Literary and musical composition "in the midst of a noisy ball." Analysis of the poem "Amidst a noisy ball, by chance" by A. Tolstoy Who wrote the romance amidst a noisy ball
Analysis of the poem Amidst the noisy ball by chance
Plan
1. History of creation
2.Genre
3.Main theme
4.Composition
5.Size
6. Expressive means
7. Main idea
1. History of creation. The work was written by A.K. Tolstoy under the impression of a meeting at a ball with S.A. Miller. The poet and writer, unlike most of his fellow writers, was not an amorous person constantly striving for new novels. Sophia Miller really made a very big impression on Tolstoy, and more so not with her beauty, but with her erudition. For a respectable and highly moral poet, a huge obstacle was that Sophia was married. However, she told Tolstoy that she was unhappy in her marriage and had been trying to get a divorce from her husband for a long time. As a sign of assurance of his feelings, the poet presented Sophia with a poem written almost immediately after the meeting.
2. Genre. The genre of the poem is love poetry and represents the author’s appeal to his beloved.
3. Main theme works - a description of the impression that Sophia made on Tolstoy. It is characteristic that in this description it is not some elements of bodily beauty (“slim figure”) that predominate, but the sound of a woman’s voice and laughter. The noble poet is delighted by Sophia’s sad gaze, hiding some secret. He admits that he cannot forget the “ringing laughter” of his beloved, which still resounds in his heart.
4. Composition. The poem can be divided into two main parts. The introductory (first two stanzas) part is a description of the meeting and the indelible impression made by Sophia on the poet. The third stanza represents a smooth transition from the past to the present. The final part (fourth and fifth stanzas) is the state in which the poet is now, constantly reliving the moments of his first meeting with his future lover. The poet does not speak directly about his love for a married woman until a decisive explanation, softening the confession with the expression “it seems that I love.”
5. Size. The work is written in amphibrachic trimeter with cross rhyme, which gives it a special sublime rhythm and musicality. Subsequently, the words of the poem were set to music.
6. Expressive means are few in number, but used by Tolstoy with great skill, and fit organically into the poem. The poet uses the necessary modest epithets (“thoughtful”, “sad”, “ringing”). A vivid comparison is applied only in relation to the voice (as “the ringing of a pipe” and “the playing wave of the sea”). The inversion gives the work special solemnity and expressiveness (“slim figure,” “lonely hours,” “I love”).
7. Main idea poems are the author’s careful and chaste declaration of love. The poet tries to assess the strength of his feeling and the possibility of its further development. A.K. Tolstoy belonged to the romantic poets of the old school. He never allowed himself to make rude or frank statements, treating love as the highest spiritual feeling of a person. The feeling of love that arose in Tolstoy could not become a passing hobby. He was not mistaken in his assessment. Sophia Miller became his life partner and creative muse for life.
In the midst of a noisy ball
In the midst of a noisy ball, by chance,
In the anxiety of worldly vanity,
I saw you, but it's a mystery
Your features are covered.
I liked your thin figure
And your whole thoughtful look,
And your laughter, both sad and ringing,
Since then it has been ringing in my heart.
In the lonely hours of the night
I love, tired, to lie down -
I see sad eyes
I hear cheerful speech;
And sadly I fall asleep like that,
And I sleep in unknown dreams...
Do I love you - I don't know
But it seems to me that I love it!
Many remember these poems by Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817–1875), and the melody of Tchaikovsky’s romance that merges with them. But not everyone knows that behind the poem there are living events: the beginning of extraordinary romantic love.
They first met at a masquerade ball in the winter of 1850–51 at the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater. He accompanied the heir to the throne, the future Tsar Alexander II, there. From childhood, he was chosen as a playmate for the Tsarevich and, secretly burdened by this, regularly bore the burden of being chosen. She appeared at the masquerade because, after breaking up with her husband, Horse Guardsman Miller, she was looking for an opportunity to forget and disperse. For some reason, in the secular crowd, he immediately noticed her. The mask hid her face. But the gray eyes looked intently and sadly. Beautiful ashen hair crowned her head. She was slender and graceful, with a very thin waist. Her voice was mesmerizing - a thick contralto.
They did not speak for long: the bustle of the colorful masquerade ball separated them. But she managed to amaze him with the accuracy and wit of her fleeting judgments. She, of course, recognized him. In vain he asked her to open her face, take off her mask... But she took his business card, making a sly promise not to forget him. But what would have happened to him, and to both of them, if she had not come to that ball then? Perhaps it was on that January night in 1851, when he was returning home, that the first lines of this poem formed in his mind.
This poem will become one of the best in Russian love lyrics. Nothing was invented in it, everything is as it was. It is full of real signs, documentary, like a report. Only this is a “report” that poured out from the poet’s heart and therefore became a lyrical masterpiece. And added another immortal portrait to the gallery of “muses of Russian romances.”
Music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, lyrics by Alexei Tolstoy.
In the midst of a noisy ball, by chance,
In the anxiety of worldly vanity,
I saw you, but it's a mystery
Your features are covered.
Only the eyes looked sadly,
And the voice sounded so wonderful,
Like the sound of a distant pipe,
Like a playing shaft of the sea.
I liked your thin figure
And your whole thoughtful look;
And your laughter, both sad and ringing,
Since then it has been ringing in my heart.
In the lonely hours of the night
I like to lie down when I’m tired,
I see sad eyes
I hear cheerful speech;
And sadly I fall asleep like that,
And I sleep in unknown dreams...
Do I love you - I don't know
But it seems to me that I love it.
Amazing Georg Ots!
The author of the poems is Count Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875), a Russian writer, poet, playwright from the Tolstoy family.
A. K. Tolstoy composed the poem in 1851 and dedicated it to his future wife Sofya Andreevna Miller, whom he met at the New Year's masquerade ball held at the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater. Then in winter 1850-51 33-year-old chamberlain cadet Alexey Tolstoy I saw a stranger.
The cadet chamberlain was noble: his mother was the granddaughter of the last hetman of Ukraine Kirill Razumovsky and the daughter of the Minister of Public Education under Alexander I, his father was from the old Tolstoy family. But the darling of fate did not value his high position too much - his soul from his youth was given to poetry. In 1850 it was already being published, already noticed.
Beloved by mother Sergei Lemeshev
Who was that stranger in a black half-mask - with a thin figure, a ringing laugh, sad eyes? Her name was Sofya Andreevna Miller, née Bakhmeteva.
She was an extraordinary woman, and her fate also turned out unusual. Contemporaries were amazed by her education. She knew many foreign languages: according to some sources, fourteen, according to others, sixteen. She corresponded with I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharov.
By the time she met Tolstoy, Sofya Andreevna was the wife of Horse Guards Colonel Lev Miller. Sofia Andreevna's marriage to him turned out to be unsuccessful. The newlyweds almost never lived with each other. The lover Alexei Konstantinovich dedicated lyrical lines full of admiration to her. The poem was published in Otechestvennye zapiski, 1856, No. 5. Miller did not give his wife a divorce for a long time - even when her relationship with Count A.K. Tolstoy became known to the whole world and only needed legalization.
As always, Muslim Magomaev is magnificent
But his mother, Anna Alekseevna Tolstaya, firmly stood up against his chosen one.Anna Alekseevna did everything to discredit her son’s friend and distract Alexey from a relationship that had lasted for seven years. The son did not dare to go against the will of his mother. Only after her sudden death, as well as the long-awaited divorce, did the lovers get married, and Sofya Andreevna Miller became Countess Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy.
In 1878, after Tolstoy’s death, P. I. Tchaikovsky created music for the poems. Tchaikovsky chose the waltz genre. The composer dedicated his romance to his younger brother Anatoly Ilyich Tchaikovsky, a lawyer by profession, who served in Tiflis as a prosecutor of the District Court. He helped Pyotr Ilyich survive the crisis associated with his unsuccessful marriage to Antonina Milyukova.
The romance was first recorded on a gramophone record on June 18, 1901.
artist of the Imperial Opera Joachim Tartakov, accompanied by P. P. Gross on the piano.
Sung by Mark Reisen
Joakim Viktorovich Tartakov (1860-1923), opera singer (baritone), Honored Artist of the Imperial Theaters, and later Honored Artist of the Republic of Soviets.
Now it is simply impossible to list all the performers of the romance! It was and is sung by Dmitry Hvorostovsky, Leonid Sobinov, Irina Arkhipova, Galina Vishnevskaya, Ivan Petrov, modern performers like Oleg Pogudin, and many other singers you love!
The history of the poem is as romantic as the birth of love is romantic.
According to one version, at the ball at the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater (Stone Theater), the cadet cadet Alexei Tolstoy (33 years old) appeared by chance - on duty, he accompanied Tsarevich Alexander, the future emperor.
As is usual at masquerade balls, the ladies wore half masks, leaving only their eyes open. A girl with sad gray eyes, a beautiful figure and a melodious voice attracted Tolstoy's attention. She waltzed gracefully, answered questions wittily, showing a good disposition and education... Tolstoy was so interested in her that by the end of the ball the beautiful stranger completely captivated him.
According to another version, at the ball Miller met Sofia Andreevna not Tolstoy, but Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. The girl in the mask intrigued Turgenev, and he agreed on a date with her. Turgenev painted the scene of his acquaintance at the ball for his friend Alexei Tolstoy. He became interested and persuaded Turgenev to take him on a date. The two of us came.
Seeing the ugly face of 24-year-old Sofia Andreevna, Turgenev’s enthusiasm instantly disappeared. Later, remembering that meeting, he will say that she had “the face of a Chukhon soldier in a skirt.” During the meeting, the disappointed Turgenev was frankly bored, and Tolstoy, on the contrary, happily talked with Sofia Andreevna. He did not see her wide, narrow-lipped mouth, nor her snub nose, nor the mournfully lowered line of her eyebrows - he enjoyed the communication and found the girl charming.
Feelings for an imaginary image seemed real to Tolstoy, he plunged into them headlong. A few days later, the lover poured out his feelings in the poem “Among the Noisy Ball.”
Later, in a conversation with friend and relative A. M. Zhemchuzhnikov, Tolstoy called her “sweet, talented, kind, educated, unhappy and with a beautiful soul.”
According to the third version, Tolstoy and Turgenev came to that masquerade ball together. The difference was that Turgenev was disappointed in Sophia Miller, and Tolstoy, on the contrary, fell in love with her.
Historical facts indicate that only 12 years after the first meeting, Alexey Konstantinovich and Sofya Andreevna got married.
There is an opinion that all these years they loved each other mutually, but, getting acquainted with the details of the biography of Alexei Konstantinovich, I began to doubt Sofia Andreevna’s reciprocal love.
It is believed that if a woman is loved by a decent, and, most importantly, famous man, then angels immediately begin to sing around her, and she is transformed, going over to the side of good, because a good man certainly loves his own kind; kind and good people do not have “evil wives.” . Unfortunately, it happens.
Good, kind, smart and talented Alexei Tolstoy loved Sophia Miller, so by default she had to have positive spiritual qualities, for example, to love her husband and help him in his affairs. Some literary scholars believe that Tolstoy would not have written a single line without the support of Sophia Miller.
Biographers agree that Sofya Andreevna was widely educated, read and spoke fourteen or sixteen languages (when she could!), knew how to conduct and maintain a conversation on any topic, sang beautifully, understood literature and music... this, of course, a big plus for a woman, but education, manners and behavior are not synonymous with happy love.
According to data gleaned from various biographical sources, I concluded that if anyone from this couple loved, it was Tolstoy, and Sophia only allowed herself to be loved. Perhaps, at the beginning of their romantic acquaintance, she tried to respond to Alexei Konstantinovich’s feelings, but infatuation is not love, it is short-lived and fragile.
My doubts arose under the influence of certain facts.
1.
Tolstoy, in love, despite the fact that Sophia was married, came to the Millers’ house and proposed marriage to Sophia. If she had loved him, she would have taken advantage of this circumstance and decisively left her unloved husband (remember Anna Karenina), but she did not leave, although her relationship with her husband by that time was purely formal. This means that she didn’t really like Tolstoy either.
2.
When Sophia's husband, cavalry guard Colonel Lev Fedorovich Miller, fought in the Crimean War, she began an affair with the writer Grigorovich, although she knew about Tolstoy's feelings: she received frequent romantic letters from him with declarations of love and dedication of poems to her. Surely she knew that rumors about her connection with Grigorovich would inevitably reach the lover Tolstoy and cause him pain and suffering, but... do not feel sorry for the unloved!
3.
A.M. Zhemchuzhnikov recalled a conversation with A.K. Tolstoy’s mother, Anna Alekseevna, who admitted to him that she was upset by her son’s “attachment” to Sofya Andreevna, that she was “deeply outraged” by her “deceit and calculation” and treated her sincerity “with complete distrust.”
Anna Alekseevna knew what she was saying. In society, Sophia Miller has become increasingly convinced that she has a past unworthy of a decent girl.
The fact is that young (unmarried) Sophia had an affair with Prince Grigory Vyazemsky, from whom she gave birth to a child. Vyazemsky did not want to legitimize their relationship, which is why a duel took place between him and Sophia’s brother, as a result of which his brother was killed.
4.
Being married to A.K. Tolstoy, Sofya Andreevna addressed him only by his last name, for example: “What nonsense are you talking about, Tolstoy.” Her husband annoyed her, and she did not hide it. She was dismissive of his work, saying, for example, that even Turgenev writes better! She was bored in the company of her husband and went to have fun in Europe, spending family money on luxury while their estates were going bankrupt.
But love... love for this woman still lived in the poet’s heart:
The passion has passed, and its anxious ardor
It no longer torments my heart,
But it’s impossible for me to stop loving you!
Everything that is not you is so vain and false,
Everything that is not you is colorless and dead... /A.K.Tolstoy/
5.
Count Alexei Konstantinovich was lucky in life, it seemed that nothing could darken his days - he lived, loved, created, had strong health, could go hunting for a bear with a knife in his hands... why did Tolstoy suffer from severe nerve disorder in recent years ? Maybe the cause of Tolstoy’s death (at 58 years old) was not an accidental overdose of a sedative, but a deliberate act of suicide?
Sofya Andreevna was also a good actress - “in public” she showed herself to be a modest, caring and loving wife, and outsiders had the opinion that Tolstoy and Miller were a happy couple.
Biographers give Sofia Tolstoy (Miller) credit for the fact that she edited her husband’s manuscripts and was involved in his publishing affairs. I think biographers attributed to Sofia Miller the merits of another Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy - the wife of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, who, indeed, carried a cart of editorial worries. The third, Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, the wife of S.A. Yesenin, did exactly the same; she also took an active part in her husband's publishing business.
And what the two Sophia Andreevnas were doing can easily be attributed to the third....
It was not easy for talented people to live in Russia, so sensitive, intelligent and, most importantly, loving wives were “shelter and relaxation” for them. Alas, Alexey Konstantinovich was deprived of spiritual shelter, although he remained a romantic until the end of his days, maintaining devotion, fidelity and love to the chosen one of his heart.
Of course, he felt the coldness of his lifelong friend, and this greatly upset him, but the memory of his first meeting at the ball helped heal his emotional wounds:
"In the lonely hours of the night
I love, tired, to lie down -
I see sad eyes
I hear cheerful speech;
And sadly I fall asleep like that,
And I sleep in unknown dreams..."
These: “in the lonely hours of the night, I like to lie down, tired,” and “and sadly I fall asleep like that” - do not give me peace. I sympathize and sympathize with this big, kind, gentle and vulnerable person... Tolstoy probably understood the difference between the real Sophia and the imaginary Sophia.
The observant and wise Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya once remarked: “Women are smarter than men. Have you ever heard of a woman who would lose her head just because a man has beautiful legs?”
But a man can! And he can lose his head only because of beautiful legs, but also because of beautiful eyes, especially if they are sad, like those of a lady in a half mask. These eyes, these eyes, awakened in the soul of the kind, sympathetic and impressionable Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy interest in their owner.
We call beautiful a face in which all its components are proportionate, they complement each other, combine into a whole and create a unique beauty of the face. It happens much more often that facial features are individually beautiful and expressive, but together they do not fit together, and you can only admire, for example, the nose, lips or eyes. Let us remember how Leo Tolstoy described the ugly face of Princess Marya in War and Peace:
"... the princess's eyes, large, deep and radiant (as if rays of warm light sometimes came out of them in sheaves), were so beautiful that very often, despite the ugliness of her entire face, these eyes became more attractive than beauty..."
It’s no wonder to fall in love with such eyes!
Sophia's face below the eyes was hidden by a half-mask - “secret” /I saw You, but Your secret covered my features/. I believe that Tolstoy liked her eyes / “Only her eyes looked sadly” /, he liked her “delicate” figure (what else to look at?), I heard how Sophia skillfully joked, wittily answered questions, skillfully maintained a conversation / “And her voice sounded so wondrous,” and her laughter was, “Like the ringing of a distant pipe, Like a playing wave of the sea” - I saw something, heard something, how little it takes to fall in love! The rest was completed by poetic imagination.
No one knows either the timing of the birth of love or its reasons: as Pushkin said about Tatyana Larina: “The time has come - she fell in love!” The time came for Alexei Tolstoy, and he fell in love with a stranger in “secret,” as he jumped “into the pool headlong.”
A predisposition to love always lives in a person; This is the fertile soil in which a single seed (beautiful legs, eyes or voice) grows into a great feeling.
It is noteworthy that Ivan Turgenev also had the opportunity to appreciate Sophia’s eyes, figure and voice, but for Turgenev the eyes did not become “sad eyes”, the figure, although flexible, did not make an impression, and the voice did not evoke associations with either a pipe or a sea wave . Moreover, seeing Sophia Miller’s face without a mask, Turgenev made a “fie”, covering his disappointment (like a well-mannered person) with a bored look.
And Tolstoy... Tolstoy was at the mercy of his feelings. His imagination depicted the appearance of a gentle creature and made him remember the minutes of his first meeting: “And your laughter, both sad and ringing, has been ringing in my heart ever since.”
Men are most often monogamous. Alexey Konstantinovich subconsciously felt that his first and only love was a gift from fate, and it should always remain a gift from which you receive joy, strength, and spiritual grace!
Be that as it may, Sofya Andreevna Miller was for Alexei Konstantinovich the muse of creativity, the heroine of his love lyrics, for which I bow to her.
Thanks to her (or rather, thanks to the poet’s Love for her), we have the opportunity to enjoy Tolstoy’s poems and listen to songs and romances based on these poems, for example, such widely known ones as “Not the wind, blowing from the heights”, “That was in early spring”, “Don’t trust me, friend”, “Autumn. Our whole poor garden is crumbling”, “My bells, steppe flowers” and many others.
And among them, a special place is occupied by the poem “Among the Noisy Ball,” for which many composers wrote music, the most famous of which belongs to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Illustration: Alexey K. Tolstoy and Sofia Tolstaya (nee Bakhmeteva, Miller in 1st marriage)
Collage by Mita Pe.
Time of creation of the romance: 1878
Dedication:Anatoly Ilyich Tchaikovsky, brother of P. I. Tchaikovsky.
Cycle of six romances op. 38, which includes this romance, is entirely dedicated to the composer’s younger brother, Anatoly Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The brothers had a very warm relationship. The younger brother did a lot to ease the torment of P. Tchaikovsky’s period of crisis, which the composer suffered due to his unsuccessful marriage. Later, P. I. Tchaikovsky visited him in Tiflis, when he, a lawyer by profession (like Pyotr Ilyich), served there as a District Court prosecutor. A. I. Tchaikovsky was an amateur musician, played the violin and performed the part of second violin in home quartet meetings. After the death of Pyotr Ilyich, he bought his house in Klin and eventually turned it into a museum.
A poem created by A.K. Tolstoy in 1851, addressed to Sofya Andreevna Miller(Bakhmetieva) , 2 his future wife, whom he met in December 1850 or early 1851 at one of the masquerades in St. Petersburg.
Here is the poem in its original form:
In the midst of a noisy ball, by chance,
In the anxiety of worldly vanity,
I saw you, but it's a mystery
Your veils features 3.
Like the sound of a distant pipe,
Like a playing shaft of the sea.
I liked your thin figure
And your whole thoughtful look,
And your laughter, both sad and ringing,
Since then it has been ringing in my heart.
In the lonely hours of the night
I love, tired, to lie down -
I see sad eyes
I hear cheerful speech;
And sadly I fall asleep like that,
And I sleep in unknown dreams...
Do I love you - I don't know
But it seems to me that I love it!
From the picture described by the poet, the composer conveyed through musical means the feeling of excitement and trepidation from meeting Her - the Stranger. But Tchaikovsky does not have a “noisy ball” 5 - everything is focused on the thoughts and feelings of the hero. To convey the poetic image of these poems, P. Tchaikovsky chose the waltz genre. And this choice is by no means accidental. In those days, the waltz was strongly associated with the ball, and from descriptions of the balls we know well that it was one of the first danced. Waltzes were of at least two types: solemn, festive (such a waltz was performed by a large orchestra) and chamber, often melancholy, sounded in a more modest setting. To embody the lyrical content of A. Tolstoy's poem, the second type of waltz is much better and more organically suitable. This is exactly how P. Tchaikovsky’s romance was written.
The uncertainty of the feeling (“Do I love you, I don’t know” 6), in which the magnetic shoots of attraction have already sprouted, is expressed in a somewhat muted sound: the tempo is restrained -moderato(from Italian – moderately), the sound is quiet, the nature of the performance iscon tristezza (from Italian – sad, sad) - these are the author's remarks in the notes. In a word, the music wonderfully conveys the hero’s trembling and excited state.
This romance can be likened to a soft watercolor in a beautiful frame; The function of the frame in it is performed by an eight-bar introduction and a conclusion that is exactly the same in music - it introduces the atmosphere and mood of the romance. The calm, graceful whirling of the waltz is conveyed using incredibly simple means.
Speaking about this romance, it is impossible not to mention one technical technique, which, of course, P. Tchaikovsky quite consciously used, but which those music lovers who have not specifically studied music theory are often unaware of. The fact is that from the very beginning the composer used in the lower voice of the accompaniment a very expressive so-called descending chromatic move, that is, the movement of the bass voice in a row along the sounds of a segment of the chromatic scale. This motif has been recognized by composers since the Middle Ages as one of the best means of creating a “unified [musical –A. M.] word to merge sadness and sadness.” It even received a special name -passus diriusculus (harsh ride - lat.). One must have a tremendous gift and compositional skill to give an individual and unique look to a motif that composers had already used thousands of times before P. Tchaikovsky. 7
The romance “Among the Noisy Ball...” gained great and well-deserved popularity. 8 To a large extent, this happened due to the fact that it was written so easily and conveniently that it can be performed among simply music lovers; for this you do not need to have any exceptional vocal or pianistic abilities. Moreover, this romance can be performed while accompanying yourself on the piano.
Notes
1 Romances based on these poems were also written by B. Sheremetyev, who became famous for the romance “I loved you” based on poems by A. Pushkin, and A. Schaefer.
2 S.A. Miller at that time was the wife of a Horse Guards colonel. Her relationship with the poet became the topic of many rumors and rumors for St. Petersburg society. But A.K. Tolstoy boldly “disregarded public opinion.” The poet’s mother was opposed to this, as she put it, “Wertherian passion” of her son. The situation was complicated by the fact that S. A. Miller could not get a divorce for a long time and decided to break with her former family. Tolstoy knew about this, as did many others. In addition, Alexey Konstantinovich was a distant relative of the Millers.
3 The meeting of A. Tolstoy and S. Miller took place, we remind you, not just at a ball, but precisely at a masquerade. I can’t help but remember the lines of M. Lermontov:
From under a mysterious, cold half mask
Your voice sounded to me as joyful as a dream,<…>
Literary scholars have paid attention to the similarity of the plots of these two poems - M. Lermontov and A. Tolstoy, and at the same time to the difference in their aesthetic concepts. I. Rodnyanskaya in the “Lermontov Encyclopedia” claims that A. Tolstoy’s poem was written “on Lermontov’s – but lacking multi-tone – lyrical plot.” To complete the comparisons, let’s point out Pushkin’s “I Remember a Wonderful Moment.”
4 P. Tchaikovsky is true to himself: he made small but still noticeable changes to the poetic text; they, these changes, are dictated by the laws of musical form and the musical flow of a phrase. So, in this case, he repeated the word “sad” again in the romance as a kind of semantic and dramatic emphasis. It - it must be admitted - is key in the romance. In poetry, such repetition is impossible, since it would destroy the rhythm of the poem, but music, which is also undoubtedly subject to the laws of rhythm, has its own structure, and repetition together with the word of melodic intonation sounds extremely expressive and convincing here. Along the way, we note - as a quite common thing for P. Tchaikovsky - the changes that he allows himself to make in the punctuation of the poems he uses. Moreover, this can be stated not only in vocal music, in which the text is directly connected to the melody, but, as we remember, also in instrumental music, in particular, in the epigraphs to the plays of the “Seasons” cycle. This is discussed in more detail in our story about “Autumn Song (October).
5 “Noisy balls” and masquerades with the struggle of passions that flared up at them are described in detail in Russian fiction and memoirs of the 19th century. It is enough to name “Masquerade” by M. Lermontov or the famous scene of Natasha Rostova’s first ball in L. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”.
6 This is exactly the punctuation used by P. Tchaikovsky; compare the last two lines of the romance text with their recording by A. Tolstoy.
7 For more information about this compositional technique, see footnote 4 of the article “October. Autumn Song" in the cycle "Seasons" by P. Tchaikovsky.
8 This romance is mentioned by A. Kuprin in the story “Moloch”.
© Alexander MAYKAPAR
