Alexander Pushkin’s “Night Zephyr”: The Poetic Image in the Art Songs of Russian Composers
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Much has been written about the remarkable musicality of Alexander Pushkin’s poem “Night Zephyr.” In the critical
reviews, beginning from the 19th century, the main attention was drawn to the outward imagery rich in sound and the
poetical means of the “instrumentation” of the verse (the rhythms and phonetics). Moreover, the customary musical and
poetical traits have also been solidified by the specific elements of the musical language, related to genre, composition
and performance. As a result the symbolic polyvalence of the poem was made more profound, and capacious artistic
semantics present in it were assembled.
It is not perchance that “Night Zephyr” has become popular among composers. About forty musical settings of
the text of the poem are known. The article examines the songs of Glinka, Dargomyzhsky and Medtner, in which a
special delicate understanding of Pushkin’s profound symbolism is found. The three Russian composers in their songs
enter into an artistic-semantic dialogue with the poet, responding to his musical-lingual, and through them – exaltedly
semantic symbolizations. The analysis of the poetic and musical texts presented in the article is aimed at carrying
out a theoretical and musical performance-based interpretation of the complex task undertaken by the great Russian
composers: not to lose the poetical profundity, as well as to disclose the further boundaries of meaning, when they
composed their songs as revelations of a new artistic reality.
Keywords. Alexander Pushkin’s “Night Zephyr,” art songs, poetical text, musical text, musical content, Mikhail
Glinka, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Nikolai Medtner.
Article Details
Copyright
The rights on the results of intellectual activity and equated means of individualization are protected in accordance with Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The authorship, author's name, executor’s name, inviolability of the work and result of execution are protected by the rules of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation of the author or executor, regardless of providing legal protection of such results of intellectual activity at the time of their forming.
Copyright laws regulate the civil legal relations for using works of science, literature and art. Such relationships are formed as the result of the author’s writing his or her texts. In this case the author can rightfully claim copyright of the work.
The author has certain rights to reuse the work (see: “Ethical Aspects in Terms of Multifold Publications).
Licenses
All copyrights on the articles belong to their authors. The author transfers the rights on using the article the publisher.
PDF versions of scholarly articles of the journal PMN are published by using the license Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives cc by-nc-nd, allowing loading and distributing works on the assumption of indicating the authorship. The works may not be changed in any way or used for commercial interests.
Criteria for Authorship, Co-authorship
The term “author” refers to all persons (co-authors) who have made a substantial contribution to conducting the research and creation of the manuscript and responsible for its content. The person (author) who has submitted the manuscript to the editorial board shall bear responsibility for the complete list of the group of authors and the changes made to the manuscript in accordance with the results of the peer reviewing and editing.
1. Authorship is based on the following criteria:
1) The author made a substantial contribution to the research activity and development of concept, collected the data, made analysis and interpretation of the data.
2) The author carried out the writing of the text of draft articles and edited it attentively and substantially.
3) The author approved the final version of the article prior to its submission.
4) The author bears responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript.
2. The authors shall guarantee that the submitted manuscript is the original work.
3. Scholarly reviews for some issue or other should be objective, present material in a wide range and at the same time take into account the views of the author of the review.
4. The authorship of scholarly publications is obligated to reflect accurately the contribution of individuals to the research activity, with specific information about the authors.
5. The authors may not mislead the readers by publishing acknowledgements of gratitude to people who were not actually involved in writing the work. Other persons who made contribution to the work, but are nevertheless not the authors, may be listed in the rubric of “Acknowledgements,” with indications of the type and extent of their activities.
6. Authors are obligated to provide a description of their contribution to the publication.
7. The order of authorship must be a joint resolution of co-authors. The authors should be ready to explain the order of their enumeration and listing.
8. The authors shall be entirely responsible for the correct definition of authorship acting in accordance with the rules adopted in their institution.
9. Investigators must ensure that only those persons who meet the criteria for authorship (that made a significant contribution to the work), shall be considered the authors, and the researchers who do not merit authorship will be excluded from the list of authors.
References
2. Ginzburg L. Ya. O lirike [Concerning Lyricism]. Moscow: Intrada, 1997. 408 p.
3. Zoltai D. Etos i affekt. Istoriya filosofskoy muzykal'noy estetiki ot zarozhdeniya do Gegelya [Ethos and Affect. A History of Philosophical Aesthetics of Music from their Origin to Hegel]. Moscow: Progress, 1977. 371 p.
4. Karulina Z. V. Fonetika i khudozhestvennyy obraz v vokal'nom iskusstve [Phonetics and the Artistic Image in the Art of Vocalism]. Muzykal'naya akademiya [Musical Academy]. 2014, No. 3, pp. 174–179.
5. Martynov V. I. Istoriya bogosluzhebnogo peniya: ucheb. posobie [The History of Liturgical Singing: Tutorial]. Moscow: Editing and Publishing Department of the Federal Archives; Russkie ogni, 1994. 240 p.
6. Nikolay Kuzansky. Ob iskanii Boga [About the Search for God]. Soch.: v 2 t. [Nicholas of Cusa. Works in 2 Volumes]. Volume 1. Moscow, 1979, pp. 288–303.
7. Skurko E. R. Muzyka N. K. Metnera v otsenkakh sovremennikov (po materialam periodicheskoy pechati 1900–1920-kh godov) [The Music of Nikolai Medtner in the Evaluations of his Contemporaries (Based on the Materials of Periodical Press from the 1900s to the 1920s)]. Muzykal'naya akademiya [Musical Academy]. 2015, No. 3, pp. 141–146.
8. Shlifshteyn N. C. Perechityvaya Pushkina [Upon Rereading Pushkin]. Muzykal'naya akademiya [Musical Academy]. 2015, No. 3, pp. 41–42.