Grechaninov Alexander Tikhonovich

Main article: History of music in Russia

Alexander Tikhonovich Grechaninov (1864-1956) is one of the composers of the Silver Age, the brightest representative of the so-called "new direction" of Russian sacred music. Grechaninov himself called his style "symphonic."

Biography

Alexander Tikhonovich Grechaninov made his way to his composer success for a long time and difficult. He began to study music very late and never became "his" either in St. Petersburg or in the Moscow musical environment.

"I did not belong to those lucky ones whose life path is dotted with roses. Every step of my artistic career cost me an incredible effort. "

The family of the Moscow merchant Grechaninov predicted the boy to trade. "It wasn't until I was 14 that I first saw the piano... Since then, the piano has been made by my constant friend. " Stubbornly studying, Grechaninov secretly entered the Moscow Conservatory from his parents in 1881, where he studied with V. Safonov, A. Arensky, S. Taneev. The latter, noticing the young student's penchant for writing, also gave him private lessons in free writing (for which he never took money). It was during his studies in the class that Taneeva Grechaninov composed about a dozen of his first romances, two or three of which later became very widely known and gradually made him a name and fame. More than others, "Lullaby" turned out to be popular to the verses of Lermontov, it firmly came into use of concert and home music, and therefore was remembered for a very long time, so that even more than half a century later, during the celebration of the 90th anniversary of Grechaninov, in many articles he was called "composer of the famous Lullaby."

They were included in the first composition of the composer "Five Songs," published in 1893:

• Night voices
• Acute Sekiroy
• Wells
• The edge you are mine
• Lullaby

He considered the greatest events of his conservative life to be the Historical Concerts of A. Rubinstein and communication with the music of P. Tchaikovsky. "I managed to be a boy at the first performances" by Eugene Onegin 'and "Queen of Spades." For the rest of my life I kept a huge impression of what these operas made on me. "

In 1890, due to disagreements with Arensky, who denied Grechaninov's composer abilities, he had to leave the Moscow Conservatory and go to St. Petersburg. Here the young composer met with full understanding and good support of N. Rimsky-Korsakov, including material, which was important for a needy young man.

Grechaninov graduated from the conservatory in 1893, presenting the cantata "Samson" as a thesis, and a year later he was awarded a prize at the Belyaevsky competition for the First String Quartet.

In 1896, Grechaninov returned to Moscow by the already famous composer, author of the First Symphony, numerous romances and choirs. The period of the most active creative, pedagogical, social activity began. Having become close to Konstantin Stanislavsky, Grechaninov creates music for the performances of the Moscow Art Theater. The musical design of A. Ostrovsky's play "The Snow Maiden" turned out to be especially successful. Stanislavsky called this music excellent.

In 1903, the composer made his debut at the Bolshoi Theater with the opera Dobrynya Nikitich with the participation of F. Chaliapin and A. Nezhdanova. The opera has earned acclaim from audiences and criticism. "I consider it a good contribution to Russian opera music," Rimsky-Korsakov wrote to the author. During these years, Grechaninov worked a lot in the genres of sacred music, setting himself the goal of bringing it as close as possible to the "folk spirit." And teaching at the school of the Gnesins sisters (since 1903) served as an incentive to compose children's plays.

In 1917, he wrote the Liturgy of Demons. Initially, it was conceived as a chamber work for home music. In 1918, Grechaninov created a new edition of the Liturgy for tenor, string orchestra, organ, harp and celesta, and in 1923 he introduced a choir into the score and wrote several numbers. The demonic liturgy did not fit into the framework of the canons of Russian sacred music. The unusual nature of this work caused rejection among many.

In 1923, 15 children's plays were combined into the Children's Album, Op.98. The collection includes the following plays:

• "Little Fairy Tale,"
• "In the summer camp,"
• "March ,"
• "Apart,"
• "Riding a Horse,"
• "On the Lawn,"
• "Dissatisfied,"
• "Boring Story,"
• "Lullaby,"
• "Dance ,"
• "Unusual incident,"
• "Study,"
• "Mazurka,"
• "Drawl Song,"
• "Waltz."

In 1925, already a sixty-year-old man, Alexander Grechaninov emigrated to Europe with his second family. He lived there for more than ten years in Paris, and at the outbreak of war, in 1939, he moved to New York.

List of works

Compositions for orchestra

• Symphony No. 1, Op. 6 (1894)
• Cello and Orchestra Concerto, Op. 8 (1895)
• Symphony No. 2, Op. 27 (1908)
• Symphony No. 3, Op. 100 (1923)
• Symphony No. 4, Op. 102 (1927)
• Violin and Orchestra Concerto, Op. 132 (1932)
• Symphony No. 5, Op. 153 (1936)
• Concerto for flute, harp and strings, Op. 159 (1938)

Operas

• "Dobrynya Nikitich" op.22 (1895 − 1901)
• "Beatrice's Sister" Op. 50 (1908 − 1910)
• "Yolochkin Sleep," children's opera Op. 55 (1911)
• "Marriage" op.180 (1946)

Chamber music

• Four String Quartets (1893, 1914, 1916, 1929)
• Balalaika and Piano Sonata Op. 188 № 1 (1948—1951)
• Rondo for balalaika and piano Op. 188 № 2 (1939)
• Two Piano Trios (1906, 1931)
• Two Piano Sonatas (1931, 1942)
• Solo piano pieces
• Sonata No. 2 for clarinet and piano, op.172

Romances

Roman sonnets

Being an absolute conservative in his musical views, but a sociable and unfriendly person, Grechaninov calmly and measured walked his musical path all his life. Subtle and observant critic Leonid Sabaneev once noted about Grechaninov:... "he began to make friends with Vyacheslav Ivanov, write music on his texts, as well as on the texts of Russian symbolist poets. Weak and timid, extremely uncertain attempts to enrich his harmonic palette "under Debussy" or at least "under Rebikov" appeared in Grechaninov's music. All this was extremely naive and did not correspond in any way to his style and musical, and mental. He was a man himself eminently simple and uncomplicated, psychologically naive, least of all he could have contact with symbolists, wise people, confused, complicated. And musical modernism went to him like a "cow saddle." His charm was in the primitive simplicity of musical feeling, in the small portion of simple and sincere emotions not yet expressed in music that his musical ancestors Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov did not have time to embody. However, he, apparently, himself felt that this world was not for him, and in subsequent works he again returned to his original palette. "

Sabaneev's statement is witty, but not entirely accurate. Of course, stylistically Grechaninov was not suitable for the "wise and confused symbolists," but he talked regularly with Vyacheslav Ivanov. In 1919, the poet devotes a poem to the composer with lines that contradict the Sabanean statement: "Your soul, all the ringing and construction, My soul is akin to...," and the story of the creation of one of Grechaninov's brightest vocal opuses, "Roman sonnets," gives Ivanov's words a long-term, time-tested creative friendship.

On Christmas Day 1938, Grechaninov was seen with. Ivanov at his apartment on the Tarpey Rock in Rome, and soon after returning to Paris told the poet: "I sent you 2 Roman sonnets in manuscript that I had just set to music." The whole Ivanov family liked the romances, the poet's daughter Lydia learned music and performed Grechaninov's composition for friends, which the Compo himself learned about in a short time.

Already at the end of the next decade, Grechaninov wrote to the poet from: USA"In 1939, leaving, I Paris remember, I wrote to you, but did not receive an answer, obviously, the letter did not reach you. And I wrote to you then that in the last days before the war I composed 5 plays on your Roman Sonnets... they were performed several times according to London the manuscript. Now they are printed and as soon as they are published, I will send them to you. I consider this my opus one of my greatest achievements and I am eager to show it to you, my dear, old friend. "

The main advantage of the Sonnets is their vivid colorfulness and wealth of piano accompaniment. In coloristic details, the influence of Grechaninov's teacher at the St. Petersburg Conservatory Rimsky-Korsakov (to whom he could not forgive the obvious "distance and coldness") is felt. The composer is very inventive in detail, although the complete lack of reprisal and the desire not to repeat itself literally in any measure gives the impression of some intellectual pretentiousness.

In the Roman Sonnets, Grechaninov does not open new horizons, on the contrary, as in his other works, he wants to be understandable and accessible. Romances are pleasing in their soft, beautiful and sometimes tart harmonies, "cleverly tailored," rhythmically varied, teeming with showy climaxes and deserving of a place in performance practice.

At the crinitsa

Triptych "At the Krinitsa" "a thing in itself." The composer is passionate about the literal following of the Ivanovo poetic idea, which is expressed in endless and often contradictory author's remarks, in an obscure form of romances (with the exception of, of course, the laconic last part), in the absence of vivid melodic characteristics. But the author cannot be denied soulfulness, the desire to speak deeply and not trivially, and even religious reverence, which is not characteristic of Russian chamber vocal music in general.

Spiritual writings

• Liturgy, Op. 13 (1897)
• Liturgy, Op. 29 (1902)
• Passionate Sedmitsa, Op. 58 (1911)
• All-night vigil, Op. 59 (1912)
• Praise God, Op. 65 (1915)
• Demonic liturgy, Op. 79 (1917)
• Two spiritual choirs "Blessed Husband" and "From My Youth," Op. 136 (1932)
• Festive Mass, Op. 154 (1937)
• Universal Mass, Op. 142 (1933—1939)
• Mass of the Holy Spirit, Op. 169 (1943)