In my presentation, I will explore the Russian composers' fascination with Pu&shachek;kin's poetry that spanned two centuries—the nineteenth and the twentieth. I will concentrate mostly on the romances (art songs) set to Pu&shachek;kin's lyric poetry. I am aiming at a cultural historical overview, which will include textual analysis and will explore the Pu&shachek;kinian legend of the nineteenth century and Pu&shachek;kinian mythologies of the twentieth.
In my analysis of the works of the nineteenth-century composers, I
will look at the composers of the Golden Age, such as Glinka,
&Chachek;ajkovskij, Dargomy&zhachek;skij and the Mighty Handful
group. What especially attracted them to Pu&shachek;kin? His
lyricism—as in Ne poj, krasavica pri mne,
his
Protean nature as in V krovi gorit ogon&soft;
&zhachek;elan&soft;ja
? His historical and prophetic grasp as
in the drama
The twentieth-century composers such as &Shachek;ostakovi&chachek; and Prokof&soft;ev continued, in a sense, the tradition of the Golden Age by turning, once again, to Pu&shachek;kin. I will demonstrate how, in a sense, their treatment of Pu&shachek;kin was connected with the preceding legacy and with twentieth century Pu&shachek;kinian mythologies of Russian modernism— with the myth of Pu&shachek;kin's centennial return that had inspired the intellectuals long before Pu&shachek;kin's actual anniversary in 1937.
There have been numerous (some sources cite over three thousand)
musical works set to Pu&shachek;kin's poetry, including about a
hundred operas. Hundreds of Pu&shachek;kin's lyric poems and collected
folk songs have received musical renditions. The interest in
Pu&shachek;kin as a musical source arose when he was still a youth,
studying at the Lyceum. Aleksej Verstovskij was among the first, in
1823, to render Pu&shachek;kin's Glja&zhachek;u kak bezumnyj na &chachek;ernuju
&shachek;al&soft;
).
In my analysis of the nineteenth century Pu&shachek;kinian musical
phenomenon, I will focus specifically on the Glinka-Pu&shachek;kin
connection, which points out the interdependence of literature and
music. Glinka was a source of inspiration for Pu&shachek;kin's
Ne poj, krasavica, pri mne.
At the same time, Glinka
was the author of numerous romances set to Pu&shachek;kin's lyric
poems and composed Mighty Handful
legacy. Dargomy&zhachek;skij, whose musical productivity owed a great
deal to Glinka's encouragement, found Pu&shachek;kin to be the most
influential source of inspiration. His opera, The Mighty Handful
group, which included
Balakirev, Borodin, Kuj, and such musical giants as Rimskij-Korsakov
and Mussorgskij. While Kuj was an extremely prolific writer of
romances based on Pu&shachek;kin's poetry, Rimskij-Korsakov has been
considered Pu&shachek;kin's foremost vocal composer and Mussorgskij's
opera
&Chachek;ajkovskij's fascination with Pu&shachek;kin deserves
special mention. While he set only two romances to Pu&shachek;kin's
poems, he was fascinated by Tat&soft;jana and wrote romances with
Tat&soft;jana's character in mind—those were set to the poems of
other composers—that served as musical studies for
Tat&soft;jana's character in his opera cult
in the 1930s. Whether by way of official
propaganda that resulted in the official Pu&shachek;kin celebration,
or in the mythologies of Pu&shachek;kinian centennial
return,
Pu&shachek;kin was in the hearts and minds of the
intelligentsia of that time. I will explore the tension between the
official and unofficial Pu&shachek;kin cults
and how
that came to be resolved in the works of &Shachek;ostakovi&chachek;
and Prokof&soft;ev. My conclusion will aim at a connection between
nineteenth- and twentieth-century vocal works based on
Pu&shachek;kin's poetry.