Glinka – the founder of Russian musical classics
Chamber vocal music occupies a prominent place in the composer’s work. Eighty romances and songs were created by him on the verses of A. Pushkin, V. A. Zhukovsky and M. Yu. Lermontov. Many of his romances are true pearls of chamber vocal classics. And such as “Do not tempt …”, “Doubt”, “Do not sing, beauty, with me …”, are widely known and popular. Music for romances made it possible to feel and experience every word of Pushkin’s poem. Among the masterpieces of vocal lyrics belongs the romance “I remember a wonderful moment …”, dedicated to Ekaterina Kern, daughter of AP Kern, once sung by Pushkin. In the romance, as in poetry, the origin of the poetic feeling of love, the sorrow of separation and the joy of a date are conveyed.
In 1840 M. I. Glinka created a romance cycle of twelve works “Farewell to St. Petersburg” on the verses of N. V. Kukolnik, in which folk melodies are especially perceptible. The “Harmonic Gallery of Romances” is represented by lyric plays “Knight’s Romance”, “Barcarole”, “Lark”. This also included the well-known “Passing Song”, in which one could hear the hustle and bustle of the road trip, the joyful expectation of new meetings. The theme of the road calling the traveler into the distance was born of the endless Russian expanses, which have always been so loved by the composer.
No less varied and interesting are the works of MI Glinka in the field of symphonic music, dating back to the best folklore traditions. He owns the famous symphonic fantasy overture on Russian themes “Kamarinskaya” (1848). Everything in this work is deeply national and original, everything amazes with the beauty of folk melodies: their stately and calm, unrestrainedly cheerful and danceable intonations. PI Tchaikovsky justly noted that “Kamarinskaya” contains “the entire Russian symphonic school”.
The overtures “Jota Aragonese” (1845) and “Night in Madrid” (1851), inspired by a trip to Spain, are a vivid example of the embodiment of Spanish folk motives in music. In a letter to his mother from Granada, Glinka reported:
“I am diligently studying Spanish music. Here, more than in other cities of Spain, they sing and dance … This music and dance are so original that until now I could not yet completely notice the tune, for everyone sings in his own way. “
These lessons have left their mark. Glinka managed to create lively and cheerful melodies of hota – Spanish songs, “inseparable from the dance.” Vivid pictures of the life of Spain, embodied in music, told about the past military glory, about ancient castles and palaces.
