About guitar art and training of guitarists. Formation of Russian guitar performance Formation of performing art on the guitar
Formation of Russian guitar performance1. The emergence of the art of playing the seven-string guitar in Russia in the 19th - early 20th centuries
The originality of the existence of the guitar in Russia lies in the parallel existence of two varieties - seven-string and six-string. However, their "share" in music-making was different: from the second half of the 20s of the XX century, in a period that goes beyond the study of this book, the six-string guitar became more and more popular. Meanwhile, for almost the entire duration of the 19th century, a variety of instrument that can be fully called Russian folk instrument was dominant in domestic music-making. And not only according to the social criterion, connected with the focus on the non-elite in musical and artistic terms, the dominant part of the population of Russia. In the seven-string guitar, with a special “Russian” tuning, the ethnic element of the nationality is no less obvious: for over two centuries it has been widely used in our country and still exists to express traditional genres national music. Tuning according to the sounds of the G-dur triad doubled to an octave and the bottom string spaced a quart appeared in Russia in the second half of the 18th century and turned out to be extremely organic in the urban environment, where they liked to sing songs and romances, with their invariable bass-chord accompaniment formulas (In the domestic In the musical life of the beginning of the 19th century, such an instrument was often called the guitar of the “Polish system.” Meanwhile, tuning by the sounds of the G-dur triad became widespread only in Russia (the only exception could be the environment of Russian emigrants in other countries).
Accompanied on a seven-string guitar in home music-making, usually by ear - the simplest harmonic functions of such accompaniment became extremely accessible. The authors of songs and romances were most often little-known amateurs, but sometimes prominent composers of the 19th century, the predecessors of M. I. Glinka, such as A. E. Varlamov, A. L. Gurilev, A. A. Alyabyev, A. I. Dyubuk , P. P. Bulakhov. The performance to the “seven-string” of such songs as “The bell rattles monotonously” by A. L. Gurilev, “The snowstorm sweeps along the street” by A. E. Varlamov, “Do not scold me, dear” by A. I. Dyubuk and many others made them widely popular - it is no coincidence that they began to exist among the general population precisely as Russian folk songs.
The art of Russian gypsies played an important role in the active spread of the seven-string guitar. Magnificent seven-string guitarists were the leaders of gypsy choirs, such as Ilya Osipovich and Grigory Ivanovich Sokolov, Alexander Petrovich Vasilyev, later Nikolai Sergeevich Shishkin, Rodion Arkadevich Kalabin and others (As K. A. Baurov notes, “Gypsy choirs in Russia are becoming fashionable with light hand Count A. G. Orlov. Many nobles, wealthy landowners and merchants acquire their own gypsy choirs.
At the end of the 18th century, the seven-string guitar could be heard in aristocratic salons and even at the royal court, but to mid-nineteenth century, its significant democratization has been observed. M. A. Stakhovich in his “Essay on the history of the seven-string guitar”, first published in 1854, wrote: “The seven-string guitar is the most common instrument in Russia, because it is most common because, in addition to the educated class, it is also played by ordinary people.”
At the same time, already at the end of the 18th century, this type of guitar began to develop also as a representative of the academic musical art. If singing to the guitar accompaniment of urban songs and romances was characterized by a non-written-auditory tradition, then the same songs intended for solo performance on the guitar in home music-making were published in various musical collections. These were mainly variations - arrangements of folk song melodies. Here, the authors showed creative imagination when ornamenting the theme, its colorful “coloring” in a wide variety of options.
For the seven-string guitar, major compositions also appear. Already in the early XIX century, the Sonata for a duet of guitars by V. Lvov was released. Increasingly, various guitar pieces began to be published, placed in instructional and methodological manuals or published in separate editions. Such, for example, are numerous miniatures, mainly in dance genres - mazurkas, waltzes, country dances, ecossaises, polonaises, as well as serenades, divertissements, created by the famous guitarist-teacher and methodist Ignaz Geld (1766-1816).
Ignaz Geld
Having lived almost all his creative life in Russia, this Russified Czech did a lot to popularize academic guitar playing. In 1798, his "School-tutorial for the seven-string guitar" was published in St. Petersburg, which had the title in French - "Methode facile pour apprendre a pincer la guitare a sept cordes sans maitre". Along with a variety of theoretical information, it contains many musical samples - both arranged for the guitar, and the author's own compositions. These are Prelude, Waltz, Dumka, Polonaise, March, Allegretto; at the end of the edition there is even a sonata for flute and guitar, pieces for violin and guitar, for voice and guitar, etc.
The school was repeatedly reprinted and supplemented with a variety of new material (in particular, the third edition was expanded by forty arrangements of Russian and Ukrainian folk songs). Its high artistic merits can already be evidenced by the fact that it has become the methodological basis for extracting natural and artificial harmonics. This was done by S. N. Aksenov, who published the methods of their execution in his supplements to the publication and singled them out here in a separate chapter.
The “School for the Seven-String Guitar” of the teacher, author of a number of musical compositions Dmitry Fedorovich Kushenov-Dmitrievsky (c. 1772-1835) also became a significant phenomenon in its time. His guitar manual is “The New and Complete Guitar School, composed in 1808 by Mr. Kushenov-Dmitrievsky, or a self-instruction manual for guitar, according to which you can learn how to play the guitar correctly by yourself without the help of a teacher”, first published in St. Petersburg in 1808, enjoyed great popularity in the first half of the 19th century and was repeatedly reprinted. Although it provided for self-study, the author emphasized that success in cognition is largely acquired "with the help of a good teacher." In the reissue of the School of 1817, the author states even more categorically: “... there is not a single science that does not require a mentor or guide to perfect knowledge. Therefore, I do not advise you to start teaching before that time, until a capable and quite knowledgeable teacher is found for this.
D. F. Kushenov-Dmitrievsky created a number of folk-song fantasies and adaptations for the seven-string guitar, in 1818 he published a collection of guitar pieces “Interdubele, or Collection of exemplary pieces for the seven-string guitar”. It contains one hundred musical numbers, in particular, his own miniatures, arrangements of folk music, as well as transcriptions of plays by W. A. Mozart, A. O. Sichra, F. Carulli and other composers.
Famous Russian composers-violinists of the second half of the 18th - early 19th centuries perfectly owned the seven-string guitar. Among them, as in the field of balalaika art, first of all, Ivan Evstafyevich Khandoshkin should be mentioned, who also wrote music for the guitar, composing for it a number of variations on the themes of Russian folk songs (unfortunately, not preserved). I would like to name in the same context Gavriil Andreevich Rachinsky (1777-1843), who published his guitar works already in the first decades of the 19th century.
The true flowering of domestic professional guitar performance begins with the creative activity of the outstanding teacher-guitarist Andrei Osipovich Sikhra (1773-1850). Being a harpist by education and perfectly mastering the performance of this instrument, he nevertheless devoted his whole life to the promotion of the seven-string guitar: in his youth he was engaged in concert activity, and then pedagogy and enlightenment.
Andrey Osipovich Sikhra
At the very end of the 18th century, Sichra came from Vilnius to Moscow, where he became interested in the guitar, and by 1813 he moved to St. Petersburg. Since 1801, his guitar concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg have been very successful (For a long period of time, A. O. Sikhra was even considered the inventor of the Russian seven-string guitar. Thus, M. A. Stakhovich noted that Sikhra was still at the end of the 18th century “I came up with the idea of making an instrument out of a six-string guitar that is more complete and closer to a harp in terms of arpeggios, and at the same time more melodic than a harp, and tied the seventh string to the guitar; at the same time, he changed its tuning, giving the six strings a group of two tonic chords in tone G-dur [...] In the seventh string, he placed the thickest bass, constituting the lower octave - re (D) and containing the main sound of the upper dominant tone G-dur. "A. S. Famintsyn repeats the same data, emphasizing that Sychra, by adding the seventh string, changed the tuning, “bringing it closer in arpeggios to his special instrument - the harp.” Although this information did not find any documentary confirmation, one thing is indisputable: the musician, like his students, greatly contributed to wide popularity with his activities in Russia this type of guitar.).
A. O. Sikhra gained special success thanks to his musical publications, which were then called “magazines”. So, in 1800, such an edition was published under the title in French “Journal pour la Guittare a sept cordes par A. Sychra” (“Journal for guitar with seven strings of A. Sychra”). The magazine was a clear success, as evidenced by its reprint two years later. Many arrangements of Russian folk songs, arrangements of musical classics, simple miniatures in dance genres were placed here.
In the following decades, until 1838, the musician published a number of similar guitar magazines, which presented a wide variety of works, transcriptions from opera music, romances, songs and dances, variations on themes from classical works, etc. All this is largely degree contributed to the increasing popularity of the instrument.
The magazine published since 1826 under the name "Petersburg magazine for guitar, published by Sychra, containing various kinds of compositions, pleasant to the ear and easy to play" gained particular fame. In the last years of his life, for the most part, he composed pieces for a duet of guitars, and he himself performed a lower tessitura, second part, and he entrusted the first, higher order - tertz guitars to one of his students.
The methodical activity of the musician was also important. In 1850 his "Theoretical and Practical School for the Seven-String Guitar" appeared in three parts (the first part - "On the Rules of Music in General", the second - technical exercises, scales and arpeggios, the third - musical material, mainly from the works of Sychra's students). In the second half of the 19th century, F. T. Stellovsky, who repeatedly republished the school, significantly expanded the repertoire by adding many arrangements of works by classical composers.
Another important instructive and pedagogical manual was “Practical Rules Consisting in Four Exercises” by A. O. Sikhra, a kind of higher school for improving the technical skills of a guitarist, an encyclopedia of techniques and methods of playing the seven-string guitar of that time. Although only etudes are included here, in essence they are extended plays, and therefore they will be discussed in a separate section of this chapter.
Sichra was the first to establish the seven-string guitar as a solo academic instrument, doing a lot for the aesthetic education of a wide range of amateur guitarists. He trained a huge number of students and, most importantly, created his own performing school as an artistic direction, characterized by all-round attention to the creative individuality of the student and to the activation of his artistic thinking, a combination of performing arts and composing music, with the prevalence of folk song material processing. It is no coincidence that Sichra's pedagogical activity in the field of guitar was highly valued, for example, by such famous composers, as A. E. Varlamov, M. I. Glinka, A. S. Dargomyzhsky.
Working a lot with his students to achieve the subtlety and sophistication of the sound of the guitar, this musician did not seek to develop a cantilena game from them, but likened the guitar to a harp. For example, the musician called the expressive legate playing with an abundance of vibrato by one of his most talented followers “gypsy”, although, of course, he did not interfere with the disclosure of this feature of his performing style, since, as M. G. Dolgushina notes, he considered it “his best student and especially for him created a number of technically complex works. This student was Semyon Nikolaevich Aksenov (1784-1853). In the 1810-1830s, he was perhaps the most prominent promoter of the instrument, although his main occupation was serving as a major official (After moving from Moscow to St. Petersburg in 1810, S. N. Aksenov began to make a quick official career: 1823 was an official for special assignments under the Minister of War of Russia, for a long time served in the same position in the Naval Ministry, was a member of military rank colonel).
Semyon Nikolaevich Aksenov
The game of S. N. Aksenov was distinguished by extraordinary melodiousness, warmth of tone, and along with this - great virtuosity. The musician made a significant contribution to the improvement of the technique of performance: it was he who, as already noted, was the first to carefully develop a system of artificial harmonics on a seven-string guitar. In 1819, he also made significant additions to the reprint of I. Geld's School, providing it not only with a chapter on harmonics, but also with many new pieces and arrangements of folk songs.
One of the most important aspects of Aksenov's activity was musical enlightenment. In particular, in the 1810s he began to publish the New Journal for the Seven-String Guitar, Dedicated to Music Lovers, where he published many transcriptions of popular opera arias, his own variations on the themes of Russian folk songs. Under the influence of the guitarist's passion for Russian song folklore, his teacher A. O. Sikhra began to pay much more attention to the arrangements of folk songs.
Among the first students of A. O. Sikhra, one should also mention Vasily Sergeevich Alferyev (1775-c. 1835). Already in 1797, his fantasy on the theme of the Russian folk song “How did I upset you” was published, and in 1808 he began to publish monthly issues of the “Russian Pocket Songbook for the Seven-String Guitar”. It included numerous "songs with variations", separate miniatures, transcriptions of opera arias popular at that time, works of musical classics, romances for voice and guitar. Various fashionable dances were also published here, intended for both guitar solos and guitar duets (V. S. Alferyev was also a member of the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. As M. G. Dolgushina notes, it, “declaring primarily charitable goals, united around itself a wide range of interested representatives of the nobility". The musician was also a great lover and collector of Russian folklore. According to the same book, romances by V. S. Alferyev, as well as S. N Aksenov - they were created mainly on the words of contemporary poets).
Among the students of A. O. Sikhra was also Fedor Mikhailovich Zimmerman (1813-1882), a talented guitarist. Contemporaries often called him “Paganini of the guitar”, marveling at the technique, independence and mobility of his hands, “it was as if there were not five, but ten fingers on each hand”, he perfectly improvised on the guitar, created a wide variety of plays - fantasies, waltzes, mazurkas, etudes and so on.
Vasily Stepanovich Sarenko (1814-1881) also left a noticeable mark in the guitar art.
Vasily Stepanovich Sarenko
A. I. Dubuk, a prominent Russian composer and pianist of the 19th century, author of many popular songs and romances, described his art as follows: “The player was first-class and knew music perfectly, had a lot of taste and imagination, was generally a comprehensively developed musician. Played elegantly, cleanly, smoothly; his strings sang in both fast and slow tempos. Plays and etudes composed by V. S. Sarenko are usually saturated with expressive melody and developed texture. He also made many guitar arrangements and transcriptions. We should also mention such a talented student of A. O. Sikhra as Pavel Feodosievich Beloshein, who became a wonderful teacher of the guitar class, the author of many miniatures.
Vladimir Ivanovich Morkov (1801-1864) was also a highly educated student of A. O. Sikhra
Vladimir Ivanovich Morkov
(The cited portrait, made in 1839, belongs to the brush of the outstanding Russian artist Vasily Andreevich Tropinin (1776-1857), who was a serf in the large noble family of the Carrots, it is stored in the State Russian Museum of St. Petersburg. In 2007, “Portrait of V. I. Morkov” published in the third volume of the series "The Russian Museum presents. Painting of the first half of the 19th century. Almanac "(Issue 193). V. A. Tropinin addressed the image of the guitarist more than once. One of the variants of such an image, dated 1823 and stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery , in the colorful colors of the original is on the cover of the book.) He owns arrangements of many pieces of musical classics, intended for one and two guitars. He also published the “School for the Seven-String Guitar”, and in 1861 wrote Twenty-four Preludes for the guitar in all major and minor keys (In addition to playing the guitar, V. I. Morkov was also a music critic, author of various articles and reviews in the capital’s newspapers and magazines, he created monographic works on music, including the book “A Historical Sketch of Russian Opera from Its Very Beginning to 1862”, published in St. Petersburg in 1862, which attracted the attention of the musical community of that time. an article about it was written by a prominent Russian critic A. N. Serov.Meanwhile, music was not the profession of V. I. Morkov - he had the high rank of a real state councilor, his main place of service was the Department of Military Records.).
One of the most prominent figures in the development of Russian guitar playing was Mikhail Timofeevich Vysotsky (1791-1837).
Mikhail Timofeevich Vysotsky
The first to introduce him to this instrument was S. N. Aksenov, who was also his mentor.
The performing style of M. T. Vysotsky was marked by a bold flight of creative imagination in varying folk song melodies, outstanding technical skill, and extraordinary expressiveness of musical pronunciation. “His playing was distinguished by its strength and classical evenness of tone; with extraordinary speed and courage, she exuded at the same time tender sincerity and melodiousness. He played completely freely, without the slightest effort; it was as if there were no difficulties for him, [...] he struck with the originality of his melodious legato and the luxury of arpeggios, in which he combined the power of the harp with the melodiousness of the violin; a special original style of composition affected his playing; his playing fascinated, captivated the listener and left an indelible impression forever [...] Vysotsky had another kind of playing that surprised his contemporaries: he himself called it "probes" or "chords". Actually it was a free prelude. He could prelude in the most luxurious passages, modulations, with an infinite wealth of chords, and in this respect he was tireless,” V. A. Rusanov wrote about him.
M. T. Vysotsky created many arrangements and transcriptions of works by classical composers, in particular, works by W. A. Mozart, L. Beethoven, D. Field, wrote many miniatures for the guitar - preludes, fantasies, pieces in dance genres. The most valuable part of his composer's heritage was the variations on the themes of Russian folk songs, which will be discussed further.
The musician was a representative of the improvisational-auditory manner of performance, and in this he is close to traditional Russian folk music-making. The highly artistic variations on the themes of Russian folk songs, which are often performed today, were not recorded by him himself and only later were recorded in the musical text by his students (V. A. Rusanov also noted the unusual improvisational art of the guitarist: “Once, having come to A. I. Dubuc during the lesson and hearing Kramer's etudes performed by his student, Vysotsky was delighted and, grabbing a guitar, began to reproduce and vary these etudes so that A. I. Dubuc was amazed. He advised Vysotsky to write down this fantasy and himself accepted into active participation in this).
The pedagogical method of M. T. Vysotsky was also corresponding, which consisted in transferring the skills of playing the instrument exclusively “from the hands” and “from the fingers” of the teacher, based on the auditory impressions of the students. Nevertheless, his pedagogical work was very fruitful. The inspirational manner of the guitarist's performing style created a truly creative atmosphere in the lessons, inspired students and was greatly appreciated by those who happened to study with him (Vysotsky recorded his teaching experience shortly before his death in the "Practical and Theoretical School for the Guitar", published in Moscow in 1836, however, neither in terms of the significance of methodological recommendations, nor in terms of the volume and sequence of the presented repertoire (there are only 24 pages in the school) big role she did not play in the formation of Russian guitar performance.). Guitar lessons were taken from him, in particular, by the sixteen-year-old poet M. Yu. Lermontov, who dedicated the poem “Sounds” to his teacher.
The guitarist actively cultivated in his students a love for Russian folk songs. It is no coincidence that among his students was Mikhail Aleksandrovich Stakhovich (1819-1858), a well-known Russian folklorist, author of folk song collections with guitar accompaniment, poet and writer, who also wrote the first published book on the origin of Russian guitar performance - “An Essay on the History of the Seven-String Guitar "(St. Petersburg, 1864). Ivan Egorovich Lyakhov (1813-1877), the author of a number of plays and arrangements, Alexander Alekseevich Vetrov, the creator of the collection “100 Russian Folk Songs”, plays and arrangements for the seven-string guitar, folk song variation cycles, were also students of M. T. Vysotsky. Many guitarists-leaders of gypsy choirs, such as I. O. Sokolov, F. I. Gubkin and others, also studied with M. T. Vysotsky.
From the second half of the 19th century, Russian guitar art, like the art of the gusel, began to decline. But if the psaltery began to disappear from everyday music-making, then the guitar, remaining an equally unchanged accompanying instrument in the field of urban song and romance, gypsy singing, gradually lost its importance in domestic society due to a decrease in the professional level of guitarists. During this period of time, such outstanding performers and teachers as Sikhra, Vysotsky or Aksenov did not appear, serious methodological manuals almost ceased to be published, and the self-instruction books published were mostly designed for the unpretentious needs of lovers of everyday music making and contained only popular samples of romances, songs, dances, often of low quality (In this regard, it is interesting to cite the observation of A. S. Famintsyn: “Having become an instrument of haberdashery among the lower strata of society, a sign of petty-bourgeois civilization, the guitar became vulgar, its sounds began to serve to accompany banal “sensitive” romances. The guitar playing itself, on this "servant" instrument, the subject of trade of tobacco shops, - became a sign of bad taste in society; the guitar completely disappeared from it").
A new surge of public interest in the guitar in Russia occurred at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. During these years, the activities of prominent guitarists, performers and teachers are widely known. Among them, first of all, I would like to name Alexander Petrovich Solovyov (1856-1911). The “School for the Seven-String Guitar” (1896) created and published by him became an important contribution to the development of teaching methods for playing the instrument (In 1964, the school of A.P. Solovyov was republished (under the editorship of R.F. Meleshko) by the Muzyka publishing house.) . The first part of the manual includes extensive theoretical material; divided into twenty-five lessons, it is presented in a very professional and at the same time accessible way. The further parts of the school contain valuable technical exercises and repertoire - transcriptions of works of Russian and Western European classics, folk song arrangements.
Alexander Petrovich Solovyov
In addition, A.P. Solovyov made a huge number of arrangements for the guitar, which significantly expanded the audience's understanding of the artistic means of the instrument. Suffice it to mention the Second and Sixth Hungarian Rhapsodies by F. Liszt, "Dance of Death" by C. Saint-Saens, the works of L. Beethoven, F. Chopin, F. Mendelssohn. He also published four albums containing forty arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs, collections of gypsy romances for voice and guitar, pieces for duet, trio and guitar quartet, wrote more than three hundred compositions, of which eighty-five have been published.
Among the famous students of A.P. Solovyov, Vasily Mikhailovich Yuriev (1881-1962), Viktor Georgievich Uspensky (1879-1934), Vladimir Nilovich Berezkin (1881-1945), Mikhail Fedorovich Ivanov (1889-1953), Sergey Alexandrovich Kurlaev ( 1885-1962).
But Solovyov's brightest student was Valerian Alekseevich Gusanov (1866-1918). He was an unusually versatile personality: a teacher, author of musical compositions, and most importantly, a prominent historiographer and propagandist of the guitar (It is noteworthy that V. A. Rusanov also gained fame as the head of the Moscow Society of Folk Instruments Playing Lovers, within which he organized a folk - an instrumental orchestra, the composition is clearly different from that cultivated by V. V. Andreev and his associates, which will be discussed later. In this instrumental composition, balalaikas coexisted with mandolins, guitars and piano.).
It was V. A. Rusanov who managed to rally Russian guitarists by organizing the publication of the all-Russian magazine "Guitarist", which existed from 1904 to 1906. Them
many articles were written in the magazines Music of the Guitarist, Accord, informative detailed essays were published - Guitar and Guitarists, Catechism of the Guitar and a number of others. A particularly significant publication was his book "Guitar in Russia", where for the first time in domestic literature a very detailed history of the instrument is presented.
Valerian Alekseevich Rusanov
The pedagogical activity of V. A. Rusanov was also fruitful. His student was, for example, P. S. Agafoshin, who in the second half of the 1920s - 1930s became the leader of domestic teachers and methodologists in the field six-string guitar.
Among the guitarists of the early 20th century, I would like to mention Vasily Petrovich Lebedev (1867-1907), the author of many different compositions and arrangements for seven- and six-string guitars, a brilliant performer. I would like to note that in 1898 V. V. Andreev invited him to work as a teacher of folk instruments and folk music in the Guards regiments of the St. Petersburg Military District.
Here V.P. Lebedev conducted the most diverse musical and educational work. He performed as a soloist on the seven-string guitar in concerts of the Great Russian Orchestra, loved its chamber and gentle sound (V.P. Lebedev's tour with the Great Russian Orchestra of V.V. Andreev at the World Exhibition of 1900 in Paris had a special success.). In 1904, he also published a methodological manual - "School for the seven-string guitar of the Russian and Spanish system" (the latter meant adding the lower string "P" to the classical six-string guitar).
Thus, the guitar art during the 19th and especially at the beginning of the 20th century played an equally important role in the musical and artistic education of the broad masses, as did the art of playing the domra or the balalaika. Therefore, being addressed to the general population of Russia, it was able to provide reliable steps in the movement towards the musical elite, and, consequently, acquired the most important qualities of a folk instrument in terms of its social status.
Six-string (Spanish) and seven-string (Russian) guitar
The guitar is one of the most beloved and popular instruments in many countries around the world. The history of guitar art is filled with rich events, creative searches, constant improvement of both the instrument itself and the technique of playing it.
The guitar took on its appearance, close to modern, only in the 18th century. Plucked instruments such as the lute, lyre, Greek cithara, Italian viola and Spanish vihuela are rightfully considered its predecessors.
Currently, there are several main varieties of guitar: classical six-string ("Spanish"), seven-string ("Russian"), as well as "Hawaiian", jazz guitar, electric guitar.
The birthplace of the most common six-string guitar in the world is Spain, the seven-string guitar is rightly considered Russia.
Among lovers of guitar art, discussions still do not stop: which of these instruments should be preferred? Supporters of the six-string guitar point to the great virtuosity of their instrument, to the really significant creative success achieved by composers and performers using it. Fans of the seven-string guitar also refer to the great achievements of musicians and the performance traditions that developed in the artistic culture of Russia in the 19th century, emphasizing the closeness of the instrument to the nature of Russian song, folk melos. They rightly note the fact that the development of the genre of the old Russian romance with its characteristic soft lyricism and sincerity, warmth of feelings, proximity to urban folklore is largely due to the seven-string guitar.
In our opinion, the answer to the questions posed is quite unambiguous: both the six-string guitar and the seven-string guitar have their own merits and traditions, each of these instruments can solve a variety of artistic tasks. The legitimacy of using one or another type of guitar can only depend on what means of expression the composer needs to embody the creative idea, what figurative content he wants to reveal with its help.
Guitar literature has a long history and traditions. Arrangements of works written for other instruments, as well as for its immediate predecessors, in particular for the lute, occupy a prominent place in the repertoire of guitarists.
The outstanding Spanish virtuoso guitarist and teacher Andres Torres Segovia (1893 - 1987), considered the founder of the modern academic school of playing the six-string guitar
Many violin compositions are successfully interpreted by guitarists. So, for example, Andres Segovia is an unsurpassed performer of J. S. Bach's most difficult Chaconne, one of the masterpieces of violin music.
But the most important thing: for the guitar there is a constantly growing original solo repertoire, consisting of concertos, sonatas, variations, pieces; it is actively used by composers as an ensemble and accompanying instrument.
An important role in the creation of the guitar repertoire belongs to Spanish composers: Fernando Sora (1778-1839), Francisco Tarrega Eixea (1852-1909), Miguel Llobet (1878-1938), Emilio Pujol Villarubi (b. 1886) and a number of others. They created talented works for the guitar, the style of which had a certain influence on the piano compositions of C. Debussy, M. Ravel. Remarkable works for the guitar were written by N. Paganini, F. Schubert, K. M. Weber, G. Berlioz; in our century - M. de Falley, A. Roussel, D. Millau, A. Jolivet, E. Vila Lobos, X. Rodrigo.
A number of significant works for the guitar have been written Soviet composers. Among them I would like to name Concerto for guitar with string quartet, clarinet and timpani by B. Asafiev, Sonata by V. Shebalin. Works for the guitar were created by I. Boldyrev, Yu. Obedov, L. Birnov, N. Chaikin, Yu. Shishakov, G. Kamaldinov and other composers.
The history of the seven-string guitar, which became widespread in Russia, is interesting. She entered the musical life widely. Home music-making was not complete without a guitar, romances and songs were sung to its accompaniment, used as a solo and ensemble instrument.
The heyday of the art of playing the seven-string guitar is associated with the activities of A. Sikhra (1773-1850) and M. Vysotsky (c. 1791-1837), major musicians of their time. They enjoyed the sympathy and love of the Russian public, the respect and appreciation of figures of national culture.
The students of Sichra made their contribution to the art of playing the guitar. Among them, it is necessary to note the guitarist and composer S. Aksenov (1784-1853), who published the "New magazine for the seven-string guitar, dedicated to music lovers"; V. Svintsov (d. c. 1880), who became one of the first professional performers on the seven-string guitar; F. Zimmermann (1810-1882), known for his wonderful improvisations; V. Morkov (1801-1864), author of works and transcriptions for the seven-string guitar.
The art of playing the six-string guitar is also developing in Russia. M. Sokolovsky (1818-1883) was a remarkable performer on it, whose concert activity was held with great success both in Russia and in many European countries. The performer and popularizer of the classical six-string guitar N. Makarov (1810-1890) also enjoyed considerable fame.
Russian Soviet virtuoso guitarist and teacher Pyotr Spiridonovich Agafoshin (1874 - 1950)
However, in the second half of the 19th century, both in Europe and in Russia, there was a weakening of interest in the guitar on the part of professional musicians, it is increasingly regarded as an instrument that does not have great artistic significance, and therefore does not deserve attention, its expressive possibilities and originality is underestimated.
A new flourishing of guitar art takes place already in the 20th century and affects all areas: composing music, performing, pedagogy. The guitar occupies an equal place along with other instruments on the concert stage. To promote guitar art and the activities of guitarist musicians, special magazines are being published in Russia: "Guitarist", "Guitarist's Music". They contain information that has not lost its significance in our time.
In recent decades in different countries international competitions and festivals of guitarists are held, guitar classes are open in many academies of music and conservatories, numerous societies and associations of performers, professionals and amateurs function, special book and musical literature is published. Guitar music is constantly heard on radio and television, recorded on records and compact cassettes.
The leading place among the guitarists of our century deservedly belongs to the great Spanish musician Andres Segovia (b. 1893). His multifaceted performing, teaching, educational activities, the creation of transcriptions had a huge impact on the further development of guitar art.
Repeatedly Segovia visited the Soviet Union. His concerts, which were always successful, contributed to the revival of interest in the guitar in our country, clearly demonstrated the significant technical and artistic capabilities of the instrument, stimulated the performing, teaching and composing activities of such Soviet musicians as P. Agafoshin (1874-1950), P. Isakov (1886-1958), V. Yashnev (1879-1962), A. Ivanov-Kramskoy (1912-1973).
Soviet virtuoso guitarist and teacher Alexander Mikhailovich Ivanov-Kramskoy (1912 - 1973)
I would especially like to note the importance for the development of the Soviet guitar school of the Honored Artist of the RSFSR Alexander Mikhailovich Ivanov-Kramskoy. The author of two concertos for guitar and orchestra and over a hundred pieces for this instrument, A. Ivanov-Kramskoy successfully combined concert activities, radio recordings and gramophone records with pedagogy. Within the walls of the music school at the Moscow State Conservatory named after P. I. Tchaikovsky, he prepared whole line interesting musicians. A. Ivanov-Kramskoy released "The School of Playing the Six-String Guitar", which played an important role in the training of young guitarists.
At present, the classical six-string guitar is actively promoted by P. Veshchitsky, N. Komoliatov, E. Larichev, A. Frauchi, B. Khlopovsky and many other guitarists.
V. Sazonov (1912-1969), M. Ivanov (1889-1953), V. Yuryev (1881-1962) made a great contribution to the development and promotion of the seven-string guitar; today - B. Okunev, S. Orekhov, L. Menro and a number of other musicians.
In our country, in concert practice, both six-string and seven-string guitar. Education is provided in a number of higher and secondary specialized educational institutions, in many children's and evening music schools, studios and circles at the Palaces of Pioneers and Schoolchildren and club institutions.
The art of playing the guitar is constantly developing abroad. M. Zelenka, V. Mikulka (Czechoslovakia), L. Sendrei-Karper (Hungary) are famous; 3. Behrend (Germany), L. Brouwer (Cuba), D. Blanke, M. Cubedo, A. Membrado (Spain), D. Brim, D. Williams (Great Britain), M. L. Anido, E. Bitetti ( Argentina), A. Diaz (Venezuela) and many other performers.
With the development in the 20th century of jazz and pop instrumental music The jazz guitar, which became an electric musical instrument in the 1930s, also became widespread. It is used in a wide variety of jazz and pop ensembles and orchestras, folklore groups, and solo works are also performed on it.
In our country, the development of jazz guitar is associated with the names of the father and son Kuznetsov, Alexei Yakushev, Stanislav Kashirin and a number of other musicians.
The guitar is one of the main instruments in vocal and instrumental ensembles. It is used by soloists and ensembles performing songs of struggle for peace, for national independence against imperialist oppression.
A vivid example of the impact on the hearts and minds of people is the art of the Chilean singer and guitarist Victor Jara, who gave his life in the struggle for democracy and social progress in his homeland.
Guitar art is constantly evolving, the literature for this instrument is constantly updated with new original works in a variety of genres. The great popularity of the guitar, its significant virtuoso and expressive possibilities give grounds to assume a further flourishing of the art of playing this democratic instrument.
Related to the II millennium BC. They depict instruments with a small body made of tortoise shell or gourd.
In ancient Egypt, guitar-like instruments were so closely associated with the life of the people that they became a symbol of goodness, and their outlines entered the hieroglyphic signs, denoting "good".
There is an assumption that the guitar appeared in the Middle East and from there spread throughout Asia and Europe.
Russia was introduced to the six-string guitar by Italians who served at the court of monarchs and court nobility. History has preserved the names of two Italians - Giuseppe Sarti and Carlo Canobbio. Italian composer Giuseppe Sarti, according to Countess V.N. Golovina, willingly played the guitar. Carlo Canobbio taught the three daughters of Paul I to play the guitar, receiving a very solid reward for these lessons - 1 thousand rubles a year.
There were still few fans of the guitar then. The Italian virtuoso musician Pasquale Gagliani, who performed in the salons of the court nobility, managed to somewhat expand the circle of instrument lovers. After several years of his activity in Rossi, Galliani released a collection of etudes and exercises - something like a guitar textbook.
The Italians tried to process folk songs for the guitar, but they did not succeed well: the six-string guitar was not fully adapted to the structure of Russian folk music. That is why, at about the same time, the Russian seven-string guitar appears.
In 1821 Marcus Aurelius Zani de Ferranti (1800-1878) came to Russia. Niccolo Paganini, who heard many guitar virtuosos, assessed Zani de Ferranti's playing as follows: "I testify that Zani de Ferranti is one of the greatest guitarists I have ever heard and who gave me inexpressible pleasure with his wonderful, delightful playing." It is to this guitarist that Russia owes the fact that the six-string guitar has become widely known here. The musician gave concerts a lot, and he had to play in large halls. He was also a ball composer - he composed nocturnes, fantasies, dance music. Tsani de Ferranti gave guitar lessons to those who wished, but only the initial ones, without his task of turning a student into a professional guitarist.
Unlike the seven-string one, its six-string variety developed in Russia in the 17th-19th centuries almost exclusively as a professional academic instrument and was little oriented towards the transmission of urban songs and everyday romance.
At the beginning of the 19th century, schools and manuals for the six-string guitar by I. Geld and I. Berezovsky appeared, in which for the most part reliance was found on the Spanish and Italian classics - guitar works by Mauro Giuliani, Matteo Carcassi, Luigi Legnani, Ferdinando Carulli, Fernando Sora, on transcriptions piano music of outstanding Western European composers. A significant role in the distribution of the six-string guitar in Russia was played by the tour of outstanding foreign guitarists - in 1822, performances by the Italian Mauro Giuliani took place in St. Petersburg, and in 1923 in Moscow by the Spaniard Ferdinand Sor.
Western musicians awakened in Russia an interest in the classical guitar. The concert posters began to appear the names of our compatriots. The largest Russian performers, propagandists of the six-string guitar were Nikolai Petrovich Makarov (1810 - 1890) and Mark Danilovich Sokolovsky (1818 - 1883).
N.P. Makarov was born in the Kostroma province, in the family of a landowner. In 1829 he was lucky enough to hear Paganini play, and in 1830 he attended a Chopin concert.
Niccolo Paganini shocked Makarov so much that none of the subsequent musicians could overshadow the impression of his playing.
N.P. Makarov set out to achieve first-class guitar playing. The musician was engaged in 01 - 12 hours daily. In 1841, his first concert took place in Tula. Not finding recognition and even serious attention to himself as a guitarist, he goes on a tour of Europe. In many countries of the world, N.P. Makarov gained fame as an excellent virtuoso guitarist, a brilliant interpreter of the most complex guitar compositions. During his tours, the musician met with prominent foreign guitarists: Tzani de Ferranti, Matteo Carcassi, Napoleon Cost.
To revive the former glory of the guitar, Makarov decides to organize an international competition in Europe. In Brussels, he arranges a competition for guitar composers and masters. Before the competition, the guitarist gives his own concert, where he performs his own compositions and works by other authors. Makarov played a ten-string guitar.
Thanks to this competition, the musician managed to noticeably intensify work in the field of guitar music a number of Western European composers and guitar makers, to contribute to the creation of new constructive varieties of the instrument.
Makarov is the author of a number of essays and literary memoirs. He published his own books and his own musical plays such as Carnival of Venice, mazurkas, romances, Concerto for guitar, arrangements of folk songs. However, the music he created was not very expressive and was not widely used. In 1874, his "several rules of higher guitar playing" were published. The brochure contained valuable advice on improving guitar technique: playing trills, harmonics, chromatic scales, using the little finger in the game, etc.
Another Russian guitarist, Mark Danilovich Sokolovsky (1812 - 1883), did not seek to impress the audience with complex technical techniques. Listeners were captivated by his exceptional musicality.
As a child, Sokolovsky played the violin and cello, then began to play the guitar. Having mastered the instrument to a sufficient extent, in 1841 he began an active concert activity. His concerts were held in Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Vilna, Moscow, St. Petersburg. In 1857, the guitarist was given the opportunity to perform in Moscow in the thousand-seat hall of the Noble Assembly. In 1860, he was oud called "the favorite of the Moscow public." From 1864 to 1868 the musician tours the cities of Europe. He gives concerts in London, Paris, Berlin and other cities. Everywhere he is accompanied by a huge success. The triumphant tour of the musician brought him the fame of one of the largest guitarists. It is noteworthy that in many of Sokolovsky's performances, his accompanist was the outstanding Russian pianist N.G. Rubinstein.
Among the qualities that distinguished Sokolovsky's performing style, first of all, it is necessary to single out the subtlety of nuance, the diversity of the timbre palette, the high virtuosity and warmth of the cantilena. These qualities were especially manifested in his interpretation of three concertos by M. Giuliani, as well as in the performance of transcriptions piano pieces F. Chopin and his own miniatures, in many respects close to Chopin's style - preludes, polonaises, variations, etc. The last public concert of M. D. Sokolovsky took place in St. Petersburg in 1877, and then the musician settled in Vilnius, where he was engaged in teaching activities.
Concert performances of domestic guitarists N.P. Makarov and M.D. Sokolovsky became an important means of musical education for numerous fans of this instrument in Russia.
Seven-string guitar in the 18th-19th centuries
At home, they usually accompanied the guitar by ear - such an accompaniment from the simplest harmonic functions was elementary and, with this tuning, was extremely accessible. The authors of songs and romances were most often little-known amateur musicians, but sometimes prominent composers of the 19th century - A. Varlamov, A. Gurilev, A. Alyabyev, A. Dubuk, A. Bulakhov and others.
The seven-string guitar also played an important role in the music of the gypsies. Magnificent guitarists were the leaders of the gypsy choirs - I. Sokolov, I. Vasiliev, M. Shishkin, R. Kalabin.
A special place in the history of the Russian guitar belongs to Ignatius Geld (1766 - 1816), the author of the first "School" for the Russian seven-string guitar. A Czech by nationality, he lived almost his entire creative life in Russia and managed to do a lot to popularize the seven-string guitar as a serious academic instrument.
From the end of the 18th century, the seven-string guitar began to develop as an academic instrument. Major compositions for guitar appear. So, in 1799 the Sonata of I. Kamensky was published, at the beginning of the 19th century - the Sonata for two guitars of V. Lvov. In the first half of the 19th century, guitar literature was produced in such quantity that it outnumbered literature for other musical instruments, even for the pianoforte. Various guitar pieces were published, which were placed in instructional and methodological manuals or came out in separate editions. Such, for example, are numerous miniatures, mainly in dance genres - mazurkas, waltzes, ecossaises, polonaises, serenades, divertissements, created by the famous guitarist-teacher and methodologist Ignatius Geld.
Some well-known Russian composers of the second half of the 18th - early 19th centuries were fond of playing the seven-string guitar. Among them are Ivan Evstafievich Khandoshkin (1747 - 1804), who composed a number of variations on the themes of Russian folk songs for the instrument, and Gavriil Andreevich Rachinsky (1777 - 1843), who published ten pieces for the seven-string guitar in 1817. Among them are five polonaises and two cycles of variations on the themes of Russian folk songs. At the same time, works by now forgotten composers - Gornostaev - were published for the instrument. Konovkina, Maslova.
The true flowering of professional performance on the seven-string guitar falls on the years of creative activity of the outstanding teacher-guitarist Andrei Osipovich Sikhra (1773 - 1850). A harpist by training, he devoted his entire life to promoting the guitar. Being engaged exclusively in music, Andrei Osipovich already in his early youth became famous both as a virtuoso performer and as a composer. Sychra composed not only for harp and guitar, but also for piano.
At the end of the 18th century, Sychra moved to Mostka and became an energetic and active promoter of his musical instrument. His guitar immediately finds many admirers among the Moscow public. Here, in Moscow, his “early” Moscow school is being formed: he teaches many students, studies himself, improves his instrument, creates a variety of methodological material, lays the foundation for the repertoire for the seven-string guitar, and performs with students in concerts. Many of his students themselves subsequently became outstanding guitarists and composers, continuing the work begun by their great teacher. Followers of A.O. Sichry - S.N. Aksenov, V.I. Morkov, V.S. Sarenko, F.M. Zimmerman - created many plays and arrangements of Russian folk songs.
From 1800 until the end of his life, A.O. Sychra published many pieces for this instrument, these are arrangements of popular arias, dance music, the most complex fantasies of the concert plan. Sychra's work developed in all aspects. He created pieces for guitar solo, for a duet of guitars, for violin and guitar, including fantasies on the themes of famous and fashionable composers, fantasies on the themes of Russian folk songs, original works, including mazurkas, waltzes, ecossaises, quadrilles, exercises. Sykhra performed transcriptions and arrangements of M.I. Glinka, V.A. Mozart, G. Donizetti, K. Weber, D. Rossini, D. Verdi.
A.O. Sichra was the first to establish the seven-string guitar as a solo academic instrument, doing a lot for the aesthetic education of a wide range of amateur guitarists.
In 1802, A.O. Sychry”, which published arrangements of Russian folk songs, transcriptions of musical classics. In subsequent years, until 1838, the musician publishes a number of similar magazines, contributing to a significant increase in the popularity of the instrument.
In addition to a huge number of works for the seven-string guitar, Sychra left the "School", which he wrote at the insistence of his student V.I. Carrot. It was published in 1840.
The main figure of the Sichra school is Semyon Nikolaevich Aksenov (1784 - 1853). At one time, no one surpassed him in mastery of the instrument and composition. In Moscow, the musician was considered the best virtuoso guitarist. Aksenov's playing was remarkable for its extraordinary melodiousness, warmth of tone and, along with this, great virtuosity. Possessing an inquisitive mind, he looked for new techniques on the instrument. So, he developed a system of artificial flageolets. The musician had an amazing gift of onomatopoeia on the instrument. Aksyonov portrayed the singing of birds, the sound of a drum, the chime of bells, the approaching and receding choir, etc. With these sound effects, he led the audience into amazement. Unfortunately, Aksyonov's plays of this kind have not come down to us.
The educational activity of S.N. Aksenova. Beginning in 1810, he published the New Journal for the Seven-String Guitar, Dedicated to Music Lovers, which included many transcriptions of popular opera arias and variations on the themes of Russian folk songs. Aksyonov also created romances for voice accompanied by a guitar.
Aksyonov brought up the brilliantly gifted guitarist Mikhail Vysotsky, who soon brought fame to the Moscow school of Russian guitarists.
The creative activity of Mikhail Timofeevich Vysotsky (1791 - 1837) played a big role in the development of professional and academic Russian guitar performance.
The musician's playing could be heard not only in secular salons and merchant meetings. The guitarist also played for the general public from his apartment window, especially in recent years, when he was in great need. These concerts contributed to the spread of the seven-string guitar among the middle class and artisans.
The musician had an amazing gift as an improviser. Vysotsky could improvise for hours with an endless wealth of chords and modulations.
The guitarist also composed dance music that was fashionable in his time: mazurkas, polonaises, waltzes, ecossaises. All these pieces are very graceful and musical. Vysotsky performed transcriptions of works by V.A. Mozart, L. Beethoven, D. Field. The musician published his compositions in small editions and without reprinting, and therefore the collections sold out instantly and almost immediately became a bibliographic rarity. Only a few of Vysostky's handwritten compositions have survived, as well as 84 plays published in Gutheil's edition.
The first self-instruction manuals for playing the seven-string guitar in Russia appeared at the end of the 18th century. In St. Petersburg in 1798, I. Geld's "Semantic Guide for the Seven-String Guitar" was published, which was repeatedly reprinted and supplemented with new material. The third edition was expanded with 40 arrangements of Russian and Ukrainian folk songs. In 1808, a "school for the seven-string guitar" by D.F. Kushenov-Dmitrievsky was released in St. Petersburg. This collection has since been reprinted several times. In 1850, A.O. Sikhra’s “Theoretical and Practical School for the Seven-String Guitar” was published in three parts. The first part was called “On the Rules of Music in General”, the second contained technical exercises, scales and arpeggios, the third part contained musical material, mainly consisting of compositions by the students of Sykhra. Another important instructive and pedagogical manual was “Practical rules consisting in four exercises” by A.O. Sychry. This is a kind of higher school for improving the technical skills of a guitarist.
In 1819, S.N. Aksenov made significant additions to the next reprint of I. Geld's "School". A chapter on natural and artificial harmonics was added, many new pieces, etudes and arrangements of folk songs were introduced, including own composition. Various manuals for learning the seven-string guitar were released by V.I. Morkov, M.T. Vysotsky and other guitarists of the first half of the 19th century.
In Russia, the seven-string guitar existed in parallel - both as an academic and as a folk instrument. In the first decades of the 19th century, the seven-string guitar, being an expression of the traditional layer of home music-making, was distributed mainly among workers, artisans, apprentices, and various types of service people - coachmen, lackeys. The instrument becomes for the general population an instrument of education and familiarization with musical culture.
Since the 1840s, guitar art, like the art of guselny, begins to decline. But if the psaltery began to disappear from everyday music-making, then the guitar, remaining an equally unchanged accompanying instrument in the field of urban song, romance and gypsy singing, gradually lost its social qualities of the people due to a decrease in the professional level of guitarists. In the second half of the century, there were no such bright performers and teachers as A.O. Sychra, S.N. Aksenov and M.T. Vysotsky. Substantial methodological manuals have almost ceased to be printed, and the published tutorials were mostly designed for the unpretentious needs of lovers of everyday music making and contained only samples popular romances, songs, dances, most often of low artistic quality.
The formation of performance on the Russian domra
Although the name “domra” itself became famous only in the 16th century, the first information about plucked fingerboard (tanbur-shaped) instruments in Rus' has been reaching us since the 10th century. Tanbur among the Russians folk instruments described by the Arab traveler of the tenth century, Ibn Dasta, who visited Kyiv between 903 and 912.
The first mention of domra that has come down to us dates back to 1530. The "Teachings of Metropolitan Daniel" speaks of playing the domra, along with playing the harp and smyk (beeps) of church servants. By the beginning of the 17th century, even the gusli, so beloved by the people, “greatly gave way to domrams” in their popularity. In Moscow in the 17th century, there was a “house row” where domras were sold. Consequently, the need for these tools was so great that it was necessary to organize a number of shops for their sale. The information that domras were made in large quantities, and not only in Moscow, can be convincingly confirmed by customs books, in which daily fees were recorded in the local markets of the Russian state.
Domra in Rus' fell into the thick of people's life. It has become a public, democratic tool. The lightness and small size of the instrument, its sonority (they always played the domra with a plectrum), rich artistic technical capabilities - all this was to the liking of buffoons, Domra sounded everywhere in those days: in peasant and royal courts, in hours of fun and moments of sadness. “I am glad to skomra about my domra,” says an old Russian proverb.
Buffoons were often instigators and participants in popular unrest. That is why the clergy, and then the rulers of the state, took up arms against their art so much.
For almost 100 years (from 1470 to 1550) it was forbidden to play musical instruments in eight royal decrees. The persecution of buffoons and their music intensified especially in the XV - XVII century x - during periods of organized protests by peasants against the tsarist government and landlords (peasant wars led by Ivan Bolotnikov and Stepan Razin).
In 1648, a charter was issued by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, in which measures were legalized to excommunicate the people from musical instruments: “And where will domras and surns, and horns, and harps, and holy honking vessels, and you would order those demonic vessels to be seized and, having cracked those demonic games, he ordered them to be burned.
In the summer and autumn of 1654, at the direction of Patriarch Nikon, a mass seizure of musical instruments from the “black” was carried out. They were being destroyed everywhere. Gusli, horns, domras, pipes, tambourines were brought across the Moscow River and burned.
Due to the royal decrees on the prohibition of playing folk instruments, in the middle of the 17th century, the production of domras by specialist craftsmen ceased. Severe punishment followed for the manufacture and even for the storage of tools. With the eradication of the art of buffoons, the professional performance of domrache musicians also disappears.
However, thanks to the art of buffoons. Domra has gained wide popularity among the people. She penetrated into the most remote and deaf villages.
In the manuscripts of the 16th - 17th centuries there are numerous illustrations with images of folk instruments, in particular, domras and performers on them - domracheev. These illustrations indicate that at that time domra was among the most common musical instruments in Rus'.
Old Russian domra in the XVI - XVII centuries existed in two versions: it could have a shape extremely close to the modern domra, and the other was a kind of lute - a multi-stringed instrument with a large body, a rather short neck and a head bent back.
Historical documents of that time testify to the joint performance on domra, as well as the coexistence of varieties of domra: small, medium and large domra. They played the domra with a sliver or a feather.
The 16th century is the period of the widest distribution of the old Russian skomorosh domra. Lubok pictures dating back to the beginning of the 18th century often depicted two jesters-buffoons - Foma and Yerema. In the hands of one of them you can see a stringed plucked instrument. It has a small oval body and a narrow neck. Researcher of the Russian popular print, prominent art historian D.A. Rovinsky, as explanations for the drawings, cites a whole verse story about Thomas and Yerema. It says: "Yerema has a harp, and Foma has a domra."
Domra often sounded in the open air and, moreover, sometimes in an ensemble with louder instruments in terms of dynamics.
When comparing all the images of the ancient Russian domra and similar instruments of other peoples, it is important to pay attention to the extremely interesting feature: all instruments are kobza (the instrument was common in Ukraine in the 16th-17th centuries, had a large oval or semicircular body and a neck with 5-6 strings stretched on it, with a head bent back - that is, a lute type, or an instrument with a small body and 3 - 4 strings), oriental domras and others - are presented exclusively as solo ones. Other instruments are not shown anywhere along with them. Nevertheless, the images of the old Russian domra of the 16th - 17th centuries speak of its use in joint play with other instruments. The ancient domra was an instrument intended primarily for collective music-making and existed in various tessitura varieties. For example, the miniatures that have come down to us depict domras of various sizes. Domra with a small body corresponds to the size of modern small domra. In ancient drawings, there is an image of a domra with an even smaller body: it is possible that this “domrishko” is an instrument with a very high tessitura.
In the second half of the 18th century, domra gradually disappears from people's memory.
Balalaika in the 18th – 19th centuries
With the disappearance of the very name "domra" in the last third of the 17th century - in 1688 - the first mention of balalaikas appears. The people needed a stringed plucked instrument similar to a domra, easy to manufacture and with a sonorous, rhythmically clear sound. That's right, made in a home-made artisanal way, and fuss a new version of domra - balalaika.
Balalaika appeared in the second half of the 17th century as a folk version of domra. Already in the 18th century, it gained extraordinary popularity, becoming, according to the historian J. Shtelin, "the most common instrument throughout the Russian country." A number of circumstances contributed to this - the loss of the leading significance of the previously existing instruments (harp, domra, beep), the availability and ease of mastering the balalaika, the simplicity of its manufacture.
Folk balalaikas in various provinces of Russia differed in their form. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, balalaikas with a round (truncated from below) and oval body, which were made from pumpkin, were popular. Along with them, in the 18th century, instruments with a triangular body began to appear more and more often. Their images are given in various popular prints. There were instruments with a quadrangular and trapezoidal body, with the number of strings from 2 to 5 (copper or intestinal). The material for the manufacture of tools was various types of wood, and in the southern regions pumpkin. Varieties of balalaikas and systems differed. There were three-stringed balalaikas of fourth, fifth, mixed fourth-fifth and terts tunings. 4 - 5 movable frets were imposed on the fretboard.
The primitive balalaikas that existed among the people were made handicraft, they had a diatonic scale and very limited capabilities.
The dimensions of the balalaikas were often such that they had to be kept in a sling: width 0 1 foot, the so-called. about 30.5 cm long, 1.5 feet (46 cm) long, and the neck exceeded "at least 4 times the length of the body", i.e. reached 1.5 meters. They played the balalaika by plucking individual strings, by rattling, and also with the help of a plectrum - a typical way of playing in the 18th century.
During the second half of the 18th century, the instrument spread both in the amateur sphere and among professional musicians. Along with the wide existence of the people, the balalaika already in this period met in "eminent" houses and even participated in musical arrangement festive court ceremonies. The repertoire of urban balalaika players at that time included not only folk songs and dances, but also works of so-called secular music: arias, minuets, Polish dances, as well as “works from andante, allegro and presto”.
The emergence of professional urban-type balalaika players dates back to this time. The first of these should be called the brilliant violinist Ivan Evstafievich Khandoshkin (1747 - 1804). The possibility of composing pieces for balalaika by this musician is not ruled out. Khandoshkin was an unsurpassed performer of Russian folk songs both on the violin and on the balalaika; behind him for a long time the reputation of the first balalaika virtuoso was preserved. It is known that it was Khandoshkin who brought such high-ranking nobles as Potemkin and Naryshkin into a "musical rage" with his instrument. In the beginning, Khandoshkin played a folk-style balalaika made of a gourd and glued inside with broken crystal, which gave the instrument a special sonority, and later on an instrument made by the wonderful violin maker Ivan Batov. It is quite possible that Batov's balalaika could have been not only with an improved body, but also with mortise frets. In the instrumental work of A.S. Famintsyn "Domra and related musical instruments" published the painting "People's performer with a triangular balalaika of the early 19th century", in which the musician plays an improved balalaika with seven mortise frets.
Among the well-known professional balalaika players, one can name the court violinist of Catherine II, I.F. Yablochkin, a student of Khandoshkin not only in violin, but also in balalaika. Undoubtedly, the outstanding balalaika player who composed pieces for this instrument was the Moscow violinist, composer and conductor Vladimir Ilyich Radivilov (1805 - 1863). Contemporaries testify that Radivilov improved the balalaika, making it four-stringed, and in “playing it he achieved such perfection that he surprised the audience. All overtures were his own composition.
The turn of the 18th - 19th centuries is the heyday of the art of playing the balalaika.
In the documents of this period, information appears confirming the existence of professional performers among the balalaika players, most of whom remained nameless.
We have received information about the outstanding balalaika player M.G. Khrunov, who played the "special design" balalaika. Contemporaries give an excellent assessment of the musician's playing, despite the dismissive attitude towards this simple folk instrument.
Printed publications name the names of several more balalaika players who masterfully owned this instrument. These are P.A. Bayer and A.S. Paskin is a landowner from the Tver province, as well as an outstanding performer, an Oryol landowner with an encrypted last name (P.A. La-ky), who played the “balalaika with inimitable technique, especially flaunting his harmonics. These musicians played instruments made by the best craftsmen.
The balalaikas that existed in the city differed from the common people; the performance itself was different. V.V. Andreev wrote that in the city he met seven-fret instruments, and that A.S. Paskin literally stunned him with his professional game, replete with original techniques and finds.
In the villages at parties, the game of the balalaika player was paid for in a clubbing. In many landowners' estates, a balalaika player was kept, who played for home entertainment.
At the beginning of the 19th century, an essay for balalaika appeared - variations on the theme of the Russian folk song "Elnik, my spruce forest". This work was written by a great lover of the balalaika, the famous opera singer of the Mariinsky Theater N.V. Lavrov ( real name Chirkin). The variations were published in French and dedicated to the then-famous composer A.A. Alyabiev. The title page indicates that the work was written for a three-string balalaika. This testifies to the wide popularity at that time. three-stringed instrument.
Historical documents confirm the fact that the balalaika acted as an ensemble instrument in various combinations with folk musical instruments - in duets with a beep, bagpipes, accordion, horn; in a trio - with a drum and spoons; in small orchestras consisting of violins, guitars and a tambourine; in ensembles with flutes and violins. The use of the balalaika in opera performances is also known. So, in M.M. Sokolovsky’s opera “The Miller, the Sorcerer, the Deceiver and the Matchmaker”, Melnik’s aria from the third act “The way the old man and the old woman walked” was performed to the accompaniment of a balalaika.
The popularity of the balalaika among the masses is reflected both in folk songs and in fiction. The instrument is mentioned in the works of A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov, F.I. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, I.Turgenev, N.V. Gogol and others.
By the middle of the 19th century, the popularity of the balalaika as a mass instrument began to fade. In its primitive form, the balalaika could no longer fully meet the new aesthetic demands. First, the seven-string guitar, and then the harmonica, ousted the balalaika from folk home music making. The process of gradual disappearance of the balalaika also begins in the folk musical life. From the ubiquitous distribution of the instrument, it increasingly turned into a subject of musical archeology.
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Ministry of Culture of Ukraine
Kharkiv State Academy of Culture
for admission to study for the degree of "Master"
guitar art historical phenomenon musical culture
Pikhulya Taras Olegovich
Kharkiv 2015
Plan
Introduction
1. Prerequisites for the formation and development of playing the classical guitar
1.1 The history of the emergence, development and improvement of guitar performance
1.2 The formation of guitar art in the USSR and Russia
2. The history of the emergence and evolution of the pop-jazz trend in art
2.1 Varieties of guitars used in pop-jazz art
2.2 The main directions of pop-jazz performance of the 60-70s
Bibliography
INconducting
Musical art of the XX century. developed rapidly and rapidly. The main characteristic features of this development were the assimilation of various styles and trends, the crystallization of a new musical language, new principles of composition, shaping, and the formation of various aesthetic platforms. This process involves not only composers, performers, art historians, but also millions of listeners for whom musical works are created.
The relevance of the topic is due to the consideration of classical and pop-jazz instrumental music from the point of view of the evolutionary development of guitar art, that is, the formation of new genres and trends.
The purpose of the study is to consider classical and pop-jazz instrumental music and their influence on the formation of new styles, performance skills and guitar culture in general.
Research objectives:
1) Consider the history of the emergence, development and formation of guitar culture in Europe, Russia, the USSR.
2) Consider the origins, origin and formation of new styles in pop-jazz art.
The object of the research is the formation of classical and pop-jazz instrumental music.
The methodological basis of the work is the method of intonational analysis, focused on the unity of musical and speech principles, as the basis of European, African and Russian artistic traditions.
The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the work is a study of the formation and evolution of guitar art and its influence on the formation of guitar culture.
The practical value of the work lies in the possibility of using its materials in the process of studying historical and theoretical musical disciplines.
1. PrerequisitesformationAnddevelopmentgamesonclassicalguitar
1.1 The history of the emergence, development and improvement of guitar performance
The history of the origin, development and improvement of this musical instrument is so amazing and mysterious that it is more like a thrilling detective story. The first information about the guitar dates back to ancient times. On the Egyptian monuments of a thousand years ago, there are images of a musical instrument - “nabla”, which looks like a guitar. The guitar was also widespread in Asia, which is confirmed by the images on the architectural monuments of Assyria, Babylon and Phoenicia. In the 13th century, the Arabs brought it to Spain, where it soon received full recognition. At the end of the 15th century, the wealthy families of Spain began to compete with each other in patronage of the sciences and art. The guitar, along with the lute and other plucked instruments, becomes a favorite instrument at courts. IN cultural life In Spain, starting from the 16th century, numerous associations, academies, circles and meetings - “salons”, which took place regularly, played an important role. From that time on, the passion for plucked instruments penetrated the broad masses of the people, and special musical literature was created for them. The names of the composers who represented her make up a long string: Milan, Corbetto, Fuenllana, Marin i Garcia, Sanz and many others.
Having gone a long way of development, the guitar took on a modern look. Until the 18th century, it was smaller, and its body was rather narrow and elongated. Initially, five strings were set on the instrument, tuned in fourths, like on a lute. Later, the guitar became a six-string, with a tuning more suitable for playing in open positions to better exploit the sound of the open strings. Thus, by the middle of the 19th century, the guitar had acquired its final form. Six strings appeared on it with a system: mi, si, salt, re, la, mi.
The guitar gained great popularity in Europe and was brought to the countries of North and South America. How to explain such a widespread use of the guitar? Mainly because it has great potential: it can be played solo, accompanied by voice, violin, cello, flute, it can be found in various orchestras and ensembles. Small dimensions and the possibility of easy movement in space and, most importantly, an unusually melodious, deep and at the same time transparent sound justifies the love for this universal musical instrument by a wide range of admirers from romantic tourists to professional musicians.
At the end of the 18th century, composers and virtuosos appeared in Spain
F. Sor and D. Aguado, simultaneously with them in Italy - M. Giuliani. L. Leniani, F. Carulli, M. Carcassi and others. They create an extensive concert repertoire for the guitar, ranging from small pieces to sonatas and concertos with an orchestra, as well as wonderful "Schools for playing the six-string guitar", an extensive educational and constructive repertoire. Although almost two hundred years have passed since the first publications of this pedagogical literature, it is still a valuable heritage for both teachers and students.
Composer Sor gives concerts with great success in the cities of Western Europe and Russia. His ballets Cinderella, The Lubok as a Painter, Hercules and Omphale, as well as the opera Telemachus have been staged many times in St. Petersburg, Moscow and large cities of Western Europe. Polyphonic style, rich imagination and depth of content characterize Sora's work. This is an educated musician-composer, a virtuoso guitarist who impressed with the depth of his performance and the brilliance of his technique. His compositions have firmly entered the repertoire of guitarists. The Italian Giuliani is one of the founders of the Italian guitar school. He was a brilliant guitarist and also a perfect violinist. When in 1813 Beethoven's seventh symphony was performed for the first time in Vienna under the baton of the author, Giuliani took part in its performance as a violinist. Beethoven held Giuliani in high esteem as a composer and musician. His sonatas, concertos with an orchestra are performed by modern guitarists, and pedagogical literature is a valuable heritage for both teachers and students.
I would especially like to dwell on the most famous and most frequently published in our country "School of Playing the Six-String Guitar" by the famous Italian guitarist-teacher, composer M. Carcassi. In the preface to the "School" the author says: "... I had no intention of writing a scientific work. I only wanted to make it easier to learn the guitar by laying out a plan that could make it possible to become more familiar with all the features of this instrument. According to these words, it is clear that M. Carcassi did not set himself the task of creating a universal manual for learning to play the guitar, and it is hardly possible at all. The "School" gives a number of valuable instructions on the technique of the left and right hands, various characteristic methods of playing the guitar, playing in different positions and keys. Musical examples and pieces are given sequentially, in ascending order of difficulty, they are written with great skill as a composer and teacher and are still of great value as educational material.
Although, from a modern point of view, this "School" has a number of serious shortcomings. For example, little attention has been paid to such an important technique of playing the right hand as apoyando (playing with support); the musical language, based on the music of the Western European tradition of the 18th century, is somewhat monotonous; the issues of development of fingering, melodic-harmonic thinking are practically not touched upon, we are only talking about the correct placement of the fingers of the left and right hands, which allows us to resolve many technical difficulties in performance, improve sound, phrasing, etc.
In the second half of the 19th century, a new bright name of the Spanish composer, virtuoso soloist and teacher Francisco Tarrega appeared in the history of the guitar. He creates his own style of writing. In his hands the guitar turns into a small orchestra.
The performance work of this remarkable musician influenced the work of his friends - composers: Albeniz, Granados, de Falla and others. In their piano works one can often hear imitation of the guitar. Poor health did not give Tarrega the opportunity to give concerts, so he devoted himself to teaching. We can safely say that Tarrega created his own school of guitar playing. Among his best students are Miguel Llobet, Emelio Pujol, Domenico Prat, Daniel Fortea, Illarion Lelupe and other famous concert players. To date, the "Schools" by E. Pujol, D. Fortea, D. Prat, I. Lelupe, I. Ahrens and P. Rocha, based on the Tarrega teaching method, have been published. Let's take a closer look at this method using the example of the "School of Playing the Six-String Guitar" by the famous Spanish guitarist, teacher and musicologist E. Pujol. A distinctive feature of the "School" is a generous, detailed presentation of all the main "secrets" of playing the classical guitar. The most essential issues of guitar technique have been carefully developed: the position of the hands, the instrument, the methods of sound production, playing techniques, etc. The sequence of the arrangement of the material contributes to the systematic technical and artistic preparation of the guitarist. The "School" is entirely built on the original musical material: almost all the etudes and exercises were composed by the author (taking into account the methodology of F. Tarrega) especially for the corresponding sections.
It is especially valuable that this educational publication not only details the difficulties of playing the guitar, but also describes in detail how to overcome them. In particular, a lot of attention is paid to the problem of using the correct fingering when playing with the right and left hand, as well as playing techniques in different positions, various movements, shifts of the left hand, which certainly contributes to the development of fingering thinking. The effectiveness of Pujol's "School" is confirmed, in particular, by the practice of its use in a number of educational institutions in our country, Europe and America.
Of great importance for the development of world guitar art was the creative activity of the greatest Spanish guitarist of the 20th century. Andres Segovia. The exceptional importance of his role in the history of the development of the instrument was not only his performing and pedagogical talents, but also his abilities as an organizer and propagandist. The researcher M. Weisbord writes: “…to establish the guitar as a concert instrument, it lacked what, for example, the piano or violin possessed - a highly artistic repertoire. The historical merit of Andres Segovia lies, first of all, in the creation of such a repertoire…”. And further: “M. Ponce (Mexico), M.K. Tedesco (Italy), J. Ibert, A. Roussel (France) K. Pedrel (Argentina), A. Tansman (Poland), and D. Duart (England), R. Smith (Sweden)…”. From this small and far from complete list composers, it is clear that it was thanks to A. Segovia that the geography of professional compositions for classical guitar rapidly expanded, and over time this instrument attracted the attention of many outstanding artists - E. Vila Lobos, B. Britten. On the other hand, there are whole constellations of talented composers who are also professional performers - A. Barrios, L. Brouwer, R. Dyens, N. Koshkin, etc.
1. 2 FormationguitarartVUSSRAndRussia
Today he has successfully toured a lot in many countries of the world, including four visits to the USSR (1926 and 1935, 1936). He performed works by classical guitarists: Sora, Giuliani, transcriptions of works by Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Haydn and original works by Spanish composers: Turin, Torroba, Tansman, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and other composers. Segovia had many meetings with Soviet guitarists, to whose questions he willingly answered. In conversations about the technique of guitar playing, Segovia pointed out the particular importance of not only setting hands, but also the correct use of fingering. The guitar left a bright mark in the musical art of Russia. Academician J. Shtelin, who lived in Moscow from 1735 to 1785, wrote that the guitar in Russia spread slowly, but with the appearance of virtuoso guitarists Tsani de Ferranti, F. Sor, M. Giuliani and others among other guest performers this tool is gaining sympathy and is widely used.
Acquiring in Russia from the second half of the 18th century an original seven-string variety with a G-major triad doubled to an octave and a lower string spaced a quart apart, the guitar turned out to be optimally suited to the bass-chord accompaniment of an urban song and romance.
The true flourishing of professional performance on this instrument begins thanks to the creative activity of the outstanding teacher-guitarist Andrei Osipovich Sikhra (1773-1850). Being a harpist by education, he devoted his whole life to the promotion of the seven-string guitar - in his youth he was engaged in concert activity, and then pedagogy and enlightenment. In 1802, A. Sikhra's Journal for the Seven-String Guitar began to be published in St. Petersburg, with arrangements of Russian folk songs and arrangements of musical classics. In the following decades, until 1838, the musician published a number of similar magazines that contributed to a significant increase in the popularity of the instrument, A.O. Sychra brought up a huge number of students, stimulating their interest in composing music for the guitar, in particular, variations on themes of folk song melodies. The most famous of his students are S.N. Aksenov, V.I. Morkov, V.S. Sarenko, F.M. Zimmerman and others - left a lot of plays and arrangements of Russian songs. The activity of Mikhail Timofeevich Vysotsky (1791-1837) was of great importance in the development of professional-academic Russian guitar performance. The first person to introduce him to the guitar was S.N. Aksenov, he also became his mentor.
Since about 1813, the name of M.T. Vysotsky became widely popular. His playing was distinguished by an original improvisational style, a bold flight of creative imagination in varying folk song melodies. M.T. Vysotsky is a representative of the improvisational auditory style of performance - in this he is close to traditional Russian folk music-making. Much can be said about other representatives of the Russian guitar performance, who contributed to the development of the national performing school, but this is a separate conversation. The genuine Russian school was distinguished by the following features: clarity of articulation, beautiful musical tone, focus on the melodic capabilities of the instrument and the creation of a specific repertoire, in many ways unique, a progressive method of using special fingering "blanks", trials and cadences, revealing the capabilities of the instrument.
The system of playing the instrument included playing musical functions, intonations and their appeals, which were memorized separately in each key and had an unpredictable movement of voices. Often such individual fingering, melodic-harmonic "blanks" were zealously guarded and passed on only to the best students. Improvisation was not specially studied, it was the result of a common technical base, and a good guitarist was able to combine the familiar intonations of a song with a harmonic sequence. A set of various cadences often surrounded a musical phrase and gave a peculiar coloring to the musical fabric. Such an inventive teaching method seems to have been a purely Russian discovery and is not found anywhere in foreign works of that time. Unfortunately, the traditions of Russian guitar performance of the XVIII-XIX centuries. were unfairly forgotten, and only thanks to the efforts of enthusiasts the situation in this direction is changing for the better.
Guitar art also developed in Soviet times, although the attitude of the authorities to the development of this musical instrument was, to put it mildly, cool. It is difficult to overestimate the role of the outstanding teacher, performer and composer A.M. Ivanov-Kramskoy. His school of playing, as well as the school of playing guitarist and teacher P.A. Agafoshina is an indispensable teaching aid for young guitarists. This activity is brilliantly continued by their numerous students and followers: E. Larichev, N. Komoliatov, A. Frauchi, V. Kozlov, N. Koshkin, A. Vinitsky (classical guitar in jazz), S. Rudnev (classical guitar in Russian style) and many others.
guitar classical pop jazz
2. StoryoccurrenceAndevolutionpop-jazzdirectionsVart
2.1 Varieties of guitars used in pop-jazz art
In modern pop music, four types of guitars are mainly used:
1. Flat Top (Flat Top) - the usual folk guitar with metal strings.
2. Classical (Classical) - classical guitar with nylon strings.
3. Arch Top (Arch Top) - a jazz guitar, shaped like an enlarged violin with "efs" along the edges of the soundboard.
4. Electric guitar - a guitar with electromagnetic pickups and a monolithic wooden deck (bar).
Even 120-130 years ago, only one type of guitar was popular in Europe and America. Used in different countries different systems settings, and in some places even changed the number of strings (In Russia, for example, there were seven strings, not six). But in form, all guitars were very similar - relatively symmetrical upper and lower parts of the body, which converges with the neck at the 12th fret.
Small size, slotted palm, wide neck, fan-shaped springs, etc. - all this characterized this type of guitar. In fact, the above instrument in form and content resembles today's classical guitar. And the form of today's classical guitar belongs to the Spanish master Torres, who lived about 120 years ago.
At the end of the last century, the guitar began to gain popularity dramatically. If before that, guitars were played only in private houses and salons, then by the end of the last century, the guitar began to appear on stages. There was a need to amplify the sound. That's when there was a clearer division between the classics and what is now most often called folk guitar or western. Technology began to make metal strings that sounded louder.
In addition, the cabinet itself increased in size, which allowed the sound to be deeper and louder. Left alone serious problem- the strong tension of the metal strings actually killed the top deck, and the thickening of the shell walls, in the end, killed the vibration, and with it the sound. And then the famous X-shaped spring mount was invented. The springs were glued crosswise, thereby increasing the strength of the top deck, but allowing it to vibrate.
Thus, there was a clear division - the classical guitar, which has not changed much since then (only the strings began to be made from synthetics, and not from the sinew, as before), and the folk-western guitar, which had several forms, but almost always went with X-shaped springs, metal strings, enlarged body and so on.
At the same time, another type of guitar was developing - the “arch top” (arch top). What is it? While companies like Martin were tackling the problem of amplifying sound by attaching springs, companies like Gibson went the other way, making guitars shaped and built like violins. Such instruments were characterized by a curved top soundboard, a nut, which was like a double bass, and a tailpiece. As a rule, these instruments had violin cutouts along the edges of the soundboard instead of the traditional round hole in the center. These guitars featured a sound that was not warm and deep, but balanced and punchy. With such a guitar, every note was clearly audible, and jazzmen quickly realized what a "dark horse" appeared in their field of vision. It is to jazz that "arch tops" owe their popularity, for which they were nicknamed jazz guitars. In the 1930s and 1940s, the situation began to change - mainly due to the emergence of high-quality microphones and pickups. In addition, a new popular style of music, the blues, entered the arena and immediately conquered the world. As you know, the blues developed mainly due to the efforts of poor black musicians. They played it in every way with fingers, picks and even beer bottles (beer bottle necks were the direct forefathers of modern slides). These people did not have money for expensive instruments, they did not always have the opportunity to buy new strings for themselves, what kind of jazz guitars are there? And they played whatever they had to, mostly on more common instruments - westerns. In those years, in addition to expensive "archtops", the Gibson company still produced a large the lineup"consumer" folk guitars. The situation on the market was such that Gibson was almost the only company producing cheap, but high-quality folk guitars. It is logical that most of the bluesmen, for lack of money for something more perfect, took the Gibsons into their hands. So until now they have not parted with them.
What happened to jazz guitars? With the advent of pickups, it turned out that the balanced and clear sound of this type of instrument is the best fit for the amplification system of that time. Although the jazz guitar is absolutely nothing like the modern Fender or Ibanez, Leo Fender would probably never have created his Telecasters and Stratocasters. if I hadn't experimented with jazz guitars and pickups first. By the way, later electric blues was also played and is played on jazz instruments with pickups, just the thickness of the body in them was reduced. A striking example of this is B.B. King and his famous Lussil guitar, which many today consider the blues electric guitar standard.
The first known experiments with amplifying a guitar sound with electricity date back to 1923, when engineer and inventor Lloyd Loar invented an electrostatic pickup that recorded the vibrations of the resonator box of stringed instruments.
In 1931, Georges Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker invented an electromagnetic pickup in which an electrical pulse ran through the winding of a magnet, creating an electromagnetic field in which the signal from a vibrating string was amplified. Towards the end of the 1930s, numerous experimenters began to incorporate pickups into more traditional-looking Spanish hollow-body guitars. Well, the most radical option was proposed by guitarist and engineer Les Paul (Les Paul) - he simply made the soundboard for the guitar monolithic.
It was made of wood and was called simply - "Bar" (The Log). With a solid or almost solid piece, other engineers began to experiment. Since the 40s of the XX century, both individual enthusiasts and large companies have been successfully doing this.
The market of guitar manufacturers continues to develop actively, constantly expanding the range. And if earlier “trendsetters” were exclusively Americans, now Yamaha, Ibanez and other Japanese firms firmly occupy leading positions, making both their models and excellent copies of famous guitars among the leaders in production.
A special place is occupied by the guitar - and primarily electrified - in rock music. However, almost all the best rock guitarists go beyond the style of rock music, paying great tribute to jazz, and some musicians have completely broken with rock. There is nothing surprising in this, since the best traditions of guitar playing are concentrated in jazz.
A very important point is drawn to the attention of Joe Pass, who, in his well-known jazz school, writes: “Classical guitarists have had several centuries to develop an organic, consistent approach to performance - the “correct” method. The jazz guitar, the plectrum guitar, appeared only in our century, and the electric guitar is still such a new phenomenon that we are just beginning to understand its capabilities as a full-fledged musical instrument. In such circumstances, the accumulated experience, the jazz traditions of guitar mastery, are of particular importance.
Already in the early form of the blues, "archaic", or "rural", often also called the English term "country blues" (country blues), the main elements of guitar technique were formed, which determined its further development. Separate techniques of blues guitarists later became the basis for the formation of subsequent styles.
The earliest recordings of country blues date back to the mid-20s, but there is every reason to believe that, in essence, it is almost no different from the original style that was formed among the blacks of the southern states (Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, etc.). ) back in the 70-80s of the XIX century.
Among the outstanding singer-guitarists of this style is Blind Lemon Jefferson (1897-1930), who had a noticeable influence on many musicians of a later period, and not only blues. A brilliant master of guitar ragtime and blues was Blind Blake (Blind Blake, 1895 -1931), many of whose recordings still amaze with their excellent technique and ingenuity of improvisations. Blake is rightly considered one of the initiators of the use of the guitar as a solo instrument. Huddie Leadbetter, commonly known as Leadbelly (1888-1949) was once called "the king of the twelve-string guitar". He sometimes played in a duet with Jefferson, although he was inferior to him as a performer. Leadbelly introduced characteristic bass figures into the accompaniment - the "wandering bass", which would later be widely used in jazz.
Stands out among the country-blues guitarists Lonnie Johnson (Lonnie Johnson, 1889-1970), a virtuoso musician, very close to jazz. They recorded excellent blues without vocals, and often he played as a mediator, demonstrating not only excellent technique, but also outstanding improvisational skills.
One of the features of the Chicago period in the development of traditional jazz, which became transitional to swing, was the replacement of instruments: instead of the cornet, tuba and banjo, the trumpet, double bass and guitar came to the fore.
Among the reasons for this was the emergence of microphones and the electromechanical recording method: the guitar finally sounded fully on the records. An important feature of Chicago jazz was the increased role of solo improvisation. It was here that a significant turn took place in the fate of the guitar: it becomes a full-fledged solo instrument.
This is due to the name of Eddie Lang (Eddie Lang, real name - Salvador Massaro), who introduced to the guitar playing many jazz techniques typical of other instruments - in particular, the phrasing characteristic of wind instruments. Eddie Lang also created that jazz style of playing as a mediator, which later became predominant. He first used a plectrum guitar - a special guitar for playing jazz, which differed from the usual Spanish in the absence of a round rosette. Instead, on the deck appeared efs, similar to violin ones, and a removable panel-shield that protects against pick strikes. Playing Eddie Lang in the ensemble was distinguished by a strong sound production. He often used passing sounds, chromatic sequences; sometimes he changed the angle of the plectrum in relation to the fingerboard, thus achieving a specific sound.
Characteristic of Lang's manner are chords with muted strings, harsh accents, parallel nonchords, whole-tone scales, idiosyncratic glissando, artificial harmonics, augmented chord progressions, and brass phrasing. We can say that it was under the influence of Eddie Lang that many guitarists began to pay more attention to bass notes in chords and, if possible, achieve better voice leading. The invention of the electric guitar was the impetus for the emergence of new guitar schools and trends. They were founded by two jazz guitarists: Charlie Christian in America and Django Reinhardt
(Django Reinhardt) in Europe
In his book “From Reg to Rock”, the famous German critic I. Berendt writes: “For a modern jazz musician, the history of the guitar begins with Charlie Christian. During his two years on the jazz scene, he revolutionized his guitar playing. Of course, there were guitarists before him, but it seems, however, that the guitar played before Christian and the one that sounded after him are two different instruments.”
Charlie played with a virtuosity that seemed simply unattainable to his contemporaries. With his arrival, the guitar became an equal member of jazz ensembles. He was the first to introduce a guitar solo as a third voice to an ensemble with trumpet and tenor saxophone, freeing the instrument from purely rhythmic functions in the orchestra. Before others, C. Christian realized that the technique of playing the electric guitar is significantly different from the methods of playing the acoustic one. In harmony, he experimented with increased and decreased chords, invented new rhythmic patterns for the best jazz melodies (evergreens). In passages, he often used add-ons to seventh chords, striking listeners with melodic and rhythmic ingenuity. He was the first to develop his improvisations, relying not on the harmony of the theme, but on passing chords, which he placed between the main ones. In the melodic sphere, it is characterized by the use of legato instead of hard staccato.
C. Christian's performance has always been distinguished by its extraordinary power of expression, combined with intense swing. Jazz theorists claim that with his playing he anticipated the emergence of a new jazz style bebop (be-bop) and was one of its creators.
Simultaneously with Christian, an equally outstanding jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt shone in Paris. Charlie Christian, while still performing in clubs in Oklahoma, admired Django and often repeated note for note his solos recorded on records, although these musicians differed sharply from each other in the manner of playing. Many well-known musicologists and jazz artists spoke about Django's contribution to the development of the jazz style of playing the guitar and his mastery. According to D. Ellington, “Django is a super artist. Each note he takes is a treasure, each chord is evidence of his unshakable taste.
Django differed from other guitarists in his expressive, rich sound and peculiar playing style, with long cadences after several measures, sudden rapid passages, stable and sharply accented rhythm. At moments of climax, he often played in octaves.
This type of technique was borrowed from him by C. Christian, and twelve years later - by W. Montgomery. In fast pieces, he was able to create such fire and pressure, which had previously been found only in performance on wind instruments. In the slow ones, he was prone to preluding, and rhapsody, close to the Negro blues. Django was not only an excellent virtuoso soloist, but also an excellent accompanist. He was ahead of many of his contemporaries in the use of minor seventh chords, diminished, augmented and other passing chords. Django paid great attention to the harmony of the harmonic schemes of the pieces, often emphasizing that if everything is correct and logical in the chord sequences, then the melody will flow by itself.
As an accompanist, he often used chords that imitated the sound of the brass section. The contribution of Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt to the history of jazz guitar is invaluable. These two outstanding musicians showed the inexhaustible possibilities of your instrument not only in accompaniment, but also in improvisational solo, predetermined the main directions of development of the technique of playing the electric guitar for many years to come.
The increased role of the guitar as a solo instrument led to the craving of performers to play in small ensembles (combos). Here the guitarist felt like a full-fledged member of the ensemble, performing the functions of both an accompanist and a soloist. The popularity of the guitar was expanding every day, more and more talented jazz guitarists appeared, and the number of big bands remained limited. In addition, many leaders and arrangers of large orchestras did not always introduce the guitar into the rhythm section. It suffices to say, for example,
Duke Ellington, who did not like to combine the sound of guitar and piano in the accompaniment. However, sometimes the "mechanical" work, which serves to maintain the rhythm in a big band, turns into a genuine jazz art. We are talking about one of the leading representatives of the chord-rhythm style of guitar playing Freddie Green.
A virtuoso chordal technique, a wonderful sense of swing, a delicate musical taste distinguish his playing. He almost never played solo, but at the same time he was often compared to a tugboat, entailing the entire orchestra.
It is Freddie Green who, to a large extent, owes the big band of Count Basie an unusual compactness of the rhythm section, emancipation and conciseness of the game. This master had a great influence on guitarists who prefer accompaniment and chordal improvisation to the game of long passages and monophonic improvisations. The work of Charlie Christian, Django and Freddie Green forms, as it were, three branches of the jazz guitar family tree. However, one more direction should be mentioned, which stood somewhat apart, but in our time is gaining more and more recognition and distribution.
The fact is that not all guitarists found Ch. Christian's style acceptable, in whose hands the guitar acquired the sound of wind instruments (it is no accident that many, listening to Charlie Christian's recordings, mistook the voice of his guitar for a saxophone). First of all, his style was impossible for those who played fingers on acoustic guitars.
Many of the techniques developed by C. Christian (long legato, long improvisational lines without harmonic support, sustained notes, bends, rare use of open strings, etc.) were ineffective for them, especially when playing instruments with nylon strings. In addition, guitarists appeared who combined classical, guitar playing, flamenco and elements of Latin American music with jazz in their creative manner. These primarily include two prominent jazz musicians: Laurindo Almeida (Laurindo Almeida) and Charlie Byrd (Charlie Byrd), whose work has influenced many guitarists classical style, demonstrating in practice the unlimited possibilities of the acoustic guitar. With good reason, they can be considered the founders of the "classical guitar in jazz" style.
Negro guitarist Wes John Leslie Montgomery is one of the brightest musicians to appear on the jazz scene since C. Christian. He was born in 1925 in Indianapolis; He became interested in the guitar only at the age of 19 under the influence of Charlie Christian records and the enthusiasm of his brothers Buddy and Monk, who played the piano and double bass in the orchestra of the famous vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. He managed to achieve an unusually warm, “velvety” sound (using the thumb of his right hand instead of a pick) and developed octave technique to such an extent that he performed entire improvisational choruses in octaves with amazing ease and purity, often at fairly fast tempos. His skill impressed the partners so much that they jokingly nicknamed Wes "Mr. Octave." The first disc with W. Montgomery's recording was released in 1959 and immediately brought the guitarist success and wide recognition. Jazz lovers were shocked by the virtuosity of his playing, refined and restrained articulation, melodiousness of improvisations, a constant feeling of blues intonations and a vivid sense of swing rhythm. Wes Montgomery's combination of a solo electric guitar with the sound of a large orchestra, including a string group, is very interesting.
Most of the subsequent jazz guitarists - including such famous musicians as Jim Hall, Joe Pass, John McLaughlin, George Benson, Larry Coryell - recognized the great influence of Wes Montgomery on their work. Already in the 40s, the standards developed by swing ceased to satisfy many musicians. Established cliches in the harmony of the song form, vocabulary, often reduced to direct quotation of outstanding jazz masters, rhythmic monotony and the use of swing in commercial music became a brake on the way further development genre. After the "golden period" of swing, it's time to search for new, more advanced forms. More and more new directions are emerging, which, as a rule, unite in common name - modern jazz (Modern Jazz). It includes bebop ("jazz-staccato"), hard bop, progressive, cool, third current, bossa nova and Afro-Cuban jazz, modal jazz, jazz-rock, free jazz, fusion and some others: Such diversity, mutual influence and mutual penetration different currents complicates the analysis of the work of individual musicians, especially since many of them at one time played in a variety of manners. So, for example, in Ch. Byrd's recordings one can find boss nova, blues, swung themes, arrangements of classics, and country rock, and much more. In the game of B. Kessel - swing, bebop, bossa nova, elements of modal jazz, etc. It is characteristic that jazz guitarists themselves often react quite sharply to attempts to classify them as one or another jazz direction, considering this a primitive approach to assessing their work. Such statements can be found in Larry Coryell, Joe Pass, John McLaughlin and others.
2 .2 Maindirectionspop-jazzperformance60-70 - Xyears
And yet, according to one of the jazz critics, I. Berendt, on the verge of the 60s-70s, four main directions have developed in modern guitar performance: 1) mainstream (main stream); 2) jazz-rock; 3) blues direction; 4) rock. The most prominent representatives of the mainstream can be considered Jim Hall, Kenny Burrell and Joe Pass. Jim Hall, the "poet of jazz" as he is often called, has been known and loved by the public since the late 50s and up to the present day.
"Jazz guitar virtuoso" is called Joe Pass (Joe Pass, full name Joseph Anthony Jacoby Passalaqua). Critics put him on a par with such musicians as Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald and Barney Kessel. His duet records with Ella Fitzgerald and Herb Ellis, the trio with Oscar Peterson and bassist Nils Pederson, and especially his solo discs "Joe Pass the Virtuoso" enjoy great success. Joe Pass was one of the most interesting and versatile jazz guitarists in the tradition of Jacgo Reinhardt, Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery. His work is little influenced by the new trends of modern jazz: he preferred bebop. Along with concert activities, Joe Pass taught a lot and successfully, published methodological works, among which his school "Joe Pass Guitar Style" occupies a special place "2E
However, not all jazz guitarists are so devoted to the "mainstream". Among the outstanding musicians gravitating towards the new in the development of jazz, it should be noted George Benson, Carlos Santana, Ola di Meola. Mexican musician Carlos Santana (Carlos Santana, born in 1947) plays in the style of "Latin rock", based on the performance of Latin American rhythms (samba, rumba, salsa, etc.) in a rocky manner, combined with elements of flamenco.
George Benson was born in 1943 in Pittsburgh and as a child he sang the blues and played the guitar and banjo. At the age of 15, George received a small electric guitar as a gift, and at 17, after graduating from school, he formed a small rock and roll band in which he sang and played. A year later, jazz organist Jack McDuff arrived in Pittsburgh. Today, some experts consider his first recordings with Jack McDuff to be the best in Benson's entire discography. Benson was greatly influenced by the work of Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery, especially the latter's technique.
Among the new generation of guitarists playing jazz-rock, and developing a relatively new jazz style - fusion, Ol di Meola (AI di Meola) stands out. The young musician's passion for jazz guitar began with listening to a recording of a trio featuring Larry Coryell (who, by coincidence, Al di Meola replaced in the same line-up a few years later). Already at the age of 17, he participates in recordings with Chikom Corea. Ol di Meola masterfully plays the guitar - both with his fingers and with a plectrum. The textbook "Characteristic methods of playing the guitar by a mediator" written by him was highly appreciated by specialists.
The innovators of our time also include the talented guitarist Larry Coryell, who went through a difficult creative way-- from the passion for rock and roll to the newest trends in modern jazz music.
In fact, after Django, only one European guitarist achieved unconditional recognition throughout the world and influenced the development of jazz in general - the Englishman John McLaughlin. The heyday of his talent falls on the first half of the 70s of the twentieth century - a period when jazz rapidly expanded its stylistic boundaries, merging with rock music, experiments in electronic and avant-garde music, and various folk musical traditions. It is no coincidence that not only jazz fans consider McLaughlin “their own”: we will find his name in any encyclopedia of rock music. In the early 1970s, McLaughlin organized the Mahavishnu (Great Vishnu) orchestra. In addition to keyboards, guitar, drums and bass, he introduced the violin into its composition. With this orchestra, the guitarist recorded a number of records, which were enthusiastically received by the public. Reviewers note the virtuosity of McLaughlin, innovation in arrangement, freshness of sound, due to the use of elements of Indian music. But the main thing is that the appearance of these discs marks the establishment and development of a new jazz trend: jazz-rock.
At present, many outstanding guitarists have appeared who continue and increase the traditions of the masters of the past. Of great importance for the world pop-jazz culture is the work of the most famous student of Jimm Hall - Pat Mattini. His innovative ideas have greatly enriched the melodic-harmonic language of modern pop music. I would also like to note the brilliant performing and teaching activities of Mike Stern, Frank Gambal, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Joe Pass' student Lee Ritenour and many others.
As for the development of the art of playing the pop-jazz (electric and acoustic) guitar in our country, it would not have been possible without many years of successful educational and educational work by V. Manilov, V. Molotkov, A. Kuznetsov, A. Vinitsky, as well as their followers S. Popov, I. Boyko and others. Of great importance is the concert-performing activity of such musicians as: A. Kuznetsov, I. Smirnov, I. Boyko, D. Chetvergov, T. Kvitelashvili, A. Chumakov, V. Zinchuk and many others. Having gone from blues to jazz-rock, the guitar not only did not exhaust its possibilities, but, on the contrary, won leadership in many new directions of jazz. Achievements in the field of acoustic and electrified guitar playing techniques, the use of electronics, the inclusion of elements of flamenco, classical style, etc. give reason to consider the guitar one of the leading instruments of this genre of music. That is why it is so important for the new generation of musicians to study the experience of their predecessors - jazz guitarists. Only on this basis is it possible to search for an individual performing style of playing, ways of self-improvement and further development of pop-jazz guitar
conclusions
In our time, the topic of developing performing skills on a 6-string guitar remains relevant, since at the moment there are many schools and training systems. They include different directions, from the classical school of playing, to jazz, Latin, blues schools.
In the development of jazz stylistics, a very significant role is played by a specific instrumental technique, which is characteristic of the jazz use of the instrument and its expressive capabilities - melodic, intonational, rhythmic, harmonic, etc. The blues played an important role in the formation of jazz. In turn, "one of the decisive factors in the crystallization of blues from earlier and less formalized types of Negro folklore was the 'discovery' of the guitar in this medium."
The history of the development of guitar art knows many names of guitarists-teachers, composers and performers who created numerous teaching aids for learning to play the guitar, many of them directly or indirectly related to the problem of developing fingering thinking.
Indeed, in our time, the concept of a guitarist includes mastery of both the main classical techniques, both the base, and the ability and understanding of the style that accompanies the function, the ability to play and improvise on digital, all the subtleties and features of blues and jazz thinking.
Unfortunately, in Lately the media give very little influence not only to serious classical, but also to non-commercial types of pop-jazz music
Listusedliterature
1. Bakhmin A.A. Self-instruction manual for playing the six-string guitar / A.A. Bakhmin. M.: ASS-center, 1999.-80 p.
2. Boyko I.A. Improvisation on the electric guitar. Part 2 "Fundamentals of chord technique" - M.; Hobby Center, 2000-96 p.;
3. Boyko I.A. Improvisation on the electric guitar. Part 3 "Progressive method of improvisation" - M.; Hobby Center, 2001-86 p.
4. Boyko I.A. Improvisation on the electric guitar. Part 4 "Pentatonic and its expressive possibilities" - M.; Hobby Center, 2001 - 98 p.; ill.
5. Brandt V.K. Fundamentals of the technique of a pop ensemble guitarist / Educational and methodological guide for music schools - M. 1984 - 56 p.
6. Dmitrievsky Yu.V. / Guitar from blues to jazz-rock / Yu.V. Dmitrievsky - M.: Musical Ukraine, 1986. - 96 p.
7. Ivanov-Kramskoy A.M. School of playing the six-string guitar / A.M. Ivanov-Kramskoy. - M.: Sov. Composer, 1975. - 120 p.
8. Manilov V.A. Learn to accompany on the guitar / V.A. Manilov. - K .: Musical Ukraine, 1986. - 105 p.
9. Pass, D. Guitar style of Joe Pass / Joe Pass, Bill Thrasher / Comp.: "Guitar College" - M .: "Guitar College", 2002 - 64 p.; ill.
10. Popov, S. Basis / Comp.; "Guitar College" - M.; "Guitar College", 2003 - 127p.;
11. Puhol M. School of playing the six-string guitar / Per. and the editorial office of N. Polikarpov - M.; Owls. Composer, 1987 - 184 p.
12. Al Di Meola "Technique of playing with a mediator"; Per. / Comp.; GIDinform
13. Yalovets A. Django Reichard - "Krugozor", M.; 1971 No. 10 - p. 20-31
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Guitar performance in Russia has its own unique history. However, in this work we will consider only those pages that are directly related to the practice of playing the seven-string guitar and affect the features underlying the formation of the Russian guitar style.
The Russian guitar school was founded at a time when in Western Europe the classical guitar had already declared itself as an independent solo concert instrument. She was especially popular in Italy. Spain. A number of performers and composers appeared. created a new, classic repertoire. The most famous of them are D. Aguado. M. Giuliani. F. Carulli, M. Carcassi. Later, such remarkable musicians as Franz Schubert, Niccolò Paganini, Carl Weber and others turned to PR and wrote for it.
The main difference between the Russian guitar and the classical one popular in Europe was the number of strings (seven, not six) and the principle of their tuning. It is the question of tuning that has always been the cornerstone in the age-old dispute about the advantage of a six- or seven-string guitar. Understanding the particular importance of this issue, we consider it necessary to return to the topic of the origin of the seven-string guitar and its appearance in Russia.
By the end of the XVIII century. in Europe there were several types of guitars of various designs, sizes, with different numbers of strings and many ways to tune them (suffice it to mention that the number of strings varied from five to twelve) -. A large group of guitars were united according to the principle of tuning the strings by fourths with one major third in the middle (for convenience, we will call this tuning a fourth). These instruments were widely used in Italy. Spain. France.
In Great Britain, Germany, Portugal and Central Europe, there was a group of instruments with the so-called terts system, in which thirds were preferred when tuning voice strings (for example, two large terts were separated by a fourth).
Both of these groups of instruments were united by the fact that music written for one scale could be played using a small arrangement on an instrument of another scale.
Of interest to us is a guitar with four double strings, which came from England to Europe, and from Europe to Russia (St. Petersburg). The structure of this guitar had two types: fourth and third. The latter differed from the seven-string Russian guitar in size (it was much smaller), but practically anticipated the principles of its tuning according to the extended major triad (g, e, c, G, F, C, G). This fact is very important for us.
The lack of historical evidence about the transformation of the guitar body, its size and the overall scale of the strings allows us only to assume options for their development. Most likely, the dimensions of the guitar neck were determined by the convenience of playing, and the tension of the strings, their tuning, corresponded to the tessitura of the singing voice. Perhaps the improvements led to an increase in the body, the replacement of metal scabs with strands, and therefore to a decrease in the tessitura of the sound, a “sliding” of the overall system down.
There is no reliable information confirming that it was this guitar that served as the prototype of the Russian "seven-string", but their relationship is obvious. The history of guitar performance in Russia is associated with the appearance during the reign of Catherine the Great (1780-90s) of foreign guitarists who played third and third guitars. Among them are Giuseppe Sarti, Jean-Baptiste Guenglez. There are publications of collections of pieces for 5-6-string guitar, guitar magazines.
Ignaz von Geld (Ignatius von Geld) publishes for the first time a manual called "An easy method for learning to play the seven-string guitar without a teacher." Unfortunately, not a single copy of this first Russian school of playing the guitar, as well as information about the teaching methods of its author, about guitar type, how to set it up. There are only contemporary testimonies. That Geld was a great English guitar player.
But the true founder of the Russian guitar school was I who settled in Moscow. At the end of the 18th century. an educated musician, a magnificent harpist Andrey Osipovich Sikhra. It was he who introduced into practical music-making a seven-string guitar with a system of d, h, g, D, H, G, D, which later became known as the Russian.
We cannot know how familiar A. Sichra was with European experiments in creating guitars with different numbers of strings and ways of tuning them, whether he used their results in his work on the “improvement” (but in his own words) of the classical six-string guitar. This is not so significant.
What is important is that A. Sihra. being an ardent admirer of guitar performance, a brilliant teacher and a competent popularizer of his ideas, he left a bright mark in the history of the development of Russian instrumental performance. Using the best achievements of the classical Spanish guitar school, he developed a methodology for teaching the seven-string guitar, setting it out later in a book published in 1832 and 1840. "School". Using classical forms and genres. Sychra created a new repertoire specifically for the Russian guitar and brought up a brilliant constellation of students.
Thanks to the activities of A. O. Sikhra and his associates, the seven-string guitar gained extraordinary popularity among representatives of different classes: the Russian intelligentsia and representatives of the middle classes were fond of it, professional musicians and lovers of everyday music turned to it: contemporaries began to associate it with the very essence of Russian urban folk music. A description of the enchanting sound of the seven-string guitar can be found in Pushkin's heartfelt lines. Lermontov, Turgenev. Chekhov, Tolstoy and many other poets and writers. The guitar began to be perceived as a natural part of Russian musical culture.
Recall that the guitar of A. Sikhra appeared in Russia in conditions when the seven-string guitar was almost never seen anywhere, it was impossible to buy it either in shops or from artisanal craftsmen. Now one can only wonder how quickly (in 2-3 decades) these masters, among whom were the largest violinists, were able to establish the production of the Russian guitar. This is Ivan Batov, Ivan Arhuzen. Ivan Krasnoshchekov. The guitars of the Viennese master I. Scherzer were considered one of the best. According to contemporaries, the guitars of F. Savitsky, E. Eroshkin, F. Paserbsky were distinguished by their unique individuality. But now we will not dwell on this, because it deserves a separate discussion.
The national flavor of the seven-string guitar was also given by the arrangements written for it on the themes of Russian folk songs. “The influence of folk music on the art of music will, of course, begin as part of the traditions of many nations. In Russia, however, folk music has become the subject of the most frenzied enthusiasm of the people for their own music, perhaps one of the most remarkable movements of the Russian soul.
To be fair, it should be noted. that the works of A. Sikhra on Russian themes were written in the style of classical variations and did not have such an original, purely Russian flavor that distinguishes the arrangements of other Russian guitarists. In particular, Mikhail Timofeevich Vysotsky, the creator of numerous compositions on the themes of Russian folk songs, made a huge contribution to the formation of the Russian guitar school as an original national phenomenon. M. Vysotsky grew up in the village of Ochakovo (12 km from Moscow) on the estate of the poet M. Kheraskov, rector of Moscow University, in an atmosphere of love and respect for Russian folk traditions. The boy could listen to wonderful folk singers to take part in folk rituals. Being the son of a serf. Misha could get an education only by attending meetings of the creative intelligentsia and the Kheraskovs' house, listening to poems, debates, and impromptu performances by educated guests.
Among them was the main teacher of M. Vysotsky - Semyon Nikolaevich Aksenov. He noticed the boy's giftedness and began to give him lessons in playing the Russian guitar. And although these classes were not systematic, the boy made significant progress. It was thanks to the efforts of S. Aksenov that M. Vysotsky received his freedom in 1813 and moved to Moscow for further education. Later, the well-known musician, composer A. Dubuk provided Vysotsky with significant assistance in mastering musical and theoretical disciplines.
M. Vysotsky became a wonderful guitarist - improviser, composer. Soon the fame of an unsurpassed virtuoso guitarist came to him. According to contemporaries, Vysotsky's playing impressed not only with his extraordinary technique, but with his inspiration, wealth. musical fantasy. He seemed to merge with the guitar: it was a living expression of his spiritual mood, his thoughts.
This is how his student and colleague guitarist I. E. Lyakhov assessed Vysotsky's playing: - His playing was incomprehensible, indescribable and left such an impression that no notes and words can convey. Here plaintively, tenderly, melancholy sounded before you the song of the spinner; a small fermato - and everything seemed to speak to her in response: they say, sighing, basses, they are answered by weeping voices of trebles, and this whole chorus is covered with rich reconciling chords; but then the sounds, like tired thoughts, turn into even triodies, the theme almost disappears, as if the singer was thinking about something else; but no, he again returns to the theme, to his thought, and it sounds solemn and even, turning into a prayerful adagio. You Hear a Russian dog, elevated to the sacred (Sudet. Everything is so beautiful and natural, so deeply sincere and musical, as you rarely see in other compositions for Russian songs. Here you will not remember anything like it: everything here is new and original. In front of us is an inspired Russian musician, in front of you is Vysotsky.
A distinctive feature of Vysotsky's work was the reliance on the mighty layers of Russian folk song and partly instrumental creativity. This is what determined the development of the Russian guitar school, its Moscow branch. M. Vysotsky, perhaps, was less concerned with systematizing recommendations for learning to play the seven-string guitar, although he gave a large number of lessons. But in his work, the Russian seven-string guitar became a truly national instrument, having its own special repertoire, special techniques and stylistic differences, performing style, patterns of development within musical forms (we mean the connection between the poetic content of a song and the process of variant development in a musical composition). In this regard, M. Vysotsky is for us. probably the most important figure in Russian guitar playing. His work laid the foundation for an original style of playing, as well as the principle of obtaining a melodic sound and the techniques accompanying it. But this will be discussed later.
Thus, the emergence of an original guitar school in Russia is associated with the names of A. Sikhra and M. Vysotsky, as well as their best students.
In conclusion, I would like to say that the widespread use of the guitar in Russia in a short historical period of time cannot be an accident. Rather, it is a good proof of the viability of the instrument. There are enough reasons to be proud of the achievements of the Russian guitar school. However, it can be stated with bitterness that we do not know the whole truth about our instrument and the legacy created for it. It is important to know and understand this today, when almost everything that Russia was proud of in the past has been destroyed to the ground, and nothing has been created to replace it. Maybe it's time to turn your face to the Russian guitar heritage?! It consists of works, methods and repertoire of the most educated people of their time. Here are some names: M. Stakhovich - nobleman, historian, writer; A. Golikov - nobleman, collegiate registrar; V. Sarenko - Doctor of Medical Sciences; F. Zimmerman - nobleman, landowner; I. Makarov - a landowner, a major bibliographer; V. Morkov - a nobleman, a real state councilor: V. Rusanov - a nobleman, conductor, an outstanding editor.
