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Файл:About Music at the Lessons of English. Хрестоматия по чтению на английском языке для студентов очного и заочного отделений специальностей 070100 «Музы.pdf
Ice", the apex of the cantata, draws a graphic panorama of the battle between
Russian and Teutons on the frozen Lake Chudskoye on April 5, 1242. In the
sixth movement, a Russian girl mourns the fallen before a triumphant finale
for Alexander's entry into Pskov.
The work is conceived in bold, primary colours, rich in melody and
characterisation, particularly of the opposing armies. It is perhaps loose in
form but is bound together melodically by the recurring use of the representa-
tive themes, especially in the "Battle on the Ice". This movement is one of
Prokofiev's most exciting compositions, filled with the panoply of arms and
the bitterness of conflict, rising to an inexorable climax as the ice breaks under
the weight of the fully armoured Teutonic knights who drown in the freezing
waters.
Notes:
1. Teutonic knights – Тевтонские рыцари;
2. the apex of the cantata – вершина кантаты;
3. an inexorable climax – неумолимая (непреклонная), безжалостная
кульминация.
DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH
Dmitry Dmitriyevich Shostakovich is a Russian composer, renowned
particularly for his 15 symphonies, numerous chamber works, and concerti,
many of them written under the pressures of government-imposed standards of
Soviet art.
Shostakovich was the son of an engineer. He entered the Petrograd (St.
Petersburg) Conservatory in 1919, where he studied piano until 1923 and
composition until 1925. He participated in the Chopin International Competi-
tion for Pianists in Warsaw in 1927 and received an honourable mention but
made no subsequent attempt to pursue the career of a virtuoso, confining his
public appearances as a pianist to performances of his own works.
Even before his keyboard success in Warsaw, he had had a far greater
success as a composer with the
Symphony No. 1 (1924–25), which quickly
71
achieved worldwide currency. The symphony's stylistic roots were numerous;
the influence of composers as diverse as Tchaikovsky and Paul Hindemith is
clearly discernible. In the music Shostakovich wrote in the next few years he
submitted to an even wider range of influences. The cultural climate in the
Soviet Union was remarkably free at that time; even the music of Igor Stravin-
sky and Alban Berg, then in the avant-garde, was played. Béla Bartók and
Hindemith visited Russia to perform their own works, and Shostakovich
openly experimented with avant-garde trends. His satiric opera
The Nose
(composed 1927–28), based on Nikolay Gogol’s story "Nos", displayed a
comprehensive awareness of what was new in Western music, although al-
ready it seems as if the satire is extended to the styles themselves, for the
avant-garde sounds are contorted with wry humour. Not surprisingly,
Shostakovich's incomparably finer second opera, Lady Macbeth of the
Mtsensk District (composed 1930–32; revised and retitled Katerina Izmay-
lova), marked a stylistic retreat. Yet even this more accessible musical lan-
guage was too radical for the Soviet authorities.
From 1928, when Joseph Stalin inaugurated his First Five-Year Plan, an
iron hand fastened on Soviet culture, and in music a direct and popular style
was demanded. Avant-garde music and jazz were officially banned in 1932,
and for a while even the stylistically unproblematic Tchaikovsky was out of
favour, owing to his quasi-official status in tsarist Russia. Shostakovich did
not experience immediate official displeasure, but when it came it was devas-
tating. It has been said that Stalin's anger at what he heard when he attended a
performance of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in 1936 precipitated the
official condemnation of the opera and of its creator.
The composer's next major work was his
Symphony No. 5 (1937), which
was described in the press as “a Soviet artist's reply to just criticism.” A triv-
ial, dutifully “optimistic” work might have been expected; what emerged was
compounded largely of serious, even sombre and elegiac music, presented
with a compelling directness that scored an immediate success with both the
public and the authorities.
In 1937 Shostakovich became a teacher of composition in the Leningrad
Conservatory, and the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 found him
still in that city. He composed his Symphony No. 7 (1941) in beleaguered Len-
72
ingrad during the latter part of that year and finished it in Kuybyshev (now
Samara), to which he and his family had been evacuated. The work achieved a
quick fame, as much because of the quasi-romantic circumstances of its com-
position as because of its musical quality. In 1943 Shostakovich settled in
Moscow as a teacher of composition at the conservatory, and from 1945 he
taught also at the Leningrad Conservatory.
From 1950-s Shostakovich's biography is essentially a catalog of his
works. He was left to pursue his creative career largely unhampered by official
interference. He did, however, experience some difficulty over the texts (Baby
Yar) by the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko on which he based his Symphony No.
13 (1962), and the work was suppressed after its first performance. Yet he was
undeterred by this, and his deeply impressive Symphony No. 14 (1969), cast as
a cycle of 11 songs on the subject of death, was not the sort of work to appeal
to official circles. The composer had visited the United States in 1949, and in
1958 he made an extended tour of western Europe, including Italy (where al-
ready he had been elected an honorary member of the Accademia Nazionale di
Santa Cecilia, Rome) and Great Britain, where he received an honorary doc-
torate of music at the University of Oxford. In 1966 he was awarded the Royal
Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal.
Despite the brooding typical of so much of his music, which might sug-
gest an introverted personality, Shostakovich was noted for his gregariousness.
After Prokofiev's death in 1953, he was the undisputed head of Russian music.
Since his own death his music has been the subject of furious contention be-
tween those upholding the Soviet view of the composer as a sincere Commu-
nist, and those who view him as a closet dissident.
Notes:
1. Chopin International Competition for Pianists – Международный кон-
курс пианистов имени Шопена;
2. to display a comprehensive awareness of – показать всестороннее по-
нимание;
3. Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District – опера «Леди Макбет Мценско-
го уезда», 1930-32;
4. to be officially banned – быть
официально запрещенным;
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5. Symphony No. 7 – симфония № 7, «Героическая», 1941;
6. a cycle of 11 songs – цикл из 11 песен;
7. condemnation – неодобрение, осуждение;
8. quasi- – почти, псевдо-;
9. to be out of favour – быть в опале;
10. in beleaguered Leningrad – в осажденном Ленинграде;
11. Royal Philharmonic Society – Королевское филармоническое общест-
во (в Лондоне, основано в 1813; оркестр общества в 1946 стал именоваться Королевским филармоническим оркестром);
12. a subject of furious contention – предмет разъяренного спора;
13. gregariousness – коммуникабельность
, общительность.
THE FOURTH AND THE FIFTH STRING QUARTETS
These two works contain some of the most interesting music, irrespec-
tive of form, that has come from the pen of the post-war Shostakovich. Ingen-
ious, rigorously conceived, and often profoundly felt, both quartets reveal the
hand of a master of instrumental effect. The Fourth Quartet, although slight
from the formal point of view, glows with a restrained lyricism and folk-like
vigor.
The form of the Fifth Quartet is almost cyclical, marked by a recurrence
of three and five-note figures, an economy in the use of thematic material, and
a structural use of instrumental texture. The first violin sails into its highest
register at the end of the first movement and remains there for the balance of
the work. In this role, it has the effect of a steel thread weaving through the
quartet, and other formal devices augment the impression of unity. With this
unity of sound, there remains a quality of improvisation in the highly poly-
phonic texture, created by the use of abrupt jagged themes and exciting poly-
rhythmic effects. Moments of resolution are masked by the use of longer
themes, melodically reserved but strong in tonal feeling. These two compel-
ling works seem worthy of repeated hearings and of a permanent place on the
record shelf.
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Notes:
1. a restrained lyricism – сдержанный лиризм;
2. abrupt jagged themes – внезапные (неожиданные) короткие темы:
3. polyrhythmic effects – полиритмические эффекты.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIAN POST-WAR AVANT-GARDE
The development of the Russian post-war avant-garde began in the sec-
ond half of the 1950's, with the first dodecaphonic work dating from 1956
(Musica Stricta for piano by Andrei Volkonsky), and a whole group of works
employing serial techniques already appearing in 1963-64 (I Symphony by
Aarvo Part, Italian Songs by Edison Denisov, Music for Piano and Chamber
Orchestra by Alfred Schnittke etc.). In mastering new musical techniques,
Russian music followed the Western avant-garde, although frequently it found
its own individuality. Perhaps the broadest international resonance amongst
Russian works of the time was achieved by the cantata of Denisov Sun of the
Incas (1964), which has been played by the world's best-known musicians, but
which attracted violent criticism in the Soviet Union of Composers and pro-
voked sharp discussion in the journal «Soviet Music».
The avant-garde movement in Russia was extremely small (we must
add to the aforementioned the names of Nikolai Karetnikov, Sofia
Gubaidulina, Sergei Slonimsky, Rodion Shchedrin, Nikolai Sidelnikov, Ro-
man Ledenev, Boris Tishchenko, and also Ukrainian, Valentin Silvestrov,
Leonid Hrabovski and others), but nonetheless, managed to produce a notice-
able artistic and even «political» counterweight to the official artistic line. On
the one hand, this political aspect seriously complicated the organisation of
concerts of new music in Russia, but on the other hand, aided a greater interest
in the musical avant-garde from the broadest public, than even in the West.
The weakening of the artificial dogma of social realism in the 1960-70's
was a prerogative not only of the avant-garde. In Russian art of this time there
appeared a sharply
opposing tendency – a return to «original sources» and ad-
dressing pure folklore. In literature, this was manifested in the direction of
«rural prose», and in music as a «new wave of folklore». Up to a certain time,
75
both of these tendencies – avant-garde and neo-folklore – formed a united op-
position to official art, and sometimes, even organically co-existed within one
work (Weepings, Edison Denisov, 1966; Russian Tales Nikolai Sidelnikov,
1968). In the next decades, these lines of art which personified the «Western»
and «Motherland» in Russian culture, radically parted ways.
From the middle of the 1960's – beginning of the 1970's, the key figures
of the Russian avant-garde were the famous 'Moscow Three» – Edison Deni-
sov, Alfred Schnittke and Sofia Gubaidulina. The premieres of their works
were marked as significant events in musical life, and overflowing concert
halls became a new form of social demonstration, in its way, a sign of solidar-
ity of the intelligentsia and also a silent opposition to communist power.
From another point of view, the expression of the «political aspect» of
the Soviet avant-garde aroused heightened interest from Western festivals and
orchestras. It is telling that the majority of first performances of the most sig-
nificant works of this time took place abroad, most often in Germany and
France.
The post-war avant-garde appeared in Russia not only and not so much
as a symbol of the coming new epoch, as much as social sign of intellectual
and artistic freedom, and the consolidating spiritual opposition of society.
From here – specifically for Soviet music, and not characteristic for the West-
ern avant-garde, the application of the newest means in conventional genres
and forms more appropriate for the audiences, based in the traditional expres-
sivity of the word and different types of symbolism. From here – the much
brighter and unambiguous «historicity» and retrospectivity of Russian post-
modernism, drawn to religious and aesthetic problems, seeing the alternative
to the imperfect and tragic «today», not in the unavoidable rightness of the
future, but in the everlasting values of «eternity».
Notes:
1. I Symphony by Aarvo Part – I Симфония Арво Пятра;
2. Sun of the Incas by Denisov – «Солнце Инков» Эдисона Денисова,
1964;
3. to attract violent criticism – привлекать резкую критику;
76
4. to provoke sharp discussion – провоцировать острую дискуссию;
5. to complicate the organisation of concerts of new music in Russia –
осложнять организацию концертов новой музыки в России;
6. «original sources» – зд. «первоистоки»;
7. «rural prose» – зд. «деревенская проза»;
8. the traditional expressivity of the word and different types of symbolism
– традиционная выразительность слова и разного рода символика.
RUSSIAN MUSIC OF THE 1990'S
Russian music of the 1990's also entered a completely new phase of de-
velopment. Processes occurring here in the last decade of the century in many
ways symmetrically reflected the epoch of the 1920's: the same deep fractures
in society, the same mass emigration of the intelligentsia, the same delimita-
tion of creative and ideological positions and attempts to order new «normal»
currents of the musical process, and finally, the same quick parting with illu-
sion.
New creative and organisational initiatives of this period were limited to
the beginning of the decade. In 1990, at the dusk of the existence of the USSR,
a group of middle generation composers announced the formation of the Asso-
ciation of Modern Music (ACM-2) and the eponymous ensemble, in opposi-
tion to the traditional line of the Union of Composers. In their initial manifes-
tation, ACM didn't last long – the collapse of the USSR and mass emigration
of her members automatically transformed it into a section of the Moscow Un-
ion of Composers, although its activities left a clear imprint on the last years
of Soviet music. It was in just these years that the festivals Moscow Autumn
and Alternativa found their conceptual regeneration.
In 1993 the Centre for Contemporary Music was founded, whose pur-
pose was the establishment of a new infrastructure, embracing all aspects of
the functioning of modern music – from study to festival-concerts. In the same
year the ensemble Studio for New Music was founded, and in 1994 the annual
international festival of contemporary music Moscow Forum had its premiere.
All of these actions were initiated to integrate Russian music into the broader
77
European musical context.
The turn of the 1990's was the time of the post-perestroika boom, the
fall of the Berlin Wall, and the opening of Russia to the world. In Germany
took place several significant festivals «with a Russian accent» – in Duisburg,
Frankfurt, Berlin and Cologne. In turn, two festivals of new German music
took place in Russia (1989-1990, 1995).
However, in spite of expectations, the appearance of democracy in Rus-
sia didn't generate any moral upswing. Having ceased to be a «tool» of the
Cold War and an attribute of governmental prestige, modern music in Russia
was completely «separated from the government». The musical industry of the
country was destroyed: the widely branched network of concert organisations
practically ceased to exist, the Union of Composers and music publishers were
forced to the brink of extinction, the record label «Melodiya» simply disap-
peared, along with its unique recording archives, and Russia's system of
defending authors' rights lay in ruins.
The principle of the relationship between the government (in the form
of the Ministry of Culture) and creative collectives is well illustrated by the
long experience of the Centre for Contemporary Music – the organiser of this
festival. For the ten years of its existence, not one project, not one concert, not
even one composition by a young composer has received so much as one rou-
ble of government support, even though many of them represented the music
of our country in prestigious international festivals and forums. Even such an
important event as the entry of Russia to the International Society for Con-
temporary Music (ISCM) in 2001 – in its own way a kind of musical United
Nations – was outside the boundaries of «national interest».
Modern music in Russia exists first of all «in spite of» and not «thanks
to», but according to completely different principles. To this day, the majority
of notable premieres of Russian composers happen in the West, for example
the great opera projects of Dmitri Smirnov, Nikolai Korndorf, Nikolai Karet-
nikov, Alexander Knaifel, of whom there is practically no information in their
homeland. In distinction to the 1970–80's, these compositions were practically
unheard in Russia, remaining events of the musical life of Germany, England,
France and The Netherlands.
78
In this situation, many composers and performers were forced to emigrate. Already in 1995 in a Russian-German symposium taking place within
the framework of the Moscow Forum, Professor Yuri Kholopov distressingly
stated that: «An entire musical culture has left Russia». If in the first half of
the 1990's this process basically touched only composers of the older and
middle generations (Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov,
Rodion Shchedrin, Leonid Hrabovski, Nikolai Korndorf, Elena Firsova,
Dmitri Smirnov, Alexander Raskatov, Vladislav Shoot, Vassily Lobanov and
others), then in the second half of the 1990's – the outflow of younger composers increased.
The mass «outcome» of the 1990's influenced the internal creative situation of the compositional sphere, having changed the complex balance of positions and accents of priorities. New types of oversimplification of musical
language and stylistic reduction, having significantly reflected a capitulation
before the complexities of modem compositional writing and the problem of
individual style, denoted an essential change in aesthetic values and priorities.
Replacing the subtle new European techniques came a «new simplicity»
of minimalism and the ironic staging of democratic instrumental theatre and
musical performances.
Notes:
1. deep fractures in society – глубокий социальный разлом в обществе;
2. delimitation of creative and ideological positions – размежевание
на группы по творческим и идеологическим позициям;
3. the formation of the Association of Modern Music – образование
Ассоциации современной музыки;
4. the establishment of a new infrastructure – формирование новой
инфраструктуры;
5. to integrate Russian music into the broader European musical context –
интегрировать русскую музыку в общеевропейский культурный
контекст;
6. the record label «Melodiya» – фирма грамзаписи «Мелодия»;
7. to be outside the boundaries of «national interest» – оказаться за пре-
делами «государственного интереса»;
8. to defend authors' rights – защищать авторские права.
79
THE SONG-CYCLES OF VALENTIN SILVESTROV
Valentin Vassilevich Silvestrov was born on September 30, 1937 in
Kiev. He received his professional education as a composer at the Kiev Con-
servatory, from which he graduated in 1963 as a pupil of Boris Lyatoshinsky.
He was a winner of the International Sergei Koussevitsky Award in the USA
in 1967 and of the International Gaudeamus Competition (1970, the Nether-
lands). He received the title of a People's Artist of the Ukraine in 1989.
Among his works are numerous orchestral compositions (including seven
symphonies and a few compositions for solo instrument or solo voice and or-
chestra), solo and choral cantatas, works for chamber ensemble for various
combinations (among them two string quartets, sonatas for violin and cello,
the triptych Drama), three piano sonatas and other music for piano as well as
numerous vocal compositions with chamber ensemble or piano accompani-
ment.
Silvestrov's music is performed in numerous European countries and in
the USA. Among its performers are such outstanding musicians as Alexei Lu-
bimov, Gidon Kremer, Ivan Monighetti, Tatiana Grindenko, conductors An-
drei Boreiko, Dennis Russell Davies, Roman Kofman and David Robertson.
Valentin Silvestrov ranks among the most outstanding composers of today. In
his music one could sense an exceptional spiritual saturation and a purity of
artistic will. Distancing itself from programmatic concrete nature, avoiding
predicant pathos and the least trace of topicality, Silvestrov's music speaks
about what is most important – about the human being, who listens attentively
to himself and to the surrounding world. According to the composer, "music is
not a philosophy, but a song sung by the world about itself, a sort of a musical
testimony of existence".
When asked about the periodization of his creative career, Valentin
Silvestrov pointed out that the year 1974 had marked a new stage in his evolu-
tion: "a 'metaphorical' style in the vein of new traditionalism or neoromanti-
cism". In those days stylistic surprises were quite in vogue. But Silvestrov's
Kitsch Music for piano and especially his song-cycle Silent Songs (written in
1974-77) shocked many listeners, in particular professional musicians, who
regarded them as a betrayal of the avant-gardist ideals and as renunciation of
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