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Lyadov 8 Russian folk songs list. "The laziest classic of Russian music" - Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov

Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov(May 11, 1855 - August 28, 1914)
The personality is bright and original. He composed not so many works, but what! Russian epos in music is the main direction in his work. Contemporaries said that he surpassed N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov himself.

Contemporaries reproached Lyadov for low creative productivity.

One of the reasons for this is the financial insecurity of Lyadov, who was forced to do a lot of pedagogical work. I must say that as a teacher, Lyadov achieved considerable success. Among his students are Prokofiev, Asafiev, Myaskovsky. Teaching took at least six hours a day. Lyadov composed, in his own words, "in the cracks of time", and this made him very depressed. “I write little and I write hard,” he wrote to his sister in 1887. - Am I just a teacher? Wouldn't like that very much! And it seems that I will end with this ... "

About the attitude of Lyadov towards his students E. Braudo in the article “A.K. Lyadov" wrote: "... observation and psychological flair allowed Lyadov to absolutely accurately determine the musical individuality of his students. And no one, to such an extent as he, was able to develop in them a sense of grace, nobility of taste.

And here is how one of Lyadov’s students described the teacher: “... A huge and clear theoretical mind, with clearly conscious principles and a teaching plan, accuracy, accuracy and elegance of explanatory formulas, wise brevity of presentation”

A. K. Lyadov, despite the outward bohemianism that accompanied him all his life, was a closed person and did not allow anyone into his personal life. In 1884, he hid from everyone around him the fact of his marriage to Nadezhda Ivanovna Tolkacheva, a philologist who graduated from the Higher Women's Courses, with whom he happily lived until the end of his life, raising two sons.

Lyadov modestly assigned himself the area of miniature - piano and orchestral - and worked on it with big love and the care of an artisan and tasteful, first-rate jeweler and master of style. The beauty really lived in him in the national-Russian spiritual form.
B. Asafiev

Lyadov was an excellent pianist, although he did not consider himself a virtuoso and did not engage in public concert activity. All contemporaries who heard his playing noted the elegant, refined chamber style of performance.
Lyadov's appeal to piano work was quite natural. Lyadov's piano pieces are a kind of musical and poetic sketches of individual life experiences, pictures of nature, displayed in inner world artist.

"Music Box"

D.Matsuev.

"Arabesque"

Lyadov's preludes were the pinnacle of the chamber form.
It is quite possible to call him the founder of the Russian piano prelude. This genre was especially close to the aesthetic worldview of Lyadov the miniature painter. It is not surprising that it was in it that the individual, specific features of his handwriting were most clearly manifested.

A special place is occupied by "Eight Russian folk songs for orchestra", in which Lyadov skillfully used authentic folk tunes - epic, lyrical, dance, ritual, round dance, expressing different aspects of the spiritual world of a Russian person.

8 Russian folk songs for orchestra.

Symphonic miniatures by A.K. Lyadov appeared in mature period composer's work. There are few of them, and they are all programmatic. And some of them have a specific literary program outlined by the author. "Eight Russian Folk Songs" is usually not attributed by music researchers to Lyadov's program music, but also to arrangements of folk songs, of which he has more than 200 - too. What's the catch here? Let's figure it out.
The composition is a cycle of miniatures for orchestra. It does not have its own name, but each play has its own “name” according to the genre of folk songs. Some of these songs have already been published earlier in Lyadov's collections of adaptations of folk songs for one voice and piano. But the composer again decided to turn to these authentic melodies, only in instrumental. But why did he need it? After all, you can't throw out a word from a song... And he did it freely, without remorse... Did he really have nothing to orchestrate?
As always, with geniuses everything is simple, but not so primitive...
As the story told, Lyadov lived a "double" life. In winter, he taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and spent the whole summer at his dacha, in the village of Polynovka. What is surprising? Many works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and other composers were written at the dachas. But Lyadov lived not just in the country. He lived in the countryside. He spent a lot of time communicating with the family of the peasant Ivan Gromov, walking around the neighborhood and recording folk songs. Of course, he was all saturated with the spirit of Russian folklore. He knew not only the peasant life (he especially liked to mow and chop wood), but also understood the type of thinking of “ordinary people”, their customs and characters, attitude to the land, to life. At the same time, he was an excellently educated, "well-read" and deeply thinking person. And this combination of intelligence and rustic simplicity was reflected in his work. It was in "Eight Russian Folk Songs" that he connected two disjoint in ordinary life things - a village choral song and Symphony Orchestra. This was done by other Russian composers - Mussorgsky and Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Tchaikovsky, and even Scriabin. But Lyadov did it in his own unique way.
Yes, the author uses authentic folk melodies that used to have words. But this is not just another “arrangement”, and his idea is not to “attribute” orchestral accompaniment to the folk melody. And in the rich means of the orchestra to express what is between the words, between the lines, about which it is not customary to speak in words.
Yes, he, like his colleagues, combined folk melodies with European principles of harmonization, used in the orchestra instrumental techniques of folk instruments (zhaleek, balalaika); used folk genres and painted fairy-tale characters. But in "Eight Songs" he went further and deeper.
In this cycle - a capacious reflection of the soul of the people in a symbolic manifestation. Literary program, as in his other symphonic paintings, is not here. But if Lyadov himself did not write out the plot from Russian fairy tales, then this does not mean that he is not there at all. The program is laid down in the genres of the songs themselves, which were chosen by the author not by chance, not just for "variety" and are not randomly arranged in this and not another order.
How can it be? Genre is just a classification of songs according to certain characteristics.
In science, yes. But not in the folklore tradition. Not a single song in the village is sung "just like that." She is always "out of place". And "by the time". It's about not only about “timed songs” that are associated with a calendar rite, and which is created at a certain time of the year (Carols - in the New Year, incantations - in the spring, Kupala - in the summer, and so on). Dance, drinking, wedding, comic songs also correspond to their action. In a word, behind each song is a whole fairy tale. Therefore, the composer did not have to comment on the songs. Each genre speaks for itself. Lyadov, apparently, just liked the fact that a very deep thought can be expressed briefly and concisely.
Each song from the cycle is a character. Not so much a portrait of a character as an expression of a state of mind. This soul is multifaceted. And each play is its new facet.
Now more about each play and what it means in Lyadov's unwritten program.

spiritual verse- this is the nature of the transitional kaliks. In the old days, on green Christmas time (the week before Easter), wandering musicians came to the house and sang Spiritual verses. Each song contains stories about "heavenly" life, about the afterlife, about the soul, and so on. In this cycle, it is a symbol of prayer. And this "spirituality", in fact, sets the tone for all other plays.
***
Kolyada-Malyada- these are winter Christmas time, the week before Christmas, when mummers came to the house, danced with the owners of the house, sang laudatory (that is, laudatory) songs to them, showed a puppet theater (nativity scene) on a biblical story. Maybe it's puppets lighting up star of bethlehem and bring gifts to baby Jesus? In the orchestration, everything is “puppet”, “tiny” - the quiet steps of the pizzicato, the quiet trumpets are the voices of the puppets, but the character is still solemn.
***
lingering- this is the most colorful expression of the suffering of the people. As the poet said, "we call this groan a song." Undoubtedly, they meant lingering. Each such song tells about a hard fate, female lobe or some sentimental story with a sad ending... We won't even look for the true words of this song, because the composer expressed even more by means of the orchestra... I would like to pay attention to how the cello ensemble performs the main melody in imitation of the ensemble of choir voices. The cellos here are especially sincere...
***
comic- "I danced with a mosquito." The depiction of the squeak of mosquitoes is not the main charm of the play. Sound representation is an integral part of the author's handwriting, but by this he only diverts attention, wanting to cheer up the listener a little after such a deep grief that was in the previous play. Let's remember what the expression “so that the mosquito does not undermine the nose” means ... Or - how did Lefty shoe a flea? All these symbols are subtlety, sharpness of mind, wit. A funny joke - what better distraction from grief and sadness?
***
Bylina about birds is a special conversation.
Bylina- this is some kind of true story, that is, a story about what happened. She usually talks about the exploits of Russian heroes. And the music is usually narrative, slow, calm, "epic". And the attitude towards birds in ancient times was special. Birds were revered in Rus' as sacred. In the spring, the larks called, and in the autumn they saw off the cranes to the south. But the author did not use stoneflies, but wrote "epic", which speaks of some kind of myth.
Fairy tales often mention ravens, eagles, doves, swallows, which can speak with a human voice. There is also a sign that if a bird beats out the window, then wait for the news. According to popular beliefs, a bird is a symbol of the human soul flying from the “other” world, that is, from the afterlife. As if our distant ancestors tell us something very important.
At the same time, the music of this epic is far from a narrative character. The composer remained true to himself, having chosen the sound-artistic path: all around me are woodwind instruments, which depict the flights of birds and fluttering from branch to branch; at the beginning of the piece, the bird seems to be knocking on the window (pizzicato), and, judging by the music, it brings bad news... It rushes about, groans, and at the very end, the low unisons of the strings seem to pass a harsh sentence of Fate. And, most likely, it is inevitable ...
***
Lullaby- a logical continuation of the "sentence". Traditional lullabies for children are usually very calm. But here - not everything is so straight forward. If anyone shakes the cradle, it is not a kind mother, but Death itself. She was the one knocking on the door in the last play. And now - groans and sighs. As if someone is saying goodbye forever to a dear person. But this is not a funeral song, but a lullaby! Everything is correct. When a person dies a natural death, he gradually falls asleep and never wakes up. And now death sings this mournful lullaby, as if enveloping in its fog, dragging you into a damp grave. "Sleep, sleep... eternal sleep..."
***
But here - Plyasovaya- a shepherd's magic pipe appeared, a flute. The connection with the afterlife in the village was attributed to all the shepherds, because they knew the language of birds and animals, and cattle. And the pipes were made from "magic" grass, which plays itself. This magic pipe - small, thin as a mosquito, can slip into the realm of death and bring a person back to "this" world. But he should not just walk, but dance. And then, having passed along the thin thread connecting “that” light and “this one”, the person comes back to life.
And what is the first thing he sees?
Light! That is the Sun!
And people - friends and relatives.
***
round dance- this is when everyone holds hands together and walks in a circle. The circle is the symbol of the sun. And the sun is warmth, abundance and wealth. The last play is a victory over death and a joyful hymn to Her Majesty Life.

So, in short plays, literally, in “a few words”, all the philosophy and poetry of the Russian people are contained in the brilliant retelling of the composer-miniaturist Anatoly Lyadov. Listen, and you will hear a piece of yourself there as a truly Russian person.
Inna ASTAKHOVA

A brilliant confirmation of the creative evolution of Lyadov are his famous program miniatures - "Baba Yaga", "Magic Lake", "Kikimora". Created in 1904-1910, they reflected not only the traditions of their predecessors, but also the creative aspirations of the present. Orchestral fabulous pictures Lyadov, for all the independence of their ideas, can be regarded as a kind of artistic triptych, the extreme parts of which (“Baba Yaga” and “Kikimora”) are bright “portraits” embodied in the genre of fantastic scherzos, and the middle one (“Magic Lake”) - a bewitching, impressionistic landscape.

“Sorrowful Song” turned out to be Lyadov’s “swan song”, in which, according to Asafiev, the composer “opened a corner of his own soul, from his personal experiences he drew material for this sound story, truthfully touching, like a timid complaint.”
This "confession of the soul" ended the creative path of Lyadov, whose original, subtle, lyrical talent as a miniature painter, perhaps, manifested itself somewhat ahead of his time.

Liadov is completely unknown as an artist. He drew a lot for his children, the drawings were hung on the walls of the apartment, making up small family thematic exhibitions. That was the vernissage of mythological creatures: strange little men, devils - crooked, lame, oblique and even "pretty", or caricatures of " creative personality": writer, singer, dance teacher ...

FOREWORD

Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov, one of the most talented Russian composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, left a rich legacy in the field of processing Russian folk songs. In total, he made about 200 song arrangements, among them 150 songs for one voice with piano accompaniment, over 40 for a choir of various compositions, 5 songs for female voice with an orchestra.
Lyadov's interest in folk art was not limited to arrangements of folk melodies. Even before undertaking the harmonization of the song materials of the Russian Geographical Society, the composer in his children's songs to folk words (Op. 14, 18, 22) showed himself to be an expert in folk intonation, freely, p. subtle understanding of style using typical voles of Russian peasant songs. By the same time, his wonderful piano ballad “About Antiquity”, saturated with folk-song epic intonations, also belongs.

Lyadov began processing folk songs in the late 1990s.
As one of the most authoritative St. Petersburg composers of the younger generation, in 1897 he was attracted by M. A. Balakirev to the processing of folk songs collected during the expeditions of the Song Commission. Russian Geographical Society.
The collections of the Song Commission pursued the goal of popularizing, introducing into musical practice the songs collected by the expeditions of the Geographical Society. These expeditions began in 1886 and continued until 1903 inclusive. The composers G. O. Dyutsh and S. M. Lyapunov, the choir-player I. V. Nekrasov, and the folklorists-philologists F. M. Istomin and F. I. Pokrovsky took part in them.
The first two volumes of publications of the Song Commission - from those collected by G. O. Dyutsham, S. M. Lyapunov and F. M. Istomin - were published without musical accompaniment and were of a purely scientific nature. (The third one being prepared for publication was not released there.)
In parallel with scientific publications, for greater popularization, songs began to be published in various types of adaptations: choral ones were intended “for the troops”, “for schools”, “for lovers of choral singing in general”; arrangements for one voice with piano accompaniment - for "singers-artists" and "amateurs". This is how the tasks of choral and piano arrangements were determined in the prefaces to the collections. The first collection of piano arrangements was made by M. Balakireva and contained 30 songs from those collected in the Arkhangelsk and Olonets provinces by G. O. Dyutsh and F. M. Istomin (summer 1886). Lyapunov took over the processing of songs from among those collected by himself together with Istomin in 1893 in the second expedition of the Song Commission.
Lyadov drew material from the expedition records of 1894-1902.

Choral arrangements by Nekrasov and Petrov and solo arrangements with piano accompaniment by Lyadov were published simultaneously, as the songs collected in new expeditions accumulated. Draft work on the preliminary selection and editing of the musical text of the songs was carried out by I. V. Nekrasov, the editing of the verbal text lay with F. M. Istomin. Nekrasov selected about 750 songs for publication. Of these songs, Lyadov chose those suitable for "singers-artists" and "amateurs" according to his taste. Many of the songs were printed twice: in choral arrangement by Nekrasov and in arrangement for voice and piano by Lyadov.
However, before Lyadov's adaptations of the materials of the Song Commission of the Russian Geographical Society were published, the composer released an independent collection, consisting of 30 songs for one voice and piano, in the publication of M. P. Belyaev (1898, op. 43)
It is possible that it was precisely the participation in the work on the song materials of the Russian Geographical Society that prompted Lyadov to arrange his own song recordings in an independent collection. This collection is the only one in which the composer acts as a collector of songs. All of it further activities in the field of processing folk songs is connected with the materials of the Song Commission of the Russian Geographical Society.

Of the thirty songs in the collection, eleven (Nos. 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 21, 22, 30) Lyadov recorded, like his friend and teacher N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, from acquaintances, on whose musical memory he could rely on: from the well-known music critic S. N. Kruglikov, choirmaster-collector of songs V. M. Orlov, connoisseur of folk songs, amateur singer N. S. Lavrov, music teacher and composer M. M. Erarsky and M. P. Bartasheva.

Fourteen songs (Nos. 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 12, 16-20, 23, 25, 26) have only one designation of the recording place. All of them were recorded in the Novgorod province, most in the villages of Gorushka and Vaskino of the Borovichi district - where Lyadov lived in the summer from a young age. There is no doubt that these songs were recorded from folk singers by the composer himself. This is confirmed by the fact that only these songs do not have an indication by whom or from whom they were recorded; Five songs supplementing the collection (Nos. 15, 24, 27-29) from the materials of the expeditions of the Song Commission have a corresponding link to the source.
Some of the songs recorded by Lyadov have only the beginning of words. It is natural to assume that these were the earliest recordings made by the composer with the aim of their creative use as melodic material. It is possible that these songs were restored by him from memory when the idea of a song collection arose and was concretized. Another part of the song texts was recorded by Lyadov in great detail. In general, it should be noted that Lyadov in this collection, not being bound by any requirements, obviously did not attach importance to the completeness of the text, and when he liked the tune, he processed it and included it in the collection, even if there was a recording of only one stanza of the text, as, for example, in the song "Oh, the drake swam with the duck" (No. 23).
In the future, Lyadov did not continue his collecting work. His interest in folk songs was completely satisfied by studying the song materials of the Russian Geographical Society. As for the direct impressions of folk performance, they accumulated mainly during his summer stay in. Novgorod village. In the same place, of course, the stock was also replenished: melodies of folk songs and instrumental tunes stored by his exceptional memory.

This one-volume collection combines all four collections of Russian folk songs arranged by Lyadov for voice with piano accompaniment:
The first one is independent, which was discussed above (published by M.P. Belyaev), and three, compiled from the materials of the expeditions of the Song Commission of the Russian Geographical Society.
The second collection (the first, published in the standard cover of the Song Commission edition - “Songs of the Russian People”) contains 35 songs from those collected in 1894-1895 by I. V. Nekrasov and F. M. Istomin. It was followed by a third collection of 50 "songs, which included songs from materials collected by I. V. Nekrasov, F. M. Istomin and F. I. Pokrovsky during the expeditions of 1894-1899 and 1901.
The latter - the fourth collection, consisting of 35 arrangements, includes songs collected in 1894-1895, 1901-1902. This collection, unlike the three previous ones, was published with incomplete words (three stanzas for each song), subtexted under the notes. In this edition, as far as possible, the lyrics of the songs have been supplemented from Nekrasov's choral collections, where the texts were printed in full, and from other sources.
In addition, the words of individual songs in the first three collections have been supplemented.
This song collection outlines not only the composer's creative approach to the harmonization of folk songs, but also his personal taste, manifested in the selection of song material. From the fact that a lot of songs from Lyadov's collections have become firmly established in musical practice and exist to the present, one can conclude how unmistakable his approach to the song was from the point of view of artistic value, the vitality of the tunes.
On the other hand, the strong fixation in the musical life of a huge number of songs from among those processed by Lyadov was also due to the fact that these tunes were for the most part collected by Nekrasov in the Oka River basin: these were the tunes most typical of the Central Russian regions, most polished in the process of centuries of historical life. the most cultural part of the Russian state - Muscovite Rus'.

The composer's personal taste - his penchant for musical miniatures - manifested itself in the selection of songs of certain genres: in the relative abundance of songs of small genres - carols, lullabies (a mandatory section at the beginning of each collection or at least one sample of spiritual poems should be explained as a tribute to the times).
Ladov's adaptations of carols and lullabies have significantly enriched and refreshed song repertoire and the presentation of a wide range of professional musicians and music lovers about the genres of native song.
Of the other genres, Lyadov's greatest attention was attracted by round dance songs, which make up a third total songs, processed by the composer for voice and piano (49 and one song from the drawling section, erroneously listed there, - No. 111. Lyadov showed almost the same interest in wedding and glorifying songs (40 treatments). Drawling songs among his arrangements are represented by only 25 samples .

What has been said about Lyadov's special liking for carols is not contradicted by the relative paucity of this genre in his collections; among the arrangements there are only 8 of them. It should not be forgotten, firstly, that this genre is significantly inferior to the prevalence of drawling, wedding and round dances, and, secondly, that in those years there were still very few recordings of carols. The same can be said about epics, which in the Central Russian regions, where the expeditions of the Geographical Society mainly worked, were already rare in those years.
Lyadov's obvious preference for round dances and weddings, carols and lullabies stems from the peculiarities of his creative individuality, from his desire for a clear musical form, strict proportions, conciseness and economy of musical expressiveness. All these features are just the most characteristic of the song genres that attracted the attention of the composer.
By the time Lyadov began work in the field of folk songs (late 90s), a nationally unique style of artistic harmonization of Russian folk songs had already been created and widely developed in classical works composers of The Mighty Handful and Tchaikovsky. It fell to Lyadov to continue and enrich the traditions of the older generation of his glorious contemporaries.

What new, original did Lyadov bring to the processing of Russian folk melody?
It is difficult to say about Lyadov's arrangements more thoughtfully and poetically than B. Asafiev did in the sketches of "On Russian songwriting."
“Each individual,” he says of the tunes in Lyadov’s arrangement, “is a flower, colorful, fragrant, nurtured, nurtured by Lyadov’s careful loving care. But on the whole, something new is felt, as if spiritual light and warmth, the joy of living, are revealed in the display of folk lyrics, because there is a people in the world capable of creating such beautiful tunes, a true reflection of their psyche. Further, Asafiev illustrates his idea with a subtle comparison artistic value Lyadov's processing with meaning in the field of Russian landscape painting Savrasov's painting "The Rooks Have Arrived".
We will try to add to his words some considerations and observations on the composer's creative method in his handling of folk melodies. IN short essay it is impossible to dwell in detail on the study of the whole variety of expressive means that Lyadov uses when processing folk melodies. We confine ourselves to touching on at least some of them.
“Listen, this never lies,” recalls B. Asafiev in the same article Lyadov’s statement about folk melody, “here you have a strict style, this clarity, this straightforwardness, but just not to provide something alien accompaniment!? "- These words show how carefully Lyadov treated the folk tune, how deeply he perceived it. Folk song creativity was for him, first of all, a realistic art that "never lies", an art that reflects the national character - "clarity" of thought, "straightforwardness".

With such a deep penetration into the art of folk song, which was perceived by Lyadov as a “tale of life”, as folk musical wisdom accumulated over the centuries, his reverent fear “not to say something alien with accompaniment” becomes understandable.
These words can serve as a key to understanding the composer's creative method in the field of song arrangements. He did not like "superfluous" either in someone else's or in his own music. Laconism, the ultimate generalization of the expression of the musical and poetic song image were close to his individuality as an artist of small forms and miniatures.
At Lyadov's hand, folk melodies become the same finished miniatures.
Already in the adaptations of the first collection, Lyadov's desire "not to say anything alien with accompaniment" is quite definitely fulfilled. The melody is always in the first place for him, it is he who dictates his requirements to the artist, subjugates his creative imagination.

But every artist lives and creates in a historical environment that determines both the level of his knowledge and creative method, and the nature of the interpretation of phenomena. Every artist also uses and generalizes the experience of his predecessors.
Lyadov, for all his jealously guarded independence of aesthetic views, could not but rely on the experience of the first, and then the second collections of Balakirev and both collections of Rimsky-Korsakov. At the same time, he could not help but know the song collections by Y. Melgunov and N. Palchikov that had appeared by that time in print, in which summaries of voices of polyphonic folk songs were presented, as well as a collection of lyric songs by N. Lopatin and V. Prokunin.
The fact that Lyadov closely studied these new song materials is evidenced by the very style of his adaptations, following Balakirev, developing the techniques of folk vocal polyphony. In addition, Lyadov had personal observations on the folk polyphonic chant.
One of Lyadov's first arrangements, the lingering song "From the side of his dear" (No. 5 of this edition), is sustained in strict accordance with the folk-song choral manner. The piano part in it, in essence, comes down to reproducing the choral pickup of the song's solo refrain. However, in the future, Lyadov avoids this style of accompaniment and, wishing to approach the choral folk style, refrains from literal imitation, giving the texture a piano character with a few steps.
B. Asafiev tells how Lyadov was indignant when “in arrangements, composers covered the tune with “their meat”. And in this statement again we meet the same requirement - the promotion of the melody itself to the first place. Accordingly, Lyadov, in very rare cases, precedes the melody with a piano introduction. For Balakirev, for example, a peculiar “setting the tone” on the instrument is more characteristic - anticipating the beginning of the song with at least several (and sometimes even one) chords or tones that determine the harmony of the song. Lyadov, on the other hand, strives to ensure that the melody itself sounds earlier or at least simultaneously with the pianoforte.

Already in his first adaptations, Lyadov tries to achieve the greatest possible transparency of the musical fabric of the accompaniment. One of the means for this is the composer's refusal in many arrangements from doubling the vocal melody accompanied by a harmonic warehouse. Thus, in a four-voice warehouse, three lower voices sound on the piano, and only two in a three-voice warehouse. Lyadov freely intertwines the four-voice presentation with the three- and two-voice ones. In a two-part warehouse, the melody of the voice is often contrasted with the flexibly flowing undertone of the pianoforte. In such undertones, the features of folk-instrumental tunes often appear. Sometimes they are melodically independent, sometimes they begin with an octave-like imitation of a song melody. Quite often such a piano accompaniment sounds on a sustained tonic sound or tonic fifth. As examples of such adaptations, one can cite the songs “We, girls, burners” (No. 77) and “My Drake” (No. 131). Often, especially in the second half of the tune, Lyadov uses a trill on the main or fifth tone of the tonic. It is possible that this technique represents a kind of “piano transcription” of an undertone in the form of a sustained sound - a folk choral technique, when one of the singers - a “nod voice” breaks out of the general mass of the choir with a long lingering sound (such a technique is typical for the southern choral style).

Lyadov, like his predecessors in the field of piano arrangements of folk songs - Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov, clearly reveals the desire to combine folk song stylistic devices with the generally accepted methods of Russian classical music - various imitations, canonical voices. In his arrangements, we will meet many elegantly executed canonical imitations, imitative introductions of undertones. However, Lyadov resorts to these methods very carefully and nowhere overloads his accompaniment with them.

If we consider Lyadov's arrangements from the point of view of the creative refraction of one or another song genre, then we can say that spiritual verses are characterized most uniformly in terms of musical techniques. In these arrangements, the composer is closest to Rimsky-Korsakov and Balakirev. Severity and asceticism emanates from Lyadov's arrangements of spiritual verses; the composer often uses in them doubling the melody of the voice in a low register, using incomplete chords. One of the pictorial techniques characteristic of the adaptations of this genre is the imitation of bell chimes.
"In the arrangements of epic melodies, the general character of epicness is everywhere maintained. The musical and expressive means used by the composer are very diverse: here there is a strict octave-based undertone, repeating the chant of the epic with a fifth below ("Dobrynya Nikitich", No. 119), and arpeggiated "gusel" searches , in conjunction with fanfare-like exclamations, painting a festive picture of the “honorable feast” at Kyiv prince Vladimir (“Ivan the Gostiny Son”, No. 118), and measured splashes of the sea waves of the “blue Khvalynsky Sea”, for the image of which the composer uses the technique of harmonic figurations, layering on it the melody of the voice set out in chords (“Ilya Muromets”, No. 117); here, finally, we meet with the real "music of the forest" - in the epic "About the Birds" (No. 70). Its short melody, corresponding to one verse, plays the role of a melodic ostinato, against the background of which (during its sevenfold repetition) one can hear the roll call of bird voices and the heavy tread of a large forest animal that frightened off a flock of birds; a chain of major thirds with its hesitant, unstable intonations creates the impression of an eerie mystery of the forest,
For Lyadov, as well as for Rimsky-Korsakov, the poetry of ancient calendar agricultural songs possessed an enormous attraction.

Lyadov was especially fond of children's carols. The spontaneity, cheerfulness of their musical and poetic images found in him a sensitive interpreter. Between the sparkling fun and humor of the folk "aveenki", "taueenki" (as the people call, according to their refrains, carols) and Lyadov's "Children's Songs" on folk words, there is a direct connection. Along with carols, I would like to mention lullabies - then we have a clear image of a composer who knows how to penetrate the clear images of the children's world, feel their purity and beauty and convey to the listener all their unique charm. His accompaniment to the famous lullaby “Gulenka, gulenka” (No. 15), swaying in a three-part rhythm, breathes with careful tenderness, it carefully carries the tune of classical perfection. There are few works that would so warmly and soulfully express both the depth of a mother's affection and her tender tenderness for the peace of a child.
Another wonderful lullaby, Bayu, lullaby, lullaby (No. 149), is built on a different nature of the “rocking” of accompaniment. The soft outlines of her melody are enveloped in just as femininely gentle undertones. Chromatic figurations in triplet sixteenths in the upper register on the pianissimo convey, as it were, the rustles of the night, evoking a dream-dream.
A note of light heartfelt sadness sounds in the third lullaby (No. 150). The same measured wavering, the same combination of two-part and three-part (two-part melody with a three-quarter measure). The expansion of the sound volume is accompanied by modal enlightenment, then the pianissimo takes us to the upper register; a light chromatic highlight gently returns to a fading tonic triad.

A huge number of round dance and wedding songs, very diverse both in content and in musical style, naturally, demanded from the "composer an equally varied design. Round dance and wedding songs attracted Lyadov with their clarity of form, the harmonious combination of words and music, and the crystallization of intonations. Very sensitive to the form of folk tune, the composer distinguishes it with all the various means of expression: by changing the polyphonic opposing legato and staccato, changing the register, etc. Often, in accordance ... with the life-affirming nature of song images, Lyadov uses the method of increasing the power of sonority, thickening the musical fabric of accompaniment towards the end, a musical and poetic stanza, This the construction is very typical of Lyadov's adaptations.
As an example of emphasizing the formal patterns of the melody, we will cite the majestic wedding song "Bereznichka frequent" (No. 8) (with the same type of texture - register comparisons), the round dance "I'll sit down, young" (No. 16) (symmetrical arrangement of register changes), the round dance "In the cheese boru tropina" (No. 48) (forte in the first movement and piano in the second, sustained bass in the first movement and a lively movement of the eighth bass octaves in the second), round dance "Along the Burr Street" (No. 132) (a trill, slightly supported by light chords piano, in the first part of the tune and full-fledged mezzo-forte chords in the second).
There are, but much less often, examples of the reverse construction of arrangements - from loud to quiet, for example, the round dance song “L stop, my dear round dance” (No. 134). It was inspired by Balakirev's arrangement of a close version of the same song (40 songs, No. 30), but without the "Listov" octaves of the latter. In other cases of coincidence of arrangements of close song variants, Lyadov is much more independent. So, for example, Lyadov's arrangement of the well-known round dance song "Rode Pan" (No. 130) is completely independent of Balakirev's (40 songs, No. 15), while Lyapunov's arrangement of the version of the same song almost coincides with it.
Quite often Lyadov refers to such processing technique as an organ point [on the main tone of a mode or a tonic fifth], often and with taste used by Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov. Like his predecessors, Lyadov uses the organ point mainly in processing tunes that are based on a pure fifth. But with Lyadov more often than with Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov, this bass or tonic fifth pedal is combined with polyphonic-vocal elements in the upper voices and the accompaniment sounds richer. It is interesting to compare Lyadov’s arrangement of the round dance song “Oh, fog, fog at the valley” by Lyadov (No. 50) with rich canonical passages and Rimsky-Korsakov’s more polyphonically modest, also built on the organ point, arrangement of a close version of the same song (100 songs, No. 61). Uses Lyadov and the pedal in medium voices.
In many adaptations of Lyadov we find elements of figurativeness, most often coming from the poetic image of the beginning of the song. Such is the already mentioned accompaniment to the epic about Ilya Muromets with his image of the oncoming sea waves. The arrangement of the round dance song “Like the Sea” (No. 19) is also based on the image of swaying waves. There are similar visual techniques in the adaptations of Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Lyadov often reproduces in the piano texture the expressive means of folk music. instrumental music. Above, we have already spoken about Lyadov's peculiar transcription of a choral folk style on the pianoforte. The composer resorts to this technique, flexibly translating the elements of choral chant into a specifically piano presentation. Instrumental performances of folk dancers, expressive lyrical “melodies of pitiful and horn players were undoubtedly well known to Lyadov. If we turn to his arrangements of songs associated with movement, dance, we will find a peculiar, also piano refraction of folk instrumental techniques. An example is the round dance song “You Can, You Can Guess” (No. 54), the accompaniment of which clearly imitates playing the balalaika. However, mindful of the specifics of the piano texture, Lyadov relatively little uses such techniques, while Balakirev in his collection of 30 songs even specifically indicates which instrument plays the piano accompaniment. Moreover, if Balakirev's "horn" tune is close to some extent to truly folk, then this cannot be said about his "harp". The nature of the "goose" accompaniment, which Balakirev conveys with ordinary arpeggiated passages, in no way reflects the folk style of playing the harp. Some of Lyadov's adaptations are presented in a similar "conditionally gusel" style. It could not have been otherwise, because at that time it was no longer possible to observe the folk game on the harp. It must be shown that the figurative content of Lyadov's adaptations always goes beyond the framework of external depiction.

It is customary to emphasize that Lyadov's adaptations are primarily chamber miniatures. But if all, with a few exceptions, Lyadov's song arrangements are the musical accompaniment of one song stanza, then we must not forget that, depending on the text, sometimes very long, this music must be repeated as many times as there are poetic stanzas (or couplets) in it. . One can, however, speak of Lyadov's having a somewhat "narrowed" approach to individual songs, of giving them a chamber character even when neither the melody nor the text gives rise to this. This happens with Lyadov in relation to round dance songs, which in his processing do not always retain their popular mass character (let's not forget that more than 200-300 people often participated in round dances). Such, for example, is the arrangement of the song “Like under a white under a birch tree” (No. 51). Such examples could be multiplied. Performers should keep this in mind and not overemphasize "intimacy", "miniature style" in those songs where the text allows for a different, more active reading of them.

Lyadov also processes lyrical songs in a variety of ways, with extensive use of undertones. He seeks to reveal the main mood of the song, subtly following the development of the song image. A strong impression is left by the ballad “Masha walked along the meadow” - (No. 60) - a gloomy song about how a girl poisoned her beloved with an “evil root”. The means of expression sustained in the nature of folk echoes are extremely stingy. The final unison (octave) on the fermata sounds especially tragic.
A completely different, but also of exceptional brightness, image is created by Lyadov in his adaptation of the burlak song "Mother Volga" (No. 63). The stubborn ostinato figure of the bass speaks of some kind of effort, the desire of a fettered force to break free. Contrary to his habit of beginning and ending the piano part with the voice, Lyadov gives an independent conclusion at the end of the musical stanza with the introduction of a new expressive figuration on the basses and a repetition of the song's melody.
Lyadov's accompaniment style often indicates what kind of performance (male or female) he thought for a particular song. Escort to lyric song“As across the river, brothers” (No. 110), Lyadov creates a male folk choir in the character and leads it mainly in large and small octaves.

The song "Batiushka Gave Me to the Other Side" (No. 144) was calculated by the composer on - female execution. Its expressive melody paints a touching image of a young woman yearning for her home. The transparent subvoice fabric of accompaniment (two-, three-voice) is presented in the middle register, it is, as it were, a kind of piano transcription of a mixed choir.
It is impossible not only to characterize, but also to enumerate all the remarkable examples of Lyadov's accompaniments. Having set this goal, we would have to talk about almost all one hundred and fifty songs.
The poetic content of the songs of this collection broadly and diversely reflects various aspects of everyday life, family and social relations, thoughts and feelings of the Russian people.
In ancient agricultural carols, motifs associated with labor activity peasant. The theme of labor is also reflected in many round dances. lyrical songs. Family relationships, the difficult position of a woman in a patriarchal family are most vividly depicted in wedding, as well as in round dance and lyrical songs. The images of the favorite heroes of the folk epic - the heroes of Ilya Muromets, the Good Nikitich come to life in epics. An interesting example of the epic satire “On Birds”, where representatives of various social strata are ridiculed in the images of birds. Tender feelings of love, longing for a sweetheart, the severity of separation are captured in lyrical songs.
From the point of view of artistic significance, not all song texts are equal. Choosing this or that song for his arrangement, Lyadov was guided primarily by its musical merits. The inferiority and incompleteness of the text of the song did not bother him.

Many of the songs in their ideological and emotional content in our time have the value of a historical monument, figuratively reflecting the pages of the past of the Russian people. Such songs include spiritual verses - songs of kaliks of passers-by and a song about Alexander II that is clearly not folk in origin (such songs were artificially implanted in the Russian army).

Practical use rich song collection of Lyadov's arrangements can be very wide and varied. Of course, not all songs will be easily understood by a wide audience. When choosing songs to perform, singers should always keep a specific audience in mind. If, for example, the songs “A young man is walking along the street”, “I danced with a mosquito”, “You, river, my river”, with their brightness and clarity of ideological and emotional content, will be understood by the most wide circles listeners, then such songs as the tragic ballad “Masha Walked Through the Meadow” and the like can only be performed if there is an appropriate explanation in thematic concert historical character. It is for thematic concerts dedicated to a particular song genre or theme (for example, “Wedding and Magnificent Songs”, “Labor in Folk Songs”, “The Position of a Woman in a Patriarchal Family”, etc.), in this song collection, you can find a lot extremely valuable examples. Singers, leaders of amateur circles, teachers, lecturers will find the richest material for performing and illustrating classes and lectures.
This reissue, which includes four collections of Lyadov's arrangements, aims to introduce Lyadov's remarkable work into our musical life, to make available to the broad masses of Soviet musicians and amateurs.

The collections are located in chronological order. Title pages of each collection are kept unchanged. Made continuous numbering of songs. The old numbering is given in brackets to the right of the title of each song. The musical text is preserved unchanged from the first edition (with the exception of obsolete spelling). For ease of performance, the vocal part is written out with indications of the main variants of subtext for verses with a different number of syllables (dotted leagues, breakdown and combination of rhythmic values). In some songs, the subtext of individual stanzas is given on the stave under the notes (for example, in the song “Like under a forest, under a forest”, No. 18).
In some cases, the editor clarified the genre of the songs (for example, wedding-magnifical, No. 6), sometimes the title of the song is more complete than that of Lyadov (for example, “He gave me away” - for Lyadov, “Father gave me to the other side” - in this edition, no. 144).
To facilitate the task of the performers, the editor considered it necessary to streamline the song texts, which in many cases were not recorded accurately: the numbering of stanzas was introduced; a breakdown into stanzas was made in those cases when it was absent in the original. In songs with the text of the so-called chain form, the editor, restoring the strophic structure, was guided by the tradition of the best folk singers who repeat lines of poetry not mechanically, but where this does not violate the logic of the plot. In songs with simple repetition, for the sake of uniformity, the verse lines are written out in full, with the exception of especially long texts.

In spelling, some features of folk pronunciation are preserved. Punctuation changed according to modern rules and breakdown into stanzas.
Square brackets in the lyrics indicate either extra syllables or words that can be omitted during performance, or additions that restore the song form of the verse.
According to the artistic and practical purpose of this edition, the notes at the end of the collection to individual songs are not exhaustive.
N. Vladykina-Bachinskaya

I. COLLECTION OF RUSSIAN FOLK SONGS, OP. 43
1. The Ascension was Lord's (Song of the Kaliks of Passers-by)
2. Once upon a time there were (Song of kalik passers-by)
3. Already we, the beggar brethren (Song of the kalik passers-by)
4. From the side of my dear (Long)
5. At parting sweet left (Long)
6. Like a grape bush in a garden (Wedding majestic)
7. Snows are white, fluffy (Long)
8. Bereznichek frequent (Great single)
9. Oh, in front of the collars (Wedding)
10. As in the canopy, in the canopy (Wedding after the crown)
11. Grass in the garden (Wedding majestic)
12. You, the river, my river (Wedding)
1Z. Like from an evening party (Wedding)
14. Oh, never dawn, my dawn (Magnificent to the married)
15. Gulenki, gulenki (Lullaby)
16. I'll sit down, young (Round dance)
17. Because of the forest, but the dark forest (Round dance)
18. As under the forest, under the forest (Round dance)
19. Like the sea (Round dance)
20. Along the bank and along the steep (Round dance)
21. Wide street (Khorovodnaya)
22. It's raining outside, raining (Round dance)
23. It was along the grass (Round dance)
24. Like under a pear (Round dance)
25. Leaping sparrow dances (Round dance typesetting)
26. A young man is walking along the street (Round dance)
27. Like on a bridge, bridge (Round dance)
28. Withered, withered (Round dance Trinity)
29. Oh, a duck with a duck (Round dance)
30. Meadow duckling (Dancing)

II. 35 SONGS OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE
I. Spiritual
31. Fedor Tiron (In the glorious city)
32. Think, you Christians
33. Dove book (In the holy city)
II. Christmas carols
34. Oh, avsen
35. Bai, avsen
36. Tausen! Here we went
III. Hides the wedding
37. You go-ko, my girlfriends
IV. Wedding
38. A swan swam across the sea
39. A gray dove flew here
40. Withered, withered
41. Strawberry-berry
42. Beauty
43. Yes, and who are we big-small (Magnificent to the godfather]
44. Will I go, young (Glorious cart)
V. Round dance
45. I walked along the bank
46. Like a dawn, say, at dawn
47. White linen in a pure field
48. Path in the damp forest
49. The son spoke to the mother
50. Oh, fog, fog at the valley
51. As under the white under the birch
52. Walk, Nastya, in the garden
53. Now we drink
54. You can, you can guess
55. Along the street, along the wide (Troitskaya)
56. Near raw oak (Egorievskaya)
57. Ay, all the gossips go home (Rusalskaya)
58. Girls sowed spring hops (Maslenskaya)
VI. lingering
59. Dove flew
60. Masha walked along the meadow
61. It was at dawn, at dawn
62. You are a bastard, you are a bastard, my friend
63. Mother Volga
64. Goodbye girls, women (Recruit)
65. Am I, young, a fine spinner (Comic)

III. 50 SONGS OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE
I. Spiritual verses
66. Lord, remember
67. Verse about Joseph the Beautiful
68. Verse about Prince Joasaph (What a wonderful thing!)
69. Alexei, man of God (At Grand Duke Verfimyam)

II. epics
70. About birds (From that time there was a clean field)
71. About Ilya Muromets and the Tugarov beasts (Like the blue sea)

III. Christmas carols
72. God bless us
73. Do I walk, look like
74. Kolyada-maleda

IV. Wedding
75. And who is fashionable with us (Magnificent groom and matchmaker)
76. Don't create, young, complaint
77. We girls would have burners
78. Ah, there was no wind
79. As from under a bush
80. Near the river
81. Like a key
82. Grass grew at the gate
83. Ay, on that mountain viburnum stands
84. Oh, man's children
85. Paradise, paradise! In the middle of the yard
86. Matchmaker you, matchmaker
87. Grapes grow in the garden
88. Are you my street
89. Noisy, noisy
90. Oh, there was no wind

V. Round dance
91. At the gate, wide gate
92. Zemelushka-chernozem
93. You, young princess
94. Wasn't water poured
95. I walked around the garden
96. As in a field, a field of white flax
97. Walked the master
98. How marvelous beyond the sea
99. In the puddles
100. Called, called the girl
101. They gave the young to the wrong side
VI. Lugovaya
102. Sits nap
VII. Dancing
103. Will I go, will I go out
104. Oh you, butterfly, my little baby
VIII. Saints, observant
105. Don't stand, don't stand, well
106. Christmas time has come
107. I'm sitting at the DJ
IX. lingering
108. Attack, attack, attack
109. The field is clear
110. Like across the river, brothers, across the river
111. Along the street in Swedish
112. Not a birch in the field
113. Why are you guys depressed
X. Comic
114. I danced with a mosquito
115. We all sang songs

IV. 35 SONGS OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE
I. Spiritual Verse
116. Last Judgment (God will rise again)
II. epics
117. Ilya Muromets (Just like the sea, the sea)
118. Ivan Gostinoy son (Ay, like ours with Prince Volodimerov).
119. Dobrynya Nikitich (Like far away, far away)
III. carols
120. Onion
121. Tausenki, tausen!
IV. Wedding
122. On the mountain, mountain
123. Our sweetheart is good
124. Valley, valley
125. To the bride (White fish, don't rush about)
126. A candle burns in a clear chamber
V. Spring
127. From under the forest, to the woodsman
128. In the damp pine forest
129. Oh, yes, there is a meadow on the mountain
130. Pan
VI. round dance
131. My drake
132. Down Burr Street
133. The gentleman walks
134. L stop, my dear round dance
135. You, squirrel-haired mountain ash (Sung at Christmas time)
136. Red girls came out (Besediya)
VII. Plyasovaya
137. Mom sends me
VIII. lingering
138. Spring girls, ah, walked (Love)
139. Walked Vanyusha, Vanya from the guests (Love)
140. Vanyusha walked through the valley (Love)
141. How the village stands behind the river
142. We will think, friends
IX. Family
143. What are you, boy, yearning for
144. Father gave me to the other side
145. Where does my dear wife Pashenka live
146. How evil is the root?
147. You, winter-winter
148. How my father gave me to a considerable family
X. Lullabies
149. Bayu, bayushki" bayu
150. And bye, bye, bye

List of full song collection titles
Notes on individual songs
General alphabetical index

Download sheet music

Thanks Anna for the compilation!

Symphonic miniatures by A.K. Lyadov appeared in the mature period of the composer's work. There are few of them, and they are all programmatic. And some of them have a specific literary program outlined by the author. "Eight Russian Folk Songs" is usually not attributed by music researchers to Lyadov's program music, but also to arrangements of folk songs, of which he has more than 200 - too. What's the catch here? Let's figure it out.
The composition is a cycle of miniatures for orchestra. It does not have its own name, but each play has its own “name” according to the genre of folk songs. Some of these songs have already been published earlier in Lyadov's collections of adaptations of folk songs for one voice and piano. But the composer again decided to turn to these authentic melodies, only in an instrumental form. But why did he need it? After all, you can't throw out a word from a song... And he did it freely, without remorse... Did he really have nothing to orchestrate?
As always, with geniuses everything is simple, but not so primitive...
As the story told, Lyadov lived a "double" life. In winter, he taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and spent the whole summer at his dacha, in the village of Polynovka. What is surprising? Many works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and other composers were written at the dachas. But Lyadov lived not just in the country. He lived in the countryside. He spent a lot of time communicating with the family of the peasant Ivan Gromov, walking around the neighborhood and recording folk songs. Of course, he was all saturated with the spirit of Russian folklore. He knew not only the peasant life (he especially liked to mow and chop wood), but also understood the type of thinking of “ordinary people”, their customs and characters, attitude to the land, to life. At the same time, he was an excellently educated, "well-read" and deeply thinking person. And this combination of intelligence and rustic simplicity was reflected in his work. It was in "Eight Russian Folk Songs" that he combined two things that do not intersect in ordinary life - a village choral song and a symphony orchestra. This was done by other Russian composers - Mussorgsky and Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Tchaikovsky, and even Scriabin. But Lyadov did it in his own unique way.
Yes, the author uses authentic folk melodies that used to have words. But this is not just another “arrangement”, and his idea is not to “attribute” orchestral accompaniment to the folk melody. And in the rich means of the orchestra to express what is between the words, between the lines, about which it is not customary to speak in words.
Yes, he, like his colleagues, combined folk melodies with European principles of harmonization, used in the orchestra instrumental techniques of folk instruments (zhaleek, balalaika); used folk genres and painted fairy-tale characters. But in "Eight Songs" he went further and deeper.
In this cycle - a capacious reflection of the soul of the people in a symbolic manifestation. There is no literary program, as in his other symphonic paintings. But if Lyadov himself did not write out the plot from Russian fairy tales, then this does not mean that he is not there at all. The program is laid down in the genres of the songs themselves, which were chosen by the author not by chance, not just for "variety" and are not randomly arranged in this and not another order.
How can it be? Genre is just a classification of songs according to certain characteristics.
In science, yes. But not in the folklore tradition. Not a single song in the village is sung "just like that." She is always "out of place". And "by the time". We are talking not only about “timed songs” that are associated with a calendar rite, and which is happening at a certain time of the year (Carols - in the New Year, incantations - in the spring, Kupala - in the summer, and so on). Dance, drinking, wedding, comic songs also correspond to their action. In a word, behind each song is a whole fairy tale. Therefore, the composer did not have to comment on the songs. Each genre speaks for itself. Lyadov, apparently, just liked the fact that a very deep thought can be expressed briefly and concisely.
Each song from the cycle is a character. Not so much a portrait of a character as an expression of a state of mind. This soul is multifaceted. And each play is its new facet.
Now more about each play and what it means in Lyadov's unwritten program.

Dspiritual verse- this is the nature of the transitional kaliks. In the old days, on green Christmas time (the week before Easter), wandering musicians came to the house and sang Spiritual verses. Each song contains stories about "heavenly" life, about the afterlife, about the soul, and so on. In this cycle, it is a symbol of prayer. And this "spirituality", in fact, sets the tone for all other plays.
***
TOoliada-Malad- these are winter Christmas time, the week before Christmas, when mummers came to the house, danced with the owners of the house, sang laudatory (that is, laudatory) songs to them, showed a puppet theater (nativity scene) on a biblical story. Perhaps it is puppets that light the star of Bethlehem and bring gifts to baby Jesus? In the orchestration, everything is “puppet”, “tiny” - the quiet steps of the pizzicato, the quiet trumpets are the voices of the puppets, but the character is still solemn.
***
Pdrawbar- this is the most colorful expression of the suffering of the people. As the poet said, "we call this groan a song." Undoubtedly, they meant lingering. Each such song tells about a hard fate, a woman's fate, or some kind of heartbreaking story with a sad ending... We won't even look for the true words of this song, because the composer expressed even more by means of the orchestra... I would like to draw attention to how the cello ensemble performs the main melody in imitation of the ensemble voices of the choir. The cellos here are especially sincere...
***
Wweft- "I danced with a mosquito." The depiction of the squeak of mosquitoes is not the main charm of the play. Sound representation is an integral part of the author's handwriting, but by this he only diverts attention, wanting to cheer up the listener a little after such a deep grief that was in the previous play. Let's remember what the expression “so that the mosquito does not undermine the nose” means ... Or - how did Lefty shoe a flea? All these symbols are subtlety, sharpness of mind, wit. A funny joke - what better distraction from grief and sadness?
***
Bessay about birds- This is a special conversation.
Bylina is some kind of true story, that is, a story about what happened. She usually talks about the exploits of Russian heroes. And the music is usually narrative, slow, calm, "epic". And the attitude towards birds in ancient times was special. Birds were revered in Rus' as sacred. In the spring, the larks called, and in the autumn they saw off the cranes to the south. But the author did not use stoneflies, but wrote "epic", which speaks of some kind of myth.
Fairy tales often mention ravens, eagles, doves, swallows, which can speak with a human voice. There is also a sign that if a bird beats out the window, then wait for the news. According to popular beliefs, a bird is a symbol of the human soul flying from the “other” world, that is, from the afterlife. As if our distant ancestors tell us something very important.
At the same time, the music of this epic is far from a narrative character. The composer remained true to himself, having chosen the sound-artistic path: all around me are woodwind instruments, which depict the flights of birds and fluttering from branch to branch; at the beginning of the piece, the bird seems to be knocking on the window (pizzicato), and, judging by the music, it brings bad news... It rushes about, groans, and at the very end, the low unisons of the strings seem to pass a harsh sentence of Fate. And, most likely, it is inevitable ...
***
TOlullaby- a logical continuation of the "sentence". Traditional lullabies for children are usually very calm. But here - not everything is so straight forward. If anyone shakes the cradle, it is not a kind mother, but Death itself. She was the one knocking on the door in the last play. And now - groans and sighs. As if someone is saying goodbye forever to a dear person. But this is not a funeral song, but a lullaby! Everything is correct. When a person dies a natural death, he gradually falls asleep and never wakes up. And now death sings this mournful lullaby, as if enveloping in its fog, dragging you into a damp grave. "Sleep, sleep... eternal sleep..."
***
But here -Plasa- a shepherd's magic pipe appeared, a flute. The connection with the afterlife in the village was attributed to all the shepherds, because they knew the language of birds and animals, and cattle. And the pipes were made from "magic" grass, which plays itself. This magic pipe - small, thin as a mosquito, can slip into the realm of death and bring a person back to "this" world. But he should not just walk, but dance. And then, having passed along the thin thread connecting “that” light and “this one”, the person comes back to life.
And what is the first thing he sees?
Light! That is the Sun!
And people - friends and relatives.
***
Xorovod- this is when everyone holds hands together and walks in a circle. The circle is the symbol of the sun. And the sun is warmth, abundance and wealth. The last play is a victory over death and a joyful hymn to Her Majesty Life.

A.K.Lyadov

"Eight Russian Folk Songs" for orchestra

Symphonic miniatures by A.K. Lyadov appeared in the mature period of the composer's work. There are few of them, and they are all programmatic. Each of them has a name, that is, a “proper name”:, “Amazon Dance”, “Sorrowful Song”. And some of them have a specific literary program outlined by the author. "Eight Russian Folk Songs" is usually not attributed by music researchers to Lyadov's program music, but also to arrangements of folk songs, of which he has more than 200 - too. What's the catch here? Let's figure it out.

Composition represents a cycle of miniatures for orchestra. It does not have its own name, but each play has its own “name” according to the genre of folk songs. Some of these songs have already been published earlier in Lyadov's collections of adaptations of folk songs for one voice and piano. But the composer again decided to turn to these authentic melodies, only in an instrumental form. But why did he need it? After all, you can't throw out a word from a song... And he did it freely, without remorse... Did he really have nothing to orchestrate?

As always, with geniuses everything is simple, but not so primitive...

As the story told, Lyadov lived a "double" life. In winter, he taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and spent the whole summer at his dacha, in the village of Polynovka. What is surprising? Many works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and other composers were written at the dachas. But Lyadov lived not just in the country. He lived in the countryside. He spent a lot of time communicating with the family of the peasant Ivan Gromov, walking around the neighborhood and recording folk songs. Of course, he was all saturated with the spirit of Russian folklore. He knew not only the peasant life (he especially liked to mow and chop wood), but also understood the type of thinking of “ordinary people”, their customs and characters, attitude to the land, to life. At the same time, he was an excellently educated, "well-read" and deeply thinking person. And this combination intelligence and rustic simplicity affected his work. It was in "Eight Russian Folk Songs" that he combined two things that do not intersect in ordinary life - a village choral song and a symphony orchestra. This was done by other Russian composers - Mussorgsky and Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Tchaikovsky, and even Scriabin. But Lyadov did it in his own unique way.

Yes, the author uses authentic folk melodies that used to have words. But this is not just another “arrangement”, and his idea is not to “attribute” orchestral accompaniment to the folk melody. And in the rich means of the orchestra to express what is between the words, between the lines, about which it is not customary to speak in words.

Yes, he, like his colleagues, combined folk melodies with European principles of harmonization, used in the orchestra instrumental techniques of folk instruments (zhaleek, balalaika); used folk genres and painted fairy-tale characters. But in "Eight Songs" he went further and deeper.

In this cycle - a capacious reflection of the soul of the people in a symbolic manifestation. There is no literary program, as in his other symphonic paintings. But if Lyadov himself did not write out the plot from Russian fairy tales, then this does not mean that he is not there at all. The program is laid down in the genres of the songs themselves, which were chosen by the author not by chance, not just for "variety" and are not randomly arranged in this and not another order.

How can it be? Genre is just a classification of songs according to certain characteristics.

In science, yes. But not in the folklore tradition. Not a single song in the village is sung "just like that." She is always "out of place". And "by the time". This is not only about “timed songs” that are associated with a calendar rite, and which is happening at a certain time of the year (Carols - on New Year's Eve, invocations - in the spring, Kupala - in the summer, and so on). Dance, drinking, wedding, comic songs also correspond to their action. In a word, behind each song is a whole fairy tale. Therefore, the composer did not have to comment on the songs. Each genre speaks for itself. Lyadov apparently just liked the fact that a very deep thought can be expressed briefly and concisely.

Each song from the cycle is a character. Not so much a portrait of a character as an expression of a state of mind. This soul is multifaceted. And each play is its new facet.

Now more about each play and what it means in Lyadov's unwritten program.

- this is the nature of the transitional kaliks. In the old days, on green Christmas time (the week before Easter), wandering musicians came to the house and sang Spiritual verses. Each song contains stories about "heavenly" life, about the afterlife, about the soul and so on. In this cycle, it is a symbol of prayer. And this "spirituality", in fact, sets the tone for all other plays.

- these are winter Christmas time, the week before Christmas, when mummers came to the house, danced with the owners of the house, sang laudatory (that is, laudatory) songs to them, showed a puppet theater (nativity scene) on a biblical story. Perhaps it is puppets that light the star of Bethlehem and bring gifts to baby Jesus? In the orchestration, everything is “puppet”, “tiny” - the quiet steps of the pizzicato, the quiet trumpets are the voices of the puppets, but the character is still solemn.

- this is the most colorful expression of the suffering of the people. As the poet said, "we call this groan a song." Undoubtedly, they meant lingering. Each such song tells about a difficult fate, a woman's lot, or some kind of sentimental a story with a sad ending... We will not even look for the true words of this song, because the composer expressed even more with the help of the orchestra... I would like to pay attention to how the cello ensemble performs the main melody in imitation of the ensemble of choir voices. The cellos here are especially sincere...

- "I danced with a mosquito." The depiction of the squeak of mosquitoes is not the main charm of the play. Sound imaging- this is an integral part of the author's handwriting, but with this he only diverts attention, wanting to cheer up the listener a little after such a deep grief that was in the previous play. Let's remember what the expression “so that the mosquito does not undermine the nose” means ... Or - how did Lefty shoe a flea? All these symbols are subtlety, sharpness of mind, wit. A funny joke - what better distraction from grief and sadness?

- This is a special conversation.

Bylina is some kind of true story, that is, a story about what happened. She usually talks about the exploits of Russian heroes. And the music is usually narrative, slow, calm, "epic". And the attitude towards birds in ancient times was special. Birds were revered in Rus' as sacred. In the spring, the larks called, and in the autumn they saw off the cranes to the south. But the author did not use stoneflies, but wrote "epic", which speaks of some kind of myth.

Fairy tales often mention ravens, eagles, doves, swallows, which can speak with a human voice. There is also a sign that if a bird beats out the window, so wait for the news. According to popular beliefs, a bird is a symbol of the human soul flying from the "other" world, that is, from the afterlife. As if our distant ancestors tell us something very important.

At the same time, the music of this epic is far from a narrative character. The composer remained true to himself, choosing sound-pictorial path: all around me are woodwind notes, which depict the flights of birds and flutter from branch to branch; at the beginning of the piece, the bird seems to be knocking on the window (pizzicato), and, judging by the music, it brings bad news... It rushes about, groans, and at the very end, the low unisons of the strings seem to pass a harsh sentence of Fate. And, most likely, it is inevitable ...

- a logical continuation of the "sentence". Traditional lullabies for children are usually very calm. But here - not everything is so straight forward. If anyone shakes the cradle, it is not a kind mother, but Death itself. She was the one knocking on the door in the last play. And now - groans and sighs. As if someone is saying goodbye forever to a dear person. But this is not a funeral song, but a lullaby! Everything is correct. When a person dies a natural death, he gradually falls asleep and never wakes up. And now death sings this mournful lullaby, as if enveloping in its fog, dragging you into a damp grave. "Sleep, sleep... eternal sleep..."

But then - - a shepherd's magic pipe appeared, a flute. The connection with the afterlife in the village was attributed to all the shepherds, because they knew the language of birds and animals, and cattle. And the pipes were made from "magic" grass, which plays itself. This magic pipe - small, thin as a mosquito, can slip into the realm of death and bring a person back to "this" world. But he should not just walk, but dance. And then, having passed along the thin thread connecting “that” light and “this one”, the person comes back to life.

And what is the first thing he sees?

Light! That is the Sun!

And people - friends and relatives.

- this is when everyone holds hands together and walks in a circle. The circle is the symbol of the sun. And the sun is warmth, abundance and wealth. The last play is a victory over death and a joyful hymn to Her Majesty Life.

So in short plays, literally, in “a few words”, all the philosophy and poetry of the Russian people fit in the brilliant retelling of the composer-miniaturist Anatoly Lyadov. Listen, and you will hear a piece of yourself there as a truly Russian person.

Inna ASTAKHOVA

1855-1914

ANATOLY KONSTANTINOVICH LYADOV

Talented composer, teacher, conductor, authoritative musical figure of the late 19th century. As a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, he brought up a number of outstanding musicians such as Prokofiev, Myaskovsky, Gnesin, Asafiev, Ossovsky, Steinberg.

Lyadov's life is connected with St. Petersburg. Coming from a family of professional musicians, he grew up in the musical and artistic world. His father - famous conductor Russian opera, so the young composer gets acquainted early with the operatic masterpieces of Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, Meyerbeer, Verdi, Wagner.

Lyadov's talent manifested itself in poetry, in painting, but, due to unfavorable circumstances, he did not receive a proper education in childhood. The constant disorder of life forms negative qualities in it: lack of concentration, laziness, lack of will. In 1867 he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Since 1874 he has been studying with Rimsky-Korsakov. Despite the problems in learning (he was expelled for poor progress and non-attendance), he brilliantly finishes it in 1878.

With the assistance of Rimsky-Korsakov, he is included in the "Mighty Handful", but the influence of the "Kuchkists" did not become decisive for the composer's work. He did not share their views on the work of Tchaikovsky, as he was attracted by the composer's lyrics. In the mid-80s, he was a member of the Belyaevsky circle. His musical idols are Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, Schubert, Chopin, Wagner.

Lyadov was far from political life. He entered the history of musical education as a brilliant theoretical teacher who developed own system teaching; worked at the conservatory, in the choir.

The composer's talent was most clearly manifested in late period. The value of his work is in its diverse connections with folk song and poetry. Not being a folklorist, he was an expert in folk style. The nationality determined the content of his work, which was based on such genres as epic, fairy tale, lyrics.

Unlike his great predecessors, his work did not have a breadth of ideas, he did not touch upon a socio-historical topic, did not solve global problems. But he knew how to give a well-aimed characterization and masterfully mastered visual techniques. Lyadov's music expresses natural human feelings: basically, it is gentle lyrics. He does not create large monumental works, but gravitates toward miniature: vocal, symphonic, instrumental, and also uses programming.

In the technique of composition, polyphonic means, rhythmic diversity, elegant voice leading, and original instrumentation play an important role.

Lyadov's merit is to combine the traditions of the Moscow and St. Petersburg schools, the ideas of the Mighty Handful and the Belyaevsky Circle. This was manifested in the reliance on Russian national traditions and a high professional level.

Symphonic creativity Lyadov is not numerous. All works are one-part. The composer himself called them symphonic paintings. pinnacle creative activity four works became: three program fairy-tale pictures (Kikimora, Baba Yaga, Magic Lake) and the suite "Eight Russian Folk Songs for Orchestra". The content of the works is a fairy tale and fantasy. At the same time, Lyadov in his works gravitates towards a concrete-plot type of programming.

The principle of folk-genre symphonism, characteristic of the composer, is vividly presented in the suite "Eight Russian Folk Songs for Orchestra". This is the result of the composer's work in the field of folklore arrangements. The work is built on the principle of a suite and has a pronounced dramatic basis, presented in a single dynamic development from strict chants to a universal celebration and triumph of being.

The suite has eight parts:

1. Spiritual verse.

2. Kolyada-malada.

3. Drawstring.

4. Comic "I danced with a mosquito."

5. Bylina about birds.

6. Lullaby.

7. Dance.

8. Round dance.

The material was folklore arrangements from his song collections. Among the songs, Lyadov selects tunes with brief motives and a small range. In the development of the material, the composer uses variant-variation techniques.

The images of Russian folk tales come to life in the miniatures "Kikimora", "Baba Yaga", "Magic Lake". The first two are fabulous portraits, the third is a bewitching symphonic landscape. The source of the first two works was Russian fairy tales from Sakharov's collection. "Magic Lake" does not have literary plot, this is not a fairy tale, but a fabulous state in which a fairy tale can be born.

IN "Babe Yaga" flight captured fairy tale character. The pictorial function is performed by an energetic rhythm, modal originality, original instrumentation.

"Magic Lake"- a fabulous landscape, the development of which is directed from an almost intangible state of silence of nature to spiritualized admiration. Lyadov uses specific expressive means. There is no clear theme in the work. The basis is a barely changeable background against which individual elements of thematic appear. Colorful harmonic juxtapositions and colorful instrumentation play an important role. Thus, the composer creates a landscape in the spirit of the Impressionists.

"Kikimora"- fabulous scherzo. The work is two-part and the two-part nature is already in the program. The first part has an introductory character and is an exposition of various characters: the Magician, Kota-Bayun, Kikimora, the Crystal Cradle. The second part is a dynamic scherzo recreating the deeds of the grown-up Kikimora.

The first part is based on four themes:

1. (a) – the Wizard's theme – low register of strings and woodwinds, dissonant harmonies, chromatic intonations;

2. (c) - the theme of Kota-Bayun - a typical Russian lullaby, a small range with second-quarter intonations, plagal harmonies;

3. (c) - the theme of Kikimora - a chromatic, descending motif in the volume of a tritone, rhythmically peculiar;

4. (d) - The theme of the Crystal Cradle with the timbre of the celesta, high register, transparent harmony.

Partition scheme: A B C A B C A D

The second part develops the theme C. The process is subject to a single dynamic wave. The composer uses vivid visual techniques: jumps at wide intervals, grace notes, unexpected accents, harmonic originality. The climax is a bright grotesque march.

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