What is romance, romance history

What is romance, romance history

In the art of music there is a chamber genre, which can rightly be considered unique - its name is “romance”. This vocal miniature from the moment of its appearance was very popular and reflected all significant processes occurring in the life of society. In our country, the romance has a very difficult fate - it was forbidden, but he again triumphantly returned to the concert scenes. At the present time, the romance continues to delight listeners with its melodiousness, sincerity and cordiality.

What is romance?

A romance is usually a lyrical work related to the chamber-vocal genre, it is written for the voice and accompanying the vocal part of any accompanying instrument.

Romance is like a song, but there are some differences that make it a romance.

• The romance is more melodious and its melodic line is very expressive.
• In the romance everything is significant. The content of the poetic text should be melodic, touching or sometimes even tragic. Beautiful and sensual vocals are always closely connected with the text. The accompaniment of a romance is a full member of the ensemble.
• The form of romance, like the song, is stanzaic, that is, verse, however, various extensions are possible, and this suggests that musical periods of romance can be either with even or with an odd number of measures.
• In the romance there is usually no chorus.

Popular romances

"Nightingale" - music by A. Alyabyev, lyrics by A. Delvig. The romance, which belongs to the masterpieces of the chamber-vocal genre, Alexander Alyabyev wrote it, being imprisoned for a false murder charge in 1825. Thanks to the soulful and surprisingly expressive melody, this vocal miniature gained extraordinary popularity all over the world. In the musical original of the romance there are no virtuoso vocal passages, they were subsequently added by the performers.

"Nightingale" - listen

"I remember a wonderful moment" - music by M. Glinka, words by A. Pushkin. Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka dedicated this pearl, which is a classic example of the Russian romance, to Catherine Kern, to whom he had deep feelings. In turn, the creation of the magnificent poetic basis of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin’s romance was inspired by Ekaterina’s mother, Anna Kern. The melody of the romance is elegant, heartfelt and melodious, it expressively reveals the romantic feelings of the lyrical hero.

"I remember a wonderful moment" - listen

"Amid the din of the ball" music PI Tchaikovsky, the words of A.K. Tolstoy. Written in the waltz genre, this vocal composition by the brilliant Russian composer immediately became very popular. The romance, which has a beautiful melodic line, is very expressive and lyrical, but most importantly, it is written so comfortably that it can be easily performed in home music playing.

"Amid the din of the ball" - listen

"Burn, burn, my star… " - music by P. Bulakhov, lyrics by V. Chuyevsky. Recognized throughout the world of Russian romance, which has a large number of arrangements, both variety and "academic". Despite the fact that the composition was composed in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was banned after the revolution, as it was very popular among White Guard officers.

"Burn, burn, my star ..." - listen

"Black eyes" music by F. Hermann, lyrics by E. Grebenki. This world-famous romance has been translated into many languages. The popularity of the composition is due to the fact that it is about passionate love that drives people crazy. It is useless to resist, because such love is inexplicable, and it is stronger than death.

"Black eyes" - to listen

Romance history

The history of romance originates in the distant Middle Ages. Approximately in the XIII, and maybe in the XIV century, poets traveled along the roads of sunny Spain, who composed and sang songs that differed significantly from the church chorals generally accepted at that time, performed in Latin. First, the Spanish troubadours composed their texts on themes filled with loving and lyrical content, for example, they narrated about the exploits of brave knights in the name of the sublime love of beautiful ladies. Secondly, these songs were performed on "romance", as the Spanish language was then called, and, thirdly, they were distinguished by their particular melodiousness. Gradually, such melodic poems to the music became widespread in the neighboring countries of Spain. There the troubadours also composed so-called "secular" poems - ballads telling about important historical events, about the feats of folk heroes, and, undoubtedly, among their poetic works, love lyrics played an important role. All this minstrels in the Spanish way began to decorate with elegant melodies and sing along to the musical accompaniment of any instrument, calling their songs romance. Not one century has passed, and the term "romance" is firmly rooted in different countries, denoting both a melodious poem of a lyrical nature, and a work characterizing the genre of vocal music.

The prosperity of romance fell on the second half of the 18th century, when such great poets as I. Goethe, G. Heine, F. Schiller worked. Their full lyricism works, reflecting deep feelings and spiritual impulses, many composers willingly used as a literary basis for their chamber-vocal compositions. For example, the distinguished Austrian composer Franz Schubert, who laid the foundations of musical romanticism, wrote 60 of his vocal works in the words of Goethe and 40 in the words of Schiller. Schubert handed over the baton to other composers of the 19th century and romance schools formed in Europe. Bright representatives in Austria and Germany were I. Brahms, R. Schumann and H. Wolf, and in France G. Berlioz, J. Bize, S. Gounod and J. Massenet. Romantic composers in their work clearly preferred the genre of romance, since it was in them that they could turn to the inner world of a person and display his spiritual experiences. In addition, for the expansion of expressive means in the description of the storyline and poetic images, the authors combined their vocal miniatures into cycles, since this made it possible to give a more detailed characterization to the main characters. Among the most popular combined vocal compositions, such cycles as “To a distant beloved” by L.V. Beethoven, "The Beautiful Miller" and "The Winter Way" by F. Schubert, "The Poet's Love" and "The Love and Life of a Woman" by R. Schumann.

It is important to note that in the XIX century the genre of romance was intensively developed in Russia, and in the second half of the century in such countries as Poland, the Czech Republic, Norway and Finland. He was vividly represented in the works of B. Smetana, A. Dvořák, K. Szymanowski, J. Sibelius, E. Grieg.

In the 20th century, such remarkable Western European composers as C. Debussy, A. Schoenberg, M. Ravel, M. de Falla, F. Poulenc, D. Millau made a significant contribution to the development of the vocal miniature genre.

Romance in Russia

To the question, when the "romance" came to Russia, now no one can answer, but art critics suggest that this happened in the second half of the XVIII century. However, the fact that he arrived in our country from France is reliably known, since the term "romance" was originally called the vocal work of lyrical content written in French poetic text. It should be noted that at that time Russian composers wrote quite a few vocal miniatures specifically for poems by French authors. True, such works were composed in Russian, but they were called "Russian song".

Having taken root on the fertile soil "romance", it quickly began to grow together with Russian culture, and soon this word became already called lyrical, sensual, love songs, and not only created by composers, but also simply amateur musicians. At that time, a significant manifestation of interest in amateur music-making and songwriting was noted everywhere. Representatives of the nobility and people of different ranks considered it mandatory for household items to have any musical instrument: a violin, guitar, harp or piano. At the same time in the European and, accordingly, in the Russian art dominated the romantic mood. In such favorable conditions in the first half of the XIX century, the genre of the Russian romance was formed, the most important role in the development of which was played by the amazing Russian poetry, represented by the works of such brilliant poets as V. Zhukovsky, E. Baratynsky, A. Delvig, K. Batiushkov, N. Yazykov, A. Pushkin, then M. Lermontov and F. Tyutchev. The founders of the Russian romance are rightly considered to be the composers A. Alyabyev, A. Varlamov, A. Gurilev and P. Bulakhov. Behind them, talented masters of chamber-vocal genre are put forward, who with their creativity raised vocal miniature to the height of truly classical art, among them M. Glinka, A. Borodin, A. Dargomyzhsky, M. Mussorgsky, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, P. Tchaikovsky , S. Taneyev, S. Rakhmaninov. Further the traditions of the great composers were continued by R. Glier, J. Shaporin, H. Myaskovsky, and in Soviet times D. Shostakovich, S. Prokofiev, G. Sviridov.

It is important to mention that along with the classic romance, the fruit of the works of professional composers and subdivided into various genre variations, including elegies, ballads and barcarols, other types of romance developed in cities and suburbs of Russia, household), "cruel" and gypsy. They enjoyed recognition and existed as folklore, that is, they were composed by the authors of the people. The greatest popularity of such compositions acquired in the first quarter of the XX century. It was at this time that such masterpieces were written by Boris Fomin, Yakov Feldman and Maria Poiret, which the whole world subsequently admired, among them “Dear Long,” “I went home,” “Do not drive horses to the Coachman”. After the October Revolution, romances in Russia, and then in the USSR, were banned as alien to proletarian ideology and a relic of the past. Famous artists were persecuted and even repressed. The gradual revival of the romance began during the war years, but a particular rise of the genre was observed in the 70s of the last century.

Among the famous performers of the Russian romance it is necessary to mention A. Vertinsky, A. Vyaltsev, N. Plevitskaya, V. Panin, P. Leshchenko, A. Bayanov, I. Yuryev, T. Tsereteli, V. Kozina, N. Slichenko, V. Baglaenko, V. Ponomareva, N. Bregvadze, V. Agafonova, O. Pogudina.

Interesting Facts

• It is important to note that in Germany the name of the romance did not stick, there such works were called in the German manner - Lied. In France, the name "romance" was originally used together with the name "chanson", and then G. Berlioz designated the genre of chamber and vocal work with the term "melodie".
• The word "romance" composers call not only vocal works. Instrumental works with the name of D. Shostakovich, G. Sviridov, A. Khachaturian also gained great recognition. These are sensual, filled with great sincerity and melodically very beautiful musical compositions.
• One of the varieties of the Russian romance - "urban", which is also called a household romance, has been very popular in Russia since its inception. It is believed that it was the “urban romance” that formed the basis for such popular song genres in our country as the author's song, Russian chanson and thieves' song.
• The popular Russian romance "Dear Long", the music for which was written by Boris Fomin, was first heard by foreigners performed by the famous pop artist Alexander Vertinsky. The Europeans liked the composition so much that after a while Eugene Raskin composed words in English. The single was recorded and in the fall of 1968 in Britain it was recognized as the # 1 hit. At the present time, the versions of this Russian romance exist in almost thirty European and Asian languages.
• The authors of the famous Russian romance "The Coachman, Don't Drive the Horses" were the Russified German Nikolai von Ritter and the Jewish musician Jacob Feldman. The composition, written in 1915, was first performed by the popular singer Agrippina Granska. The success, and then the growing popularity of the romance, was so overwhelming that next year a silent film was made on the plot of this vocal work. However, the recognition of the composition was short-lived, the revolution took place and the romance was recognized as ideologically alien by the new authorities, and therefore it was banned and expelled from the scene.
• In addition to popular varieties of Russian romance, such as classic, urban, cruel and gypsy, there were also other subspecies of this genre, for example: Cossack, White Guard, actor, salon, noble, ironic and romance - the answer.
• Eldar Ryazanov his film adaptation of Alexander Ostrovsky's play “The Brideless Girl” did not accidentally give the name “Cruel Romance” because the favorite themes of this vocal genre were the tragic outcome. Of course, there are a lot of romances in the musical background of the film, which were written by the outstanding composer Andrei Petrov. Among the vocal compositions of the film, one should especially note “And finally I will say” to the words of B. Akhmadulina, “Under the caress of a plush blanket” to the words of Marina Tsvetaeva, “Shaggy bumblebee” to the words of R. Kipling, translated by T. Kruzhkov.

Currently, interest in romance does not fade away. Melodies that have received recognition in ancient times and are now very popular. Today we often listen, enjoying their charm and pristine freshness in concert halls, television programs and radio programs. The romance is not going to retreat, on the contrary, it unobtrusively draws more and more people of different ages into their beautiful world of genuine feelings, wise thoughts and real passions.