Gavrilin "Chimes"
The most monumental work of the Soviet composer, State Prize Laureate Valery Alexandrovich Gavrilin - choral symphony-action "Chimes" is intended for soloists, mixed choir, oboe, percussion and reader. The author of the work also used the subtitle "According to V. M. Shukshin." This is the pinnacle of his work and the musical heritage of the Soviet era.
The composer Gavrilin is a unique phenomenon in Soviet musical art. A graduate of the department of the composition of the Leningrad Conservatory (specialty musicologist-folklorist), he brought a lot to the vocal and choral genre, continuing traditions from time immemorial, the line of composers such as Glinka, Mussorgsky, Dargomyzhsky, Borodin. He created his own unique musical language based on the melody of folk tunes. And he significantly developed the genre of the Russian song, enriching the musical material itself, deepening the psychological depth of the images, adding elements of the stage action.
History of creation
The culture of the 20th century in the Soviet Union was subordinated to ideology, a mass song and choral singing served the idea of uniting people to achieve a common result, building a new society in which everyone contributes to a common cause. Composers vividly responded to the needs of society, creating new forms of art that meet modern times. At the same time, each sought to develop traditional Russian art, while maintaining a connection with the historical past.
The work was created at the request of Vladimir Minin, the choirmaster and artistic director of the renowned collective of the Leningrad chapel. Back in 1966, he turned to Valery Alexandrovich with a request to write something for his choir. Gavrilin responded by consent and ... disappeared. Minin said in an interview that he sometimes called the composer, recalling the promise, to which he always received the answer: "Yes, I am working on it." And only 15 years later, the long-awaited call rang out with an invitation to watch together the just finished choral symphony.
She made an indelible impression on Minin. Part of the material was tested as musical accompaniment to the production of the play by Vasily Shukshin "Stepan Razin". The director of the play, Mikhail Ulyanov, persuaded Valery Gavrilin to agree to the use of music in the play. “If there is something truly Russian in the performance, powerful and razin - this is Gavrilin’s music!”, Said Ulyanov about this joint experience.
The premiere was held in Leningrad in January 1984, according to the recollections of the participants, the success was extraordinary, the hall was filled in the seating area and at the gallery. Today it seems amazing the strength of the interest of ordinary people to this far from entertaining concert. In 1985, Valery Aleksandrovich Gavrilin was awarded the USSR State Prize for this work.
Summary
The genre is close to the mystery and represents a certain intermediate variant between the cantata, vocal-song cycle and opera. Folk words, A. Shulgina and V. A. Gavrilin. Genuine quotations of folk tales were used in only a few numbers out of 20. The texts are mostly author's, stylizing folk epic. Gavrilin’s literary talent is also often spoken about. This becomes obvious after reading the collection book “About music and not only ...”, which was compiled from his notes by the composer's widow Natalya Evgenevna Gavrilina and VG Maximov.
The name "Chimes" itself refers to the ancient witness of people's everyday life - the bells ringing the village of the occurrence of events. On the dimensional alternation of sounds, their pitch, volume, pulse, the ancient cultural code of Rusich is built.
This principle is reflected in the concept of a large-scale choral symphony - the numbers change, scenes and paintings change. All the action in time is performed about one and a half hours in 2 sections with a break. Of these, 13 parts are performed in chorus and 7 are fully instrumental. Symbolically, the cycle is built into the image of the road at the beginning and end, and the light in the middle. Allegorical comparison with human life - a man walks along the road, accomplishes his earthly journey, full of joyful and sorrowful events, sins and repentance, the road also had great significance in Russia with its open spaces and endless lands.
In the center of the plot - a collective image of the hero, woven from the images of Ataman Stepan Razin, free Cossacks, Russian peasant. This image is transmitted to the soloist, then to the reader, then to the treble at the end. Intonational diversity is striking - peasant, urban, and partly motifs are used, the vocal melody often slips to talk, whisper, cry. The organic interweaving of conversation and music surprisingly subtly stylizes Russian folklore.
Music
A special place in the work of choral art. The composer himself called it a “choral school,” meaning the technical and expressive difficulties of the score, subject only to a very experienced team. The oboe solo represents the suffering of a lonely soul. In contrast to choral and solo numbers, the loneliness of a person before life and destiny is even more pronounced.
Gavrilin, working on Chimes, thought through many stage elements. He wanted the choir, usually statically located on the stage, not only to sing, but make movements, gesticulating, bringing the action as close as possible to theatrical incarnation. But within the framework of the philharmonic society such a performance is impossible.
Today, a "live" performance of such a large-scale work is a rarity. But his much easier to meet him in the audio or video recording. The time elapsed since the writing of "Chimes" did not diminish his artistic value. On the contrary, Gavrilin set a new, hitherto impossible bar. It is sad that in the conditions of commercial subordination of projects, such a grandiose work has very little chance of getting on the stage to a mass audience. Gavrilin's “Chimes” is a real relic for Russian culture, to lose its importance means to retreat from its history and important historical figures.
Contemporaries about the music of Gavrilin
- Georgy Sviridov: "This is a composer with his own soul system, with his voice. The purity of Gavrilin's music, the purity of her style is connected with the purity of human feelings. ... For the Russian Notebook Gavrilin was awarded the Glinka State Prize. Huge success for the young composer" .
- Valery Gavrilin on Chimes: Why does vocal music prevail in my work? There are a lot of reasons. First of all, since childhood I have heard more vocal music - ceremonies, weddings, festivities. Secondly, it was already later that I began to understand that vocal music - the progenitor of all music and the human voice - is the first carrier of music. It’s hard to imagine how the music would be preserved from century to century if a person every minute did not have this wonderful instrument ready. "
- Vladislav Chernushenko, choirmaster, director of the St. Petersburg Academic Chapel: “It has a special light about which Fyodor Tyutchev once wrote. The unusual light that radiates music and at the same time the incredible power of conviction of the power of the Russian spirit that will endure all ".
- George Sviridov, Soviet composer: “It’s impossible to say that his entire creative path was strewn with flowers. In our creative environment, disputes arose and arise. But Gavrilin went his own way.”
- Lev Dodin, theater director: “He was often criticized. Village music was spoken, a village composer. He was worried and it was the tragedy of a clear, pure melodist in an era when melodies broke, when even the most dramatic melody was not audible - the rift was obligatory, kink. And it was painful for him, because in his own way he wanted to express time. "
- Vladislav Chernushenko: "To be traditional, to prove yourself in this, you must have strength and talent. Valery Gavrilin possessed them." "In an era when composers were looking for new expressive means, ways of sounding, musical styles, Gavrilin remained true to himself. He walked along the lines of national traditions, but his language is absolutely original. And his work miraculously combines a block of spiritual and spiritual verse, you feel centuries-old depth. "
Valery Gavrilin’s music is vocal in nature, its melody is rich and expressive, it synthesizes the basis of Russian folklore and modern musical language, it illustrates the plot and makes for theatricality. Appeal to folk rituals is also not accidental - traditionally it has entertainment and performances. "Chimes" - the pearl of the new genre, created at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries - choral theater. He was born from the need to visualize concert activities. The most significant works in it are called the choir poem of Radion Shchedrin "The Execution of Pugachev", "Carmina Buran" by K. Orff, "The Twelve" by V. Salmanov. From modern (creation date - 2010) - a concert in the faces of M. Bronner "Russian Decameron".
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