Maykapar spillikins history of creation. And now I offer you, my dear readers, the children’s cycle “Spillkins” by S. Maykapar in the form of a fairy tale

18 December 1867 - 08 May 1938

famous pianist and composer, teacher at the Petrograd Conservatory, music writer

A multi-talented musician, Maikapar was known as the author of a number of piano pieces for children and youth. In particular, his cycle of piano miniatures “Spillkins”, his romances and “ Ear for music"(Moscow, 1900).

Biography

Soon after his birth, Samuil Maikapara's family moved from Kherson to Taganrog. Here he entered the Taganrog gymnasium. He began studying music at the age of 6 (lessons with G. Moll).

In 1885 he moved to St. Petersburg and entered the conservatory, where he studied as a pianist with Beniamino Cesi, Vladimir Demyansky and I. Weiss, as well as in the composition class of Nikolai Solovyov. At the same time, he studied at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University (graduated in 1891).

After graduating from the conservatory in 1893, until 1898 he improved as a pianist under the direction of Theodor Leschetizky, and gave concerts in Berlin, Leipzig, St. Petersburg, Moscow and other cities.

From 1898 to 1901 he performed in concerts with Leopold Auer and Ivan Grzhimali. In 1901 he founded a music school in Tver. From 1903 to 1910, living mainly in Moscow, he was engaged in concert activities and regularly gave concerts in Germany.

He took an active part (secretary) in the work of the Moscow scientific and musical circle led by S. I. Taneyev. From 1910 to 1930 he taught piano at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He initiated the performance of Beethoven's cycle of 32 sonatas in concerts (for the first time in 1927).

NGMBOUDOD Children's Music School named after. Nefteyugansk.

METHODOLOGICAL REPORT

"WITH. Maykapar and him piano cycle"Spillkins"

Compiled by:

teacher

piano department

S. Maikapar and his piano cycles.

Cycle "Spillkins"

S. Maikapar was born in Kherson in 1867, his childhood years were spent in Taganrog, then Maikapar entered the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg University, from which he graduated in 1891 and at the same time at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied in two specialties: composition and piano. After graduating from the conservatory and on the advice of Anton Rubinstein, Maikapar goes to Vienna to improve with famous pianist Professor Theodore Leschetizky. From 1903 to 1910 Maykapar lived in Germany. He gives a lot of concerts, composes, and is engaged in scientific activities. In 1910, Maykapar received an invitation from A. Glazunov to teach at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1930, Maikapar left the conservatory and devoted himself entirely to creative work– composition, performance, scientific works. Maykapar died on May 8, 1938.

The complete collection of Maikapara can be contained in one volume. Although their number is very large (over 200 titles), most of them are piano miniatures that fit on one or two pages. Maykapar's plays were published in Germany, Austria, England, France, and America. The catalog of Maikapara's works contains piano pieces, romances and works for chamber ensemble.

Maykapar began composing at the age of 14-15 and continued throughout his life. And it was in the field of children's music that the name of S. Maikapara became widely known in the country. He found musical images and intonations close to the child; through his pieces for beginners, he teaches children to love music, opening up wide possibilities for them own creativity and the road to knowledge beautiful art sounds.

It would be in vain to look for bright stylistic features in Maikapar’s children’s plays. Their value does not lie in any unique individual features of melody, harmony, etc., but in the combination of all elements, each of which may not be so significant. Clear sense of purpose, spontaneity of expression, combined with extensive performing and teaching experience, helped Maikapar become one of the founders of Russian children's piano literature. He developed a comprehensive system for the development of piano technology. His cycles of piano works, addressed to young pianists, are built according to a very specific plan, covering one or another section of piano technique or type of pianistic difficulty. At the same time, the principle “from simple to complex” is strictly observed. According to this plan, a cycle of 12 wrist preludes op-14, two octave intermezzo op-13, staccato preludes op-31 was created. The tasks in the collection of ensemble pieces “First Steps Op-29 in Piano for 4 Hands are strictly sequentially complicated. A clear pedagogical plan is visible in famous cycle“spillies” (it is associated with familiarizing the student with all 24 tonalities).

If we take Maikapar’s work in the field of small forms as a whole, then Grieg turns out to be closest to him in form, and partly in spirit. When writing children's plays, Maikapar proceeded from the belief that General requirements for small artists the same “as for adult performers; this is a requirement for imagery, colorfulness, then simplicity and artlessness of compositions. I gave this site the best powers of my creativity.”

Qualities that are characteristic of Maykapar as a “children’s” composer: vitality and imagery of content (lack of artificiality, pretentiousness, far-fetchedness), sincerity and emotionality, simplicity and laconicism, completeness of form, organic connection with the instrument.

This is how Maykapar distributed the plays according to their content:

Nature pictures:“in the morning” op.15 No.1, “in the evening”, “night”, “autumn”, “echo in the mountains”, “spring”, “clouds are floating” op.23 No.24, “by the sea at night”, “in the fog” ", "dewdrops", " quiet morning", "Stormy Stream", "Starry Night" op.33 No.19.

Onomatopoeic plays:“pipe”, “in the forge”, “musical clown” op.16 No. 6, “at war”, “music box”, “teamwork”, “cavalry is coming”, “Aeolian harp” op.33.

Figurative plays:“lullaby” op.8, “Italian serenade” op.8, “mermaid”, “clown dance” op.21, “catching butterflies”, “in the kindergarten”, “orphan”, “shepherdess”, “fleeting vision”, “Moth”, “Lullaby”, “Sailors’ Song”, “Seven-League Boots”, “On the Skating Rink”, “Horseman in the Forest”, “Butterfly” Op. 33 No. 8.

Plays of moods and feelings:“sad mood”, “complaint” op.15, “dream” op.16, “in separation”, “memory”, “troubadour song”, “anxious moment”, “funeral march”, “meditation”, “ long road", "calling song", "elegy" op.33, "fun game" op.33, "dramatic passage".

Dancing:“gavotte” op.6, “tarantella”, “waltz”, “minuet” op.16, “polka”, “mazurka” op.33.

Narrative music:“fairy tale” op.3, “romance”, “dialogue” op.15, “stepdaughter and stepmother” op.21, “lullabies” op.24 from No. 1-6, “legend”, “scary story”, “ a sailor's story" op.33.

Music titles: “children’s play”, “prelude and fugetta”, “operetta”, “melody” op.8, “leaf from the album”, “nocturne” op.8, “scherzino” op.8, “petite rondo”, “prelude” "Op. 16, "Variations on a Russian Theme", "Fugetta" Op. 8, "Sonata" Op. 27, etc.

The vast majority of Maykapar's piano pieces are programmatic works, this is explained by the desire to awaken the imagination of children with the help of their characteristic names, that is, by associative comparison of sound images with phenomena and emotions that are well known to children. Maikapar specified the content of the plays; he realized the special need to create children's plays for beginners, which was done with exceptional success in the “spillie” cycle.

"Spillkins."

The cycle of piano pieces for children by S. Maykapar “Spills” belongs to the classic works of the pedagogical repertoire and stands on a par with such collections as “Anna Magdalene Bach’s music notebook”, “children’s album”, “album for youth” by F. Schumann. Created in 1925-1926, the cycle “Spillies” enjoys constant love among both young musicians and their teachers. The plays in the collection are distinguished by everything that is characteristic of true masterpieces - regardless of whether it is a monumental work or a miniature - inspiration, ideal harmony of form, perfect finishing of details. Nowadays, few people know what spillikins are. This was once a very popular game among children: a handful of chopped straws are placed in a pile on the table; The players pull them out, alternating one at a time without shaking the heap. “Spillkins” is a suite that includes piano pieces of various contents. It consists of six notebooks of four plays each (the last notebook has 6 plays). It is interesting to compare this collection with cycles, like “H. T.K. Bach, “Spillkins” plays in all 24 keys. However, the constructive principle of constructing a “spillie” is somewhat different: Series I (notebook 1 and 2) with C to 3 sharps; in series II (notebook 3 and 4) from C major to 3 flats; Notebooks 5 and 6 cover pieces in keys with 4,5,6 signs. Thus, despite the fact that there are 24 keys in total, and 26 plays, because the keys C and A minor as the starting points of movement to the sharp and flat sides are repeated twice. Realizing how important imagery is for little musicians, Maikapar took the search for the brightest possible titles for plays very seriously; These were not always the first play titles that came to mind. So, in the original version, “anxious moment” was called “worry”, “moth” - “elf”, “legend” - “dreams”, “spring” - “baby”. Instead of the "gavotte", the play "moonlight" was initially conceived, although the music of this play does not provide grounds for such an illusion. Some plays appeared, as the drafts indicate, immediately in finished form, while others were subject to revision and revision. It didn’t take long for the “little commander” to appear. First, “continuous work” was born. She was the melodic seed for the “little commander”. “The f-moll miniature is now “seven-league boots” - according to the original plan, it had a completely different musical idea.

The themes of Maykapar's plays are always very expressive. They are characterized by a bright, memorable melody, usually of short length. The “song of the sailors” is energetic, the strumming in the “shepherdess” is technical. Each play is unique. Its name is not a random label, but a definition of content that gives the opportunity for the creative imagination of a young performer to unfold. The merit of the plays lies in the thematic material itself and less in its development. He resorts to contrasting comparisons, and if they are not needed, then he diversifies the repeated phrases by changing the harmonic background, the figure of the accompaniment, and changing the register. The harmonies in the pieces are extremely simple.

Very often Maikapar resorts to polyphony; if at the beginning of his creative career he used the techniques of polyphonic writing rather intuitively, he later came to the conviction that polyphony is a necessary condition for creating a truly piano work.

Maikapar did not forget about the small size of a child's hand. Nowhere in his children's plays do we find octaves played with one hand or chords played in a wide arrangement. The octave doublings encountered in his work are always performed with two hands. Wide use of piano registers, associated with sweeping, complete freedom of movement of the hand and even the body, within the entire range of the instrument. Maikapar very often and skillfully resorts to this technique. Already the direct use of one or another register gives a corresponding artistic effect (high register - “moth”, “dewdrops”; medium melodious “romance”, “meditation”; low “funeral march”, etc.). Moving any passage, phrase, or even a separate chord from one register to another within one piece gives a different coloring to the sound. By combining transfer with pauses, maintaining the duration of the sound, subtle changes in strokes, dynamic shades, etc. Maikapar strives to enhance the semantic meaning of individual “pieces”, emphasizes changes in mood, etc. The use of registration in his plays is one of the most effective techniques piano expressiveness. His plays are always accompanied by a clear indication of the tempo of the performance, often supported by the designation of a metronome. The composer attached great importance to tempo instructions, correctly considering that they give an idea not only of the speed of movement, but also of its character. Strokes, dynamic shades and other symbols appeared in inextricable connection with the musical text. By fixing musical notes on paper, the composer simultaneously embodied the performance concept, ensuring the accuracy of its implementation. The only thing left for the performer of Maikapara's plays is to follow his instructions. In this case, they will contribute to the artistry of the performance to the maximum extent. Maykapar always indicates legato and staccato (light and heavy), portamento, signs of extension above a note, accents, etc. The placed leagues accurately indicate the beginning and end of the phrase, and dynamic designations indicate signs of acceleration and deceleration of movement (using Italian terminology) always placed exactly where they should begin and end. It is impossible not to note the peculiarities of the designation of the fingerings put down by Maikapar in his plays, giving it and the correct attitude towards it great importance. Maikapar adhered to exceptional precision in the designation of pedaling, considering it an effective means of artistic performance. The use of the pedal in his pieces is very diverse and it is always justified artistic purposes. Unfortunately. Even teachers do not pay enough attention to the issues and designations of pedaling in Maykapar's plays and do not give them the importance that the composer gave them.

I would like to draw special attention to the fact that the collection “spillies” is a cycle of plays of different characters, that is, it has artistic significance as a whole. And although, of course, it is difficult to expect its fulfillment young musicians in its entirety, just as it is not often that Bach’s cycles of inventions and symphonies are performed in their entirety, the HTC, according to the original plan, the “spillie” was conceived as single work. Everyone can easily be convinced of this if they understand the design features of the cycle (tonal plan) and play the pieces one after another: the appearance of each next one sounds like a surprise, and not a dissonance with the previous one. It is quite obvious that only great master.

Writing music for children is a very necessary, honorable, but not easy task. Belinsky wrote “we need a gracious, loving, meek, melodic, simple-minded soul; an elevated, educated mind, a lively imagination, a living poetic fantasy, capable of imagining everything in animated, rainbow images.”

Literature.

1. Samuel Maikapar and his piano cycles. "Classics" 2009

2. Portraits of pianists. D. Rabinovich. M., 1963

3. The initial period of learning to play the piano. , 1989

Many composers write music that is listened to with equal enthusiasm by both adults and children. But there are composers who devoted all their creativity to creating only children's music, and one that children could not only listen to, but also perform themselves.

Today we will get acquainted with the music of one of these children's composers, who lived more than 100 years ago. His name was Samuil Moiseevich Maikapar.

Samuil Moiseevich Maikapar born in the city of Kherson in 1867. In the family, besides him, there were 4 sisters and they all studied music. Samuel inherited his musical abilities from his mother, who played the piano very well. He started playing music at the age of 5. At the age of 11, he began to compose music himself and started a notebook in which he wrote down all his works. The family decided that Samuil would become a lawyer, but he abandoned this career and entered the conservatory, which he successfully completed.

In 1901, Maikapar moved to the city of Tver, where he opened his own music school. Then the idea came to him to write children's works that the children themselves could perform.

The composer’s various small pieces for small, just beginning performers can be called miniatures. They, like photographs in an album, are combined into cycles. We will introduce you to one of these cycles today. It's called "Spillikins".

Listen to the sound of this word. How affectionate and musical it is. What does it mean? Once upon a time, a long time ago, this was the favorite game of children. Very small toy things - spillikins - spilled out onto the table in a pile. Most often these were cups, jugs, ladles and other kitchen items carved from wood. ladders, hats, sticks and so on.The spillikins had to be taken out with a small hook, one by one, without moving the others.

Maikapar’s little plays are reminiscent of those very spillikins from the ancient game. Let's get acquainted with this music. What can you find among the Maikapara spillikins?

First of all, these are children's musical portraits.

Here is a little shepherdess. On a clear sunny day, he went out into a summer flowering meadow near a river. In order not to be bored with tending his flock, he cut himself a reed and made a pipe out of it. (A pipe is a small pipe). A bright, joyful tune rang over the meadows. In the middle of the piece, the melody became more reminiscent of a shepherdess' dance, and then his pipe began to play again.

And now, after listening to the next miniature, we will see little commander. He is very militant, courageous and courageous. In a clear voice, he gives orders energetically. We don't know who they are intended for - toy soldiers, soft toys or child friends. But the music convinces us that any order from such a commander will be carried out.

In the next piece, the music is very sad, quiet, plaintive. Listening to it, you want to feel sorry for someone, sympathize, cry. It seems that the child is complaining about his difficult life, about his sad fate. This miniature was named by Samuel Maikapar - “Orphan”

Alan Huckleberry, piano


IMTA Level C3

Trifles: 26 Short Pieces for Piano, Library of Russian Soviet Music, 1977

These are completely different portraits, not similar friend the composer introduced us to a friend. In each of them one can discern not an adult, but a child. And the music told us about each one in its own way.

We now turn our attention to musical landscapes. What is "landscape"? These are pictures of nature: “Clouds are floating”, “Spring”, “Autumn”, “On the skating rink”. Musical landscapes Maikapara is dedicated to the four seasons.

In Maikapara’s “Spillies” there is no such play called “Summer”, but at this time of year it is easily recognizable in some miniatures. For example, “In the kindergarten.” Listening to it, you vividly imagine a warm summer day, a children's playground, a shady garden. Let's listen.

While playing in the garden, the children suddenly saw... Who do you think? Maybe it's a butterfly or a bird?"Moth" ...That's what Maykapar called this work. A moth is much smaller than a butterfly, it does not have such large wings, so it is not so elegant and graceful. But it is light and fast. After listening to this work, it was as if we saw a moth flying from one flower to another.

I think everyone saw it, how the water flows into the river in a large, powerful stream. Especially in the spring. Have you seen it? In the play"Stormy Flow" Maykapar drew this picture.

Now we have to amazing trip to the world of fairy tales . Fairy tales are always something mysterious, amazingly beautiful, unusual. Sometimes we make up fairy tales ourselves, sometimes we see them in our dreams. Samuil Moiseevich came up with little fairy-tale plays, such as: “A Fleeting Vision”, “Fairy Tale”, “Legend”…

Who among us doesn't love dancing? We like children's and youth, modern and ballroom dances. We enjoy watching ballet, but this is also a dance. Dancing is a very exciting, enjoyable and beautiful activity. Samuil Moiseevich Maykapar wrote many dances. This Polkas, gavottes, minuets, waltzes.Waltz is a smooth ballroom dance that is more than 200 years old. Word"Waltz" translated means "to spin, to spin." This dance is dominated by whirling graceful movements.

Alan Huckleberry, piano
The University of Iowa Piano Pedagogy Video Recording Project
IMTA Level D3
Trifles: 26 Short Pieces for Piano, Library of Russian Soviet Music, 1977

Maykapar "Polka"

Spanish Katya, 6 years, 10 months. ( Report concert Children's Music School Gaza)

A multi-talented musician, Maikapar was known as the author of a number of piano pieces for children and youth. In particular, his cycle of piano miniatures gained great popularity “ Spillilets."

Spills, cycle of plays for children, op.28 (1900)

• 1. In kindergarten
• 2. Orphan
• 3. Shepherd
• 4. Autumn
• 5. Waltz
• 6. Anxious moment
• 7. Polka
• 8. A fleeting vision
• 9. Little commander
• 10. Fairy tale
• 11. Minuet
• 12. Moth
• 13.Music box
• 14.March
• 15.Lullaby
• 16.Song of the sailors
• 17.Legend
• 18.Prelude and Fughetta
• 19. Echo in the mountains
• 20.Gavotte
• 21.In the spring
• 22. Seven-league boots
• 23.At the skating rink (Toccatina)
• 24.Clouds are floating
• 25.Romance
• 26.Horseman in the forest (Ballad)

Performs Anna Wang (14 year old)Anna Wang, 14 years old(Recorded on May 9, 2010 in Vancouver, BC, Canada)

And now I offer you, my dear readers, the children’s cycle “Spillkins” by S. Maykapar in the form of a fairy tale

(based on the fairy tale by G. Kamennaya)

One day, while cleaning out the attic, Natasha’s mother found an old doll with a peeling nose in a dusty dress. She didn't have shoes on her feet. Natasha glued chestnut pigtails on the doll, sewed a new chintz dress and small oilcloth shoes. But, although she now had shoes on her feet, the doll was called Sandal. The girl saw her like this for the first time. Natasha really loved the sandal. Every day in the morning she took her out for a walk in the garden. The puppy Sharik always played with them. And what kind of games did they play!

And in the evening, tired of playing, the doll powerlessly lowered its rag hands and bowed its head on Natasha’s shoulder. Then the girl put Sandalfoot in a wooden crib, covered her with a blanket, and sang a lullaby.

Barefoot liked this life. But one day, for her birthday, dad gave Natasha a new doll. She was so beautiful! In a pink transparent dress with lush frills, on her feet are patent leather shoes with buckles, and on her head is a hat with ribbons like a water lily flower. The beautiful doll was named Lyalya. She sat on the sofa, among embroidered pillows, and did not talk to anyone. Of course, the doll was very imaginative. When other toys began to play, she arrogantly declared: “Quiet up, I have a headache!” The toys were offended and stopped paying attention to the troublemaker.

But Natasha really liked Lyalya. In the morning she took the elegant doll in her arms, tenderly pressed her to her and spun around the room with it.

And the more affectionate Natasha was with Lyalya, the sadder and sadder Barefoot became. She did not have such a beautiful dress, hat, and she could not open and close her eyes. The sandal was crying more and more often, huddled in a corner. “Why are you whining,” Lyalya once told her. If I were you, I would have left here long ago. So I’ll go ahead and complain to Natasha, and they’ll throw you into the attic again.” Out of resentment, Barefoot cried even harder and decided to go far into the forest and stay there. She didn’t say anything to anyone, jumped out of the window and ran further and further from her house. The forest was dark and scary.

When the dawn was already turning red over the trees, Barefoot went out to the edge of the forest. She looked around and saw the master Silkworm on a branch, and on the tree trunk a fluffy Squirrel with a nut in her tenacious paws. The sandal shared her grief with the forest inhabitants. The animals consulted and decided to help the doll - to make her as beautiful as Lyalya. Silkworm sewed her a beautiful dress, and Squirrel gave her two nut shells instead of shoes. The Heron also brought a gift - it was a lily hat. Sandal's dream came true: she became as elegant as the Lyalya doll. The little animals frolicked around the doll, calling her to play, but she was afraid to stain her dress. And the animals ran away.

Everyone in the forest was busy with their own business. The silkworm was winding its cocoons into thread. The squirrel was storing nuts for the winter. The sandal became sad. She didn’t know what to do, and she wasn’t used to idleness. She remembered the house, Natasha, toys. “I didn’t even imagine that I would be so sad without you,” thought Barefoot. Why do I need such a beautiful dress if Natasha doesn’t see it? I’m an ungrateful doll. They took me out of the dusty attic, took care of me, and I ran away from them to forest". The sandal ran straight through the thorny bushes. The grass became thicker and taller. Suddenly the wind blew, lightning flashed, large drops of rain fell on the leaves. All the little animals hid in their holes, and Barefoot was left alone.

And the rain kept pouring and pouring. A lily hat got caught on a branch, the wind tore off her dress, and streams of water washed her shoes off her feet. Spattered with mud, shivering from the cold, Sandalfoot finally saw a familiar roof. But just before the house she slipped and fell. She woke up from Sharik’s loud barking. It was he, her faithful comrade, who spent the whole day when the loss was discovered, he could not find a place for himself and went on a search. Sharik joyfully licked Sandalfoot on the cheek and brought her home. Natasha was very happy. Even Lyalya smiled at Barefoot. And how happy all the other toys were! The doll was cleaned and dressed in a washed cotton dress. And in the evening, all the toys had a real ball in honor of Sandal, and Natasha danced with her, as before.

Sandalfoot was happy again. Only now did she fully understand that friends are more valuable than shiny outfits.

Children's art school No. 3, Izhevsk

REPORT

S. M. Maikapar

and his piano cycle

"Spillkins"

Teacher

Zverchukova I.M.

S. M. Maikapar

and his piano cycle “Spillkins”

Introduction

Samuil Moiseevich Maikapar (1867-1938) - known to a wide circle musicians, first of all, as a Soviet composer, who devoted all his work to creating only children's and youth music. He is also an outstanding Soviet teacher, pianist, author of educational and methodological works, who made a huge contribution to the development of children's and youth music education. The basic principle of all the work of S. Maikapara, which he embodied throughout his creative life, is that “the requirements of small artists are the same as those of adult performers” and that “you need to write for children in the same way as for adults, only better.”

S. Maykapar sought to cultivate and develop high artistic taste in children and set extremely accessible requirements for their performance. The qualities that are characteristic of S. Maykapar as a children's composer are vitality and imagery, simplicity and laconicism, completeness of form, organic connection with the instrument. He found musical images and intonations close to the child; Through the imagery of his plays, he taught beginners to love music. The vast majority of S. Maykapar's plays are programmatic works. Thanks to artistic merit, understanding of child psychology and taking into account the characteristics of children's playing apparatus, S. Maikapara's plays have become firmly established in the repertoire of little pianists. The methodological value of his plays lies in the consistent acquaintance of the child with increasing technical difficulties. Children who learn to play the piano enjoy performing his pieces, which are distinguished by their simplicity, imagery and colorfulness.

Children love his brightly imaginative and at the same time simple in texture works, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that there is not a single young pianist who has not played or, at least, not heard his comrades perform some piece by S. Maikapara.

Creative path S.M.Maikapara

Samuil Moiseevich Maikapar born in 1867 in the city of Kherson. His childhood years were spent in Taganrog. In addition to him, the family had 4 sisters and they all studied music, inheriting musical abilities from their mother, who played the piano very well. Little Samuel began studying music at the age of 5. And at the age of 11, he began to compose music himself and started a notebook in which he wrote down all his works. But the family decided that Samuel would become a lawyer.

In 1885, after graduating from high school, Maykapar left for St. Petersburg, where he entered the law faculty of the university and at the same time entered the conservatory, where he began studying in the piano class, and later began to attend the composition theory class. After graduating from the University Faculty of Law, he a short time I tried to practice law, but soon became convinced that it was impossible to combine music studies with law. After graduating from the conservatory, Maikapar, on the advice of Anton Rubinstein, went to Vienna to improve himself, where he began studying with the famous teacher-pianist Theodor Leschetizky, whose studies he later described in detail in his book “Years of Study.”
In 1901, Maikapar moved to Moscow and then opened a music school in Tver. Then the idea came to him to write children's works that the children themselves could perform.

Since that time, Maikapar’s multifaceted activities as a composer, performer, teacher and researcher have already been determined. During this period, he composed and published several romances and piano pieces, of which the “Little Novels”, opus 8, stand out, which subsequently became widely known as valuable plays in the pedagogical repertoire.

Maykapar’s concerts are successfully held in Moscow, his book “Musical ear, its meaning, nature, features and method of correct development” is published, in which he was the first in Russian musical pedagogical literature to raise the question of inner hearing as a basis for learning to play musical instruments.

But life in Tver and teaching work in this provincial city did not satisfy young composer and a pianist. And Maykapar again goes to Berlin and Leipzig. Music life Berlin was in full swing, major performing musicians lived in the city, and Leipzig was of interest as a center of scientific musical thought. Living in these two cities, Maikapar attended concerts, studied literature, and met composers, musicologists and performers. At the same time, his own concert performances took place and his teaching work also proceeded successfully, albeit modestly.

In 1910, S.M. Maykapar received a telegram signed by A.K. Glazunov, in which he invited him to work at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. And in the fall, Maikapar has already started classes. Having started work as a teacher, two years later he was approved as a senior teacher, and in 1915 - as a professor of special piano.

For almost twenty years, S. Maikapar carried out teaching work at the St. Petersburg, then at the Leningrad Conservatory, while simultaneously performing in concerts, composing music and doing scientific work. S. Maykapar's most significant performing achievement was his performance of a cycle of seven concerts in 1925, in which he performed all of Beethoven's piano sonatas. Performance, which S. Maikapar always loved, remained for him the basis of all other types of activity - composition, pedagogy, scientific work.

Among the works of S. Maykapar created in pre-revolutionary times, the piano miniatures are of great interest - “Shepherd Suite” of six numbers, “12 album sheets”, “Puppet Theater” of seven numbers. However, the true triumph of S. Maikapara as a composer for children "Spillkins"- a cycle of plays created after the revolution.
During his teaching work at the Leningrad Conservatory, S. Maikapar graduated over forty pianists, who subsequently carried out primarily pedagogical work in music educational institutions in Leningrad and other regions. In his own pedagogical work, S. Maikapar was a follower of the school of the outstanding teacher-pianist Theodor Leshetitsky. The 1920s were marked by the breakdown of many pedagogical principles of the conservatory. Resistance to radical reforms created S. Maikaparu's reputation as a conservative, but in fact behind this conservatism there was pain and zeal for high professionalism. The most characteristic features of the Leschetizky school, which Maykapar followed:

culture of melodious sound;

bright plastic dynamics;

phrasing principle;

a well-developed virtuoso finger technique, which received new opportunities in connection with the introduction of “spring” wrist techniques.

clarity, conciseness, balanced harmony of presentation.

Having brought the last students to graduation, S. Maykapar left work at the conservatory in 1929. He gave away his remaining strength musical creativity and literary works.
In 1934, a competition was organized in Leningrad young talents, which featured child musicians between the ages of seven and sixteen. S. Maykapar was on the jury of the competition and, listening to the young pianists, could personally see the popularity of his compositions. More than half of the children who performed played his piano pieces.

IN last years During his life, S. Maykapar devoted especially much to methodological work. His articles “Creativity and work of a musical performer based on experience and in the light of science”, “Children’s instrumental ensemble and its importance in the system of musical education”, lectures “How to play the piano” are still of value.

Spending his entire life at the piano and at his desk, S. Maykapar did not tire of working until the end of his days and died on May 8, 1938, on the eve of the publication of his book “Why and How I Became a Musician,” called “Years of Study” when published.

Cycle of piano pieces “Spillkins”

One of the cycles of piano miniatures by S. M. Maikapara, created for children, and ones that children could not only listen to, but also perform themselves, and from the first years of education, is a cycle of piano pieces "Spillkins."

The composer’s various small pieces for small, just beginning performers can be called miniatures. They, like photographs in an album, are combined into cycles. One of these Maikapara cycles is called "Spillkins."

A cycle of piano pieces for children by Samuel Maykapar "Spillkins" belong to the number classical works pedagogical repertoire and stands on a par with such collections as “ Music book Anna Magdalena Bach" (1725) by J.S. Bach, "Children's Album" by P. Tchaikovsky, "Album for Youth" by R. Schumann.

Created in 1925 -1926. cycle "Spillkins" For almost 90 years now, it has been the constant love of both young musicians and teachers. The plays in the collection are distinguished by everything that distinguishes true masterpieces - inspiration, ideal harmony of form, perfect finishing of details.

Nowadays, few people know what spillikins are. Once upon a time, this was the favorite game of children. A pile of very small toy things – spillikins – spilled out onto the table. Most often these were cups, jugs, sticks and other kitchen items carved from wood. The spillikins had to be taken out with a small hook, one after the other, without moving the others. S. Maykapar's small plays are reminiscent of those very spillikins from the ancient game.

What can you find among S. Maykapara? These include musical portraits, sketches of nature, fairy-tale images, and dance pieces. The music of these plays is characterized by vivid imagery, soulful lyricism, and high spirituality. They are very exciting, expressive and beautiful. S. Maykapar managed to very subtly convey the child’s mood, various natural phenomena, various pictures from a child’s life - games, fun, adventures.

According to its form "Spillkins" is a suite consisting of 26 different pieces for piano of various contents, united by artistic and methodological goals. For convenience, they are divided into 6 notebooks of 4 plays each (the last notebook has 6 plays).

All plays in the cycle have titles; they are either programmatic or genre-defined. Each work is distinguished by thematic completeness, integrity of the image, and clear presentation. The titles of the plays tell us the content of the miniature, helping to develop creative imagination. Each piece reveals one specific musical image. The themes are usually not extended, but very bright and melodic. Using simple and concise means, the composer manages to achieve an almost visual effect and deep figurative expressiveness.

There are no complex thematic developments in “Spillikins”. The expositional type of presentation predominates in them; their merit lies in the thematic material itself, and not in its development. Diversity in the repetition of themes is achieved by changing the harmonic background, changing register, tonality or texture. An example would be the plays: “In the Kindergarten”, “The Shepherd”. And only sometimes S. Maykapar resorts to contrasting comparisons.

The harmonic content of the plays is extremely simple, but even in this simplicity S. M. Maykapar achieves amazing freshness of sound and shows inexhaustible imagination. Just look at all the final cadences - with the same harmonic function (D-T) for all - they are solved very differently.

Polyphonic presentation was used in many plays (“Song of the Sailors”, “In the Spring”), but most clearly it manifested itself in his fuguettes, in which one can find both the theme enlarged and in circulation - everything is like in real fugues, only in miniature.

A few words need to be said about some features of the author's text. S. Maykapar gives detailed instructions:

*) by the most varied strokes,

*) by fingering,

*) by the nature of the performance, for example, a stage direction for the performance of “Waltz” from notebook 2 “dolce grazioso”, or “Horseman in the Forest” (notebook 6) – “Allegro con fuoco e marcato”,

*) by tempo (the metronome is written out in each piece),

*) on using the pedal.

I would especially like to note the attention that S. Maykapar paid to fingering. Sometimes it seems that S. Maykapar’s work is too detailed, as well as unnecessary, from the point of view of traditional musical notation, indicating “random” signs. But these instructions, which are redundant for mature musicians, as the experience of practical teachers shows, are absolutely necessary for still young pianists, for whom it is difficult to remember every time the fingerings that were set only the first time this exercise was performed. musical material. In addition, in a number of cases, the author’s fingering is more far-sighted in pianistic terms - it introduces techniques that will be necessary in the future, when truly virtuoso works appear in the young pianist’s repertoire. One of these techniques, often found in S. Maykapar and ignored by editors, is changing fingers on a repeating key.

The accuracy of performance notations in S. Maikapar's plays is one of the reasons for their popularity among teachers, since it relieves them of the need to make any additions to printed notes and, at the same time, accustoms students to carefully reading the musical text with the entire complex of its notations, letter and graphic symbols.

Maikapar's works are distinguished by lightness, convenience, and adaptability to a child's hand. Thus, the smoothness of the melodic line is combined in his pieces for beginners with the placement of the hand in one position, where adjacent notes are played by adjacent fingers. Excellent examples of this are the plays: “The Shepherd Boy”, “In the Kindergarten”, where stepwise movement in one position is a wonderful technique for developing technical skills.

The cycle “Spillkins” by S. Maikapar is a unique cycle of plays for children: it introduces young pianists to all keys, like Bach’s “HTK”, but at the same time speaks to them in a romantic musical language.

All pieces are designed for the level of training of a beginning pianist and are written according to the principle already used by many composers (J. S. Bach in “HTK”, F. Chopin in “Preludes” and “Etudes”, D. Shostakovich in “Preludes and Fugues”) , which gives the performer the opportunity to get acquainted with all existing keys, with sharp and flat signs.

However, the constructive principle of constructing Biryulek is somewhat different. If in “KhTK” a new tonality appears in the movement from piece to piece along the chromatic scale, and thus light and difficult tonalities alternate, then in “Spillikins” the tonal plan of the entire cycle is different. S. Maykapar provided several levels of division of the cycle. Firstly, the entire cycle is divided into three series, and secondly, as already mentioned, into six notebooks. Unfortunately, the division into series in modern editions of Biryulek is ignored by the editors. So, Series I (notebooks 1 and 2) gives plays from keys without signs to plays with three sharps; in series II (notebooks 3 and 4) there is the same movement from keys without key signs to keys this time with three flats, and, finally, series III (notebooks 5 and 6) covers pieces in keys with 4, 5, 6 signs . Moreover, in the last pair of pieces, a miniature in the key of F-sharp major (No. 25) corresponds to a piece in E-flat minor (No. 26) as a tonality enharmonically equal to D-sharp minor, i.e. parallel to F sharp major. This decision of the composer again resembles Bach’s technique in volume 1 of “HTC”, where the Prelude in E-flat minor is followed by a fugue in the enharmonically equal D-sharp minor.

Thus, despite the fact that there are 24 keys, there are 26 pieces in the collection, since the keys C major and A minor as the starting points of movement to the sharp and flat sides are repeated twice. It should be noted that all editions of Biryulek consist of 6 notebooks - each with 4 pieces, and the last one with 6. According to the original plan, however, the last two plays, demonstrating the possibilities of enharmonism, constituted a separate seventh notebook.

“Spillkins” by S. Maykapar took a special place in the piano pedagogical repertoire not only thanks to the wonderful artistic features plays in the collection, but due to their great methodological merits. The value of Maikapara piano miniatures also lies in the ease and convenience of voice control, and in their adaptability to the small size of a child’s hand. Nowhere in his children's plays do we find octaves played with one hand, or chords played in a wide arrangement. Maikapar's works are distinguished by clarity and simplicity of presentation of musical material. Conciseness and completeness of musical phrases easily allows the student to understand how motifs are formed into phrases, phrases into sentences, sentences into periods, periods into parts.

Maykapar carefully thought out the names of the plays, trying to awaken the imagination of children with the help of bright titles that most fully reflect the content of the plays. His plays can be divided conditionally into:

paintings and sketches of nature: “In Autumn,” “Clouds are Floating,” “Moth,” “Spring”;

onomatopoeic plays: “Echo in the Mountains”, “Music Box”;

figurative plays: “Lullaby”, “In the kindergarten”;

musical portraits: “The Orphan”, “The Shepherd”, “The Little Commander”;

plays of mood and feeling: “Fleeting Vision”, “Anxious Minute”;

dance pieces: “Polka”, “Waltz”, “Minuet”, “Gavotte”;

narrative music: “Fairy Tale”, “Romance”, “Legend”;

8) polyphonic pieces: “Song of the Sailors” (canon), “Prelude and Fughetta”.

Of course, such thematic classification is conditional; in one work they can be mixed different directions.

The composer presented us with completely different, dissimilar portraits and images. In each of them one can discern not an adult, but a child. And wonderful music tells us about each of them. These are “The Shepherd Boy”, “The Little Commander”, “The Orphan”.

Here's a small one "Shepherd boy" On a clear sunny day, he went out into a summer flowering meadow near a river. To avoid boredom, he plays a small pipe. A bright, joyful tune rings over the meadows.

The use of registers in Maykapar's plays is one of the most effective techniques of piano expressiveness, which has not been used so often by any other composer. In this piece, Maikapar skillfully uses the registers of the instrument. To make the melody sound richer and more voluminous, the composer plays it in octaves, at a distance of four octaves. And the student learns to freely move his arms and body throughout the entire range of the instrument. The play is performed at a fairly fluid pace, easily and carefree. The clear and distinct sound of sixteenth notes imitates the sound of a pipe. You should pay attention to the change in mood in the middle part of the play. There is room for imagination here, which is why the change of mode to minor is connected. Perhaps clouds appeared among the clear sky, it began to rain, perhaps the shepherd boy himself was thinking about something, remembering the sad moments of his life.

Another portrait sketch is the play “Little Commander”. He is very militant, courageous and courageous. With a loud voice, he energetically gives clear and confident orders, emphasizing every word. We don't know who they are intended for - tin soldiers, soft toys, or child friends like himself. The music convinces us that any order of such a commander will be carried out unquestioningly, because he himself is full of firmness and determination. The piece is in ¾ meter and is in C major. Children work on the play with special pleasure, because the character of the play is close to them. The initial task is an accurate, chiseled rhythm that conveys the character of the “little commander.” Rhythmic attentiveness is required when playing an off-beat note, because while the melodic intonation remains unchanged, the durations vary. Sometimes students make inaccuracies. Technically, it is difficult to work on marked staccato. The stroke should sound abrupt, sharp and short and with as tenacious fingers as possible.

And another portrait: the music here is very sad, mournful, quiet and plaintive. Listening to it, you want to sympathize with the person about whom it is written, or even cry. It seems that the child is sadly saying something, complaining about his fate, his difficult life. The play is called "Orphan." The music sounds sad, as if a lonely, lonely voice is singing.

These are the completely different, dissimilar portraits - the images the composer presented to us. In each of them one can discern not an adult, but a child. And wonderful music tells us about each of them.

S. Maikapara's musical landscapes are dedicated to all seasons.

In the play "In the spring" you can hear the voices of awakening nature: the sound of streams, lively bird trills. The music is light, gentle, just like fresh spring air. Spring is a special time of year. The time of nature's awakening from winter sleep, when everything comes to life, blossoms, and rejoices in the coming warmth. In early spring, winter still makes itself felt - it sends up winds and snowstorms, but in the end, spring still wins. Small silvery streams flow and shimmer in the sun. At the end, the melody rises higher and higher, as if the sun is shining brighter, illuminating and warming everything around. This music blows like a spring wind. She is enthusiastic, fresh, as if washed by spring streams.

In S. Maykapar’s “Spillies” there is no play called “Summer,” but this time of year is easily recognizable in some of his miniatures. For example, "At kindergarten". Listening to it, you vividly imagine a warm summer day and a children's playground in a shady garden. The music conveys the cheerful nature of children's games.

After summer comes "Autumn". The music captures a sad picture late autumn, when the trees have already shed their luxurious golden attire and migratory birds have long left their native lands. All nature fell silent in anticipation of winter. Muted slow chords very accurately convey the feeling of constraint and numbness. Only a quiet drizzling rain brings some barely noticeable movement.

And then the snow fell, winter came. She brought with her fun winter fun, which is what the play is about. "On the rink". Again we see an almost living picture of the life of a child. We hear short, repeated phrases, like running steps followed by a long slide on ice. And again running and sliding. This is how beginner skaters usually move. The music again suggests that this is not an adult figure skater, but a child. All seasons of the year are depicted in the music of Maikapara in a very diverse and colorful way.

All seasons of the year are depicted in the music of Maikapara in a very diverse and colorful way.

One of the sketches of a picture of nature - a play "Butterfly". Its original name was “Elf”. It’s easy to imagine light, delicate moths fluttering lightly over the flowers. The high register and transparency of the presentation accurately conveys the character of a small moth flying from flower to flower.

Here we encounter a technique characteristic of Maykapar - alternation of hands, when sounds or groups of sounds taken separately by each hand are combined into one whole. The music sounds either abruptly or smoothly. But the smooth movements are very short, they are interrupted by jerky movements. This creates a trembling, timid character and shows the defenselessness of the moth.

He either becomes invisible, hiding on the flower as at the end of the middle part, or, quickly fluttering up, flying away (at the end of the play).

Similar in mood - play "A fleeting vision." What image did the composer want to capture here? Did you want to talk about a beautiful, gentle moth fluttering lightly over flowers in a forest clearing, about a bird, a magically glowing firefly or a fairy-tale elf? What will the student hear here? It depends on his imagination.

The music is light, airy, gentle and danceable, as if someone is fluttering or flying. Abrupt, light sounds and swirling, fluttering, smooth melodies alternate. The music sounds gentle, high, abrupt, very quiet. It contains the same intonations, similar to circling or flapping of light wings.

In the middle part, the melody moves from the upper register to the lower, darker one. The music becomes wary, alarming, mysterious and enigmatic, sounds intermittently, cautiously, uncertainly, questioningly.

Suddenly the movement stops, a mysterious pause sounds - the vision has disappeared. But then the familiar flickering intonation appears again. The melody rises to a high register and disappears completely.

Among the onomatopoeic plays – play "Echoes in the Mountains" The music depicts echoes. The beginning sounds cheerful, loud, solemn. How does the echo respond? It sounds mysterious, hidden, fabulous, in a low register, very quiet. The sounds of the echo exactly repeat the melody, but come from afar, barely audible.

The second musical phrase sounds a little different, with a slightly different rhythmic ending and even more solemn. And the echo exactly echoes this melody, it “mimics” it again.

If loud sounds are heard in the mountains for a long time, then the echo appears when they fall silent, at the end. To hear the echo, you need silence, you need to be silent.

In the middle part of the play "Echoes in the Mountains" loud, angry music plays non-stop, and there is no echo. It comes when the loud melody falls silent, it echoes only its ending.

Then the melody stops often, and the echo again echoes its every sound, mysteriously, magically, enigmatically. At the very end of the play, the loud, cheerful melody again does not fall silent for a long time, and the echo echoes only its ending. It ends the play mysteriously.

Let's open it up "Music box." Its sounds are very high, light, ringing, reminiscent of the playing of tiny bells. Small and magical, they take us into a fairy-tale world. If we open the lid of the music box, we will hear a melody - light, magical, as if a little doll is dancing to this music!

The melody sounds high, quiet, airy, playful. It repeats itself all the time and resembles the sounds of a mechanical toy. The piece begins easily, gracefully, the melody magically tinkles and tinkles, like droplets glowing in the sun. Towards the end of the piece, faster, smooth sounds appear in the accompaniment, as if some noise is being heard in the mechanism of a toy.

Dance pieces, which composer S. M. Maykapar included in his piano cycle, give the impression of “toy” music and evoke a ball, but an unusual one, but a puppet one. The dances presented in the cycle: Polka, Waltz, Minuet, Gavotte - are suitable for such a ball like no other.

For example, "Polka"- active dance with jumps. The word "polka" means half step. The music of “Polka” by Maikapar is lively, cheerful, and light. Since it sounds in a very high register, it gives a feeling of “puppetry”.

Unlike polka "Waltz"- smoother and more lyrical dance. The word “waltz” means “rotational” and, indeed, the dance is dominated by whirling graceful movements.

Next dance "Minuet", much older than the polka and waltz. It is at least 300 years old and originated in France. It was danced at balls by gentlemen and ladies in powdered wigs and elegant clothes reminiscent of cream cakes. The dance itself was performed in small, leisurely steps and looked more like some kind of ceremony of bowing to each other. The gentlemen gallantly shuffled their feet, and the ladies curtsied in a cutesy curtsey. “Minuet” from the cycle “Spills” sounds at a restrained tempo, with small stops between musical phrases, as if the dancing dolls freeze for a moment in beautiful poses.

"Gavotte"- a contemporary of the minuet. The same exquisite and ceremonial court dance. The French jokingly called one of his movements “crooked legs of a crane”: this is how straight legs gracefully crossed in a dance, reminiscent of the pose of a bird . The music of Maykapar's "Gavotte" is light, simple-minded, and at the same time elegant and graceful. “Gavotte”, like other dances of the “Spiliki” cycle, gives the impression of “toy” music.

All children love fairy tales - funny, kind, with miracles and adventures. Music can also tell fairy tales, but not with words, but with sounds - affectionate, kind or mysterious, alarming. If you trace how the color of the music and its mood changes, it becomes clear what is being told in the fairy tale told by the music...

In the play "Fairy Tale" perhaps the story is about a princess languishing in the kingdom of Koschei, or about Alyonushka, grieving for her brother Ivanushka, who was carried away by the Geese-Swans, or about something else sad.

It begins affectionately, at first it looks like a lullaby - unhurried and calm, as if a mother or grandmother is rocking a cradle and telling a fairy tale - a little sad, kind.

The melodious melody sounds restrained, soft, mysterious, leisurely - everything in the fairy tale is yet to come. It begins monophonically, quietly. A mood of light thoughtfulness and calm serenity is created. The introduction of a second voice enlivens the picture. Calm tempo, quiet sound, measured, gentle intonations of the melody create a calm, gentle character of the music.

Then the melody rises higher, becomes more alarming and bright. Another melody seems to calm the first one.

In the middle part, the music sounds either insinuatingly, secretly, as if asking a question, then bolder, more persistent, as if answering. It’s as if the hero of the “Fairy Tale” must decide on something, choose something, is at a crossroads... The major key that appears for a moment is like the sun peeking out, like an insight, like an indication to the main character on the future path.

And “The Tale” ends in a low register, gloomy, mysterious, alarming and suddenly interrupted by abrupt low sounds. The tale seems to have remained unsaid...

Often in fairy tales, various magical things come to the aid of heroes: a flying carpet, running boots, a ball showing the way, a self-assembled tablecloth, an invisible hat... Running boots are found in different fairy tales, especially Charles Perrault. For example, the fairy tale “Tom Thumb” tells how seven-league boots helped children escape from the Ogre...

In the play "Seven-league boots" the composer uses large leaps of individual accented sounds, measured and heavy, like the giant steps of a giant covering enormous distances. The melody jumps, jumps, flies all the time. The music very clearly depicts seven-league boots - it is sweeping, wide, heavy, consists of huge leaps and jumps, there are many accents in it. Some sounds are abrupt, others are smooth, as if the walker is walking differently - sometimes it steps, sometimes it flies.

If at the beginning of the play the music is flighty, heavy, similar to huge strides, a mood of anxiety is felt in it, then in the middle the music becomes smoother, as if the walker is taking steps and then jumping. Short, flying intonations of the music, similar to huge jumps, in the middle part of the piece are replaced by longer, smoother ones, similar to flying leaps.

A very expressive and deep miniature "Romance" There are different sentiments expressed here. The song melody of the romance itself is thoughtful, dreamy, and sad. It sounds slower than the introduction, and ends each phrase with upward questioning intonations. The accompaniment resembles the sound of a guitar.

In the middle of the piece, the melody sounds with excitement and anxiety. The initial chord fragment that appears changes its color, now it sounds in a minor key. The initial melody of the romance becomes imperious and decisive, but gradually it softens. In conclusion, the bright mood returns again, and calm sets in, and light, enlightened sighs are heard.

Maikapar's works are the result of numerous tests and careful selection of intonations; each title of the play is not a randomly pasted label, but a definition of content that gives the opportunity for the creative imagination of the young performer to unfold. Realizing how important imagery is for little musicians, S. Maikapar took the search for the brightest possible titles for plays very seriously. These were not always the first ones that came to mind. So, in the original version, “Anxious Minute” was called “Worry”, “Moth” - “Elf”, “Legend” - “Dreams”, “Spring” - “Baby”. Instead of "Gavotte", the play "Moonlight" was initially conceived.

It is extremely interesting to get acquainted with the drafts of Biryulek. They eloquently testify to how the cycle was born and matured. The composer's concern was everything - from the arrangement of performance instructions to the appearance of the publication (lifetime editions of Biryulek were published, as intended by the author, in six separate notebooks, with a single decoration).

Some plays appeared, as the drafts indicate, immediately in finished form, while others were revised and revised. So, “Little Commander” did not appear immediately: first “ Continuous operation" It was the melodic seed for “Little Commander”. The miniature in F minor - now it is "Seven-League Boots" - according to the original plan, had a completely different idea.

The abbreviated recording of many plays in drafts is interesting: instead of fully written repetitions of some episodes, the composer uses signs of reprise. In this case, the musical text is sometimes reduced by half, or even more. The student should pay attention to this, since this method greatly simplifies learning works by heart: it is psychologically easier to remember where repetitions are than to learn the entire text as new material.

Unfortunately, S. Maikapar’s “Spillies” suffered the usual fate popular work: they were republished many times both in our country (almost annually) and abroad - in the USA, Poland, Germany, England, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and other countries. At the same time, the author's performing and guidelines– fingering, phrasing, pedalization – were presented in a distorted form. Each editor considered it possible to replace the author’s detailed performance instructions with his own, to make additions to them, despite the fact that the autograph stored in family archive, was not known to any of them, and lifetime editions have long become a bibliographic rarity.

I would like to draw special attention to the fact that the collection “Spillies” is a cycle of plays of different characters, i.e. has artistic significance as a whole. And although, of course, it is difficult to expect young musicians to perform it in its entirety, just as Bach’s “Inventions” and “Symphonies” or his “HTK” are not often performed in their entirety, but according to the original plan, “Spillkins” were conceived as a single work. This is easy to verify if you understand the design features of the cycle (tonal plan), as discussed in detail above, and play the pieces one after another: the appearance of each next one sounds like a surprise, and not a dissonance with the previous one. This feature again brings to mind Bach’s “Inventions” and “Symphonies,” in which each piece is both an independent work and a link in a common chain. It is quite obvious that only a great master, who was the Soviet composer S.M. Maikapar, could create a harmonious suite of 26 pieces, such as the cycle “Spillkins”.

LITERATURE:

Wolman B.L. Samuil Moiseevich Maikapar. Essays on life and creativity. – L., Soviet composer, 1963

Maykapar A. My grandfather is Samuel Maykapar. "Musical Life", No. 12, 1994

Maykapar S.M. Musical performance and pedagogy. From unpublished works. Publishing house "MRU", 2006.

Maikapar S.M. “Musical Director”, No. 3, 2007

Stukolkina G.A. CM. Maykapar. The path to perfection. SP, Composer, 2007, p. 32-35.

Musical encyclopedic dictionary. Ch. editor – G. V. Keldysh. Ed. " Soviet encyclopedia", Moscow, 1991.

Secrets of piano mastery, thoughts and aphorisms of outstanding

musicians, M., 2001.

9. Internet resources:

*) www. Wikipedia.org/wiki

Great Jews Mudrova Irina Anatolyevna

Maykapar Samuil Moiseevich 1867–1938 pianist and composer

Maykapar Samuil Moiseevich

pianist and composer

Samuel Maikapar was born on December 18, 1867 in Kherson. Soon the family of Samuil Maykapar moved from Kherson to Taganrog. Here he entered the Taganrog gymnasium. He started studying music at the age of six.

In 1885 he moved to St. Petersburg and entered the conservatory, where he studied as a pianist with Beniamino Cesi, Vladimir Demyansky and I. Weiss, as well as in the composition class of Nikolai Solovyov. At the same time, he studied at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, from which he graduated in 1891.

In 1894–1898 he improved as a pianist with Leschetizky in Vienna.

From 1898 to 1901 he performed in concerts with Leopold Auer and Ivan Grzhimali. The skill and talent of Maikapar, a pianist and composer, were noted by A. Rubinstein, E. Grieg, and I. Engel.

In 1901, Maykapar founded a music school in Tver and directed it until 1903. Maykapar's significant contribution to the creation of music for children and youth; he wrote over 200 plays, most of which are still included in the educational repertoire of beginning pianists (“Spillkins”, “Puppet Theatre”). For the most part, these plays are programmatic; they are written in a musical language that is accessible to young performers and at the same time highly artistic.

From 1903 to 1910, living mainly in Moscow, he was engaged in concert activities and regularly gave concerts in Germany. He finally returned to Russia on the initiative of A. Glazunov, director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He was offered a teaching position at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He taught a piano class there from 1910. In 1917 he became a professor at the conservatory. Maikapar trained about 40 professional pianists. After the revolution, he was listed as a “conservative”, mainly for his reluctance to approve the reforms imposed on the conservatory, primarily the “screening out” of applicants of non-proletarian origin. In 1928, at the age of 61, he was forced to resign.

On his initiative, in 1927, a cycle of 32 Beethoven sonatas was performed for the first time.

His books “Ear for Music. Its meaning, nature, features and method of correct development" (1900; 2nd edition - 1915), "The significance of Beethoven's work for our time" (1927), "Years of learning" (1938, original title "Why and How I Became a Musician”) – rare works in world literature for young readers about the beginning of the path of a concert musician.