Detailed biography of Dargomyzhsky

Opera "Mermaid", act of the 3rd Dargomyzhsky, Alexander Sergeevich - the famous Russian composer. Born on February 2, G. died on January 5, his father, Sergey Nikolaevich, served on the Ministry of Finance, in a commercial bank; The mother of Dargomyzhsky, the nee Princess Maria Borisovna Kozlovskaya, married against the will of her parents. She was well formed; Her poems were printed in almanacs and magazines.

Some poems written by her for their children, mostly instructive in nature, were included in the collection: "Gift of my daughter" "Children's Almanac", St. Petersburg, one of the Dargomyzhsky brothers played perfectly on the violin, participating in the chamber ensemble at home evenings; One of the sisters played well at the harp and composed romances. Until the age of five, the Dargomyzhsky did not speak at all, and his voice formed late remained forever squeaky and hoarse, which did not interfere with him, however, subsequently touching the expressiveness and artistry of vocal performance in intimate meetings.

Dargomyzhsky received the education of homemade, but thorough; He knew the French language and French literature. Playing the puppet theater, the boy composed small piles-water for him, and at six he began to learn to play the piano. His teacher, Adrian Danilevsky, not only did not encourage the attraction of his student from summer age to compose, but exterminated his composer experiments.

Learning to play the piano ended with Shoberlechner, a student of Hummel. Dargomyzhsky studied and singing, with Ceibikha, who informed him of the intervals and the violin game by P. Vorontsov, participating from the summer age in the quartet ensemble, see Kui, with the accession of Dargomyzhsky “Notes and Anecdots”, “The Yearbook of Imperial Theaters” of the G.D. There was no education of Dargomyzhsky, and he owed his theoretical knowledge mainly to himself.

His earliest works - Rondo, variations for the piano, romances on the words of Zhukovsky “shines the month” and Pushkin “Yantarny Cup” - were not found in his papers, but even during his lifetime “Contredanse Nouvelle” and “Variations” for piano, written: the first - in - in - GG. In the 10ths, Dargomyzhsky was known in the musical circles of St. Petersburg as a “strong pianist”, as well as the author of several piano plays of a brilliant salon style and romances: “Oh, ma charmante”, “Virgo and rose”, “I repentance, uncle”, “You are pretty” and other, not very different from the style of Romances of Vernovsky and Varlamov, with.

an admixture of French influence. Acquaintance with M. Glinka, who conveyed Dargomyzhsky he brought from Berlin from Professor Den theoretical manuscripts, contributed to the expansion of his knowledge in the field of harmony and counterpoint; Then he began to study the orchestration. Having evaluated Glinka’s talent, Dargomyzhsky chose, for his first opera, Esmeraldo chose, however, the French libretto compiled by Victor Hugo from his novel “Notre Dam de Paris” and only at the end of the opera in the city, but the features of Dargomyzhsky were already discovered: the drama and the desire to express the vocal style, under the influence of acquaintance with the works Megyul, Ober and Karubini.

Esmeralda was set only in the city of Dargomizhsky in the service, first in the control of the Ministry of the Court, then in the Department of State Treasury; Then he completely devoted himself to music. Failure with Esmeralda suspended the opera work of Dargomyzhsky; He took up the composition of the romances, which, along with the earliest, published 30 romances in the city of Dargomyzhsky visited Germany, Paris, Brussels and Vienna.

Personal acquaintance with Ober, Meyerber and other European musicians influenced his further development. He came close with Galevi and Fetis, who testifies that Dargomyzhsky consulted with him regarding his works, including the “Esmeralda” “Biographie Universelle des Musiciens”, St. Petersburg, X, having left the adherent of the whole French, Dargomyzhsky returned to Petersburg much more than before.

The champion of all Russian as it happened and with a glinc. Reviews of the foreign press regarding the execution of Dargomyzhsky’s works at private meetings in Vienna, Paris and Brussels contributed to some change in attitude to the Dargomyzh Directorate of Theaters. In the X years, he wrote a large cantata with the choirs on the text of Pushkin's "Vacke triumph". She was performed at a concert of the directorate at the Bolshoi Theater in St.

Petersburg, in the city of This opera, like the first, is weak in music and is not typical of Dargomyzhsky. Surrounded by the refusal of the “Bacchan”, Dargomyzhsky again closed into the tight circle of his fans and fans, continuing to compose small vocal ensembles of duets, trio, quarters and romances, then published and made popular. At the same time, he took up the teaching of singing.

The number of his students and especially students, he gave lessons for free. L. Belenitsyna stood out through the husband of Karmalin; Interesting letters of Dargomyzhsky, M., are printed.Purgult by husband Molas. The sympathy and worship of women, especially the singers, always inspired and encouraged Dargomyzhsky, and he used to say: "If there weren’t the singers in the world, it would not be worth being a composer." Already in the city of a new impetus to the work of Dargomyzhsky, he gave a noisy success of a grandiose concert from his writings, arranged in St.

Petersburg in the hall of the noble collection on April 9, Odoevsky and A., again, Dargomyzhsky finished it in the city of Dargomizhsky consciously cultivated the Russian musical style created by Glinka. The new one in the Mermaid is her drama, comic figure of the matchmaker and bright recitables in which Dargomyzhsky ahead of Glinka. But the vocal style of the "mermaid" is far from sustained; Next to truthful, expressive recitatives there are conditional cantiles of Italianisms, rounded arias, duets and ensembles, not always knitting with the requirements of the drama.

The weak side of the "mermaid" is still in technical terms of its orchestration, which can not compare with the richest orchestral paints of Ruslan, and from an artistic point of view - the whole fantastic part, rather pale. The first performance of the "Mermaid" in Lyadov, who did not like Dargomyzhsky, was not successful. The opera withdrew to the city of Rusalka in Moscow was delivered for the first time in the city of the initial failure of the "Mermaid" acted on Dargomyzhsky depressingly; According to the story of his friend, V.

Engelhardt, he intended to burn the scores of Esmeralda and Mermaid, and only a formal refusal of the Directorate to give these scores to the author, supposedly for correction, saved them from destruction. The last period of Dargomyzhsky’s work, the most original and significant, can be called reformist. Its beginning, rooted already in the recituctions of the "mermaid", is marked by the appearance of a number of original vocal plays that differ in its comic - or rather, Gogol’s humor, laughter through the tears of the titular adviser, then the drama "Old Corporal", these vocal plays were a new step in the history of the Russian romance and served as samples for Glinka for Glinka for Glinka The vocal masterpieces of Mussorgsky, who wrote on one of them the dedication of Dargomyzhsky - the "great teacher of musical truth." The comic vein of Dargomyzhsky manifested itself in the field of orchestral composition.

In addition, his orchestral fantasies include: “Little Russian Cossack”, inspired by the “Kamarinskaya” Glinka, and completely independent: “Baba Yaga, or from the Volga Nach Riga and Chukhon Fantasy. The last two, originally conceived, are also interesting in orchestral techniques that show that Dargomyzhsky had a taste and imagination in combining the colors of the orchestra.

The acquaintance of Dargomyzhsky in the middle of the X with the composers of the "Balakirevsky circle" was beneficial for both sides. The new vocal verse of Dargomyzhsky influenced the development of the vocal style of young composers, which especially affected the work of Kui and Mussorgsky, who met Dargomyzhsky, like Balakirev, earlier than the rest. On Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin, the new opera techniques of Dargomyzhsky, who were putting into practice, expressed in a letter to Karmalina, especially affected the new opera techniques of Dargomyzh.

The opera composer by vocation, Dargomyzhsky, despite failures with the official directorate, could not withstand inaction for a long time. In the beginning of the 10ths, he set about the Rogdan’s magical and comic opera, but wrote only five numbers, two solo Daetino Rogdana and Ratobrah ”and“ comic song ”and three choral chorus dervishes to Pushkin’s words“ Risano, fearful ”, harsh oriental choirs and two female choirs:“ Loof the Blave ”and“ Like a funnel ”; All of them were first performed in concerts of a free music school - gg.

A little later, he conceived the opera of Mazepa, on the plot of Poltava Pushkin, but, having written the duet of Orlik with Kochube "again, you are a despicable person," and stopped on him. There was not enough determination to spend strength on a large essay, whose fate seemed unreliable. Traveling abroad, in - 65 years, contributed to the rise of his spirit and strength, since it was very successful in artistic terms: in Brussels, the captain Gansense appreciated the talent of Dargomyzhsky and contributed to the performance of the Navigura and the Cossack or “Cossack” who had a huge success in the concerts of his orchestral things.

But the main impetus to the unusual awakening of work was given by his new young comrades, the features of the talents of which he quickly appreciated. The question of opera forms then became the next. Serov was engaged in him, about to become an opera composer and carried away by the ideas of Wagner's opera reform. The members of the Balakirevsky circle, especially Kui, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, were engaged in them, deciding it independently, based on the peculiarities of the new vocal style of Dargomyzhsky.

Composing his "William Rutcliffe", Kui immediately introduced Dargomyzhsky to written. They introduced Dargomyzhsky to their new vocal works also Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Their energy was reported to the Dargomyzhsky himself; He decided to boldly embark on the path of opera reform and tightened the swan song in his expression, starting with extraordinary zeal for the composition of the “stone guest”, without changing a single line of the Pushkin text and not adding a single word to it.

Dargomyzhsky aneurysm and hernia did not stop the work and the disease; In recent weeks, he wrote, lying in bed, with a pencil. Young friends, gathering the patient, performed the scene behind the scene of the opera as it was creating and enthusiastically gave new forces that faded the composer. For several months, the opera was almost over; Death prevented the music only to the last seventeen verses.

According to the testament of Dargomyzhsky, he finished the "stone guest" of Kui; He wrote the introduction to the opera, borrowing thematic material from it, and orchestration orchestration of Rimsky-Korsakov. Through the efforts of friends, the Stone Guest was set in St. Petersburg on the Mariinsky stage on February 16. However, the significance of the "stone guest", which logically finishes the reform ideas of Dargomyzhsky, is undoubted.

In the "Stone Gost", Dargomyzhsky, like Wagner, seeks to carry out the synthesis of drama and music, subordinating music to the text. The opera forms of the "stone guest" are so flexible that music flows continuously, without any repetitions that are not caused by the meaning of the text. This was achieved by the rejection of symmetrical forms of arias, duets and other rounded ensembles, and at the same time, the rejection of continuous cantilens, as not enough to express rapidly changing shades of speech.

But here the paths of Wagner and Dargomyzhsky diverge. Wagner transferred the center of gravity of the musical expression of the psychology of actors to the orchestra, and the vocal parties were in the background. Dargomyzhsky concentrated musical expressiveness in vocal parties, finding more appropriate for the actors themselves to talk about themselves. The opera links in the continuously current music of Wagner are leitmotifs, symbols of faces, objects, ideas.

The opera style of the "stone guest" is deprived of leitmotifs; Nevertheless, the characteristics of the actors in Dargomyzhsky are bright and strictly designed. In their mouth, speech are invested various, but homogeneous for everyone. Denying the continuous cantilens, Dargomyzhsky rejected and ordinary, the so -called "dry" recitative, little expressive and devoid of purely musical beauty.

He created the vocal style lying between Cantilena and recitative, a special singing or melodic recitative, quite elastic to be in constant accordance with speech, and at the same time rich in characteristic melodic bends, spiritualizing this speech, bringing a new emotional element that lacks it. In this vocal style, which fully meets the features of the Russian language, the merit of Dargomyzhsky is.

The opera forms of the "stone guest" caused by the properties of the libretto, a text that did not allow the widespread use of choirs, vocal ensembles, the independent performance of the orchestra, cannot, of course, be considered immutable samples for any opera. Artistic tasks allow more than one, not two solutions. But the resolution of the opera problem of Dargomyzhsky is so characteristic that the opera will not be forgotten in the history of the opera.

Dargomyzhsky had not only Russian followers, but also foreign.