alexander Sergeevich died. On November 15, 1869, the opera The Stone Guest was shown in full at a regular evening with his friends. According to the author's will, Cui and Rimsky-Korsakov took away the manuscript of the opera immediately after his death.

Dargomyzhsky was a bold innovator in music. He was the first of all composers to capture the theme of great social acuteness in his compositions. Since Alexander Sergeevich was a subtle psychologist, distinguished by remarkable powers of observation, he was able to create a wide and varied gallery of human images in his works.

Menshikov Alexander Sergeevich Menshikov (Alexander Sergeevich, 1787 - 1869) - Admiral, Adjutant General, His Grace Prince. First he joined the diplomatic corps, then moved to military service and was the adjutant of Count Kamensky. In 1813 he was in the retinue of Emperor Alexander I and